Games with DRM

Taylor74

Taylor74

Taylor74

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Joined
17 Aug 2009
Posts
12
I'm just after some thoughts on this DRM issue.

I'm new to pc gaming, haven't owned a decent system for many years until I bought a Pyro a few weeks back. I downloaded the demo for Crysis and had a good play through and thought I would order it. Looking on Amazon I'm noticing people saying to stay away from games with DRM built in and SecuROM and such.

Is all this stuff bad for your pc or are people just ****ed off at the thought and taking the moral high ground? Once I install Windows 7 I won't need to keep reinstalling games so I don't think the 3 or 5 install limit would affect me too much. I'm more concerned about comments I've read on the software affecting my machine and then being stuck with it.

Please give me some thoughts as I was really looking forward to getting my hands on some good pc games.
 
Apparently it has secuROM on it which I'm lead to believe is stuck on your system once the game is installed. It's mainly the reviews on Warhead that the complaints are being made.
 
If I recall Warhead shipped with secuROM, but Crysis didn't.

And the trouble with DRM is when it leads to perfectly legal games being broken on your system due to the software working incorrectly.
 
Most people leave 1 star reviews because it's morally wrong, not because it will harm your computer much. It's the fact that if you're a pirate you don't get affected by this kind of DRM, where-as if you're a legal paying customer you get burdened with install limits.
 
That's what I was wondering. I do agree it is wrong and I guess these companies are asking for trouble if they rub loyal, law abiding customers up the wrong way. I'm not really happy downloading pirated copies though as I don't want to risk knackering my pc up. As long as they're not damaging my system then I'm not too bothered about the install limit.
 
Calneon said:
where-as if you're a legal paying customer you get burdened with install limits.
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I've been burned multiple times by DRM/limitations now - mostly by EA games. I had to wait 5 days for my Burnout limit to be reset, I had to wait 4 days for my FarCry limit to be reset, 3 days for Mirror's Edge, and a few others here and there.

If I had pirated the games, I could have played them trouble-free.

I hate DRM.
 
How often are you reinstalling your system to keep on reaching these "install limits"?

This reminds me so much of the so called "hassle" there was going to be with Windows XP and it's activation.
However as you could install the OS and then use it for 12+ months without the need to reinstall the whole agrument became rather moot.

I can't believe people manage to reach the "5 install limit" on games - have you really reinstalled your whole system 5 times in a year?
Even 5 times in 5 years is pushing it what with the reliability of OS's these days.
 
Taylor74 said:
I don't think the 3 or 5 install limit would affect me too much.
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One thing to note is that most games now have the ability to revoke the install (claim back the installation quota) using a revoke tool, so assuming you do that, you'll be able to reinstall your games as many times as you like. Sometimes the revoke tool is included with the game, sometimes they are retroactively released (as in the case of many EA games) and can be downloaded from the companies website.

Although I find the concept annoying, I do have to say that I've never had (and don't personally know anyone who has had) any problems due to DRM. The upside is that occasionally a game using DRM/install limits will let you run it without a disc in the drive. Mirrors Edge and Mass Effect spring to mind (iirc).
 
stoofa said:
How often are you reinstalling your system to keep on reaching these "install limits"?
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During Win7 beta testing, quite often. It's a side effect of testing a beta OS.

After Win7 beta testing, I've had two seperate Samsung F1 drives die on me.

Obviously, this makes me a bad consumer, and punishing me is is better than punishing pirates.
 
DRM is no problem to most people. I don't even know which of my games have DRM or securom or anything like that and which don't. Most people are just complaining for the sake of complaining or hearing about the few people who have problems and jumping on the bandwagon imo
 
TBH after going along with the original furore a bit last year, now I'm not that bothered - at least about the DRM. The only one I won't touch is Starforce (so no Black Shark or Colin McRae for me). Although I still oppose the principle of limited installs, it wouldn't necessarily stop me buying a title I really, really wanted).
 
Shamikebab said:
Most DRM will not affect the vast majority of users. Does Crysis even have DRM? If it does I never noticed.
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Not sure about XCrysis but I had problems with teh DRM on Warhead when my internet connection went down - I was not allowed to play Warhead (single player – offline) until I reconnected to the internet and it checked something. And I had no connection for days. Very unhappy with it at the time but I haven’t had any DRM problems with Crysis itself.

I know we need DRM, in some form, but dammit I wish they could just make it work properly. Valve had plans to end-DRM as we know if, whatever happened to them?
 
sc(+)pe said:
Isn't Steam its own form of DRM rather than being DRM free?
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Yeah, but better. I managed to override my Far Cry 2 DRM (Non-Steam copy) by accident when it didn't allow me to continue playing it, no idea why it wasn't reseting the DRM after the uninstall.
 
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