All I have to say is that I am impressed and gladdened by the recent news that Bioware is not going to use any DRM beyond a disk check in their upcoming game Dragon Age: Origins.
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dragon-age/979591p1.html
There seems to be hope for EA yet! Now lets hope that they start releasing on Impulse and help these awesome Stardock guys out. I may actually buy this title so long as its digitally available (I still dont like hunting for CDs on a laptop). So long as EA continues this trend of not trying to squash the pirate bugs like cockroaches and puts their efforts toward the games themselves (this includes increasing the quality levels of the games as well), they may become favorable in my eyes.
The formula is simple, make a high quality game with low maintainance to the user and release it at a reasonable price that reflects the quality of the game. Then people will part with their hard earned money (at least reasonable and logical people will... guess pirates dont fit either of those categories). I suppose I should add quality support to the mix because when something goes wrong (and even the best titles have plenty of problems), you want to know that the problem will be acknowledged and fixed (while listening to the actually users and not some tech guy on level 2 who knows very little about how the game functions).
Stardock and GPG are leading the way, but I am pleased EA is following the trend as well, because their products are fairly decent, but DRM will almost always kill them off. It will be interesting to see if Activision/Blizzard follows this trend as well. I for one have no interest in D3 or SC2 if they impose activations and installation restrictions beyond loading up steam or impulse to play.
What are other thoughts on this development?
That is GOOD news. I was incredibly disappointed when I heard that Mass Effect had the machine limit DRM but I bought it anyway because I was looking forward to it so much. Looking back, I wish I hadn't just for the principle. It's too bad that Mass Effect was such a good game and I couldn't resist the pull...
People dont want their computers infected with malware. How is that silly?
EA has been improving for the past few years. They're just in an entrenched position, so movement will be fairly slow.
Its silly because most DRM has long since ceased to be anything that fits the technical definition of "malware". DRM has a horrible reputation that WAS well deserved. Nowadays things have changed somewhat.
I think if people pirated less and bought more things would be better. Even if you pirate then buy, thats fine. But not buying happens all too often.
I've had horrible, horrible customer support with them. Their DRM has crippled 1 disk drive and forced me to do a restore on my computer. Their games are a pain to fully remove.
The last game I bought was Battlefield 2142 - which I couldn't even play, as the patch caused my computer to crash when loading the map. I couldn't return it either, as the cd-key was registered onto my account. Upon contacting their online support about the map crashing, I was informed I should have carefully read the system requirements. Yeah, thanks for that EA. I even included all my damn system specs, which were more than enough to play the game.
Among that, they buy good titles and dumb them down. They also have a history of saying one thing, than doing another (I remember a few titles which would have low drm, than got buffed up near release)
EDIT: I'd also like to say while I don't buy any games owned by EA, I don't pirate them either. I completely ignore them.
After I played a pirated version, I decided to buy the game. It was too good not to play it. But I really hate that activation limit. So I didn't buy other games with it except for Spore after they promised an deactivator.
And yeah, I didn't buy (or play) Mirror's Edge because of it's DRM.
Not paying $50 for a rental is far from silly.
Personally the whole thing worked out fine for me. I waited until EA removed the limited installation restriction from the Steam version of the game, then picked it up. The result was that instead of getting $50 for the game, they got $20, just because their launch DRM was nonsense. Given its replay value and length, I'm just as glad I got it for cheap.
*ROFLMAO* Yeah, that's why so m any people wrote in different forums that SecuSuck killed their DVD drives, would crash the game if you have certain software running and all that. Wake up to reality.
And on-topic: If that proves to be correct DA:O and ME2 will be a definitive purchase for me.
This news made my day!
Dragon Age has everything to be an EXCELLENT game.
Evil Chris posted about this on Twitter, via the (hilarious and constantly updated) Biofeed:
I just announced the Dragon Age: Origins copy protection. http://tinyurl.com/cr9sel - Evil Chris
BioWare about 17h ago via Splitweet
I would still prefer to acquire a digital version of Dragon Age, as long as it's not through EA's crappy digital service.
To make things REALLY perfect, would be to have Dragon Age on Impulse.
Well, Chris' post on the DA board stated that the CD/DVD won't contain no other form of copy protection/DRM than disc check.
I'm wondering though how things turn out when it comes to updates/patches/downloadable content ...
Sorry, but any DRM scheme that adversely interferes with anything on my system constitutes as malware to me. Thus such games will never be installed. The newest versions of SecuROM and Starforce (Starforce was never allowed on my system) are banned from my system. If this makes me silly, then so be it.
I was pleasantly surprised to read the news last night. I felt bad for BioWare after the Mass Effect release when people were boycotting the game because their parent/publisher just decided to slap SecuROM on it. Hopefully now Dragon Age won't suffer the same fate BioWare games deserve to be played, not boycotted!
Agreed!
They explicitly stated it won't be any version of SecuSuck. But they didn't mention Starforce...
I hate disk check. It means I have to find the DVD every time I want to play the game.
I bought several games that I never played because of that.
[quote who="Star Adder" comment="16"] BioWare games deserve to be played, not boycotted! Agreed! They explicitly stated it won't be any version of SecuSuck. But they didn't mention Starforce... [/quote]
Check out the later posts for more details. Specifically this from Derek French Technical Producer :
I don't think we are hitting the specifics yet, but I can tell you two things. Starforce is not a basic disk check. Tages is not a basic disk check. (Please see Chris's first post if you are unsure of the "basic disk check" phrase.)
Very good. Thanks for the heads up.
What Derek said about Starforce might be true concerning new versions. The one used on i.e. Etherlords2 however is really just a basic disk check afaik.
Anyways, I'm really glad about these announcements and therefore will buy DA:O and ME2.
The rest of my posts was just a halfhearted attempt at humorous conspiracy theory.
I plan to get Dragon Age for sure, especially now. If it had bad DRM I would probably pass.
Stardock, PLEASE get this game on Impulse. I almost refuse to buy a game anymore if it's not on Impulse.
A disk check? So I'll need the CD in my drive when I play? Not good enough.
Call me back when they've got NO DRM just the same as SINS or Demigod.
Any chance to see the game on Impulse?
I know you can't tell us for sure until it's done... So please, just tell us if you're trying.
..is that why my mass affect keeps freezing and crashing my comp whenever I try to play it?
I love the game but grrr...
Ea's support is terrible, and in particular their website is the worst designed piece of garbage I've had the displeasure of fumbling through for far too long.
Can someone please post a hand in face pic? Thank you.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
