Crock of shit: retail games w/online Drm

[Bikerdude]

...I was all set to buy a copy of Metro 2033 from amazon etc this evening, untill that is I discovered that it required the use of my least favorite online gaming related entity, steam - as part of its drm/activation bollox.

 

As some of you may be aware, I hate steam with a passion due to its financial mechanic of preventing me from selling my £30 game after I have finished playiong it - the funds from which I put towards the next new game etc.

 

The best method of DRM imho that isnt drm, is DLC. For example one of my all time fav games 'Mass Effect 1/2' the retail game, you guy its for £25, then should u wish to buy dlc packs for £5-to-£10. The game never requires the user register or lock them into any bunch of arse online shenanigans, and the DLC isnt tied to the game either so can also be sold on should u wish to do so.

 

But thankfully thus far, the amount of companies selling proper stand alone games outstrip the ones(THQ, Valve, UbiSoft) who are actively punishing their customers by showing a ' give a shit ' attitude towards them. The ammusing thing is that very attitude is actually fanning the flames of piracy not quenching it...

 

 

The upshot, is I WONT be buying Metro2033 as long as there is a hole in my arse, I will how ever borrow it from a mate and give him a few pints for the favour.

 

FUQ u THQ, you just lost out on a sale.

[_Atti_]

You like DLCs? Maybe i am uninformed about good ones, most of which i've heard from was like adding a bunch of models , a new weapon, or a painfully short questsequence..most of the times something that is so clearly was meant for the game anyway and was just ripped so it can be released this way.

[ungoliant]

a painfully short questsequence..most of the times something that is so clearly was meant for the game anyway and was just ripped so it can be released this way.

 

either ripped or incomplete before release deadline.

 

DLC is way overpriced for the amount of work that goes into them. If every side-quest with a decent reward in Oblivion was released as a $5 DLC package, that game would be...... really friggin expensive. And the exisiting DLC for that game wasn't worth it anyway. I liked the old model of releasing new content: expansions, or sequels.

 

Starcraft: Broodwar, for instance. Or Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which isn't even released yet. I'll be buying that one, sure as hell, and it'll be a lot more than $5. Horse armor DLC? not so much... If you want to get rich off of me and the people in my circle of influence, you sure as shit better put your back into the work. Blizzard wins. There is even a method to register for offline play in single player campaign. Not quite as good as just plain offline play out of the box, but its a step in the right direction. At least I'm confident Blizzard won't be going bankrupt anytime soon.

[stumpy]

A lot of game companies are pushing for games on cloud servers, where you'll just buy a key to play the game and have to be permantly online to play, this is the future of games due to piracy. Steam now operates a kind of cloud server where your game saves are stored on the cloud server, although on steam you can turn it off. On windows live you have to play offline to stop it from saving certain games save files on their servers. Although some windows live games are available on steam and you then have to be connected to both windows live and steam to play the games, and both systems are not compatible with each other. (Due to microsoft giving preference to their xbox users and blocking other users from playing games as in denighing launch permissions on pc versions of the game that need authorisation from windows live to run, eg fallout 3, runs ok all day on pc, get to 4:00pm when more xbox users are online, fallout 3 wont run, drops to desktop 5 minutes into game cos microsoft have turned off the games run permissions.)

[lost_soul]

You may be angry, you are definitely right, and you definitely aren't alone. I've had games that I *paid for* install hidden device drivers on my system as part of the anti-copying malware. Not only this, but the CD-key was printed by some terrible-quality printers, where the B's looked like the 8s, which also happened to look like the 0s. This company shall remain nameless, but rest assured that I would rather eat a bag of computer screws and motherboard stand-offs than ever give them a cent again.

 

I honestly don't get it. Why do they want to instill hostility in the customers who actually still plunk cash down for these things? It seems rather stupid, unless they want to drive everyone away.

 

On the bright side, we do have a community of folks throughout the world who create quality content while not scamming the consumer. From game mods, to maps, to music, to writings... all of this information is created and shared without a profit-motive or hidden agenda, because PEOPLE WANT TO.

 

I cannot remember the last time I heard something as beautiful as this or this from the mainstream entertainment industry.

[Bikerdude]

You like DLCs? Maybe i am uninformed about good ones, most of which i've heard from was like adding a bunch of models , a new weapon, or a painfully short questsequence..most of the times something that is so clearly was meant for the game anyway and was just ripped so it can be released this way.

