The gawd-almighty merged DRM in Silent Hunter V thread

[trenken]

Originally Posted by Gilbou

Online authentication, okay.

And they day they stop the servers ? What will you do ?
Stare at the DVD cover ? Play with memories of the game ?

You're no longer buying a game you can play as much as you want.
You're renting a game. And when they pull the plug, it ends for you.

I will not accept online requirement to play a game. Not because of
the hassle, but because someday they can pull the plug and either
diseappear or don't care about you playing an old game.

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to play SH5? Not happening man. Ubi is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few servers running for many years.

Maybe they wont update the game at some point, but there wont come a time anytime even remotely soon that you wont be able to play this game.

There are many old online only games that have been abandoned by their creators, that are still running to this day. You can go out and buy an old version of Diablo, it has no dev support, is online only, and its still running.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by trenken

Im not one to just bitch about things. Its a waste of time to me. If a change happens, such as DRM, ill find a way to deal with it. If I cant for some reason, well ill find something else to do. But complain about it I wont do.

Well to me people have the right to complain, but there's some limit.

I mean some people STRESS so much about it, I guess they are gonna develop cancer and/or depression.

[Bryll]

My primary concern with DRM is this:

It does bother some people (myself included), and some enough to actually stop them buying the game.

And reduced sales are rarely noticed by the publisher as something specific like DRM.

It will just reduce the profit the game makes, and mean a lower chance of a next game in the the series.

[3DDevil]

Originally Posted by Bryll

My primary concern with DRM is this:

It does bother some people (myself included), and some enough to actually stop them buying the game.

And reduced sales are rarely noticed by the publisher as something specific like DRM.

It will just reduce the profit the game makes, and mean a lower chance of a next game in the the series.

I agree with the above.... however, I think that with a series like SH.. they will notice sales drop because of DRM. I mean they look at it and all previous versions of SH sold relatively well considering thier nice market. But then SH5 comes out and sales crash!?? The game was better, why did it crash? A: The only thing they changed was DRM.

And I do think that they look at forums like this one. The ROF dev's realised thier mistake and took thier guidance from the forums. I think they also realised that people will pay for more product (DLC), in this case more planes. After the original sale is made. They realise that is where the money is. They are actually losing double the sales because of DRM. The people who originally wouldnt purchase the game because of DRM (sale lost) and the potential sales they could have gained if those people purchased the non DRM game and purchased add on DLC....

[subsimlee]

I'm with you Elder Pirate. I've got plenty of life to live that doesn't depend on future gaming. As you said, it's not just DRM/OSP on SH 5 but any future games that tie you to the fortunes of a large corporation ( Can anyone say... "G.M." or "Chrysler" or "Meryll Lynch" ) . Some people just don't get it. It's the principle!! You would think that the defenders of freedom and independence ( read Americans ) of ALL people would be the first to recognize this.
Make no mistake, I have no use for illegal copies of anything, but such an aggressive approach to security of intellectual property is actually developing a new market for software pirates, people who would otherwise happily buy the product! With the hopes of such a huge new market, you can bet the pirates will be working very hard to cash in.....sad and stupid....

[THE_MASK]

Well , you all wanted malfunctions and breakdowns in SH5 looks like you may get your wish . Internet breakdowns and server malfunctions .

[Arclight]

Alright, that was funny.

Don't necessarily agree, but funny.

[Seafireliv]

Originally Posted by subsimlee

I'm with you Elder Pirate. I've got plenty of life to live that doesn't depend on future gaming. As you said, it's not just DRM/OSP on SH 5 but any future games that tie you to the fortunes of a large corporation ( Can anyone say... "G.M." or "Chrysler" or "Meryll Lynch" ) . Some people just don't get it. It's the principle!! You would think that the defenders of freedom and independence ( read Americans ) of ALL people would be the first to recognize this.
Make no mistake, I have no use for illegal copies of anything, but such an aggressive approach to security of intellectual property is actually developing a new market for software pirates, people who would otherwise happily buy the product! With the hopes of such a huge new market, you can bet the pirates will be working very hard to cash in.....sad and stupid....

Totally agree with one exception... I`m British. It`s not just smart Americans who realise this is unethical and wrong.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by trenken

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to play? Not happening man. Brøderbund is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few servers running for many years.

Originally Posted by trenken

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to play? Not happening man. Ion Storm is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few servers running for many years.

Originally Posted by trenken

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to play? Not happening man. Sierra is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few servers running for many years.

