So are you going to buy Mass Effect PC ?

[Calax]

meh I say just go back to the really old system that enoch mentioned. that way people wouldn't have to worry about drm software checking them out.

[Meshugger]

The only way for EA to get down on piracy without pissing of their consumer base is to change it's archaic business practices. Go for more service-based, ad-based or similar and piracy will only be something of the good old days. A couple of hackers playing "dare you" with the publishers.

[flem]

The only way for EA to get down on piracy without pissing of their consumer base is to change it's archaic business practices. Go for more service-based, ad-based or similar and piracy will only be something of the good old days. A couple of hackers playing "dare you" with the publishers.

You're dreaming. With the Napster generation, the cat's out of the bag. Pirates are folk heroes; stealing is everyone's right. Read any board (including, depressingly enough, this one).

 

What on earth do you think a "service-based" game is?

[Tigranes]

I bought the game yesterday, and was unable to play it due to DRM issues. I posted about that on the official Bioware forums, and got a chorus of people having exactly the same problem (namely, that Mass Effect didn't believe we had internet and wouldn't let us start the game). I eventually figured out one way to solve the issue, which worked for me and a couple of others, and someone else found another approach, which worked for some of the rest. But there are still people posting in the thread who can't get the game they paid for working. And the only post from anyone at all affiliated with Bioware offered advice already available in the FAQ, and which my OP specifically stated had already been tried without effect.

 

I also submitted an official support request at the EA website, and should therefore have received a response within 24 hours . . . which never happened.

 

So why shouldn't people download the crack? I paid $50 for the game and then wasted five or six frustrating hours trying to get it to work. My problem was never officially acknowledged, and I never received an explanation, a solution, or an apology. If I hadn't managed to fix my issue -- I should say Bioware's issue -- on my own, you had damn well better believe I would be downloading that crack right now and not feeling the smallest iota of guilt.

 

Got to say this is one of the situations that completely slip past any corporations' radar, simply because of the way they categorise things and accumulate customer data: if the problem is solved, there is no problem. I am, by personality, willing to go to absolutely ridiculous lengths to get a game working exactly the way I want it (to the extent that I basically memorised several dozen area / item codes and global variable codes in BG2 back in high school), and have spent two-digit hours doing that - but hell, that was in high school, and I'm pretty odd when it comes to that sort of stuff. If you have a problem and you spend hours on it, and the official support is a piece of crap and they clearly can't be bothered to even apologise - then they turn around and talk about even more draconian DRM systems - well, does anyone really think they will succeed in convincing those customers?

 

I have to say, on a lot of occasions I've seen Biodevs swoop in to answer queries (and thus have a nice dev icon appear on the forum view), only to suggest completely redundant stuff like stuff someone has already tried before, or never follow things up. Fair enough, there are a lot of people who never read the FAQ and need to be reminded, but it's just fitting that everywhere, they match ill-will with ill-will.

[Moatilliatta]

I have to say, on a lot of occasions I've seen Biodevs swoop in to answer queries (and thus have a nice dev icon appear on the forum view), only to suggest completely redundant stuff like stuff someone has already tried before, or never follow things up. Fair enough, there are a lot of people who never read the FAQ and need to be reminded, but it's just fitting that everywhere, they match ill-will with ill-will.

The reason why they do that is that people don't read the FAQ in general and as you can see by reading the thread thy sometimes don't even read the dev posts. It has nothing to do with ill-will but probably Bioware not knowing what is causing the problem since as you can see by reading the thread, it is a very complex problem caused by people using all sorts of weird programs.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

With the Napster generation, the cat's out of the bag. Pirates are folk heroes; stealing is everyone's right.

 

Really? I would have thought that the success of games like Sins of a Solar Empire would have demonstrated that this is not always true, and, yes, that game actually does not use any copy protection. Sure, if you want the extra support and free downloads you need a CD/DVD key, but that's ok as the registration is completely voluntary.

