Mass Effect on PC...is Draconian the name of a new race?

[Sheep]

Looks like those waiting for the PC version of this great game are getting much more than you bargained for...like not being able to play offline AT ALL and having the game automatically authenticate itself every 10 days.

http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=628724&forum=125

Every time EA does something right, they do something else way wrong to piss off gamers. -1 to EA and idiotic DRM schemes that annoy legitimate buyers and +1 for the pirates who crack this thing so people who paid for the game can play it offline.

The pop-in and issues of the 360 version now don't look so bad compared to this, so I guess that's one thing EA did right.

EDIT: Rumor has it Spore (the only PC game I'm looking forward to) will have this DRM as well. Good job on alienating actual customers, EA!

 

[CommodoreKong]

Well EA only bought Bioware about a month before Mass Effect was released, so they had nothing to the pop in and other issues with the 360 version. It was all Bioware/Microsoft.

I don't really understand why companies even bother with DRM anymore, it's always easy to crack and it only hurts paying customers.

 

[Arrqh]

Well EA only bought Bioware about a month before Mass Effect was released, so they had nothing to the pop in and other issues with the 360 version. It was all Bioware/Microsoft.

Every Unreal Engine 3 game on the 360 has issues with pop in.

 

[Mitty]

The Draconians did appear in an old serial of Doctor Who called "Frontier in Space", though I don't think that's what the op meant

 

[Sheep]

Well EA only bought Bioware about a month before Mass Effect was released, so they had nothing to the pop in and other issues with the 360 version. It was all Bioware/Microsoft.

I realize EA had nothing to do with Mass Effect on the 360, but the graphical hiccups were the biggest complaint against the 360 version, and EA managed to pull something that makes that look pretty minor.

I don't really understand why companies even bother with DRM anymore, it's always easy to crack and it only hurts paying customers.

Sad thing is that a year from now, EA will be piss and moaning about how piracy killed Mass Effect on the PC, blissfully ignoring their idiotic DRM.

 

[BigFoot]

You know, I really wanna play Mass Effect at some point. But I still haven't decided whether I'd rather upgrade my desktop and get the PC version, or buy a 360 and get that version. This might just sway me towards upgrading my desktop and "acquiring" the PC version just to piss EA off.

 

[rType]

So what happens when EA decides to take down the authentication servers? It's not as if they're known for providing long-term support for their games.

OTOH it's good to see more PC games embracing the "no CD/DVD required" approach and running entirely off the HDD.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I just don't understand why they can't come up with a way to combat pirating without increasing the inconvenience to the costumer.

 

[dragunzng]

Wow, that's pretty darn hardcore. Still, it won't bother me when I eventually get it, seeing as how my PC will be hooked up to the internet.

 

[rType]

^ Personally it's the limited number (3) of installations that would (and will, if the same system does indeed apply to Spore) concern me.

 

[Sheep]

^ Personally it's the limited number (3) of installations that would (and will, if the same system does indeed apply to Spore) concern me.

Unless I'm misunderstanding the definition of "activation" as it's used in the FAQ in my original link, I didn't even catch that.

Any good PC geek reinstalls XP every 6 months to keep that snappy "fresh" feeling, which means you'd be out of MEPC activations in less than two years. Unless you can de-activate MEPC like you can with iTunes music, that's going to be a huge problem for PC gamers who definitely lean towards the hardcore side of PC usage.

 

[rType]

I love this from Derek French:

Q: So, if I install MEPC, my count of 3 activations drops to now 2 activations left, correct?
A: Incorrect. We wrote the installer and it has nothing to do with SecuROM or activations.

Gamers are generally interested in playing the games they install. Nobody outside Bioware/EA gives a fuck about this distinction.

 

[Arrqh]

Any good PC geek reinstalls XP every 6 months to keep that snappy "fresh" feeling, which means you'd be out of MEPC activations in less than two years. Unless you can de-activate MEPC like you can with iTunes music, that's going to be a huge problem for PC gamers who definitely lean towards the hardcore side of PC usage.

