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

Originally Posted by IanC

Funny how you speak for 'they'...

I dont speak for anyone but myself: I just dont remember seeing any official announcement of "This DRM has worked 100% of the time and there have been no issues". I havent seen any issues, i know 2 other people with this game and they say they haven't had any as well. So thats 300% reliability on my end, If it was so broken wouldnt one of us have had a problem by now? Even a lost save game? Anything?

So being against the popular opinion is trolling now? And i'd still like to see why you attribute me so some long gone (Presumibly unpopular) member, as if only one person would be stupid/dickish enough to defend this evil DRM monster, and that the valient subsim internet discussion boards are united in their rightous indignation and resolve. Cant my IP be checked or something if this person was banned? Being accused of being someone else is the only thing i'm annoyed with so far, and i am not angry at any one of you, honestly.

[les green01]

what you going do when they take the servers down and you cant play and they will take the servers down least with sh1 to uboat missions we could play for years and get our money worth and enjoy the games,and personly i dont buy it when they said they are not making money if they wasnt making money they wouldnt do another game,I dont mind doing a online verifcation one time online to play a game that i pay for.and way ubi been releasing half done games they should pay the modders for making the games better.

I'm pretty sure Sh3 and SH4 used to have DRM as well, usually they remove it with a patch after a certain amount of time, right?

[martes86]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

I'm pretty sure Sh3 and SH4 used to have DRM as well, usually they remove it with a patch after a certain amount of time, right?

Not really. First of all, neither SH3 or 4 had DRM, they had a traditional anti-copy scheme. And second, there was never an "official" patch to remove those systems, specially in the case of SH3 and Starforce.

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

I'm pretty sure Sh3 and SH4 used to have DRM as well, usually they remove it with a patch after a certain amount of time, right?

NO....SH3 DRM (starforce) screwed up so many computers (CDROM drives stopped working) Ubi removed it because of the Ticked off customers.... seems UBI didnt learn thier lesson. In fact a MAJOR selling point Ubi used with SH 4 is that It DID NOT have the same DRM as SH 3.

Edit: martes is right.... Starforce was not a DRM but a copy protection scheme (a piss poor one at that) that installed a program you couldnt see or manually uninstall. Ubi..while not officially removing it...did distribute the link to the program to uninstall Starforce, and promised the next SH would not have it.

I remember SH3 Messing up when it detected my virtual drives back in the day, Today i have it (GWX3) on my laptop and it doesnt conflict any more.

I confess to being completely wrong on this front, but i cant imagine that all copies of Sh5 will become worthless data when the servers are pulled, im sure they will think of something. All anger aside do you honestly see that happening?

[Sailor Steve]

I think (hope) they'll do the right thing in time, but the whole concept is wrong at its heart. A lot of us can't play the game at all.

So what makes for the total reliability on my end and the end of everyone i know? I honestly cannot fathom why we would have two completely differant experiances with the same exact program. I'm only arguing for the concept of the always-online DRM, failings do not allow paying customers to play their game are of course unforgivable, but i dont think writing off a promising program and concept is needed for a few teething problems. Again, on paper it looks like a great idea, and it works fine for me.

If it matters:

Nvidia 8600GT 512
2.8GHZ Pentium D dual core 64 bit
4 Gigs of ram, 3 usable (Thanks Vista 2, aka 7)
Windows 7 64 bit ultimate edition.
Sh5 Cheap edition: Bought on steam 2 days after release.
Comcast Digital Cable: South florida ISP.

[jwilliams]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

but i cant imagine that all copies of Sh5 will become worthless data when the servers are pulled, im sure they will think of something. All anger aside do you honestly see that happening?

Proberly not. But Ubi have given no reasurance. When asked if they would remove the online feature if the servers go down. They said "We do not plan to turn off the servers. but should that ever happen we plan to release a patch to allow offline play". When asked do you promise to release the patch, their answer was "Thats the plan". So it seams they avoided commiting to it. Doesnt exactly give us any reasurance does it?

Take curtain Digital music stores that had DRM on their music. those server have now been turned off. and people that downloaded music from those stores can no longer listen to the music that they have bought.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

I remember SH3 Messing up when it detected my virtual drives back in the day, Today i have it (GWX3) on my laptop and it doesnt conflict any more.

