Bioware sold out

[Humodour]

Is this article true?

 

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1645

 

Did Bioware really one-up even Microsoft in terms of idiotic DRM? Boycott time if so.

 

To quote a Slashdot comment on the issues:

 

Exactly what I was thinking. What happens 10 years down the line when I try to play a game or watch a Movie that has some funky DRM on it, but I can't because the company is out of business or has shutdown the DRM server.

 

http://games.slashdot.org/games/08/05/07/1523242.shtml

Edited May 8, 2008 by Krezack

[H]

Ha, I love Shamus and his sense of humor. DM of the Rings was hilarious.

 

Anyway, this protection is ludicrous. It will be cracked in a matter of days, and only those who have a legitimate copy will suffer from these measures. Gay. Why can't more companies go the Stardock route? SoaSE sells well with no copy protection at all.

[Lokey]

You made this topic on the wrong forum. Start NWN2 then go read Brothers Karamazov while it makes sure you don't have a parrot on your shoulder.

 

What French describes isn't the end of the world, as long as you've run the game within 10 days and it was able to connect to the server (thread linked in article). However Derek French is a writer who has shown a remarkably poor grasp of technical issues in the past. Bioware's NWN1 auth server is a joke security-wise and goes down for the count often (it's been a while, maybe they've improved--it would die Friday night like clockwork for the longest time two years ago). Well, it's also the NWN2 auth server and was up a few hours ago, but it's still utterly trivial to play on anyone's account

 

Granted reading Bio dev posts for the last few years, it's pretty obvious I'll never play another of their games anyway. I'll summarize: RockStar doesn't have a clue about how to make a game.

[Deraldin]

I can see a once off online activation, but what is the point of checking every 10 days or so? If my legal copy passes the check the first time, then why do you need to check again later? As far as I know, my copy won't magically turn into an illegal version over that time period (or any time period), so it seems a little odd.

[Arkan]

Bioware "sold out" when they went with EA. This is probably 'encouraged' by EA as well.

[Volourn]

Nah. They didn't sell out. And, boycotts are for cowards. Also, NWN's serves were awesome, and very dependable. IIRC, this isn't even the first time a BIO game has used Securom or some other protection method, and those games never truly suffered from those. *shrug*

 

And, the Slashdot quote is retarded, and BIO has already addressed on their boards. In other words, a big yawn that means nothing. Like most anti BIo (or pick any big company or in BIO's case division) rubbish.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Volourn

[Deraldin]

Bioware "sold out" when they went with EA. This is probably 'encouraged' by EA as well.

 

I'd say the likely hood of that is pretty high considering it was mentioned over at Bioware that the Auth servers will be hosted by EA and they are using the same system for Spore.

 

Nah. They didn't sell out. And, boycotts are for cowards. Also, NWN's serves were awesome, and very dependable. IIRC, this isn't even the first time a BIO game has sued Securom or some other protection method, and those games never truly suffered from those. *shrug*

 

And, the Slashdot quote is retarded, and BIO has already addressed on their boards. In other words, a big yawn that means nothing. Like most anti BIo (or pick any big company or in BIO's case division) rubbish.

 

You're right, it isn't the first time that Bioware has used Securom. It is the first time that that they are requiring repeated (online) authentication checks for a retail purchased single player game. From what I've seen, Securom isn't what everyone is really objecting to. It's the phoning home every ten days that people are really against.

 

And if boycotts are for cowards, how else is one to express their displeasure to a corporate entity like Bioware?

Edited May 8, 2008 by Deraldin

[kirottu]

And, boycotts are for cowards.

 

That must be the biggest pile of vologic ever.

 

To me it

[Volourn]

Simply by not buying their products. When i think 'boycott'; I think a lame mass of people banding together in some asanine cause.

 

Don't agree with BIO's (or any company's) business plans then simply don't purchase their product or service. And, move on.

 

 

"To the senseless captains of Electronic Arts: Fall under a bus and die, you rotten offspring of ignorance and folly."

 

That above, is why scumbag like the article author need to be ignored. Because he dislikes a certain thing he doesn't need to get he wishes said creators to die. Absolutely pathetic. Don't need that kind of extremism. And, that's exactly what boycotts are. Extremism of the highest order created for extortion/threatening purposes.

[Deraldin]

Simply by not buying their products. When i think 'boycott'; I think a lame mass of people banding together in some asanine cause.

 

Don't agree with BIO's (or any company's) business plans then simply don't purchase their product or service. And, move on.

 

 

"To the senseless captains of Electronic Arts: Fall under a bus and die, you rotten offspring of ignorance and folly."

 

That above, is why scumbag like the article author need to be ignored. Because he dislikes a certain thing he doesn't need to get he wishes said creators to die. Absolutely pathetic. Don't need that kind of extremism. And, that's exactly what boycotts are. Extremism of the highest order created for extortion/threatening purposes.

