Last week, I posted about some of my dislike for DRM. Just when I think things can't get any worse, this happens.
So what happened? Basically, one of the buyers of Bioshock installed it on his PC. This guy has several users on the same PC and so, in accordance with PC best practice, he installed it as an admin. The problem arose when another user on the same PC tried to run the game. At this point, the game asked for the serial number again. Before proceeding, the guy went back to the forums and asked if this would count as 2 of his 5 activations.
Just in case that last statement wasn't clear, 2K games has put an install limit of 5 on this game (actually, it was 2 but the outcry on the forums was so bad that they upped it to 5). What this means is that you can install the game 5 times - if you want to install more, you have to properly uninstall once and get a reinstallation key.
So in summary, the question was whether 2 guys using the same PC, but under a different profile, would count as having installed the game twice. Reasonable question.
This was the answer from 2K Tech JT:
The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased the game. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?
So in other words, if you want your entire family of say 5 people to play the game, you should buy 5 copies. Even if they are all using the same PC. This is so fucked up it defies belief (and if you can't understand why, please jump in front of a bus so that we can remove you from the gene pool).
2K have since said that he wasn't actually an employee of 2K - he was just a tech guy they outsourced technical support to. Furthermore, the guy has been suspended pending the results of an investigation (I have no idea what they are investigating - this is just what they said).
First off, if 2K Tech JT honestly believes in his above statement, then he fully deserves to be fired and publicly pilloried.
However, another point to consider is whether 2K Tech JT was simply toeing the company line. Although his comment was indelicate (and stupid), it seems to be a fair summary of the way that 2K are implementing DRM for Bioshock. Importantly, I note that although 2K are distancing themselves from 2K Tech JT, no one has actually said that the above situation does not count as 2 installs (although admittedly, the thread is soooo long that I might just have missed it).
Indelicate as his statements may have been, has 2K Tech JT nailed down in a nutshell the view taken by 2K based on how they are actually implementing DRM? Is 2K Tech JT being made a scapegoat?
Possibly. Either way, unless 2K do something drastic and soon, they are going to be joining Starforce on my boycott list.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Sunday, September 2, 2007
DRM is BAD
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is bad. Very bad.
For those of you who don't know, DRM is basically copy protection. DRM is used in a lot of applications, but as this is a gaming blog, I'm only going to talk about DRM in a game context. More specifically, in the context of Bioshock.
Bioshock came out for the PC and X360 recently. Based on the reviews, this is one hell of a kickass game! And I feel very comfortable saying that as I have also played the demo on the X360. In fact, after playing the demo, I had resolved to buy the game!
And then this happened. It turns out that Bioshock uses SecuRom copy protection which means that you only get to install the game twice (you can install more if you uninstall properly thereby getting an installation key - however, lots of users reported problems uninstalling the game properly). SecuRom also has other problems (eg other users have reported that they had to remove all virtual drives on their machine before allowing them to install the game). And this really really annoys me.
You see, I am hugely against DRM in games. In my opinion, having DRM in games is worthless. No matter how good your DRM is, within a couple of weeks, a pirated version of the game usually becomes available. In other words, people who don't intend to buy the original can very easily get a pirate copy.
It seems that the biggest argument in favour of DRM is piracy and the resulting lost sales revenue. However, in my opinion, this is a hugely overstated loss. In most cases, people who download pirate copies of the game probably would never have bought your game in the first place. In other words, you really aren't losing out that much. Having said that, I am also a realist and I know that most games will have some form of copy protection. So in most cases, I ignore the copy protection and get on with life.
However, I draw the line when people who do buy the original get screwed up the ass (as beautifully illustrated in the link above). If you are going to implement copy protection in your game, at least make it unobtrusive and ensure it doesn't contain any malware. Bioshock was unable to do this.
I doubt any of the developers of Bioshock or anyone at 2K Games is reading this. However, if there are, I just want you to know that I will not be buying Bioshock even though it wouldn't have effected me on the X360.
It is your prerogative to screw your customers. It is my prerogative to not become your customer.
