Screw you Ubisoft, screw you!

[Rheinmetall]

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

EDIT: i removed the Piracy statement.

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

 

[iLikeHippos]

I won't follow your crusade, but I will scratch my balls, grab my beer and read this thread for what it's worth - and not necessarily in that order.

To be frank though, Ubisoft hasn't released anything worthwhile lately, so I will not buy their games regardless of DRM or not.

 

[Madman123456]

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

Steam isn't quite as bad as the others. Valve does have some nice deals on there and the Copy Protection Function on Steam is something that annoys not only Customers, but also some Pirates from time to time, which is a big Step in the right Direction. Also, Steam does have some Advantages for the Customer.

Origin has this thing in the Eula where they tell you that you're ok with them spying on your Computer. They don't tell you what they're looking for, they don't tell you if and where they save that Data and how save my Data will actually be. For all i know, those Servers could be hacked and someone could manipulate the Data they gathered from me. Make it look like i had Child Pornography on my Computer or something. I wouldn't willingly install Spyware on my System and through my clicking "I've read this Terms and Accept" validate the Company that made the Spyware.
Everyone who did install Origin on their Machine has lost the right to tell anyone that they should be more careful with their Data on the Internet. Because they willingly installed Spyware on their System with no Idea how save the gathered Data will be or what exactly it is going to be used for.

As if that weren't enough of a Reason to not buy their Products: EA is an Asshole. Seriously, if EA where a Person, you'd punch that Person in the Face all the Time. If EA where a Person, EA would steal Candy from little Kids. And then rip all their Limbs off, rape their Moms and made their Dad watch it all and then rape them too.
EA apparently likes buying out other Software Studios and then driving their Franchises into the Ground. See "Westwood" and "Command&Conquer". And then they piss all over their Graves. See "Command&Conquer: Generals 2".
I'd say that People should boycott EA, but with the origin Software on top of it all it would seem like i'd tell people not to hire a Guy who sticks glowing hot Nails in your Eyeballs.


Ubisoft is a different Story. Ever heard of someone that sells stuff and then ships out Bricks to the People who paid for a new Printer or something? Ubisoft is that Guy. If you buy from them, there's a good Chance that the Product just wont work and is indeed less useful then a Brick.
With some Games, you're not going to get your Moneys Worth. Other Games just wont work on your Computer and other Games still will count *every* Installation of new Hardware towards the smallest Install limit ever seen.


I ask that you Guys don't include Valve and Steam on your Hatelist, because that is like going after the Thief while the Guy who is currently in the Process of raping your Grandma is cheering you on.
Steam isn't really a good Thing, but i wont say that buying a Steamgame is hurting the Industry.
However, if you buy a Game from Ubisoft or EA and do your Part to keep these Companies around, you are hurting the Videogame Medium.

 

[Rheinmetall]

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

1. Steam isn't quite as bad as the others.


2. Ubisoft is a different Story. Ever heard of someone that sells stuff and then ships out Bricks to the People who paid for a new Printer or something? Ubisoft is that Guy. If you buy from them, there's a good Chance that the Product just wont work and is indeed less useful then a Brick.
With some Games, you're not going to get your Moneys Worth. Other Games just wont work on your Computer and other Games still will count *every* Installation of new Hardware towards the smallest Install limit ever seen.

1. True, but DRM is bad. And Steam has a big share of responsibility for what we live today. I'm totally against DRM in general, even if that means that I will be left with no games to play in the future.

2. I didn't know that about Ubisoft, so thanks for the heads up. Actually it's like describing Games For Windows Live service from which I had some most unfortunate experiences in the past, until I finally decided to never buy a single game from them again.

 

[Dandark]

I doubt I will join this boycott since I didn't buy any ubisoft games much anyway. They don't do too much to interest me now with all their DRM crap. I loved the PS2 Prince of persia: Sands of time trilogy and if they remade that then I would totally buy it, however the only recent PoP game I played was Forgotten sands which was crap in a lot of ways. it had some interesting features though, I liked the water manipulation they put in but the combat was crap and there wasn't much else to attract me to it.

