Got a point. IF the pirates aren't going to pay for the game at any price the only ones that get hurt are the legit owners who have to put up with the outrageous protection schemes.

Maybe they should have a general release and if people like it they can buy a premium edition or something. Or just get over the fact that they will inevitably* lose X amount of sales.


THE
THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT
AARDVARK


*what did you say?
inevitably!
come again?
inevitably!!
one more time...?

[quote="AArdvark"]So does that mean SH 5.5 will be a kick ass beta? Seems to me they did the microsoft thing; release junk now for quick cash flow and fix it out in the wild.[/quote]

Well, if it's anything like previous releases, they've done exactly that [i]except for the last part.[/i]

So does that mean SH 5.5 will be a kick ass beta? Seems to me they did the microsoft thing; release junk now for quick cash flow and fix it out in the wild. Still think the DRM thing is crap, tho.

Apparently the reason the DRM is failing is because people are DDoS'ing the shit out the the DRM servers.

Good.

Pinback loves submarine games.

I love the IDEA of submarine games.

I really wish I could get myself to the point where I could scope out four hours to lurk above the ocean floor and shoot at Nazis or Limeys, but since I can't, Pinback is my de facto submarine fan that I live vicariously through. We have had many a discussion about Silent Hunter 5 in IM.

What I'm taking out of all this is that DRM causes Amazon reviewers to freak out. Spore was a one-star app over at Amazon before it was even available to anyone. I don't have the exact IM in front of me, but Pinner said, of SH%....

"It's getting one-star on Amazon, but the reviews are like, 'yes, the DRM sucks BUT ALSO...'"

It's been said that pinball games are one flop away from there not being any more pinball games. I've long felt the same way about sub games. I *wanted* Silent Hunter 5 to do well. I'm rooting for it. But it simply wasn't finished.

A guy on Ubisoft's forum put together what felt like a logical timeline as to why SH% got out the door early:

- Ubisoft was losing money the last few quarters
- They blamed THE PIRATES
- They put in this stupid DRM because, having blamed pirates instead of their own incompetence, they had to do [i]something[/i]
- Now, this is all fictional. Pirates do not purchase games.
- By shipping Silent Hunter 5 a little early, they are adding a little bit to their quarter earnings

However, the real cost of their DRM is that they are driving more people to learn a little more about piracy. Pinback hasn't cracked a game in his life since he was 15, I am assuming. If Silent Hunter 5 actually worked and the servers went down, I'd send him the crack because he's my pal and I want him to play the game he paid for. What has stopped that from happening is that Silent Hunter 5 isn't working, and I have been either sleeping 3 hours a day or 12, so I literally can't type in URLs without seeing the shadow demons. Regardless... [i]irregardless....[/i] that scenario is a lot more likely than some guy who pirates a dozen games from Usenet each month going, "whoa, I should buy this game from Ubisoft."

I don't know who the board at Ubisoft is accountable to. Shareholders? Maybe? I - okay? But this is a classic example, perhaps THE classic business example, of killing starfish by chopping them up and throwing them back into the ocean. Whoa, we got more starfish!!??

I sure as hell wouldn't play it or buy it, just 'cause they sound so paranoid at Ubisoft.

http://www.gossipgamers.com/ubisoft-drm-servers-go-down/

Why do software companies have to treat everyone like criminals. Real copy protection is making software so horrible that nobody wants it, a business plan that Microsoft is currently moving away from coughvistacough.

[i]Ubisoft’s recently announced that a new DRM scheme for PC games that many claimed would be uncrackable. It appears that this DRM has been busted in 24 hours.

The DRM mechanism in question, rolled out initially in Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed 2, took a new approach in that it relied on having a constant internet connection in order that the game files could be checked continuously for modifications or tampering. If modified files were detected or the internet connection dropped (or for that matter if Ubisoft’s servers went down), the game would shut down.

Now, I don’t condone software piracy in any shape, way or form, and I’m a firm believer in the idea that you should pay your way in this world. That said, this DRM scheme comes across as awfully heavy-handed and annoying. This DRM sounded so annoying that it was unlikely to stand for long.

And it didn’t.

A team of crackers going by the name of Skid-Row have managed to circumvent the DRM mechanism on Silent Hunter 5 in under 24 hours, releasing a crack for the game.[/i]