 

actually what the hell was a thinking, most DLC thus far as been brief and pants now that I think about it. Maybe MEs dlc was just better then the others.

[lost_soul]

I prefer expansion packs myself. They tend to be longer, but not as long as the original game.

[7upMan]

 

The upshot, is I WONT be buying Metro2033 as long as there is a hole in my arse 

 

Dude, say, where does your fixation on all things anal come from?    Anyway, good for us because you'll have more time for making FMs, I'd say. 

[Tels]

either ripped or incomplete before release deadline.

 

DLC is way overpriced for the amount of work that goes into them. If every side-quest with a decent reward in Oblivion was released as a $5 DLC package, that game would be...... really friggin expensive. And the exisiting DLC for that game wasn't worth it anyway. I liked the old model of releasing new content: expansions, or sequels.

 

Shhhht, you have discovered the new business model for TDM, TDM comes for free, but every FM will be 5 US$ (or € 6 if you are over the pond, just because we like to screw you), and that means everytime you play it.

 

[ungoliant]

TDM comes for free, but every FM will be 5 US$ (or € 6 if you are over the pond, just because we like to screw you), and that means everytime you play it.

 

 

2 words: sheer - GENIUS.

[lost_soul]

How about giving the player rope arrows that snap when he jumps on them unless he makes a donation? You could also give him one lockpick and sell the other as DLC. haha

[ungoliant]

oh no, lost soul, it will be much better than that. Remember the loadout shop screen where you purchase your equipment at the start of most FMs? With 1.03 you will need to input your credit card number, and purchase all of your items with real money. Rope arrow = $1, Gas arrow = $2

FM authors receive 30% of the proceeds, and the rest goes to funding the teams warez/pr0n circle development that is secretly run from the internal forums.

[lost_soul]

Other good ideas:

 

Player character drops dead if he tries to swim in water (similar to TDS) unless he purchases the "Amphibious Adventures" DLC.

 

Object manipulation is changed so that he can only *throw* things, and not set them down gently without the "Tip-toed taffer" pack.

 

No torches or candles may be doused without the "Farrell fights flames" expansion pack.

 

...and...

 

One out of every ten doors in TDM should be set to open at an extremely high velocity (randomly chosen of course), not giving the player time to step out of the way, and taking away some health if the door hits him. The player may overcome this with the "dodging dangerous doors!" DLC.

[Bikerdude]

One out of every ten doors in TDM should be set to open at an extremely high velocity (randomly chosen of course), not giving the player time to step out of the way, and taking away some health if the door hits him.

:laugh:

[Outlooker]

This is actually an interesting topic:

I know one of the driving forces behind DLC/DRM trends in the gaming industry is the financial crowd; specifically I know that Goldman Sachs (highly influential and profitable investment bank that has a record of nothing but winning streaks essentially) had a couple of months ago a "strategic" meeting with "game industry leaders" (I'm small time shareholder of GS and so I got yearly business reports, but this stuff is openly available nontheless). Such a thing usually means there are heap-loads of money to be made in that field in the near future. And yes, GS investment vehicles did load up on game industry stock heavily; as is Warren Buffet, if alone indirectly through his investment in GS.

And their incentive seems to pay: Game sale returns are skyrocketing: just think about all that online RPGs or the stellar sales of those Modern Warfare shooters lately. They come with DRM and DLCs, some (more sane) customers speak out against it, but the huge crowd of more or less juvenile or maybe not so critic consumers buy like there is no tomorrow (because pirating became now much more problematic). And people WANT those games, they behave like drug addicts (think about huge queues of people besieging apple stores when the new Ixyz is going on sale; multiply that for World of Warcraft expansions or said Modern Warefare shooters - I've seen it myself at midnight at a local shopping center and was flabbergasted). I mean , we are speaking about almost a billion dollars in sales in a couple of days for a *single* popular video game - even the movie and music industry thrown together are nothing but *dwarfed* by the modern games industry.

So , DLC and DRM are a thing that will stay with us, because it about unlocks the full economic potential of games for the industry. Not being able to lend or resale a game is only a comparatively minor aspect.

 

I usually preferred to buy games I like about two to three years after they came on the market; they were not only cheap, they even got their copy protection removed in those "late editions", making them as convenient like a well cracked product. Plus after three years one can play with setting maxed out, because of newer and cheaper hardware; being patched practically bug-free after that time also doesn't hurt.

