C&C 4 Installation/Online Update from APOC

[Sonic 295]

With a picture of the back of the box for Command & Conquer 4 floating around community recently, APOC, the C&C community manager, decided it would be a good idea to explain a few things about the installation process for the game and getting online with it. If you haven't seen the box picture yet, here it is.

 

Hey everyone,

 

I noticed a number of you had questions concerning the back of our box, so I figured now is a good time to remind you of how the installation/online works

 

First thing to be clear about, Command & Conquer 4 has NO DRM. Zip, zero, zilch, none. We already made this clear.

 

Second, you do not need the disc in the machine to play Command & Conquer 4, however the following is how it works:

 

-AFTER you install Command & Conquer 4 with the disc on your machine, when you try to LOGIN at the Launcher for the first time, it will ask you for your serial key. You will enter in your serial key to activate your Master EA Account. The serial key, like in our past games, can only be activated for 1 master account. You cannot install multiple EA Master accounts on one serial key. You can create multiple Commander Personas however, so if you and your brothers each want your own Persona account with experience, etc, you can do that. Just has to be under the same Master EA account as in our past games.

 

-You can install the game from the disc as many times as you want on any machine. Re-install, etc.

 

-You do not need the disc in your machine to play. Your EA account just needs to have been activated by your serial key. After that, you can play Command & Conquer 4 on ANY MACHINE that has it installed. All you need to do is login.

 

-To play Command & Conquer 4, the computer needs to be connected to the internet. We've always made that clear as well.

 

So there ya go, no DRM, no disc in the drive necessary, just activate your account with your serial key and presto, you're ready to go. It's actually much easier than before.

 

-APOC

Click here for the original post.

[Neroon 0]

To say "no DRM" is to not understand what DRM is.

 

This is WORSE than "DRM". If EAs servers go down or you get disconnected and cant get online you will be totally unable to play single player mode.

 

Totally ridiculous.

 

Last time I played Tiberian Sun was last year. How long will EAs servers continue to exist?

 

How can you even be allowed to sell things that can stop working at any given moment? Is there even a minimum time in which they have to provide access to their servers so you can even start the game?

[recover 2]

DRM = Digital Rights Restrictions Management

I consider the online requirement and phone-home behavior to restrict my ability to play the game, so no-DRM my ass.

[Silverthorn 0]

DRM = Digital Rights Restrictions Management

I consider the online requirement and phone-home behavior to restrict my ability to play the game, so no-DRM my ass.

 

Me too, my ass. Still disrespects the offline goers. Moreover, with me now working and I'm in my new house with only a USB modem subscribing a low-end ISP, now that's continue to be disastrous. Are you Americans getting more racists than ever? You all think our internet connections around the whole world are always very smooth, right? Think again, poorer countries suffer much worse than yours. The insult began which I still couldn't forget is Ooyala, smooth for you, but not for me!

[Sonic 295]

This is WORSE than "DRM". If EAs servers go down or you get disconnected and cant get online you will be totally unable to play single player mode.

 

Last time I played Tiberian Sun was last year. How long will EAs servers continue to exist?

 

How can you even be allowed to sell things that can stop working at any given moment? Is there even a minimum time in which they have to provide access to their servers so you can even start the game?

True if EA's servers choke and die you can't play the game at all but in the event when it comes time to retire the online access for C&C 4 sometime in the future, a patch will issued to remove the online requirement. Like all of EA's games, they reserve the right retire the online services for any product at any time they see fit, 30 day notice will be given and posted on www.ea.com. This is part of the EULA you agree to.

 

Me too, my ass. Still disrespects the offline goers. Moreover, with me now working and I'm in my new house with only a USB modem subscribing a low-end ISP, now that's continue to be disastrous. Are you Americans getting more racists than ever? You all think our internet connections around the whole world are always very smooth, right? Think again, poorer countries suffer much worse than yours. The insult began which I still couldn't forget is Ooyala, smooth for you, but not for me!

I'm sure this has been explained before but I'll explain it again. Yes C&C 4 will "call home" when you fire up the game and play SP. But the data it transfers for this is a few kilobytes at the most. It will simply sync your stats and update your profile on EA's servers. It happens the background, you will probably never even notice it.