[Bos_hybrid]

Really? I would have thought that the success of games like Sins of a Solar Empire would have demonstrated that this is not always true, and, yes, that game actually does not use any copy protection. Sure, if you want the extra support and free downloads you need a CD/DVD key, but that's ok as the registration is completely voluntary.

 

Have to agree with this, this model would of worked even better if Bioware make more downloadable content available for PC, access to extra content if you purchase the game is another reason for people to purchase a game, instead of the DRM that puts people off it. Obsession with anti piracy devices that don't work and puts off potential customers is a flawed business approach. Mind you I'm not an executive.

[Meshugger]

The only way for EA to get down on piracy without pissing of their consumer base is to change it's archaic business practices. Go for more service-based, ad-based or similar and piracy will only be something of the good old days. A couple of hackers playing "dare you" with the publishers.

You're dreaming. With the Napster generation, the cat's out of the bag. Pirates are folk heroes; stealing is everyone's right. Read any board (including, depressingly enough, this one).

 

What on earth do you think a "service-based" game is?

 

Look at Blizzard and look at their Battle.net. And look at Sins of a Solar Empire as Nightshade proposed. No DRM or cdkey and a lot of options in modability = success.

[Xard]

Today I decided to do another run through while waiting in order to try playing a renegade on a higher difficulty level. That’s when I got it. “The game can not start. For security reasons, only a limited number of machines can ever be licensed by a single purchase. This limit has been reached. Please purchase another registration code, reinstall, and then try again.” http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/kk81/riftguy

 

So that’s me. I installed it on my one PC and was able to play for two days for a single run through (with almost no side quests done) before being locked out of my game.

 

As far as I know the only changes between the 3rd and the 13th were the addition of a new case fan (to take care of the heat from the new video card) and the user name that I used to log into the computer – a named account with administrative privileges instead of the Administrator account.

 

Click

 

As codex news post put it... "A new video card, a re-installation of the OS and BAM. No Mass Effect for you! Remember the days when you could install a game as many times as you wanted?"

 

 

So, who's going to be the dimwit defending this move by Bioware on this occasion? "Huuurr companies has rights to fight against teh evil priates and protct themselves >"

 

All hail the reborn, draconian Bioware!

Edited June 19, 2008 by Xard

[Gorth]

Between DRM, Minigames and the few gameplay videos I've seen (yes, I know, youtube isn't perhaps the best way to evaluate gameplay), I would say no. I didn't see anything that would interest me

[Musopticon?]

Thank god I go to play this on the Xbox and never had to deal with this crap.

 

No, not god. Thanks to Juuso. Man, I have to thank that guy.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

As codex news post put it... "A new video card, a re-installation of the OS and BAM. No Mass Effect for you! Remember the days when you could install a game as many times as you wanted?"

 

I tried to warn you guys, but nooo the DRM was revised to be "ok"...

[Xard]

To make it all more delicious fully functioning cracks are already floating around *shrug*

[Moatilliatta]

He would have to have changed more than two things to actually use up all activations (or his third install would still be 'active'). Are there any spyware, viruses or something similar that could have given his cd-key to a pirate?

 

I don't really care about this guys as he sounds like he brought it upon himself when he changed his computer even though he knew it could ruin his game. Not that I have much sympathy for Bio either.

 

To make it all more delicious fully functioning cracks are already floating around *shrug*

I have yet to hear anything about that since the last time, any links to lots of comments that it actually works?

[Xard]

He would have to have changed more than two things to actually use up all activations (or his third install would still be 'active'). Are there any spyware, viruses or something similar that could have given his cd-key to a pirate?

 

I don't really care about this guys as he sounds like he brought it upon himself when he changed his computer even though he knew it could ruin his game. Not that I have much sympathy for Bio either.

 

To make it all more delicious fully functioning cracks are already floating around *shrug*

I have yet to hear anything about that since the last time, any links to lots of comments that it actually works?

 

All that is needed is ****ed up DRM. Nothing else.

