DRM Rant

[gundad]

I just bought a couple games from Amazon that need to be activated on Steam. What a major pain. I had to create a new social account with Rockstar then sign in to my window live account, all this from within my steam account. Go figure it didn't work and I spent 25 minutes trying to figure out how to play a game I paid for. Apparently Steam doesn't even know how to unlock a Rockstar game that needs windows live to activate.

Maybe because Im older, I just dont download stuff for free, I pay for it 90% of the time unless its not available (thats the 10%). But it seems like they are making it harder and harder for those of us who want to pay for something. Just take my money and let me play for gods sake!!!!!!

End Rant

[ibanezfoo]

I just bought a couple games from Amazon that need to be activated on Steam. What a major pain. I had to create a new social account with Rockstar then sign in to my window live account, all this from within my steam account. Go figure it didn't work and I spent 25 minutes trying to figure out how to play a game I paid for. Apparently Steam doesn't even know how to unlock a Rockstar game that needs windows live to activate.

Maybe because Im older, I just dont download stuff for free, I pay for it 90% of the time unless its not available (thats the 10%). But it seems like they are making it harder and harder for those of us who want to pay for something. Just take my money and let me play for gods sake!!!!!!

End Rant

I'm with you. All the frustration makes me sympathize with the pirates. Their versions just seem to work without any hassle.

[Merc1138]

This is why nobody likes "Games for Windows Live". Steam itself is fairly easy to deal with, GFWL is a god awful steaming pile of ****, and happens to be a prime example of paying customers getting the shaft while someone who pirates the game instead doesn't have to deal with the BS(when the game is cracked that is).

Of course that doesn't stop you from seeking cracks/patches for games like this, but I'd personally rather avoid buying them in the first place.

[Scratch705]

i'm guessing max payne 3 or GTA4?

that GFWL thing is a very stupid thing that microsoft is trying to do (ie compete with steam). and the bad news is that many companies are doing this with pc games. ubisoft got their uplay, EA has origin, and who knows what activision will bring out.

all this does is just push me more towards pirating to know that i won't have to deal with crap like this than buying it legit. i mean if companies are going to treat me like a pirate, then i'm just going to pirate and be less hassled than as a paying customer.

[Merc1138]

i'm guessing max payne 3 or GTA4?

that GFWL thing is a very stupid thing that microsoft is trying to do (ie compete with steam). and the bad news is that many companies are doing this with pc games. ubisoft got their uplay, EA has origin, and who knows what activision will bring out.

all this does is just push me more towards pirating to know that i won't have to deal with crap like this than buying it legit. i mean if companies are going to treat me like a pirate, then i'm just going to pirate and be less hassled than as a paying customer.

Even EA's Origin isn't as bad as GFWL(it's really more along the lines of just a halfassed steam clone).

Ubisoft... I haven't had the displeasure of using their uplay service yet, but they used to be one of the worst offenders of draconian DRM making games unplayable for people who actually spent money on their games while pirates just used a patch.

[Brianguy]

You won't like The Settlers 7. I was in the middle of single player when my internet disconnect. The game paused itself until the connection was back.

[Merc1138]

You won't like The Settlers 7. I was in the middle of single player when my internet disconnect. The game paused itself until the connection was back.

Yeah, that's the crappy Ubisoft DRM. Making it harder for people who paid the game to play, than the pirates. Although I recall they "updated" the DRM in some patches in a few games, of course that just means the pirates don't download the patches or just crack it again...

[Peter.Steele]

This is why nobody likes "Games for Windows Live". Steam itself is fairly easy to deal with, GFWL is a god awful steaming pile of ****, and happens to be a prime example of paying customers getting the shaft while someone who pirates the game instead doesn't have to deal with the BS(when the game is cracked that is).

Of course that doesn't stop you from seeking cracks/patches for games like this, but I'd personally rather avoid buying them in the first place.

GFWL is one of the big reasons that Arkham Asylum pissed me off so bad. (The other being that it was so damn short!) I seriously considered pirating Microsoft FSX because of GFWL, but wound up paying for it anyway and ... sure enough, I still hate GFWL. Meh.

Even EA's Origin isn't as bad as GFWL(it's really more along the lines of just a halfassed steam clone).

Ubisoft... I haven't had the displeasure of using their uplay service yet, but they used to be one of the worst offenders of draconian DRM making games unplayable for people who actually spent money on their games while pirates just used a patch.

Uplay doesn't bother me too much. I've put up with it on the Assassin's Creed games, and it's not been (too much of) a bother.

[gundad]

i'm guessing max payne 3 or GTA4?

.

Bingo! Max Payne was OK, I didn't like having to make another account, but GTA4 was just retarded with windows live. It is seriously broken and you have to use a work around to get it to work.

[Sakiri]

Most MS games are also available for xbox live. BF just plays them on there rather than on the PC.

I hate modern DRM. I hate the fact that even Diablo 3 requires an internet connection to play the single player thing.

Sometimes we'd take a laptop on vacation. Don't always have internet. Oh hey look, that 60 dollar game is useless because you can't be online!

At least Steam has offline mode. -_-

[MattG.]

You think it's bad at home, try getting GFWL or Origin working properly in a LAN center environment. In my experience, EA has had some of the worst DRM I've ever seen. If you've ever tried installing/playing BFMEII you'll know what I mean.

[Merc1138]

So Ubisoft in an interview is just claiming everything as mistakes, mistaken comments, and "we're listening to feedback"

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/05/ubisoft-drm-piracy-interview/

Seriously, they can go **** themselves.

