The Common Sense Gamer

Just a heads up that I will be flying off to GDC tomorrow.

If you have anything you’d like to see covered, let me know. There will be plenty of video and audio taken…so keep an eye out over at VirginWorlds for coverage. We’ll probably be on Gamebreaker as well…so I’ll let you guys know when we’re live on there.

Not much else going on…

…oh. I got really geeky and got a game called American Civil War which you can find here. I’ve never tried an Ageod game before, but so far, I like what I see. The South is, in fact, rising again and kicking my ass in the Battle of Shiloh. Insane

D out.

…and it took only 24 hours:

Ubisoft’s master plan has collapsed in under 24-hours, as infamous cracker group Skid-Row has tackled the new DRM and rendered it useless, meaning the only people now suffering with this ridiculous DRM are legitimate owners.

Nice…

D out.

…time for me to have a nice, big plate of crow.

I should have known better actually. I’m an MMO gamer, so really, why should a DRm scheme that requires an online connection bother me that much. As a wargamer, though, I don’t really like it because my expectation when getting a single player wargame or simulation is to “stay offline”.

So…after some thought, I figured I better get the game and see what the real deal was instead of just doing just a bunch of hand waving like a typical gaming blogger . Honestly, it really is not that bad a scheme to be introducing. What happens is that you register with your game key and create an account with Ubisoft. From then on in, you log in just like any other MMO. At the log in, it “synchronizes” your save games with their servers and you off and running. Really…nothing wrong with it.

One thing I did encounter over the weekend was that I was not able to sync my saved games with Ubi’s servers…and I think that is where some contention will come in for some of the hardcore rivet counters. If you cannot sync your save to the server, you cannot play. If you don’t log in…you cannot play. It does seem kind of ridiculous to cut off the player from playing because of a save sync issue even though they successfully logged in.

As MMO gamers, we expect server downtimes and, for the most part, these downtimes are well communicated. I’m wondering on how Ubi is going to manage this type of service going forward.

That all being said, Silent Hunter 5 is pretty good. Already sunk about 15000 tonnes of Allied shipping. Goooo me

D out.

D out

This is something I didn’t even think about, and just makes me even more upset about Ubi’s DRM:

With companies like Ubisoft leading the way to a future where all PC games need to be in contact with their home servers all the time, one group is being particularly harmed by this movement: soldiers stationed in remote locations. Life on deployment is hard, psychologically demanding, and often lonely for soldiers missing their loved ones and families. Gaming is a popular pastime in American bases, but DRM can take that away.

He wanted to keep his name out of the story, but the description of his situation is one we’ve heard from more than a few members of our armed forces who write to us about Internet connections as a vehicle for DRM. “I’m deployed to Iraq right now, and [DRM] has ranged from annoying to unforgivable for me. I would like to let you know that Steam is pretty awesome with working with deployed folks to make sure we can access/play our games,” he told Ars.

“I’ve had hit and miss success with some of the other download companies. Any kind of game that tries to call home, though, is generally more of a problem than it is worth. Especially ones that try to resolve your IP address with your version/purchase location.”

D out.

More on Ubisoft’s ass-hattery:

What happens if Ubisoft take the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown?
In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you’ll be unable to play them. “The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can’t play.??”

Are Ubisoft trying to kill PC gaming?
One theory states that piracy is such a problem on PC that they’d prefer to move their customers to the Xbox or PS3. Their spokesperson disagrees. “No, we’re not trying to kill the PC market. Are we frustrated by the PC market? I think everyone is. In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It’s a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we’re all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it.”

Do Ubi believe this DRM is unhackable?
They accept that it’s all DRM’s fate to be eventually hacked, explaining that internally, they’ve already talked of a timescale for how long their games will be protected by it. But, they believe that it’s secure enough for them. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t believe in it. The guys who designed it believe in it. Do we think that it’s the one system that God has sent onto earth that will never be cracked by anybody ever? We can’t guarantee that, but we believe in it.??”

Does this mean that Ubi are dissatisfied with other online rights management platforms like Steam?
There’s a hint of that, although Ubi are keen to praise Valve’s online platform. “We think what Steam has done is amazingly valid, but aren’t Steam games cracked amazingly fast? It’s not a question of dissatisfaction, it’s a question of ‘we’ve got another idea, another way of implementing it, and we’re going for it’.”

