Ubisoft's DRM Servers Attacked Again

[commasplice]

WORSE? Good lord, it hardly seems possible. What's worse than selling a game it's impossible to legally play? They'd have to kill your DVD drive, root your box, take pictures of you with your webcam, make your fans spin backwards and your videocard vomit sparks, delete your porn and music, AND send a guy around every Tuesday to kick you in the nuts.

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? Well, I like to add my own spin to it. Not only will anything that can go wrong do so, but it can always get worse. Oh, and that webcam remark reminded me of something. Serves them right for going to LM in the first place.

 

[brewbeard]

WORSE? Good lord, it hardly seems possible. What's worse than selling a game it's impossible to legally play? They'd have to kill your DVD drive, root your box, take pictures of you with your webcam, make your fans spin backwards and your videocard vomit sparks, delete your porn and music, AND send a guy around every Tuesday to kick you in the nuts.

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? Well, I like to add my own spin to it. Not only will anything that can go wrong do so, but it can always get worse. Oh, and that webcam remark reminded me of something. Serves them right for going to LM in the first place.

That link makes me think the school bought laptops that happened to have webcams on them (it's a common feature), some kid took a picture he shouldn't have (accidentally or deliberately) and was reprimanded by a teacher when he turned the laptop in. The lawyers are just hyping it up to make it seem like some sort of Orwellian conspiracy to generate animosity towards the school system in support of what very well could be baseless accusations.

 

[commasplice]

That link makes me think the school bought laptops that happened to have webcams on them (it's a common feature), some kid took a picture he shouldn't have (accidentally or deliberately) and was reprimanded by a teacher when he turned the laptop in. The lawyers are just hyping it up to make it seem like some sort of Orwellian conspiracy to generate animosity towards the school system in support of what very well could be baseless accusations.

I present you with Exhibit B. That's what I meant to link to in the first place, but I couldn't find it.

Word of the subpoena came as the elite suburban school district, through [their spokesman, Douglas Young], conceded that "notice should have been given" to families that the district's computer system would snap photos of school laptop users - even in children's homes - if the laptops were reported missing or stolen.

School technicians have activated that system 42 times this school year when the district's laptops were reported missing or stolen, Young said. He said parents and students should have been told clearly of the policy in advance.

The suit alleges that in November, the Harriton assistant principal confronted sophomore Blake Robbins with a photo of what school officials saw as the boy's "improper activity" - taken by the webcam of his school-issued laptop in his home.

Robbins told TV crews outside his home yesterday that a school laptop's webcam had photographed him eating Mike & Ike candy in his home, but that school officials thought it showed him using drugs.

 

[Mercsenary]

By 'under attack', they of course mean 'Our DRM is crap so we're going to blame hackers, since it can't be proven we're lying and this way we have culpable deniability'.

Of course. First they say "oh too many requests from all of our consumers. That's why servers are down." Then when the higher ups realized this made them look incompetent they decided to change that to "OH NOES. TEH HACKERZ R ATTUCKINGS."

Cause you know admitting their DRM scheme is flawed is like swallowing barbed wire.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Off Topic: I clicked that forum link given in the article. One thread in particular caught my eye. I've seen sheep before, but wow. Just wow. [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4721051016/m/1801034838] Anyone who honestly thinks that this DRM-scratch that, ANY DRM actually helps against piracy clearly doesn't know a single god damn thing about piracy.

The level of ignorance in the topic is... frightening. To say the least. Words seriously cannot describe how bad it is that people actually think those things about DRM. I mean really, one guy even said that the DRM protects US from the pirates? Really? He thinks the DRM is there to help us, the gamers?

There really needs to be a way to educate these people.

 

[Sjakie]

*dances through his livingroom *

best interweb entertainment this year.

 

[olendvcook]

I love the Silent Hunter series but am on the fence with Silent Hunter 5 because for this stupid DRM. I'll either buy it and crack it but I don't want Ubisoft thinking they can sell a product with this stupid DRM.

either way I'm going to buy it or go back to Silent Hunter 4. Theres no way I'm ever pirating thats the cause of all this in the first palce

 

[R. Guile]

Second. And for all of you out there saying, "I'm going to stick it to Ubisoft by torrenting the game," just don't. Your anger is justified, but considering how industry bigwigs tend to handle this kind of shit, they'll likely ignore the part that they played in this and use the increase in piracy to support their DRM crusade.

Well, when you think about it, anybody who is going to "stick it to Ubisoft" by torrenting isn't going to feel the repercussions of the "industry bigwigs" reaction. No matter how much they increase the DRM restrictions, the targets of the crackdown are already by definition evading the consequences. Only the people who insist on paying will be affected.

I buy games on Steam, because the service is actually better than buying a box. I like not having to hold on to discs, being able to download anywhere, having developers constantly release new content, etc. I don't mind paying for games if the value is good.

I am a legitimate customer, and this DRM makes it tempting for me to just torrent Ubisoft's games. It's easier, more reliable, and I get a working product, all for free. Why would I pay for your broken game? Altruism is great, but it's not a business model.

