Mass Effect, Spore To Use Recurring Validation

[fix-the-spade]

and they choose to alienate those customers who don't have a internet connection. People already complain about Steam requiring a internet connection...

True, but Steam is a genuinely useful system for techno-tards like me. It keeps my games updated and organised without needing discs. It's also pretty robust and user friendly. I can't remember any EA system being any of these things (esp' punkbuster)
This system just seems to be another layer of EA related guff, it probably won't raise piracy levels in general, but almost certainly hurt the games sales.

dumb question: I go away for 3 weeks, during which time my pc is neither switched on or connected to the web.
When I come back, will MA attempt to re-validate itself, read the date and order full re-activation, or just tell me I'm screwed?

 

[ComradeJim270]

This is a great thing to point out to PS3 fanboys how say '360 HAS NO EXCLUSIVES, IT'S ON PC BLAH BLAH BLAH'. Who wants to put up with this garbage when you can just play it right away, any time you want, on a 360? Of course, they'd then correctly point out that the 360 is about as reliable as a kleptomaniac security guard.

 

[JakubK666]

This is a great thing to point out to PS3 fanboys how say '360 HAS NO EXCLUSIVES, IT'S ON PC BLAH BLAH BLAH'. Who wants to put up with this garbage when you can just play it right away, any time you want, on a 360? Of course, they'd then correctly point out that the 360 is about as reliable as a kleptomaniac security guard.

...and PS3 is as expensive as the Guard's organs? lol j/k

 

[bkd69]

So what's the problem with just buying the retail copy, and then going ahead and downloading and installing the cracked version?

 

[mcderek3000]

Personally, I compare this version of copy protection to a man with a clipboard entering my house every 10 days to look at the contents and see if anything is stolen. If I cannot prove every object as authentic, I no longer have the right to my house and he takes the telly until proof is reinstated.
The problems are:

- Everytime something goes wrong - he forgets his glasses or his car crashes on the way - I no longer have ownership of my own house. With my experience buying around 50 or so computer games, I have had extraordinarily strange bugs in my validation software. Baldur's Gate refused to run at all - every single Australian-bought first-hand copy on my computer (after the store replaced it) said it can only run in the US and Aus - after 5 hours or so, I realised this was because I changed Windows' dialect from English(US) to English(Australian). Also, my ISP (the only one I can have in University Hall) blocks Steam access because it also services the University itself. Understandable, but Valve and a dozen other sellers on Steam lost a very willing customer nonetheless. Finally, Australian Internet is not always reliable - at parents' house, my old computer inexplicably refuses to connect at all, even when I try to reinstall.

- If you move the furniture in the house, it is misinterpreted as stealing it. If I have to reinstall the game 3 times for any reason - dodgy system, removal to make room, complete system upgrade - it's automatically gone. How fucking retarded is that?!

- It feels intrusive and it makes me feel like a criminal for buying a legal copy. I have never pirated a game in my life. Full stop. Even though Australians pay far more for their games than Americans. Yet I am being punished for other people's sins, when these people will crack the game and never worry about this issue. I understand that it feels less like an intrusion since it's electronic and I don't see it (unless the man loses his glasses and it makes me a criminal), but it's an intrusion nonetheless.

- The man takes note of all the furniture in my house (ie hardware setup)and sends it off to God-knows-who. Again, intrusion. If I can't see it happening, it must be OK.

Anyhow, I believe that EA's anti-piracy measures have thrown out the legitimate buying baby with the pirate bathwater. Mass Effect is the first Bioware PC game that I will not be buying.

 

[bonaparte]

Utterly, utterly pointless. Counter productive even. The PC is an open platform. That means pirate groups can decompile / reverse engineer the game executables and remove any copy protection. Unless they plan to stream game content from a server as you play (even then the pirates would probably just reverse engineer the server) this will do nothing but inconvenience and annoy those who legitimately buy the games, whilst at most delaying the pirates by a couple of days. If they can remove the one time activation that was present in Bioshock then they'll also remove the recurring activation proposed for these games. I am certain that people who never before considered pirating a game will end up looking for the hacked version just so they don't have to deal with the onerous drm.

Piracy on the PC won't be solved by technical measures - it can only be mitigated via community outreach and continued support for titles. Companies like Stardock have no DRM on their titles but still do well for themselves. Pushing out half arsed ports of console games and hoping for the best is not the way to go.