Bioware sold out

[Xard]

I wonder if this was clever marketing tactic in the end. Bioshock's release (with identical DRM to current one proposed for ME ) met with huge backslash and Mass Effect coming to PC have been quite low profile news. With this current "we're listening to our fans now":

 

A) They (EA + Bio) get imago boost

B) Mass Effect for PC got due to this huge amount of free "merchandising" and attention, raising awareness of product in minds of many potential customers

C) whose - as well as many other people - fears and angers are soothed by Devs riding on white horse to come and save the day

D) And in this way they manage to Bioshock level DRM pushed through much easier than it would've been otherwise. Now lot of the steam generated went against this "initial DRM" which was only ment to be used as "buffer" to begin with.

 

I think this is quite likely. And damn clever. Fans get the feeling they've been listened to and wrongs are corrected, product gets humongous amounts of free publicity (that translated from negative to positive after "we tuned DRM down guys" news) and it gives (mainly to EA) imago boost

 

 

edit: for points C and D

 

Wow. I just found out. Before I get happy, are the changes Bio is promising to make as good as they seem to my techie-not eyes? If they are, I am so gonna get Mass Effect!!

 

I honestly did not expect them to back down on this. Really, I didn't.

Edited May 11, 2008 by Xard

[Moatilliatta]

As likely as any conspiracy theory, yes.

 

You have nothing that points to this except that it could be.

[Xard]

Yeah, I know that sounds somewhat conspiracy nutty but... it makes too much sense

 

Surely they knew this DRM thing would generate a lot of buzz and backslash - why not to get best out of it?

[random n00b]

Hindsight.

 

As for Grommie's comment about how a few managed to create a panic... well. Isn't that how the world works? You actually sound surprised...

[Moatilliatta]

Yeah, I know that sounds somewhat conspiracy nutty but... it makes too much sense

Of course it makes sense to you, you created it.

It is all hypothetical as there is nothing that points towards it except that "it could be". There is no reason (as in no evidence) to believe that Bioware had done anything except what we know them to have done, come back when you have evidence that either disproves Bioware's/EA's claims or proves that your claim is right.

Surely they knew this DRM thing would generate a lot of buzz and backslash - why not to get best out of it?

As RN said Hindsight. You are working on the assumption that Bioware has dishonorable intention and the fact of the matter is that you know nothing of Bioware's

intentions.

 

Edit: Also Occams Razor.

Edit2: Occam should have had an easier name, damn famous people with strange names!

Edited May 11, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[~Di]

I don't think it was widespread panic. I think it was widespread confusion and outrage. Calling it "panic" is kind of condescending, in my view, and discounts the fact that the concern was a legitimate one to a heck of a lot of people.

 

There really wasn't any way I was going to install a game that forced an internet check every 10 days. Judging by the thousand+ similar replies on their ME site, I wasn't alone. I suspect the figures from cancelled pre-orders were beginning to trickle in as well, so I strongly reject the idea that this was a deliberate marketing ploy... unless their marketing department is on crack. There are still a lot of people who won't buy because of the activication limit, but I won't let that alone stop me. It will be a long time before I go through three major upgrades.

 

I hope to buy the game now, but it won't be on day one. I'll wait a week or two, make sure that there aren't major problems with the SecROM that is left before I order it. Still, I appreciate Bio's quick action on this. They said one of the factors that made them eliminate the 10-day check is to accommodate USA military personnel, who could not play with those conditions. Makes sense to me. Pissing off the military is never good.

Edited May 11, 2008 by ~Di

[Pop]

Normally I'd just say that if you're rich enough to afford a computer that can run Mass Effect well, you're rich enough to afford a continuous internet connection, or at least a connection that can be put up every 10 days.

[Lohengrin]

I know people who have had problems installing games with securom, despite the fact that they had legitimate copies of the games. Anyway, Bioware doesnt seem to know what it really does besides what EA tells them; and I really wouldnt be surprised if EA tried to sneak in some malware that infects my machine. So I am highly sceptical. I am not willing to pay for a game if I know that those who steal it dont have to worry about it not installing or messing up their machines.