And then there is Assasins creed. I will try not to rant too much about it. I enjoyed the first game well enough, the ending got me kinda hooked. I loved the second game and thought it was brilliant and still think it's the high point of the series.

Then they released Brotherhood. "Okay" I thought, "They just want to finish up Ezios storyline I suppose, no big deal". It didn't really add anything much to the singleplayer other than making the combat even easier, the story felt really stupid to me as well. I enjoyed AC2s story greatly but brotherhoods irked me more than anything.

Still I think it was worthwhile since they experimented with the multiplayer and it turned out pretty well. It wasn't really needed but it wasn't a big deal.
Then came Revelations which sucked. I haven't yet finished it. I haven't yet been able to force myself through it when I have other more worthwhile games to play. The story seems to be awful and the gameplay doesn't really add anything at all. The combat is incredibly easy though. Don't get me wrong I am fine with being able to rip through 50 guards with ease.

If there were that many.
There are not, I had this problem with Brotherhood too. I would just start getting into and enjoying the fights when all the guards would die because it was too damn easy.

The only possible redeeming feature I could find in the game is the multiplayer which I haven't been able to play more than once due to Ubisoft having no idea how to make working multiplayer. I cannot find games at all when I play with me friends, we just sit in the lobby for 20 mins.



I may have ranted on a bit there but my point is that yes Ubisoft suck, I dislike them because they are milking the AC series which I really enjoyed and have the worst DRM in the industry, I have never played their games on PC but hearing about what they do on there gives me a terrible view of them.

They also won't remake Sand of time dammit.

 

[Deathninja19]

While I sympathise somewhat with you sentiment, I feel I should warn you that admitting to software piracy or declaring you intent to partake in such is often ground for moderator action on this site.

Just a friendly heads-up.

If he bought it, it's not piracy. He bought a legitimate copy, and with it, a license to play the game. So it's not a case of piracy, but "merely" an EULA violation.

Oh, but saying he's going to do it in the future, that's rather silly, yes. But you know what? Pirating their games won't help. Ignore them. That's what I'm doing with ME3 for example, I'm simply going to pretend it doesn't exist at all. In your face, EA!

have fun missing out i wouldn't do it even if i didn't like the publisher since its screwing over the devs as well

Frankly we don't owe the devs anything, they must get complaints about the DRM and if they cared could easily ask Ubisoft to rethink their DRM strategy. I understand Ubi owns them and has the final say in DRM but the Devs know they are screwing the customer over so screw them too.

 

[Cyfu]

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

EDIT: i removed the Piracy statement.

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

that's the thing. I know steam is DRM, but they aren't as bad as Ubisoft. instead of smacking their DRM in your face they kind of hides it behind a good service.
and can't you play games on Steam in offline mode? or did they remove that?

 

[Dys]

It is true that if I had experienced your problems I would have a different opinion. So it all comes down to whether or not I will in the future. Right now I am going to go with my own exp over some1 else's.

As I said above, over a long enough timescale the chances of you runnin into these issues dramatically increases. Hardware becomes dated and is less compatible with updates, circumstances change and so OS environment.

It would be stupid to boycott based on somebody elses experiences, you have no way of validating their authenticity or frequency. Perhaps I'm part of a small minority, in which case valve are unlikely to give two shits about my activities, though I suspect that a great many people simply choose to ignore the negative aspects of games they love because they are viewing it from a fanboys perspective. No doubt as they spread out and try different things, the flaws experienced will become more obvious and publishers will fix their problems. I seem to recall the music industry being completely against online downloads, but itunes has proven that sometimes you need to think outside the box (or, in that case, listen to what the consumers are repetedly telling you).

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

EDIT: i removed the Piracy statement.

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

that's the thing. I know steam is DRM, but they aren't as bad as Ubisoft. instead of smacking their DRM in your face they kind of hides it behind a good service.
and can't you play games on Steam in offline mode? or did they remove that?

