Always Online DRM

[Blothulfur]

Always Online DRM

Always online drm, thought it deserved its own thread, as it's a contentious subject and deserves discussing on its own merits outside of piracy threads.

Pros:

• Cloud game saves, personally I can't see the point but they exist.
• Automatic updates, so the latest gamebreaking patch can be downloaded straight away.
• Prevents piracy, until somebody invents a way around it.
• Can't think of any others, but i'm biased in favour of being treated with respect and not dictated to.
  

Agbeth adds that a lot of people like Steam.
Aver points out money talks, vast sales on Diablo 3, Simcity and Asscreed.
Volsung points out that Windows is itself a form of DRM, though not always online.

Cons:

• Servers, temperamental to say the least, and thus you have to arrange your free time around the publishers schedule. Allright for those with a surplus of time on their hands, stupid for everybody else.
• Privacy, i'm playing a game and that's that, you've got your money from me now fuck off and mind your own business.
• Security, we've seen repeatedly that no game company is secure, when our personal and financial information is at stake can we trust them to suddenly get secure. No we can't.
• Renumeration, what renumeration packages are available where we can claim for lost hours of free time on the software we've purchased, the trauma resulting from private information misuse and theft and the stress of dealing with a needlessly complicated online system as opposed to the simplicity of a manual installation. Not enough.
• Accountability, there is none.
  

Agbeth adds the issue of Lag as seen so often on the Diablo servers.
Guy N'wah adds that older games are rendered unplayable once the costly servers are abandoned.
Lucos adds the unreliability of internet service providers.
Blothulfur and others add why bother with any DRM when a superior service like GOG (and CDPR) exists.

Feel free to add Pro's and con's as you wish, or to make a more complicated argument, i'm easy guv.

 

[Sirnaq]

Prevents piracy, until somebody invents a way around it.

So it's not preventing piracy.

 

[adridu59]

• Prevents piracy

Not really...

 

[Blothulfur]

Yeah I agree with both of you, but i'm trying to play devils advocate, poorly.

Brother british bloke Totalbiscuits take on the matter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inPLO2J9U50

 

[Georgie_Porgie]

Cons? Lag feels like playing MMO

 

[FoggyFishburne]

Haha I love the poll bro! I'm feeling your love for DRM all the way to Sweden!

As for the topic at hand, DRM is truly evil, so is all anti-piracy systems. I've got no problem with the law, publishers and developers punishing the pirates for illegally downloading software. I'm cool with that shit. My furious, passionate hatred arises when the law, publishers and developers choose to punish the customer for doing nothing wrong and assuming he's a dirty fucking thief without any grounds or reasons. That's when I want to burn publishers like Ubisoft, Blizzard, EA etc down to the ground. They have to think of a way to punish pirates, NOT the consumers.

I didn't buy the latest SimCity (to those who did, what the fuck were you thinking...) but if I had gotten an aneurysm the week before its launch and decided in my haze to get it, when I eventually would've started the game up and it subsequently told me to fuck off because the servers weren't online, I would've killed someone. Someone would've lost their fucking life.

Maxis employed a DRM, oh no wait, they call it a service. Alright, let's go with that then. Maxis incorporated a "service" in their game that prevented said customers from playing it. That is, a service nobody asked for and a service that nobody wants. The fact that publishers and developers alike, have started to twist the meaning and function of DRM to become even more self-destructive, invasive, draconian and actually prevent people from playing the games they paid for with their hard earned money, is just unacceptable, and the bullshit semantics coming from the big shots who are trying to justify it's application, is insulting all of our intelligence and our dignity as consumers.

I haven't been this furious at such despicable disrespect for their customers since Blizzards DR.. oh sorry, once again misinterpreted the intentions here, I obviously meant Blizzards Auction House. Another "service" everyone was rioting in the streets for, demanding it and sacrificing goats to ensure their voices were to be heard.

Ugh, all this talk really does put me in a foul mood. I do however take comfort in the fact that RED aren't following this current degenerative trend but instead going the opposite direction. So thanks RED. Thanks for not labelling me a thief and instead, treating me with the same respect that I treat you.

Now hurry up with releasing TW3 so I can throw my money at you magnificent bastards.

 

[GuyNwah]

Cons? Lag feels like playing MMO

If the server is not serving up resources in real time, it shouldn't cause lag.

The deal breaker to me is that no company is going to continue to provide the needed service past the tail end of profitability. As soon as they see revenue no longer sufficient to cover their costs, they'll take down the server, terminate your game, and you will have no recourse.

