Kotaku

o,draconian devil

I'm gonna boycott their decision by downloading it!

Im no PC gamer.. So is this a good thing or a bad thing? O_o

lol, all 3 of those games listed is already cracked, lol.

@spargo_1: Bad, but not too bad in my opinion, every 10 days (or if longer whenever you put the game back in) you will merely have to put in the authentification code I believe.

Not really too bad but not great either, if anything happens to your box or the code gets scratched then your screwed.

All this does is give pc pirates an excuse to exist.They'll look like heroes for cracking this.

Even the legit buyers will be grateful.

Heh, I used the word "draconian" when I complained about this on a forum I go to. It's absolutely ridiculous what EA is doing here.

Apparently, Spore is going to use this form of copy protection as well.

I wish I hadn't already preordered this. Perhaps I'll cancel it and wait for a crack, or just not buy it. As much as I want to play Mass Effect I'm not going to get a non-Steam singleplayer game that requires an internet connection.

Now I know why you got that $10 off preordering. They were waiting to announce this horrible decision.

To make people pay for their copy of the game, they need to add value, not lessen it. Legit copies are becoming far less user friendly than pirated ones.

This is not a defence of piracy, merely a statement about human nature.

That'll stop those pirates! With no casualties to anyone else!

Could it just be that some publishers are deliberately trying to kill PC gaming? This looks pretty deliberate! The only thing keeping me from making my own final verdict is that I just don't think any company would invest that much money and then deliberately set it up to fail. I'm happy I have this on the 360... bugs and all :(

@kylenalepa:

Source: [www.shacknews.com]

Why should I have to pay for an inconvenience?

Oh, joy. Overall, I like Sony, but SecuRom is a subsidiary of Sony which I despise. And this is an example of why.

The most ironic part is that the pirates will probably have a version which gets around said protection. Sometimes I really hate having morals, and that really shouldn't be the case.

As I play my games in a laptop with no connection this is bad for me.

...meh, I'll download it and whatever cracks necessary for it to work. I bought the 360 version, which was riddled with bugs. They OWE me this version.

Heh. Razor1911, RELOADED or Fairlight will probably crack it, and HATRED will proper it.

I'm still buying the game though; BioWare is a company I support on the PC just like Obsidian. These guys make the best WRPGs.

SecuROM sucks. I tried playing KOTOR on Vista (laugh at me all you want) and it sometimes thinks that I have an "illegal" copy, or something like that. I have a legal copy of KOTOR, so it shouldn't be a problem, yet it is.

Wow, what a wonderful way to keep the pc-gaming industry alive...

@RFX: believe me, the game will get cracked even before lauch.

Ah good, punish the people who legally buy the software, reward the pirates who hack out the copy protection!

I wouldn't blame this on the Publishers at all. I would say this is the work of the Piracy Game.

If Piracy was never a huge issue with PC Gaming would Publishers truly have to steep to these levels to control Piracy?

I don't mind DRM. What i do mind is programs hijacking my computer/internet connection. The sheer amount of programs that want to keep an open door and communicate w/ the net at their behest; using up memory, cpu cycles & bandwidth is getting to be too much. If everybody did this it would slow peoples performance down noticeably.

I was thinking of buying this but after the Starforce and SecuRom troubles I had with Trackmania, The Witcher and Bioshock, no bloody way.

seems like if they want people to quit pirating and they dont want pc gaming to die (or at the very least return it to its former glory) they shouldn't ACTIVELY DISCOURAGE people from buying their game. seriously who the fuck green lighted that suggestion? they should be fired.

"Anyone having issues with getting the game activated will be able to contact EA Support and get their problem resolved."

So we being lied right to our faces again?

I was going to buy this, but have decided I won't. I urge anyone else in my position to vote against this kind of security protection with your wallet and not buy the game.

Also, I'm taking bets on how quickly the game gets cracked. 2:1 chances at 5 hours.

@Candlejack:
Heh. Razor1911, RELOADED or Fairlight will probably crack it, and HATRED will proper it.

Now THERE's a man who follows the scene :D

And yes, I crack games I own for laptop play. I don't want to drag my Diablo II disks with me when I go on a business trip, so one visit to Google later I've got a version (installed from the original CDs) that I can play anywhere I want without a CD check.

Ethically I see nothing wrong with bypassing copy protection on games I own.

This will no doubt save PC gaming.

Sigh. I was looking forward to buying Mass Effect, doing my part to support PC gaming. Looks like I will have to get the DRM free version instead.

Yeah! PC gaming is dead because of 'piracy' . . . right, uh huh.

Oh well at least we have steam and I dont think valve are going to pull any of this sort of nonsense... they're the only ones who make PC games worth buying!

Interesting, you think they would have done with a different route here...

Why don't they just release ALL PC games on STEAM and be done with it?

Considering that it's a single player game with online multiplayer why force such a stupid copy protection system.

But then again, what computers aren't connected to net.

I love Bioware, but this seems more like a decision from EA to use this system.

