The facts of life: A heartfelt defense of Ubisoft and DRM

[gonzlor]

Personally i'm okay with the DRM stuff, If i spent X years working HARD on my software i'd hate it to be stolen on the internet too.

I am disapointed though in the state SH3/4/5 so far have been released in, I secretly hoped SH5 would release in a pretty good state considering the previous few were buggy but deep inside I half expected the features not to work or not even be there, Which is the case for SH5.

I can only play along getting annoyed everytime I see something I don't like, or cop a bug I remember fixed in a previous SH game, I expect in the coming months things will come right with patch 1.2 or 1.3 or even 1.4?

Good times ahead with modders too making the game the way we always wanted it!

[Mondaiji]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Just saw this interview for the first time and i must say that the last part i would love to see. Now that could give the right ppl a real chance to make something great and get something in return.

[tonschk]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I'm ok with DRM.

Me too , bought the SH5 DVD last week and so far no problem with the DRM

[vonce1]

to all you guys who are OK with DRM: wait until you'll get locked out of the game for the weekend; your "OK with DRM" attitude will change quickly as did mine... online DRM is an evil that needs to be removed

[Juliano]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Wow, totally agree with his statement

[NefariousKoel]

Originally Posted by vonce1

to all you guys who are OK with DRM: wait until you'll get locked out of the game for the weekend; your "OK with DRM" attitude will change quickly as did mine... online DRM is an evil that needs to be removed

Unfortunately, the small amount of draconian DRM defenders believe that if they've had no problems, nobody else does either. Those other people are viewed as just misinformed ignorant reactionaries (as pointed out in the OP).

Until it happens to them. Rare is the one who still defends it after they've been bitten.

[NefariousKoel]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

that's the spirit! let's stoop to personal insults, how mature, how adult...

How about a good old fashioned lynching? would you like that kiddies? they used to be very popular in the south.

I dont know why the moderators dont just lock this thread, this turning into a farce..

I didn't quite say everything I wanted to about Trenken or whatever his name is. Telling people to "keep their bitching in the 20+ other DRM threads" warrants more.

And your reference to Southerners lynching people is hardly a metaphor without ridiculous, biased, insult. Perhaps you should take your buddy, the ex-Starforce employee, and fill out hate crime charges.

[sabretwo]

Originally Posted by tater

It's also predicated on the absurd claim that "90% of the copies are pirated." This claim is meaningless. The only number that matters are lost sales. What % of pirated copies would have sold in the absence of a pirated version. My guess is that it's a vanishingly small %.

I've tried making this point several times in these threads.

How many pirates does anyone really think are now buying the game versus the number of people now infuriated with UBI or unable to play their games owing to difficulty with accessing the internet, etc.

[Eightbit]

Originally Posted by sabretwo

I've tried making this point several times in these threads.

How many pirates does anyone really think are now buying the game versus the number of people now infuriated with UBI or unable to play their games owing to difficulty with accessing the internet, etc.

haha yea and if it hadn't been pirated. How many more angry "i want a refund" you think we would see here?

[robbo180265]

Originally Posted by NefariousKoel

Unfortunately, the small amount of draconian DRM defenders believe that if they've had no problems, nobody else does either. Those other people are viewed as just misinformed ignorant reactionaries (as pointed out in the OP).

Until it happens to them. Rare is the one who still defends it after they've been bitten.

You also have to remember that the people that DRM really affects are unable to argue here or on any other forum. I'm talking about people who have no net connection and therfore are totally excluded from playing the game.

[blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

No different from slipping a shirt into your coat at the mall. Just imagine how that would go down on this forum... "Lol stupid ubiclothes and their anti-theft shirt alarms, I AM NOT A THIEF, why do i have to wait for the store clerk to undo this alarm thing from the merchandise? Thats time from my life i will never get back, im boycotting this store! You know if they made a better quality shirt they would make more money, its simple!".

What you describe is equal to a one-time activation. The clerk extracts the little metal thing that makes the detector buzz as you are giving him the cash, you take your t-shirt and never have to worry about it again.

