Are mods in MP a public statement?

[Sgtmonkeynads]

A word to UBIsoft...while looking at my files...if you see a 120GB file named "Porn" don't open it please.

[Heretic]

I'm an IT guy (god I hate when people say that in forums) so when I see things like this my first thought is "how in hell would you even do that if you wanted to?"

It has been announced that your save game would be uploaded to their server. And since it has auto-patching , there is presumedly some method of telling if your game is up to date. That's it as far as I have heard.

Why would anyone think that means that they have the ability to detect what mods you're using? AT BEST, they might be able to detect your install doesn't match stock. Probably not even that, given they're likely not checking data files. Being able to tell you changed your graphics to include swastikas, nekkid ladies, or kittie pr0n is just fantasy.

[Heretic]

IT Department UBI Headquarters 3:45pm

Ted: Hey Bob, we're going to need a big boost in the server budget for SHV.

Bob: Really? Why is that Ted?

Ted: We need to upload all their mods.

Bob: Um... their.. what?

Ted: Yeah. Alot of these guys use mods. We need to upload them to our servers.

Bob: Um... why exactly would we want to do that?

Ted: No idea, Bob.

Bob: No idea?

Ted: Oh wait! I remember! So the government can take a look at them.

Bob: The government... Wait, whose goverment?

Ted: Oh, any government that calls up and asks for a looksie, I guess.

Bob: These files, we're just going to upload them to our servers? What if they contain viruses or trojans or all that nasty stuff we are normally quite concered about?

Ted: These are a great group of guys. We can trust them. DRM aside, of course, heh.

Bob: Ted?

Ted: Yes, Bob?

Bob: You're fired.

[razark]

Originally Posted by Webster

but the question of this whole thread is if you save them on UBI's servers "as it is assumed you have to do" for game saves then how does this effect UBI being responsable for the content on its servers?

That's a pretty darn big assumption. Can you point to anything (besides idle speculation) that says that mods will be in any way of form on Ubi servers?

The mods need to be on the user's computer. The game lives there, too. The save games are uploaded to the server. The mods are not the save games. The save games don't hold data on what sounds or graphics mods the user is using. I have yet to see a mod that converts the save game into a string of profanity or death threats.

If you do have evidence that Ubi will have access to our mod files, please show it.

That said, if the mods are, for some unknown reason, stored on Ubi servers, then yes, Ubi has every right to know what is on their servers. That means you need to read the EULA very carefully. If you make a mod with something illegal in it, and it ends up on their server, they are responsible for it being on their server. As it is their server, and their legal responsibility, they have the right to know and remove it.

[Ships-R-Us]

RAZARK, you bring up an excellent point of view.

That said, if the mods are, for some unknown reason, stored on Ubi servers, then yes, Ubi has every right to know what is on their servers. That means you need to read the EULA very carefully. If you make a mod with something illegal in it, and it ends up on their server, they are responsible for it being on their server. As it is their server, and their legal responsibility, they have the right to know and remove it.[/QUOTE]

[JScones]

IF mods need to be stored on an Ubisoft server (which I highly doubt), then it would be no different than when you u/l files anywhere on-line - if the file violates the T&C of the host, then down it goes. Simple.

Originally Posted by razark

That's a pretty darn big assumption. Can you point to anything (besides idle speculation) that says that mods will be in any way of form on Ubi servers?

yes it is purely speculation and i doubt they would risk doing it that way.

The mods need to be on the user's computer. The game lives there, too. The save games are uploaded to the server. The mods are not the save games. The save games don't hold data on what sounds or graphics mods the user is using.

its quite simple, there are two times UBI has to be accessing your computer, one is for reading your games files to diagnose them and the other is to confirm the updates after installing them.


UBI cant know if the game needs to be updated unless it scans and reads the game files on your computer first.


unless you are required to do this yourself or somehow it uninstalls your mods first then it is also going to be reading your modded files as well along with all the changes they make.


so the question is, if UBI uninstalls your mods to update the game it must store them somewhere so they can be reinstalled when its finished but where they get stored is one of the things we are talking about, will it be kept on the server (unlikely) or a temperary file on "your" computer which is what i think will happen.


I have yet to see a mod that converts the save game into a string of profanity or death threats.

i have also not seen a mod for sh5 yet but in sh3 or sh4 any adding or removing of mods will "break" any save games or careers you have so they are impacted by the mods installed in the game.


If you do have evidence that Ubi will have access to our mod files, please show it.

this whole thread is about pure speculation so to demand evidence of some fact behind my speculation and opinion is asking a lot in a thread about peoples opinions.