For those of you who don't know, DRM is basically copy protection. DRM is used in a lot of applications, but as this is a gaming blog, I'm only going to talk about DRM in a game context. More specifically, in the context of Bioshock.
Bioshock came out for the PC and X360 recently. Based on the reviews, this is one hell of a kickass game! And I feel very comfortable saying that as I have also played the demo on the X360. In fact, after playing the demo, I had resolved to buy the game!
And then this happened. It turns out that Bioshock uses SecuRom copy protection which means that you only get to install the game twice (you can install more if you uninstall properly thereby getting an installation key - however, lots of users reported problems uninstalling the game properly). SecuRom also has other problems (eg other users have reported that they had to remove all virtual drives on their machine before allowing them to install the game). And this really really annoys me.
You see, I am hugely against DRM in games. In my opinion, having DRM in games is worthless. No matter how good your DRM is, within a couple of weeks, a pirated version of the game usually becomes available. In other words, people who don't intend to buy the original can very easily get a pirate copy.
It seems that the biggest argument in favour of DRM is piracy and the resulting lost sales revenue. However, in my opinion, this is a hugely overstated loss. In most cases, people who download pirate copies of the game probably would never have bought your game in the first place. In other words, you really aren't losing out that much. Having said that, I am also a realist and I know that most games will have some form of copy protection. So in most cases, I ignore the copy protection and get on with life.
However, I draw the line when people who do buy the original get screwed up the ass (as beautifully illustrated in the link above). If you are going to implement copy protection in your game, at least make it unobtrusive and ensure it doesn't contain any malware. Bioshock was unable to do this.
I doubt any of the developers of Bioshock or anyone at 2K Games is reading this. However, if there are, I just want you to know that I will not be buying Bioshock even though it wouldn't have effected me on the X360.
It is your prerogative to screw your customers. It is my prerogative to not become your customer.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Mass Effect
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Mass Effect was one of the games that I was looking forward to. Mass Effect is the next RPG from Bioware - one of the premier developers of western style RPGs and my favourite RPG developer by far (I've played all of their RPGs except Neverwinter Nights).
After having played Blue Dragon, which I blogged about last week, I am especially looking forward to Mass Effect. Although Blue Dragon was good, the problem with JRPGs in general is that you don't really feel like you are the protagonist. In JRPGs, the protagonist is always a well developed character (assuming the developers did a good job!) and has his own personality etc. You go through the game and the only thing which you really control is how he levels up.
However, in WRPGs, the character and quests are generally designed to be a bit more open ended. This means that the protagonist in most cases, acts the way that you as the player want him to - you get to decide what you want to do and how you want to repond in different situations. Not only does this give you more replayability, but for me, it also increases the empathy I feel with the main character. Considering how long an RPG can last, this is quite an important "feature".
This is the reason that I tend to prefer WRPGs although I do still enjoy playing JRPGs for the storys which are generally quite good.
Anyway, as I said, Mass Effect is the next RPG from Bioware and I can't wait to get my hands on this. Historically, I have played each of their RPGs at least 2-3 times so I have a lot of expectations for this one. Just to share my enthusiasm, I have provided below some recent trailers and clips from the game. If you are interested, check out the games website here. I'm also not the only one looking forward to this game as it was recently awarded Best Console Game and Best RPG of E3 2007 by game critics!
The first trailer you see below is an in-game trailer shown at the recent E3. It primarily shows some of the combat mechanics and some of the back story to the game.
The next clip below shows an in-game conversation between Shepard (the protagonist) and Liara, one of his crew. As you can see, it looks like the schmuck is trying to chat up Liara (go Kirk!). The conversation mechanic in this game looks awesome and I really can't wait to check it out when the game comes up.
After having played Blue Dragon, which I blogged about last week, I am especially looking forward to Mass Effect. Although Blue Dragon was good, the problem with JRPGs in general is that you don't really feel like you are the protagonist. In JRPGs, the protagonist is always a well developed character (assuming the developers did a good job!) and has his own personality etc. You go through the game and the only thing which you really control is how he levels up.