That aside, this practice has two shortfalls: First, having to wait, second, game developers are getting nothing out of it just like I would have pirated. So, I do buy the few games I really like on release at full price (Thief, DeusEx, MassEffect, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Severance:Blade of Darkness and some more) and use cracks if available for convenience if necessary.

 

 

PS:

Bikerdude, you seem to have a very similar taste in games as me, so I think you should strongly consider getting Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, maybe for Christmas; it's cheap now and generally really really good, even without mentioning the aspect of being able to play as thief (there is even an tribute to Garrett in the game). If you can't buy it, I could "lend" it to you, but I think it should be available one way or another.

[Domarius]

Man, I quite literally buy all my games, through Steam and GOG.com (you'd like GOG, they just give you an exe file, no protection, and let you download it as many times as you want)

 

Last time I bought a disc game was Modern Warfare 2 because it happened to be cheaper in the store and I didn't want to download all that. (it required online steam activation too)

 

But I buy SOOO many games on steam, they have such fucking good deals if you watch for them. Can't remember the last time other than MW2 I bought a game from a store.

And you can be sitting on your arse, going "Hm, that game looks fun" (click) and you've got it (either very soon or maybe in the morning if it's a huge one), and you never have to leave the house

 

Hm, I never thought about selling games. In fact I don't think I've sold a game in my life. I guess by the time I'm ready to sell it, it would be so old that the re-sell would be too low for me to care what I get out of it, and I'd much rather keep it for reference (games are my career and passion), or if I made a bad choice and it sucked and I wanted to sell it, no one would buy it anyway

Of course that's just me. But seriously, you're missing out on steam.

[lost_soul]

I never really sell games either, but I buy 90% of mine used just to deprive the industry. If a publisher is competitive with the used market and offers a cheap download that isn't malware laden, then SURE I'll support them. Most do not work in this manor though. There are games that came out four or five years ago that I would LOVE to pay $9 for and have a version without disk-checking malware and the like. The game houses won't provide this though. Thus they lose my money.

 

I'm just hoping they don't fowl up Duke Nukem Forever by incorporating any kind of unwanted malware. I would really like to buy that game. If they do, I'll just pick it up used for a few bucks and laugh at the publisher.

 

Gog is a great solution and I buy from them whenever they have something I want.

Edited November 28, 2010 by lost_soul

[stumpy]

If you havent heard the bottom's dropped out of the Euro and its worth less than the paper its printed on.

[7upMan]

If you havent heard the bottom's dropped out of the Euro and its worth less than the paper its printed on.

 

Excuse me? Yahoo Finance tells me that as of November 28th, 1 Euro is worth 1,324 Dollars. That's hardly worthless, wouldn't you say?

 

 

Anyway, regarding the matter of Modern Warfare 2 being bought like crazy, I'd just like to add that the media (as in games magazines) do their best to encourage this behaviour by increasing the hype any way possible. The new issue of Gamestar (popular German monthly games magazine) had a HUGE article on Diablo 3. Its content: The new class, Demon Killer or something. And this is what a pages long article was about. So no wonder that people who are easily influenced behave like drug addicts.

 

Oh, and I don't sell games too. A game that is worth buying is also worth keeping. If I'm inclined to sell it that would by definition mean that I think it sucked. Not even Thief 3 was THAT bad.

Edited November 28, 2010 by 7upMan

[ungoliant]

A game that is worth buying is also worth keeping. If I'm inclined to sell it that would by definition mean that I think it sucked. Not even Thief 3 was THAT bad.

 

agreed. I've been hitting up used bookstores for paperbacks of books I wanted to read since i started getting an allowance like 15 years ago. Never re-sold a single one, because I don't buy books that I know I won't like. I've got some large-ass boxes of books in an attic somewhere, and if I want to reread them, I've got them. They are mine. And they were cheap.

[Bikerdude]

Bikerdude, you seem to have a very similar taste in games as me.

completed that about a year ago.

[7upMan]

completed that about a year ago.

 

So, is it worth playing? I've bought it a year ago, but so far found no time to install, let alone play it. I've only recently finished Ground Control 2, and right now I'm playing through Doom 3 for the first time. Yes, I am seriously behind.

[Bikerdude]

So, is it worth playing? I've bought it a year ago, but so far found no time to install, let alone play it. I've only recently finished Ground Control 2, and right now I'm playing through Doom 3 for the first time. Yes, I am seriously behind.

Yes, totally... you will love the game! its like a cross between thief and elder scrolls 4.