EA's new anti-consumer tactic? C&C4 to always require active internet connection.

[ZzZGuy]

People who had nothing against this DRM seem to be missing one key point, how will this stop piracy?

Forget how much you don't care about it or how much of a effect it would have on anyone, this game will still get cracked and pirates will be still playing it just like every game before. The only people this DRM will have a impact on are the ones who buy it.

-edit- yes, this is a new from of DRM but it being EA, a lot of hard work will go into cracking it just to spite them and this DRM. -edit-

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: mindcycle


That's what I don't get. Pirates are the only ones directly benefiting from DRM, being that they don't have to deal with it. The paying customers are the ones who get the short end of the stick. Seems like it should be the other way around doesn't it?..

It should be the other way around and part of the problem is that the people making the decisions are not the people that should be making them . Often with companies like EA you have stockholders that don't know a thing about games or DRM or anything else. What they do know is that when they see an article saying " XXX game was pirated 20% at a potential sales loss of $XXXX " that to them is lost money in their pocket. So they yell at the management of EA asking them "Why are you not doing something to stop this ?", EA replies, "We are ,we got DRM , online activation, serial numbers, " .


Now gaming has gotten to be so corporate that it is effecting the players in a bad way. Publishers choose what games are made, not the developer. Publishers get to pick what platform it will be developed for. Publishers get to pick how the game will look in the end and what the overall content will be.

It is almost like being an author , writing a novel, then the publisher steps in and tells you to kill off a character or change the ending.

 

[69Mach1]

I wasn't going to buy this anyway, but two of my friends were. They had two words to say about buying it now: BLOW ME! That can't be good for sales.

 

[mindcycle]

http://www.beefjack.com/blog/n...es-gamers-bill-rights/

 

[marmasatt]

You can boycott all the PC products you want, but EA will not give a damn. They make almost all of their revenue off their console titles like Madden and NCAA and the rest comes from Sims. I would say they get about 5% of their profits out of PC games besides Sims.

Well, it's a good thing that 57.6 % of all statistics are made up. So we can count on that being wrong.

And I did the same thing as Golgatha and skipped 2 shooters I've been waiting for for months, FEAR 2 and Dark Athena. Sooner or later you hope they've got to wake up.

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: Qbah Away

Originally posted by: BladeVenom

Originally posted by: Qbah
So there won't no SecuROM, Starforce, TAGES and all the other shit in this one. Everything so "wrong" has been potentially removed. And yet, people still complain. How do you think they should fight piracy? Are you that naive to think that if they make a very good game, people will just buy it and not download - especially if they won't use any copy protection at all? How old are you? 10?

You think this will stop piracy? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, and LOL! Were you born yesterday?

Where did I write that it will stop piracy? Huh? It will fight it better than sucky SecuROM or the likes - a cracked .exe won't help here cause you need to be connected to the EA servers during gameplay and part of the gameplay is connected to have the connection. Basic comprehension ftl. Obviously, there are and probably will be workarounds for this one, but it will be more complex than substituting a simple .exe - and a lot of people have even problems getting this shit done.

Making a game better will hardly help with piracy - hell, it might probably make it worse, in a twisted way. But current DRM doesn't stop a game from being cracked - hence I don't really understand why are they putting this shit in new games - it clearly doesn't work.

This thing by EA is not new (you need to be online), but mixing it with the fact that you have to be connected to the internet even for SP gameplay due to some of the gameplay elements requiring data from EA servers is a new one. WoW showed that this can be very profitable anbd hinder piracy a lot (yes, I do know WoW in an MMO, but the basic idea is the same). Yes, I know there are/were pirate servers for WoW, but look how many people play it legally. Because it's such a pain in the ass and it's so buggy to play the pirated "mode".

Make a great game and have it require an active connection to the publishers/developers servers for whatever cause for gameplay reasons and this just might work.

And yes, I know soldiers in Iraq or rural areas have problems with Internet. Then again, you have 3G coverage in many places too with many providers having a flat-rate billing. There are ways (though yeah, the soldier thingie is not skippable). But you just have to accept some losses (as some of your customers won't be able to have a connection). And all the other people that will want to play it will have to buy it - I'm sure in the end, they will earn more $$$.

You're missing something.

People who pirate are not going to buy the game no matter what. If it can't be cracked, they won't be going to the store. They will just not play the game. Since these people would not be in the store anyways regardless of antipiracy efforts, the company *is* *not* *losing* *any* *money* by having their game pirated. Game pirates are simply not a source of revenue.

And, in the end the only people who are hurt are the legit people who are willing to pay for their games and can't get a stable internet connection. I can guarantee you one thing, EA WILL lose money because of that.

 

[Qbah Away]

Originally posted by: totalcommand
You're missing something.

People who pirate are not going to buy the game no matter what. If it can't be cracked, they won't be going to the store. They will just not play the game. Since these people would not be in the store anyways regardless of antipiracy efforts, the company *is* *not* *losing* *any* *money* by having their game pirated. Game pirates are simply not a source of revenue.

And, in the end the only people who are hurt are the legit people who are willing to pay for their games and can't get a stable internet connection. I can guarantee you one thing, EA WILL lose money because of that.

Not all people pirating games behave like that. If a game is good and they can't be arsed to find a workaround that's easy and works they will buy the game. Of course not all will do that and many will simply not play the game, but I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will buy it in the end.

It's not something I mind, this new protection scheme. I don't know anyone who doesn't have broadband internet. Well, my grandfather doesn't, but he doesn't game either.

 

[Anubis]

so its like Steam then?

nothing new here

 

[StinkyPinky]

REtarded. There are still lots of people with dial up. What are they supposed to do? Dial up and then play?

 

[allies]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
"as a nice side effect, since C&C4 requires players to be online all the time in order to prevent cheating, we'll be shipping without any form of DRM."'

That seems fair.

Definitely seems fair. If the world IS persistent, and you can play single player, why the hell wouldn't it require an internet connection to ensure cheating doesn't occur. Shut the hell up you whiney bastages.

Edit: They should release a SP campaign that doesn't link to your MP, and require no internet for that...

 

[Nik]

Yet another C&C game to ignore, albeit different reasons. RA2 was awesome. Everything after that was just retarded.

 

[Raduque]

Well, shit. C&C 4 is the first Command and Conquer game I won't be buying. Thanks, EA.

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Dont worry you guys, Starcraft II should be out before this garbage. There is no need to purchase C&C4 when RTS perfection is just around the corner

I don't care if Starcraft II gives me a blowjob, NO GAME is worth $150. Except Steel Battalion, and that's only because it came with the most awesome of awesome controllers.

Originally posted by: apoppin

Not mine

it locked me out and insisted i reconnect before i could go BACK into offline mode
- i *usually* am in offline mode and every so often it *requires* i log back in with my username and PW to re authenticate

and you wonder why i HATE steam

How long were you in offline mode? I have had Steam in offline mode on my laptop for the past 4 months, and never once had to log in.

 

[KMFJD]

If it only calls back to check authentication that's fine, if it forces me to patch everytime it calls home, not so fine.

 

[Red Irish]

What was the chorus of that old hippy song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"?

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: KMFJD
If it only calls back to check authentication that's fine, if it forces me to patch everytime it calls home, not so fine.

You didn't read the article, did you?

"As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4. This is primarily due to our 'player progression' feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time,"