Quote:
Originally Posted by Nisgeis
We expected occasional downtime from the Ubi servers, but NO ONE ( I REPEAT NO ONE) predicted a pirate group would launch a DDOS attack on the servers. I mean the pirates are meant to be on our side right? But they're the ones stopping us playing!
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Sorry Nisgeis, but I agree wholeheartedly with Fincuan, John W. Hamm, and the others on this one...
It was UbiSoft and UbiSoft alone who decided that an always-on internet connection was needed to play this game. In doing so, they left themselves wide open to anyone who wanted to shut them down, and even to the possibility that their own servers could fail...leaving thousands of customers unable to play.
You cannot blame anyone but UbiSoft for what they, themselves decided was the only considered solution to manage the use of their product.
When we (I) bought this game, there was an underlying assumption that if we (I) had an internet connection, we could play (the box specifically states that "
A permanent high speed internet connection and creation of a UbiSoft account are required to play this game at all times", but nowhere does it state that we must be connected to the singular non-redundant UbiSoft server, it simply states that we must create an account, and have a permanent connection to the
INTERNET )...and it is reasonable to assume that if a UbiSoft server-side error occured that prevented a connection at any one time, that the client software (SHV on our end) would run a diagnostic that confirms we have a connection to said
internet...determines that the server is at fault...and allows play as usual. Of course that would assume that UbiSoft had the paying customer in mind when it made it's decison about using this DRM.
Unfortunately, as I stated before, this DRM system is acutally less about piracy (which it does not prevent) and more about controlling customer access to future paid content and upgrades (which it is ideal for, from a targeted marketing prespective).
There are numerous means to protect copyright and piracy, none of which would have been as vulnerable to DDOS attacks...but UbiSoft chose the worst one, and the least effective...leaving themselves open and at the mercy of anyone wishing to shut them down. The only one who you can reasonably blame, is UbiSoft themselves.