Seems like they don’t get it.

I will not be buying another Ubisoft game, including Silent Hunter 5, until they find some other solution.

What they’ve done in this interview is admit that this will be hacked eventually…but hey, they “believe in it”. Seems like they need to just accept the reality of piracy instead of believing in short term solutions that just piss off customers.

D out.

…well, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

More information here:

As you may have noticed the Cash Shop has recently been implemented in Allods Online.

I wanted to make a poll on the prices to see what peoples thoughts were in regards to them.

Here are the prices, which are converted from Gpotato > USD:

Perfume x 1 = 75c
Perfume x 20 = $13.50
24 Slot Bag x 1 = $20.00
Holy Relic x 1 = $15.00
Myrh x 1000 = $1.00
Steel Chest x 1 = $1.00
Key x 1 = 10c
Crystal Chips x 10 = $2.50
Crystal Chips x 50 = $12.00
36 Slot Bank Bag x 1 = $15.00

I think they are ridiculous. There is no way in hell i’m paying nearly a dollar for half an hour of PvP. Why not pay $15 and play a P2P MMO and get all the features and as much PvP as I want? As many instances as I want without fatigue… and much more.

Please vote so we can try to persuede gPotato they’re making yet another mistake to add onto FOD, Flagging and Fatigue.

I’m tellin ya people…if you don’t make some noise here, it will continue. Fortunately, the gamer crowd is starting to get it.

We took it up the ass with the horse, now we’re just providing them with the lube.

D out.

First, let’s start it off with a comic…that is always fun:

Gamers are getting a little pissed at this, and Ubisoft is is the latest example of this misguided effort to “curb piracy” because somehow they think it’s hitting the bottom line. Assassin’s Creed and now Silent Hunter 5, are gong to be getting a DRM protection scheme that requires you to be online while playing the game at all times….loose connection, and apparently, tough luck. Want to play off-line? Tough balls, cause your games are saved on Ubisoft’s servers…that’s right…on their servers:

Nothing, however, beats this latest. Beginning with Settlers 7 and Assassin’s Creed 2, gamers in single-player mode will be required to maintain a constant Internet connection. If you lose that connection for any length of time or any reason, your game session is terminated. Ubisoft is spinning this as a feature, claiming that by adopting this system, they can offer gamers unlimited installs, cloud-accessible saved games, and the ability to play from any computer. The one point the company didn’t mention when it first announced the structure of this system, is that the game doesn’t save before it throws you out.

Now, as MMO gamers this is not new as this DRM scheme is pretty similar to the client->server relationship that we are use to, but for single player games this is a big deal…. especially for those buying Silent Hunter 5 as this is totally unacceptable.

Of course, this will do nothing to curb piracy. Piracy of games will continue and legitimate users will feel greater need to either pirate as well or just stop buying games. But hey…I guess if we don’t put in DRM, the terrorists win…right?

D out.

…you’re warned.

If you are a man and you go past this point, you are….along with me…automatically wrong

I just finished watching Tiger Woods’ apology, and it is quite the commentary on our own little world here in North America, ain’t it? Personally, I have to take Tiger at his word, as he did sound quite genuine in his apology to the public….whether or not he gets it back together with the real victim here (…his family…) is another question. FYI…have you seen his wife? Seriously…what the hell Tiger?

“He needs therapy”, is the current saying. No…not really. “He’s addicted to sex”…suuuure…and we’re all “addicted to breathing” too I guess. You can’t be addicted to a natural function of human biology…and sex is as natural as they come. What we have here is a hyper-alpha-male (aka…the douche-bag…) doing what what he does best: finding women and tapping them. Bill Clinton, Brad Pitt, Hugh Grant…all of them, just being what nature made them. What really surprises me is that we are still surprised by politician, celebrities, preachers cheating. I sort of expect it. I will probably never understand why we expect public figures to be more than human.

With Tiger, I think it might be a little deeper than just a typical alpha male pattern. Even though he wife is just gorgeous…clearly…he was away from home way too much and had way too many options made available. And who knows…maybe there was trouble in the marriage to begin with and he was just finding love somewhere else.

Regardless…I wish him and his family the best and I hope to see him on the golf course soon. He is quite the talent in that respect.

D out.

…prepare to loose a bit of your soul this fall:

Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.

D out.