Mass Effect - Bioware on DRM: No Periodoc Re-authentification!

There's an article on The Escapist about this latest DRM debate. Though it was written before the 10 day phone home was removed.

Holly Avenger said:

Still no sale here - anything with limited installs is an instant no.

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Same here... A pity, since I was looking forward to the game. Bioware are becoming less interesting with every move they make.

Im happy that they atleast still make pc games. Som other companies have allready abandoned pc completely even. I dont believe the limited installs will last forever. They have removed cp protections in the past too with patches.

I actually had less problem with the reauthentication every 10 days than I did the inability to deactivate. I was expecting them to "cave" to pressure. But now that they have, and they didn't fix what I consider the worst issue, I suspect the chances of them "caving" on that issue pretty slim. Damn, I'm frustrated.

I'm utterly torn. I love supporting PC games, especially RPGs, with my dollar vote and actually look forward to spending my hard earned money on such games. But I can't condone this lack of deactivation for fear of it becoming the norm. At best, Mass Effect and Spore are now bargain bin buys for me. I will likely have a tougher time when Dragon Age comes along, but I hope I hold my ground.

aries100 said:

You can install it as many times you want as long as it on the same machine -Effect.

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This is what I have a big problem with. What happens when I get a new computer in a few years? What happens if I want to play the game on my laptop when I travel? What happens when I want to sell it on ebay? Guess I can't do it. This is the worst part of this copy protection. Far worse than having to do a reactivation by the internet every 10 days.

Another blog entry (sorry, I don't know whether it has already been posted or not, because these discussions here went a bit too fast for me to follow) :

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1656

One problem that I've realized is that creativity in copy protection seems to be the goal with these companies. Thwarting the bad guys leads to more and complicated ways to protect the software and that makes using software more and more difficult.

The success of Steam has, unfortunately, spawned this online trend for DRM. Its my understanding that their digital authentication system wouldn't have even been necessary if they had a proper distribution method.

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I think I wouldn't mind copy portection so bad if it was treated as a necessary evil and wasn't constantly tripping over itself to try and work better. If companies could allow an acceptable number of "losses" as something that actually gets the product out to the public and threw on the protection as an afterthough it would be a lot more helpful.

Those who are determined to get a working copy for free will regardless, but it could slow joe q gamer from running off a copy and giving it to all his friends if they aren't willing to really push the issue and make it too complicated to play.

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On the comment on NWN and SecuROM, I will remind everyone on how it cracked the playdisks and Bioware recommended you copy it so your original wouldn't break. In at least one patch they had to remove SecuROM because it caused so many problems and nearly every version that it was patched up had problems being read in most disk drives. Patch 1.68 finally removes the CD requirement.

The entire idea of requiring customers to license something they're obviously buying was flawed from the beginning and was only ever going to work up to a certain point. The characteristics that make it "soft" make software too convenient to reuse, copy and manipulate.

It was only out of necessity that the industry based itself around the honor system. It's awkward retreat away from that has been slow and painful for legitimate customers and, ironically, a source of fine levity for pirates.

The software industry needs to get all the way in or all the way out with the folks who use its products. Attempts to give customers the problem haven't worked. The industry needs to take full responsiblity for the nature of its product and work toward finding real solutions.

Those will almost certainly take advantage of the Internet and soon-to-emerge advanced metropolitan-area communications capabilities, IMO.

Lucky Day said:

Patch 1.68 finally removes the CD requirement.

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I bought NWN in last September, with the add-ons during the last months.

I much later realized that the 1.68 patch removes the need for a CD, which actually makes me very, very happy. So I can play it and meanwhile other games which need a CD in the drive !