Browsing Posts tagged Games
I understand that video game publishers do not like the used game market. This is mostly due to the fact that they do not get any revenue from said sales. I have never understood why this could not happen as game retailers know when they’ve sold a used copy and could easily ship a percentage of the sale off to the publisher. Capcom, however, has taken a step to try to kill the used game market, which will, eventually, drive more people into piracy.
It’s been confirmed that Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS is a game that once finished, cannot be reset for complete replay. According to both the U.S. and U.K. game’s instruction manual “saved data on this software cannot be reset.”
Basically what Capcom has done is make Mercenaries 3D a one-time play affair. Once you’ve unlocked all the goodies and played the entire game, you will not be able to erase the game’s save data and start fresh as if it were a new copy.
By doing this, Capcom has made it so that you cannot even loan the game to a friend or a relative as well as making the game useless to yourself should you want to play it again. How many times have you played a game through more than once? Now, think about the fact that, with Capcom’s strategy, you have to pay for the game again each time you want to replay it.
By acting the way they are, Capcom is losing sales and preventing gamers from playing games that they should own. Any sort of DRM prevents full functionality of a game. This results in either gamers never purchasing a game or heading down the piracy route so they can make their game fully functional. If this is the future of gaming, there are going to be a lot less sales of games in the future.
Anyone who has been to my house has seen my game collection. Yes, I replay many of them. As a matter of fact, I’m on my third time round of the original Tomb Raider. In Metal Gear Solid there is a scenario that, if you submit to Revolver Ocelot’s torture, Otacon will give you his stealth camouflage at the end of the game and you could then replay it while invisible. If I can’t replay them, I’m not buying them.
Bioware forum poster, Arno, recently had his account suspended by EA for 72 hours because he complained on their forums. Arno could not even play his Dragon Age II game in single player mode because the DRM that comes with the game won’t allow it unless you connect to the server first. So what did Arno do that was so wrong? He said this:
On EA Live Chat they told me that that I said: “Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?”
While this is hardly worth banning someone for three days over, the bigger picture is the fact that you cannot play a game in single player mode without checking with the appropriate server.
How is this possible? When a game is purchased through the EA Store, one of the things the buyer pays for is the “licensed right” to access DRM which EA has made necessary to play their games. In the case of Dragon Age II, a single-player game, the DRM takes the form of an online authentication upon installation and then periodically afterward. While this form of Digital Restrictions Management is sometimes seen as less intrusive, this incident shows it can be more crippling than the average person perceives.
EA has since reversed their decision, but questions remain. Why would you want to force people to have DRM that periodically checks your authentication if you’re only playing a single player game? This is type of DRM is what played a large part in why I stopped purchasing video games. I have no desire to play games online and/or with other people. If I want to play in single player mode, I shouldn’t have to have my computer connected to the internet, pinging EA’s servers to do so.
With EA, you never actually own the game. You are simply purchasing a license to play the game. Once their servers shut down, for whatever reasons EA will give, you can no longer play that game.
Info-film explaining the origin of the UK’s nationwide Curfew.
The Curfew, a new adventure webgame from Channel 4 and Littleloud, written by Kieron Gillen, released Summer 2010.
EA is telling gamers not to worry, but they are going to force all users of Command and Conquer 4 to be online, at all times, if you want to play the game, even in single player mode.
As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4. This is primarily due to our “player progression” feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time. While some may be taken aback by this, we’ve been testing this feature internally with all of our world-wide markets. We wanted to make sure it wouldn’t take away any significant market or territory from playing the game. We have not found or seen any results that have made us think otherwise. You won’t need a fast connection, in fact, you could be on age-old dial-up, and have the same single player experience as everyone else. Online all the time won’t cause lag for single-player. We’ve also heavily worked on the online infrastructure such that people with slower connections will not lag other players with faster connections in Multiplayer.
So, first I have to pay for the game. Then I have to pay for an internet connection. There will probably also end up being some sort of subscription as well. To top that all off, if I have a dial up account, I can’t use the telephone while I’m playing in single player mode because I have to be connected to play the game.
I play most of my games while traveling, where internet connections aren’t available. I also play all my games as a single player. I also hate having my information tracked. There is no need to for any of this to happen, but EA insists on it.
Many ISPs are also limiting bandwidth. How much are you going to be required to use while in single player mode? If it’s a lot, many players will walk away from the game and never buy it.
EA also hasn’t said what will happen when someone’s internet connection goes out. If your internet is out for two weeks, then you won’t be playing any C&C 4. EA hasn’t learned from the Spore DRM issues. They’re only making things worse and losing customers while they continue to screw with their games.
EA is not selling Command and Conquer 4. They are merely renting it to you. You will pay $60 to “purchase” the game and, whenever they decide to pull the plug, you haven’t got a game to play anymore. What’s going to happen then? I know what I would do; go right to the pirates because they’ll sort out a way for me to still play the game. Of course, in real life, I’ll never buy this game. You’ve lost me as a customer because you’ve taken away the ability for me to play it how I want, when I want.
