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Beowulf | World - The Gamers Community

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Lambert van Bodegom
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S  lambert.van.bodegom

Sega Re-Examines Uniloc’s Potential For Alpha Protocol

It’s somewhat of an interesting tale: There was once a company called Sega who used a DRM called Uniloc on a game called Football Manager 2009. It was a marriage made in Heaven…then all of a sudden their honeymoon was drastically cut short. A mob of irate gamers bearing issues of their online activation system rocked up on their doorstep. A distribution of justice was imminent. Not Sega or Uniloc had expected such complications. Nor did they expect the angry gamers. Still, neither complained, as newlyweds normally do. And so they worked and toiled through a solution with immediate haste. They staved off chaos. And they urged calm and patience from all sides. The problem seemed defused. Gamers went back with happy smiles. And no one ever heard from Uniloc or Sega again. It’s somewhat of a happily-ever-after story.

And then it becomes official – Alpha Protocol will utilise Uniloc’s DRM system.

Links:

Joystiq
VG247
Game Daily
EuroGamer
Ve3D
Neoseeker

With all the snafu surrounding the latest news on Ubisoft’s DRM, not to mention the legacy SecuROM left behind with its so-called “non-invasive” DRM, people would think publishers would get the hint with DRM as a whole. Still it’s somewhat early days for Uniloc as the game developed by Obsidian and released by Sega will be released at the end of May / early June. More updates from RYG to follow.

You can read/discuss more HERE at Reclaim Your Game

Ubisoft Continues The Silent Treatment As BlueByte Fights Off Furious Settlers 7 Customers

Nothing seems to be working for Ubisoft and their notoriously-hated DRM. From preparation, marketing, testing, implementation, right up to its execution – nothing is going right at the moment. Their most recent response and intentions to make drastic revisions upon their DRM has been marred by their unvoiced concerns over Settlers 7 customers who are still waiting for a DRM solution into their third week.

To think that their patience in the debacle is saintly, but it’s completely understandable if they are nothing short of furious at having to deal with one Ubisoft employee who just happened to be on vacation. (Source: Internode, BlueByte struggling with Settlers 7 DRM problem; Ubisoft remain silent). And, to plainly put it, they are furious.

To make matters worse, the developers of Settlers 7, BlueByte – the same group who developed the Tages-protected Anno 1404 – are in the same boat with Ubisoft as they, too, are unable to sort out any of the Ubisoft DRM-related issues. There is a clear certainty in all of this – both the developers and the publishers are not invested in what is now a clear example of poor customer service and relations. Their (in)actions are nothing short of objectionable, intolerable and, most of all, abhorrent.

If Ubisoft’s clearest intentions five days ago was to improve upon their DRM, then it’s clear they must do something about this mess they themselves have shamelessly created. It’s bad enough to see their DRM in the industry; it’s far worse to see their level of commitment to all consumers because of their in-house DRM.

You can read/discuss more about Ubisoft’s DRM HERE at Reclaim Your Game

Real Value Of Piracy Unquantifiable, Says US Government

It’s what most gamers already know and with the US Government on their side it’s now confirmed: the economic effects of Piracy, as a whole, are “difficult, if not impossible, to quantify.” (Source: Neoseeker, US Government Admits Piracy Estimates Are Phony )

While Piracy itself is the cause of finding real and precise numbers, the US Government, along with their wide range of sources, experts and consultants, believe much of the inaccurate data is attributed to reports penned by the Business Software Alliance and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Until there is a way to accurately assess the economic impacts of piracy we can only be sure of two key points:

- A pirated item does not equate to a lost sale, and
- With respect to the consumer’s “disposable income”, piracy does have its positive points.

Gaming Publishers take note: Implementing invasive forms of DRM is not the solution to ‘stopping’ piracy.

You can read/discuss the article HERE at Reclaim Your Game.

Some Good News For Those With Trine

You’ll be happy to know that the retail version of Frozenbyte’s 2D Platformer, Trine, will now come DRM-Free thanks to their latest 1.06 patch. Players can now play the game without SecuROM - something which RYG is happy to hear about given our collective stance against this invasive and annoying form of DRM.

