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Originally Posted by Janus
Definitely not! I agree that small companies like SES deserve me buying their games but I don't want to "own" a game which is requiring an internet connection in order to function properly. This paranoid copy protection simply is a no-go for me and it's a pity because I've only heared and read positive feedback about the games themselves.
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I was wondering when this subject was going to come up....
I believe you have been somewhat misinformed about how our DRM works. Jutland's version of it works like this:
Every time you start the game, it tries to phone home. If it succeeds, the game will work just fine. If it doesn't succeed, the game will still work just fine, provided it's been less than 7 days since it last made contact. However, if you go longer than 7 days without an internet connection, it will stop working. BUT ONLY until such time as you regain an internet connection. The game still keeps trying to phone home every time you run it. Once you regain contact, the game will start working again just fine, although you'll have to re-enter your license number.
The reason it's like this is actually for your protection. I know that sounds strange, but hear me out on this....
Your license is associated with the hardware of a single computer, so it will only run on 1 computer at a time. You can easily switch the license from computer to computer, or upgrade your hardware of the 1 computer, no problem. You just release the license on the machine it's on now and then put it on the other or the upgraded machine. However, you do these things deliberately and so can take care of the license beforehand.
But suppose your HD crashes, your mobo fries, or whatever. In this sort of case, obviously you hadn't released your license ahead of time. So your computer is down for however long, a few days at least. When you get it running again, the game will see it as a different computer, so your license won't work on it. HOWEVER, after the 7th day passes from whenever the game last phoned home, you can re-enter your license and it will start working again.
Say it takes you 3 days to fix your computer. Then you only have to wait 4 more at most. That's assuming you played the game the day the computer died. If you hadn't played the game for several days before the computer crashed, then you have correspondingly less time to wait once you're back up, all the way down to zero.
Basically, you've got an unlimited number of reinstalls and switches between computers when things are all working. AND if something goes wrong somewhere along the line, there's a fallback mechanism to get you going again in a reasonable amount of time.
The 7 day thing is really a pretty good compromise. The longer we make the time interval in which the game will work between calls home, the longer it will take to come back if your computer dies.
Note that this all means that after 7 days, you can put the license on ANY computer. IOW, suppose you go on a 2-week trip but forget to swap the license to your laptop before you go. After 7 days, you'll be able to put your license on your laptop without having to release it from your home computer.
Anyway, I know the whole DRM subject is a hot button to a lot of people. However, we're stuck with using one because we have to go download-only. Being a niche product, we can't get any shelf space on stores, and it's not economically feasible for us to mail-order DVDs. But we have tried VERY hard to make our DRM as benign as absolutely possible. IMHO, ours is the best one on the market today.