Dragon Age WON'T be using Securom!

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: GaryJohnson
They might want to add a 'pirate' character class 'cause there's gonna be alot of pirates playing the game.

It wouldn't matter unless the game completely relies upon online content to be playable - the game will still have the same # of non-purchasing scumbag cheap ass bastard gamers playing anyway.

 

[BenSkywalker]

(PS: EA bought Bioware )

Very true(heh, don't know why I forgot they were no longer indy ). Still, given everything EA has been pushing and given the huge amount of resources they are putting into ToR I think they are going to try and keep Bioware happy. ToR is likely bigger then the five previous largest EA ventures combined.

 

[ayabe]

Sorry but I'd take some DRM over having to keep the disc in the drive and that would be my choice 100 times out of 100 regardless of the suite chosen.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: ayabe
Sorry but I'd take some DRM over having to keep the disc in the drive and that would be my choice 100 times out of 100 regardless of the suite chosen.

To each his own I guess..

I'd rather have a game that is guaranteed to work in 5 years rather than one that may or may not have installs left, or may or may not still be able activate online online given an auth server still exists. Plus, if you want to play without the disc in the drive just wait a day or two (or sooner) after release and you'll be able to do that.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: ayabe
Sorry but I'd take some DRM over having to keep the disc in the drive and that would be my choice 100 times out of 100 regardless of the suite chosen.

I am completely the opposite. I'd rather have to keep the disc in the drive than jump through online activation hoops, with the possibilities presented by mindcycle.

Assuming reviews are decent and they aren't using some other fvcked up DRM, I'm going to buy this game.

 

[ZzZGuy]

If they only use a CD check, stick with not using securom and not replacing it with something else like TAGS/Starforce then I will be buying this game. It was killing me that I would not be buying this game due to the DRM, but it seems all the previous games I have skipped due to hostile DRM has helped give them a hint.

I also don't quite get what GaryJohnson is trying to say, DRM does not affect pirates or reduce their numbers in any way with the exception of someone trying to burn off a copy to give to a friend (which what they plan on using should do). DA will be cracked within a week, unless EA has secretly developed a new forum of DRM.

 

[Kalmah]

Bioware has always been awesome.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I don't really care that much whether a game uses securom. I have not had any problems with it. I will probably try this game. I am in favor or any single player RPG instead of the frustrating trend of every game becoming an MMO.

However, I wonder how reliable this quote is. I cant imagine EA not having some stronger form of DRM than a simple disk check.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: ayabe
Sorry but I'd take some DRM over having to keep the disc in the drive and that would be my choice 100 times out of 100 regardless of the suite chosen.

I am completely the opposite. I'd rather have to keep the disc in the drive than jump through online activation hoops, with the possibilities presented by mindcycle.

Assuming reviews are decent and they aren't using some other fvcked up DRM, I'm going to buy this game.

I'm with tk149 on this one.

 

[alcoholbob]

Well it sure beats "the game is not available" message in Steam.

I remember when Bioshock first came out, a very large percentage of the crowd couldn't even get the game to start.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

They don't really have any clout.

Yes, they most certainly do have clout.

What are they going to do if the publisher insists?

Say fine, we aren't doing it. No publisher is going to piss off Bioware. Seriously, you have a company whose games for several years have been bankable nine figures revenue, you simply do not screw with them. If you are an exec, and you have to decide- make $50 Million dollars profit and run the risk of lots of piracy or make no profit with no piracy- what are you going to do? Bioware is probably the only developer of their kind left, id and Epic's track record lately are a joke in comparison.

(PS: EA bought Bioware )

WTF since when did EA buy Bioware? Sigh, I see the writing on the wall that Bioware may go the way of Westwood -once EA touched them it went to shit. I guess we will know the answer to that once they finish their current projects and whether they live up to Bioware's very high standard.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Originally posted by: GaryJohnson
They might want to add a 'pirate' character class 'cause there's gonna be alot of pirates playing the game.

The reason why stories like this are interesting is that in this case Bioware is saying they believed the negatives of implementing severe DRM would have outweighed the benefits. This is surprising mainly because Dragon Age is a very anticipated title where you would expect to see the benefits of severe DRM become rather large compared to smaller titles.

Consider a very small independent publisher who produces a little-hyped title that gets decent reviews, sells 50k titles, and sees 500k pirated copies downloaded off torrent sites. The actual number of lost sales may be very low because the large 500k pirated number is due to the availability of this game for free in the first place and very few of the pirates would have paid $35 for a legitimate copy of this low-budget no-name game. In fact, the net benefit may even be positive because the existence of those 500k pirated copies widens the publicity of the product and leads to additional sales. The net benefit of severe DRM is most likely negative for this small company as any resulting drawbacks from piracy are offset by lowered customer satisfaction with their product.

