f13.net

As reported by RPGWatch (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?rwsiteid=1&newsbit=10223)

The Gist:

So, some reasonable, some evil. I'm not into selling games or buying them used, but turning it into an impossibility seems to drop value from the game. Seems to me games fit in the same category as hardbound books, where the higher price is partly justified by the resellability. I know my nephews go through a lot of games, buying some new, some used, and selling them/trading to their friends. They won't be buying Sacred2 for the same reason they didn't buy Bioshock, Spore, or any Valve games though, they live in Nowhere, Michigan and have crappy dialup as their only internet option. But this means others who also look at trade-in/resale are sol too.

When do those retards learn that computer parts tend to crap out and have to be replaced?

And while I personally don't sell games, taking away the ability to do is beyond fucked up. Yes, I sometimes lend my brother-in-law my games. He has my sisters child to care for, so he can't blow the same insane amounts of cash on games that I do. And when I'm done with them they rot away in some cupboard otherwise.

So fuck you Ascaron!

This is bullshit.

Hmm, looks like a wrong translation to me:


Revoking the activation is important to reset the full activation rights and allow you to install the game on another computer or sell it.

From their serial unlock page


I usually replace hardware before it goes bad, but in case of catastrophic failure yuo=fukt

And if the old hardware is kaput, what do you do?

Re reselling / trade in:  Needs to die.

Are the online games like direct IP? Or is there a matching system?

I've asked the PR for Ascaron if this horrible shit will be on Sacred 2 and whether they really want to go down the same road Spore just went down.

PR got my email and is "looking into it."

Spore had the EA backing and name recognition to take the Amazon press debacle.  Sacred does not. 

I won't buy it with the conditions listed above. 

Got clarification:


I did not ask about copy solutions btw, I asked about DRM. Marketing is hard sometimes I suppose. They couldn't spin this into awesome with cupcakes.

Man, it's like the entire world has been taking stupid pills and didn't bother to let me know about it.  If this shit becomes the norm, it will be the end of my single player game days.

Right of first sale. I don't like EBgames' racket either, but if I buy it, I'll do what I want with it.

Guess I won't be buying this, either.

 :oh_i_see:

I haven't bought a singleplayer computer game in a long time. A very long time. I think the last one I bought was 2142, and that one I didn't buy for a long time until I knew the Australian version ripped out the spyware advertising. Unless Fallout 3 is Robot Jesus I think I'll give up on the market and my PC can amuse itself with WoW and... WoW until the end of days.

erm.. 2142 is meant to be played as an online multiplayer game...

I wasn't using 2142 as an example of DRM, it's just coincidentally the last PC game I bought.


(Well, HOMM5 as well but that was like last week and it's been out for ages and the reason I didn't buy it in the first place was because of DRM controversy)

Not DRM, you were talking about single-player computer games. Or it certainly read that way, at least.

I was not my intention to use DRM and 2142 together at all. It was simply the last game I could remember buying before I started knocking desired games back because of DRM.

Yes. I understand.

But.
I.
Was.
Never.
Talking.
About.
D.
R.
M.
In.
Reference.
To.
Your.
Post.

 :uhrr:

Oh I see. No I meant non-MMOG. :grin:

I'm reading that and thinking "Man, just skip all that bullshit and torrent it!"

Remind me how DRM stops piracy?   :why_so_serious:

It creates a lasting trusting relationship between the customer and company by finding a balance within the DRM software to ensure their intellectual property remains safe while making it known they don't believe their Customers are Pirates.

That reminds me... I need to delete the Spore Torrent I downloaded.

The goal isn't to stop piracy altogether, but to punish pirates. 

All customers are potential pirates. 

Therefore, only by causing the maximum amount of inconvenience to the maximum number of customers can DRM strike the greatest blow against piracy.

 :drill:

I need to finish the one I'm downloading.  "Kinda neat but shallow and flawed and it comes with wacky DRM" is the kinda thing piracy was practically made for.

Your licenses crap out when you change out hardware? Are you fucking kidding me? FAIL.

OK, there's been a firestorm over this crap over on the Ascaron forums, and rightly so. At first blush, it looks bad. Bad enough to nix the PC version and just go 360.

