Indie RPG Developer Details Why Ubisoft's DRM Will Be Effective

[Credge]

Cool.

Looks like RUSE is off my list of games I'll be buying.

 

[Quaidis]

I am more than certain that this has been mentioned in the last two pages, but here goes:

If you have to connect to their server in order to save the game, what happens five years down the line when they can either no longer afford to keep the server up or decides that not enough people play that rpg anymore? Will that mean that every copy of the game out there will no longer have an ability to save? And it's not like there's an option to play the game all the way through in one go if this is, indeed, an rpg.

Then there is the more classic: What if you simply have a very bad internet connection or can no longer afford to use the internet at your leisure?



The idea seems plausible against pirates on paper, but no one with power honestly stops to think about how this will effect and punish the customer anymore.

 

[the1ultimate]

Oh no! They're going to ship it with future games? Might be time for a full Ubisoft boycott. After all, a broken game that can't be played without code stored on a faraway server isn't all that useful to me anyway.

Maybe the pirated versions will be slightly more complicated than the legitimate versions, but won't they still be less broken if you can actually run them with the internet off?

I see how this could be an obstacle for pirates. Although, couldn't they just hack the savegame system out of the game and use a slate system similar to the ones on emulators? I'm sure I've seen a save slate system attached to a game cheating program... Somewhere.

 

[Calhoun347]

Holy fucking shit.

Or they just edit any drm entries out of the primary exe file. LIKE THEY'VE BEEN DOING FOR DECADES.

Actually I think the point is that parts of the game are not stored on your computer or on the disc, so this means you never have access to an intact product to crack. Even if you did so, you'd be missing information present on their servers. For example with the save games being stored on their servers you'd have to pretty much create a save game system.

If the game is playable, it has to be on your computer. Period. Whether they have to dump the ram and dig the game code out of it or what.

This isn't some flying car bullshit like that onlive scam, where games can be streamed over the internet through the power of magic and investments.

Are you being serious? It's not all that magical, or even difficult to understand (Onlive, that is.) The game is run on what essentially is a server farm. All the frames are sent to you, and your inputs are sent to the server. The only limiting factor is your latency. If it's low enough, you shouldn't notice a difference.

It's also not just about editing DRM "entries" from the exe file. that is oversimplifying. Many cracks also require an additional .dll file or more. It really depends on the detection scheme.

 

[RanD00M]

The true dedicated pirates will crack the DRM in a week or so.
They're more clever then developers give the credit for.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Ubisoft needs to learn that there are only 3 ways to contain pirates.

1: Be Ed, Ein or Cortana, or have them in your employ.

2: Embarass them into submission with kindness. (Also known as the Stardock Method)

3: Begin a thorough, systematic process of hunting down pirates and hackers, murdering them, then hanging them in the nearest town square to serve as an example to anyone else who might dare trepass against you.

 

[Stormz]

DRM does nothing but punish legit customers. Why can't these stupid game companies get it through their thick skulls? If this gets horrible sales it will just be "The pirates fault"

I love pc but this is why I don't play pc games anymore. I only play old ones. If this keeps up I will never buy another game for the computer again.

 

[Pinstar]

There is an option #4 for hackers. Kill Ubisoft.com with constant DNS attacks causing the saved game servers to constantly be down and crash, prompting a glut of complaints from all legitimate paying customers (including ones not privy to the who DRM debate) and a healthy dose of public outcry to the point where UBI is forced to release a patch that removes the online requirement.

 

[LTK_70]

Pff. Back in the old days, publishers could never own your saved games, simply because they weren't there. Every time you played a game you start at level one, and when you're halfway through and had to turn off the machine, you could start all over again.

(You can never overuse italics)

I kid. Well, it seems that preventing piracy and screwing over legit customers are directly proportional. It's a shame, really.

Wait a minute, aren't we overlooking a blatantly obvious backdoor here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this DRM prevents you from saving your game on your computer, right? So, if you treat is like Super Mario Bros for the NES, couldn't you simply not save and just leave the game running so you can continue playing later? I expect it would be easy enough to have the game actually running without having to connect to the servers, so you can just leave ACII running on the menu screen until you feel like playing again. It's impractical, but probably easier than the other options. And it's ideal for shorter games that you can finish if you put your back into it for a day. Or am I terribly wrong somewhere in this reasoning?

 

[Gindil]

I'm shocked and amazed...

It's online internet connection ALL. THE. TIME. for a Single. Player. Game!

I mean, really, REALLY?! You want a high level of protection for a game that people will play for about 12 hours then maybe it'll sit on the shelf or be traded in for a new game?

It boggles the mind how people will try to swallow this pill. Hey, I got a game for Jeff Vogel. IWBTG. Try the tetris room. Let's see how that works out for you.

