The DRM Debate - Command & Conquer 4's Online Requirement Options

[Sonic]

This post is in no way an attack on our friends at EALA but I feel its something that requires discussion, especially after a recent story I just read at Kotaku about Ubisoft's new DRM system crashing and locking out paying customers in the process. Ok let face it, despite what EALA have said, Command & Conquer 4's online requirement, where you need to be connected to the internet at all times to play the game is a form of DRM. You could call it DRM in disguise if you wanted to. Once you have your copy of Command & Conquer 4 installed, every time you start the game it will "dial home" to EA's servers to check your allowed to play it. Ok this fine, hopefully it fights the pirates, but as the story on Kotaku mentions, servers go down and the game no longer works. But the real part that stings is the fact that Ubisoft's new DRM system doesn't work because it has already been cracked, and all it does is inconvenience the gamers who paid for the game, yet the pirates play on happily. When it should be the other way around.

Is this what we have to look forward to? Imagine this after the release of the game. All you want to do is fire up Command & Conquer 4 and play some single player. But sadly EA's Command & Conquer 4 servers don't appear to be responding, so sorry you don't get to the play the game you paid for. I guess we can only hope that EA's servers are much better than Ubisoft's. And lets not forget about the public relations and reaction if this happens. It has been nothing but a nightmare for Ubisoft, are EA looking down the same barrel?

Command & Conquer 4's release is only just over a week away but this whole online requirement/DRM debate is something that will never go away.

[gben]

I'm surprised you opened this can of worms Sonic...
But this isn't much of a debate... nobody likes this... it's only the faceless corporate man who thinks it's a good idea.

What interests me, is how to educate the publishers about our displeasure... a boycott seems to be the only measure that makes sense. I believe pirating the game in large numbers would only just make the publisher stubbornly try to introduce more <insert hyperbole here> draconian </hyperbole> measures to protect their interests.

[[NE]Fobby[GEN]]

The online-only idea was bad from the get-go. There are a lot of gamers that either don't always have access to the internet, or access to good internet. Although it may not be inconvenient in the first world nations, I know a lot of C&C fans from places with terribly slow and unreliable internet. Their sales are automatically cut out; same goes for the hardcore crowd against all forms of DRM.

Servers crashing wouldn't surprise me. It's not the company's fault, servers simply have a tendency of crashing every now and then, which may prove to be a design flaw for this game. It reminds me of when EA withdrew support of WOL, and XWIS had to take over. Unfortunately, there's a few games that you still can't play (Emperor: Battle for Dune, Earth & Beyond, etc.). EA's withdrew servers from previous games, how do we know the same won't be done in the future for C&C4?

[Silverthorn]

Valve also did once with their CEG (Custom Executable Generation) on Steam last November, but sadly, the game like Left 4 Dead 2 which applied that anti-piracy system also got cracked. It was effective but only cripple the pirates just for a month until they finally break through it.

As for the whole online thing, I don't know what to say, but if they're trying to make the game to follow more of an MMO system which you need to be required online, then I know some people may still not like it. Malevolence & I agreed the idea for using the best of both worlds which also means a separate account of offline & online, but that just declined as well. But I know, it'll only require a few kbs of data but I don't know if the whole thing is going to work, but I bet it'll get cracked as well since this game is not like WoW, so consumers will call in pirates to crack it to save whatever profiles into their hard disks rather than EA's own servers. Think of the annoyances involve, not just in my mind, but also in the mind of consumers who also be purchasing C&C4.

EDIT : Starcraft 2 will also have profiles as well when I was checking out their latest screenshots, but the question is, are those profiles saved into Blizzard's servers like C&C4 or will they be saved into your local hard disk? I naturally prefer the hard disk, an easy choice.

This post has been edited by Silverthorn: Monday 8th March 2010 3:16 PM

[D14810]

The idea itself is a good tactic against piracy. But with the way it's executed with chances of crashing, harsh conflicts with the actual costumers and bad spot light in general I doubt this is such a good way of doing it.
There must be another way to verify costumers other than checking every single time you launch the game.

I think we should also discuss how it could be done in a more reasonable way.

[Silverthorn]

There will always be pros and cons, no anti-piracy system is perfect. Sure, whatever something new or more sophisticated is in place, it will cripple them only for a short while, then they'll find a way to get around it. Similar to Windows 7, upon release and no matter how upgraded it'll be, hackers will continue to do whatever it takes to bring terror into our hearts.

Reason for edit: Discussion about your cracked/stolen software has been removed by an admin.