Edited May 11, 2008 by Lohengrin

[~Di]

Normally I'd just say that if you're rich enough to afford a computer that can run Mass Effect well, you're rich enough to afford a continuous internet connection, or at least a connection that can be put up every 10 days.

 

Not if you're sitting in Iraq, Afghanistan or other deployment areas. Not if you're one of the millions in rural areas where only 24kbm dial-up is available, if that. I wasn't able to get more than that 24kbm dial-up until a few months ago, and frankly we needed our telephone service too much to simply hook it to the computer for a permanent connection. It's often not so much a matter of being "rich" enough, it's a matter of whether it's even available to you.

 

And supposingf one is able to have 24/7 connection and chose to leave their computers running unattended night and day, I find that requirement to be overly invasive and onerous, so I wouldn't buy the game under those conditions. Thousands of others agreed. BioWare conceded and removed that requirement. It's not enough for some, but it's enough for me unless I discover something about what is left that changes my mind prior to purchase.

[Deraldin]

I am not willing to pay for a game if I know that those who steal it dont have to worry about it not installing or messing up their machines.

Either that was worded poorly, or you don't buy many games.

[Amentep]

"Q: What happens if I want to play MEPC but do not have an internet connection?

 

A: You cannot play MEPC without an internet connection. MEPC must authenticate when it is initially run and every 10 days thereafter."

 

That's me out, then.

[~Di]

"Q: What happens if I want to play MEPC but do not have an internet connection?

 

A: You cannot play MEPC without an internet connection. MEPC must authenticate when it is initially run and every 10 days thereafter."

 

That's me out, then.

 

Keep reading. BioWare rescinded that requirement on Friday.

[Dark_Raven]

They need to get their act together.

 

They listened to the might of the people. Power to the people! Down with Big Brother (of games)!

[Humodour]

I wonder if this was clever marketing tactic in the end. Bioshock's release (with identical DRM to current one proposed for ME ) met with huge backslash and Mass Effect coming to PC have been quite low profile news. With this current "we're listening to our fans now":

 

A) They (EA + Bio) get imago boost

B) Mass Effect for PC got due to this huge amount of free "merchandising" and attention, raising awareness of product in minds of many potential customers

C) whose - as well as many other people - fears and angers are soothed by Devs riding on white horse to come and save the day

D) And in this way they manage to Bioshock level DRM pushed through much easier than it would've been otherwise. Now lot of the steam generated went against this "initial DRM" which was only ment to be used as "buffer" to begin with.

 

I think this is quite likely. And damn clever. Fans get the feeling they've been listened to and wrongs are corrected, product gets humongous amounts of free publicity (that translated from negative to positive after "we tuned DRM down guys" news) and it gives (mainly to EA) imago boost

 

 

Intentional or not, I agree. These are the reasons I am hesitant for 'praise' Bioware for this move.

[Humodour]

Edit: Also Occams Razor.

 

Occam's razor doesn't apply here. Whilst the 'conspiracy' theory is certainly more complex, it potentially has better explanatory power to the 'accident/coincidence' theory, given the shrewd, manipulative mindset of corporate execs. Moreover, Occam's razor is more of a secondary support where all other evidence and attempts at proof fail - it should never be used as the main argument for why something is 'wrong', nor as a blanket back-up argument which is beyond question.

[Gromnir]

"Calling it "panic" is kind of condescending, in my view, and discounts the fact that the concern was a legitimate one to a heck of a lot of people."

 

condescending? maybe. but the concerns weren't really legit. scroll back up and see what cg said 'bout impact on Di. even the military folks were unlikely to install and then not turn on computer again for such a considerable time that they would get fuzzed by securom, but the folks who know created a fear 'mongst those who don't. is the fear that were real, not the reasons for the fear.

 

"Anyway, Bioware doesnt seem to know what it really does besides what EA tells them; and I really wouldnt be surprised if EA tried to sneak in some malware that infects my machine."