They've sarcastically included an "offline mode" service, however you need to be online to login and if the OS environment crashes while steam is active you lose the session and cannot log back in.

 

[zidine100]

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

EDIT: i removed the Piracy statement.

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

that's the thing. I know steam is DRM, but they aren't as bad as Ubisoft. instead of smacking their DRM in your face they kind of hides it behind a good service.
and can't you play games on Steam in offline mode? or did they remove that?

well you can, but you have to set it to play offline while your online, ergo you need to know exactly when your internet is going to cut out in advance, which in most cases requires you to be able to see the future.

unless of course they've changed this.

 

[dhvl2712]

Call of Duty only has Steam as DRM by the way. If you pirate it, you still get the Full SP and also Spec Ops depending on where you get it from. Just saying...

 

[Cyfu]

You know what? I'm tired of hearing all of this bs about DRM and piracy.

It's been blown out of proportion, partly due to the jimquistion.

In my eyes, publishers and developers can do whatever they want.

Its not that big of a deal.

And piracy is wrong; It's equal to stealing and it's illegal.

So calm down, I think that there's far worse problems to worry about.

it's not blown out of proportion, it does not do what it is supposed to do! I see that as pretty big problem.

it's against piracy? well it doesn't work, but do you know what it actually does? It makes the people who buy the game unable to play it if they don't have a internet connection, while the ones who pirate it can play whenever they want to.

yeah piracy is illegal and it's a problem, but DRM is not the answer.

 

[Cyfu]

It is true that if I had experienced your problems I would have a different opinion. So it all comes down to whether or not I will in the future. Right now I am going to go with my own exp over some1 else's.

As I said above, over a long enough timescale the chances of you runnin into these issues dramatically increases. Hardware becomes dated and is less compatible with updates, circumstances change and so OS environment.

It would be stupid to boycott based on somebody elses experiences, you have no way of validating their authenticity or frequency. Perhaps I'm part of a small minority, in which case valve are unlikely to give two shits about my activities, though I suspect that a great many people simply choose to ignore the negative aspects of games they love because they are viewing it from a fanboys perspective. No doubt as they spread out and try different things, the flaws experienced will become more obvious and publishers will fix their problems. I seem to recall the music industry being completely against online downloads, but itunes has proven that sometimes you need to think outside the box (or, in that case, listen to what the consumers are repetedly telling you).

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

EDIT: i removed the Piracy statement.

I will certainly follow you, but why exclude the equally evil Steam, Origin and GFWL from this noble cause?

that's the thing. I know steam is DRM, but they aren't as bad as Ubisoft. instead of smacking their DRM in your face they kind of hides it behind a good service.
and can't you play games on Steam in offline mode? or did they remove that?

They've sarcastically included an "offline mode" service, however you need to be online to login and if the OS environment crashes while steam is active you lose the session and cannot log back in.

really? well that sucks. I really thought valve were the good guys, but as it turns out their just like the rest of them.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

now my fellow escapists, will you follow me on this quest to make the life of those at Ubisoft as miserable as their DRM make us until they remove the Evil known as DRM?

Here is the thing....

I used think like you until I was presented with a dilemma. The DRM isn't preventing me from playing. It might be preventing you from playing, but not me.

And here is the kicker. I have at no point ever before let my purchasing decisions be made on the circumstances of other customers.

The DRM prevents you from playing? While I sympathise I dont see how it should effect my purchase if it doesn't effect me. I doubt you take into consideration other peoples gaming rigs for games that require high end computers.

That you vote with your valet is great, but please dont ask me to be angry on your behalf

First they came for the people with crappy Internet connections...

They've sarcastically included an "offline mode" service, however you need to be online to login and if the OS environment crashes while steam is active you lose the session and cannot log back in.

well you can, but you have to set it to play offline while your online, ergo you need to know exactly when your internet is going to cut out in advance, which in most cases requires you to be able to see the future.

unless of course they've changed this.