 

Okay, that makes much more sense. Thank you for clearing that up. And I'd have to agree with you about the author of that comment. Attitudes like that certainly won't help his cause.

[H]

Don't agree with BIO's (or any company's) business plans then simply don't purchase their product or service.

Yes, Volly, that's what boycott means.

[Volourn]

"Yes, Volly, that's what boycott means."

 

Who are you, and why should I respond to your personal flamebait?

 

 

Quote: "When i think 'boycott'; I think a lame mass of people banding together in some asanine cause."

 

Game over, STRANGER, game over.

 

 

"I don

Edited May 8, 2008 by Volourn

[H]

"Yes, Volly, that's what boycott means."

 

Who are you, and why should I respond to your personal flamebait?

What flamebait?

 

Quote: "When i think 'boycott'; I think a lame mass of people banding together in some asanine cause."

 

Game over, STRANGER, game over.

Another Volournian quote: "Don't agree with BIO's (or any company's) business plans then simply don't purchase their product or service."

 

And yet another quote (not Volournian): "A boycott is the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest."

 

Game over, topic closed!

[Volourn]

L0L Wiki L0L

 

By that lame defintion when I decide not to buy Diet pop; I'm boycotting. LMAO

 

Quite frankly, boycotting only works as a term when it's an organized multiple person event. Which is completely different than an individual's choice to refuse to purchase soemthing.

[kirottu]

"I don

[H]

L0L Wiki L0L

Wiki is fine if you need to find a simple definition.

By that lame defintion when I decide not to buy Diet pop; I'm boycotting. LMAO

Not really. Boycotting implies that you might be interested in the product in question and would get it if the seller/manufacturer didn't make one decision or another.

Quite frankly, boycotting only works as a term when it's an organized multiple person event. Which is completely different than an individual's choice to refuse to purchase soemthing.

That is what we have here. Plenty of people are pissed off and say they're not buying to buy the game, cancel their pre-orders, etc.

[Volourn]

"What? I have never gotten the feeling I

Edited May 8, 2008 by Volourn

[H]

I'd be interested in Diet Coke if they didn't make the decision to make it taste so darn awful that I chose to 'boycott' (your definition) it.

Wrong. It's difficult to make diet coke taste any better without throwing in more sugar, and it would cease to be diet coke if they did it.

Not quite. It's one thing for people seperately deciding to not buy soemthing than a group of peopel calling for actual organzied boycotts, peititions, and other nonsense.

 

There's a huge difference between simply refusing to buy something and an actual boycott, imo.

People are vocal about it and let the developer and the publisher know about their decision. I think this qualifies.

[Tigranes]

Continuing also from http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...5&start=165 , where I raised the issue. Krezack the insolent upstart shall be dealt with appropriately.

 

However, I'm not particularly inclined to believe that if either you or I or both of us plus Gorth and Tigranes and so on don't buy the game that Bioware is really going to care much or attach any sigificance to it. They will probably just chalk to up to the fact that no one buys pc games anymore and not even bother porting their next release to pc at all.

 

I think that is really the crux of the matter. The discursive dominance of the Piracy=End of PC Industry argument, which, in terms of empirical evidence is just as much a fallacy and disinformation as Video Games=Violent Mass Murders and Iraq WMD, is making sure that the real issues get buried under a wave of "YEAH ITS THE PIRATES". I'm not saying piracy doesn't hurt the industry at all, but even that originally crucial fact is made irrelevant by this amazing flood of discursive foot-stomping. A boycott, indeed - you need an organised group that can project the appropriate, correct discourse to fight this obstinacy. For all that you might say against NMA, that is exactly what they are trying to do with Fallout and it's more effective than the silent withdrawal of cash. In this case, anyway.

[Humodour]

Nah. They didn't sell out. And, boycotts are for cowards. Also, NWN's serves were awesome, and very dependable. IIRC, this isn't even the first time a BIO game has used Securom or some other protection method, and those games never truly suffered from those. *shrug*

 

And, the Slashdot quote is retarded, and BIO has already addressed on their boards. In other words, a big yawn that means nothing. Like most anti BIo (or pick any big company or in BIO's case division) rubbish.

 

Hey, does it ever, like, bother you that every second word out of your mouth is a shameless lie?

 

Krezack the insolent upstart shall be dealt with appropriately.

 

Oh snap.

Edited May 8, 2008 by Krezack

[Nick_i_am]

I love you Magical Volo!

 

This sucks though, but it's not like I care about Bio.

[kirottu]

I

[Gorth]

"I don

[Tigranes]

My first contact with the US in person was LAX. First I thought I actually ended up in Stalin's Russia, except the shops actually had stuff in them.

 

Anyway, nobody really complains about CD-Keys, do they? That's equivalent to ID checks. The 10 day thing is like you're having a drink int he bar and every 10 minutes someone checks your ID.

[Tale]

I

Edited May 8, 2008 by Tale