 

see, this is the kinda thing that results in proliferation o' resistance. people has anecdotal kinda 8th-hand knowledge that their friend's girlfriend's sister in-law's uncle had problems with an installation that included securom... and 'course EA is probably hiding some additional malicious programs as well. bastards.

 

if Di turns on her computer plays game and connect to internet 'bout once a week, chances are almost zero that she would ever run afoul o' securom. yeah, the folks that wanna resell ME in the near future may have issues, and casual pirates has concerns, but few others has concerns that is grounded, realistic and immediate. replay 3 years from now? honestly, if cracks is available within weeks for most popular games, how likely is it that securom is gonna remain an issue 3 years from now for those who wants to reload on a different computer?

 

 

bio gave in. great. giving in not mean that the concerns were legit, merely that biowarians were believing that wide-spread internet word o' mouth might harm sales... or some other reason.

 

some o' the bio folks made panic worse by lying, which raised suspicions of folks further. after all, why would biowarians lie if they got naught to hide, eh? clumsy. biowarians handled badly, and they probably not expect that the rabble rousers would be able to generate a kinda mob mentality so quick. clumsy. even so, for the vast majority o' purchasers, including Di, securom would never have been an issue.

 

look, Gromnir is an over-the-top libertarian when it comes to free speech and other fundamental rights. am not a fan o' big brother or paternalism, but this... this were nothing. go to a football game and get searched and have hand stamped with ink would be far more bothersome, invasive and evident.

 

*shrug*

 

Gromnir has lots o' venom and rage saved up to spew at The Man, and as we has noted already, we has been banned by bioware from their boards. you think we would pass up a legit chance to flame their collective butt's if we thought that Right were on our side? this were nothing, 'til some folks successful created a panic. yeah, a panic.

 

Di and Gromnir is old enough to recall the start of the AIDS culture and how much disinformation were spread back in the 80s and even the 90s. lack o' credible sources and non-education leads to panics created by some well-meaning and overzealous folks and some some malicious bastards too. no doubt part f the reason Di were concerned 'bout securom is 'cause every time she tried to get clarification, she got new and different information. who should she believe? if you can't be certain of any information, then why not ere on side of caution, eh? same mentality. different scale. most panics is a result of misinformation and fear. this securom panic is no different... but thankfully far more banal than the aids stuff.

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Power to the people!

 

Don't you mean "Power to the Players"?

[Humodour]

Pardon me if I ignore you when you start to compare this to AIDS, Gromnir.

[Pop]

Uh... He wasn't.

[Humodour]

Drawing parallels between SecuROM and the HIV virus only serves to cheapen both.

 

Di and Gromnir is old enough to recall the start of the AIDS culture and how much disinformation were spread back in the 80s and even the 90s. lack o' credible sources and non-education leads to panics created by some well-meaning and overzealous folks and some some malicious bastards too. no doubt part f the reason Di were concerned 'bout securom is 'cause every time she tried to get clarification, she got new and different information. who should she believe? if you can't be certain of any information, then why not ere on side of caution, eh? same mentality. different scale. most panics is a result of misinformation and fear. this securom panic is no different... but thankfully far more banal than the aids stuff.

 

On another note, one of the reasons people should oppose this kind of DRM is not because it's 'harmless' or 'overblown' as Gromnir believes, but because it's just one small step towards granting publishers ever more control over copyright. Stopping it right here and saying "that's enough" as has been the case with Mass Effect sets a precedent. It draws clear lines between what is acceptable and what is not, and will make further future 'progress' in DRM require clear discourse between publisher and consumer, as it should be.

 

It should never, ever be a case of letting them get away with it simply because it is unobtrusive to the majority.

[Gromnir]

"Drawing parallels between SecuROM and the HIV virus only serves to cheapen both."

 

*chuckle*

 

am guessing you ain't a big fan of orwell. and there ain't no way to cheapen the securom panic. by your standard, maybe we gave it a little dignity it didn't deserve... 'course that requires a complete disregard o' basic reading skillz.