 

Silverthorn, racism has nothing to do with this conversation. So don't bring it up please.

 

I find it utterly pathetic that people are bitching about the online requirement for C&C 4. Its 2010 people, get with the times. Everything is online these days

[Silverthorn 0]

Maybe I'm not clear enough, I don't mean the racism of black or white people. What I mean is, how come the Americans only want to improve things for themselves and care less for others like those from foreign country? Take Starcraft 2's LAN, it was ditched in America, sure, some Americans may accept, but I don't think the Asians will like it, particularly the Koreans. They don't realize is that a high-end connection speed is cheap in the US but NOT in Asia.

 

Anyway, you already told me it's a small kb of data. But hey, it's just a matter of privacy. And suurrrre, everything is online today, but what about those who does have their own computer but with no ISP service at home at all? Oh yeah, forgot the internet cafes, but the cafes have no privacy at all, moreover, hours of gaming doesn't come cheap either. WOW players don't mind the purely online status (Because MMO games are made like this anyways), but C&C4 is not the same as WOW, Steam games are another, but its intensity is not the same as WOW. Players don't mind spending lots of dollars on WOW, but Steam & C&C4 gamers I think prefer to spend little over those cafe fees.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Silverthorn

[Aaron Kaufman 0]

Guys, a few things

 

First off, your internet connection speed won't determine your single-player gameplay experience. In fact, the slowest of connections will work just fine so I would advise you not worry about that point in particular. I understand the fear, but I assure you, from slow to fast, experience will be largely the same.

 

Second, yes god forbid we need to turn the servers off sometime in the next millennium, we will issue an offline mode patch. We stated that early on as well.

 

The online facts about C&C 4 are still exactly the same as they were 8 months ago when we discussed and confirmed this. There should be no surprise by the back of box langauge or my statement.

 

-APOC

[Aaron Kaufman 0]

Woah woah woah...it doesn't matter what game you are playing at an internet cafe Silverthorn, be it Pong or WOW, C&C 4 or Plants vs Zombies. If you are playing any game on a PC at an internet cafe, you get charged. That is your decision to go and "pay to play". Playing WoW at an internet cafe is paying double time which is crazy to me. Your monthly WoW fee plus cafe hourly fee. You are ok with that?

 

I can't image any significant percentage of C&C customers who don't have an internet connection. It is likely a fraction of a percentage. That isn't ignorance, that is a researched fact.

 

Fact is, if we truly believed having to be online all the time to play C&C 4 SP or MP would be a technical hindrance and prevent a significant portion of our user base from being able to play the game, or if we thought it took away from the gameplay experience in any significant negative form...we would not have implemented it.

 

 

They just announced some remarkable internet stats: There are 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of September 2009

 

http://mashable.com/2010/02/26/state-of-internet/

 

 

I'm pretty certain of those 1.73 billion, just about the entire C&C world-wide fan base is included in there =)

 

I am not trying to be dis-servicing to you guys on this matter, but I think in some respects certain opinions and statements are blown out of proportion.

 

 

This is a touchy sensitive subject, I get it, all I wanted to do was reaffirm what you guys already knew which is what we explained/stated 8 months ago.

 

Thanks,

APOC

Edited February 27, 2010 by EA Apoc

[Silverthorn 0]

Phew, close call. I thought speed still counts in too. The last time when I played with a friend, well, through LAN years ago, when there's a connection speed difference, both of us have to suffer a laggy gameplay which is unplayable. And yes, I know WOW also got monthly fees too and I know those fans don't mind about it, but not me, I'm not like that ever since Ragnarok was introduced.

 

And very well, the world has changed, but change is not very fast in Asia.

[Neroon 0]

If its that easy to issue a patch then there is no real need for this internet connectivity in single player mode. Therefore it -IS- DRM. Its built upon a need from EA to control the usage of the game. How in the world cant it not be DRM?

 

Why not admit it? Why try to say it is not DRM when it clearly is so?

 

And after that word-bending there comes a promise about removing the feature if its needed. Sorry, for me the trust is not there.

