The gawd-almighty merged DRM in Silent Hunter V thread

[razark]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

Two more broken analogies.
I get what you're saying, but the analogies you use all involve hassle that simply has no equivalent for the SH5 player with a stable connection. It's the straw man argument.

So, as long as it's not directly there reminding you every minute, then it doesn't really exist?

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

I'm not seeing how that's relevant, but obviously if the servers don't work then I can't play, and if I can't play then I'll take the game back and get a refund.

I shouldn't have to hope something is going to work when I buy it. I may buy a defective product once in a while, but I should not expect there to be a 50/50 chance it will be defective. I'd be running back and forth to the store quite a lot.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by razark

So, as long as it's not directly there reminding you every minute, then it doesn't really exist?

I didn't say it doesn't exist. I said it doesn't bother me.

Originally Posted by razark

I shouldn't have to hope something is going to work when I buy it. I may buy a defective product once in a while, but I should not expect there to be a 50/50 chance it will be defective. I'd be running back and forth to the store quite a lot.

I couldn't agree more. I still don't see what it has to do with the broken analogies we were discussing.

[Jerik]

Originally Posted by razark

I shouldn't have to hope something is going to work when I buy it. I may buy a defective product once in a while, but I should not expect there to be a 50/50 chance it will be defective. I'd be running back and forth to the store quite a lot.

50/50 is a very unlikely probability for server use. Look at Steam -- this service has been running for years and I can only think of one or two times that it same down and prevented me from using my content.

Not to mention, verification is not exactly a high-intensity use of the server. Look at your average MMO -- WoW servers cater to about 10k players; Eve Online can support about 30k simultaneous players, and that's transmitting and calculating massive amounts of data.

Also, regarding the broadband argument: while only 60% of the US population may have broadband, the number of serious gamers with broadband -- ones who will be affected by this -- is probably much higher. I know there are always people who have dial up or something else and cannot manage the online connection, but they are not a large, or critical (in the gaming industry's eyes) population of players. I suspect they'll gladly lose the 5% of gamers who cannot play the game due to no internet if they feel it will stop piracy. Piracy is definitely a problem; the issue is whether these sorts of measures will decrease piracy (and force sales) or just decrease piracy without increasing sales. The former situation is certainly what they'd like; I suspect the latter is the more likely case.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Jerik

Look at Steam -- this service has been running for years and I can only think of one or two times that it same down and prevented me from using my content.

Steam will never prevent you from using 99.9% of it's games, even if
you have no connection. Steam has an offline mode that almost all
games can run in.

[Jerik]

Originally Posted by Letum

Steam will never prevent you from using 99.9% of it's games, even if
you have no connection. Steam has an offline mode that almost all
games can run in.

This is true; I suspect the times I "remember" not being able to play a game is because the game had not been update, or offline mode had not been activated.