Magister Lajciak

Dark Raven and Volourn or Dark Raven and Will the Almighty?

I'd sooner believe Devil, than anyone from EA... especialy, when they are talking about supporting their games... i've seen lot of promises from them about Origin, Westwood and Bullfrog... and we all know how these promises ended up... Although I wouldn't sooner believe the devil and I think that EA's promises are a major step in the right direction, I agree that I wouldn't exactly rely on them. Nobody will convince me that a failing publisher (unless its a very unique publisher indeed and EA ain't it) that has trouble paying for the upkeep of its activation servers and is failing to meet its commercial obligations or obligations to its employees will spend its precious resources on patching its entire backlog library of games with DRM just so that players can enjoy playing them after it goes bankrupt. I have before advocated an auto-expiry function on DRM that would solve this issue. The DRM, however, needs to expiry completely autonomously without a need for a patch from the publisher/developer and without the need to go online to check with some kind of server, because if the game needs to do this than we are back to square one.

Games you buy via Steam are attached to your Steam account. To start up a game, you log on to Steam, which authenticates you with a password (similar to an online game), and then launches the game locally installed on your machine. If you wish to play offline, you can just authenticate your account once and then go into offline mode, following which you can play any Steam game as many times as you wish without an internet connection. Of course, if you want to download updates or purchase any new games, you'll want to log on again. So, Steam does exert some amount of control over your activities as a user, but I like the fact that it does allow you to go offline if you wish. I don't think I've ever used Steam in offline mode, but it's important for me to have the freedom to do so. In return for its (mostly minimal) interference in your activities, Steam offers a handful of useful value additions (unlike any other DRM scheme): You can often pre-stream game data into your hard drive before some game releases. On release day, you either purchase an activation key online, or go to the store, purchase a box and get the activation code from within. Enter the activation code into Steam and your game is good to go. The steam servers maintain a record of the games you own. You can delete and re-install your games as and when you choose without having to look for your CDs. Patches and updates for all your installed games are streamed in and applied automatically the moment you log onto your Steam account. You can log out of your account on your home machine, get to work, log onto Steam on your work machine and start playing Half Life 2. You'll probably get fired though. So yes, it's DRM, but the application works perfectly, it does not install rootkits on my machine, it allows me to install and play my games on as many machines as I want to (as long as I have my login information), it does allow me to go offline if I so wish, and in exchange for the limited control it exerts, it provides a bunch of useful services. I think that's the key distinction between Steam and all other DRM methods: all other methods provide ZERO benefits to the end user, Steam actually gives you a reason to use it. Thanks for the explanation! It doesn't sound as bad as the DDRM used by the EA, but it still doesn't tacke the (for me) crucial longevity issue. Basically, you have to authenticate online to install/activate the game, which will become impossible if Steam should disappear in the future (say if Valve goes bankrupt in 10 years). That happens to be my main problem with DDRM, more so than even rootkits.

Yes, I must agree.

It is due in late November.

True, though I would prefer more NWN2 expansions that stick with 3.5E.

I must admit that this is pretty hilarious!

Yeah, we all need to vent sometimes. It might help you to try to look at the announcement this way: At least now we can finally give up on the KOTOR franchise and not hold on to any false hope that KOTOR 3 will be made in the future.

This possible, but most pirates will probably consider these to be small fry and not bother unless these are practically essential for the game. What is "Impulse" and how does it work? Also, how exactly does "Steam" (I have never used it, but it appears many folks on here have done so and it is frequently mentioned) work in the context of DRM? Yes, this is a concern and would be a very negative development indeed in my eyes at least. It would also probably motivate pirates to pirate these extra things too if they were practically essential to the game.

It worked well indeed!

Background feat-chains? Sounds great!

Some people might do so to help support the company. Personally, I wouldn't buy a game just because it didn't have DDRM - it would also have to be a game that appeals to me.

What? You mean people are posting comments condemning piracy? What on earth does that have to do with fighting piracy. Pirate downloads game, pirate downloaded DLC/patches/mods/whatever. How are people being rewarded or punished? The basic premise is that you have to have a legitimate copy to download the extra content and that pirates don't bother to crack these mini-patches.