[recover]

I also heard that Ubisoft's servers had a denial of service attack, which then in turn prevented paying customers from playing. I wonder if Ubisoft wouldn't have added the DRM if they knew how it would turn out.

I wonder if EA are reconsidering their decision, now that they know a very likely outcome. I doubt it though.

Me? I plan to play the game at a friend.

[sith_wampa]

I also heard that Ubisoft's servers had a denial of service attack,

That would be all too fitting.

[purplescrin]

This part reminds me that why World of Warcraft is still winning and leading on users playing the game online. EA and Ubisoft are attempting to get more players online to compete an online battle on a number of users with Activision's, Valve's and Blizzard's online games, no matter if it's SP or MP.

The way EA and Ubisoft are doing on being online all the time (similar to Steam) isn't going to work anyway because its reliability won't last long.

Besides, this is why PC gaming is dying. When we meant PC gaming, it's always meant to be played offline. When we meant PC gaming with constant Internet connection, it's not a PC game but an online game on a PC. The same goes to video consoles.

[Doctor Destiny]

I miss the days of CD keys and requiring the CD in the drive... Long gone are the days of simplicity...

[ORCaLoVeR]

The more companies try to protect their games from piracy, the more the games are pirated

[recover]

This reminds me of this image: Why DRM Doesn't Work. It is so fitting.

Anyone in disagreement?

[Mighty BOB!]

I also heard that Ubisoft's servers had a denial of service attack,

Those clever trolls.. I would have never thought of that. That's a pretty egregious flaw in the system.

[Neroon]

I also heard that Ubisoft's servers had a denial of service attack, which then in turn prevented paying customers from playing. I wonder if Ubisoft wouldn't have added the DRM if they knew how it would turn out.

I wonder if EA are reconsidering their decision, now that they know a very likely outcome. I doubt it though.

Me? I plan to play the game at a friend.

Since there is potential money to be made here the criminals with bot nets will surely be interested in holding the services hostage.

And no. This will not stop the pirates. If it did it would be the first time in history and the scheme itself has been tried before. How likely do anyone here think it is that this will succeed?

Similar to Windows 7, upon release and no matter how upgraded it'll be, hackers will continue to do whatever it takes to bring terror into our hearts

Terror?

Ah, I guess you are talking about viruses and trojans, right? The cracks for games mostly bring me pleasure since I don't need to have the disc in the drive with the DRM disabled :-)

The idea itself is a good tactic against piracy. But with the way it's executed with chances of crashing, harsh conflicts with the actual costumers and bad spot light in general I doubt this is such a good way of doing it.
There must be another way to verify costumers other than checking every single time you launch the game.

I think we should also discuss how it could be done in a more reasonable way.

No, its no more reasonable then the old ones. Even less so. The more inconvenience you bring to the consumer, the less likely he is to buy your next game. This scheme of EAs only made sure that I will not buy this game.

[Troopzor]

Just an update on the whole Ubisoft problem: http://kotaku.com/5488372/denial-of-servic...eed-ii-playtime

tl;dr: A bunch of hackers overloaded the Ubisoft servers, which caused some legitimate customers to lose their connection and not be able to play at all.

[General Kane Nas...]

We all know who is the person responsable for the last EALA DRM failures at release:




http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PointyHairedBoss

If you ahve read/watched Dilbert comic strip then you know what I am talking about

[Sonic]

I'm surprised you opened this can of worms Sonic...

After reading the Ubisoft story at Kotuku I could only think about C&C 4's online stuff. It could happen to us when we want to play it.

[Silverthorn]

I beg your pardon on that admin edit, I DIDN'T indicate a single name of a pirated software, I was just talking about the ways how did people fix their online authentication problems, Norton is a genuine anti-virus software and it features a firewall system. And I own one which is a GENUINE version! So read carefully first of what I was talking about, if you don't believe me, try the firewall method for yourself.

EDIT : Fine, whatever! I know you're smart not to know about it. So I have no further comment.

This post has been edited by Silverthorn: Tuesday 9th March 2010 11:37 AM

[Publix666]

Finally man, you've seen the light!



Good to see a response other then its 2010 get the internet and get over it, or the like. The minute they patch that crap ill be first one in line to get my copy of C&C 4, but until then, boycott for me.

Yes Sonic i can almost 100% bet you it'll happen considering BFBC2 has been out a week and they have yet to fix the server issues for that game. Thought thats why they had the Beta but who knows...perhaps that was Alpha and i paid 60$ again to beta test another crap EA product that will remain in beta.

This post has been edited by Publix666: Tuesday 9th March 2010 9:43 AM

[rEdaSbLood]

its behavior like this that makes me want to pirate