If UBI's DRM scheme is unacceptable...

[SEE]

At the end of the day enthusiasts are free to 'object' and not buy or 'accept' and install. I willl wait and see the 'devil in the detail' before I make a decision. SOW is a product that I can take or leave, I am more interested in TD's upgrades TBH.

[Wolf_Rider]

Originally Posted by Avimimus

Ah...

1) I don't like updating software if I can't look at the files being updated beforehand. The same goes for windows update (which can produce compatibility problems). I prefer manual installs. There is no reason why most updates to software would require you to download and run an executable (when a copy command or use of batch files would do). So, yes - depending on how the patching system works.

2) Adopting a satellite internet connection would cost thousands of dollars per year. The reason why Inuit communities get them has to do with resource extraction and the small number of communities in the Arctic (just over fifty settlements). I'm much further south.

3) Ah... I was just pointing out that I don't really like warranties and the automatic update and/or silently contacting servers that we see in Steam or some DRM schemes is much more like giving the support company permission to enter your house at any time, change things around (as well as look around) and possibly try to "fix" things which are already working and accidentally make them no longer work. Few people would accept this treatment in the non-digital world.

4) The document is actually the 1861 emancipation of the Serfs in Russia. The fact that it is couched in religious terms is a accident of history. The basic point is that we are accepting becoming tenants or even serfs in the digital world - while many of us seek to own our homes in the material world.

There is no reason why we should have to accept this double standard.

you've got some problems then, son and you still haven't explained your extrapolation of my post

[WTE_Galway]

For every person that plays online games, buys goods online and lives in sex chat rooms 24/7 there must be several who have no internet just a PC.

For some odd reason those people without internet access don't post here. I wonder why

[BigC208]

If my aunt had bollocks she would be my uncle....
Lets just wait and see how it all works out before getting all worked up.

[Rodolphe]

...

Originally Posted by BigC208

If my aunt had bollocks she would be my uncle....

... or she could be an Androgyne .



No offence for sure !

...

[SlipBall]

Possible hermaphrodite

[K_Freddie]

Interesting to note that some 'key' people are indicating.. 'No DRM'

[JG53Frankyboy]

from an UBI official in the german UBI forum:
only an online activation once is needed.

[hiro]

WTE and CSthor have hit the nail on the head.

DRM's true purpose is commercial, not security, its for the company to lock YOU in, and prevent YOU from selling what YOU bought to someone else. So if 2 years down the road, you're done with the game, your friend hears about the fun times you had and you just can't give him the game, he has to buy it.

The companies aren't stupid, the big companies know some angry programmer on the dev team will sneak out the code for the DRM / security, or a copy of the game will be gone over by a fine tooth comb the finest programmers and hackers and a crack found in hours. Any popular game or awesome game has it happen to it.

Starcraft 2 is an example, when the beta release was made open to the public, my friend had a pen drive with a full working beta, just transfer to your hard drive, run the install, boom, had SC 2 beta without registering.

The publishers want to lock in the 90% of people who like to game but don't know too much about the nuts and bolts behind it, and make the most $$ out of it. They know they'll never get a cent from the hacker / friends of hackers / pirate "nations". But the bigger base of people (and richer) nations that don't know, will pay.

Even if it means infuriating good paying customers. Look at World of Warcraft. They just had a new iteration of that game. First day, no one could get in, crashes, lags etc. But the forums were full of those posts by 1 out of a million that could get in and tell the glory of the game.

And all those angry players that threaten to quit are still playing a week later when the login load is balanced, new servers are up.

Originally Posted by csThor

That's smokescreen-talk. To counter piracy a working copy protection would be sufficient. DRM is about tying customers to the publisher, introduce more and more stringent DRM schemes and pay-DLCs, prepare the way for true cloud-computing and ultimately force pay-to-play (even if called "club membership fee" to ease the public outcry) for any kind of game. This is what DRM is about - it's about introducing various new ways of squeezing even more money out of customers, money which will flow to the Publisher alone and which will not be used to develop better games. And this is why I believe DRM is inacceptable while copy protection is.

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

The pirate scare is a little bit like the mythical terrorist scare, its exaggerated out of all proportion.

Its well documented that:

a) commercial pirates will crack any DRM if the title is worth selling out of Shanghai
b) casual pirates tend to be collectors who would never buy the product anyway.

The REAL purpose of these online DRM is to prevent resale of the products second hand on ebay once the user is bored with them. It also makes the move to "pay per year/month" software eventually much easier.

By the way I am amazed how many people on these forums seem to get outraged at NG for insisting on royalties and then turn around and endorse onerous DRM schemes. Seems a bit hypocritical really.

[K_Freddie]

This opens the market for non-DRM type games, where there will instantaneous sales, en-mass, maximising profits, as there will be no expenses of upkeep of DRM servers, DRM staff, and anything related to the maintenance thereof.

Nah sorry! DRM/Steam = bad, very bad business plan.. in fact it's gross stupid and short-sighted, fueled by 'greed'... but that is normal for an accountant.
Not to mention the pirates who just bypass DRM/Steam.