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?
EA said they are doing the same thing with The Sims 3. Just a disk check and a serial number.
http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/newsItem.jsp?item=-608201177
much oblige.
Muchas gracias!
Next time people will probably state that the won't buy games they have to install on their rig...
Yeah, there is such a thing as too much idealism
de nada
and people are so silly. Forgetting the days where you'd have to install 3 discs just to get the game running!
Hehe yeah, all hail the floppy disk!
You can thank us 'silly' people for EA's decision not to go with a harsh and unpopular DRM scheme. Or do you think they decided to go with a basic disc check just because?
There you go.
No doubt. Some of us crazy people spend a lot of time trying to educate the public about the issues as well as informing the general media and special interest groups about the ill effects such things bring with them regarding customer rights. It is nice to see the efforts for the past few years have not been wasted time and resources.
To be fair, it's the attention and discussion that did it, not any lost sales from a few boycotts.
Or it might also have something to do with the $1b loss EA posted this year. DRM isn't free, after all, and I'd bet the complaints just helped to justify the cost cutting.
That could well be it, too. The EA games sell insanely well. For all of the fiasco with Spore, it sold like wildfire. Obviously DRM isn't free, but they lost money because they always over-extend with investments and it's definitely pretty plausible that they'd toss DRM to save that extra bit of money.
Dunno. What kryo said is probably ONE factor, but I can't help thinking it's also an effect of the class action suits and the resulting massive image loss along with them witnessing the strong support Stardock received for it's stance in the matter.
No matter WHAT the reason is, it helped quiten down that douche at EA (forgot his name) who stated something like "Everyone complaining about DDRM is either inept or a pirate." and bringing us closer to enjoying the games we'd like to play without hassle.
That 'douche' was EA's CEO, John Ricietello.
Kryo/Annatar: I wasn't trying to imply that EA looked at the possible lost sales from the few of us that refused to buy the game. That was likely a small factor (if it was one at all). What I meant was the backlash against the DRM was probably a large factor in the decision to go with a different copy protection.
Cost may be a factor as well, but remember they're not going without any protection, so they're presumably still paying for some form of copy protection. Looking at the big outcry they had from the Sims players and their decision to drop SecuROM on the Sims 3, and considering the backlash they got for Spore and MEPC, I think these had some influence on this decision. I also think BioWare was unhappy with the DRM on MEPC (and the resulting complaints) and they likely put some pressure on EA as well. But I still believe the root of it is the anger and dissatisfaction from the consumer base.
Not to nitpick, but both are using GOO now, which is DRM. It's just locking the game to your system on install (via Impulse) instead of checking for the disc in the drive. Even if you install via Retail "DRM-free" discs, when you update you'll get GOO.
Whether that's a bad thing or not is up to you.
Reasonable to be sure but those lost sales (several hundred from me alone this past year and tens of thousands if you count the movies, music and games I did not buy for nearly the last decade) and boycotts really add fuel to the fire and that was the whole point to draw attention the issue.
Agreed! There was a lot of hate generated towards EA ever since the announcements last summer about Mass Effect phoning home every 10 days. They of course ended up backing down from that initial plan, but the damage was done.
Thanks. I remembered him being the CEO and his initials being JR but forgot the full name.
He's still a douche though.
I think that so long as EA's products improve in quality, their support makes some cosmic leaps forward, and they start listening to the customer base instead of or in addition to their investors, EA can still be forgiven for past infarctions.
I myself have much hostility toward EA over how the CnC series turned out in terms of game play vs how westwood used to handle it. They slap pretty graphics on a halfassed game and over advertise it until they've tapped into your subconscious and make you "have to have it" so to speak. But, if they want to make a mends, who am I to argue, so long as they actually progress forward to the standard that we, as educated gamers, expect in this ultra competitive gaming world.
All that said, I will probably wait on all EA products for at least a year before considering them and will probably purchase them only when they've entered the bargain bin and have extremely positive reviews. Further, I'm tired of dealing with games that are buggy even years after their initial release (example Sims 2 that still has massive issues rooted in the engine).
We shall see if EA is 'man enough' to win back (or win over in the first place) it's educated customer base. Releasing on Impulse would be a great leap forward in my eyes so long as they arent trying to screw over those hard working stardockians!
lol JR... makes me think of JP from Grandma's Boy..
When I first stumbled over his initials I was instantaniously reminded of the vicious laughter of J.R. Ewing from Dallas.
They are the same person - trust me on this...
Be thankful that EA isn't as bad as Lucasarts!
@Spartan:
I have a tendency to believe you.
It isn't ?!
Ea does a little bit of support after shipping, while Lucasarts does none.
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