Stolen Pixels #175: Ubisoft!

[Brad Shepard]

Ok, im not a PC gamer, so i dont know the deal with DRM, and someone, please tell me if im wrong, but DRM is what keeps dickheads from pirating the game right? if that is correct, the i support DRM, because the companys need to watch there asses too, the last game i remember not having DRM was Demigod, and only 1 out of every 10 had a legit copy, so you want to play the game bad enought where you dont want to buy your own copy and steal it, thus helping doom the developers to have to shut down, and killing any chance of more games you like from them.

i will end this by saying, dont start a flame war, its too early in the morning for me to get pissed off.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Ok, im not a PC gamer, so i dont know the deal with DRM, and someone, please tell me if im wrong, but DRM is what keeps dickheads from pirating the game right? if that is correct, the i support DRM, because the companys need to watch there asses too, the last game i remember not having DRM was Demigod, and only 1 out of every 10 had a legit copy, so you want to play the game bad enought where you dont want to buy your own copy and steal it, thus helping doom the developers to have to shut down, and killing any chance of more games you like from them.

i will end this by saying, dont start a flame war, its too early in the morning for me to get pissed off.

Agree but thats not the joke, Ubisofts DRM fails because it REQUIRES the game to be CONSTANTLY connected to a UBISOFT authentication servers to play. If the servers go down for any reason PAYING customers can't play (You get booted from your game if the server/connection dies for any reason). Now there is a pirated copy out that has bypassed it altogether. SO Ubisoft DRM fails at both stopping pirates and manages to punish its customers, therefore it will probably win the award for being the most retarded system of DRM to grace our fine gaming community for ages to come

 

[Jordi]

Ok, im not a PC gamer, so i dont know the deal with DRM, and someone, please tell me if im wrong, but DRM is what keeps dickheads from pirating the game right? if that is correct, the i support DRM, because the companys need to watch there asses too, the last game i remember not having DRM was Demigod, and only 1 out of every 10 had a legit copy, so you want to play the game bad enought where you dont want to buy your own copy and steal it, thus helping doom the developers to have to shut down, and killing any chance of more games you like from them.

i will end this by saying, dont start a flame war, its too early in the morning for me to get pissed off.

Ever thought of a career at Ubisoft? They seem to have the same ideas about DRM as you do.

In case you're really as unknowing as you appear to be: DRM is supposed to keep people from pirating the game, but it has never worked once in the history of the world. Crackers just remove/circumvent it and as a result only the people with a legitimate copy suffer.

BTW: what is so bad about Daikatana?

 

[Brad Shepard]

Ok, im not a PC gamer, so i dont know the deal with DRM, and someone, please tell me if im wrong, but DRM is what keeps dickheads from pirating the game right? if that is correct, the i support DRM, because the companys need to watch there asses too, the last game i remember not having DRM was Demigod, and only 1 out of every 10 had a legit copy, so you want to play the game bad enought where you dont want to buy your own copy and steal it, thus helping doom the developers to have to shut down, and killing any chance of more games you like from them.

i will end this by saying, dont start a flame war, its too early in the morning for me to get pissed off.

Ever thought of a career at Ubisoft? They seem to have the same ideas about DRM as you do.

In case you're really as unknowing as you appear to be: DRM is supposed to keep people from pirating the game, but it has never worked once in the history of the world. Crackers just remove/circumvent it and as a result only the people with a legitimate copy suffer.

BTW: what is so bad about Daikatana?

Thanks for explainting that to me.

OT: isent ubisoft fail anyway? as far as i know, there surviving on Parkor games right now, and nothing else.

 

[Jandau]

Stolen Pixels #175: Ubisoft!

Congratulations, Daikatana: You're no longer the biggest joke in gaming.

Read Full Article

While I endorse bashing Ubisoft's DRM scheme in any way, I'd just like to point out that AC2 hasn't been properly cracked yet and the existing cracks don't let people play the game. I did a post about it in another thread and I'll just repost it here:

Step 1: I went to a popular torrent website. I will not name the site, but it was in a sufficient number of articles on the Escapist for you to make an educated guess.