It just prompts me to restart it in offline mode when I'm not online. I don't have to be online to do it. I've heard from other people that you can force it to acknowledge that you're offline if it doesn't think you are by pulling your ethernet cable/disabling your wireless card so it doesn't see an active network connection, but I've never had to do that.

 

[Rheinmetall]

that's the thing. I know steam is DRM, but they aren't as bad as Ubisoft. instead of smacking their DRM in your face they kind of hides it behind a good service.
and can't you play games on Steam in offline mode? or did they remove that?

Actually you can, but there is a trick to do it. If you are all the time online the system will automatically direct you to your Steam account and if you decline to sign in you can't play the game. But if don't have internet connection, either because the line is dead, or pulled off the cable, switched off wi-fi, or whatever, then the Steam service will assume that you have a connection problem and it will let you play the game on offline mode.

 

[Galen Marek]

PC games cost less then their console counter part. Consoles usually don't have a DRM as complicated nor as frustrating as a PC, Ubisoft is one of the worst in this case. Console games earns more money for the company and has a larger market and is harder to pirate.
I think Ubisoft is trying to hint something here, they don't want you buying their games for the PC, they want you to shift over to console gaming by making their DRM a pain in the ass.

EA's new DRM (Origin) is a hunk of junk as well (I've been told its annoying for console players as well as PC players but I haven't tried it for myself other then what I saw in the ME3 demo (which didn't please me tbh).

Steam is also pretty lame,
but interestingly enough they don't want to be a pain,
because they want you to stick with PC games.

 

[Dys]

really? well that sucks. I really thought valve were the good guys, but as it turns out their just like the rest of them.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare them to, say, ubisoft. They just have an inherently flawed platform, that has core design flaws that could be fixed and have not been. No doubt their success has clouded their vision, but realy valve develop games, not DRM

They do genuinely seem to try to connet with customers (promotions, free games etc), so it isn't that they don't understand their customers, it's more than restrictive DRM is an inherently flawed concept and they haven't yet abandoned it.

 

[Cyfu]

really? well that sucks. I really thought valve were the good guys, but as it turns out their just like the rest of them.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare them to, say, ubisoft. They just have an inherently flawed platform, that has core design flaws that could be fixed and have not been. No doubt their success has clouded their vision, but realy valve develop games, not DRM

They do genuinely seem to try to connet with customers (promotions, free games etc), so it isn't that they don't understand their customers, it's more than restrictive DRM is an inherently flawed concept and they haven't yet abandoned it.

well yeah. I know i started this thread by bashing on DRM, but Steam I actually don't mind. because they hide their DRM behind such an amazing service. but i don't like the "need to be connected to internet to play" shit they have going. it's so unnecessary. it's still many times better than ubisoft's DRM though.

 

[Rheinmetall]

really? well that sucks. I really thought valve were the good guys, but as it turns out their just like the rest of them.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare them to, say, ubisoft. They just have an inherently flawed platform, that has core design flaws that could be fixed and have not been. No doubt their success has clouded their vision, but realy valve develop games, not DRM

They do genuinely seem to try to connet with customers (promotions, free games etc), so it isn't that they don't understand their customers, it's more than restrictive DRM is an inherently flawed concept and they haven't yet abandoned it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Steam-Valve weren't the first ones that introduced the DRM thing to a wide audience? Not saying that they invented it, but they were the first to embrace it. While all honest and customer friendly video games companies should had renounced this monstrosity. Only for doing that I will never approve of Steam. Good Old Games (gog.com) on the other hand are indeed the "good guys" in this business. They sell digitally distributed games at low prices, and then they let you play your game forever with no conditions, or restrictions, and re-download it as many times as you wish from any computer.