It's apparently hardware based... in other words, if you reinstall and your system configuration doesn't change (or at least, doesn't change enough to make a new hash), it doesn't "use up" an activation because it recognizes your system is the same. Which is different from Bioshock where each time you ran the installer you "used up" a token.

XP actually does something similar, if your hardware configuration changes enough it forces you to reactive. I actually did run out of XP activations as a result and had to call Microsoft up to activate it after a reformat. I was not happy. If they had put me on hold for too long or the rep I got had been unintelligible, I would have dropped my legit install then and there.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Threads like this remind me why I've only bought a handful of PC games since 2003. Not only do most of the new ones suck, they now come with malware that screws up your system, does things behind your back, and has functionally unnecessary requirements, all in order to thwart the pirates who won't be affected anyway.

CD checks? They get removed.
Executable encryption? You can decrypt it and run that instead.
Gibberish sectors on the CD? Well, some drives can read them! It only takes one.
CD key checks for online play? Spoof the server, or generate bogus keys until one works.
Require Internet activation, or a connection to play? Such things can also be removed, spoofed, or otherwise fooled.

It goes on and on and on.

Why do they bother? How many thousands of man-hours get wasted on this completely unproductive garbage? As a programmer myself, I can't fathom how the people who develop these things justify it to themselves. Gotta pay the bills, I guess, but they have to know it's a losing battle, and it ends up only frustrating legitimate users.

Most people will be honest and pay for their games, especially if the price point is considered reasonable. If they find piracy increases sharply in the $60-80 range, maybe they should reconsider their pricing--or cut out some of the fluff that's inflating the price. Those DRM systems aren't free, after all.

 

[dark angel_707]

gamers shouldn't support this as it only screws the people that BUYS the game not the pirates. Also it would be pretty shitty if your internet goes down on the 10th day and you can't play the game until you get the internet back

 

[Sheep]

XP actually does something similar, if your hardware configuration changes enough it forces you to reactive. I actually did run out of XP activations as a result and had to call Microsoft up to activate it after a reformat. I was not happy. If they had put me on hold for too long or the rep I got had been unintelligible, I would have dropped my legit install then and there.

From my experiences and what I've read on the web, Microsoft doesn't care if you reinstall XP on the same machine every six months. Apparently their activation database resets after 4 months (120 days); if you don't reinstall more than that, you won't have to call in and can do it over the internet even if you're using an OEM copy of XP and the rig has a significantly different hardware configuration.

As for MEPC, a very real problem is that these companies tend to shut down servers after a few years when very few people are playing or in Microsoft's case with MSN Music, when they think it's no longer viable (buyers be damned). I still pop in my Genesis games every now and then, and to not have that option for something I purchased is just asinine.

 

[firehawk12]

This and the fact that they outsourced the game and are NOT including any SDK/modding tools pretty much kills the game for me.
I mean, if they did include a toolset and said they were accepting writing samples using ME, I'd pick the game up in a heart beat... but there's almost no reason to buy this unless you are a super fan... and I bought the damn CE for the 360.

I don't get why they have to be such assholes about PC piracy when people were playing Mass Effect AND Grand Theft Auto 4 on 360 A FULL WEEK before the game was officially released. It just annoys the hell out of me and makes Steam seem like a great idea.

 

[Twilight]

The Steam paradigm, IMO, is how PC entertainment content should be distributed.

It exists in the cloud, it's always yours, it doesn't matter what computer you're on. All you need is your username and password and you're able to get it again and again.

the drawback is that you need a net connection, of course, but that might be solveable...


I actively & fervently HATE SecuROM after their Homeworld 2 Debacle. So it's too bad to hear that they're going to try their best to fuck up ME PC with their shitty DRM.

Not that I was going to buy it for PC anyway - I have it for 360.

 

[Aragorn]

This is the first thing that came to mind upon seeing "Draconian":

 

[-Brett-]

That article lists a number of issues that drove me away from PC gaming to consoles.

What if I need to replace my PC three times? What if I'm visiting relatives and want to play it on their system?

Of course, I already have it for the 360, so none of that's a problem for me, but it irritates me that EA would think that these issues are any of their business.