Step 2: I select the "Games" category and type in "Assassin's Creed 2"

Step 3: I review the results by reading the torrent comments:
a.) An AC2 game ISO with a "crack" that doesn't let you play the game missions.
b.) A No-DVD crack for the game that doesn't remove the online-required DRM
c.) A trojan masquerading as an Italian version of the game.
d.) A Russian-only version of the game that may or may not be functional.

Step 4: I examine what I DON'T see - namely a proper release by one of the major cracking groups (Razor, Reloaded or such).

Conclusion: AC2 hasn't been properly cracked yet.

Ramifications: Ubisoft's DRM works, at least for now. It will get cracked eventually, but they managed to combat Day 1 piracy, which is the worst type. If they can go a week or two without getting cracked they will have gotten pretty much all of their potential customers that had any possible chance of buying their game. If they can replicate this success on subsequent games, this DRM will not only stay, but other publishers are likely to support it as well...

Again, I repeat, the sad part it that the DRM actually seems to be working to a degree. Had it been fully cracked on Day 1, it would be easy to laugh at it. But as it stands, it has fulfilled its function and I'm guessing no amount of customer dissatisfaction will trump that as far as Ubisoft execs care...

 

[Ancientgamer]

Stolen Pixels #175: Ubisoft!

Congratulations, Daikatana: You're no longer the biggest joke in gaming.

Read Full Article

While I endorse bashing Ubisoft's DRM scheme in any way, I'd just like to point out that AC2 hasn't been properly cracked yet and the existing cracks don't let people play the game. I did a post about it in another thread and I'll just repost it here:

Step 1: I went to a popular torrent website. I will not name the site, but it was in a sufficient number of articles on the Escapist for you to make an educated guess.

Step 2: I select the "Games" category and type in "Assassin's Creed 2"

Step 3: I review the results by reading the torrent comments:
a.) An AC2 game ISO with a "crack" that doesn't let you play the game missions.
b.) A No-DVD crack for the game that doesn't remove the online-required DRM
c.) A trojan masquerading as an Italian version of the game.
d.) A Russian-only version of the game that may or may not be functional.

Step 4: I examine what I DON'T see - namely a proper release by one of the major cracking groups (Razor, Reloaded or such).

Conclusion: AC2 hasn't been properly cracked yet.

Ramifications: Ubisoft's DRM works, at least for now. It will get cracked eventually, but they managed to combat Day 1 piracy, which is the worst type. If they can go a week or two without getting cracked they will have gotten pretty much all of their potential customers that had any possible chance of buying their game. If they can replicate this success on subsequent games, this DRM will not only stay, but other publishers are likely to support it as well...

Again, I repeat, the sad part it that the DRM actually seems to be working to a degree. Had it been fully cracked on Day 1, it would be easy to laugh at it. But as it stands, it has fulfilled its function and I'm guessing no amount of customer dissatisfaction will trump that as far as Ubisoft execs care...

There is currently a crack that allows you to play the game, it works by connecting to the ubi servers, but it bypasses the need to register with a serial number, so anyone can do it.

However, it's still being worked on, because partway through it starts encountering game breaking bugs, similar to the drunkeness bug in GTA4 or the no-flight bug in Batman Arkahm asylum.

 

[Jandau]

There is currently a crack that allows you to play the game, it works by connecting to the ubi servers, but it bypasses the need to register with a serial number, so anyone can do it.

However, it's still being worked on, because partway through it starts encountering game breaking bugs, similar to the drunkeness bug in GTA4 or the no-flight bug in Batman Arkahm asylum.

That's the thing - it's not finished, is it? As I said, I'm quite confident that it will get cracked or bypassed sooner or later, but at the moment it's doing its work quite well. Also, I only counted the results from major torrent sites, since that's where most people go to get their pirating on. If something is half-finished in some corner of the net, it doesn't really count as far as mass pirac goes.

Basically, it will get cracked, but Day 1 piracy is stopped and that's as good as it gets when it comes to DRM. Ubisoft seems to have won, or at least not lost. Sales figures will have tell the rest of the story.

