Early Dark Souls Players Get a Nasty Surprise

[Doclector]

Creative punishment? Awesome.

Truly the best thing since pirates found themselves unable to jump in arkham asylum.

I have to say though, considering the market for dark souls is pretty gaming-masochistic, could this prove counter-intuitive?

I'll also laugh heartily if anyone somehow defeats one of the things.

 

[bakan]

This is pretty cool and a little more advertising like this for the successor of an awesome game can't be bad

 

[World's End]

Now that's good. It'd be pretty enjoyable to see the people who got it early's reaction when they realise that they can't progress in the game.

 

[LorienvArden]

Hmm... interesting idea.

I also bought my copy of Spacemarine one day early, but that was totally ok, as Steam wouldn't allow you to install the game until it was released. Wasn't a big deal for me, as I litterally installed it the minute it went live here in europe. I think the "nasty surprise" Is a fair way to keep everybody playing by the same rules. If it's sheduled for release on a specific day then you just don't get to play before that. They could have gone the MS-live approach and just lock down your account for breaking the rules, but this seems quite fair inmo.

It's definitly not the first "hidden DRM" though. Settlers 2 was designed in a way that it could detect if you installed the game from a legit source or a burned CD (back in the days of yore where CD images where a pipedream at best). If it concluded that you pirated the game, it literally broke your economy by having select buildings freak out and producing absolutly useless sheep.

On the other hand, Titanquest suffered from it's hidden DRM - when entering or exiting a dungeon it could suddenly freeze if it detected a crack or bad DVD as part of it's security check. As it gave no reason for the freeze, the reviews plummeted as faggy pirates dared to complain about their broken games.

I suppose the always on DRM would be in the PC version of the game, as it's currently all the rage to bend over your customers and shoving glowing hot steel I-beams up their rear for daring to support legit purchases.
The whole DRM business has ruined many of my favorite series - most notably Heroes of Might and Magic and possibly even Diablo 3.

Let's suffice to say that pirated versions without the DRM will propably not notice unless they are stupid enough to actually play online.

 

[BanicRhys]

I don't know much about this game but isn't only possible for BPs to invade your world if you're in body form? And isn't usually more beneficial to be in ghost form at all times?

 

[MrAkuma201]

That is EPIC! They know how to do things LIKE A BOSS! 8D

 

[suitepee7]

Punishing the wrong people isn't it? I doubt most, if any, people playing early literally stole a copy from somewhere. Probably just got it from a store legitimately, just the story released it a day early.

Somehow I doubt this. In a world where products are shipped incomplete with bugs or with the online architecture not quite complete, I feel like any store getting caught selling product early would be at risk of losing that distributor. So, I would say that it probably is pirates.

not quite. at an estimate, the last 10 games i have preordered online, i have recieved at least 7 of them a day early. the majority now have to be activated through steam, so i still cannot play them, but it is incredibly common for this to happen. it all depends on the postal service.

personally, i think this is a brilliant idea. if the people bought it legitimately and it arrived early, then the devs have a right to say that they still shouldn't be playing until release date. the features will be disabled once the game is officially released anyway, so whats the harm?

 

[Madmanonfire]

Black Phantoms in Demons Souls were absolutely EVIL. How the heck was I supposed to reach Flamelurker - let alone beat him - when this uber-powered bastard was hunting me down?

You just have to run to the giant pit on the right, fall down to each platform, and reach the bottom without dying. The boss room is through the lone tunnel at the bottom. It's the easiest boss to reach in the game. (excluding final bosses from worlds 2-5)
That's the one place you shouldn't have to worry about BP's in. By the time they join, you should be at least near the bottom of the pit.

Edit: This is hilarious, awesome, and I'm so getting Dark Souls on day one.

 

[punipunipyo]

DRM: Dreadful Rampaging Monster?

WOW, where was this when there are so many of those useless DRM that could be cracked in like a week after launch? THIS is the way it should be... You cheat, we give you monkey for your backs! think, this could be for EVERYTHING a game that's equipment heavy, like DEAD ISLAND for example, there is a monster that will BURN your weapon, and if you cheat/crack/stole account... we spawn this creature up your @&&~~!!! breaking your hard earned weaponry, and kill you so much that you will quit this game and call the NPCs HAXORS!

 

[lolmynamewastaken]

i love the idea of just some bloke sitting there in the game developing place (is it a studio?) and just spamming the "Fuck You" button and laughing manically. do you reckon they can just copy paste the Black Phantoms in to like every other game ever for DRM purposes?

 

[Cybylt]

How is this an always-on DRM? It was just a little thing to mess with people who got the game before they were supposed to.

The game's not even on PC, I think the article writer was just assuming it since the phantoms can only be sent to you if you're online. You can sidestep the whole thing by playing offline, which has been shown as entirely possible in live streams of the game.

Dark Souls, much like its predecessor just has that "sort of" online thing with the messages, blood stains and phantoms zoning in and out of your world.

 

[Aeonknight]

That's cool, but you know there will be that one crazy bastard who actually beats one of the things.

Idk about that. Even most legitimate "super bosses" in a game will have the AI programmed to be beatable to a certain degree. Dark Souls developers know that the players playing at the time weren't playing legit. So why send a maxed out Black Phantom with top gear/stats/spells, then give them a shoddy "plays nicely with humans" AI?

If I had to guess, these phantoms have absolutely perfect timing/distance judgment and can kill you in 1 hit guarenteed. They're like a good bot back in Counter Strike days. They do not miss. Ever.

 

[Corven]

That's cool, but you know there will be that one crazy bastard who actually beats one of the things.

Idk about that. Even most legitimate "super bosses" in a game will have the AI programmed to be beatable to a certain degree. Dark Souls developers know that the players playing at the time weren't playing legit. So why send a maxed out Black Phantom with top gear/stats/spells, then give them a shoddy "plays nicely with humans" AI?

If I had to guess, these phantoms have absolutely perfect timing/distance judgment and can kill you in 1 hit guarenteed. They're like a good bot back in Counter Strike days. They do not miss. Ever.

I doubt they specifically made better AI opponents to battle against these people, and if they did they better add them to the game for extra challenge.

They most likely have the same AI as normal black phantoms just with super stats. I mean, Black Phantoms from Demon's Souls were relentless in their own right, catch ones attention and that thing will not stop hunting you.

 

[Echo136]

This article is very misleading. If Dark Soul's is anything like Demon's Souls, there isnt always on DRM in this game, as you could play Demon's Souls offline.

 

[SemiHumanTarget]

The Esuteru dispatch in Japanese doesn't say anything about DRM. It's just a single headline that says, "Looks like From Software is sending maxed out security characters after people with the game pre-release date"

The accompanying photo has the stats of the maxed out character. I can't quite read the kanji next to the second statistic (the katakana says "Souls"), but I'm guessing it may be the number of times the character has killed other players.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

everything i read about this game makes me want it more. roll on 7th Oct

 

[General BrEeZy]

piracy kills, children!