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EA Loosens Spore, Mass Effect DRM
An anonymous reader writes "In response to recent criticism, EA has decided to eliminate the periodic validation of Mass Effect and Spore. 'Specifically, EA's plan to dial in to game owner's computers every ten days to check whether they were running a legitimate version of their software has been scrapped, ShackNews reports. EA had planned to use the validation method for upcoming titles Mass Effect and Spore. EA now says that validation will now only occur when a user attempts to download new content for either game. Chief among the voices in opposition to this measure were members of the armed forces, who pointed out that they could not rely on having an internet connection every ten days.'"
of common sense?
Do not downmod posts "overrated" simply because you disagree with them.
> EA had planned to use the validation method for upcoming titles Mass Effect and Spore (pictured).
Those games look a lot like a joystick.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
The original story on this garnered attention from quite a large crowd (even just in the scope of Slashdot). It would have been foolish on their part to plug ahead when, as was pointed out by a poster on the original thread, their customer service was already trained with what to tell people who didn't like the model: 'complain so that we don't make the same mistake with our next game release.'
I was worried I'd have to actually buy Spore.
1939/45... Troops freeze through the Battle of the Bulge, across Russia.
2008... Access to certain videogames sometimes limited in certain situations for a few days until net access can be resecured.
I know "Won't anybody think of the troops!" is second only to "Won't anybody think of the children!" and can thus never be questioned unless you're a terrorist as well as a paedophile.. but there comes a point where the rallying cry is used for such ludicrously trivial things that it just devalues everyone involved.
I'm glad you can think so selfishly. My brother happens to be over in Iraq now, and doesn't have a reliable internet connection and his job is to sit in a tent in the desert supervising Iraqi soldiers once every other day... It's not that they don't need to relax (after all, spending months away from home in a war torn zone isn't that bad), but rather some of them would maybe prefer to play video games every once in a while as opposed to jerking off with their buddies? I know my brother is annoyed with not playing his Steam games, and I'm sure that group of military folks complaining about not having an internet connection have a completely valid complaint. And yes, there's nothing to be concerned about when you have legit software, but it's annoying when you can't use the software so that the company making it can squeeze more money out of their software.
EA now says that validation will now only occur when a user attempts to download new content for either game. Spore is built on downloadable content. Throughout the game, the creatures you encounter, the worlds you visit, the buildings you see--they are all player-created objects and will all be downloaded in the background while the game is running. Spore is a game that only works well with downloadable content, and if I have to enter a validation code every time the game decides to download a creature or a planet, I'm not sure the promising gameplay will be worth the hassle.
DRM has no right to exist, and anyone who implements it should be severely punished. DRM should be resisted by any and all means necessary. We deserve a DRM free future, but we will have to fight for it. Do everything you can to end DRM today.
There probably isn't a lot of love for EA around here (or many parts of the internet in general) but you do have to admit that they responded fairly well to the situation. From what I've read the approach that they're planning to take now is actually pretty good, if not better than what most of us are probably used to dealing with. The fact that I don't need to have the CD in the drive while playing the game is a nice touch, especially for anyone who likes to switch between games frequently.
The only thing that you could really complain about is the necessity of an internet connection to validate on install. The only other time it bothers to validate is if you're downloading an update or using some other online feature which means you're already connected to the internet.
As someone who was a little put off by the overly encumbering DRM that was originally planned to be included, I'd like to tip my hat to EA for listening to their customers and making a wise decision.
You don't like their policies or practices then don't fucking buy it. Thats the loudest thing you can say.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I think that the real reason is because military personnel are non-trivial consumers of entertainment products. When you have a bunch of young people, with a good deal of free money on their hands (if you are deployed in a combat zone you get more pay, and generally have few expenses since everything is handled), and a situation that sucks, well that's a good target for entertainment goods. I know when one of my ex roommates graduated and was getting ready to go off he got a nice laptop and plenty of games and movies. The guys who do Red vs Blue said Iraq was one of the top countries ordering their DVDs. Wasn't Iraqis ordering, it was troops.
Thus it would be dumb for EA to shut out a large market. Especially since both of these games have strong single player components, and thus are of interest when you aren't going to have net access.
It isn't being used as a rallying cry, it is that the soldiers were honestly concerned they wouldn't be able to get their game on.
Okay so I get your point. Having been deployed myself it's really wonderful to play video games. For me it relived tension and helped combat depression. So I ask this, why shouldn't I play video games, or have that ability be hindered? Is that a comfort that the military shouldn't have? So when I raised my arm and got sworn in I stopped being a human being? No I don't think so, thanks for thinking that way.
