The facts of life: A heartfelt defense of Ubisoft and DRM - Page 2

Irichanu · 03-09-10, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schunken

Its not the point that Ubi is fail with SH5, everybody fail everyday with anything....

The point is that thew show NO SIGN of support loyal customers and NO SIGN of apology to loyal customers.

They even denie that they make a mistake by setting up the DRM Servers....

No single german company like BMW, Mercedes or Lufthansa will go down on a simple DDOS Attack....

And when a Software-Developer go down by a DDOS attack....sorry, I must lough my ass off... Its like a sub-captain dives with a open hatch....

Andreas

More like when a sub sinks because its captain didn't know how to use a toilet...

Méo · 03-09-10, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

I know i really come off as someone with an axe to grind or some kind of employee of ubi, but im not.

My names matt, i work at a florida insurance company (not ubi), and i simply love military simulation PC games, and hope to see them made in the future.

I respect your point of view matt, but I think you're wasting your time, a lot of people here won't even think about the possibility that they could be wrong.

As you said, it always come down to it:

Quote:

this is a joe everyman vs evil corporate overlord

SteamWake · 03-09-10, 01:45 PM

I found the juxtaposition of this thread immediatly below the UBI server issue thread amusing.

03-09-10, 01:49 PM

Do you guys just whine and make smartalec comments? How about some empathy? How about some compassion and understanding in tough times? Sometimes in those tough times tough decisions need to be made, these people have responsibilities to their shareholders and employees that they need to fulfill. This isnt UNICEF, they dont make these games to please you. Oh yea, and they warned us in advance, and printed it in big black and white letters on the front of the box, and made a commitment to support this game years into the future (another benefit of episodic releases)

Do you people have any constructive suggestions? Or just complaints about whatever is in front of you.

Irichanu · 03-09-10, 01:51 PM

If they have piracy problems even with the new DRM, doesn't that just show that they are doing something wrong? There probably is no good way to counter piracy, but you can increase your profit in other ways. Bugging your paying customers isn't very useful, I can tell you that.

groundhogd · 03-09-10, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

3. Make piracy a pain in the ass. This is the dreaded DRM, if they can delay the first pirate a week before a copy hits bittorrent, thats money in the payroll account. You'd be stupid not to try. In the olden days of 2005 they used invasive and ridiculous software to do this (Starforce), today they use something no more invasive than a steam account. I support the online option 100% and have had no problems with it after more than a week of gameplay. Not a single disconnect or CTD. Releasing a "buggy" game from the box and already having a patch ready to go is also a great method. Offline pirates cant fix their game until they spend yet another week figuring out how the hell to get the patch working. Ubi has done this

Two problems: Ubisoft's boneheaded DRM encourages piracy and was cracked before release.

TDK1044 · 03-09-10, 01:55 PM

I disagree with the OP on so many levels that it's not worth pursuing. Let's just say that I'm not surprised that he works for an insurance company.

03-09-10, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Do you guys just whine and make smartass comments? How about some empathy? How about some compassion and understanding in tough times? Sometimes in those tough times tough decisions need to be made, these people have responsibilities to their shareholders and employees that they need to fulfill. This isnt UNICEF, they dont make these games for you.

Emphaty for strangers ? who are you ? Jesus ? So you wanna help UBI and support DRM ? How about you buy a 1000 copy to show your "love" to the crap of tough times ? Ppl has a right to hate DRM but you obviously are having dead braincells if you can come up with this thread after all ppl who bought it experiencing clear problems!

Commie · 03-09-10, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Ok guys i'll make this as simple as i can.

Piracy is having a massive impact on getting PC games funded and green-lit (approved for production)

Same old propaganda peddled by companies that do not want to support the PC but prefer the consoles. Console piracy is also strong, but you rarely see anyone whining about it.

XBOX/PS3/Wii : This is the reason that PC games are not being supported as much, it's a cheap standardised platform that maximises revenue and minimises cost of development.

The move to multiplayer gaming also means that games that are initially pirated end up being bought by the pirates for the multiplayer. Check out the high sales of Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the PC to kill off the old lie that piracy hurts sales.