 

[MelTorefas]

So it has been partially cracked, but no one has circumvented the server part yet. I did my own check of the torrent sites and it seems to confirm this. Please note I have no intention of playing this game cracked or not, I was simply curious.

Edit: Though, if I WAS going to play it, I would buy it legitimately AFTER it was cracked, so I could use the crack. Seriously... this is the first time ever I am actually rooting for the pirates... or at least rooting for their cracking power. *shakes head*

 

[Inuprince]

You're right in the case of AC2 but as far as I know Silent Hunter 5 had the same DRM and it was cracked on day 1 and it is working perfectly so ... I don't know what's up with Assasssins Creed 2 but it was only released in America today so perhaps by the end of the week it will be up and running

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

Hey! I'd forgotten about Daikatana. I bought that game for the N64! And spent the next 6 years kicking myself for doing it.

Yep, this whole Ubisoft thing is pretty funny. Condolences to those who can't play

No, people should have had more sense than to purchase the game with those DRM problems/restrictions!!

I was half expecting an IW comic, but never mind - I'm liking the Ubisoft-bashing!!

 

[carpathic]

Another reason that Ubisoft is permanently off my "to buy" list.

That and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Unlike Darkstar's picture above, that game was made of fail.

 

[AnarchistAbe]

This is great. Stupid Ubisoft...

 

[derelict]

funny, but not laugh out loud funny. though it has been a while sense i have seen daikatana used in a joke. props for that. Along the lines of prediction, a lot of people here were waiting with bated breath to see what your reaction would be. =)

Keep up the good work. =)

or is it baited breath? eh oh well, I'm not an English major.

Bated, think its sort of shorthand for abated, meaning you're holding your breath on it.

 

[Inuprince]

Sales will probably not be high and I don't even think it should be measured by AC2 for the PC - since it has been on the consoles since November - I doubt that most people who have and havent bought it yet are waiting to BUY it for their PC-s - mostly I think a lot of these people will pirate the PC version and acquire a savegame so they can play the DLC-s for free.
As for the PC gamers who were willing to actually buy it - half of those people have been scared away because of the DRM ...
Hopefully Ubisoft will realize that there only scaring away customers and for games that are console ports and arrive almost a half year later they really shouldn't make it more uncomfortable.

I think the sales affected by DRM should be measure in the case of an only PC game.

 

[johnman]

Gordon Frohman referance or jsut coincidence.

 

[derelict]

Daikatana?. I thought Duke Nukem Never was a bigger joke.

Incidentally that game's initials are DNF, Did Not Finish, in the racing world. (=

One of the bigger and more valid arguments Ubi is getting at the moment is at the hand of Russian/Polish gamers who have ISP's that charge them per bandwidth, so Ubi is essentially causing their bills to go up to play what is supposed to be a single player, non online capable game.

Sure DRM *could* work here in the US, in theory, but in implementation well, I suppose we're looking at the Chernobyl of video gaming. Their short-sightedness is going to hopefully do them in, and make way for a company that actually gives a shit about its customers.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I don't game on PCs so I don't really understand how bad DRM is. My condolences for all the hard working PC gamers that are up to their arm-pits in Ubisoft failure.

Your internet stops working?

Can't play.

You lose connection?

Your game freezes.

THEIR server crashes?

HAHAHAHHAHHAHH lol you lost $50.

Wow, really? Isn't that hurting the people who actually buy the game more than the pirates?

 

[ryai458]

This is what happens when people pirate everyone else suffers.
stupid PC pira.... never mind.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Hee hee, I bet if you look up 'stupid' in the dictionary, you'd find Ubisoft's logo next to it.

Yes thank you Ubisoft, you'll be the butt of jokes for many years to come.

 

[Abedeus]

I don't game on PCs so I don't really understand how bad DRM is. My condolences for all the hard working PC gamers that are up to their arm-pits in Ubisoft failure.

Your internet stops working?

Can't play.

You lose connection?

Your game freezes.

THEIR server crashes?

HAHAHAHHAHHAHH lol you lost $50.

Wow, really? Isn't that hurting the people who actually buy the game more than the pirates?

I'm fighting with a terrible, surging urge to respond with a snippy, ironic comment. So, yes, it is hurting more the legal players.