Activation Bomb
How long you're allowed to enjoy a game is sometimes completely out of your hands.
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How long you're allowed to enjoy a game is sometimes completely out of your hands.
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Activation Bomb
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
...That almost sounded like advocation for piracy, man. The old (well, kind of new)"Why buy it when the legit copy won't even install properly because there's no server to turn it on" argument. And it's not like the old company would get the dough anyway, being out of business and all. And do you really want to go giving your money to a company who bought out/demolished/devoured the company you loved for making the game, even though they didn't patch it at the time, when the game won't even work?
This is way I like hard copy of games, you don't have to worry about someone else maintaining it for you.
If Steam ever went out of business, I'd be buggered, but if Microsoft went out of business, my Xbox would still run those games.
Kinda an issue for me.
If Steam ever went out of business, I'd be buggered, but if Microsoft went out of business, my Xbox would still run those games.
Kinda an issue for me.
I've played through some games like a bag o crisps but other times i conquer a game let it rest then string it up to be conquered again
This is why I'm still wary of Steam games - if those servers accidentally crash, burn down or go boom, my account data and all those games I paid for are gone. I know it's not really the same issue, but it is similar.
The thing that stings the most, I suppose, is that you pay good money for a game, and in the end you don't really own it - the publisher does. And once that particular company goes the way of the dodo you might as well have set that fifty on fire to light a cigar in the most stylish way possible.
The thing that stings the most, I suppose, is that you pay good money for a game, and in the end you don't really own it - the publisher does. And once that particular company goes the way of the dodo you might as well have set that fifty on fire to light a cigar in the most stylish way possible.
Now, I could blame this on the evil corporations who enforce harsh DRMs and anti-piracy measures against me, the paying customer. I could say that EA, UbiSoft, Activision and every other game publisher out there is evil for wanting to protect their investment.
But really, I'd rather blame it on the people who downloaded the game illegaly instead of paying for it. I find this situation not at all unsimilar to how alcohol is handled during certain sport events and similar activities. At first it was cool to serve alcohol, because everyone kept it within resonable levels. But then some guys started getting way too drunk, vomiting on others and picking fights with anyone they could. Before long, there was no more alcohol during that particular event because it got out of hand.
All these DRMs are the same way. They are not free (just as the loss of profit from selling alochol) and I am pretty sure that the publishers would rather do away with them, even if it only is to save money. But they feel the need to include them in the software to protect their investment. Sure, there are ways around the verifications, just as there are ways to smuggle your own alcohol to the game if you can't buy it at the arena.
This is one of those cases where it is obvious that the ones who lose out due to illegal game distribution, in the end, are the gamers themselves.
But really, I'd rather blame it on the people who downloaded the game illegaly instead of paying for it. I find this situation not at all unsimilar to how alcohol is handled during certain sport events and similar activities. At first it was cool to serve alcohol, because everyone kept it within resonable levels. But then some guys started getting way too drunk, vomiting on others and picking fights with anyone they could. Before long, there was no more alcohol during that particular event because it got out of hand.
All these DRMs are the same way. They are not free (just as the loss of profit from selling alochol) and I am pretty sure that the publishers would rather do away with them, even if it only is to save money. But they feel the need to include them in the software to protect their investment. Sure, there are ways around the verifications, just as there are ways to smuggle your own alcohol to the game if you can't buy it at the arena.
This is one of those cases where it is obvious that the ones who lose out due to illegal game distribution, in the end, are the gamers themselves.
Hmm... overall, I think this article had some valid points... the best one I think is that you pointed out that asking gamers (like myself) to buy games with online activation attached to them requires a great amount of trust from gamers... but for developers/publishers, its a one-way street. So... publishers/developers, if you expect us to trust YOU that much, then why don't you try trusting US, we might surprise you. Despite what you may think, only a small minority of PC gamers actually pirate their games... In my almost 20 years of life, I have not pirated a single game, and I have yet to meet in person, anyone who did (and this is from someone whose family has traveled all over my country, and I have even been to London once).
Compiling legacy code is definitely a pain. I have been trying to get an application back up and running from about 3 years ago and even that can be a pain. Trying to track down certain files that you would have had the 200 character long url for the download memorized down to the _'s and -'s. But now... gotta think hard about how to fix that stupid cryptic error and find the necessary google pages etc that took you hours last time you did it.
gee if they start that kinda bullshit just to play a game , i'll give up modern consoles and games and stick with the classics , hopefully they'll put a label on the game clearly stating the game must be signed in to play and the companies should have a patch that after 2 years no sign in needed... dam piracy ... and yeah i know this is mostly for pc but consoles are next
Companies can and will do only what we let them get away with.
More disturbing to me are the people who don't care and say "WOOO! STEAM AND PURE DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION YAY!" I don't think they'll be smiling so much in five or ten years when Valve* gets eaten by the EActiBlizUbi-OmiPlex and all of the play-privilege licenses for Steam get revoked rendering the bits they paid for unusable.
Meanwhile, industry pundits mock people who actually care about this as 'human magpies' [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-news-network/1407-On-Punctuation] for daring to actually want a physical copy that can't be taken from us on a corporate whim and if worst comes to worst still be cracked & played even if the developer goes belly up.
Which they will eventually.
We deserve exactly what we're getting for tolerating this to begin with and if anything encouraging such behavior further.
I think I'm going to go get a 'little' drunk now.
*-[small]This applies to other companies to obviously, but Valve is the convenient target to pick on and serves as an example.[/small]
More disturbing to me are the people who don't care and say "WOOO! STEAM AND PURE DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION YAY!" I don't think they'll be smiling so much in five or ten years when Valve* gets eaten by the EActiBlizUbi-OmiPlex and all of the play-privilege licenses for Steam get revoked rendering the bits they paid for unusable.
Meanwhile, industry pundits mock people who actually care about this as 'human magpies' [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-news-network/1407-On-Punctuation] for daring to actually want a physical copy that can't be taken from us on a corporate whim and if worst comes to worst still be cracked & played even if the developer goes belly up.
Which they will eventually.
We deserve exactly what we're getting for tolerating this to begin with and if anything encouraging such behavior further.
I think I'm going to go get a 'little' drunk now.
*-[small]This applies to other companies to obviously, but Valve is the convenient target to pick on and serves as an example.[/small]
You wouldn't really be buggered if Steam went out of business (Offline mode, anybody?)Booze Zombie said:
This really is a ticking clock for our screwedness. Every 'educated' gamer gets how this will destroy the industry, why doesn't the industry itself see?
Yes, but if I ever wiped my PC and I needed to redownload Steam and all of my games, I would be buggered.MurderousToaster said:
There is one argument you missed:
No body is going to want to play this game X years from now, and if they do there will probably be a strong enough community that a community made hack will be available. There will be classic games in every generation, those games will find a way to be preserved for the ages. The rest is just chaff people buy and throw away.
No body is going to want to play this game X years from now, and if they do there will probably be a strong enough community that a community made hack will be available. There will be classic games in every generation, those games will find a way to be preserved for the ages. The rest is just chaff people buy and throw away.
This is why I hope various publishers sign up for Good Old Games, since GOG is built upon the basis that they will make those games playable with no DRM and on modern systems.
If everything goes to hell in a handcart, I'll still have my GOG games (backed up), which don't require any cracks or patches to get them in working order.
If everything goes to hell in a handcart, I'll still have my GOG games (backed up), which don't require any cracks or patches to get them in working order.