I confess to being completely wrong on this front, but i cant imagine that all copies of Sh5 will become worthless data when the servers are pulled, im sure they will think of something. All anger aside do you honestly see that happening?

I honestly hope so, but tbh it wouldn't have been necessary at all if it wasn't for the pirate fraternity out there.

What saddens me is the fact that the measures taken are no longer sufficient which begs the question....why bother in the first place?

[jwilliams]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

So what makes for the total reliability on my end and the end of everyone i know? I honestly cannot fathom why we would have two completely differant experiances with the same exact program. I'm only arguing for the concept of the always-online DRM, failings do not allow paying customers to play their game are of course unforgivable, but i dont think writing off a promising program and concept is needed for a few teething problems. Again, on paper it looks like a great idea, and it works fine for me.

If it matters:

Nvidia 8600GT
2.8GHZ Pentium D dual core 64 bit
4 Gigs of ram, 3 usable (Thanks Vista 2, aka 7)
Windows 7 64 bit ultimate edition.
Comcast Digital Cable: South florida ISP.

Because Ubi have more than 1 server. prehaps you have been lucky and the server that your connected to isnt the one thats had the DoS (be it DDoS (as Ubi claim) or VIPDoS) Attack.

Originally Posted by jimbuna

What saddens me is the fact that the measures taken are no longer sufficient which begs the question....why bother in the first place?

Damn, this hitler guy seems to have taken over all of europe, destroying nations much larger and more powerful than our own, why bother fighting?

Sometimes when facing evil people, difficult, far-fetched and unlikely efforts need to be made in the name of the law. (yes, Pirates = Hitler) Get back to me in a month or two, if the server issues are not taken care of by than for this again, brand new online system (these problems are nothing compared to the 2003-2004 Public Steam beta) i will admit defeat. No amount of testing can recreate a public launch, and problems are bound to pop up, All i was suggesting is that a forum like this is not an accurate measure of the problems of the greater, un-registered subsim community, and that the complaining was getting a little extreme

Heres the only way i can prove im not a douche troll and that i want to be a productive member of the subsim community:
Mods, i've gotten my point across as best i could, please lock this thread.

[Juliano]

Wont modding the campaign render the whole DRM useless???
I mean, the only thing keeping pirates form playing the game is the fact that the campaign does not work the way it should if cracked and not connected to UBI. I´m pretty sure once the mods are released, almost nobody will play the stock campaign.

So, what´s the point in UBI maintaining expensive servers for the sake of stoping piracy (as they claim)? I´m almost sure the headstaff there got stoned or something.

Also, I doubt there will be LOTS of patches, I actualy think UBI released the game as it is hoping to get "free work" form the modder comunity. At some point, patches will not be released anymore and there will be no more PRATICAL use to be connected (in costumers point of view). Sure, there still will be the "you can install the game in X number of PCs and use your save games" (I dont realy care for this feature, I can allways copy my savegames to a pendrive and carry it with me anywhere I want, so it´s kinda redundant).

I really think this whole DRM thing is pointless. But it´s only my opinion.

Most people do not mod their games, most people do not go on the internet and talk about games on forums. There is no expectation for anti-piracy measures to be 100% effective or undefeatable, that should not be expected of a software. Its like blaming the police for a murder because it wasnt effective enough to stop it, which i suppose some people would do.

Again mods, lock this thread, i wont shut up until you do

[Skullcowboy]

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Damn, this hitler guy seems to have taken over all of europe, destroying nations much larger and more powerful than our own, why bother fighting?

Sometimes when facing evil people, difficult, far-fetched and unlikely efforts need to be made in the name of the law. (yes, Pirates = Hitler) Get back to me in a month or two, if the server issues are not taken care of by than for this again, brand new online system (these problems are nothing compared to the 2003-2004 Public Steam beta) i will admit defeat. No amount of testing can recreate a public launch, and problems are bound to pop up, All i was suggesting is that a forum like this is not an accurate measure of the problems of the greater, un-registered subsim community, and that the complaining was getting a little extreme

Heres the only way i can prove im not a douche troll and that i want to be a productive member of the subsim community:
Mods, i've gotten my point across as best i could, please lock this thread.

OH MY GOD!! Really? Hitler and his ilk murdered or caused the death of MILLIONS of people and you are comparing them to a group of people who make unauthorized copies of software...that causes some financial loss, of which the actual numbers are highly questionable.

And you called my arguement ridiculous.