 

well, you add a wonderfully trite slippery slope argument on top o' a misrepresentation of a Gromnir post. some things never change.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[aries101]

I don't belive that this was a tactics used to get more attention and then rescind so that they could say 'hey, were listening to the fans'. The thing is, it took them a week (6-7 days) to rescind the 10 day re-authentication thing. (or say that you don't need to do this anymore). I strongly suspect it was the whole 'not gonna buy thing' from at least a 1000 people that did this. Now if those people tell 10 people not to buy the game, and if these 10 people then tell other 10 people not to get game -- well, you can see where I am going with this...

 

You still need a reliable and stable internet to activate the game, though.

 

It is not the same DRM as Bioshock's. Bioware has written the installer themselves, it (securom) is all contained within the wrap of the executable. It has nothing to do with the installer or with the activation (as I think Bioshock's did?) but with the running of masseffect.exe - the game itself. I am not that happu with this DRM, but I can live with it.

[Xard]

I don't belive that this was a tactics used to get more attention and then rescind so that they could say 'hey, were listening to the fans'. The thing is, it took them a week (6-7 days) to rescind the 10 day re-authentication thing. (or say that you don't need to do this anymore). I strongly suspect it was the whole 'not gonna buy thing' from at least a 1000 people that did this. Now if those people tell 10 people not to buy the game, and if these 10 people then tell other 10 people not to get game -- well, you can see where I am going with this...

 

You still need a reliable and stable internet to activate the game, though.

 

It is not the same DRM as Bioshock's. Bioware has written the installer themselves, it (securom) is all contained within the wrap of the executable. It has nothing to do with the installer or with the activation (as I think Bioshock's did?) but with the running of masseffect.exe - the game itself. I am not that happu with this DRM, but I can live with it.

 

It has similar installation limits though - and it still has securom in it.

 

And this being planned sounds more professional and just as likely as the other option. I'm not saying it is the truth but it is very real possibility. Besides, what happened during that one week? Mass Effect was everywhere again from Penny Arcade to Kotaku

[Tigranes]

Let me just pop in with this - the argument that "if you can afford to play ME you can afford to connect online every 10 days", and its variants, are very one-dimensional in the same sense as the following example: "if you have enough free time to play ME you can surely afford to perform securom's requirement of doing fifty push-ups every ten hours you play the game." It has never been a question of just availability / possibility (though Di single-handedly proved the 'universal availability' myth wrong, too). It's about the level of invasion, and the manipulation of a standard of basic expectation for the culture of video games in general.

[Moatilliatta]

And this being planned sounds more professional and just as likely as the other option. I'm not saying it is the truth but it is very real possibility. Besides, what happened during that one week? Mass Effect was everywhere again from Penny Arcade to Kotaku

I saw a carcrash last week and while most people agreed that it was just a horrible carcrash I saw the truth in it. The carcrash was in fact a masterfully designed alien plot to trick innocent humans, and definately not a carcrash. I know this because Occam's razor shows that this theory has better explanatory power than the regular carcrash theory because of the shrewd and manipulative minds of aliens.

I'm not saying it's the truth but it is a very real possibility

 

Xard + Krezack debunking and I'm not sure I ever want to do an argument like this again. And yes I'm being outlandish for a reason.

 

@Gromnir

1) You being banned from Bio means nothing.^a

 

2) Your football match argument is not analogous at all.

 

3) People in the armed forces would have problems because the problem wasn't whether they would turn on their computers every 10 days but rather whether they can get acces to the internet at least once every 10 days. Considering that we have anecdotal evidence of this and nothing to disprove it I would say that it is indeed the more likely case.

 

4) When and where did Bio employees lie?

 

5) What's this AIDS misinformation you're alluding to?

 

a: we have on the other hand seen to many bad spy movies not to consider the fact that you might be a double agent. : :ninja10:

 

Someone please tell me if I'm being completely wrong here?