I mean seriously, your plan will work but your consumers will do one of three things: Accept it, reject it, or look elsewhere for a different game. 10 to 1 odds says that you won't sell as many as you're hoping, what with the backlash and all.

 

[Low Key]

The best DRM Ubisoft could possibly come up with is instead of wasting time on that bullshit that won't work (let's not kid ourselves now, Ubi), when the gamer purchases the game, they don't get a disc but driving directions. Where to you ask? The Ubisoft headquarters. There, Ubisoft can monitor all gameplay aspects and there will be absolutely no pirating. Anything short of that, and the pirates will crack it, period. DRM does not work.

 

[Zannah]

So saving things on a central server instead

Snip ((Am I doing it right?)

Are you being serious? It's not all that magical, or even difficult to understand (Onlive, that is.) The game is run on what essentially is a server farm. All the frames are sent to you, and your inputs are sent to the server. The only limiting factor is your latency. If it's low enough, you shouldn't notice a difference.

It's also not just about editing DRM "entries" from the exe file. that is oversimplifying. Many cracks also require an additional .dll file or more. It really depends on the detection scheme.

No, Are YOU being serious? What you suggest here, is basicly, that every upcoming Ubisoft game would be an Mmo-like experience, where all the processing is done on an Ubi-soft controlled server - meaning that

a) Ubisoft would have to provide enough servers, to reflect all machines of everyone to buy their products ever (Which would be way more expensive, than handing out the games for free in front of wallmart)

b) You not only need an Internet connection 100% of the time, but also need a highspeed internet, to reach a somewhat bearable framerate, IN A SINGLEPLAYER OFFLINE-GAME.

So I'm pretty sure (thoug my boyfriend is the expert, i'm just speculating here), all that glorious drm does, is sending certain strings of code representing ingame progress to the Ubisoft server, which you then request back to unlock the game up to the point of where you left off (Since actually up/downloading save games as a whole, would mean an AWFUL lot of traffic. And that would laughably easily be cracked. (As would, saving stuff on a central server anyway - thats what mmos try, and good thing they never get pirated, so there's no private servers around, eh?)

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Effective at stopping piracy, sure. But it's equally effective at stopping sales. I'm not buying Ubisoft anymore, are you?

Not on the pc at any rate! The only game they have coming out in the near future i give a shit about is SC: Conviction which i always intended to get on the xbox. At least i'm getting the original product not a shoddy console port which is all ubi do for pc releases.

 

[pffh]

I don't get this constant internet access thing all the DRM crazed idiots want now. The people that have good internet can boycott the game and pirate it and the people that CAN'T pirate it but would probably buy it and play it (those with bad internet so they only play singleplayer games) can't use it if they buy it.

I can only see them losing customers with this.

 

[theultimateend]

I'm sure all the people will do is make the server 127.0.0.1 and then have your game constantly saving to your system.

Won't even screw with your internet connection.

 

[Amnestic]

I'm sure all the people will do is make the server 127.0.0.1 and then have your game constantly saving to your system.

Won't even screw with your internet connection.

I find myself in an interesting position.

On the one hand, I'd like to believe Ubisoft's programmers are smarter than making it that simple to get around.

On the other hand, it's stupid DRM to begin with, and thus I hope it is that simple.

 

[Radelaide]

I can see this driving a lot of PC gamers to consoles in the foreseeable future. I'm not saying that PC > Console or Console > PC. I'm not about go get into a flamewar. Because of the whole "connect to internet" drama, people aren't going to have the energy for it. Especially on crappy connections, driving players to find the games on other ports. I, for one, wouldn't buy AC2 on PC because of this and would buy it on Xbox or PS3. That goes for the other games with this DRM.

You can't spell Drama, without DRM

Prepare for an increase in console sales in the future,

Or you could, you know, make sure you don't encourage their bullshit by giving them money.

I wouldn't want to miss out on a great game because of some stupid DRM thing I don't agree with when there is a perfectly good port out there that I can enjoy the game on.

 

[Trivun]

GODDAMMIT, You could have told me this earlier!!!!!

Seriously Vogel, you could have mentioned all this sooner, it would have made my life a lot easier. I wrote an article for the Tech Section my student newspaper (my first printed work for them ) about the Ubisoft DRM issue and basically trying to instigate debate over whether or not DRM is really useful or if it really works in this day and age. It was in Friday's issue, it's a weekly paper, so if it gets put online on their website then I'll post it on this site.

Anyway, the more info and whatnot that I could have had, the better my article would have been (though admittedly it would have been printed anyway, since the editor is apparently tired of always writing the articles himself because no-one else ever wants to...).