Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 just came out, and I was wondering if anyone knew if it is worth buying. I know that it is from the blacklisted EA, but it is still a C&C game, which used to be pretty good (although they're nothing compared to Sins). Does it have the intrusive DRM that EA is known for? Is it any good? Should I even consider buying it? If you can tell me anything useful, thank you in advance.
Sorry, I didn't mean it to start an argument. It's just the very same type of reasoning we're seeing from EA. They're saying things to the effect that only a small fraction of a percent of customers will ever need more than 3 activations. Basically it's just brushing off a portion of their game buyers as unimportant.
No, it's not the end of the world, but it could certainly be the beginning of something very bad for PC gaming. Many of us (those with pitchforks and those without) can see this as the first step down a road that I don't think any consumer would want to travel. As to whether it's immoral or not, that remains to be seen. With each new statement by JR and EA, it seems as if there are other motives behind implementing this DRM scheme than they're telling people (the official line being it protects their IP from piracy).
I was going to get RA3 since the game looks like loads of fun, but the copy protection put me off a lot.
It's not so much the 5 installs that bother me (though that sucks) it's a lot of other, nastier stuff that I hear about such as the security software digging itself deep into the system and sending data back to EA for advertising purposes.
I don't know how true that is. There are screens of EA games trying to 'phone home', but I think that could be a lot of things really.
Either way, when you consider that their copy protection is only there to make you buy more copies of the game when you run out of installs (everyone knows it does nothing to prevent piracy) any interference or inconvenience is too much.
I just read about mess up on EAs side about the RA3 keys ... It looks like one
digit at the end of the key is missing ... ..
Thats sucks ... Looks like I'm going to wait a few weeks before I purchase
my copy ...
For the whole "5 limit activation thing," what if you have a problem with the game and have to reinstall it? Then you have to use another activation. At least, I 'm pretty sure you do, so correct me if I'm wrong. While I don't know why you would have to reinstall it over 5 times, if you had a couple of computers that all had a problem, I could see you running out of activations. Just my 2 cents.
Well I am waiting for my copy so if you guys can wait ill post up my review once I have a good bash at it. (In Australia so the game does not come out till Nov 7)
To those that think activation limits are not a big deal, check out this post on the spore forums.
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/6800.page
Games cracked. I think I'll download it and have a go.
And send EA a taunting email, obviously.
The RA3 forum has a 123 page post about securom protection. That is just insane.
I can stand this no longer! Why do so many great games have this copy protection? I can feel Red Alert 3 calling me. "buy me! Buy ME!" I might just give in buy a copy and use a cracked version. I just can't boycott all these great games: Bioshock, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Red Alert 3, Spore, etc. Must not give in!
I know the feeling, believe me. I've been a big fan of the Red Alert series from the beginning, and had even gone so far as to pre-order RA3 -- something I *never* do. However, I immediately cancelled my pre-order on finding out it was going to include SecuROM and that absurd 5-install limit. It makes me very sad, but I flatly refuse to purchase any game that comes with that kind of copy "protection".
The problem with buying any of those is that you're essentially saying "yes" to securom.
I understand that there's a great team of developers that probably deserve your thumbs-up, but if push comes to shove, they'll get rid of the 'security measures' first.
That's nothing. The DRM discussion is still going on in the BioWare forums and has since Mass Effect was launched last May. I believe it's in its 24th iteration (the threads are locked for length after 50 or so pages. Some have gone much longer though).
I hope everyone reading this thread will help spread the word about the DRM and join us in giving the game the lowest possible rating on every such forum you belong to. Also please tell you family and friends and ask them to do the same. The Spore message was only lightly heard and it was blamed on stupid people that did not know better and of course infringers who had nothing to gain from such a thing but hey reason is not a needed requirement to be a corporate president.
So we are trying to send yet another loud and clear message to EA again but this time to its investors. With the stock at a seven year low and analysis starting to think the top management is stupid such reviews will be truly felt by the institution with a steak in EA and that will force change for the better for gamers everywhere. Change starts with YOU so step-up and man-up and let your voice be heard.
Oh yeah, also don’t forget to vote in the elections. Obama is the Man!
I will join you in this crusade. I am sick of EA killing beloved series and their invasive DRM.
The 5 activation thing bothers me because it's, imo, just renting the game. I've installed games I love well over 5 times. I install, play until I'm sick of it, uninstall. Get a new laptop or desktop, install, new hardware, etc. I've installed Diablo 2 hundreds of times. Not literally, but a ridiculous amount over 5.
Even newer games like Oblivion that I want to love, but don't. I play for a bit, get sick of it, delete it to free some HDD space. Then after a few months, reinstall and un7zip my mods, update everything, then play again. I've done that more times than 5 on this desktop alone.
Why should I be calling any company to ask to install the game a few more times? What if they say no, or they go under?
Anyway, I just posted this in the other EA story and it is just as germane to this one so please accept my apology for reposting it here. For what it is worth people we are getting organized to protest C&C3 and SuckROMs inclusion. We want the response to be twice as big as the one for Spore. Change starts with YOU and you are truly needed. EA now has a seven year low stock price and some analysts on Wall Street even think the top management is crazy. So now is the time to stand up, man-up and be heard!
We would like every self respecting gamer to give C&C3 the lowest possible review on as many such sites that you belong to and to inform all your friends and family to do so as well and to spread the word within all your social groups online. The time for change is now the time to act is now. Gamers are not morons nor are the vast majority of us infringers.