However, Tom finally got off his thumbs and posted a reasonably intelligible response. To wit:

Hello Folks

Sacred2 is offivcially Games for Windows certified and approved to carry and use this logo officially. Since Sacred2 and OUR way and special for us made Securom are married the combination Sacred2/Securom is GfW certified from Microsoft. Spyware and other bad things are not getting certification I can tell you.

Sacred2/Securom used and developed for Ascaron is 100% compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. We are implementing and developing Securom since Feb into Sacred2...long before Spore/Securom was in discussion.

The only data that will be send to the www.unlock.sacred2.com is the Serial Key from the back of the manual. The only data that www.unlocksacred2.com sends back to Sacred2 is the aktivation key.

You can do this all manually...no direct connection between Sacred2 and keyserver required if you dont trust Ascaron. It is just more easy to do it this way because its an automatic process.

After de-installation only one data is left : Sacred2 aktivation information to have an easy new installation process.

Sacred2 allows to change hardware...1 or 2 things at the same time and no new activation needed.

You decide on how many rigs S2 is installed...but only active on 2 rigs at the same time. Desktop and notebook...play adhoc LAN with somebody else...why not.

You can play LAN with your wife, kid or girlfirend, friend, husband, etc.

I dot like disk based CP...useless and not userfriendly. The first thing that comes up is a NoCD crack.

Sacred2/Securom is different from EA´s way of doing it. Our DRM is specialy designed to be user friendly as a compromize between your needs and our needs.

All the best
Heiko


Now, supposedly this just deals with the German version and the NA version might very well be different, but I'd be betting it's not. CDV hasn't said very much about Sacred 2 and not a thing this month, despite the fact the game ships on the 30th. Take whatever salt you need.

Still sounds like shit. Even in broken english.

(http://www.clownofchaos.co.uk/graphics/clownshoes.gif)

(http://img177.exs.cx/img177/3889/sdious9hd.jpg)

"For safe and secure gaming!"

I'm excited about Diablo 3.  Tell Tom that.

I don't know why, but I lol'd.

I recently found out that Heiko is 3rd most used first name in relation to my last name. I can't even properly spell my last name in english, it has an umlaut in it. I feel special.

You can spell it in English.  We don't believe in those fancy little squigglies and dots round these parts anyhow.

Add an 'o'.

Actually we add an E. I'm not sure if it's correct. From Klätsch to Klaetsch. We have always pronounced it clutch, but I'm not even sure if that is the "old country" way of saying it. Klaytch? Klatch?

I'm starting to think about signing it without the e and adding an umlaut.

Throw em for a loop and make em little hearts.

I was told this DRM is a little different from EA's and i was wondering if anyone confirmed this.  The difference specifically was that you could revoke an installation and thereby keep your two installs.  Has this been confirmed?

I already posted about that on the previous page. Read my text blocks. Short answer, yes.

How about a æ?  Saves space.

Someday I would like to go to Germany and kick their ass.  Also, I have a headache in my brain.

(it's not a fucking tumour, asshole)

It's probably Lupus.

(http://www.lacoctelera.com/myfiles/pianistaenunburdel/House%20MD.jpg)

(http://itsnotlup.us/notlupus.png)


It's never lupus

Except for the episode where it WAS lupus.

(http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/6563/arnold7wh.jpg)

(http://www.mutantreviewers.com/rtotalrecall4.jpg)

Sadly our patriotic American keyboards don't have ligatures on them, so either you have to memorize the ASCII codes or you just go with your Ellis Island-ed spelling for the most part if you have one of these names. (Plus using æ would be sort of orthographically strange because its already a ligature in modern English (examples - mediæval, palæontology, not that we ever spell those that way anymore like the Brits do, this is sort of what you're suggesting also) but is actually a letter in some languages (Norwegian: æsir for example, I probably should have capitalized that but I'll be damned if I go look up the code for that), some of which we borrow words from, so it would mean different things in different contexts which is what fucks English up in so many ways already...)

Man, I know I should be asleep instead of on the Internets when I start posting about orthography with nested parentheses on gaming boards, especially as I read over what I just wrote and I'm not sure it makes sense.  :uhrr: