I just wrote the following and sent it to UBSoft Support

[rascal101]

To whom it may concern,

I have just read a few posts over at SubSim.com re your Online Services Platform Q&A this was in relation to the soon to be released Silent Hunter5 due for release in March I believe. As a Long Time player and fan of the Silent Hunter Series, and having just read the Q&A I thought to pen a few words of my own about this new development.

http://support.uk.ubi.com/online-services-platform/

To say the announcement is causing considerable bad press, at least amongst SubSim members is to risk an understatement, any way perhaps you will find that out in good time, here’s my two cents worth

I find it a little hard to believe that a publishing company such as yours would be so keen to lock out potentially 1000's of customers, who are repulsed by this heavy handed approach, not to mention those who simply do not have reliable, or ongoing internet access, or as is the case in Australia, whole regions who don’t even have broadband. Let us not forget those who would be suspicious about buying a game that they may loose access to if something happens to the parent company.

I work in publishing myself and I know well enough when seemingly flourishing companies are all of a sudden bought out by others, when access or just basic customer service or even information disappears overnight or when management makes strategic decisions, that turn out to be wrong. Witness the recent World Economic Crisis; you may have heard of it, a wonderful testimony to the power of long term planning and strategic management if ever there was one.

Any way folks I really don’t think I can say anything that you probably haven’t heard or perhaps couldn’t give a hoot about any way, this and a number of recent announcements about the game-play re Silent Hunter 5 have all but extinguished my interest in this game. Following my experience of Steam and its less than desirable impact on Empire Total War I guess I will now think twice about purchasing any future Ubisoft titles –

Interestingly my appreciation of the wonders of real life as opposed to the games world is growing every day I read another article such as the Q&A I mention above.

You really have to question the mentality of a publisher who despite having a captive audience, i.e. the 10,000’s of SUBSim members who love the Silent Hunter Series; then with the imminent release of a new game in the series you seem to just be working your way through a checklist of bad ideas that are right now causing incredible angst amongst your potential audience, (customers) It seems as if Ubisoft seems to be only too willing to ignore even the basic sentiment of the SubSim forum and its members who strangely as it may seem are united in an odd yet passionate interest in marine combat simulations and submarine warfare in particular.

I wish you all the best in the attempt to bring a U-Boat game to a wider audience, I cant help but think your wider audience is more interested in other games and other genre’s, that’s why Subsim grew in the first place, for those whacko’s like me who love submarines, and you’ve now all but put me right off Silent Hunter 5 and Ubisoft as a publisher and producer.

At the end of the day - without a dynamic/random campaign SH5 was never going to offer much by way of replay value anyway.

Best Wishes to you who may read this and I dare you to pass it on to some one in Ubisoft who might be in a position to reverse a really bad decision before it affects your bottom line

Best Regards
Rascal@twg.net.au

[oscar19681]

Good job. If everybody would just paste this and put there own name under it and also send it to ubi they would maybe get the message!

[Reece]

A good effort but I bet it gets tossed in the bin before the reader even finishes reading it, they couldn't give a damn!!

Originally Posted by oscar19681

Good job. If everybody would just paste this and put there own name under it and also send it to ubi they would maybe get the message!

no you dont want to be a form letter or it looks faked, but take it as a pattern to write your own or change this one to fit who you are

[GoldenRivet]

well... heard anything back?

[rascal101]

If you cvut and paste it and add your name you weaken the power of your own comment - sure take mine as an example but send your own version and put your real name and contract information on the document you send to Ubi -

Post your letter here at SubSim to record what you've done and and what you said to let otheres know that depite your fears that your effort counts for nothing, you actually did something rather than just sat and moaned

Send it to any official Ubisoft email link that you can find let them know what you think


And rememebr if you dont like what's being done, there are new mods re SH3 its your best bet at the moment

Regards

Rascal

Originally Posted by oscar19681

Good job. If everybody would just paste this and put there own name under it and also send it to ubi they would maybe get the message!

[janh]

... these are well chosen words. I totally agree with the letter, and the fact that the online DRM (even the single time activation) makes one dependent on the success and continuing existing of the company -- nobody will guarantee that the serves will be up in ten years from now. And how many now and then pick an older title form their stack?

I know from a friend of mine working in a well-known European consulting group that some IT companies specifically investigate such a move to reduce the sale of "used titels", which presumably reduces sales substantially. Hard number by way of statistics are of course hard to come by because that is by nature not a simple, well-controlled market. However, as your property, you are legally allowed to sell the CD's, Manual and program of course.

Now I find Ubi's move very disrespectful and very unthankful towards long-standing customers, me included. I almost begin to regret that.
I do understand their desire to protect their "inventions" as best as they can, but this is just an unnecessary hassle.

Logically, if many prospective or former customers would indicate their disagreement with this move, as a significantly big group we could induce them to rethink their decision. We really ougth to start a petition here.m Formal, well formulated, and signed by everyone who agrees. No (nasty) comments or such.

I would like to buy the game, even though it seems in parity with SHIII as some things are better, some other things are now missing. However, I see that I got to support them with my purchase to keep the way to future products open. And yet, as I travel a lot on business and oftentimes dont have internet access, or only quite slow, I can't buy it if they have this kind of DRM. Actually, I think from now on I will even be more consequent and include online activation as reason.

I really hope they rethink their decision.

