What is the big deal about this "always online" stuff?

[MumboJumbo]

Hey, I really don't understand the constant outcrys for the following reasons (I'll get onto origin later):

1- I almost always have an internet connection, if you don't then you should probably switch your ISP provider.

2-If you plan on gaming on the move and you don't have access to the internet as a result you should just accept the fact that you're on the move anyway and there are other things to do other than play that one game. Chances are, in reality, you aren't going to be playing on the move because either:

A) Your laptop battery would die so fast it's pointless
B) Your laptop isn't good enough to really run it properly anyway
C) Gaming on the move is actually a hassle and quite frankly just do something else.
D) All of the above.


3- If the servers do go down they rarely ever go down for longer than an hour or two so just grow up and get over it perhaps?

4- It's not taking your freedom away, it's helping to stop piracy. Now I sit on the fence of piracy. Many will argue it's because the rise in prices but I would argue that people would do it anyway regardless. For example, someone said the other day that if they weren't charging so much for music he wouldn't have pirated his 100,000+ songs. But even if they changed him just 1p a song he's still got to pay £1000 and, as a student, I can't see that happening.

We can argue that it doesn't stop piracy as they still manage to get around it but I doubt they can play online so really we are only talking about single player games here now. I will agree with you that it seems a bit silly to put it on single player games as the crackers will get around it regardless, but I'm not going to let it stop me buying a game or cry my self to sleep over it.

Now, on to origin. A lot of people complain that they can't play bf3 when origin is offline. This is simply not true and I have successfully joined games every time origin has gone down. People need to l2p, quite literally.

Try to use your inside voices.

 

[FrenchTart]

Please just read the fifty previous threads on this subject for posts supporting your point and arguing against it.

 

[Martini1991]

It's an inconvenience the pirated version won't have, therefore it's restricting you. It doesn't stop piracy because it doesn't work.

Also, your connection isn't the same as every other person in the world, many places are vastly different.

Some people obviously, like you don't mind, but the people who these restrictions effect are obviously going to mind.
Also, plenty of public transports have sockets for your laptops etc, even planes (IIRC) so the battery argument is irrelevant in the vast amount of cases.

I don't find it bothers me, if there's something I don't like about the method of going about things for a game, I simply won't buy that game.

 

[iviv]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/02/legitimate-ubisoft-games-wont-work-tues/

For instance. Ubisoft move all their servers. Meaning you can't play your games at all.

As if a sampler for what would happen should Ubi ever go south, Eurogamer reports that HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6, The Settlers 7, and any other Ubi games infected with the malware will simply not run on your PC. We’re not talking about the multiplayer, or downtime for an online game here. We mean, the single-player versions of the game played locally on your own PC.

Great, eh?! What a brilliant thing for everyone involved. Those with pirated version can carry on enjoying the games throughout, and those who paid money for them will receive an error message. Woo-hoo! Put it on a PowerPoint slide and present it to your shareholders as another victory!

This all happens on Tuesday 7th, when the servers are all moving house. But Ubi haven’t said how long it will take, and for how long non-pirated versions of their games won’t work.

So, they don't say when you would have been able to play the games again. So much for buying your games. And the piracy argument you make is flawed. So says Gabe Newell, of Valve. You know, the company that makes Steam, that huge piece of software that lets you play your games however and whenever you like. You'd think they would love DRM and hate piracy.

http://kotaku.com/5835328/why-portals-publishers-dont-fear-piracy-competition

"We're a broken record on this," Newell told me,. "This belief that you increase your monetization by making your game worth less through aggressive digital rights management is totally backwards . It's a service issue, not a technology issue. Piracy is just not an issue for us."

And it's not because Steam avoids regions of the world known for their software piracy, they actually embrace them.

"When we entered Russia everyone said, ‘You can't make money in there. Everyone pirates,'" Newell said.

But when Valve looked into what was going on there they saw that the pirates were doing a better job of localizing games than the publishers were.

"When people decide where to buy their games they look and they say, ‘Jesus, the pirates provide a better service for us,'" he said.

So Valve invested in getting the games they sold there localized in Russian. Now Russia is their largest European market outside of the UK and Germany.

"The best way to fight piracy is to create a service that people need," he said. "I think (publishers with strict DRM) will sell less of their products and create more problems.

"Customers want to know everything is going to be there for them no matter what: Their saved games and configurations will be there. They don't want any uncertainty."

And it's uncertainty among gamers that some of this more egregious digital rights management is creating.

To quote part of the much larger article.

This guy knows what he's talking about, far more than anyone else in this thread will. And he has a huge vested interest, afterall if he's not selling games, he's not making money. But he says that the always on DRM is a terribly stupid thing. And he's right.

1- I almost always have an internet connection, if you don't then you should probably switch your ISP provider.

Well, I sure hope nothing ever happens to your phone line. Lets hope the cables aren't stolen or something, leaving you without internet and unable to play any of your games at all until you have an internet connection again. The only games that should require an internet connection are online games where you obviously need the connection to play with people. Requiring a connection for playing a single player game is mind bogglingly stupid.

 

[orderoftheflame]

I doesn't massively bother me, and it's never stopped me playing a game when I wanted. I can see how it might frustration people though.

Seems pretty futile when it won't stop piracy any in the end. Developers should look to provide additional convenience to paying users rather than restricting and punishing them to stop pirates.

 

[Dauthi]

games that should require an internet connection are online games where you obviously need the connection to play with people. Requiring a CONTINUOUS connection for playing a single player game is mind bogglingly stupid.

