General Discussion

Here is the news

"The PC version of Mass Effect is going to include some fairly serious security measures that may prove to be more of a threat to the game's popularity than they are to piracy.

According to Derek French, Mass Effect's technical producer at BioWare, the game's security begins with the same SecuROM online activation that aggravated so many owners of BioShock for PC. The system allows the user to activate the game three times before being required to contact a customer service rep to have it reactivated.

Mass Effect's security goes one step further, however, by dialing in every five to ten days to double check that your current CD Key and computer info matches the data that was submitted when you first activated the game."

I guess its is clear now that Bioware , is not what it was. Under the strong grip of EA.

And what will happen to PC gaming. It is becomming less and less popular , both for users and developers.

Users are disapointed at "consolization/simplification" of PC games. Feel that many of new PC games are nothing more than ports of console versions. Non exclusive PC games are released 6 months later than their console conterparts if at all. Exclusive PC games on other hand come with such high system requirements , that half of people can not play them at all.

Developers on other hand , invest so much money into development of extremely good looking games , only to find that most of their customers can not run them. This cuts sales in half , which is than cut into another half by piracy.

Developers than develop drastic antipiracy mesures , that actually hurt people that BUY the game legaly.
(and in same time do not prevent piracy at all) Alienating even more customers.

Bioware lost lot of rep today.

I wanted to get Mass Effect and play it on my brand new PC.

I will not do that. Securom , and Starware is bad enough. But this is just crossing the line.

In another post by a dev from Bioware,t hey said they used something similar for NWN, KOTOR, Jade Empire, so it wasn't EA that told them to use it.  [But meh, I don't remember NWN cutting off after ten days, or KOTOR doing it either.]

Originally posted by Zarinh

In another post by a dev from Bioware,t hey said they used something similar for NWN, KOTOR, Jade Empire, so it wasn't EA that told them to use it.  [But meh, I don't remember NWN cutting off after ten days, or KOTOR doing it either.]

They said that when you play NWN online , server checks your CD key.

That is = If you play ONLINE + server checking your CD key

(quite wide spread and accepted practice)

We are talking here

1. You can install the game only 3 times - so forget playing the game , uninstalling it when you are bored , and installing it again 6 months after. Forget reinstalling windows , or god forbid , buying another PC.  Playing it on your PC and Laptop .. nonono !

but i guess this is not enough

2. Every 10 days - game will connect to internet , to check if you are actually playing it on same PC you installed it on . So you can not play offline game , if you dont have internet connection. And you can not change hardware because it could get recognized as another PC.

...

Now imagine how this helps piracy

1. Buy original - and have all this brainwash - constant problems

2. Download game - and play freely whenever you want and on any pc - whenever ....

What will people do ?

There goes another game I boycott. I boycotter Bioshock, and will do so with Mass Effect. Everything can only go so far. This is gamer harassment.

games have often been multiplatform. its not a new thing, however now games developed for xbox, ps3 have to be much higher visual quality. this means to run the games on PC with windows hogging all your juice you have to have a much more powerful machine to achieve the same frame rate [as console].

I think a game orientated operating system would revive PC gaming. A system designed bottom up to run games. meaning the majority of your spec is used to run the game, cutting costs of building a PC to compete with console. I not that sure how realistic this is since I'm not well educated on the subject. this would make PC's more "console-like" which I can see many PC elitists rioting about.

Or I think the next generation of consoles will become so much like PCs (can do basically all things PC can do) that buying a PC for gaming would be a waste of money. [by all but the niche of people who build PC's as a hobby with flashing tubes of light and that sort of thing].

it doesn't matter which direction  its approached from. I think PC gaming and console gaming will merge. I personally look forward to it.

Security is a self-protecting industry. Doesn't matter if this is software, music, drugs, incarceration, corporate, financial, or any other. Someone out there is going to rob you blind, and leave you bleeding in the dust...unless you fork over millions of dollars to help security "protect" you from this damage.

The software industry (and the music and video industries for that matter) labor under the misapprehension that a pirated copy of their product is a product they would have otherwise sold to that same customer. That's complete nonsense. Their claims of losses to piracy are hinged on that distorted fact.

Haven't shareware models and recent music releases (Radiohead, NIN) proven that giving your customer a quality product and asking them to pay for the product results in magnificent revenues? That's not the message the security industry wants you to hear...so they preach doomsday and make a lot of noise.

Don't believe the hype.

I really don't see what the big deal is.  For one, Microsoft does the same thing with Windows.  So a software company protecting itself against Piracy isn't a new thing.  And sometimes on a reload you have to contact Microsoft anyway, so it really would be just about the same thing.

Secondly, it's not like you're going to have to sit there and wait for it to check your connection status after 10 days or anything. It will most likely be seamless.  If you have to pay for your serial key to play the game and someone else downloaded a cd key generator off the internet, and used your key that would kinda suck wouldn't it?

I also think that if this helps stop piracy then it will be better in the long run. As much as I would like to play free PC games and all, if developers protect against piracy this way, and it works, then we may have a resurgency of games coming to the PC because they can  minimize losses due to piracy.

I really don't find this as being a deal breaker to any game.  I mean first you have to ask yourself how often you change your computer, or reload windows, or upgrade your hardware.  Then you'd have to figure out what they consider a drastic enough change to be considered a different computer.  (usually it would take more then just a memory stick or two, or even a new video card.  Probably a new motherboard might do it, or a combination of 2 or 3 things.)

I don't think it will cause enough unrest to turn players away. I could only see this being a problem for gamers that don't have internet access.

Originally posted by ianubisi

Security is a self-protecting industry. Doesn't matter if this is software, music, drugs, incarceration, corporate, financial, or any other. Someone out there is going to rob you blind, and leave you bleeding in the dust...unless you fork over millions of dollars to help security "protect" you from this damage.

The software industry (and the music and video industries for that matter) labor under the misapprehension that a pirated copy of their product is a product they would have otherwise sold to that same customer. That's complete nonsense. Their claims of losses to piracy are hinged on that distorted fact.

Haven't shareware models and recent music releases (Radiohead, NIN) proven that giving your customer a quality product and asking them to pay for the product results in magnificent revenues? That's not the message the security industry wants you to hear...so they preach doomsday and make a lot of noise.

Don't believe the hype.

Thats not Hype, and yes, that is a pirated copy of their product that they would have otherwise sold to a customer. Why? Because the customer liked the product and then decided they liked it so much they wanted to steal it.

So whats the big difference here?  Is it that they would have lost a sale because the user didn't want to pay for it?  Or was it that the product was so great it was good enough to steal?

Than just play it on the 360, its still just as amazing.