The inevitable DRM thread | Forums

[Fox_4]

Hi folks,

Someone on the banana forum sensibly suggested that us DRM-blowhards post here instead of over there. I suspect he might have been trying to get rid of us, but what the heck.

No doubt I'm already boring you stainless but I'm going to try to raise the issue in a way that might be of some interest. There have been threads and comments about DRM before but they only serve to show what a vocal minority think. I have no idea what proportions of people support, oppose, or are indifferent to DRM, and to what extent. So I'm posting a poll about it.

As one of the nutjobs voting for option 1 in this poll I realise that I might be about to look pretty silly - if I end up being outnumbered by people who don't care. Still, I am interested to see the results.

Please vote honestly.

(A brief soapbox moment/elaboration on my own vote: I disagree with all forms of DRM, since I don't believe it ever works)

[Ba5tard5word]

I've played so many games with one form of another of DRM, like games on Steam, and honestly most of the time I don't care and I think it's a dumb issue to get all worked up about.

BUT there are definitely examples of horrible DRM. I haven't played SH5 but it's supposed to have been a disaster. ROF was annoying at first (I haven't played it since they supposedly made the DRM less annoying) because it would make you log in with a password every time you wanted to play. Hey, I'm playing a game, not logging into my email account. Several games using MS Live are made worse or very buggy because of it. Mass Effect lets you install the game only 4 times before locking up and requiring you to contact Bioware to get a new product key.

But if you're just playing a game on Steam, or using a game that requires an internet connection, generally it's no big deal and I want to play the game more than I want to be political and stand on principle. Blame pirates for DRM, not game developers, but it's up to game developers to not break their games or make them obnoxious to play because of DRM.

Hopefully the reports of COD having very unobtrusive DRM are 100% true.

[saipan1972]

i had sh5 from launch and never had a problem with the drm. the forums were filled with people complaining about it. lost saved games, unable to connect to server, etc.

i guess my cable connection was good enough i guess.

[miatacol]

With Ubisoft's history of DRM catastrophes it's a prudent question to ask. However, it says clearly on the box that DRM will be for ACTIVATION ONLY. Therefore this is a non-issue. You will not need to be always connected. This is the same form of DRM that Steam uses and there's no issue there.

[Tte_Costa]

Sorry, but what means DRM?
Is the same as WoP has for sequrity?
I don´t think is bad at all and in another way its very easy to update the game. You launch the game it search for updates and then if there are one you download it and install it, easy and clean and everybody with the same version.

[space_bandit]

If the DRM is like SH5 at launch then I have a problem.

If it's like steam then I don't.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

It was confirmed by an Ubi employee on the German forums that is is a ONE TIME activation. I'm fairly sure this will be a non-issue. There is always the possibility of disaster with all DRM if it doesn't work as planned, but I'm pretty sure a single activation is hard to screw up, lol. Now what this may mean for a game series that has a history of collecting new players all the time over a 10 year period is hard to say, will the authentication servers need to remain active for ten years? Will Ubi or Oleg eventually release a patch if official Ubi support is dropped after half a decade or whatever? I say these are not issues to get worked up over, this IS Oleg here, even if Ubi drops the ball in the future I doubt Oleg will leave us all in the cold...

[saipan1972]

drm is digital right management. its a way to cut down on piracy. some games require single actication via internet, some games (silent hunter 5) require constant internet connection. so if u game on a portable and u are on a navy sub, u wont be able to play a game like sh5 that requires the constant connection. true story, some guy posted that in the sh5 forums.

[WTE_Galway]

One off activation is tolerable.

With games like FSX I have actually had to resort to taking my game rig to work to activate it though more recently with wireless internet now available in my area I could just borrow a wireless internet modem from a friend for the one off activation.

Though for some unknown reason my FSX now needs "reactivating" and to be honest its not worth the hassle to reactivate... so I just do not play it.

Originally posted by Tte_Costa:
Sorry, but what means DRM?
Is the same as WoP has for sequrity?

DRM is a way to prevent people reselling old games on ebay and is also leading up to easy to implement "pay per month" systems for all software not just online MMORPGs.

The propaganda says DRM is to do with pirating but that is not the true purpose of the technology.

[la1impala]

DRM we are talking about Digital rights management ? I would just like to make a working copy of the media for a backup.