[stilly]

I just bought a couple games from Amazon that need to be activated on Steam. What a major pain. I had to create a new social account with Rockstar then sign in to my window live account, all this from within my steam account. Go figure it didn't work and I spent 25 minutes trying to figure out how to play a game I paid for. Apparently Steam doesn't even know how to unlock a Rockstar game that needs windows live to activate.

Maybe because Im older, I just dont download stuff for free, I pay for it 90% of the time unless its not available (thats the 10%). But it seems like they are making it harder and harder for those of us who want to pay for something. Just take my money and let me play for gods sake!!!!!!

End Rant

And THAT is a rant? How about this, you paid for the game but now can not play it? So then go and download it from a torrent site get it installed or ready to play as it comes and PLAY IT. What is illegal about playing a game that you paid for?

I have a copy of crysis that is not even out of the box but I have loaded it up and played it online with an ILLEGAL key! 0o0o0o0o0. Yeah whatever, the truth is that I do not care to go and hunt anything down. I will just download it right then and there, probably already UPDATED and play it. There ARE exceptions but no guilty consious over stuff I already own. Don;t feel so bad and insert more foul language if you are gonna rant.


BTW, the truth is this, 90% or 10% makes no difference. You are human and by rationalizing it off that way you make yourself feel better about doing something illegal. Don't tell anyone that again as it only makes your argument weaker.

Maybe they need to stop making games cost $60 when they will be buggy as hell when they are released and after crashed servers and 8 updates they are almost okay to run.

We never had this bad of a problem when we only had BBSes to log into and update software. Yeah you know what I am talking about. With the rise of the internet, the programmers have gotten lazy and careless with their programming and they think they **** gold and we have to pay through the nose for every piece of crap they drop be it a nugget or turd...

[ibanezfoo]

We never had this bad of a problem when we only had BBSes to log into and update software. Yeah you know what I am talking about. With the rise of the internet, the programmers have gotten lazy and careless with their programming and they think they **** gold and we have to pay through the nose for every piece of crap they drop be it a nugget or turd...

I may or may not have run some HPVAC boards back in the day... WWiV, Renegade/Telegard... To be fair back in the day programmers actually wrote code. They knew their stuff and were computer nerd types. Been to many user gatherings (think Hackers, but with less cheeziness and less awesome 3D graphics when you were hacking) Anyone who's been in the business long enough can easily spot those guys who have it and who don't... who actually grew up with and knows all about computers or those who just went to school because they thought computers would make them rich. The later are what is ruining everything. That and the Microsoft mentality that its OK to release something %60 finished and use the money to fund the completion of the product. That is BS. Imagine people buying cars with only one brake caliper and 2 functioning cylinders in a V8. Maybe all the seats aren't yet installed. And people would pay money for this, full price! This would never fly in the car industry so why people accept it in the computer market is beyond me. Why is mediocrity the accepted norm? Its killing me that this mentality is creeping into the Linux community as well... I think part of it is all these kids growing up being told they are awesome and never fail at anything... that its ok not to strive for perfection. As long as they feel good and gave it their best shot it is a success... forget about the fact that nothing works, that is irrelevant.

I have witnessed this first hand as my company has a software division. They catch wind of a competitor creating some new niche software and our guys crank it out just to be first to market... but who cares because the software never works correctly and customers HATE it. They all went to India's Microsoft programming school (which means they don't actually know how to code) and then buy a bunch of third party DLLs or whatever that they have no idea what they really do or how to troubleshoot anything and wrap their buggy crap code around them. And unless its on a Windows XP box with .NET 3.5 and a bunch of tweaked IE settings it ain't working, period, because thats what the M$ book said to do so that is the right and only way to do it. Its a steady stream of fail from beginning to end and then they complain people don't want to buy their software or the big wigs at the top lie and say everything is awesome and customers love our stuff... but then they don't have to look at the trouble ticket list like we do either... (we don't support their software directly but we still get tickets we have to forward on)

And then there are the crappy "programming" languages like Java...

I was just talking to one of my coworkers the other day about this... about how I am getting tired of computers. I am not learning or being challenged. Everything is be catered to the idiot masses. Big colorful buttons for the retards to mash and get their facebook. I still like my networking stuff, programming routers and whatnot... that stuff still gets me stoked... but desktops are becoming pathetic. Even servers. Win2008R2 is stupid easy to setup domain controllers and whatever... DFS and all that... I'm not worried about losing my job because any idiot can do this stuff these days, I'm worried about not having a new challenge... something to learn that is useful and challenges me mentally. Instead of making people learn and use their intelligence, we are dumbing down the machines to cater to the primates... what ever happened to wanting to better yourself, learn something? I'm not saying computers shouldn't be easier to use, but I am saying they are going about it the wrong way.

meh... just venting...sorry

[stilly]

Can we get an AMEN!

Let it OUT brotha!

I admit that I live in my own world at times and when I heard that it was hard to program a router I was like, what is so hard? log in password, and click on the settings! Then I found this thing called CLI and I MUST have one now! I want to program a router via command line interface! Prolly the next best thing to DOS 3.2. I never wnt to school, I had to rely on cheap copies of software that my dad brought me with no instructions on how to use it or play the games. I had to learn it myself I grew up with the mentality that school (computer classes) was for chumps that were gonna be posers and not have real working knowledge... Yeah, this WHOLE freaking world is catering to people that do not know much, except that they MUST have 16GB of RAM for their desktop computer and they HAVE to have the LATEST card out there to play their starcraft 2... yeah WTFE!