Now take a big game with lots of hype behind it. If people are going to be acquiring a "must-own" game like StarCraft 2 regardless of whether they can pirate or not, then the number of actual lost sales could be extremely high due to piracy as the majority of the people who pirated it may have been willing to pay the $50 for it otherwise. The benefit of severe DRM is very high as a result, and even if the cost in irritated customers is large it may still be beneficial for the company to proceed with SecuRom or StarForce or some other much-disliked DRM scheme.

Dragon Age is the next very hyped RPG from the developers who created Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and KOTOR. The fact that they would decide against severe DRM is very significant because if it makes sense for anybody, it should make sense for them. There is clearly a lot of disagreement amongst developers as to the net benefit of DRM and this serves to underscore that the situation is less black and white than several posters on these boards try to depict it as.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7

Originally posted by: GaryJohnson
They might want to add a 'pirate' character class 'cause there's gonna be alot of pirates playing the game.

Dragon Age is the next very hyped RPG from the developers who created Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and KOTOR. The fact that they would decide against severe DRM is very significant because if it makes sense for anybody, it should make sense for them.

:thumbsup:

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Malladine
Release date?

It has been finished for a while now. EA is delaying it so that the console versions can be finished for a (near) simultaneous lanuch. You know how games that are not available on consoles at launch are wrought with epic piratedness and all that jazz.

 

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: Malladine
Release date?

It has been finished for a while now. EA is delaying it so that the console versions can be finished for a (near) simultaneous lanuch. You know how games that are not available on consoles at launch are wrought with epic piratedness and all that jazz.

I hope that means that it will be highly polished and bug-free when it is released.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7
Dragon Age is the next very hyped RPG from the developers who created Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and KOTOR. The fact that they would decide against severe DRM is very significant because if it makes sense for anybody, it should make sense for them. There is clearly a lot of disagreement amongst developers as to the net benefit of DRM and this serves to underscore that the situation is less black and white than several posters on these boards try to depict it as.

I agree. IMO DRM negatively impacts the reputation of not only the publisher, but the developer as well. Most people don't understand the difference. They don't realize that the publishers are the ones making the final decision. If Dragon Age was released with activation based SecuROM they would just assume that Bioware doesn't trust their customers and would blame them for using it. I'm quite sure EA wants to keep up customer loyalty and trust, especially for games from a well established dev like Bioware, and the image of not trusting your customer base is definitely not the way to keep that up.

If only a small percentage of EA's customer base were aware of draconian DRM it wouldn't be a problem for them to continue using it. The good news is that now most PC gamers are well aware of draconian DRM and the potential hassles / limitations it presents. EA is now faced with the possibility of fewer sales plus potentially driving more people to piracy if they continue to use activation/install limit SecuROM or the like. We can thank those who protested Spore for that, as they are the ones who helped push the concern into the mainstream.

 

[sourceninja]

I really hope the game has a xbox 360, ps3, or mac release (via cider). This is one game I really want to play, but I'm not willing to buy a license of windows just to play it.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Except to chizow & Atari.

Let's keep it civil and stay OT so we don't get another thread lock.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: ayabe
Sorry but I'd take some DRM over having to keep the disc in the drive and that would be my choice 100 times out of 100 regardless of the suite chosen.

To each his own I guess..

I'd rather have a game that is guaranteed to work in 5 years rather than one that may or may not have installs left, or may or may not still be able activate online online given an auth server still exists. Plus, if you want to play without the disc in the drive just wait a day or two (or sooner) after release and you'll be able to do that.

I'd rather go back to the days of CD-Keys and making images of the discs on your own computer, so that neither a disc or an executable crack was needed. For games that accessed the disc, you also got faster loading times since it was an image running off the hard drive.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7
Dragon Age is the next very hyped RPG from the developers who created Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and KOTOR. The fact that they would decide against severe DRM is very significant because if it makes sense for anybody, it should make sense for them. There is clearly a lot of disagreement amongst developers as to the net benefit of DRM and this serves to underscore that the situation is less black and white than several posters on these boards try to depict it as.

I agree. IMO DRM negatively impacts the reputation of not only the publisher, but the developer as well. Most people don't understand the difference. They don't realize that the publishers are the ones making the final decision. If Dragon Age was released with activation based SecuROM they would just assume that Bioware doesn't trust their customers and would blame them for using it. I'm quite sure EA wants to keep up customer loyalty and trust, especially for games from a well established dev like Bioware, and the image of not trusting your customer base is definitely not the way to keep that up.

If only a small percentage of EA's customer base were aware of draconian DRM it wouldn't be a problem for them to continue using it. The good news is that now most PC gamers are well aware of draconian DRM and the potential hassles / limitations it presents. EA is now faced with the possibility of fewer sales plus potentially driving more people to piracy if they continue to use activation/install limit SecuROM or the like. We can thank those who protested Spore for that, as they are the ones who helped push the concern into the mainstream.

What, using draconian DRM

, running good franchises into the ground

, and generally being a douche to gamers (aka paying customers) is a great business plan!!!