So called piracy is EASILY combated. Look at games by Matrix Games or Stardock. Pirates tend to only pirate the very first versions of them and the games become like a demo, as extra features and fixes are released insubsequent patches which you can only get by registering your unique key! People that aren't really interested in the genre won't bother with the game, they wouldn't have bought it anyway but fans tend to buy the game even if they pirated it in order to get all the benefits.

THE ONLY REASON Ubi DOESN'T do this is because they are loathe to support their products besides the bare minimum, they don't want to keep adding to a game like Stardock has done with GalCiv II, supporting it for YEARS! Why not? If they really were worried about pirates taking all their profit, wouldn't it make more sense to fund after sales support to give free updates and improvements plus DLC for a year or two extra? It would also keep the game in the spotlight longer and generate more sales. The simple fact is piracy is a negligible problem and is just an excuse to cut development and quality control on the PC in order to concentrate on where the real money is.

Silanda · 03-09-10, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattDizzle

Do you guys just whine and make smartass comments? How about some empathy? How about some compassion and understanding in tough times? Sometimes in those tough times tough decisions need to be made, these people have responsibilities to their shareholders and employees that they need to fulfill. This isnt UNICEF, they dont make these games for you.

Ah diddums. Well you're damn right they don't make the games for me because I won't play them. I was pumped for SH 5 and I was going to buy Assassins Creed 2 as well, but now I will buy neither. I won't pirate the games, but I will not give Ubi a penny when pirates can play them more worry free than paying customers. Having to connect to the net at all times and having to rely on their servers being up is not an acceptable form of DRM. If offers nothing for paying customers other than trouble, and makes using a product that they paid for reliant on an external authority.

Now, how does it help their bottom line if many other people think like me? It's quite clear that a lot do.

03-09-10, 02:05 PM

Im not saying this to be difficult, but i've never heard of any of the games you mentioned. I think i heard of galactic civilizations once, but thats just because i run in paradox interactive circles and that games is brought up as a continuation of the series often.

Also, console chipping is a pain in the ass, i've tried reflashing my xbox 360 and it failed miserably (before you say anything, this is before i developed my current stance on software piracy. You know, hearing facts and input and changing your mind? Anyone???) PC piracy can all be done with stock equipment and software.

Iron Budokan · 03-09-10, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galanti

Is that you, Trenken?

Schunken · 03-09-10, 02:12 PM

Matt, you read my post?

Two simple sentences from Ubisoft:

"We apologize to our costumers for the problems with the game and the DRM. In the future we will do our best that this will not happen again!"

This simple public statement in the UBI SH5 Forum and I would be pleased at least.

This has nothing to do with shareholder value and nothing to do with earn money...

Its a simple rule: When you make a mistake than apologize.... very easy to do, isnt?

Andreas

tater · 03-09-10, 02:13 PM

Once again, a brand new poster supports Ubi.

I've read some decent defenses written by "old hand" members, but virtually all those posts that are sycophantic are written by new accounts. It may not be true, but it certainly makes it look as if Ubi is sending people to the forums to defend them.

While some of the OP's points are OK, the unreserved praise for OSP is absurd. Absurd. Particularly given the fact that we know it defeated pirates for all of 25 hours. Yes, Ubi claims that the game doesn't work right, but who knows if that is true or not—they have a vested interest in making people think that is the case, regardless of the veracity of the claim. If they want to demonstrate how their claim is true, they are welcome to post—and be very specific about what is missing. Short of that, I simply don't believe them one way or another.

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 %.

OP also completely neglects the idea of adding value via an online connection as an option.

OSP is all downside for the user, there are no upsides.

meanstreak · 03-09-10, 02:16 PM

Ok, I'm a plain and simple man, I have very little understanding of the way these pirates work or the technical jiggery-pokery that software companies employ to combat them.
I have no problems with having this so called intrusive, anti-theft system bundled with my legitimate purchase so long as it and is implemented painlessly and doesn't cause me headaches and frustration .
Now it seems that in this respect it has failed.