 

[Yokai]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF---
This train was flaming ruin from the moment it left the station. Ubisoft, please, for the sake of your paying customers, give up. If anything, you're just creating a larger number of pirates who will happily download the game when it is inevitably cracked. You damn fools.

 

[Carlston]

Oh yes under attack.

You mean your crap system broke. Then again this was failed from day one. As hell I'd never buy a game 3 years down the line I can't play because Ubi would abandon the whole server thing anyway. Sorry big brother.... AC2 might be pure gold wrapped in silver and deepfried and topped with diamond sugar...but till you get rid of that evil ass copy protection you don't get another dime from me.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

By 'under attack', they of course mean 'Our DRM is crap so we're going to blame hackers, since it can't be proven we're lying and this way we have culpable deniability'.

Obvious comment is obvious!

Wonder how many times a day/week the servers will be "under attack"? Pah.

 

[Gindil]

I believe I know what happened.

The servers probably weren't prepared for the load that they're pulling. IIRC, an always on connection requires a lot more to their servers than one for DRM activation or whathave you. So it's a heavy load that's coming up and forcing the servers to have a DDoS like attack.

The patching on this is going to be horrendous...

 

[Doug]

Oh my god, I LOVE THIS!!! This is like watching a bad train wreck over and over again, with the conductor blaming his bad engineering on the passengers. I may not be able to play AC2 on my computer, but this sure as hell ain't bad entertainment either.

I agree. I bought AC2 on XBox around about christmas time because I'm inpatient, and I'm glad I didn't wait for the PC version because of this bullshit on Ubisoft's part.

 

[Cody211282]

I knew not buying AC2 and waiting for DA:O Awakening to come out was the right idea, thank you Ubisoft for making me never want to play your games from DRM hell

 

[Eruanno]

Ubisoft - now the laughing stock of the gaming community! (I know I can't stop myself from making the "Evil Overlord"-laugh every time I hear news like these anyway. "BWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!")

 

[GeekFury]

Is anyone really suprised that Ubi-Soft has cocked this up so monumentaly?

 

[HuntrRose]

That doesn't change the fact that it is a bunch of malicious users that are ACTIVELY ruining the game for everyone else, and that, in their absence, the game would be working as planned.

-m

I read the rest of your post. The point that had to be made clear is that People attempting to hack a companies server is business as usual. It´s not like this just happened because Ubisoft attracted especially malicious Users.

I didn`t quote the rest of your post because I think that this point really can`t be argued.

I would argue that. Yes, it's business as usual that a company would find it's servers under attack. Which is why I think that it's pretty clear that these particular attacks are under way specifically because "Ubisoft attracted especially malicious Users". Ubi would have put the same security in place on these servers that they would have on any of their business servers. As they are able to do business day to day, and are evidently not crippled in their normal operation, it is reasonable to assume that if these outages are a result of attacks, those attacks are more intense and more aggressive than Ubi typically faces. The correlation with the launch of their new DRM scheme is likely not coincidental, either.

The implementation of this DRM andgred a huge number of people - and moreso in the harder-core PC users' parts of the internet. I would argue that this is ENTIRELY the result of backlash from a group of angred PC gamers (pirates or otherwise), and not in any way the "business as usual" attacks they would recieve on any other given day.

-m

Or it is Ubi not properly calculating the needed bandwith/server power for all the new users trying to log in, combined with the normal level of attacks.

Any AC2/SH5 having problems connecting will keep sending connection attempts, causing continous traffic. Not much from each, but about 50kbps during gameplay according to Ubi, so let's use that number, although connection atempts probably use more.

Now, 50kbps isn't much, but multiply it with a 100 000 users ( I don't have actual sales numbers, so using a moderate number) and you have 5 mbps, and that is just connection keep alive. On top of that, add forum posters logging in, users of other games where logging in ain't needed, the normal "hostility level" from the net, and what extra the logging attempts make over the normal use.

And if the number of users are higher, then the needed bandwith is that much higher as well...

To be honest, I believe Ubi just misscalculated the bandwith needed, and don't want to admit they screwed up.

OT: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... *looks back at Ubi's servers* .... *falls down laughing again*
Seriously, who did not see this coming?


Edit: Said it before and I say it again: To stop piracy, since you can't target the pirates, you need to use a carrot and not a stick. Punishing your paying customers is like shooting yourself in the foot to scare a burglar. It doesn't work.

 

[ECAaxel]

I've loved the Silent Hunter Series, i still play a heavily modded SH3, but as soon as i heard about DRM i dropped it from my buy list.

I'm not going to justify a DRM by buying it. I'm not even going to get it second hand and crack it.

They either patch out the DRM or they don't get my custom.

 

[mooseodeath]

once again i wont make many friends by saying this but...

drm does stop piracy if nobody cracks it. publishers aren't going to give it up just because people do crack it. the number of people out there who CAN'T crack the games, who might just buy it, is too attractive.

this drm should never have needed constant online connection, apart from that particular piece o stupidity it's not actually that bad. cloud saves are handy.... most likely situation will be the online connection requirement is dropped and a new drm is implemented in the process reseting the "cracks".