However, in WRPGs, the character and quests are generally designed to be a bit more open ended. This means that the protagonist in most cases, acts the way that you as the player want him to - you get to decide what you want to do and how you want to repond in different situations. Not only does this give you more replayability, but for me, it also increases the empathy I feel with the main character. Considering how long an RPG can last, this is quite an important "feature".
This is the reason that I tend to prefer WRPGs although I do still enjoy playing JRPGs for the storys which are generally quite good.
Anyway, as I said, Mass Effect is the next RPG from Bioware and I can't wait to get my hands on this. Historically, I have played each of their RPGs at least 2-3 times so I have a lot of expectations for this one. Just to share my enthusiasm, I have provided below some recent trailers and clips from the game. If you are interested, check out the games website here. I'm also not the only one looking forward to this game as it was recently awarded Best Console Game and Best RPG of E3 2007 by game critics!
The first trailer you see below is an in-game trailer shown at the recent E3. It primarily shows some of the combat mechanics and some of the back story to the game.
The next clip below shows an in-game conversation between Shepard (the protagonist) and Liara, one of his crew. As you can see, it looks like the schmuck is trying to chat up Liara (go Kirk!). The conversation mechanic in this game looks awesome and I really can't wait to check it out when the game comes up.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Blue Dragon - completed
Well, I finally completed Blue Dragon. After over a month of play, 70+ hours of sitting on my couch, I have finally completed Blue Dragon.
My final impressions of the game are definitely positive. It has a good storyline with an interesting twist at the end which I wasn't really expecting. Having said that, the twist wasn't completely unexpected as it does answer a few questions about one of the characters I had but which I initially dismissed as being bad writing on the programmers. Basically, I had noticed a few "discrepancies" in the story and wrote them off as discrepancies without giving the writers their proper due. Not the first time its happened which I guess is indicative of my opinion of writers for games!
The highlights of this game for me were definitely the story (I've always been a sucker for a good story - or even an average one!!) and the combat. More specifically, the fact that the combat doesn't have random battles. I mentioned this in my first post and I can tell you, when you near the end of a 70+ hour game, sometimes you just wanna get through the rest of the story without being distracted by plebby monsters who die with 1 hit!
I haven't got all the achievements for this game yet so I will be continuing to play. However, once I get all the achievements, I can see me putting this game on the shelf. The problem with Japanese style RPGs is that, although you get a good story and some good cinematics, the style of the game doesn't really lend itself to replay. If I play through the game again, I know exactly how the storyline and how the side quests will play out.
Still, it was a good game while it lasted. And considering I've already gotten over 70 hours of gameplay from it (which will rise as I go for the last set of achievements), it was value for money.
My final impressions of the game are definitely positive. It has a good storyline with an interesting twist at the end which I wasn't really expecting. Having said that, the twist wasn't completely unexpected as it does answer a few questions about one of the characters I had but which I initially dismissed as being bad writing on the programmers. Basically, I had noticed a few "discrepancies" in the story and wrote them off as discrepancies without giving the writers their proper due. Not the first time its happened which I guess is indicative of my opinion of writers for games!
The highlights of this game for me were definitely the story (I've always been a sucker for a good story - or even an average one!!) and the combat. More specifically, the fact that the combat doesn't have random battles. I mentioned this in my first post and I can tell you, when you near the end of a 70+ hour game, sometimes you just wanna get through the rest of the story without being distracted by plebby monsters who die with 1 hit!
I haven't got all the achievements for this game yet so I will be continuing to play. However, once I get all the achievements, I can see me putting this game on the shelf. The problem with Japanese style RPGs is that, although you get a good story and some good cinematics, the style of the game doesn't really lend itself to replay. If I play through the game again, I know exactly how the storyline and how the side quests will play out.
Still, it was a good game while it lasted. And considering I've already gotten over 70 hours of gameplay from it (which will rise as I go for the last set of achievements), it was value for money.
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