That said, if the mods are, for some unknown reason, stored on Ubi servers, then yes, Ubi has every right to know what is on their servers. That means you need to read the EULA very carefully. If you make a mod with something illegal in it, and it ends up on their server, they are responsible for it being on their server. As it is their server, and their legal responsibility, they have the right to know and remove it.

i was simply responding to this question you asked

"If my modded files are on my computer, why would they have any say in that?"

and i never presented my comments as absolute fact, you asked me to answer a how it could be and i speculated as to how it might be a problem.

i dont understand the challenge to my opinion but at the end of your reply i see you do understand the point i was making.

my personal opinion on this is UBI will require us to uninstall our mods then click on an update feature to activate it. this way we have the amount of control needed to not lose careers or be blindsided by some sort of auto updating system. to me its the only logical way it "should" be done.

[razark]

Originally Posted by Webster

i was simply responding to this question you asked

"If my modded files are on my computer, why would they have any say in that?"

and i never presented my comments as absolute fact, you asked me to answer a how it could be and i speculated as to how it might be a problem.

i dont understand the challenge to my opinion but at the end of your reply i see you do understand the point i was making.

Sorry, it was not my intention to attack you or challenge you. I was reponding to the fact that the thread is really based off an assumption. No offense meant to you, or anyone specifically. I wasn't demanding that you show evidence, that was more of a generic "you".

Originally Posted by Webster

my personal opinion on this is UBI will require us to uninstall our mods then click on an update feature to activate it. this way we have the amount of control needed to not lose careers or be blindsided by some sort of auto updating system. to me its the only logical way it "should" be done.

There's such a wide possibility of mods that could exist. I think a "Please remove your mods so we can update. Continue, Cancel" type dialog would be needed. Otherwise, they run the risk of damaging files on the user's computer. I don't see their legal department as being too okay with that.

[Brag]

I love the idea of Ubi accessing my computer

Originally Posted by razark

Sorry, it was not my intention to attack you or challenge you. I was reponding to the fact that the thread is really based off an assumption. No offense meant to you, or anyone specifically. I wasn't demanding that you show evidence, that was more of a generic "you".



There's such a wide possibility of mods that could exist. I think a "Please remove your mods so we can update. Continue, Cancel" type dialog would be needed. Otherwise, they run the risk of damaging files on the user's computer. I don't see their legal department as being too okay with that.

you have no reason to apologize and i didnt see it as an kind of attack, personally or otherwise. i merely saw it as a challenge to defend my opinion and since i thought you were asking for an opinion to the question you posed it was strange to be requested to justify my answer.

i read your comment as asking "how could this occur?" and my answer was trying to lay out a scenario in which it might.

[JackAubrey]

Originally Posted by infernos

The government doesn't care about PC games

The german Government does, unfortunately.

We have several youth protection mechanisms in place. For example, you cannot buy a Game which is rated "18" in Store unless you can prove that you're 18 years or older.
18 is the highest Rating for any Media here, because if you're 18 years old, you're legally considered "Adult" and can do whatever adults are allowed to do.

However, the Government talks about censoring Games to some extent. We had several pupils run Amok in their schools in the past and in the government they believe that Shooter Games, where you shoot at stuff that looks like real people, e.g. Counterstrike, Grand Theft Auto and the like, have a big share of the blame.
Thats because these boys had those games on their computers before they decided it would be a great idea to go to school and kill as many people as possible.

Because they killed people and had these games on their computers, many People in the Government think, that if you play those games, you're more likely to become a murderer than if you play, lets say, soccer games.

They even go this far to say that playing Shooters would train you to use a gun "professionally".
Now, everybody who has ever shot a gun in real life knows, that this is bull.

Now, they are every now and then talking about banning Shooting games completely. Even if they are rated "18" and are not legally available to minors, they think that it would be best to even take them away from the adults and ban them, so that the production and possession of those games becomes a punishable act.
More than one politician compared those games to child pornography and suggested that they should be treated alike.

The same is with Swastikas. The Swastika is a banned Symbol in Germany and so, games are not allowed to have them.
Under the premise of this Thread, Mods which have the Swastika would be illegal.

Every time the Media wants to show the bad, bad influence that Computer Games have on our children, they show a Scene of Counterstrike, Grand Theft Auto or a WW2-Game Mod which has a Swastika in it, suppressing the fact that these Games are not available for minors or, in case of the Swastika, the Game was modded and is not originally available with it.

Youth protection is important, but what german politicians make of it is a bad joke.