We need to send a loud message to Wall Street and it must be soon. Please go to the following site to educate yourselves about the issues with DRM and then chose to act. EA cares about no one other than its top management and it must go but sadly only the board can do that so we must make our voices loud and known everywhere and anywhere. Check out:
defectivebydesign.org
drm.info
Then vote with your wallet, your actions and your opinion!
I just passed up RA3 today. Not because of DRM, but because it was $50 and no patches yet. Based on this info about DRM, though, I'll probably pass on RA3 indefinitely.
I've read about Red Alert 3 on Gamereplays, watched betagames and stuff and I'm not getting it. It's typical C&C with very high lethality and pretty shallow gameplay and that's not enough for me. I'll get StarCraft 2 and Dawn of War 2 instead. Those two games can't possibly disappoint me (Though Blizzard also uses SecuROM....but I MUST play StarCraft 2 & Diablo 3!).
And that automated e-mail support reminds me of when I e-mailed creative about why I couldn't select "Opera" (16-bits) sound in Heroes of Might & Magic 2. Gotted a bunch of bullcrap responses about "can you play mp3:s ?" and "how's the hardware sound acceleration ?". After I've answered all the dumb questions I gotted a response which said "Ok, then it's settled that there's no problem with your soundcard. This errand is considered finished. Call us back if you need further assistance"....
What a bunch of idiots! Like I didn't know that my soundcard were in perfect condition....e-mailed back and told him/them/whateverthehellI'mtalkingto them that I knew my soundcard worked perfectly and that we have waisted a few days on things that I already know. I just wanted to know if the soundcard can play the "Opera" (16-bit music) in THAT game or if it can be emulated.
Like talking to a machine....
We already have few dozen people doing the A-bombs on Amazon of course and other review sites for this title. It is my hope that everyone reading this will do the same and ask their friends as well. I also suggest doing it for Dead Space as well as any other big named title published by EA. Simply put EA must change or go out of business. It will be good for the entire industry and more importantly us gamers. Hell I think more people hate EA then Microsoft anymore. Now there is a title for the record books.
Maybe we could all be jerkheads, buy the software retail, but then decline the license agreement. Just go back to EA and say, "I wasn't aware that I had to agree to this-and-that to play it...". Demand a refund. I happen to have an EA branch in my state; I could take them to small claims and win.
It would be nice but sadly the effort would be far too much trouble. The best course of action is to show EA for what it is to as many people as possible in as many venues as possible and just maybe some large share holders will take notice and do something about it.
allright, you're all gonna call me a noob, an ignorant and plenty other names (that's mean ... ), but lets just say i am barely able to install comp games on my own and that id like to understand some of the stuff people say about EA on all the forums, so ...
What is DRM ? what do the letters stand for ? what does it do ? etc, etc ...
now it's finally out... please enlighten me to your great crusade ...
DRM = Digital Rights Management.
It's a 'protection' tool whereby the publisher imposes restrictions on the end user. The current iteration only allows you a limited amount of activations, and requires on-line activation of your game as well. This means you must be connected to the internet when you first fire up the game or it will ont run. If you run out of activations, you must contect tech support and request a new one, which they grant at their discretion. And any time the game needs to activate after that, you must go through the whole process again. New activations may be required when adjusting your BIOS, adding new hardware, or reinstalling your OS. Unfortunately, there is no information on exactly how much hardware change will trigger a new activation.
In addition, the DRM software may also conflict with other programs on your machine, requiring you to either shut down those programs, or even uninstall them altogether. As well, it sometimes is finicky about different types of optical drives (your CD/DVD drives) and will sometimes refuse to even load your game if you own a drive with which it has issues. There are also reports of it destroying drives due to the DMA step-down issue (this is a technical bit, google if you want more info).
Further, the software installs onto your computer without your knowledge (in most cases there is no indication that this will occur) or permission and hides itself from view. It can be difficult to remove and does not uninstall when you uninstall the game. There are reports of possible security issues with it, as well as reports of it conflicting with older versions of the security software, thus rendering some or all of your games unplayable.
But one of the biggest complaints against it is just the principle of it. This is purportedly to protect games from piracy, but it'spatently obvious it does no such thing. Why then, many people are asking, are legitimate customers forced to face these issues and problems when it does not do anything other than inconvenience the legitimate user?
These are some, but by no means all, of the issues with DRM.
Well for myself I find i often run out of space on my computer, and hence uninstall games I no longer play. Then maybe 6 months later I decide I feel like playing that game again, and so uninstall another game so I can reinstall it. I also have both a main computer and a laptop, and am likely to upgrade them maybe once every 2-3 years. For example I have RA2 on 3 computers, and have 'activated' it probably 7-8 times, meaning I'd have been well over the 5 limit. Hence I'm against any limit. By all means tie me into an account like steam does, or only allow the game to be active on 3 computers at a time (i.e. 3 activations, but you get +1 each time you uninstall, and -1 each time you install), but 5 installs, with upgrades to a computer also counting as an install? No way!
Now if you only have 1 computer, and don't upgrade it, and probably only replace it once every 2-3 years, and pretty well never have problems that require a total reboot of your computer with reinstalation of all the programs, then 5 activations will cover you just fine, and you probably won't be that bothered about that game. However I expect that there are a lot of gamers for whom that is not the case.
@general-JWJ - go to the following sites to educate yourself about DRM:
http://www.drm.info/
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/
On a side note: DRM should properly be named Digital Restrictions Manipulation
Regarding EA - The very short answer is: It has a time honed proclivity of taking hot, wet steamy dumps on customers and then charging them top dollar for the privilege of the experience and if you want support from it well that will cost you more - much more.
@Coelocanth - great reply - +1 karma
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
