Public statement against DRM (yet not SH5)

[Kron161]

Originally Posted by Nordmann

We might have been able to do something about it, if people could only have restrained themselves from buying the damned game. But no, for all the complaints, they go like lambs to the slaughter.

Ubi must be having a good laugh at our expense (well, your expense, I didn't buy it), because they know that they can release a half finished product, with ridiculous restrictions, and their loyal fans will go right ahead and buy it regardless.

I was here with Silent Hunter 2... and oh boy! that really was a mess. The community had to literally pay out of their pockets to have the game more or less fixed, because out of the box in vanilla state it would not work. and Ubi did NEVER apologize, they took our money and promised they would keep the saga alive. They had sold a significant amount of SH2, so they decided to revive a niche saga that is a far cry away from blockbuster sales. This brought us SH3. A game with many shortcomings that the modding comunity has honed to a more than acceptable state. Followed by SH4 and its sequel... and now what? DRM!

A friend of mine purchased the game and on my request did me a favour: copied the license terms and sent them to me by mail.

Have you guys, read the license attached to the game??? i do really mean read in detail, including the small letters... and if necessary, check it with a lawyer.

Read point 2. ownership rights...

The purchaser does never adquire the game. The purchaser adquires the right to use a game that remains propierty of Ubisoft. and this is the beginning of the rip off.

If I buy a car, I own the car. If I buy a book, its content protected by copyrights and all, I own the book. The same with a CD movie... but in this case, you don't own the game.

now read down point 6. warranty limits

By accepting the license, the purchaser asumes any risk due to possible lose of data, errors, malfunctioning, etc...

so you don't have the right to complain for lost accounts, errors, bugs, lost savegames, etc...

This was something else and this issues made my decission. I did not purchase it. I do prefer to play SH3 with GWX mods rather than lining Ubi's pockets with a rip off. Those big corporations do not react to complains. (in fact, as per the license, you are not even entitled to complain for a broken game or bad DRM fuctioning) Big game corporations react to lose of sales. That is the big thing.

The day that the gamer community learn that truth and assume that buying a bad game or a game with something we don't like means that we have fulfilled the corporation's business aims by simply satisfying our curiosity to see the product installed in our computers, that day we will start to change the gaming industry.

Unlike car sellers who must provide a vehicle with reliable functioning standards, software industry is the only industry who sell products unfinished or unreliable and afterwards, users and communities expect patches to get the issues fixed, and the industry is allowed to do as they whish... fix issues or not....

I've had SH5 in my hands at least 3 times in 3 different ocassions at a shopping mall and all 3 times was tempted to take it home... but then I remembered the SH5 trailer.

"after all those years supporting the saga, the community, of contributing from my own pocket to fix SH2, installing enless mods, playing as I wanted when I wanted, not having to depend on internet... was I going to give in? was it all? HELL NO! "

My ONLY power as a consumer faced to a behemoth like UBI is to put my money somewhere else.

I'll wait until Ubi steps back out and fixes DRM out of SH5 or until a cracked copy falls on my lap. Whatever comes in first. You can bet which one is more likely to happen.