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."-Albert Einstein
Armed pirates are always more effective
So it could be said that our military is not only protecting us from terrorists and imaginary weapons of mass destruction, but from evil corporations as well now?
*salute*
In a drunk fit last night I actually sent a rant to them about it, I don't remember what I said exactly but I pointed out that DRM has actually driven me to download games instead of pay for them and if I couldn't expect to defeat the copy protection bullshit then I just wouldn't play the game.
Nothing no one's thought or said before, but I'm sure if enough gaming curmudgeons drank enough smirnoff ice at the same time while listening to EBM then there would surely be a rival to the mass mailing botnets that don't actually have anything useful to tell anyone.
It's freaking hot in here and Qwerty pisses me off. I'm going to drink some vinegar and go to bed.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
A wise decision would be to forgo the DRM altogether, and apply the savings to reducing the retail price of the games. I guarantee that will have a far greater effect on sales than any DRM scheme ever would.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
No, more like reacting to bad publicity. Sort of like what our elected officials do. Float a trial balloon and then act according to the poll results.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
One time I suffered from loose spore. There was a mass effect then too. Not a pretty sight.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I too hesitate to buy such games even though I have constant internet access.
The reason:
Steam always messes up, tells me I don't have Counterstrike and I have to reboot to get it to work.
If something as seemingly well designed as Steam doesn't work very well I suspect EAs version will be a nightmare.
Its hard enough for EA to make anything right in my experience and I would be very cautious even if Blizzard did this.
Also it sets a dreadful precedent for games requiring internet.
And finally it wont stop the pirates, probably not even a little bit.
Its worthless in the first place, annoying in the second, broken in the third, and fourthly and lastly its evil.
I'm glad they dropped the 10-day-phone-home, but really, this DRM is still bad. It sounds like the same system BioShock used, and that was bad. In fact, it's even worse because you only get 3 computers instead of 5.
It's a 3 computer install limit based on a hardware profile of your computer. If you install a new video card you need to reactivate the game using up your 2nd slot unless you remembered to uninstall the game first, or use the revocation tool if they even have one.
We don't want this hassle.
Yeah, Spore looks to be one of the bloodiest games of the season!
One of the things about being god awful bad at something is you can improve a lot and still stink.
The DRM still only allows three total installs for the lifetime of the game (although you can call EA tech support and ask for more, no guarantee though). I have many games that have existed on more than three of my personal computers. Just glancing at my shelf I see 1830, Star Fleet Command, Transport Tycoon, Starcraft, Rome Total War and the list goes on. I don't want to have to beg tech support every time I upgrade my game machine, many of these companies don't even exist anymore.
The fact of the matter is that DRM that limits the total number of times you can install the game is unacceptable. They may have fixed other problems with the DRM, but this issue remains.
WTF are US troops playing video games on? Laptops?
Pay a few $ at an Iraqi internet cafe?
Also, what kind of minimal system requirement do these new EA games need to run and can military issue hardware cope with it all? Are they running XP or Vista or their own custom OS?
The reason for why EA is doing this as reported seems to be a con. Just doesn't make sense Chief among the voices in opposition to this measure were members of the armed forces ???
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Who in the DOD with a few stars on his shoulder called up EA and said
"I like this game very much and I'd really hate it if a B-52 was to accidently drop "training ordnance" whilst over your HQ because I was angsting over a save lost because the game failed to contact the mothership after some terrorists took out a sat-dish."
The fact that because of outside pressure EA has changed their mind about constantly invading users' computers means nothing. You can count on a company that has this mindset to do whatever it thinks it can get away with to maximize its profits. Considerations like common decency or respect for the customer just aren't part of its world view.
I'm not advocating a boycott or anything, but I would strongly suggest that a common sense approach to any dealings you have with EA is to treat them as you would a poisonous insect: flashy and attractive, but if you're going to play with it, keep a good grip on the tweezers.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Actually, you know, that's probably exactly how the execs over at EA think.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
I think Spore is intended to download new content more often than every 10 days. I think one of the ideas behind the game is that you can encounter other people's creations all over the joint without having to go out of your way to download them. Which means EA will be snooping around in your computer more like a few days a day.
Now can there be some way to get the armed forces to deal with some of EA's slave-labor policies?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I don't know what the GP does for a living, but I'm active duty Navy in the submarine force. We go underwater in a nice enclosed space for months at a time, away and largely out of contact with our families (I'm married), something you might consider a bit on the arduous side compared to most civilian employment.
