DRM rant

[PieIsAwesome]

So I thought I would give DoW2 a shot on my fresh Win7 install.


WTF I can't play DoW2. Stupid GFWL says that I have "exceeded the usage allowed by product key" or something to that effect. There are supposed to be no installation limits for this game. This is a retail copy I have had for almost a year no. Over the course of that time I have changed hardware, installed different OS's, played with my steam account on other computers, etc. Never reinstalled the game but each time I run the game in a fresh OS install I guess it "activates" it and there some activation limit somewhere.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. Now I have to call and deal with their customer support BS.

 

[Terzo]

I would love to give the game a try someday (as well as Gears of War) but quite frankly I'm afraid to touch GFWL. Hope your customer service experience goes smoothly.

 

[Bateluer]

Make sure you let them know that you'll never purchase a game with DRM again. The only way publishers will get the picture is if people stop buying DRM-laden crap.

Sadly, far too many people keep buying them, so they keep putting it in.

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah, I hated Dawn of War 2 specifically for that reason. You HAVE to register the fucker with GFWL to play it. Bull Fucking Shit.
Its a THQ title and I bought it on Steam. They need to figure out a way to make it work between one of those two companies, not god damn microsoft.
Another issue: Wings of Prey requires registration with YuPlay even if you get the Steam version. And you have to get the patches through them and play online through them. They should have done it all through Steam, fully automated.

I am not liking the way PC gaming is going these days. Before it was shitty games, now its shitty games with invasive, complicated DRM and weird online memberships.

 

[Kalmah]

Make sure you let them know that you'll never purchase a game with DRM again. The only way publishers will get the picture is if people stop buying DRM-laden crap.

Sadly, far too many people keep buying them, so they keep putting it in.

This ^

Actually, you'll probably be talking to a peon.. so ask for upper management first and then have a well-prepared rant ready.

 

[Rezist]

The only recent games I've got were ME2 and DA:O. EA has figured out the way to stop piracy.

 

[KaOTiK]

The only recent games I've got were ME2 and DA:O. EA has figured out the way to stop piracy.

I like EA's way of rewarding the customer for buying the game and simple DRM.

 

[Lonyo]

The only recent games I've got were ME2 and DA:O. EA has figured out the way to stop piracy.

I think the majority of the games I've purchased recently have all been EA as well.
In fact, of the last 10 or so games I purchased, including a couple that were stupidly cheap through Steam, about 7 were EA, and the others were £2 ($3) or so from Steam.

One thing that compels me to buy EA games is the fact that they price them nicely in the UK.
I went to a shop to buy either ME2 or Dragon Age, and Dragon Age was £14 (~$21), so it was a no-brainer. A <6mo old game for that price that I was thinking of buying anyway gets my vote.
I haven't even thought about DRM. I put my key in and fired up the game (although I did have to faff about with the Bioware online thing to get my free DLC, but it downloaded nice and easily within the game and I didn't have to give it a second thought).

 

[mmntech]

Make sure you let them know that you'll never purchase a game with DRM again. The only way publishers will get the picture is if people stop buying DRM-laden crap.

Sadly, far too many people keep buying them, so they keep putting it in.

Sadly Assassin's Creed II is the number 5 best seller on Steam. You'd think people with a PC that can run those sorts of games would be tech savvy enough to avoid that kind of DRM like the plague.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Make sure you let them know that you'll never purchase a game with DRM again. The only way publishers will get the picture is if people stop buying DRM-laden crap.

Sadly, far too many people keep buying them, so they keep putting it in.

Except here there was no indication anywhere about this sort of DRM for this game. If I knew it had it I may have not bought any of the 2 copies that I did.

Haven't called yet, as it looks like it will be a nice bit of trouble to get this fixed and I don't want to waste my spare time on this right now, but I have been able to play on my original XP install. I will definitely call in a couple of days though.

 

[BladeVenom]

Yeah, I hated Dawn of War 2 specifically for that reason. You HAVE to register the fucker with GFWL to play it. Bull Fucking Shit.

Indeed. All my computers are GFWL free.

I liked DoW, and wanted DoW2, but there are plenty of other games out there.

 

[Purple44]

Shame on Codemasters for turning a deaf ear to the online racing community, Helios confirm F1 2010 will use GFWL. Look like GIRD will be my last Codemasters game:

Repost form F1 forum, " WHY Codemasters, why are you using Games for Windows LIVE? "

I thought I updated this thread when I updated Facebook, but yes F1 2010 will be using GFWL on the PC.

Please Helios, tell us why Codemasters has decide to stick with "Games for Windows LIVE" after all the complaints and problems GFWL cause with DIRT 2?

F1 racing is popular around the world, so why would Codemasters use a program that block over 166 countries from racing online? And is going to cost you PC sales and a lot of headaches dealing with corrupted savegames files and delaying the first PC patch by a month while Microsoft certify the patch? ( DIRT 2 first and only patch, took 3 months to get release, GIRD first patch only took 5 weeks, second patch a month later )

Yes the patch will have to go through Microsoft Submission and Testing just like it would if it was a Xbox 360 game.

http://community.codemasters.com/fo...-1317/401137-sli-please-codies-some-news.html

It seem the PS3 is the only gaming platfrom that is safe to use world wide. Even the Xbox 360 is getting block from racing online if sold in an unsupported country.

There got to be a better solution than GFWL, that will help protect games from being pirated, but still let paying customers race\shoot\play online.

Will Codemasters print on the PC box and Steam download page this time around, that if live in country not supported by "Games for Windows LIVE", you will not be able to go online and race or get DLCs?

