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Forums - PC Discussion - Quite possibly the worst DRM and most ridiculous idea ever

Ubisoft, Use Steam! I'm tired of all these game publishers making their own individual 3rd party DRM. Just make the retail copies of the game require Steam activation, problem solved. There is no need for this!



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c0rd said:
WilliamWatts said:
KungKras said:
WilliamWatts said:
If they see piracy as being that much of a problem and it helps them combat it and in turn achieve higher revenues then I cannot see it as being anything but an overall positive thing for PC gamers that actually pay for the content.

gamers who pay for the content will suffer too

The thing is, that usually the games with the least amount of copy protection are the ones that sell the best.

Starcraft, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft all have near perfect DRM for online and yet they sell fantastically. The Ubisoft system is pretty similar to that.

Assassin's Creed 2 is not an online game.

Starcraft or Warcraft 3 don't stop you from playing the game (single player or LAN) if you lack an internet connection.

Honestly, all it does is promote piracy. It adds nothing to the paying customer's experience, it only screws them over, while pirates will have the real game.

How does it promote piracy? If you can't save your game except on a server then I don't see how a pirate could have anything other than a demo.



dobby985 said:
Ubisoft, Use Steam! I'm tired of all these game publishers making their own individual 3rd party DRM. Just make the retail copies of the game require Steam activation, problem solved. There is no need for this!

This.

As much as people deride Activision for the entire MW2 fiasco, they were at least smart enough to use Steam, as opposed to some retarded DRM like Ubisoft seems to be implementing.



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WilliamWatts said:
c0rd said:
WilliamWatts said:
KungKras said:
WilliamWatts said:
If they see piracy as being that much of a problem and it helps them combat it and in turn achieve higher revenues then I cannot see it as being anything but an overall positive thing for PC gamers that actually pay for the content.

gamers who pay for the content will suffer too

The thing is, that usually the games with the least amount of copy protection are the ones that sell the best.

Starcraft, Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft all have near perfect DRM for online and yet they sell fantastically. The Ubisoft system is pretty similar to that.

Assassin's Creed 2 is not an online game.

Starcraft or Warcraft 3 don't stop you from playing the game (single player or LAN) if you lack an internet connection.

Honestly, all it does is promote piracy. It adds nothing to the paying customer's experience, it only screws them over, while pirates will have the real game.

How does it promote piracy? If you can't save your game except on a server then I don't see how a pirate could have anything other than a demo.

Because in no time the pirated version will be out and the crack won't require you to be online at all times, or, in fact, won't connect to Ubi servers at all?




zexen_lowe said:
WilliamWatts said:

How does it promote piracy? If you can't save your game except on a server then I don't see how a pirate could have anything other than a demo.

Because in no time the pirated version will be out and the crack won't require you to be online at all times, or, in fact, won't connect to Ubi servers at all?

I have seen cracks take out copy protection but I have never seen a crack put features back in. Its far easier to rip something down, like for instance an HD -> Wii conversion than it is to build it back up. The best I can think of is spoofing the pirate save server but if it requires a unique key then its the same situation as any online authenticated game.



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WilliamWatts said:
zexen_lowe said:
WilliamWatts said:

How does it promote piracy? If you can't save your game except on a server then I don't see how a pirate could have anything other than a demo.

Because in no time the pirated version will be out and the crack won't require you to be online at all times, or, in fact, won't connect to Ubi servers at all?

I have seen cracks take out copy protection but I have never seen a crack put features back in. Its far easier to rip something down, like for instance an HD -> Wii conversion than it is to build it back up. The best I can think of is spoofing the pirate save server but if it requires a unique key then its the same situation as any online authenticated game.

It's nor putting a feature back in, it's just removing the part where it connects to a server. I don't know how cracks work, so of course I don't know how it could be done, but there have been games that connected to servers for authentication (GTA4, for example), and they've all been cracked, so it's logical to expect this one will too




WilliamWatts said:
If they see piracy as being that much of a problem and it helps them combat it and in turn achieve higher revenues then I cannot see it as being anything but an overall positive thing for PC gamers that actually pay for the content.

