Ubisoft to require permanent internet connectivity

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[Khalan]

More confirmation:

Incredibly, the worst is indeed true in Assassin’s Creed 2 – and, it appears, will be for Settlers 7 too. No matter what you’re doing, no matter what the reason, the game will refuse to let you continue playing if it decides you’re not online.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/02/17/you-maniacs/#more-25624

[Khalan]

And a PC Gamer interview with Ubisoft basically confirms the worst points of this mess.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=235596&site=pcg

The stupid thing about all this is that it's genuine paying customers that will have to put up with not being able to play the game during internet or server dropouts - the pirates can play whenever they want without restriction.

[City Builder]

And once again UBI sidesteps some important issues and "that's the plan" does not mean "Yes" to the question of whether the DRM will be patched out of the game if they take down the servers.

But on a positive spin, if UBI can patch out the DRM then so can a hacker.  Much like every other DRM that publishers try, this too will be hacked.  And when it is, I'll plunk down my money for Settlers 7, but certainly not before.   This totally goes against any logical thinking persons brain waves to buy a game with this kind of copy protection, at least it does for me.

Much like when they used starforce and people complained so loudly that they switched to another method, this too is likely to be changed at some future date as well if enough people make a stink about it and refuse to spend their money on UBI games. (theres my opinion again).

While I forsee myself having an internet connection probably for the rest of my gaming life as it's needed for my real life business, theres  nothing in my book that says that I have to keep paying for broadband, nor that I'm going to be living in an area that has broadband and this method of protection stinks against those people that have dialup and have to keep dialed in to play their games.  I don't know when I may have to swap out to dialup again by the area that I might be living in, so I for one have no desire to give them my money with the thought that one day I may need to switch to dialup due to where ever I might be living.  Because quite honestly I have no desire to have to dial into the internet to play my single player games.

Theres far too many publishers out there providing quality games that I really don't need to give UBIsoft any more of my money.  In my book UBISoft is little more than a joke of a publisher with a small handful of titles that really don't interest me enough to worry about it.  Sure it would be nice to play Settlers 7, but not at this price.

[crowebird]

You guys are complaining way to much, don't you realize it is those damn paying customers they are trying to punish?  They don't want you to buy their games... they figure if its too much work to be legitimate, then you will just go pirate it (or not get it at all), and receive the full experience that you should be getting in the first place... It makes perfect sense, only a fool would see otherwise...

I totally love and agree with DRM, it has revolutionized the gaming industry...

(Hmm, something about my response seems ass-backwards :P)

[City Builder]

[CoconutKid]

Whether Ubisoft or others, this seems to be yet another reason to wonder if maybe pencil & paper will be required to save us from starvation.

Tropico3 has some sort of fantastic system that I'm having a hard time grasping. It's available for both PC (but only a few laptops can handle it) and Xbox 360.

For PC, perhaps you can buy it on a disk - but the preferred method is by download through a licensed (?) vendor. One of the sources is Steam which seems to be sort of system in itself to which you have to submit/subscribe in order to purchase a game from them. Sort of like if you wish to buy a can of beans from Walmart/Sam's Club, you should have to get an electronic implant to track your use of the beans until you turn them over to the sewage system.

On the Kalypso forum, a fellow (josh32) allowed as how he bought T3 from Steam and wanted to get the patch -- but he had the game on his home computer which doesn't have an internet connection. He asked how he could update his game by using a 'usb' or whatever. This led to an interesting exchange; most of which seems incomprehensible to me. Or at least incomprehensible from the point of view of someone who doesn't have a high-speed\non-interruptable internet connection at the place they call home. Of course such people constitute a very small proportion of those interested in any one game; but are they to be branded criminal, deviant, or worse and cast into outer darkness?

Here is the publisher's latest comment:

And josh32 is further out-of-luck than I thought. :(

He isn't actually. You can download Steam on any computer with internet access, log into your Steam account and download the games registered on your account. Then, you can create a local backup from within the Steam software and import this backup via USB or disc transfer on a different machine running Steam. Of course, you will need to log on with the same account and probably need a one-time online verification of the game.

If I read that correctly, the "home" machine without an internet connection has to be running 'Steam' -- but how can it do so without an internet connection? It's "Catch 22" in spades as I see it.

http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=3811

[crowebird]

steam needs to have a one time internet connection to buy and download the game... once you have it downloaded you dont need to be on the internet to use steam (as long as you save your credentials - remember me).  If you buy a new game though on the same account but on a different computer, you would naturally need to use an interent connection on steam on the other computer again just so it can update your account... after that you could go back to playing offline and do the backup transfer that they are recommending.

[City Builder]

I believe that Steam requires that the user renews their credentials every so often, maybe every 30 days or so if they are running steam in offline mode which is usally what I do, it just asked me the other day to renew my credentials which is not a big deal if you have internet access on that computer, otherwise I imagine Steam is about as useful as UBIsoft's new DRM if you don't have internet access on the computer that has steam installed.

You know the one thing that I read in one of these articles is that Steam games are cracked the first day that they come out  making their own DRM pretty useless for the most part.  But the strange thing to me is that I'd never heard anybody talking about cracking steams games, nor read anywhere that it's a plague to Steam.

[CoconutKid]

...  If you buy a new game though on the same account but on a different computer, you would naturally need to use an interent connection on steam on the other computer again just so it can update your account ...

Thank you for trying to explain this stuff to a blunder-head like me. It's helpful to know even though I shall never use it.

Disclaimer - I don't particularly care about "Steam" other than as a general illustration.

If I understand what you said, in one session on a specific computer linked to "Steam", one establishes an account, one buys and downloads a game, one tells the "Steam" site to "remember me." Then, after going to 'off-line' mode, one copies the game to another machine (by various media) whilst leaving the original stuff on the first machine -- the "Steam" site is remembering the original machine.

Thereafter, whether for a second game without making a new account or for an update to the first game, one has to use the original machine; and then transfer stuff again to the other machine.   


Another question: What does the word "client" mean to computer geeks?

... all steam games run on portable data, only your client needs to be verified with the games installed. so you can just update one machine then copy and paste any file changes over to any devices you wish ...

from the Kalypso forum.


Thanks again. 

[CoconutKid]

I believe that Steam requires that the user renews their credentials every so often, maybe every 30 days or so if they are running steam in offline mode ... which is not a big deal if you have internet access on that computer, ...

That sounds like The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe -- she had to check every month if she was still feeding just her own kids. I've got the same thing from the internet security\anti-virus program I buy. But it seems they provide a needed service since I don't have a network with an administrator to pre-digest what the internet feeds me. I can't figure out what the game vender does\would do for me other than eliminate scratched disks. Perhaps I'm leaning toward joining the pirates and donating to the game publishers as I do to public radio and TV.
 
The phrase, "having internet access on a computer", is a small puzzle to me. Isn't an internet connection just a data input/output, albeit flowing through a moderating 'modem'? Is it possible or reasonable to build a general purpose computer which could not have a modem and associated internet connecting stuff plugged in? Does the phrase possibly more accurately mean, just at the moment not "wired-up" for the flip of a switch?