Usually, calls to tech support lines end with my urge to kill rising and my phone my victim, but since I'm also normally on the phone with Microsoft, there may be a link there. This time it was the lovely people at Ubisoft who I was calling.
The Subject: Beyond Good And Evil's PC copy protection failing to allow installation to complete because...well old game means expectancy for an older system. Long story short: 32 Bit Copy Protection System (Tages) doesn't like to run on 64 bit operating systems, it attempts to install, fails, removes all the game data. (No debates on if such protection is needed, thats not the point. Oh and Insert "Protection" joke here.)
This had been a 3 day research and trial/error process for me so I had hopefully a good idea of what I was talking about. So I called about an hour after Ubi's support line opened for the day, having an idea this might be a long call or a "Uh...sir that game is old" line.
What ended up happening was a 30 minute discussion on the problem, similar problems Ubi's been having with games released in the same period and highly likely to contain the Tages problem, and even Windows 7 compatibility problems. Yes very nerdy stuff I know, I'm a computer science major
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All that discussion is normal for a tech support call for me too, but the reps usually just try to heave it back on protocol. This guy just kept noting what I was saying, even joking about "Hey just send the disks in and we'll give you a Steam copy!" and was overall way too chipper for a guy forced to talk about a game released slightly over 5 years ago. I also made the silly comment of "I could always break the copy protection" to which he just replied "Oh please don't open any cans you can't close"
At the end of the discussion the only thing he could point out was that rebuying the game on Steam (an idea even he seemed to hate from his tone of voice) was the quickest way to get to playing but that my experiments would be useful in compatibility testing for other titles.
So even though I've gone nowhere in my quest to play as a green lipped lady, the usual hell of stupid Tech Support was somehow pleasantly avoided. While not the best of outcomes still the best Tech Support call I've had to make, whats yours?
The Subject: Beyond Good And Evil's PC copy protection failing to allow installation to complete because...well old game means expectancy for an older system. Long story short: 32 Bit Copy Protection System (Tages) doesn't like to run on 64 bit operating systems, it attempts to install, fails, removes all the game data. (No debates on if such protection is needed, thats not the point. Oh and Insert "Protection" joke here.)
This had been a 3 day research and trial/error process for me so I had hopefully a good idea of what I was talking about. So I called about an hour after Ubi's support line opened for the day, having an idea this might be a long call or a "Uh...sir that game is old" line.
What ended up happening was a 30 minute discussion on the problem, similar problems Ubi's been having with games released in the same period and highly likely to contain the Tages problem, and even Windows 7 compatibility problems. Yes very nerdy stuff I know, I'm a computer science major
.All that discussion is normal for a tech support call for me too, but the reps usually just try to heave it back on protocol. This guy just kept noting what I was saying, even joking about "Hey just send the disks in and we'll give you a Steam copy!" and was overall way too chipper for a guy forced to talk about a game released slightly over 5 years ago. I also made the silly comment of "I could always break the copy protection" to which he just replied "Oh please don't open any cans you can't close"
At the end of the discussion the only thing he could point out was that rebuying the game on Steam (an idea even he seemed to hate from his tone of voice) was the quickest way to get to playing but that my experiments would be useful in compatibility testing for other titles.
So even though I've gone nowhere in my quest to play as a green lipped lady, the usual hell of stupid Tech Support was somehow pleasantly avoided. While not the best of outcomes still the best Tech Support call I've had to make, whats yours?
