Headlines - Spore and Mass Effect require online re-check every 10 days

[nichomach]

With all due respect, kalniel, the suggestion that dropping the "phone home every 10 days" requirement from ME would be to make the product to my, and my alone, "ideal specifications" is simply fatuous, as the merest glance at the Bioware forums would illustrate.

[kalniel]

With all due respect, kalniel, the suggestion that dropping the "phone home every 10 days" requirement from ME would be to make the product to my, and my alone, "ideal specifications" is simply fatuous, as the merest glance at the Bioware forums would illustrate.

But you're demanding they change it. Why not just vote with your feet?

[nichomach]

But you're demanding they change it. Why not just vote with your feet?

Which part of the following exchange was unclear?

Will you still buy Mass Effect?

Probably not. Which is a shame, as I was rather looking forward to it.

Voting with my feet, or rather my debit card, does not preclude my having an opinion on the issue, however, nor making it clear what my motivation for NOT giving them my money is. Nor does it bar me from expressing my opinion, which oddly enough seems to echo that of a lot of Bioware's own fans.

[mmh]

Because we've already had examples in this thread of situations where A) or B) HASN'T happened, and what you should be asking is not what will happen if everything happens according to plan, but what will happen if it doesn't.

Sorry, but this is just nonsense. My point had nothing to do with the purchase price of the game and everything to do with the qualitative experience. Tell you what, lets remove every thriller, action movie, period drama, romance, tragedy etc. from cinemas and replace them all with Disney animations. After all, if the Disney animations are good value for money, no-one will mind not being able to see the other types of film, will they? *BZZZZZZZZZZZT* Wrong. You can't equate the one with the other, because the experience of each is different, and different people want different experiences; the purchase price of each and whether they are in the abstract "good value" is utterly irrelevant. If I want to see Die Hard 4 or whatever, I'm not going to be mollified by the fact that Aladdin's objectively good value for money; if I want to play Mass Effect, I'm not going to be mollified by the suggestion that I play Wii Sports.

Sorry, this probably isnt my place to say, but i have just read the whole thread and you seem to be up in arms about something you are choosing to be awkward over.

You obviously have an internet connection, as you are on hexus., so therfore, plug into the internet and let the game do its thing. stop being a drama queen and let it lie.

EA are not exactly going to disapear off the face of the earth in 2-3 years... so i have no worries that they will supply a patch for a game, if its still in use at said time when/if they decide to turn off thier servers. that is of course assuming that there isnt an ME2 to relpace the game in the first place... which lets face it, games on disk's days are numbered regardless, so lets say by then games are by download only for PC...

what are you going to do then? bitch and moan, or hook your already owned internet connection up to your pc?

and the point about the HL2 and wii sports is they are in different places, on different platforms... if you choose to buy a wii instead of a PC, you can expect to play wii sports and not HL2... with no complaints, because HL2 isnt a wii game.

likewise if you choose not to get an internet connection... its your choice not to play said game. dont complain to the games manufacturers for your choice not to be online. its a system requirement... get over it, or dont play the game.

[kalniel]

Well come release I'm sure we'll see how many fans buy the game or not.

I'm a big fan of Bioware, but I won't be buying Mass Effect. I will get Spore though.

[nichomach]

Sorry, this probably isnt my place to say, but i have just read the whole thread and you seem to be up in arms about something you are choosing to be awkward over....

You like the copy protection; fine. I don't. I choose to say so, and give reasons for it; call that being a "drama queen" if you like. I shall likewise feel free to tell you to go **** yourself, and take your patronising and offensive attitude with you, OK?

[nichomach]

Well come release I'm sure we'll see how many fans buy the game or not.
I'm a big fan of Bioware, but I won't be buying Mass Effect. I will get Spore though.

Absolutely; although that may well indicate not whether they approve of the system (although they may) but possibly whether they don't disapprove enough to not buy it.

[kalniel]

Absolutely; although that may well indicate not whether they approve of the system (although they may) but possibly whether they don't disapprove enough to not buy it.

Yup - at the end of the day it's about whether you are willing to part with the cash for the game you'll be getting - inclusive of copy protection systems, manuals, box art etc.

[Whiternoise]

Bioware Backs Down: BioWare Backs Down From Draconian Mass Effect Authentication

Good news?

Thumbs up for EA in my books

Hopefully Maxis will go the same route as Bioware..

[nichomach]

FANTASTIC! I'm very glad that they actually listened, and that they're being sane and reasonable about the issue. Full marks to them for doing that, and they get my cash (and I'd suspect rather a lot of other peoples' too).

[pauldarkside]

Bioware Backs Down: BioWare Backs Down From Draconian Mass Effect Authentication

Good news?

Thumbs up for EA in my books

Hopefully Maxis will go the same route as Bioware..

Spore

Despite some hand-wringing by fans, EA today announced that their hugely anticipated Will Wright game Spore will not make use of SecuROM's 10-day periodic re-authetication and instead use a modified version to require online authentication.

[kalniel]

Foil hat comment: It was obviously just a ploy - they get around the complaints of people needing to activate the game online by setting out a harsh measure then appearing to back down to players demands

[Hicks12]

i didnt get to read the whole thread(didnt see this many pages ) but its great that ME and spore are not using it now.

I dont see why they dont design a better system for piracy there are loads of better ways todo it i think. Do it like steam or you could have to register your cd-key with your name etc or they could require you to give them your ip address or sometyhing random like that so they can activate it on their side so its much better.

[kalniel]

I dont see why they dont design a better system for piracy there are loads of better ways todo it i think.

You should have a think about those ideas, patent them, then produce something and try and sell it to them.

[Hicks12]

good idea lol, might start writing them down as im bored .

[Whiternoise]

Well as many people said, a good solution would be to allow the user to run offline without verification - but the disc MUST be in the drive. If the disc isn't in the drive then you can run it for 10 days without activation - which would work rather well for demos i think..

That way you can still play offline without any problems, and you can play without the disc without much of a hitch either, the problem i had with it wasn't inherently the activation process it was that they would still make you do it if you owned the disc..