Comments on: Mass Effect Copy Protection An Opportunity To Use The Adjective ‘Draconian’

By: PureandSimple

PureandSimple — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:08:44 +0000

This.....will NOT....help.
Pirates WILL crack it.
Like many others have admitted, I too may stray off the straight and narrow just because of EA's idiocy. I may have actually bought the game if they didnt have stuff like this. And I DEFINETELY would have bought spore.
There may be a logic to doing it for online games or ones greatly enchanced by the internet such as spore, but the offline games will be cracked.

Pure and Simple

By: Disgusted

Disgusted — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:23:03 +0000

PURPLESFINX I can't argue with the sentiment, but I think the "solution" in this instance is ridiculous. The only people this will have an impact on is the owners of the retail disc, not one pirate will have to authenticate their copy because the securerom aspects of the system will be removed from the uploaded versions.

That is where the whole farcical situation of copy protection falls flat on its face, only genuine customers are inconvenienced and we pay a premium for the privelige. As you say, Bioware definitely did not get access to the SecurROM technology for free, as a customer you are paying for it when all is said and done, the thieves have no such consequences and will be enjoying this game possibly before release or just after without any such hassle.

The whole premise is fundamentally flawed.

I haven't even started on the unsavoury aspects of the chosen protection method.

By: PurpleSfinx

PurpleSfinx — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:40:26 +0000

I know alot of people are angry about this, but if you pirate games (I used to, don't anymore), you've only got yourself to blame.

As much as I loathe EA, and now, by extension, BioWare, they wouldn't spend the time, effort, and money to get SecureROM with repeated online activation in their game unless there was a piracy problem. There's no other reason for them to do it, and they sure as hell didn't get SecureROM for free.

I think every 10 days is a little over the top, and I can see this being patched to be less harsh, like BioShock. Also, they will have to leave the servers up for at least a few hundred years for this to be fair, OR release a 'final' patch which removes the copy protection - when they stop selling the game. But if they can make sure that everyone who has bought the game can play it, I don't see the problem with this, as long as it's clear on the box you need Internet. It's a sucky situation, but gamers who pirate only have themselves to blame.

Please don't pirate games. You just ruin them for everyone.

By: Wombat

Wombat — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:37:00 +0000

A few months ago I swore myself off pirating games.
- Guess who's off the straight and narrow.

...I love Bioware and I'm going to actually buy the physical game anyway. But believe me now that the bloody thing will never see the insides of my disk drives.

By: Disgusted

Disgusted — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:36:44 +0000

Agreed Ian, I was aware of the Bioshock securerom activation procedure only from visiting the forum before purchasing, I was OK with that, a one-time activation is no real hassle, providing the servers and systems are stable and in place. I had no problems activating my copy, but plenty of others did as the servers took a massive hit and collapsed under the load.

This repeat activation however is a major pain in the arse, I was really looking forward to this game, like Bioshock I would have picked it up on release day. Now I will wait and listen to the horror stories with interest as I sit back and wait for the inevitable cracked version.

The pirates cannot be beaten, name me one offline game that has managed to disrupt the pirates for more than a couple of days? How much is spent on this stuff only for it to be torn apart and disabled by people in their spare time?

I keep hearing how PC gaming is dying, this sort of garbage won't help.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:10:39 +0000

I don’t pirate games anymore, but this might just make me re-think that decision to avoid the hassles.