 

Also, Bio was never specific what would constitute as PC change. Changing FAN equaling to new PC is ridiculous. Though not as ridiculous and offensive as installation limit. Shouldn't that thing be against law anyway?

 

Obviously I haven't searched for cracks as I won't get ME untill I upgrade my computer, but many people claim there's fully functional cracks nowadays. Which shouldn't be any sort of surprise, considering how quickly first nearly-perfect crack came out

[Moatilliatta]

All that is needed is ****ed up DRM. Nothing else.

 

Also, Bio was never specific what would constitute as PC change. Changing FAN equaling to new PC is ridiculous. Though not as ridiculous and offensive as installation limit. Shouldn't that thing be against law anyway?

That wasn't what I meant:

1) He has three activations when buying the game.

2) He reformats. Still three.

3) He installs a fan and we're down to two.

4) He changes his account and we're down to one.

 

He still has a minimum of one left unles he actually did more than he claims. This is propably an oversight on his part, I'm just pointing it out.

 

The real travesty in that thread is his replies from EA support.

Obviously I haven't searched for cracks as I won't get ME untill I upgrade my computer, but many people claim there's fully functional cracks nowadays. Which shouldn't be any sort of surprise, considering how quickly first nearly-perfect crack came out

Bioshock took many days and I would have expected ME to do so too. Also you're too trusting Xard.

[Xard]

I have no reason not to believe them

 

read: I have reasons to believe they have the crack and they haven't whined anywhere about them. Also such cracks are quickly made and spread

Edited June 19, 2008 by Xard

[Moatilliatta]

I can wrap my **** around the earth seven times, pretty nifty.

 

That wasn't the way you thought when you were suspicious of Bioware a couple or months back.

 

Edit: Awww, you edited

Edited June 19, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Xard]

[Deraldin]

All that is needed is ****ed up DRM. Nothing else.

 

Also, Bio was never specific what would constitute as PC change. Changing FAN equaling to new PC is ridiculous. Though not as ridiculous and offensive as installation limit. Shouldn't that thing be against law anyway?

That wasn't what I meant:

1) He has three activations when buying the game.

2) He reformats. Still three.

3) He installs a fan and we're down to two.

4) He changes his account and we're down to one.

 

He still has a minimum of one left unles he actually did more than he claims. This is propably an oversight on his part, I'm just pointing it out.

 

I may be reading this wrong, but it looks like you missed the initial install before the reformat.

 

The real travesty in that thread is his replies from EA support.

Obviously I haven't searched for cracks as I won't get ME untill I upgrade my computer, but many people claim there's fully functional cracks nowadays. Which shouldn't be any sort of surprise, considering how quickly first nearly-perfect crack came out

Bioshock took many days and I would have expected ME to do so too. Also you're too trusting Xard.

 

Quick search of a couple popular sites shows a few cracks that are reportedly working.

[Monte Carlo]

No.

 

Bioware doesn't really do it for me anymore, and they can stick their intrusive copy protection too.

[Moatilliatta]

@Deraldin, thanks well spotted.

1) He has three activations when buying the game.

2) He installs and has two

3) He reformats. Still two.

3) He installs a fan and we're down to one.

4) He changes his account and we're down to zero extra activations.

 

He still has the one that he activated after changing his account.

Edited June 19, 2008 by Gorth
Lets not go down that path...

[Jaesun]

I bought an finally finished it. Had no DRM problems at all.

 

I think it is one of the worst Bioware games I have played. Not that it is a bad game, it just.... seemed lacking.

[Morgoth]

I just finished it an hour ago. Good game. I wasn't disappointed, but wasn't blew away either. Still, I'm looking forward to ME2.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I took the mako out for a spin on the PC version and I was delighted to find that its now completely controllable. On the 360, it always steers where youre aiming instead of having steering and aiming indpendant of eachother as is the norm. I wonder if the 360 controls were a result of hardware constraints or just plain bad design.