 

I got the same promise from the Bioshock developers 2008 about removing the silly online activation as soon as the game had been out for awhile. Well, its now two years later, the game got cracked in a couple of days and the patch is still not here. They never made good on their promise, why should I trust you? Needless to say I did not buy Bioshock 2 this year because of it.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock#DRM_...echnical_issues

 

This will not stop piracy. It will, however, stop customers from buying the game.

[recover 2]

I totally agree with you there Neroon.

Apoc typed "Zip, zero, zilch, none." with crossed fingers.

 

If there were none then we would not be having this discussion. Whatever hinders me to play a game is DRM in my book.

[sith_wampa 6]

Cool link Apoc.

[Mighty BOB! 5]

Although there is no software DRM like SecuSatanRom, saying there is none at all isn't true. Any mandatory internet connection is DRM.

 

Apoc did point out the positives that this allows for though like not needing the disc* in the tray or the ability to log in to your account from any computer that has C&C4 installed.

 

Being able to install on any computer an unlimited number if times is a moot point however. The only thing that ever prevented that was terrible DRM like SecuRom in the first place. That is, unless he meant that all of those copies could be logged in online at the same time, which most games will not allow.

 

 

The other posters pointed out the negatives so I won't reiterate on that.

 

 

*(By the way thank you for using the correct term, it drives me nuts when people refer to DVDs and CDs as disks.)

[Publix666 0]

The problem with EA and their promises are they are worth about as much as the bird droppings sitting on my family car. Saying the game has no DRM is utter and complete BS, and Sonic sorry man but i dont care if its 2030 and we are all useing VR goggles to play C&C Red Alert 78, i will expect a Single Player portion of the game to be just that. Single Player. Not only that, there are a VERY few select games that require you to be online at all times, outside of Steam purchased games and obviously MMO's, so that man is not a excuse.

 

A requirement to have a internet connection is total douchebaggery on their part, and again a slap in every C&C fans face. I dont play C&C for the Multiplayer, i could give a rats ass about my online stats, and for them to say its for uploading stats and keeping track of unlocks is a complete out and out lie, and because of that fact, i will not be purchasing the game until they fix what they broke.

 

I have agreed time and time again the game looks awesome, but im refusing to play into EA and their BS games any longer. My week old copy of BF2142 will continue to be a digital coaster, because their Customer Support Reps are totaly fecking idiots and im tired of waiting for them to fix my game. Just look at the console Battlefield 1943, that was supposed to be console only i might add.....almost a year since release and no new content or a patch to fix the problems with that game, yet they are now porting it to PC, which appears to have MORE content...? Yeah. Once again customers getting shafted by EA.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Publix666

[Sonic 295]

Anyway, you already told me it's a small kb of data. But hey, it's just a matter of privacy.

Its not like C&C 4 is going to be snooping through your personal files and data.

 

A requirement to have a internet connection is total douchebaggery on their part, and again a slap in every C&C fans face.

Not to me. C&C 4's online requirement makes no difference to me. Because in the end its a game.

[Neroon 0]

Sonic: Well, there are always people who accepts these things. Its up to you if you think its okay or not.

 

I dont. I have stopped accepting it and I expect to be treated as a customer now and not a "potential criminal".

 

For years the industry have experimented with totally useless DRM tech that did nothing to stop piracy and did everything to anger the consumers. Its time it stopped, not time for it to get worse.

 

I was curious enough about the game after the trailer to go buy it on release day here in Sweden but its not an option with an artificially created need to stay online every time I want to play single player.

 

I hope its printed in large font on the package or it will surely go to court here (no, EULA does not apply in Swedish law).

[Guest Stevie_K]

The constant internet connection is just a desperate move EA has to go with on C&C4. There's really nothing to do about it since piracy is strangling the pc game industry at the moment.

Whether it helps against piracy is truly doubtful though, but EA has to do something to ensure that people will actually buy the game and the money spend on making it will come back.

 

However you've chosen the wrong way of ensuring this in my opinion. Games from the late 90's still sell this day, simply because they are good games. Good games sell, bad games get's pirated. Simple as that.

One of the reason many people torrent the games is that they doubt it's a good game and don't wan't to get disappointed, so because of this doubt they eventually steal it instead because they don't want to waste their money.

However, (big however!!) if they truly loved the game they have just stolen, eventually they'll buy it to support it and it's makers, because they MUST have a copy of that great game!

