The gawd-almighty merged DRM in Silent Hunter V thread

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Oh, thank you.

I know people who feel that way about you and anyone who actually pays for a game. Sheep.

It's not about paying for the game, it's about said game's DRM limitations. Face it, we are suffering more and more restrictions with each and every new game, new forms of DRM which do not appear to deter pirates in any way, only punish the genuine customer. How is this a good thing?

Perhaps your net connection is good enough not to worry about the constant connection requirement, but not all of us are as fortunate. My net drops out on a regular basis, a bit of bad whether and I won't be able to play the game I've paid for. Not exactly what you'd expect from a single-player game.

But hey ho, what does it matter? As long as some people are satisfied, bugger the rest of us. This would seem to be Ubi's underlying attitude, and if that doesn't tell you something about the future of this title, then I don't know what else will.

[Seafireliv]

Originally Posted by Ragtag

I don't like it either but as long as i'm given the option to play offline i can at least live with it. It doesn't hurt my gaming experience and the game isn't forced to pause. The OSP will seriously kill the gaming experience for sure. Everyone has so called network peaks with ping and packetloss daily. We usually don't notice because the connection doesn't usually die out when it happens. Internet is buildt this way. To connect to ubisoft you have to go through alot of servers on the way. This is routing. Doing a ping command in DOS will show you the route it takes. Sometimes you get a bad route, sometimes a good one.
My point is that it's not down to your connection. Your connection might be good and stabile but that doesn't help if the routing to your destination sucks big time. I can live with one time activations or even live accounts. But the OSP is probably the worst idea ever for a protection. Using piracy as an escuse to implement OSP is total bull**** imho. This is mainly done to stop secondhand sales and to control the market. Personally i am really starting to dislike Ubisoft in their efforts to make money. Earning money and doing business is totally fine. But by slapping paying customer in the face hiding behind things they call a service for the customer, is way beyond the ethics of doing business. I can pause the game and keep my savegames all by myself. I'm not a total idiot... i hope :P

I totally agree. I would also call it unethical as well. I see absolutely NO reason why we should be 24\7 online (it doesn`t matter how good the net connection is, that`s besides the point) for an SP game or why we need our saves saving somewhere else.

All I can figure is that it is all done to ultimately benefit the company, not us, the customer. Perhaps they intend to charge for using SH5 or patches- who knows. It don`t look good anyway and from the customer POV completely unreasonable.

[Reece]

The biggest issue for me is the fact that I still play SHIII, and will for some time yet, it is now 8 years old, will UBI servers still be active for SH5 in 8 or more years? I think not, when they drop support for the game they will cut us off, when it happens the game can no longer be played, and who would want to mod a game knowing it could be dropped any time they feel like it, not me and others feel the same way I'm sure! Basically your leasing the game till your lease runs out, that will be at UBI's discretion!

[609_Avatar]

The analogy I have given my wife to talk about slow internet speeds when we have a "fast" connection and she just doesn't understand why things are so slow is this: Imagine you have the fastest Ferrari built today. This sucker can do 0-100mph in 4.2 sec. and has a top end of 200+ mph and then you go to New York City during rush hour... How good does your fast car do you then? She got it real quick.

[Sky999]

Some people are saying we do have an offline mode and some aren't I'm confused?

[609_Avatar]

Originally Posted by Sky999

Some people are saying we do have an offline mode and some aren't I'm confused?

Really? Where? I honestly haven't seen anyone claiming there is offline mode here, especially in the previews of the game.

[sabretwo]

Wow, I haven't been to this side of Subsim for almost a week and this discussion is still raging on! (Keep up the fight!)

After what I have been seeing lately with other publishers who tried the umbilical cord method of DRM, my guess is UBI will patch it up after their sales drop even lower than last year.