UBI's method is more like you're stuck with the little metal plate in your T-shirt for life, so that the T-shirt shop's patrol car can verify it's yours at random points in time, plus you can't do anything about it.

Your friends make fun of the bulge under your T-shirt in the back of your neck, it itches and annoys you, you don't like the feeling of cold metal on your skin when you dress for work early in the morning and you can't go anywhere near a metal detector without giving a false alarm and everybody looking at you in a strange way, but of course we know it's not the fault of the T-shirt seller, it's the fault of terrorists and gangsters who made us install metal detectors everywhere and we jump with fear everytime they go off

And all this so that the T-shirt store's patrol car can come along, stop you from whatever you're doing at the moment (work, going to the movies, having a cup of cofee with your girlfriend), demand of you to prove you didn't steal the T-shirt and expect you to show them the little metal plate, all at random times and however often they would like. Oh, God forbid if they barge in your home one Sunday morning, find you snugging into bed with your girlfriend and she happens to be wearing it. Stupid women, always getting us in trouble like this after a night out for meal, movie and hot sexxing
You see, you don't own the T-shirt, you own a license to use it and they can revoke it at will if you give it to a friend as a present, let your little son wear it as you snap pictures of him with your camera or ship it off to a humanitarian aid mission when you don't want it anymore.

Tell you what, if you subject yourself to this for a month and prove to everyone here that you really did it, i'll go out and buy SH5 in its current state

[jwilliams]

Hehe, you forgot to metion that if the patrol car brakes down, that you must surrender your t-shirt to them, even if your still wearing it, even if it inconvenent for you. Until they fix their car. And if they cant fix there car then you never get your t-shirt back.

[DJSatane]

To the original poster, you do realize ubi never cared about making sims to begin with, sh3 and 4 were buggy as hell and ubi always cut off support early not caring about the state of games were left in.

UBI has a lot of excuses but they can not say they ever gave a real shot at single game in silent hunter series with proper support and resources to have a fine state of the product reached. every game in this series could of been great if there was more time given to its development/testing/support.

Instead of putting this pointless DRM on a buggy product with little hope of support how about charge small amount of money every few months to continue playing sh5 and use that money towards providing continious support and expanding the game. Oh wait this is UBI they dont care.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by Faamecanic

^^^This^^^ "What we saw more and more is that piracy is the result of BAD SERVICE ON THE PART OF GAME COMPANIES" - Gabe

When companies like Ubi and EASports continue to release garbage... piracy goes up.

Whats sad is those companies then either rush the next release to market because they dont have the revenue forcasted to support a long dev period (Case and point SH3, Sh4, now SH5) OR they stop the franchise all together and blame the poor sales on the market not being there (MADDEN FOOTBALL.... for cripes sakes how can they say this is a "niche" market?!).

YES!

Unfortunately some people seem so easily influenced into thinking that everything is the fault of pirates, they fail to see the root cause.

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

Ubisoft profits have been going down for a few years and they are forecasting a loss this year, but don't take my word for it. Their financial statements are online and if they lie in those, company excutives and the auditors are going to jail.

Mattdrizzle, I don't know why you are wasting your time in this thread. If you really want to know how the so called "sub sim community" feels, look right here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=164177

60% of "the community" say SH5 is GOOD.

and even more important is this "poll":

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...s-1918550.html

The rest is just meaningless background noise.

Erm, those links point merely to subsets of greater audiences and have no correlation to overall game sales or opinion (one can respond merely by posting a comment such as "95% of the US amazon community thinks the game sux").

Statistics can be conveniently misconstrued to argue any point.

[DMarkwick]

Originally Posted by gonzlor

Personally i'm okay with the DRM stuff, If i spent X years working HARD on my software i'd hate it to be stolen on the internet too.

I agree with the sentiment but, if that DRM stuff turned out to be entirely useless and ineffective, and in all probability was responsible for arguably more sales lost than piracy alone, would you still be OK with it?