I also know a lot of people from other service branches, from various backgrounds with varying perspectives on the war. Of course most of those soliders would "rather be home with their families" as opposed to dealing with a hostile combat environment every day. That said, those same soldiers are proud to be serving their nation (the "government" you speak of in your post), and have a job where they voluntarily agreed to accept and execute whatever orders are deemed necessary by those in command. That includes the Commander in Chief.
Just some perspective from a Sailor.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
most do not want to be there, but they are doing their job
That's what Eichmann said, too.
I was in the top 5% of my graduating class, and was a professional software developer for several years before joining the Navy. Kinda messes up your worldview, huh? You're an idiot.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
"Obeying orders" is never a valid excuse for doing something unethical or illegal. It doesn't relieve the wrongdoer of responsibility.
I'm not the OP and FWIW: I'm a mathematician and I worked in my last two years for a company that produces prostheses. My work for the next couple of years will be used to predict eruptions and reduce their threat. Also, this has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the message."I'm never quite so stupid as when I'm being smart" (Linus van Pelt)
From the same Wikipedia page:
Eichmann actively disobeyed direct orders, and kept hunting Jews after he was explicitly ordered to stop. He kept rounding them up and sending them to some camps which were being dismantled or didn't exist any more, and generally didn't want the fruit of his work any more.
Refusing to show up when called to his division to go to the front, actually makes him a deserter too.
He pretended to have an official job that he didn't actually have any more, and commandeered troops and resources that just weren't his any more. Just because he wanted to hunt more Jews. And obviously he wasn't too afraid of the consequences for _that_.
He was _appalled_ at the decision to stop exterminating Jews.
So let's put to rest the idea that he was just following orders, like everyone else. That guy didn't just continue his work when no longer asked to, he actually continued it _againt_ direct orders to stop. He also had no trouble deserting when he no longer liked the orders he was given. So, you know, why didn't he do it before, then?
There's a _world_ of difference between (A) doing what you're ordered and coaxed, like in Milgram's experiment, or out of fear of a court-martial, like many soldiers do, and (B) what Adolf Eichmann did. Past a point, he actually acted against the orders and laws, and was no more than a common (mass) murderer.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. Cooked it is really quite similar to a very lean cut of beef, but raw and with just a dash of soy sauce it is really, really good.
Please don't all go PETA (OMG think of the ponies!) at once. They're dumber than pigs and pigs are delicious, too.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
What's a mule got to do with anything?
Those EA executives out there. I have a good question.
What if I want to play Spore in say 10 years time ? (I do like to play old games) Can I be 100% sure that I can activate it then. EA is not exactly known for supporting there games for a long time.
I have looked forward to Spore for a long time but the DRM scheme was a deal breaker for me. Now, it's game on again!
Hurricane Island Outward Bound
OB
1. Search for 'problems' which are to be addressed
2. Announce drastic counter-measures which won't help these problems much
3. Wait for publicity backlash
4. Calm the crowd by saying the measures you're about to take won't be that bad
5. ???
6. PROFIT!
If it works for getting laws passed, it will also work for PR.
...."Have you mooed today?"...
I am an active duty Marine and there is a decent chance I'll be in Afghanistan and without a internet connection when this comes out. I was going to have it mailed out to me but if it requires a internet connection for installation, well, then you can forget about periodic checks, I can't even install the thing.
Complaining about Windows's stability is like complaining that Linux is hard to install and has poor hardware support. Get with the times.
Doesn't matter to me, I've already started my boycott of their products.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
There are rules allowing US military folks (as well as those in most other western armies) to refuse to obey an illegal order. They may be court-martialled, but if they were right to disobey the order, they will not be punished.
If someone in the Nazi regime didn't follow an order to kill an unarmed civilian in a train, they were themselves shot.
This "loosening" is just to make people accept, even praised, "online activation/harware tying", which is in my mind the worst kind of DRM for purchased content (though it is a perfect fit for renting).
By accepting this DRM, you agree to have you ability to play a single player offline game controlled by an online server. There is no such thing as a one time only activation, as each time the system detect your computer has changed (which can be triggered by simply using a different windows account with crappy DRM), it will ask for activation again, eating your previous activation credit.
Nothing guarantee the auth server will be there when you want to play. Even if it is there, nothing guarantee it will give you the right to play because of some "normal usage" rules implemented on it (and which can change over time). And don't expect too much competence and generosity from a consumer service, especially a few months after launch.
The software, music and video industries are full of horror histories about activation servers going down or being simply dumb and rigid.
I used to feel the same way: Orwellian bullshit.
I know a dev who made a PC only title last year, who also thought tech like this was intrusive and heavy-handed; they did not use it.
