DRM still an issue?

[CrimsonJD]

The game is on sale now and looks pretty cute. Can anyone who has bought it and installed it on Steam recently comment on whether you still need to "activate" to play the game?
Generally I refuse to buy games with this type of two tier DRM since Steam should be enough, and an activation limit is really a bad idea.

[Kybosa]

Автор сообщения: Overread

Автор сообщения: Kybosa

so it's completely valid for a company to sell a broken product and not be held responsible for fixing it? Following this chain of thought, all cracks for this game should be completely legal to own/use. I'm tired of the "this game is old, and the company didn't think ahead in storing needed material" excuse. This doesn't even fly due to the VERY EXISTENCE OF CRACKS. So a bunch of coders with no access to the development material was able to fix this issue in their free time, but not the Company with paid employees making money from sales of the game?

You're talking about two totally separate things.
Firstly a "crack" is not a "fix".
A "crack" is where someone attempts to break through part of the security of the game, typically with the intent to pirate the game (although I accept that in some limited cases legitimate owners of the product use a crack to gain access when a technical issue prevents access although this group is generally in the minority).

A "fix" is where coders fix a problem (real or percieved) and is not used to get around copyright protection on the product. Note that many times fixes are often combined with or are in fact changes to the content based upon personal preference rather than a core problem with the game itself.



And yes people with free time can choose to spend that free time doing things that will generate no income for themselves. It's their free time, they've no overheads, no staff to pay, no bills, no utlities, no tax. It's their free time to do with as they wish. A company on the other hand has all those things to pay for whilst also paying for staff. Yes they still take money for the game, but there comes a point in nearly all games where the support period ends and the company has to devote its resources toward a new product. If they don't the company folds.

There are exceptions - Blizzard for example,but often they are not the norm. Long term support also requires a company structure setup to support it long term and many times this just isn't practically on the cards.



I'm very sure most programmers and developers would love to polish their games and keep them running; but its just not always financially viable for them to do so. This is why GOG exists - a 3rd party company which patches games to work on modern OS systems (one can also argue that re-release through a service like GOG can generate a small window of renewed product interest).

Yes I'd love every product to be long term supported and patched - but I don't expect it because I know that its just not always practical.


Don't forget that many developers also work under a publisher - the developer has to make revenue for the publisher otherwise they are closed down or lose further funding.

Wait, so a game being unable to run for the user that legitimately purchased it isn't a problem?
Your definitions of "Crack" and "fix" are loaded and arbitrary
Fixes are patches that correct a preexisting problem with the game, from the perspective of the coding team.
Cracks are just fixes that correct the problem of the game not working for the clients of the crack, whether they're legit or not is irrelevant to the definition.

And your second and third points fail to refute mine. In #2, the company is selling a broken product. And denying the right to users to fix it. When was that ever ok?
#3, that's the company fixing the game. I never said the Company had to fix it explicitly via their own in-staff programmers only. Except for copies that don't recieve GoG's fix. Then we're back to the company selling a broken product while banning users from diy-fixes.

[MasterionX]

Автор сообщения: Kybosa

2. So long as the DRM issues have easy-to-find fixes that do not require purchasing/obtaining other products (like the dual-GPU issue), this game(or any other) doesn't run afoul of my previous stance, because it doesn't meet my definition of "broken"(unworkable without additional parts, which in retrospect is is more different than "not working currently" than I thought). That being said, I don't know how you reconcile a DRM workaround as merely "unintuitive" if needed parts are unavailable, like validation servers. Reverse-engineer the code and roll your own? Great, except that's a Crack.

Not sure what validation servers you are talking about since players do activate their Steam copies of this game (it's this activation process that's unintuitive) without having the need to buy another copy.

"Cracks exist no matter what, not sure why do you need a justification for them." And I'm still trying to understand the point of this sentence. Really, what are you saying that refutes my point? Is it my statement that companies should drop all complaint against Cracks if they aren't fixing broken products? That's literally saying that people don't have a right to use third-party tools to be able to use a product they paid for, when without it they can't use the product.

Even if the product isn't broken, there are cracks for it. Even if people don't pay for a product (actually, especially if), they use these tools. It's all just the same justifications.

[Kybosa]

Автор сообщения: MasterionX

Автор сообщения: Kybosa

2. So long as the DRM issues have easy-to-find fixes that do not require purchasing/obtaining other products (like the dual-GPU issue), this game(or any other) doesn't run afoul of my previous stance, because it doesn't meet my definition of "broken"(unworkable without additional parts, which in retrospect is is more different than "not working currently" than I thought). That being said, I don't know how you reconcile a DRM workaround as merely "unintuitive" if needed parts are unavailable, like validation servers. Reverse-engineer the code and roll your own? Great, except that's a Crack.

Not sure what validation servers you are talking about since players do activate their Steam copies of this game (it's this activation process that's unintuitive) without having the need to buy another copy.

"Cracks exist no matter what, not sure why do you need a justification for them." And I'm still trying to understand the point of this sentence. Really, what are you saying that refutes my point? Is it my statement that companies should drop all complaint against Cracks if they aren't fixing broken products? That's literally saying that people don't have a right to use third-party tools to be able to use a product they paid for, when without it they can't use the product.

Even if the product isn't broken, there are cracks for it. Even if people don't pay for a product (actually, especially if), they use these tools. It's all just the same justifications.

The validation server reference is an example to DRM systems in general, and not to this game, since the game only validates once, and I explained that I do not consider this game broken since the only DRM issue i'm aware of is the solved dual-GPU problem.

And how does the perennial existence of Cracks contradict my point? The territory of my statements is solely that of legitimate users. I never said Cracks only exist to fix games for legit buyers, I said that is a practical use.

[MasterionX]

Автор сообщения: Kybosa

The validation server reference is an example to DRM systems in general,

Such games certainly should be kept away from Steam.

And how does the perennial existence of Cracks contradict my point? The territory of my statements is solely that of legitimate users. I never said Cracks only exist to fix games for legit buyers, I said that is a practical use.

Because no one is going to check if you are legitimate user or not, for every legitimate one, these is like 10 not so (and that's underestimation).

You do what you think is right, they do what they think is right, rights owners do... you get the point. Everyone has a point.

I'm not sure if I need to argue here. Demand your rights, if the game lied to you. I prefer to not buy games Day-1. That way I get more protection from lies. So far, I only got burned on Steam once - with Booster Trooper, that says it has Multiplayer but actually doesn't.

Have a good day.

[76561198017204319]

Have three copies running on three systems. (Win 8.1, Win Vista, and Win 7) All run fine and the keys were the main hassle. The reason I did it this way is there is a e-mail address you can contact that will let register the game again if the game's registration fails. (Don't remember it off hand but it's in the game manual if you have the DVD version.) All three have been registered, but I didn't get any of the three from Steam, I brought the DVDs. If I remember right, I couldn't use the CD keys that came with the game on steam to activate it. Since the first copy I brought was put on a system I don't even have anymore, I had trouble reinstalling it on the new system I got. At that point was when I sent off the e-mail and got a replay for what to do. You use the phone registration key in an e-mail and they e-mail back a key that unlocks the full game. Not to much hasstle but still not as easy as activating it on Steam.

[Mr. Devastating]

I know this post is...a year old. lol However I was having the same issues you were. It turns out you have to install DirectX from the X Blades game folder. It worked like a charm for me.

Автор сообщения: Goregasm420

Freaking this is crap I cant play this game. I just wont never buy from them ever again. Screw it.

[Terumi_spirit]

no problem 4 me