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by rascal101

To whom it may concern,

I have just read a few posts over at SubSim.com re your Online Services Platform Q&A this was in relation to the soon to be released Silent Hunter5 due for release in March I believe. As a Long Time player and fan of the Silent Hunter Series, and having just read the Q&A I thought to pen a few words of my own about this new development.

http://support.uk.ubi.com/online-services-platform/

To say the announcement is causing considerable bad press, at least amongst SubSim members is to risk an understatement, any way perhaps you will find that out in good time, here’s my two cents worth

I find it a little hard to believe that a publishing company such as yours would be so keen to lock out potentially 1000's of customers, who are repulsed by this heavy handed approach, not to mention those who simply do not have reliable, or ongoing internet access, or as is the case in Australia, whole regions who don’t even have broadband. Let us not forget those who would be suspicious about buying a game that they may loose access to if something happens to the parent company.

I work in publishing myself and I know well enough when seemingly flourishing companies are all of a sudden bought out by others, when access or just basic customer service or even information disappears overnight or when management makes strategic decisions, that turn out to be wrong. Witness the recent World Economic Crisis; you may have heard of it, a wonderful testimony to the power of long term planning and strategic management if ever there was one.

Any way folks I really don’t think I can say anything that you probably haven’t heard or perhaps couldn’t give a hoot about any way, this and a number of recent announcements about the game-play re Silent Hunter 5 have all but extinguished my interest in this game. Following my experience of Steam and its less than desirable impact on Empire Total War I guess I will now think twice about purchasing any future Ubisoft titles –

Interestingly my appreciation of the wonders of real life as opposed to the games world is growing every day I read another article such as the Q&A I mention above.

You really have to question the mentality of a publisher who despite having a captive audience, i.e. the 10,000’s of SUBSim members who love the Silent Hunter Series; then with the imminent release of a new game in the series you seem to just be working your way through a checklist of bad ideas that are right now causing incredible angst amongst your potential audience, (customers) It seems as if Ubisoft seems to be only too willing to ignore even the basic sentiment of the SubSim forum and its members who strangely as it may seem are united in an odd yet passionate interest in marine combat simulations and submarine warfare in particular.

I wish you all the best in the attempt to bring a U-Boat game to a wider audience, I cant help but think your wider audience is more interested in other games and other genre’s, that’s why Subsim grew in the first place, for those whacko’s like me who love submarines, and you’ve now all but put me right off Silent Hunter 5 and Ubisoft as a publisher and producer.

At the end of the day - without a dynamic/random campaign SH5 was never going to offer much by way of replay value anyway.

Best Wishes to you who may read this and I dare you to pass it on to some one in Ubisoft who might be in a position to reverse a really bad decision before it affects your bottom line

Best Regards
Rascal@twg.net.au

Why did you use invisible ink?

[danlisa]

^ Someones not using the Smart Dark forum theme.

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by danlisa

^ Someones not using the Smart Dark forum theme.

Ooops. Fixed now.

[urfisch]

this is a nice idea...but...theres no open ear for such things at ubisoft. i often had angers with them. and if you get a satisfying answer, that does not mean, your text has been forwarded to the command room.

think of my words. ubi is not customer friendly. but which publisher is?

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by urfisch

this is a nice idea...but...theres no open ear for such things at ubisoft. i often had angers with them. and if you get a satisfying answer, that does not mean, your text has been forwarded to the command room.

think of my words. ubi is not customer friendly. but which publisher is?

Yep true. Reminds me of World of Warcraft forums blizzard devs just don't go there very rarely will they answer a post unless one of their sponsored players responds you might get a reply from blizzard. To much rage/bleating in the forums so why bother. One time a blizzard tech answered a reply from a player that had problems with his eyesight color blind or something and asked for help if their was anything blizzard could do. This tech reply back and made a script file mod for the player when using the keyboard - or personally made his very own mod just for this guy to improve his game-play and only he could use the mod. The tech was pretty much loved by all players after that. So devs do rely only when they think its an important issue.

Waits for colorblind threads to popup in Subsim

[Adriatico]

Originally Posted by rascal101

To whom it may concern,

I have just read a few posts over at SubSim.com re your Online Services Platform Q&A this was in relation to the soon to be released Silent Hunter5 due for release in March I believe. As a Long Time player and fan of the Silent Hunter Series, and having just read the Q&A I thought to pen a few words of my own about this new development.

http://support.uk.ubi.com/online-services-platform/

.....
.........
................

I wish you all the best in the attempt to bring a U-Boat game to a wider audience, I cant help but think your wider audience is more interested in other games and other genre’s, that’s why Subsim grew in the first place, for those whacko’s like me who love submarines, and you’ve now all but put me right off Silent Hunter 5 and Ubisoft as a publisher and producer.

At the end of the day - without a dynamic/random campaign SH5 was never going to offer much by way of replay value anyway.

Best Wishes to you who may read this and I dare you to pass it on to some one in Ubisoft who might be in a position to reverse a really bad decision before it affects your bottom line

Best Regards
Rascal@twg.net.au

You should have waited for my "personal preview", first hands on SHV:

[Dowly]

^

[Reece]

The General Said:
Lol, my derogatory statements were not meant for Native Australians, they're ok, it's the whites who stole the land from the Natives I have issue with

Keep it up, you'll end up back in the brig, wanker!!