 

[Dys]

really? well that sucks. I really thought valve were the good guys, but as it turns out their just like the rest of them.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare them to, say, ubisoft. They just have an inherently flawed platform, that has core design flaws that could be fixed and have not been. No doubt their success has clouded their vision, but realy valve develop games, not DRM

They do genuinely seem to try to connet with customers (promotions, free games etc), so it isn't that they don't understand their customers, it's more than restrictive DRM is an inherently flawed concept and they haven't yet abandoned it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Steam-Valve weren't the first ones that introduced the DRM thing to a wide audience? Not saying that they invented it, but they were the first to embrace it. While all honest and customer friendly video games companies should had renounced this monstrosity. Only for doing that I will never approve of Steam. Good Old Games (gog.com) on the other hand are indeed the "good guys" in this business. They sell digitally distributed games at low prices, and then they let you play your game forever with no conditions, or restrictions, and re-download it as many times as you wish from any computer.

As far as I know steam were the first company that forced you to verify the game online before being able to launch or install it. I agree that all other companies should have avoided this model, but hey haven't. The fact is that steam is a flawed service, but there are still others that are worse. Valve at least try to understand the customer, they at least give something as a trade off for abiding their DRM (tf2 is free 2 play, regular sales keep people distracted from the reason they use the platform). They could do it a lot worse, other companies do.

If I may offer my opinion on why Steam gets less hate than the DRM of Ubisoft or EA: They aren't fucking evil.

Yeah, Steam is technically DRM. But here's the thing: if you know how to use it, it's not only completely unobtrusive, but also really useful.

This attitude is exactly why steam is allowed to be as bad as it is. You'd have to be somewhere beyond "computer illiterate" to not know how to use steam, however ability to use it properly has no bearing on the inherently flawed way steam:
-installs updates (incrementally installing before they have been downloaded).
-resets update settings after every platform update.
-the regular "game not available" errors that come up (especially if an internet connection cuts out).
-redownloads entire games after they have been installed from a backup
-etc (this is by no means an exhaustive list of the inherent flaws in the steam client).

What's more, they actually fixed the ball-biters involved. Previously, it used to be that you had to log on and make it turn to "offline mode". Nowadays it just straight-up offers the option on startup, probably because they noticed, "hey, this makes it so that sometimes, you can't use your games".

I honestly don't know where you're getting this from, but that's flat out not how it works. Yes, there is an option to start in offline mode if you don't have an internet connection present, but it will not let you use it unless you have logged in to offline mode last session (and allowed the system to shut down-if it crashed you cannot log in). In the sake of making sure this hasn't slipped in in a recent update, I presently tried on an up to date version of steam. It is, in fact, as it as always been.

Yes, from what I've heard, every once in a blue moon, you have to go back online to log in again... But in general, Steam just doesn't break the cardinal rule of DRM: "Let me play my game".

Clearly you've had limited experience with the service when your connection is down or choppy. As soon as you don't have a stable, DSL or better connection, steam goes tits up. There's no ifs, buts or counter arguments, it simply does not work in an unobtrusive way, unless you consider the (bad[footnote]Anyone who has tried impulse or GOG will tell you that their DRM service is superior, but publisher support is far inferior.[/footnote]) alternatives (GFWL and ubisoft are pretty generally hated) are also "unobtrusive" as they, too, can be unobtrusive under the right circumstances (well...not so much GFWL, but the always on internet connection is fine so long as you have an always on internet connection and they aren't doing server maintanence).

 

[CoL0sS]

DISCLAIMER (oh how I fucking hate these): I don't endorse or support piracy in any way

My stance on this. Games are experiences. I should be allowed to improve my experience. If there's anything getting in the way of my enjoyment I'm well within my rights to remove it. Even if that means using no-DRM/no-CD cracks (no one who's lived through the days of disc-swapping can tell me that was fun). I didn't steal that game, I bought it with my hard earned money. If your perception of "way it's meant to be enjoyed" doesn't coincide with mine, I'll just assume you're wrong.
I can agree that games are a privilege and not a right when discussing spoiled,entitled fans bitching about changes you've made to their beloved series. But not when I can't borrow my game to a friend because I only have one more fucking installation left. Not when I can't access my games because Internet is down or you're switching servers. Not when I have to enter 16 digit code on my controller to unlock a core part of a single-player game. Not when it only inconveniences paying customers.