You can find the recent Patch Notes HERE and you can also download the latest Patch HERE

A Gamer’s Moral Identity

How many times have we seen, read or even identified with gamers who have legitimately bought their games over the counter, only to be royally screwed by the DRM and the gaming publishers they have supported? How many of us have even identified with this particular gamer who went to get a cracked executable to circumvent the DRM that was giving him headaches?

I recently bought a copy of the PC game Red Faction Guerrilla. The game installed fine on my system and I played it for a bit until the hard drive it was on bit the dust.

I replaced the hard drive and reinstalled the game. However, when you try to launch the game it gives you a DRM check where you have to enter your email address and cd-key and it will then connect to its authentication servers to allow you to play the game.

However, when I tried to enter my info and hit ok, it would come back would a general error saying

“There was a problem activating Red Faction Guerrilla. Could not start activation process.”

I tried contacting THQ/Volition the makers/publishers of the game and they could not help and instead told me to contact Games for Windows Live, who apparently runs the online checks as its incorporated into the game with this platform. I spoke to several Windows reps there who knew nothing about how to fix the issue, was hung up on several times, referred back and forth between THQ and then made to run through ridiculous steps to try and fix the issue, and finally told me there’s nothing they can do to help.

What I had to do instead is pretty sad considering I paid for a legit copy- I went to a torrent site and downloaded a cracked exe that let me bypass the security check and play the game the online portion of it.

I could have pirated the game from the start but I chose to be honest and try and support these companies. What good did that do? As a result of paying for this game I was treated like garbage from the companies I bought it from who were unwilling and unable to help, and then had to turn to pirates because the DRM installed with the game prevented me from playing it.

What is the point of paying for these games if you get no support from those you purchased it from and can get a better version for free by pirating it? I am in no way advocating piracy because its wrong and is hurting the industry, but the publishers and developers are in turn treating their paying customers like criminals and are just making them turn to piracy instead.

(Source: The Consumerist, Insane PC Game DRM Drove Me To Piracy)



The question posed by The Consumerist was whether you, as a consumer, felt what he was doing was right.

RYG, as a parallel, has this perspective on the subject matter at hand: Why give legitimate consumers an excuse to ‘become a pirate’?

While there have been improvements and advancements in the way we think about DRM thanks in part to companies who are willing to work with consumers. However, there has been somewhat of a regression of sorts with Ubisoft intensifying their campaign to belittle gaming consumers with their insensitively-developed DRM as well as Green Man Gaming taking on SecuROM as their leading DRM supplier for their content distribution infrastructure as well as the games they will distribute. If the publisher’s intent is to categorically define their PC Gaming consumer base as pirates, then they have succeeded. And they have thanks to invasive DRM schemes, systems and practices and their willingness to use them without any forethought or knowledge of its intended consequences and ramifications.

You can read more HERE at Reclaim Your Game.

Ubisoft “Improves” Upon Its Shallow Promise

It’s hard to imagine what they can improve given one of their invisible spokesperson in their European offices stated that, “as with any online technology, we are constantly working to evolve and improve it.” (Source: Eurogamer, Ubisoft: Our DRM will “evolve, improve”). Irrespective of any noteworthiness in the fact that they’ll only use this DRM on their ‘forthcoming’ titles, the fact remains is that to launch such an ambitious (and demonising) DRM scheme the way Ubisoft have would have required such vast amounts of resources, testing and marketing in order for the DRM system to function as they had intended.

And here’s the real issue that even their marketing staff are overlooking: they didn’t. To confirm this all one has to look for is to see that Ubisoft’s DRM have been, at times, ineffective, dysfunctional - almost discriminative even when it failed to work with Settler’s 7 within Australia. For a Ubisoft rep to explicitly state that they will continue to “improve” upon their DRM in the one instance and then have [Australian] gamers wait for days for a solution to a “problem that occurs when linking your keys to the multiplayer profile” in another hand is clearly something for gamers to feel concerned about. (Source: VE3D, Aussies Experiencing Ubisoft DRM Difficulties). Even if you take players within Australia off the DRM equation you still leave with a torrent of users still having issues with the DRM citing that they “have encountered difficulties playing the game over the holiday weekend due to issues with servers that run matchmaking in multiplayer mode and keep track of profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes.” (Source: MCV, Settlers 7 users hit by DRM trouble)

One would think they had enough sense(s) now that the obvious has been spelled out for them in plain sight. However, given their intent to “improve” upon what they have it’s clear that whatever the case is, Ubisoft’s DRM is here to stay, which doesn’t bode well for many gamers who feel incensed with the flagrant idea of buying a [Ubisoft] game is now buying a license to play a [Ubisoft] game.

