Bioshock - Rootkit rumours routed

When I buy a game, I want to be 100% sure that I will be able to play that game whenever and wherever I choose in the years to come. Ideally that should be out of the box, but if a crack exists for what looks to be the final patched version, then that may suffice. It's hardly an ideal solution though.

Your goal is unattainable for ANY software which means you might as well give up on computers now. A lot of even completely unprotected stuff is just not going to run 5, 10, let alone 20, years from now on Windows SuperDuperWhatever. Even the update to Windows XP (SP1 or SP2, I forget) broke a lot of software (not just games) and made it unusable. I've never gotten some old game software I have (SS1 and MoM for instance) to run on anything other than some old systems that are years dead now. I'd love to play them again but it's just not happening on any system I've tried.
 
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Whenever i run a spyware, malware etc. scan on my computer, these reveal several trojans etc. Unfortunately, this revelation comes as no surpirse to me, since one is flagged as Fate (the game), others are (sometimes) oddly :rolleyes: my internet service.
 
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Your goal is unattainable for ANY software which means you might as well give up on computers now. A lot of even completely unprotected stuff is just not going to run 5, 10, let alone 20, years from now on Windows SuperDuperWhatever. Even the update to Windows XP (SP1 or SP2, I forget) broke a lot of software (not just games) and made it unusable. I've never gotten some old game software I have (SS1 and MoM for instance) to run on anything other than some old systems that are years dead now. I'd love to play them again but it's just not happening on any system I've tried.


In case you're ever interested in playing System Shock again.

http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php?topic=211.0
 
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Like I mentioned above, if it ever becomes the norm, we will live in a world where updating your computer will become a nightmare when all your old games require re-activating from now non-existent servers or ones that have now deemed you to have installed it too many times.

On-line activation isn't the only thing that's going to break today's games tomorrow. Activation servers don't go down that often; we're talking about a timespan of 5+ years here. That's about two hardware/OS generations. It's likely that something there will break the games before activation requirements do.

I agree that it is an inconvenience; I just don't think it's a showstopper. Personally, I would prefer on-line activation to a disk-based check, because the latter requires installation of low-level drivers that I'd rather not have on my system. My preferred form of DRM is Steam-style activation, though, where the activation is not tied to your hardware but to your user account.

When I buy a game, I want to be 100% sure that I will be able to play that game whenever and wherever I choose in the years to come. Ideally that should be out of the box, but if a crack exists for what looks to be the final patched version, then that may suffice. It's hardly an ideal solution though.

In that case, I would recommend you stick to board games. 'Cuz anything electronic isn't going to get you anywhere near 100%.

DRM is a disease that will spread if it's allowed, gradually crippling you more and more if you'll let it. Bioshock is a prime example of an incremental increase in DRM applied to a new product.... and once they think we're happy with that, they'll push it out to all games. Then when it fails to dent piracy they'll move onto the next, all in the mistaken belief that it is somehow going to be the thing that will finally win the battle. Before you know it gaming isn't fun anymore because of all the restrictions you have to put up with. So it's a question of making a stand because if it's left to spread then it means gaming is something I will not want to do anymore. If no-one complained about Bioshock's DRM we'd see it everywhere all too soon.

I don't like DRM either. I just don't see how we can get rid of it any time soon. The business model for making games requires that people pay for games; remove DRM, and many people will stop paying for them. The more people stop paying for them, the more acceptable it becomes not to pay for them, and quite soon only a minority will be paying for them. (N.b.: the phenomenon of "cheating" has been widely researched by economists; if you want to look stuff up, you can come up with some very hard numbers on exactly what percentage of the market will cheat if the penalty for cheating is zero or near zero, as it would if DRM was removed.)

Of course, there are other business models than the one currently in use, but I doubt any of them would have given us Bioshock.

That said, I agree that many current DRM schemes are overly intrusive: less would be enough to stop most casual piracy, which is the best any DRM scheme can hope for.

Phew, that turned into a bit of a rant! Emotive subject DRM...

Indeed.

On a tangent, I'm fine with online activation as an *option* instead of having the DVD in the drive. That would provide us with choice, and a handy one for those who would prefer to not have to swap DVDs but are happy to be online when they play. But that empowers the user, so it's of no use to the publisher, hence why we never see it. We never get OR options, only AND (i.e. DVD AND online activation).

Yah, publishers are evil. The bastards. :p
 
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Your goal is unattainable for ANY software which means you might as well give up on computers now. A lot of even completely unprotected stuff is just not going to run 5, 10, let alone 20, years from now on Windows SuperDuperWhatever. Even the update to Windows XP (SP1 or SP2, I forget) broke a lot of software (not just games) and made it unusable. I've never gotten some old game software I have (SS1 and MoM for instance) to run on anything other than some old systems that are years dead now. I'd love to play them again but it's just not happening on any system I've tried.
This is where being a laptop gamer comes in handy - I have an old HP Omnibook that runs DOS & Win95, a little 2lb Toshiba that runs Win 98 and everything else will work on my newer systems ... but I have an older Dell Inspiron just in case. Plus the Macs ...
 
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