That's the crucial thing. This doesn't affect piracy at all.

This method of DRM raises the cost for the publishers and legitimate customers, while the cost to pirates remains the same. And when you raise the cost to the customer, your revenues drop as fewer customers are willing to buy. Everybody loses.

Oh, except the pirate. He gets to enjoy the game just fine because some clever supergeek saw Ubisoft's brilliant plan as an interesting challenge.



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zexen_lowe said:
WilliamWatts said:

I have seen cracks take out copy protection but I have never seen a crack put features back in. Its far easier to rip something down, like for instance an HD -> Wii conversion than it is to build it back up. The best I can think of is spoofing the pirate save server but if it requires a unique key then its the same situation as any online authenticated game.

It's nor putting a feature back in, it's just removing the part where it connects to a server. I don't know how cracks work, so of course I don't know how it could be done, but there have been games that connected to servers for authentication (GTA4, for example), and they've all been cracked, so it's logical to expect this one will too

The Ubisoft protection means you can crack it as many times as you want but you cannot save your game unless you authenticate on Ubisofts server.

Famousringo

That's the crucial thing. This doesn't affect piracy at all.

This method of DRM raises the cost for the publishers and legitimate customers, while the cost to pirates remains the same. And when you raise the cost to the customer, your revenues drop as fewer customers are willing to buy. Everybody loses.

Oh, except the pirate. He gets to enjoy the game just fine because some clever supergeek saw Ubisoft's brilliant plan as an interesting challenge.

Ubisofts anti-piracy protection may do just that. It may finally be an effective anti-piracy deterrant and if it increases the time between release and piracy from T minus 14 to T plus 7 days before/after release to say a month then its done its job. See above, you can't save your game and its difficult to add that functionality back in.



WilliamWatts said:
zexen_lowe said:
WilliamWatts said:

I have seen cracks take out copy protection but I have never seen a crack put features back in. Its far easier to rip something down, like for instance an HD -> Wii conversion than it is to build it back up. The best I can think of is spoofing the pirate save server but if it requires a unique key then its the same situation as any online authenticated game.

It's nor putting a feature back in, it's just removing the part where it connects to a server. I don't know how cracks work, so of course I don't know how it could be done, but there have been games that connected to servers for authentication (GTA4, for example), and they've all been cracked, so it's logical to expect this one will too

The Ubisoft protection means you can crack it as many times as you want but you cannot save your game unless you authenticate on Ubisofts server.

Famousringo

That's the crucial thing. This doesn't affect piracy at all.

This method of DRM raises the cost for the publishers and legitimate customers, while the cost to pirates remains the same. And when you raise the cost to the customer, your revenues drop as fewer customers are willing to buy. Everybody loses.

Oh, except the pirate. He gets to enjoy the game just fine because some clever supergeek saw Ubisoft's brilliant plan as an interesting challenge.

Ubisofts anti-piracy protection may do just that. It may finally be an effective anti-piracy deterrant and if it increases the time between release and piracy from T minus 14 to T plus 7 days before/after release to say a month then its done its job. See above, you can't save your game and its difficult to add that functionality back in.

Imagine the game code were something like this

User wants to save game;
var = connect to ubi servers to check if user authenthicated correctly;
if  (var)
   save game
else
    return error

 

And you only have to rewrite it to

User wants to save game;
var = true;
if  (var)
   save game
else
    return error

 

And there, it doesn't connect. Of course, this is a rough generalization done in pseudocode, but you get the idea

 

 




WTF? Why does a discussion on DRM always result in ignorant crap about piracy?

For the umpteenth time- DRM is there to break the second hand market. Simple as that. It's got fuck all to do with piracy, because it can't stop it. It will be cracked, probably before release, just like every other hare-brained scheme before it.

Ubisoft have promised that the authentication on these games will be patched away should their servers ever go down. If they can do it, then so can the various scene groups and, let's face it, the crackers do it a damn sight faster.

Yet again, it's the consumer who actually pays for the product who suffers, not the person who downloaded it for free and got a more functional game. Absolute madness.