PC Gamer, BioShock and activation issues.

Chalk it up to paranoia. His gaming rig is also his music studio system, so he's being 100% sure of not losing all his songs to some buggie.

Originally Posted by dteowner
So, my buddy at work went out and bought the game on my recommendation. His gaming rig doesn't have an internet connection and his internet rig can't handle the game. He did a little looking and it appears there's no way around this (like an 800 number where they can give you an activation code). Is that the case? Is he screwed?

Googling on "bioshock offline activation" leads to the rather coldly worded:

http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/support/general_3.htm

Which sounds a little like they're saying "we'll only fix if broken".

Originally Posted by txa1265
it just seems odd to me that someone with a system powerful enough to run the game wouldn't have net access on it.

Why? Powerful hardware and connectivity aren't mutually inclusive, quality Internet service provision isn't universal and many people simply don't care for the 'net. From a purely gaming perspective some folk don't care for multiplayer either.

Personally I find it creepy that the industry is moving in a direction which insists on everyone's system being connected to a public - and hugely insecure - network.

Originally Posted by MudsAnimalFriend
Why? Powerful hardware and connectivity aren't mutually inclusive, quality Internet service provision isn't universal and many people simply don't care for the 'net. From a purely gaming perspective some folk don't care for multiplayer either.

True, but I wasn't talking broadband - all you'd need it a dial-up connection for validation. That said, even Microsoft has made phone activation possible.

That support bit is a little coldy worded but (sorry, dte) given that an internet connection is marked as a requirement on the box, at least they offer a solution.

Dewayne found that webpage, too. The game supposedly insists on doing a patch hunt via the internet before it will allow you to do the activation. Seems kinda strange. Anyway, since he bought it on my recommendation (and, yes, the box does mention the internet requirement in bolded fine print), I'm going to buy it from him. I don't really do shooters, but hopefully it will be good enough to maintain my interest some day in the future. I'm looking forward to installing it and seeing how the whole system really works since Dewayne isn't exactly a gamer and might not realize a way around the problem if there is one.

One point about the old "written on the box", many retail outlets like Fry's, a big US electronic super store, put price stickers over Key Information.

Can you imagine trying to peal off a price sticker, so you could read the information, at a major software store in the US, they would probably call Homeland Security.

An example when I bought EQ2 Echoes of Faydwer, there was a clause on the box that said 30 Free play "Only for New Accounts".
That totally sucked considered you were buying and paying for the exact same package as people new to the game, yet you didn't get the free 30 days play.

Additionally everyone knows about the phrase "Read the Fine Print" so of course controversial statements are often hidden in fine print, by publishers.

I still remember having an debate with a guy on Watch before BioShock released, about his point that this copy protection was completely normal, walk in the park and nothing could go wrong, he turned out to be a dev.
Yes, everything was perfect.

Yes, a dev, but not one for Bioshock if I'm right. What's your point?

Yes, I think your right but honestly I don't know either, never went back to that thread to even read it, felt like a lost cause.

Not sure which point you mean, but we're talking about activation issues, Bioshock, warnings and afair all these were related to that topic as well.
So my point seems to be there is no clear cut solution/answer in this or that thread, on how to make these dangerous protections worth risking damage to sales or customer satisfaction.

Oh, okay. It sounded like you were saying that this guy you were having a debate with being a developer somehow made his arguments less valuable.

Have they followed up with this revoke tool yet? What about the removal of securom altogether? Any word on that as well?

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention the fact about Two Worlds also being an online activated game. I didn't even know it was until I finally installed it the other day.

Thaurin

Oh, okay. It sounded like you were saying that this guy you were having a debate with being a developer somehow made his arguments less valuable.

Oh, if it did I used bad wording or grammar.
I usually side with developers (90%), had no idea this guy was one, but his position seemed "flawed", being the most PC description I can think of, atm.

JDR13

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention the fact about Two Worlds also being an online activated game.

Oh, I thought that was for online play.

On the position of online activation, I think it's all pretty useless. It will be cracked just the same and it won't be much more difficult for people who install cracked games to play it. Maybe there are other reasons for doing it, like gathering demographic statistics and more accurate popularity numbers. I'd think that'd be more useful than online activation as a crack prevention technique.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention the fact about Two Worlds also being an online activated game. I didn't even know it was until I finally installed it the other day.

I didn't know until I installed it either, unlike Bioshock that requirement isn't listed on the packaging. They also provide phone activation but only for a limited number of countries so an Internet connection should have been listed as a requirement.

It really annoyed me because, on principle, I don't normally buy software that requires online activation. After my experiences with Steam I'm certainly not buying anything from Valve again no matter what the requirements.

Thaurin

On the position of online activation, I think it's all pretty useless.

True, also destructive.
Just as the RIAA has through their actions of suing customers, it has only served to alienate paying customers.
During the first scandals of starforce and indeed as standard procedure for the games publishing industry, they blame the customer first, very bad precedent.

Yes, Two Worlds also needs online activation. However, you can also activate Two worlds over the phone, something you can't do with Bioshock. Also, Two Worlds does not have any 5 install limits or such things. And since Two Worlds can be played online, much like an MMO, the activation required is for this online play.

But since you can't distinguish between single-player and online-players, all gamers are of course required to activate the game online…

Ahh, so you can't just buy Two Worlds for the single player game and avoid the online activation?

Iirc, many if not all games at least in the past have only required online activation for the online version.
First example I can think of was Dark Messiah, it's been a couple of months but I could swear I never had to do online activation as I was never interested in that version, seems it even had a separate install or exe for multiplayer.

Originally Posted by Acleacius
Iirc, many if not all games at least in the past have only required online activation for the online version.

Half-Life 2 required Steam for the single player game, which raised some controversy at the time. Mostly due to the poor state of Steam rather than the activation requirements. The only other I can recall is the RTS Earth 2160.

I can easily envisage a day when single-player games require a constant Internet connection to facilitate live advertising spam on loading screens.

Ahh, correct and I still don't have Steam.
I really meant and was thinking Single player only games, but clearly I wasn't accurate, though I never heard of Earth 2160, so it still could be Single player only.