Originally Posted by trenken

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to access your Lehman Bros account? Not happening man. Lehman is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few accounts open for many years.

[Seafireliv]

Originally Posted by trenken

You just dont know what you're talking about. You think a couple years from now or whatever that you wont be able to play SH5? Not happening man. Ubi is a huge company, its nothing for them to leave a few servers running for many years.

Maybe they wont update the game at some point, but there wont come a time anytime even remotely soon that you wont be able to play this game.

There are many old online only games that have been abandoned by their creators, that are still running to this day. You can go out and buy an old version of Diablo, it has no dev support, is online only, and its still running.

Sorry, Sir, but it`s you who does not know what he`s talking about. I am not willing to hope that my games will still be running in years from now depending on whether UBI keeps their servers going or not. many companies will quite happily ditch all their promises of a few years back if it suits them,. Not that long ago, a game called London HellsGate was realised which was playable online 24\7, there was an Offline component, but online on their servers was where it was at. The company quit suddenly, dropping loads of Players in the lurch. even a Dev popped up to say how unhappy they were with the boss`s idea and morale was at an all time low. Now the game is useless.

You are naive. A singleplayer game should NOT be 24\7 online on principle alone, let alone the rest of the disadvantages for the Player which are many. It doesn`t matter if you have wonderful internet, that`s not the point. No one should pay for an offline game then be hamstrung 24\7 on the net as if leasing. I want to be able to play my games 7 years from now which many i have which i still do play, IL2, MTW, Combat mission etc, etc. I want to play anywhere at any time, whether connected or not.

It is only good for greedy companies and it`s not our job to prop up greedy companies that are trying to push the boat out as far as it will go to see what they can get away with.

They`re testing us and we must show them it is unacceptable.

[scrapser]

I just came here fresh from reading reviews of another, non-simulation game published by Ubisoft. Apparently in order to play the new "Bioshock 2" game you must have a Windows Live account and cannot even save your progress unless you are logged in...even for those playing single player mode! This is ridiculous.

I'm not buying SH5 or Bioshock 2 (or any other game set up this way or close to it). I hope everyone else follows suit. I hope the companies pay attention too because this is the first time I have ever not bought a game that I know I would enjoy playing. That in itself says a corner has been turned.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Skullcowboy

Perhaps. There are several rumors floating around about the whys and wherefores of Neoqb dropping the requirement of a connection for single player. But most telling is their official announcement about it. I would think (my opinion only) that if the DRM had been a resounding success they would trumpet that from the roof tops and brag about how much money they saved because of it and how it was no longer needed. Instead, we get some talk about forum polls, customer opinions, network stats and marketing trends and how they are confident that legitimate copies will outnumber pirated ones. What I take away from all this (again, just my opinion) is that doing this will sell more copies. I am not so sure I would equate that to the DRM having done it's job.
Read and judge for yourselves :http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/post/2010/02/05/LOGIN-OFFLINE-ACCESS-GRANTED!!!.aspx

Agreed. It's what's not written in Neoqb's official announcement that speaks more than what was written.

[Ragtag]

Originally Posted by scrapser

I just came here fresh from reading reviews of another, non-simulation game published by Ubisoft. Apparently in order to play the new "Bioshock 2" game you must have a Windows Live account and cannot even save your progress unless you are logged in...even for those playing single player mode! This is ridiculous.

I'm not buying SH5 or Bioshock 2 (or any other game set up this way or close to it). I hope everyone else follows suit. I hope the companies pay attention too because this is the first time I have ever not bought a game that I know I would enjoy playing. That in itself says a corner has been turned.

You have to set up a Live account. But the account can be set up as an offline account so you can play it offline. It's works just the same on Xbox 360. That's a MAJOR difference compared to OSP.

[Seafireliv]

Originally Posted by Ragtag

You have to set up a Live account. But the account can be set up as an offline account so you can play it offline. It's works just the same on Xbox 360. That's a MAJOR difference compared to OSP.

I don`t like any of these Activation things Windows Live included. But it is true that with Windows Live you can play Offline and save Offline... They just make it a little hard to find that bit. I even deactivated GTAIV and took it back to the shop, so i was not too unhappy about it.

[Ragtag]

Originally Posted by Seafireliv

I don`t like any of these Activation things Windows Live included. But it is true that with Windows Live you can play Offline and save Offline... They just make it a little hard to find that bit. I even deactivated GTAIV and took it back to the shop, so i was not too unhappy about it.

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