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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 23, 2010 04:16 AM |
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I guarantee that I will not purchase any Ubisoft games that have this Draconian DRM (DDRM) no matter how good thay may be otherwise.
Do not despair, however, my fellow gamers. EA has tried pulling something like this (though nowhere near as bad as what Ubisoft is trying to do) on its customers in 2008 and 2009. The backlash was huge and those of us who care about some of the games they publish were consistently vocal about it, both on EA's boards and elsewhere on the internet as well as to our real life associates. There were petitions and practically wherever an EA game was talked about on the internet there would be a mention of their DDRM system. We campaigned against it vigorously for some time although for many months it looked like a hopeless endeavor. Eventually, however, EA buckled under the PR pressure and relented from its practices. Its newer titles no longer require online authentication to play and we have happily returned to buying their titles and the campaign against them stopped.
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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 23, 2010 04:32 AM |
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I don't buy any games that require any kind of contact with the publisher/developer/third party to install or play after I have already purchased the game. Hence, while this is the absolute worst form of DRM I have ever heard of being implemented in a game, I don't even buy games requiring online activation upon installation even though I have a decent internet connection.
The reason for this is that I wish to buy games to last and I want them to be workable many years later. I still dust of some 10 or 15 year old game from time to time to play them and many of the companies that made them no longer exist. Had these games relied on some sort of online features or activations to play or even just to install, it would be impossible to play them now.
Even when companies say they will patch out the online activation stuff if they are about to take their activation servers down... not a chance. If a company is going bankrupt and has trouble paying its employees, its last concern is going to be to produce patches for thousands of its older, no longer supported games, just so that gamers can continue to play them after it disappears.
What you believe is up to you, but I don't trust companies not to go bankrupt (and Ubisoft is a prime candidate for bankrupcy considering the likely impact of this decision on its PR) or change their business models and shut down the servers or even just to decide that the game is no longer worth supporting and shut down their servers for that reason. Even giant companies like Microsoft, Walmart and Yahoo have shut down their DRM servers for music.
Indeed, it is ironic that apparently on the same day that Ubisoft announced its new draconian DRM (DDRM) policy, EA has shut down its servers for several games: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/02/17/ea-closing-mercs-2-lotro-conquest-servers/
AND
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/02/17/you-maniacs/
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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 23, 2010 04:34 AM |
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One more thing I forgot to add. I just want to say that the outrage about this is widespread on other sites too, so the HoMM/MM community is by no means alone in this. Ubisoft is in for a real storm of righteous fury, as long as everybody does his or her part!
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Shares
Supreme Hero
I am. Thusly I am.
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posted February 23, 2010 08:04 PM |
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Edited by Shares at 20:51, 23 Feb 2010.
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Quote:
One more thing I forgot to add. I just want to say that the outrage about this is widespread on other sites too, so the HoMM/MM community is by no means alone in this. Ubisoft is in for a real storm of righteous fury, as long as everybody does his or her part!
We were kinda aware of that, but we should try to find lots of other sites that's outraging, as you put it, and try to co-operate.
Any way, I checked SC2, and it'll be possible to play, have save games and work through the campaign offline. How ever, you will not be able to gain acheivements, statistics and other (useless) stuff. The biggest loss being offline would be that you'd miss the community, and not having the same access to custom maps.
Short status: Got back in town, as mentioned though it seems I have much less spare time than expected. However, I've got my photoshop working, and will start making a logo for us after I've taken a shower, and got some food in me!
Ok, made a fast test. So what do you think? I kinda productive today, but not very creative.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted February 24, 2010 08:25 AM |
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Edited by Elvin at 08:58, 24 Feb 2010.
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I think I prefer ceph's signature image  Btw there is also a ubisoft boycott group on facebook with about as many members as us, I wonder how many there are out there.
Thanks for your input Roman_Lajciak 
2k sigs!
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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JollyJoker
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
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posted February 24, 2010 09:06 AM |
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I don't understand the problem. 
I'd never ever buy a SINGLE player gaming software I can play only online. I mean, would you buy a car, that will move only, when the radio is on, playing a specific station?
I'm pretty positive that the sales figures of the first games coming with that nonsense (Assassin's Creed 2, for example), will Ubi teach a hard lesson, and that's that.