@demonknightinuyasha:

to expand this is exactly why DRM's are complete crap that doesn't work. The pirates will find a way around it. They always do. The only people that will be affected but this are the honest people who are going to actually buy the game. I was going to buy this game but now I think I'll just pass. maybe one day I will buy a 360 then I may consider it, but as it stands I guess I'll have to miss out, personally I've always liked JRPGs better anyways.

Actually to add more to it, everyone saying it will be cracked in around 5 Hours or so.

You're probably right as usual.

That's the truth with these things. Even if EA does this 'Security Procedure' (I'm not exactly for it but I'm not 100% against it either) someone will find someway to make it free for everyone.

I don't see how having to authenticate it every 10 days stops piracy. It's going to be cracked.

Start making your games uncrackable or stop pissing off gamers who actually buy your game. Game devs must be gamers too, do they not have a fucking clue that it annoys us?

I will stick to consoles thanks.

Guess there's another game I won't be buying. Oh well. Too bad, so sad. :)

@baberg:

I like that idea. I don't see a problem with downloading music/games I already own.

I remember when Service Pack 1 for Vista messed up my CD Drive. I was forced to pirate every CD I own in order for me to add it to my Music Folder.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if Bioshock was 0-day cracked, and did it sell a respectable amount of copies?

Alright, I'm the biggest fanboy of Bioshock ever - and I frowned upon their SECUrom idea. However, I never ran into any problems with it.

And now we have to authenticate the game every 10 days? They're merely holding down the people who legitimately purchase copies.

Let's say I go on Vacation for 17 days, how the hell do you suppose I enjoy playing this game after my 10 days are up? I still have a week left of vacation and I can't play the game I spent 50 bucks on.

Way to hinder the ACTUAL customers EA!

I normally don't approve the use of the word 'dastardly', but this is CLEARLY dastardly!

/Max

"The Mass Effect SecuROM annoyance factor may be much more extreme, as the game requires that the owner authenticate the copy every ten days, meaning that an internet connection is required to play the game from the get-go until eternity. In other words, if you paid for your copy of Mass Effect, expect to remind EA's authentication servers every week and a half that you aren't stealing it."

Well, that'll show paying customers what's what. Way to stick it to those damn, dirty patrons. And the "pirates" will still download the game for free with all the necessary modifications to bypass that pesky authentication business.

"Pirates" will be the only people playing the PC version of Mass Effect. I despise companies that so flagrantly spit in the faces of the their customers.

Oh.

Crud.

I was going to buy this, but there is no way in hell I am installing SecureROM ever again. Well.... nevermind that I guess.

@exkon

dunno how much that would help in regards to piracy, from what i understand steam games are available for download at most torrent sites.

@Darknight630:

That's what I was thinking exactly.

Serious, kids, what else are they supposed to do? Piracy will eventually kill PC gaming if things continue like they were. Can you imagine investing $30 million in a game only to sell 200,000 copies because over a million people downloaded it illegally? They would simply STOP making games for the PC and stick to the safer consoles.

So before you rip this, how about giving suggestions on what ELSE they could've done instead of this. Because piracy and those that support it did this, not Bioware, EA or Sony.

Additionally, I liken this to gas stations that force you to pay first before you pump due to drive offs. Most of you blame the gas stations for that inconvenience, right? *pfft*

BioWare...another company that has been tainted by the EA monster...!

:-(

I was going to buy this game but now they've put securom on it that means I'll just pirate it. You treat me like a criminal I'll download the pirated copy and not have to worry about draconian copy protection schemes.

When will these companies learn?

The only people who are at all hindered by anti-piracy measures are the honest folks who bought the game and then have to deal with them.

Someone who pirates the game already has the knowledge to get past it with ease, or find someone else who's made a crack.

It's like a store putting maximum security on the front door but leaving the back door wide open. All the honest customers are inconvenienced by the heavy security, while the bad guys just walk in the back door laughing.

As long as when I buy the game I can play it I don't care.

If this game was any good I'd be so pissed right now.

I use the word draconic (shorter form of draconian) all the time.

/doesn't dragonlance have draconians.

I dont think they'll have to worry about their servers being overloaded either... I cant imagine anyone who finds out about this woudl actuall buy the game!

Also anyone who say that piracy will kill the PC games industry is an idiot. The only thing that will kill the PC games industry is stupid decisions by game publishers and this draconian copy protection scheme is a great example.

I'll give it about two weeks until there's a working crack.

I don't know why they would do this. I fully intended to buy Spore but now they are going to inconvenience me and force me to crack it and it is going to drive people to entirely bypass this and pirate it.

Why can't they see that their protection schemes help drive pirating? Buying, installing and simply playing a game shouldn't be more difficult than pirating it. This is why people are willing to pay 60 dollars for a console game, you can just pop it in and play. Simple as that.

I wonder how much EA pays for this SecuROM software. They should be asking for their money back. I mean, I can put a fancy lock on the door, but that doesn't stop someone from coming through the window and stealing my Kraft Dinner.

wait, wasn't SecuROM in the PC splinter Cells or was that another one?

@Llost: Actually I've read it would be pretty seamless, with no input from the user required.

Only serves to fuck those who buy it legit.

This won't stop the pirates, I very much doubt it.