You can read more into Ubisoft’s DRM HERE at RYG.

Redesigning RYG {Part 4}

2. THE FACES BEHIND RYG


MIDFINGR (Technical Representative)
E: administrator@reclaimyourgame.com

Like SBlade, Midfingr’s campaign for non-invasive DRM schemes traces itself back to 2006 when StarForce utilised their heavily-criticised DRM scheme, which was prone to a number of hardware risks. He transferred a lot of his experience, knowledge and expertise of end-user DRM methodologies and processes over to RYG in 2008 where his role as Technical Representative has been instrumental in shaping RYG’s SecuROM removal tools. Not only that, but Midfingr has been RYG’s constant source of good computer-related tutorials as well as a reliable and dependable adviser in the development and testing of Project RYG. Midfingr now spends a part of his good time developing an RYG-based YouTube site which handles a lot of the tutorials he’s penned on RYG whilst remaining one of the site administrators with Roxy (DarkRaven) for The PRISM.



MARYH (Communications Manager)
E: administrator@reclaimyourgame.com

While her work centered around her editorial and critiques against companies implementing bad DRM practices, Mary’s position as Communications Manager is both her recent and most ambitious yet. In charge of RYG’s front-end, Mary’s role is, at the very least, expansive. She’s in charge of managing her small team of assistants and editors as well as ensuring the articles published by RYG are done so with accuracy and integrity. Not only is she handling and liaising with other staff members who are handling the various social networking sites for RYG, she is also RYG’s go-to woman for all correspondences ensuring the smooth flow of communication between RYG and their external contacts are kept exactly that: Smooth. Currently, she’s working on updating RYG’s website proper as well as developing ways of handling and publishing newer data relating to current DRM methods for RYG.

Redesigning RYG {Part 3}

2. THE FACES BEHIND RYG

DARKRAVEN (Site Administrator)
E: administrator@reclaimyourgame.com

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Her pragmatic and sensible approach to the fight against invasive DRM measures has been RYG’s most trusted source of inspiration as she continues to manage the day-to-day activities within RYG’s official forums, The PRISM. Also considered to be Lisa’s Deputy Manager, Roxy is also involved with Project RYG as a Lead Tester as well as a mentor to some of RYG’s newer staff members imparting her various ‘jack-of-all-trades’ talents ranging from general article re-writes right up to authoring various internal guidelines, such as reporting and testing essential to Project RYG. If any one of us were ever in doubt, Roxy’s mental guidance would always remind us just how important our jobs are and what it means beyond the realms of site management. She is currently working in collaboration with other staff members in maintaining RYG’s social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

SBLADE (Site Maintenance & Security)
E: administrator@reclaimyourgame.com

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it A tireless advocate against the invasive effects of SecuROM even before RYG was ever conceived, SBlade has been working with RYG for almost two years in both creating and maintaining the integrity and security of RYG’s website and its forum’s infrastructure. His persistence in keeping up the pressure against DRM Vendors who employ invasive DRM schemes, such as SecuROM, has given RYG valuable insight into analysing its DRM effects upon PCs as well as provided RYG with tutorials on SecuROM Removal and even as far as contributing to a automated batch removal tool first devised by Midfingr. His most recent project, apart from being the proponent in pursuing Atari/Obsidian to patch out SecuROM from Neverwinter Nights 2 as well as help build Project RYG with his technical expertise, is working with DRM Vendors such as ByteShield and StarForce as an end-user DRM tester, ensuring their products remain up to the standard that RYG constantly prescribes.