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This only gave grief

3 (6.1%)

Grakelin is not stupid

6 (12.2%)

Are you happier now?

1 (2%)

------ Haiku, the encore -----

17 (34.7%)

Disagreeing, Fine

0 (0%)

Why you make a fuzz 'bout it?

3 (6.1%)

Lets just be happy

19 (38.8%)

Total Members Voted: 48

[Sowelu]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/

So the games been out liek a week or so, and the servers are allready down, making the game unplayable.

Way to make your customers hate you even more ubisoft.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAAAAA

[Soulwynd]

I'm willing to bet someone is DoSing them.

[JoshuaFH]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/

So the games been out liek a week or so, and the servers are allready down, making the game unplayable.

Way to make your customers hate you even more ubisoft.

Yeah, I don't think they'd do this just to be vindictive, so I wouldn't phrase it as thus.

[dragnar]

I'm willing to bet someone is DoSing them.

And they won't stop til' the DRM is gone.

I find it extremely ironic that currently, the only people who can play Assassin's Creed 2 are the very ones this mess was intended to stop. The pirates game on, while everyone else is stuck waiting.

[Draco18s]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/

So the games been out liek a week or so, and the servers are allready down, making the game unplayable.

Way to make your customers hate you even more ubisoft.

That's hilarious.

[fenrif]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/07/ubisoft-drm-authentification-server-is-down-assassins-creed-2/

So the games been out liek a week or so, and the servers are allready down, making the game unplayable.

Way to make your customers hate you even more ubisoft.

Yeah, I don't think they'd do this just to be vindictive, so I wouldn't phrase it as thus.

The phrasing doesn't imply they're doing it to be vindictive, or that theyre even doing it intentionally. I was just pointing out the outcome.

They spend money to develop/license DRM
They spend money convincing people DRM isnt as bad as it is
They loose money from boycots and word of mouth
And now they're going to loose money from people returning the game that refuses to work a few days after purchase.

I remember reading a comment on slashdot, it was written by someone who claimed to work for ubisoft. He said that they know DRM hurts sales, and that noone in the dev houses want it, but the management at the publisher forces it on them so they can look good for the shareholders. According to him it not only hurts end users, but also the devs themselves (faith in the brand gets lost, repeat customers lost, boycots, etc) and the shareholders who loose out on money for all the aforementioned reasons. The only people who benefit are the publishers who can say to their shareholders "at least we tried something to stop those filthy pirates!"

 I'd take it with a grain of salt myself, but its food for thought at any rate.

[The Architect]

I know the response to the DRM from a lot of people here is "What a stupid idea, ****ing gamemakers forcing this crap on us!"

However, my gut response is "****ing pirates, now we have to deal with this **** because they won't pay for the games!" Am I the only one who feels that way?

[Micro102]

Hmmm the Xbox doesn't have DRMs for obvious reasons, but what security measures do they have? Is it as easy to pirate an Xbox game as it is a PC game?

[Cthulhu]

I'm not sure about the 360, but before PS2 emulators worked (Well, they still don't work, but they didn't work a lot harder back then) there was all this stuff about modchips and Mechwarrior 3 and stuff to pirate, I don't know.  I'm pretty sure it's a lot harder to pirate a console game, so not as many people do it, but it's there if you really want to.

On piracy, someone has to budge or the PC gaming market could die.  I would honestly rather the pirates budge because the dev/publishers' budging means they'll probably just stop selling to PCs.  If piracy died down significantly they might even let up on DRM.

[fenrif]

Hmmm the Xbox doesn't have DRMs for obvious reasons, but what security measures do they have? Is it as easy to pirate an Xbox game as it is a PC game?

You have to modify the hardware, either with a modchip or by flashing the firmware of the dvdrom, which is a pretty steep barrier for most people I'd imagine, other than that theres no DRM or anything.

And architect, I certainly don't feel the same way, but I don't blame the gamemakers either, I blame publishers. And I also happen to think that piracy is the excuse for DRM, but its probobly got alot more to do with locking customers into specific systems, and forcing them to re-buy products than it has to do with stopping piracy.

As an anti-piracy tool, anyone will agree that DRM is an embrassment at best. Most DRM is cracked within a day. But it is very good at making sure people wont be able to continue to play the same games for years to come. Its very good at crippling resale of games.

As an anti-piracy method it's piss-poor. As a way of controlling how customers use the product, it's alot more usefull.

[narskie]

As far as the pirates are concerned, I kinda feel like it's a Saint Augustine "the pirate and the emperor" story.  Corporations of course being the emperor here who exploits, cheats and steals for profit and then has the audacity to complain about "pirates".  If they payed their employees a proper wage and made a decent product rather than focus only on profits, people wouldn't feel obliged to steal. 

Toady makes a decent product and those who can donate, do, and therefore he is able to continue.  If we applied this model to all games it would solve both piracy and the poor quality of commercial games.   

[Micro102]

From what i understand developers use the piracy as an excuse to raise prices, so wouldn't a much more difficult to pirate xbox game have a lower price?

[Sean Mirrsen]

I'm not sure there exists a way to stop piracy. Not a realistic one, at any rate.

Thing is, if piracy completely stopped overnight, DRMs would linger for years. And sales wouldn't automagically skyrocket. People who wouldn't consider buying a game they'd otherwise pirate still wouldn't buy it even if they couldn't pirate it. Therefore, if pirates one day disappeared, the players wouldn't feel better for quite a while - which means there's never an incentive to stop pirating as long as non-pirates are kept being punished for not pirating.

Actually, I think it's a case of a Self Fulfilling Prophecy. It probably goes like this:
Company prepares to release new game:"We expect the piracy rate of this new title to be in excess of 70%. Let's install a new DRM in it - it's obtrusive, but it's a necessary evil!"
Game is released, cracked on release day; 90% of players pirate the game due to DRM:"It's just as we predicted! We will have to install an even stricter DRM next time!"

[Soulwynd]

Hmmm the Xbox doesn't have DRMs for obvious reasons, but what security measures do they have? Is it as easy to pirate an Xbox game as it is a PC game?

The numbers on the sites I know, show that people download a lot more xbox/ps2 games than pc. But yes, as chuthulu said, you need to have your xbox modded in one way or another.

However, my gut response is "****ing pirates, now we have to deal with this **** because they won't pay for the games!" Am I the only one who feels that way?

I bet there are more people who feel that way. But my reaction to this crappy drm is to not buy nor full-demo it, as it's not something I intend to buy.

I can't really blame pirates either, they're not physically stealing anything and if they didn't have the piracy alternative, I doubt they would buy the game either way. So it's a horrid excuse for a failing business model. (PS.: It's not failing because of the pirates, It's failing because of a. the market itself. b. game quality. c. despise the gaming market actually showing a growth, the devs grew bigger than the market itself, therefore less profit, more risk.)

I gotta work more on the research quiz I want to pop here on b12, just to see what people do about these things and their reactions to games in general.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Btw, in russia some consoles are sold modded.(not the latest ones, most likely, but PS2's most definitely were at some point) And an average russian gamer is also crafty enough to mod the console himself. Not to mention there are numerous service centers that in addition to actual repairs provide these "services". I should note that I don't own any console, so the above it just hearsay.