DRM Server Failure Knocks Out Dragon Age DLC for Days - UPDATED

[Booze Zombie]

I'm reminded of this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vxEimC3HME

 

[Dogstile]

Oh, that's why? I've been bothered by that since Sunday seeing as my uncle gifted me origins, awakenings and all the DLC for the game.

Hey, EA.

Spoiler

Fuck you.

Edit:

Its fixed already.

 

[E-Penguin]

Solution is simple to overcome actually. Locate your dragon age folder navigate into the settings subfolder and open 'addins.xml' as a notepad document replace all RequiresAuthorization="1" with RequiresAuthorization="0" and all of the DLC will be functional again.


*Edit*
Default location is: C: | User | | Documents | BioWare | Dragon Age | Settings | AddIns.xml

Can we get someone to confirm this? :/

Didn't work for me, but it'll probably work for some people.

Same with signing out. Didn't work for me, but works for some.

Boy, isn't this DRM just awesome?

Worked for a friend of mine, but ONLY if you crack the game first.

Huh?... What is the point of the crack then if it's job isn't to stop the authentication?

Good question.

 

[Antari]

The sad part is they likely won't change a thing. I'm very happy with my decision not to buy any games from them anymore.

Point 3: Refusing to buy games from a company because they (much like others dealing with large cost productions) try to protect their products is not valiant or honourable--or hip, alternative, rad, steadfast--or whatever other positive trait you are headed for, but selfish.

Oh so just because they made it, I have to buy it huh? What sort of positive spin word will you be attaching to the situation of me getting ripped off? RAD??? Thanks but I'll keep being happy with my decision on the matter. And if you think I'm a bad person for looking out for myself in this world, then go right ahead.

 

[Canadish]

So...I buy the game...and I don't get to play it...
But if I pirate it for free...I can?

Is this how the deal works? Okay, I'll be paying a visit to my favorite "shop" then.

Seriously though, Bioware. Get your act together. Your sucking lately.

Wait, aren't you the guy who had some 30 post about how you.... oh wait, never mind.

You are a closet DA2 fan it seems.

That's cool, but don't promote people doing what you're insinuating.

It's bad form to be pro pirate.

Seriously tho, with all your posts, your motivation seems odd to me.

EDIT: The servers are fine for me. What is the problem again? Must be a PC thing, or else the problem is already fixed.

While I'm certainly not a fan of Dragon Age 2, I'll admit to often playing devils advocate in my posts.
And again, while I'm not a pirate myself, I do think that situations like this are not helping developers causes. It paints piracy in a good light and legitimate purchase in a bad one.
I'd buy the Witcher 2 one principle alone, regardless of content (it is looking pretty nice though...).

The post on this thread is mostly a joke though, a hypothetical customers see's this.
Whats he going to think?
Sometimes it's its hard to get meaning through words, especially on the internet. And I've got no particular talent with words to boot.

And, I don't really think I have a motive...
I wouldn't want to turn everyone into a pirate, though I certainly think its a good idea to stop and think about the morality of how evil is it really?
I've got some friends in the UK with 3 cars, and the gits still download games.
Meanwhile, I have others from Malaysia, who don't have nearly as much, and pretty much need to download games in order to play them.

There's good and bad to it being how it is at the moment as well.
It stops game companies sticking the price up on games needlessly high, as people have an alternative way to get hold of them.
But at the same time, its probably a contributing factor to the inflation of prices, due to less profits reaching the Publisher and Developers.
And THEN on the other hand, we know they've been inflating the degree to which piracy actually is a problem, meaning publishers are likely charging more then needed, using piracy itself to their advantage.
Also, it can act as a way for someone to try a demo of a game if developers wont give one out. Which sounds pretty fair considering it could be a $60 blind purchase.
But will people actually just "demo" it?
And so on and so on.

It's a real grey area, pretty much down to a case by case basis on whether its right or wrong.
In my own opinion at least.