 

[Georgie_Porgie]

Steamworks is not so bad as DRM. Looks at this a bit differently you get a physical copy and once you activate it you get the steam one also. GFWL I can also tolerate, but it has different problems

If the server is not serving up resources in real time, it shouldn't cause lag.

That not the case of Diablo 3. Lag spikes and dc can be common if you are unlucky to log in during lagGy hours

 

[Aver]

It seems that majority of gamers love it because both Diablo 3 and SimCity sold very well .

 

[Mataresa]

From the 6min mark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMnpgCYxi-k

What the hell are they thinking. Are they serious?

 

[Guest 2091327]

As far as I'm concerned, there is no "Pro" to this DRM or any other form. It's a despicable practice, and I'm ashamed that we as a community of gamers have not said clearly no to this ages ago by refusing to buy games with such DRM. If we did, it would not exist.

And before people say "well, then no games would exist either". That is plainly not true. GOG and CDPR have proved the world otherwise.

 

[luc0s]

More con's for always online DRM:

- My internet provider is sometimes a bitch and decides to screw up, meaning I have no internet connection sometimes, meaning that I can't play my SINGLE PLAYER games because of the always-online DRM.

- My PC is always connected to the internet (when my provider doesn't screw up), but my laptop isn't. Sometimes I like to play a little game on my laptop at university in between classes. With always-only DRM I can't do that, unless I'm connected to the school server.

- The school server of my university is slow as fuck, meaning that when I want to play a game between classes, I'll have terrible lag in my SINGLE PLAYER games because of the always-online DRM.


More pro's for the always online DRM:

-.... nope, I got nothing.

 

[volsung]

You know what else uses highly obtrusive DRM and gamers do not care, and use it regularly? Windows.

Playing DRM free games on Windows is like playing DRM-free games on Steam

 

[Damariel]

Well, there is more idiots on the world than I thought. I'm... not surprised.

Still I'm not a console player so I don't care for new Xbox... at least until they will not ask me to have online connection to start my PC.

 

[Glaroug.531]

You know what else uses highly obtrusive DRM and gamer do not care, and use it regularly? Windows.

A couple months ago, was offered a government issued copy of Office 2013 Professional for the jaw dropping price of 9.99 (family contact, nothing shady ). THAT screams DRM. The bloody cloud, slow start up Word, online access codes, Word takes a good 10s to load, all this Google like syncing and streamlining my documents with the cloud. You can turn it off, but it is sneaky and persistent. I did not want any part of it, and went back to the old Office 2000. Thank you Libre 4, the successor too my Office 2000.

DRM homework is not cool.

Steamworks is not so bad as DRM. Looks at this a bit differently you get a physical copy and once you activate it you get the steam one also.

Its drove me into a green rage when I learned I had to go though Steam every time I loaded up Skyrim, even though I bought the disk copy. The disk is utterly useless and lures you into a false sense of security, as you don't need or use it at all. All that is purchased is the code.

For games like Super Meat Boy, I don't have a disk or an installer like GoG. I am required to download each and every time I install it.

 

[Aditya]

All the pros can be achieved whenever I want by turning my internet on, updates, cloud saves and all that. Thou my internet is always on when the computers are on, at times there are problems due to bad luck too. And not all of us around the world have good internet.

 

[Cs__sz__r]

Really you should only HAVE to be online to play a game with multiplayer. When you're trying to connect to multiplayer.

 

[Glaroug.531]

Really you should only HAVE to be online to play a game with multiplayer. When you're trying to connect to multiplayer.

Exactly! Some guys I know with love the Dibalo series thought with online feature was for integrity of the mmo-ish feature of Battlenet, but that was hardly the case. However, to me knowledge, there is still no PvP. But its not just Diablo, Starcraft is the very same way.

 

[secondchildren]

Wait.... the poll is a bit biased

 

[bcheero]

Here's a simple solution and we've all seen it done back in the old days. Just keep multiplayer and single player separate. Seriously. It's that easy. If your servers go down I won't be angry at you since I'll have single player to go back to. I have the option of going to multiplayer (if servers are on) or enjoying my time in single player. I'm still doing it for Diablo 2...a game that was made 13 years ago. Please don't insult my intelligence or waste my time by telling me that I NEED to have an online experience. I don't care about random bozos I meet while playing a multiplayer (unless unless I'm in an MMO and I really enjoy but that assumes I'm very much okay with online for MMOs.) or relying on your servers to enjoy my time.

Don't force a desired experience for me. Let me have the OPTION. It's unbelievably stupid just how much publishers and developers force me into a particular playstyle.