Always-on-DRM - why buy games with it?

[Strazdas]

your a rare breed then. most "Average" gamers dont even know what baldur gate is.

How did GoG survive then before they even considered having newer games and why are there tons of pirate sites specifically dedicated to games which are at least 10 years old and why do they easily have 200.000+ members? It sounds like an unfounded postulate which doesnt really hold up to be honest.

There are many gamers who are specifically looking for older games because they come from a time when making games was more about doing what you love and less about money. Games like Doom, Jazz Jackrabbit, Syndicate, Populus, Master of Magic or any other of the massive horde of popular cult games from back then have quite a following still but if always on drm had been around back then, we wouldnt still have access to these gems because the servers would have been put down long ago.

That we still have access to WC3 is because Battlenet runs on the same servers and because other clients like Garena took over most of the burden anyway - but that is entirely besides the point because regardless of internet, you can still play the singleplayer and the LAN parts of the game.

1. GOG is a niche market, not a trade giant. The peopel buying games on GOG are not the "average" gamer.
2. GOG sells newer games as well. just the 2005+ (their own filter on thier website) shows a whole bunch of games, and thats less than 8 years.
3. 200.000 is a very small number. Lets say 10% of the world play games. Thats 800.000.000 people. So GOG has userbase that is 0,025%. Statistically irrelevant.

Granted there ARE gamers that love older games, im merely arguing that they are a very small group and does not represent the average gamer.

 

[EtherealBeaver]

1: You buy a game
2: The game is tied to no online service.
3: You enjoy the game and play it
4: You drop the disk and run it over with your chair.

You game is a physical object. It will suffer at the laws of physics. It will last about 15-20 years before starting to suffer CD rot as well. Nothing last forever.

You are not really answering my point. The point was if the company could just shut down the access to a game you own or not. I proved they can and since it has already happened, it is the current state of gaming.

Your argument is about personal risk and responsibility, not the companys decision to relive you of your ability to use a product you own and which is still in a working order.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

1: You buy a game
2: The game is tied to no online service.
3: You enjoy the game and play it
4: You drop the disk and run it over with your chair.

You game is a physical object. It will suffer at the laws of physics. It will last about 15-20 years before starting to suffer CD rot as well. Nothing last forever.

You are not really answering my point. The point was if the company could just shut down the access to a game you own or not. I proved they can and since it has already happened, it is the current state of gaming.

Your argument is about personal risk and responsibility, not the companys decision to relive you of your ability to use a product you own and which is still in a working order.

So it is the "What if" scenario of "companys decision to relive you of your ability to use a product".

It is a risk assessment just like mine.

It's not the same. And either you really lack the insight to see that or you're just a sour loser and won't admit that your arguments are flawed.

Also, you can prevent the loss of disc by burning yourself another copy or uploading the data to another storage unit like external hard drive for example.

 

[veloper]

I for one sympathize with the Beaver and the Dexter, but it's already to late to stop anything.

PC gamers could NOT have bought Spore, Mass Effect 1 and Bioshock 1 and DRM may have ended there, before it really took off. Not enough people cared back then. There may have been other opportunities even, but now over 5 years later, DRM is almost everywhere in the mainstream and that makes this another lost cause.

You can now boycot almost every new game release because of DRM and the message will still be lost.

At best you can support the rare few companies that make good games and don't do DRM, buy their games full price within the first week and help keep those guys afloat, but EA, Activision, Ubi et all won't ever turn back.

But don't let me discourage the TS.
You can still have fun bashing EA for malpractices and don't stop there either. When you spot a congregation of average gamers walking bow-legged and with corporate semen leaking out of every orifice, call them out for it and I'll secretly cheer for you.
You and Dexter actually have something interesting to say. You have a point, you put an effort in your posts and you also entertain and that sort of thing is preciously rare.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

See, you did it again, a very long and emotionally laden reply going all the way back through the thread to find examples while pretending you don't care. xD

You read that as "emotionally laden"? How much more droll do I have to get before people stop presuming I'm seething with unchecked emotion? There are human limits to be considered.

You are also misreading what I am saying when I say "I do not care". I care as much about this discussion as I care about any discussion. If it is interesting or provocative or informative, it provides me with a measure of entertainment at work. That has value.

What I find it hard to care about is always online DRM specifically, for reasons I've already been pretty comprehensive about.

Also, as I said above, if you want a proper discussion on the topic every now and then, it might help not starting it like this:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.400318.16448318
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.400318.16448459
It's going to provoke certain types of replies since it shows contempt for the concerns other people have, I try to hold myself back mostly, but yeah.