I imagine a lot of angry customers, not knowing what they bought, cursing Ubi until doomsday, demanding their money back for a "not working" game.
Anyway, I think that this move is so stupid you can just leave it to evolution to wipe it out.
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veco
Legendary Hero
who am I?
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posted February 24, 2010 09:12 AM |
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Oh, oh, when I get back home I want to make my own UbiBoycott logo
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none of my business.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted February 24, 2010 09:12 AM |
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I look forward to the hilarity
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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ohforfsake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted February 24, 2010 11:33 AM |
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This thread should have been called, "Can you curse that, believe you Ubi" 
Anyway, just a consideration on my part. I am certain if enough people reacts, Ubi will react in the way we please that they won't use the given system. However it does not prevent Ubi from failing in the future. We really should remember, now that we have the chance, to emphasize on what kind of behaviour that we do not want, so Ubi is warned prehand and won't make these mistakes that in the end really is just costing ressources to all of us, the costumers and Ubi alike.
So if some kind of general guide line of where Ubi crossed the limit would be presented, I think that'd be a great help for both needs to be reached (though I personally doubt such a compromise exists and think every middle man will go down eventually, I might be wrong, in which such an opportunity should not be wasted in my opinion).
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Living time backwards
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veco
Legendary Hero
who am I?
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posted February 24, 2010 11:50 AM |
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none of my business.
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Shares
Supreme Hero
I am. Thusly I am.
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posted February 24, 2010 07:33 PM |
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I like Vecos more, and'll use it for the group. I also located the other groups on facebook and I'm trying to merge them or something.
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phoenixreborn
Promising
Legendary Hero
Unicorn
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posted February 25, 2010 12:57 AM |
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Who is that guy with the hat?
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Bask in the light of my glorious shining unicorn.
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veco
Legendary Hero
who am I?
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posted February 25, 2010 10:32 AM |
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Oh, that's Gunnery Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket.
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none of my business.
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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 26, 2010 01:38 AM |
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Ubisoft is fast digging its own grave through its exceptionally stupid decision-making. Investors see it too, given that Ubisoft's stock price has declined from over $70 per share in mi- 2008 to $8.93 today - its lowest price ever. Other gaming stocks have suffered during the recession too, for example, Activision-Blizzard stock has nearly halved in price between mid-2008 and today and an investment in Electronic Arts in mid-2008 would have declined in value by two thirds. An investment in Ubisoft, however, would not have divided the value of your money by two or three, but by nearly eight.
Than again, it is hard to be surprised, if as much thought goes into most of Ubisoft's decisions as went into this one. Let's hope the backlash against this new draconian DRM (DDRM) system is so strong that they re-evaluate their policy quickly and move to disk checks as a DRM method.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted February 26, 2010 01:49 AM |
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Wow this is majorly messed up.. The market can be pretty unforgiving.
Thanks for letting us know.
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Binabik
Responsible
Legendary Hero
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posted February 26, 2010 02:37 AM |
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Roman, you are nothing but a radical ass who talks nonsense about things he has no clue about. You are spouting off meaningless gibberish. Might I suggest that you stop making a fool of yourself?
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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 26, 2010 03:33 AM |
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Quote:
Roman, you are nothing but a radical ass who talks nonsense about things he has no clue about.
Huh? I may be radical in that I hate this new DDRM system and think a campaign against it can work (it has worked with EA - they have relented from their draconian DRM (DDRM) and now it is again possible to happily buy their games ), but I am not a four legged hoofed animal yet! 
Quote:
You are spouting off meaningless gibberish. Might I suggest that you stop making a fool of yourself?
Again, huh? Ubisoft did decline from over 70 in mid-2008 to 8.93 today. This is a historic low price (well, in recent years anyway): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=UBI.PA&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
As I pointed out, major game publishers have been hit by the recession, but their declines are nowhere near as steep as Ubisofts. Activision-Blizzard and Electronic Arts both fell, but not nearly as hard. Clearly, something more must be going on than the recession at Ubisoft, given the depth of its fall. That something is likely to be bad strategy/decision-making. I believe this poor decision-making has reared its head again with the implementation of this DDRM scheme and will cost them dearly. Hopefully, they will realize their mistake quickly and cut their losses by not implementing it in later titles, but it may take a while - it took EA some time to come to its senses.