It can but annoying to have a connection to start a game but being kicked from single player if you lose connection is mind bogglingly stupid yes.

 

[orderoftheflame]

Whats the point of buying something when you can easly get it for free?

Benefits scrounge per chance? Must be lovely leeching off of everyone else in the world.

 

[iv-tecman]

Being a laptop gamer I tend to take my laptop into work.... I can't always get my mobile internet teethering to work, so having to sign up and into Steam or Origin can be a pain if the offline mode has decided to stop working..

Steam is well known for this, and its well annoying.

I do agree, its not a huge problem. I have a laptop and a mobile phone USB cable, heck I can even use wireless across my mobile as a hotspot and connect to the internet from my laptop using my mobile, its just annoying when the signal is poor and I want to play a steam game and I can't sign in..

 

[Stoner81]

snip

Without money for support companies go bust and stop making stuff be it games or software etc etc.

Among the people I know who pirate the thing they always say is "it is the cost" involved. People who mess about with Photoshop for example but can't afford nearly £1,000 for the legitimate license. If prices were cheaper a lot of people would not pirate, however there are those (like above) who would pirate regardless of how cheap a product was.

As an example I know somebody who has 4 PC's in the house all being used by different people but they can't afford 4x £80 (£320 total) just for fricking Windows!

Stoner81.

 

[iv-tecman]

Hey, I really don't understand the constant outcrys for the following reasons (I'll get onto origin later):


A) Your laptop battery would die so fast it's pointless
B) Your laptop isn't good enough to really run it properly anyway
C) Gaming on the move is actually a hassle and quite frankly just do something else.
D) All of the above.


.

Oh and erm, actually I do and have ran games on my laptop on the train.

Heck, my laptop can run Crysis II and I'm fairly sure I played BF3 on my laptop at a fairly decent detail level and fps, certainly made the 360 or PS3 version with all its screen tearing look poor..

So, yes mobile gaming is well possible with todays laptops..

 

[Martini1991]

Snip

You're a parasite.

 

[FrenchTart]

Snip

Benefits scrounge per chance? Must be lovely leeching off of everyone else in the world.

shaboobaloop1 is an Think it yes, say it No but I wouldn't instantly jump to the "benefits scrounge" judgment - this isn't GD.

Anyhow, RTM'd shaboobaloop1's post.

 

[PsychoPigeon]

This is how internet censorship works, it punishes the people who are doing nothing wrong. Down with ACTA

 

[orderoftheflame]

shaboobaloop1 is an ***** but I wouldn't instantly jump to the "benefits scrounge" judgment - this isn't GD.

Anyhow, RTM'd shaboobaloop1's post.

I wouldn't say it's a far leap. It's the same mentality that drives people to exploit benefits (I'm not talking about legitimate receivers, actual scroungers). "Why work when I can get money for free?".

You're right though, it's not GD, no need for it. Sorry.

 

[SheepBeast]

OP your post is stupid. It's like saying "why do people complain about crap games? why don't thye just not play games?".

It doesn't address the point at all

 

[iviv]

DRM should be at the very least invisible. At the end of the day there's good DRM and bad DRM. An example of good DRM is Steam, since it adds features to games. It gives you the steam community, lets you chat in games, can deal with multiplayer and achievements. If you have the option of the game without steamworks, and the same game with steamworks, most people will pick the steam version because of the features it adds. There is pretty much no downside.

Then lets look at the Ubisoft DRM. What does it add? Absolutely nothing. What does it take? Control of your game, forcing you to rely on Ubi's servers, unlike Steam which has the offline mode option.

Finally, look at what benefits you get from a pirated version of the games. A pirated steam version just means you get the steam version without those features. So the pirated version is actually lacking some things.
A pirated version of an ubisoft game allows you to play it whenever you like, without having to rely on someone's servers in a different country, which can be taken down whenever they feel like it, for as long as they feel. Why would anyone pay for that when they get a better experience by pirating it?

In the end, you have to go with the option that gets you the better playing experience.

 

[Swifty55]

Now, on to origin. A lot of people complain that they can't play bf3 when origin is offline. This is simply not true and I have successfully joined games every time origin has gone down. People need to l2p, quite literally.

Yes, that makes sense. People need to learn to play "Origin"...

When the Origin servers are down, and you do not already have the client open or not using the Razor crack then you cannot connect to any BF3 server as it requires launching Origin first.

 

[Borsch]

The problem is not whether DRM is draconian o not, but whether it is draconian AND inefective. Whats the point of annoying your measly 500.000 customers when game is cracked and playable without this annoyance for free? If DRM worked, then it'd be worth it for all its customers to put up with its quirks.

 

[Borsch]

Benefits scrounge per chance? Must be lovely leeching off of everyone else in the world.

You 're not gonna hurt his feelings, he's heard it all before ;( Make it tough for him to pirate games though- and he'll change his behaviour cause he loves the easy way

 

[Evilsod]

The problem is not whether DRM is draconian o not, but whether it is draconian AND inefective. Whats the point of annoying your measly 500.000 customers when game is cracked and playable without this annoyance for free? If DRM worked, then it'd be worth it for all its customers to put up with its quirks.

Worth it all from whose perspective? From the players perspective, pretty much anything that hinders your ability to play the game properly isn't what you want regardless of how effective it is. Its an anti-piracy measure that shouldn't effect legit buyers in any way.