What mystifies me...Looking at UBI's revenues last year (or lack of), I originally thought this draconian DRM thing was a vain attempt to sell the Shareholders/Market that piracy was the reason to blame for their dismal year last year and that they were taking steps to end that loss. Not exactly a smart PR strategy in the long run, but shareholders and the Market will often buy a line of BS if the seller can sell it well. Howeevr, like musical chairs, that kind of PR only boosts share prices until the music stops and real sales start coming in (or NOT) with the new system in place.

But in light of all the other companies dropping this kind of DRM lately due to lost sales and add to that the obviously HUGE and outspoken sales base that now looks at UBI as 'Darth Vader and the Empire', I would think that they'd change course before the train completely derails.

Maybe the guys on the Executive Floor really are as stupid as they look right now.

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by 609_Avatar

The analogy I have given my wife to talk about slow internet speeds when we have a "fast" connection and she just doesn't understand why things are so slow is this: Imagine you have the fastest Ferrari built today. This sucker can do 0-100mph in 4.2 sec. and has a top end of 200+ mph and then you go to New York City during rush hour... How good does your fast car do you then? She got it real quick.

Nice analogy, and likely very true. They claim that they have all the bases covered as far as server load is concerned, but you really have to wonder. Thousands of people's profiles and saved games, being updated and accessed simultaneously, such a system is open to problems.

[609_Avatar]

Originally Posted by Nordmann

Nice analogy, and likely very true. They claim that they have all the bases covered as far as server load is concerned, but you really have to wonder. Thousands of people's profiles and saved games, being updated and accessed simultaneously, such a system is open to problems.

Doesn't matter what they do, as has been pointed out already, there's a lot of routes between here (US) and there. Lots can happen beyond their control. I've read too many articles over the past few years by those "in the now" that are extremely worried with the infrastructure that's in place being able to hold up under the ever increasing demand placed upon the internet. Things are constantly being updated but it's being far outpaced by developing nations (read China- 1/4 the world's population and India) and with the great popularity of movies and video clips constantly being transmitted. All these things are stressing a very old system that was never designed or envisioned to do what we expect of it today. It's a race to restructure networks and infrastructure while upgrading nodes and servers while hoping the demand doesn't bring it all crashing down. Then factor in the "wonderful" people that purposely try to crash systems and networks, countries dabbling with cyberwarfare, etc. and these games are very minor in comparison to the load that's placed upon the system as a whole...

[Hartmann]

One possibility is a mixed option,

with login first and continuos connection, in case of disconnect the game will continue playing but with a visible sign in the screen with the words "Internet connection lost" so ilegitimate users have to deal with the constant caption in the screen while registered users not, only in ping timeout periods.

[TDK1044]

Let's say that someone purchases Silent Hunter 5, and because of his personal availability, he can only actually play the game between the hours of 6PM and 8PM on Saturdays and Sundays.

Because those days are the busiest in terms of server access, every time he tries to log on and play the game during that window, he is denied access.

He has therefore spent $49 on a game that he can't play. He can't get his money back on the game, because nobody offers a refund for computer software/video games, and he can't change his availability in order to try and access the servers at a different time.

In the pre DRM era he would have had no problem, but now he has a $49 coaster and no access to a game he wants to play.

Does he have a legal claim against Ubisoft? I wonder what kind of disclaimer will be written in the mice type on the box?

[onelifecrisis]

Depends on what country this hypothetical player is in.

Here in the UK? Refund, no problem. Even if it's bought through Steam or any other company who say they don't give refunds. Their terms don't override our laws, and if you know your rights it's easy enough to "bully" the retailer into a refund.

[TDK1044]

I have a feeling that the attempted returns will be the highest ever because of the online element. Time will tell I guess.

[Diopos]

Be assured. There will be some relavent "fine print" in the End User License Agreement....

[Darkreaver1980]

What is up with you people?

you will buy the game, come home and play it right away.

why is everyone acting like the world is going to end? lol

Dont tell me that you arent connected 24 hours per day :P