All I know that I, along with every other paying customer are the ones getting bitten rather than the thieves it was intended to combat.. How is that fair?
No compassion from me I'm afraid.

03-09-10, 01:45 PM	#18
SteamWake Rear Admiral Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13,224 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	I found the juxtaposition of this thread immediatly below the UBI server issue thread amusing. __________________ Follow the progress of Mr. Mulligan : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=147648

03-09-10, 02:16 PM	#30
meanstreak Swabbie Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 9 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	How I see it Ok, I'm a plain and simple man, I have very little understanding of the way these pirates work or the technical jiggery-pokery that software companies employ to combat them. I have no problems with having this so called intrusive, anti-theft system bundled with my legitimate purchase so long as it and is implemented painlessly and doesn't cause me headaches and frustration . Now it seems that in this respect it has failed. All I know that I, along with every other paying customer are the ones getting bitten rather than the thieves it was intended to combat.. How is that fair? No compassion from me I'm afraid.

03-09-10, 01:49 PM	#19
MattDizzle Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	Do you guys just whine and make smartalec comments? How about some empathy? How about some compassion and understanding in tough times? Sometimes in those tough times tough decisions need to be made, these people have responsibilities to their shareholders and employees that they need to fulfill. This isnt UNICEF, they dont make these games to please you. Oh yea, and they warned us in advance, and printed it in big black and white letters on the front of the box, and made a commitment to support this game years into the future (another benefit of episodic releases) Do you people have any constructive suggestions? Or just complaints about whatever is in front of you.

03-09-10, 01:51 PM	#20
Irichanu Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 13 Downloads: 4 Uploads: 0	If they have piracy problems even with the new DRM, doesn't that just show that they are doing something wrong? There probably is no good way to counter piracy, but you can increase your profit in other ways. Bugging your paying customers isn't very useful, I can tell you that.

03-09-10, 01:55 PM	#22
TDK1044 Ocean Warrior Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 2,674 Downloads: 25 Uploads: 0	I disagree with the OP on so many levels that it's not worth pursuing. Let's just say that I'm not surprised that he works for an insurance company.

03-09-10, 02:05 PM	#26
MattDizzle Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	Im not saying this to be difficult, but i've never heard of any of the games you mentioned. I think i heard of galactic civilizations once, but thats just because i run in paradox interactive circles and that games is brought up as a continuation of the series often. Also, console chipping is a pain in the ass, i've tried reflashing my xbox 360 and it failed miserably (before you say anything, this is before i developed my current stance on software piracy. You know, hearing facts and input and changing your mind? Anyone???) PC piracy can all be done with stock equipment and software.

03-09-10, 02:12 PM	#28
Schunken Medic Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 168 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	Matt, you read my post? Two simple sentences from Ubisoft: "We apologize to our costumers for the problems with the game and the DRM. In the future we will do our best that this will not happen again!" This simple public statement in the UBI SH5 Forum and I would be pleased at least. This has nothing to do with shareholder value and nothing to do with earn money... Its a simple rule: When you make a mistake than apologize.... very easy to do, isnt? Andreas

03-09-10, 02:13 PM	#29
tater Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Mexico, USA Posts: 9,023 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 2	Once again, a brand new poster supports Ubi. I've read some decent defenses written by "old hand" members, but virtually all those posts that are sycophantic are written by new accounts. It may not be true, but it certainly makes it look as if Ubi is sending people to the forums to defend them. While some of the OP's points are OK, the unreserved praise for OSP is absurd. Absurd. Particularly given the fact that we know it defeated pirates for all of 25 hours. Yes, Ubi claims that the game doesn't work right, but who knows if that is true or not—they have a vested interest in making people think that is the case, regardless of the veracity of the claim. If they want to demonstrate how their claim is true, they are welcome to post—and be very specific about what is missing. Short of that, I simply don't believe them one way or another. 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 %. OP also completely neglects the idea of adding value via an online connection as an option. OSP is all downside for the user, there are no upsides.