I do some trading on the stock market and would even consider short-selling Ubisoft stock and make some money on them that way, but I think that the market has already priced-in Ubisoft's bad decisions, so the stock will not decline further unless they keep on making new ones. Instead there will be up and down fluctuations. In the long run, game publisher stocks will all rise, but Ubisoft's stock will probably rise slower than the rest of the pack. However, the gaming market is competitive so one or more of the laggards could face bankrupcy or takeover by another company.
My prediction is that their big titles will still sell fine, though not as well as they might have otherwise, but enough to make a substantial amount of money. However, the bad PR will continue on and on for Ubisoft until the company relents and moves to a more forgiving DRM system.
Don't get me wrong, I don't wish Ubisoft do poorly. After all, Ubisoft did a great job with HoMM V, which I bought and also with the Tribes of the East that I also purchased. Hopefully, they will do as good a job with HoMM IV, but I want them to change their Draconian DRM system, or else I won't be buying it and many other gamers may skip out on it too.
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Roman_Lajciak
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posted February 26, 2010 03:37 AM |
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As a matter of interest, it will be interesting to track whether this new DDRM system can impact the sales of Assassin's Creed 2. The problem is that it is really hard to tell. Ubisoft, for example, expects the game to sell 9 million units by the end of March 2010, but the vast majority of these sales have already been made on the consoles, where the game has been out for some time already and the DDRM is on PC only, so its impact will be difficult to track.
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baklava
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Mostly harmless
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posted February 26, 2010 10:36 AM |
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Edited by baklava at 10:42, 26 Feb 2010.
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Quote:
Roman, you are nothing but a radical ass who talks nonsense about things he has no clue about. You are spouting off meaningless gibberish. Might I suggest that you stop making a fool of yourself?
One of the reasons I love the internet is that this is an entirely normal course of conversation when someone starts saying something rational
inb4 "it's not rational but we won't explain why to any of you because only middle aged rednecks can understand global economy"
____________
"Let me tell you what the blues
is. When you ain't got no
money,
you got the blues."
Howlin Wolf
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evilp
Promising
Known Hero
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posted March 04, 2010 03:30 PM |
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/new-ubisoft-drm-cracked-on-day-one
Quote:
New Ubisoft DRM "cracked" on day one? News
Rumours indicate that Ubisoft's brand new anti-piracy DRM system has been compromised on the same day the first game to use it went on sale.
Submarine simulator Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, and indeed the day one patch that fixes many fundamental bugs, have both been hacked, with the most up-to-date version of the game currently circulating torrent sites and Usenet.
While the effectiveness of the crack has yet to be confirmed, if the DRM has been circumvented, it represents a massive failure on Ubisoft's part for its products to be protected from unauthorised copying.
The DRM system itself is based on the idea that the player's PC is always connected to the internet. While you're online and authenticated with Ubi's servers, the game operates proceeds as normal. However, no connection means no gameplay: should you lose your connection, you're unceremoniously booted from the game. What happens when you reconnect may differ depending on the game you are playing.
In Settlers 7, the action resumes from the exact point where you lost your connection. In Assassin's Creed 2, the game had sent you back to the last checkpoint. However, Ubisoft has just issued an update which ensures the same rules as for Settlers apply.
Critics have lambasted the system owing to instabilities in home connections, the unstable nature of the internet itself, along with the possibility that Ubisoft's own servers will experience downtime at some point. Supporters of the system like the fact that there are no limitations on activations or the amount of PCs that the game can be installed on, and the disc does not need to be kept within your drive.
The ease with which the system has been disabled is sure to worry Ubisoft. Silent Hunter 5's protection is apparently circumvented by replacing an executable file with a patched replacement, similar to just about every other PC "crack" out there. The piracy group responsible for the hack says that in addition, turning off your internet connection or else not using Ubisoft's specific game loader is enough to get the game running DRM-free.
While the hacking groups can rightly claim victory in the first battle, we can be sure that Ubisoft will be studying the nature of the assault on its new system with a view to improving it for future products.
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