Will Codemasters make it clear to buyers before they buy F1 2010, that if they have the misfortune to live in a country that Microsoft will never support ( been 3 years and Microsoft has not added any new countries to their supported country list of 26 ), Microsoft will block you from racing online. Codemasters did not do this with DIRT 2, so many players got ripoff of there hard earn $40-$70 when they bought DIRT 2, then LIVE block them from online racing!

To the Live Team:

What is the current situation in bringing Live to South Africa?

We have been given the same story for over 3.5 years now with still nothing concrete, and no hint of Live coming anywhere near us:

2006-08-22: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/22/xbox-360-invades-south-africa-next-month/

2007-05-09: http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTe...05-2007-11-02/Xbox_Live_set_to_roll_out_in_SA

2007-11-19: http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTe.../19-11-2007-12-04/Xbox_Live_keeps_SA_in_limbo

2008-01-16: http://www.lazygamer.co.za/xbox-360/no-xbox-live-for-south-africa/

2009-10-15: http://www.xboxgaming.co.za/news/xbox-live-to-launch-sooner-rather-than-later-in-south-africa/

Additional Reading:

* http://www.sayyoursay.com/Xbox360/
* http://www.sayyoursay.com/Xbox360/Xbox_Reply.aspx

As consumers, should we stop waisting our time, and money, and start supporting other gaming systems? WebAfrica will be launching a full mirror Steam server here next week, so Valve obviously can see a market.

What we're asking for is relatively simple, we're not wanting all the bells and whistles that come with XBox Live, but what we want is a South African gamertag, access to DLC, and access to multiplayer.

Wii's Network and the PSN are both available here, we even have iPhone stores and support from Apple.

We're tired of the same responses, please respond with something worthwhile so that we can either know that waiting for Live is on its way, or we can take our attention elsewhere and start supporting a system that supports us as a community.

I know I've created a seperate thread on this, I've done this as I can see this post getting lost, and then overlooked, in this thread.

Thank you.

NON-LIVE SUPPORTED COUNTRIES POST


I will never, ever buy a "Games for Windows LIVE" game again!!!! Please Codemasters, see the light and let all of us race online.

 

[Elcs]

I suggest going to the Relic Forums. This is a reasonably uncommon but known issue it seems (from my general browsing of their forums).

I also fail to see how this is a DRM rant because besides Steam and GFWL being loosely termed as DRM, there is none.

Your issue is simply GFWL being awkward which in my experience, it is from time to time but issues are rare... few and far between.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Yea, was going to buy DoW2: Chaos Rising (on sale), but hidden install limit? Not anymore. THQ is now on my watchlist for publishers.

 

[Purple44]

I suggest going to the Relic Forums. This is a reasonably uncommon but known issue it seems (from my general browsing of their forums).

I also fail to see how this is a DRM rant because besides Steam and GFWL being loosely termed as DRM, there is none.

Your issue is simply GFWL being awkward which in my experience, it is from time to time but issues are rare... few and far between.

BioShock 2 use the non SSA version of GFWL and has a limit of 15 activation, then have to call Microsoft to got a new CD-key (one time only ).

DRM to me means anything that restricting me from using my paid for game, offline or online.

 

[Elcs]

Yea, was going to buy DoW2: Chaos Rising (on sale), but hidden install limit? Not anymore. THQ is now on my watchlist for publishers.

Hidden install limit? Never heard of one in DoW2 or Chaos Rising. You codemn a game without proof.

Certainly if it had DRM or an install limit, there would have been hell on in here... like there seems to be with any game with a sniff of DRM above CD Key and CD Check.

EDIT: For the OP: Solution

 

[Joepublic2]

The only recent games I've got were ME2 and DA:O. EA has figured out the way to stop piracy.

Yeah ME2 has a pretty good model for stopping piracy IMO which is lots of free content available over the months following release by registering a legit copy. Get copyright infringers hooked on the core game then release awesome tidbits that you need a CD key (that they also sell online) to access.

 

[MarcVenice]

I've never had any real problems with gfwl. The only REALLY annoying thing has been batman: arkham asylum, which won't even let you play the game if you don't update it. Batman is a shit game anyways, god I hate the intro, having to walk for like 5 minutes, why do they frustrate new players like that?

Anyways, I'll be sure to keep an eye on how many times I activated DiRT 2 (through steam) and DoW II: Chaos Rising (steam). I do know I installed DiRT quite often allready, probably somewhere around 10 times ...

 

[pcslookout]

Interesting story on a legitimate gamer turned pirate after actually buying the game he wanted to play lol

http://consumerist.com/2010/04/insane-pc-game-drm-drove-me-to-piracy.html

 

[mindcycle]

Great quote from the article pcslookout posted.

What is the point of paying for these games if you get no support from those you purchased it from and can get a better version for free by pirating it? I am in no way advocating piracy because its wrong and is hurting the industry, but the publishers and developers are in turn treating their paying customers like criminals and are just making them turn to piracy instead.

He pretty much sums up my thoughts on the situation.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Hidden install limit? Never heard of one in DoW2 or Chaos Rising. You codemn a game without proof.

Certainly if it had DRM or an install limit, there would have been hell on in here... like there seems to be with any game with a sniff of DRM above CD Key and CD Check.

EDIT: For the OP: Solution

Yeah, I know the "solution," its a crappy solution though. Haven't gotten around to it since I can still play the game in XP, and getting a new key sounds like a lot of trouble.

And this begging MS for a new key solution is only temporary-in the future I will eventually run out of activations again then I will be SOL.

 

[mindcycle]

EDIT: For the OP: Solution

How is a forum post of some guy's account of spending many hours/days on the phone with tech support a solution? He said it took something like 40 days to finally get the issue resolved.. That to me isn't a very viable solution.