I would buy it for that reason alone if they actually did not use any draconian DRM. Well, I guess we will have to wait and see - it was just a hint... not a statement of commitment yet.

Nah. I'd rather have the false hope. Really, though, absolutely NO point in keeping this thread open, now. I agree that this thread has now become pointless.

That may well be, but my point is that she is not being tried for virtual murder as the title of the article seems to imply.

Here is an interesting article talking about Dragon Age, including a little about DRM: http://www.videogamer.com/pc/dragon_age/preview-1346.html It could mean that Dragon Age will relent on DDRM and rely on downloadable post-release content to fight off piracy. I wouldn't get my hopes up yet, but it is a possibility.

I'm going to disagree. Say everyone is a force user - how many is that per server? 25,000 divided among Jedi and Sith plus the force using NPCs, but Star Wars is supposed to be an entire galaxy. Even if every PC is a Jedi/Sith, they'd still make up a small part of the galaxy's total population. You just have to imagine that there are a trillion NPCs on each serverwho, completely by coincidence, never show up anywhere. How is being a Jedi different from being a Mage? There will be tons of non-Jedi NPCs. You will probably slaughter thousands of them as you progress in the game. SW:TOR is about playing a hero in a galaxy of regular folk. Yep, 80% of PCs will be lightsaber wielding, but the idea is that the PCs are not the only people in the galaxy. I think the point they are trying to make is that Jedi are supposed to be rare. In a single player game, if a player plays a Jedi, that is the player's unique experience, because the only other characters in the game, the NPCs, reflect the appropriate structure of the population for the setting. In MMOs, however, players interact with numerous other players... thus drastically altering the perception of 'rarity' of the Jedi. Of course, the same problem can occur in MMOs in other genres with popular characters that are supposed to be rare.

That's a bit of a deceptive title for the article. Yes, the woman was "jailed after killing virtual husband", but the real reason for the arrest was that she broke into his computer.

Good new for us, then. Come on now - we all know that SWOR will be commercially very successful. I don't like the fact that they are making that instead of KOTOR 3 any more than you do, but I don't doubt that they will make vast sums of money from the game.

Nice video - thanks!

The game is getting rave reviews from fans of the old King's Bounty (which I haven't played) and from the HOMM crowd (HOMM is among my favorite franchises), so they must have gotten something right. There just wasn't any marketing for this game - what a pity. Given the positive reception of the game by people who share similar taste in games, I will be sure to pick it up - would have done so already, but I cannot afford to play a game seriously at the moment due to time-constraints. Maybe in a few more weeks.

Stating the obvious. No K3 for us. Sad news for us, that is true, but at least we can now leave the KOTOR franchise behind with certainty and not hold onto some false hope that KOTOR 3 will be made.

Unfortunately, Obsidian is not permitted to develop KOTOR 3 without the approval of LucasArts, which it will now surely not get, because of the MMO. That said, I did vote yes on the poll.

A patch that removes both online activations and install limits would work for me... except that I don't really trust that they will provide it with 100% certainty. My confidence in EA is already damaged by the DDRM they have imposed on Mass Effect and Spore. This is especially the case if something goes financially wrong with EA over the next X number of years - I doubt they will use their scarce resources, if they are a failing company unable to pay for keeping their activation servers up and running, to patch out their DDRM on their whole library of games. Also the one game where such a patch was provided (Bioshock) did remove the install limits, but not the online activation, so if the servers go down, so will the ability to install and play the game. Still, I have to say that this explicit promise is a MAJOR step in the right direction and shows that EA is at least listening to the complaints and is beginning to understand what troubles many of us about their DDRM schemes. For me it is precisely the impact on the longevity of the game that is the main problem with DDRM. As such, after they provide a patch removing DDRM for a specific game, I will purchase it (provided it is a type of game I want to purchase of course, and RA3 is such a type of game), but I will wait until the patch materializes.