 

My point is that I see it in this way: Those who make great games don't have to fear piracy. Those however who don't, has a problem, and that problem isn't necessarily solved by wasting time and money on things like DRM. Besides, as you can see it quickly creates a whole lot of bad reputation, confusion which eventually results in a great loss of costumers.

[Gben 20]

Good games sell, bad games get's pirated.

 

Absolute rubbish.

[Sonic 295]

Yeah I don't agree with that either D14810. All games and software get pirated regardless of how good they are.

[Nmenth 291]

I think there is some truth to it...

 

I think a lot of pirates are normally law abiding semi-moral people that for some @#$% reason are led to believe piracy is justified (see recent debate for my opinion on that). "Good" people don't feel the urge to steal when they think they are getting their money's worth.

 

Of course above the line games will still be pirated by the "bad" pirates, but you can cut out the "justified" pirates by making your games to a higher standard, unless they've already been exposed to enough of their own "justification" that they no longer can tell the difference (since there is no such thing as justified piracy anyway).

[PurpleGaga27 40]

I think by the time people start complaining about C&C4 not working online when it comes to SP due to server issues and other sort of stuff, they'll just head for the cracks even though they own the game.

 

As for me, I won't buy this game until the offline patch is issued.

 

And besides, why can't C&C4 be like Left 4 Dead, where all achievements and progress be kept offline instead of sending that to the EALA servers? Privacy concern is a matter to most players and EALA and APOC had misstated that.

Edited March 1, 2010 by purplescrin

[Silverthorn 0]

Purplescrin, Valve's games like Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 are meant to be made for Steam these days. The offline version you're talking about are mostly cracked, and besides, the last game ever to be made available for offline gameplay was "Counter Strike : Condition Zero", patches for the game are done through Steam. Correct me on that if I'm wrong since I rarely buy original games, and later games like L4D are very expensive for me to purchase, Condition Zero was my last original software I bought.

 

So for the achievements or whatever data you're storing, most likely it's the cracked EXE that was programmed to save them in your hard disk. Data kept in an online server is meant to save your data for life (Which means no achievements get reset even if you had a reformat), which is much safer compare to store them in your hard disk, then again, it can also be done by standalones made by non-Steam servers such as Garena & Hamachi, they hate Steam as well.

 

Yes, I hate Steam, but when it comes to achievements and stuff stored in the hard disk (Whether if it's Valve games or C&C4, if they have one like RA3 did), usually I don't bother them and their values will drop over time, so keeping them is just like keeping physical old dusty trophies, so then I no need to worry about a reformat. If I lose them, oh well, I don't mind starting them all over again except trying to get back those extremely difficult ones.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Silverthorn

[Guest Stevie_K]

Absolute rubbish.

 

I think you missed the point.

Where you live it might very well be rubbish. Cultures are different, and yes some people rip absolutely everything they get near of. Where I'm from it's more of matter whether you wan't to spend a lot of money for something that is fun for a short period of time or not. Whether you are rich or poor has a big impact on this decision as well.

 

Yeah I don't agree with that either D14810. All games and software get pirated regardless of how good they are.

 

Picking a statement in a closed-cycle subject and saying I'm wrong on that particular part is too easy Sonic.

 

Give me a chance to rewrite the sentence: Anyone who has downloaded software illegally and later found out that it's damn good software and thought "hey I really think this is good", have also thought of buying it, because you can't use an illegal copy for anything commercial, and have in most cases eventually bought it instead.

 

One more time: Anyone whether it's you or me, are far more encouraged to go and pay for software, if it's worth the money.

 

One last time just to clarify what I'm saying: It works like shareware, whether anyone is willing to admit it. You try a program, you create an opinion, then you decide whether it's worth your money.

 

Now I won't be mad if you disagree

[Gben 20]

Still absolute rubbish...

The better the game... the more popular it is... the more likely people will pirate it.... regardless of socio-economic circumstances or geographical location or any other motivation you care to state.

 

Or to put it another way...

The better the game... the more people will buy it... AND... pirate it.

[Silverthorn 0]

But it's still highly unlikely, popular games usually have more different pirate groups pirating it. But in the case of C&C4, I don't think so, at least 1 group will pirate it, but not many.