They were cracked 6 days before release, and have held a top 3 spot (number of dlers/seeds) on bit torrent sites for games across all platforms for the past 6 months.
Epic has also said a week or so ago that within weeks of UT3 launching, there were 40 million attempts to connect online to play with pirated keys. (I'm sure they weren't all unique)
PC piracy is a serious issue. People say WoW shows us that you can make a buck and piracy is not an out to blame for your low sales, but let's all be honest, WoW is completely Orwellian, you play it online so they get away with server checks of course, but people have complained about their EULA before, it checks everything on your PC, has the right to delve into any file, any process, etc. People ignore this because they like WoW, and they don't want people cheating to ruin the experience.
So many gamers throw their arms up at these oncoming security measures, but they are only necessary because so many gamers pirate PC games. At FMX last week, I heard a guy from MS at the 'Game Maker's Round Table' say that the Gears and Halo 2 PC versions did not even make back the money they cost to port. This is an interesting paradox that I think no one really comments on. Gamers need to understand that because of piracy, unless a game can connect to a server and make sure you paid for it (like WoW), PC games are not going to exist much longer. Except for quick ports of console titles, and maybe Peggle.
The 10-day thing is required. Here's where it comes from.
BioShock released with an earlier version of this system; SecuROM with Product Activation. After outcry from people then, publisher 2K Games promised a "deactivation" tool (which isn't enough for me to rent their game, but I guess it was enough for some). The problem with this tool goes a little something like this:
Step 1: Install BioShock
Step 2: Activate BioShock. SecuROM server now thinks you have "n-1" activations left. Your game is activated, and BioShock will never phone home again.
Step 3: Ghost/clone your hard drive image.
Step 4: Deactivate BioShock. SecuROM server goes back up to "n" activations left. Your game is deactivated.
Step 5: Restore your harddrive from the image you created in step 3. Now your game is activated again, but the server doesn't know that, and still thinks you have "n" activations left.
This is obviously a bit of an onerous process to go through, but it isn't hard to imagine someone automating this process (or even just automating the important part; finding where the activation is stored on your drive, backing it up, and then restoring it after the deactivation process is finished updating the server).
I strongly suspect the "phone home every 10 days" was an attempt to "fix" this. If 30 different machines are all phoning home every few days with the same key, then you know people are using this (or a similar technique) to pirate the game, so you can ban the key and kill all those installs. Without the phone home part, this activation scheme is essentially worthless.
The CORRECT fix, of course, is to get rid of product activation, because it's stupid, invasive, and is pushing your formerly paying customers into circumventing your copy protection.
The game still has product activation. You're still only allowed to install it only three times, ever. Not interested.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear this news.
I read the forums on several sites and had to agree with most of the arguments. It was a bad idea right from the beginning and the customer base spoke up. And the publisher, surprisingly, responded in a positive manner. A collective sigh of relief was heard around the world.
Now that everyone claimed that they would speak with their wallets and not buy the game if the DRM was put in place, I think its only fair that those same people actually do what they inferred by those statements and PAY for the games.
You know what I am saying. Even you folks that were going to pirate it anyways should pony up and reward this company for actually basing decisions on customer comment.
Hell, you might even get your moneys worth.
Because of course there's never a need for a military!
If we all just loved one another there would be no fighting, and there would be puppies and rainbows and unicorns everywhere, and everybody would have their own moon pony!
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
A few years ago I bought two EA games that refused to play on any of my 6 PCs. Because I had bought them for my kids as Xmas presents more than 30 days prior to attempting to return them, the store refused to give ma refund. In New Zealand, these were over $100 each. Not trivial. (One was "Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup"). The EA web site simply told me to buy another CD drive. Hell, I only had 6 that didn't work with their game. I have not bought an EA game since. No point wasting money on games you can't play from a vendor that doesn't care.
Only boring people are ever bored.
Vietnam? didn't need to be done. This shit in the middle east? Definitely didn't need to be done like this, if at all. It's called responsibility. It's called a conscience.
I've discussed this situation at length with my father and he agrees with my assertion that we could not and would not be acting in an illegal war without all the poor dumb kids who signed up because they felt like they were trapped and had no other option. He wishes that he had never signed up - and he never even had to see combat.
My Niece is the child of an alcoholic, who is the child of my father. Like me, she lives (lived?) in a town where unemployment is over 15%.
The US Military is never interested in just "doing good". We knew what Hitler was up to for years and did nothing; now our president is the grandson of the money behind the SS.
The simple truth is that we are not involved in this war for justice, but only so that certain people can make money - and this conflict is hardly unique in this regard.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why did I get modded down for that? GP was score 1 when I said that.
This is not a signature.