 

[Dorkmaster Flek]

And publishers wonder why so many people pirate PC games... For now, it seems that playing the console versions is at least saving me from this idiocy, but the minute that changes, I'm gone.

 

[Nmil-ek]

The sad part is they likely won't change a thing. I'm very happy with my decision not to buy any games from them anymore.

Point 1: The issue is fixed.

Point 2: They are introducing a patch that will take care of the lingering issues some of their users were and still are experiencing with the DAO DLC (an issue that is not experiencing by the majority).

Point 3: Refusing to buy games from a company because they (much like others dealing with large cost productions) try to protect their products is not valiant or honourable--or hip, alternative, rad, steadfast--or whatever other positive trait you are headed for, but selfish.

My opinion. Not like it matters. Make of it what you wish.

It's not selfish it's called capitalism if I find a service slow, inefficient, don't like the direction said company or product is heading then I take my money elsewhere as he decided to do. Bioware do not care about you you're a namless statistic at the end of a yearly buisness report are you seriously trying to attach motions of honour to a fucking games company? Heh good luck with that.

Secondly the trying to protect point is moot how are they protected? Are they reducing the number of cracks/hacks/sales lost, I think you'll find no infact that's a growing number as they stumble around repeating the same moronic easily circumvented measures. Name a game I can find a crack, dlc, dlc decrypter, keygen, ripped ISO whatever in a matter of seconds.

 

[godofallu]

Yeah Bioware's really on fire lately. What with that bad game + the DRM issues + the review score scandal.

I can't wait till their giant MMO flops, they fuck up ME3, and the fans abandon ship. Seriously sometimes you need to hit the ground before you can get up again.

 

[JET1971]

On a similar note this is why I never bought games on steam. If the serger is down you can't play any of the games you own.

Steam has the offline mode that you can do at anytime. recently my internet was down because i moved and had to wait for the cable guy and played Portal with steam with no issue at all. if you are already logged in to steam its in the steam menu right under change user. and if it cant login it asks if you want to do offline mode.

 

[DTWolfwood]

got to love it when they slap you in the face for giving them money ^-^

DRM, the most facepalm inducing piece of technology in videogaming.

I have never once bought 'DLC' and never will. This is why. I refuse to support any sort of business ethic where developers and publishers not only nickle & dime their customers but then have the gall to treat those customers who're loyal enough to buy these things like criminals with draconian DRM.

Which is a pity. I really want to find out what happens with Liara and the Shadow Brokers. But likely I never will and this is why.

You make me very sadface sometimes Bioware. Why do you treat me like dirt?

agree on all fronts, If you really are never buying DLC, (my very first ever DLC was THAT DLC tbh, which i still have not played, thanks Shogun2 >.<) Heres a Let's Play [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZQdJwCaCFE] of it done by Shamus Young, one of the contributors/staffers of this site, if you are interested in finding out. ^-^

 

[eNTi]

i so do love it when stuff like that happens and all the fan-boys and anti-piracy-advocates are proven wrong time and time again.

in your face!

 

[ImprovizoR]

This is why I always use a crack on single player games. Funny how hackers are the ones I have to turn too when I want my purchased game to work without problems. Fuck DRM! If consoles don't have DRM neither should PC's. Piracy is plaguing consoles just as much as PC's but no one talks about it. And we all know that as long as you ignore the elephant in the room he doesn't really exist. I would love to see the reactions of console gamers if they're introduced with DRM.

 

[Wicky_42]

Point 3: Refusing to buy games from a company because they (much like others dealing with large cost productions) try to protect their products is not valiant or honourable--or hip, alternative, rad, steadfast--or whatever other positive trait you are headed for, but selfish.

I'd counter that with: blind faith and continued support of companies heading down an industry-killing path by implementing a constrictive practice that demonstrably only causes inconvenience, and only to paying customers at that, is foolish and blind; during and after companies make mistakes it's pretty much expected for there to be a loss of faith in them and they should at least consider a change of practice to prevent those mistakes from ever happening again.