Those are terrible examples. I'm actually being quite whimsical there. Surely you could have data mined me being a lot more sharp than that? I was expecting two posts in which I called someone a pustular boob or something. You can hardly blame me for skipping the middle man and just calling myself evil, as I have already adequately established there is no shortage of people on this forum waiting to do it for me. We've got one guy in this thread so angry he could punch walls because people do not take his internet connection quality into consideration when making purchasing decisions. How else is one to deal with a perspective like that, if not with mirth?

Captcha: Fire + brim stone. Yes, that's certainly one solution Captcha, but possibly a little over the top.

It's not the same. And either you really lack the insight to see that or you're just a sour loser and won't admit that your arguments are flawed.

Sore. There's no such thing as a "sour loser". Although that is a rather amusing turn of phrase, I'll give you that. Maybe you've got something there.

Really though, what argument? Draech is arguing for his ability to make a purchasing decision for himself without being called names. Your argument is to make purchasing decisions for Draech based on alarmist predictions, and if he doesn't comply, you get to indulge in character assassination.

Generally speaking, "I'm going to buy this because I've decided I want it for my own reasons" isn't an "argument" that needs a lot of vociferous defense. "You should listen to what I say and do what I tell you in terms of what games to buy" is.

 

[Murrdox]

your a rare breed then. most "Average" gamers dont even know what baldur gate is. i too go around buying older games (lately morrowind and Supreme commander) but you have to face it very few people do. and in fact it would benefit them more if they just release it to puiblic domain, give people free acess, and get them interested in the series/studio. but the thing is, they arent making a lot of money on supporting old games anyway. with few obviuos exceptions, like Starcraft, being e-sport and all.

btw is condemned good, been decided whether to buy it or not.....

Agreed. Although I find it sad unfortunately that so many gamers have never played gems like Baldur's Gate and the original Fallout.

We've just begun the digital revolution. Accessing old games like this was impossible just a few years ago. If you wanted X-Com or Fallout or Master of Magic, you had to find someone selling an old CD on eBay, or root around in the discount bin at your local EB Games! Now that developers don't have to worry about BOXING PC games anymore, they can re-publish old titles for cheap. Sure selling a 15 year old game for $5 isn't going to make you a flood of money, but something is better than nothing. It's been really cool over the last few years seeing this take off. I don't think I'll fully relax until System Shock 2 is available digitally. I'm paranoid about that disk getting damaged

As for Condemned... I got it for $5 on a Halloween sale. I have to tweak the PC settings a bit, I was having a really hard time with the combat, it seemed laggy. Played it for 15 minutes and gave up. But then I watched a Youtube video of some gameplay that looked much smoother than what I'm experiencing, so I think I need to tweak the graphics settings a bit. If I can get it working right, it looks pretty cool and interesting though... sort of Silent Hill meets CSI.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Agreed. Although I find it sad unfortunately that so many gamers have never played gems like Baldur's Gate and the original Fallout.

I still think of those as being relatively new games. You're ALL neophytes to me, damn it!

 

[m19]

I dont understand people who buy games with always-on-DRM honestly. Why would anyone ever buy a game with that kind of DRM?

Because I like playing video games.

 

[veloper]

I for one sympathize with the Beaver and the Dexter, but it's already to late to stop anything.

PC gamers could NOT have bought Spore, Mass Effect 1 and Bioshock 1 and DRM may have ended there, before it really took off. Not enough people cared back then. There may have been other opportunities even, but now over 5 years later, DRM is almost everywhere in the mainstream and that makes this another lost cause.

You can now boycot almost every new game release because of DRM and the message will still be lost.

At best you can support the rare few companies that make good games and don't do DRM, buy their games full price within the first week and help keep those guys afloat, but EA, Activision, Ubi et all won't ever turn back.

But don't let me discourage the TS.
You can still have fun bashing EA for malpractices and don't stop there either. When you spot a congregation of average gamers walking bow-legged and with corporate semen leaking out of every orifice, call them out for it and I'll secretly cheer for you.
You and Dexter actually have something interesting to say. You have a point, you put an effort in your posts and you also entertain and that sort of thing is preciously rare.

I seem to recall Bioshock 1 requiring an online activation to confirm that the game was the real deal, but you never had to be online again? And people shit so many bricks that Securom is almost unheard of these days

I remember something about the game checking you hardware configuration each time and for each change, using up one of 3 (or 5) online activitions you got, until you would run out and could not play the game. That's DRM alright.

But it's also 5 years ago and I DID actually boycot Bioshock (and ME1 too, while Spore just sucked in every way) back then becasue of it, so I'm a bit hazy about the details. It nolonger matters anyway.