GSC Mulls Always-On DRM for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
I think the Stalker series is one of the best FPS games of all time, but i will NOT buy a single player game that requires me to be online to play it after completing the installation process. EVER.
The reason piracy is so widespread in post-communist countries is because the industry has refused to adapt to OUR economic possibilities. Since the minimum income here is somewhere around 150 euros/month, selling your games at even 20 a pop is unfeasible. Internet usage in post-communist countries is also low (somewhere around 35%) and reliable connections, while not unheard of, are not that widespread. If GSC wants to lower piracy rates in post communist countries then they should adapt its prices to the economic possibilities of the citizens living there rather than enforce arbitrary DRM schemes that more often than not encourages piracy rather than discourage it.
I'm getting it on PS3, so I don't need to worry about DRM, but finally a topic where I can ***** about getting the series full cost and none of the games working on my computer despite meeting the requirements! Yay! *bitterness*
This is a stupid idea. If you want to play the game on the go, you can't. If your internet goes out, you can't, if you have slow internet, you have age-long loading times that renders the game nearly unplayable, if you don't have internet (for which I will say neiner neiner neiner, because you can't read this) you can't play the game. Who in their right mind thought this would be a GOOD idea?
This is a stupid idea. If you want to play the game on the go, you can't. If your internet goes out, you can't, if you have slow internet, you have age-long loading times that renders the game nearly unplayable, if you don't have internet (for which I will say neiner neiner neiner, because you can't read this) you can't play the game. Who in their right mind thought this would be a GOOD idea?
I bought 3 copies of the original STALKER, and another of Call of Pirpyat AFTER playing the russian version.
If it has always on DRM it will be NO SALE. And this is one of the few games I would even consider pre-ordering to.
STALKER 1 was a huge success in Russia and Eastern Europe despite that area being notorious for piracy.
GSC DO NOT screw your fans like that. Blizzard probably won' get away with it in D3, and your fanbase is a bunch of Russian hackers and also /v/ so you will likely lose even harder.
If it has always on DRM it will be NO SALE. And this is one of the few games I would even consider pre-ordering to.
STALKER 1 was a huge success in Russia and Eastern Europe despite that area being notorious for piracy.
GSC DO NOT screw your fans like that. Blizzard probably won' get away with it in D3, and your fanbase is a bunch of Russian hackers and also /v/ so you will likely lose even harder.
I guess that they were living under a rock in Pripyat for the past 3 years. Don't they know how well this worked out for Ubisoft?
While I'm glad to hear that this DRM isn't guaranteed to be in the product, and that there might be a chance that I buy it a year or two after release when the game will actually be in a playable condition. 
Eh, my internet goes down at least once a month, lately its been weekly. It'd suck if it kicked me out of the game or wouldn't let me boot it up while that happened. And I live in a rather populated area, its not like i'm in a farm in nowhereofcourseyouhavenofuckinginternet's ville.imperialreign said:
So yeah, it'd be an inconvenience, not that I couldn't do anything else, but i'd rather not have to go "Hey, lets play some stalker while my internet is down... shit".
Treating your dedicated, small fan base like that isn't going to help you GSC Game World. It's probably a good idea that you publicized this before you implemented it to see the fan response. And it's probably not happy.
So now this type of DRM is starting to spread, my thoughts turn to what DRM mechanism they will dream up next when this one does not work....
How about when you want to play the game someone from the company has to come around to your house with a PC which you can play it on while they watch and make sure you don't do anything untoward. Then when you finish they take the PC away again.
I think we all know where it is going though. To on-line services where you rent the game and never have a local copy, so there is zero possibility of you copying it. And of course to rent the game for as long as you need to finish it will cost more that it used to cost to just buy a copy....
How about when you want to play the game someone from the company has to come around to your house with a PC which you can play it on while they watch and make sure you don't do anything untoward. Then when you finish they take the PC away again.
I think we all know where it is going though. To on-line services where you rent the game and never have a local copy, so there is zero possibility of you copying it. And of course to rent the game for as long as you need to finish it will cost more that it used to cost to just buy a copy....
CoP was pretty bug free it crashed only like 2 or 3 times and I got stuck a few times because the game physics fucked up something although CoP world is the smallest of the 3.gunner1905 said:
This is wierd , maybe I am missing something ?
STALKER was PC only, the game sold good enough to spawn sequels , now a full blown STALKER 2... how did piracy ruin thier sales so badly they must wreck legitimate gamers fun ?
The answer lies in the last paragraph , the one where they say STALKER 2 will be developed for consoles as well...
... another PC game gone to the money.
Ah well, I have too many games I need to finish anyways so I can skip on this, probably blame that on piracy.
'PC sales sucked, not because we put in crappy DRM to mess up the legitimate buyers but because of pirates... who pirated the game despite us messing up legitimate buyers to prevent ... piracy...eeerrr, yes... you umm know... '
STALKER was PC only, the game sold good enough to spawn sequels , now a full blown STALKER 2... how did piracy ruin thier sales so badly they must wreck legitimate gamers fun ?
The answer lies in the last paragraph , the one where they say STALKER 2 will be developed for consoles as well...
... another PC game gone to the money.
Ah well, I have too many games I need to finish anyways so I can skip on this, probably blame that on piracy.
'PC sales sucked, not because we put in crappy DRM to mess up the legitimate buyers but because of pirates... who pirated the game despite us messing up legitimate buyers to prevent ... piracy...eeerrr, yes... you umm know... '
Worgen said:
Don't miss the expanded meaning of the rule, you have to make the official version BETTER than if you had pirated it not by merely "not make it shit".Aeshi said:
Look at Valve games, you get hooked into a lot of good shit going legit like cloud-save, instant updates, steam overlay, steam-community plugin, centralised screenshot organiser, and things like Left 4 Dead 2's weekly "mutation" (that everyone gets at same time for most players) and Team Fortress 2's almost constant stream of updates and tweaks.
Trying to rip that off is just too hard. Even pirates would struggle to keep TF2 as up to date as Valve does. Reverse engineering or cracking each update. No way.
This is what Valve is talking about with "games as a service".
Gabe N knows how fleeting it is to sell as game as merely a .exe file that can be copied infinitely if the CD key lock is broken. But to use the key to unlock a really valuable online capability, THAT is important.
Little things like legit owners of Portal getting updates that teased Portal 2.
Meh, I won't buy it if it has this. That is why I don't touch my Ubisoft games. They are just plain annoying to play. If you don't agree with me, I don't care. I also don't give a shit for the excuse that it's protecting their property... because it's not. It may take the pirates longer to get through, but they will.