According to sources you yourself quoted, not only had they been aware of and not patched an issue before launch, but they then put that patch on hold at the detriment to some of their customers. The complaints about this issue were sufficient to initially mask reports of a new validation issue, indicating the size of the problem being causally ignored by the company.

Does that sound like a company you should blindly and faithfully support? One that releases a game with known bugs, and procrastinates on getting them fixed whilst other issues start mounting up? I'm not even going to start referencing all the complaints of lazy design from the sequel.

In closing, selfishness has nothing to do with refusing to buy from a company. Bad choice of word, and poor sentiment.

 

[jpoon]

Hah, hilarious, only one more reason why Bioware is supporting piracy by supporting lame ass DRM.

 

[newwiseman]

This is why I buy games and then crack them.

 

[SanguineSymphony]

The sad
Point 3: Refusing to buy games from a company because they (much like others dealing with large cost productions) try to protect their products is not valiant or honourable--or hip, alternative, rad, steadfast--or whatever other positive trait you are headed for, but selfish.

My opinion. Not like it matters. Make of it what you wish.

What purchasing decision isn't driven by self-interest?

 

[Therumancer]

This is exactly why something needs to be done to stop DRM entirely, there is no excuse or justification for this from a multi-billion dollar industry. The "Well someone might pirate our game" excuse was fine before the industry started doing worse things to far more people, legitimate paying customers no less. Piracy is bad, but it's hard to accept it as the greater evil coming from a billion dollar industry looking down on us peons from their giant castle made of money and denying us access to the goods we rightfully paid for. If they weren't putting DRM and such into the products, there would be no need for online connection and verification, and then people wouldn't be dependant on the company keeping their system running, and being at the mercy of whenever they happen to notice properly and get it fixed.

What's more I think them being focused on newer games at the expense of their older ones demonstrates a HUGE problem here, because again, people paid for these products. It doesn't matter if they aren't making as much money from it right now. Heck, 20 years from now these people STILL have a right to their products. I'm waiting to see if (all EULAs aside) we ever see a successful lawsuit down the road when a popular game & DLC set like "Dragon Age Origins" is no longer supporting by the company. Look at how there are fanatics who still play games like "Ultima 7".

I think doing away with DRM on later releases is a good thing, but companies need to find ways to remove DRM from current products to restore functionality.

 

[Mutak]

DRM hurts legitimate customers way more than it hurts pirates. Incidents like this turns customers into pirates. How many more incidents like this do we need before publishers get this through their thick skulls.

 

[Doom972]

While I don't want to sound like I'm protecting draconic DRM, I have to say that this game works fine, as long as you take some time to google the problem.
I bought the Digital Deluxe edition from Steam two days before this problem started.
After a quick look at the official forum I saw the AddIns.xml fix and the DLC was working properly again.
Also, today I didn't have internet access for a few hours and I managed to run DAO via the Steam offline mode with my DLC still active.

 

[Eternal_24]

I wondered why the hell my DLC suddenly became unregistered to my account, I've been having to play offline just to access my save files. I don't understand why this mechanic is even part of the game, it does nothing to prevent piracy, all it does is cause hassle for people who actually paid for the DLC which seems rather counter productive...

This also happened to me when I transfered my Steam installation over to a new hard drive, suddenly I was no longer able to access my save files or DLC because the registry item for the stupid updater service needed to be pointed to the new location, even though none of the other 15 games I own through Steam had any issues at all with me changing the installation path.

Pirates don't have to worry about any of this, all they do is change the settings so that the game doesn't connect to BioWare's servers and they can play whatever DLC they like, whereas people like me who bought it can't even play their DLC, don't even get a hint as to why and are forced to adopt the solution that pirates use in order to play the game they paid for.