Ubisoft DRM

[Wilian]

See continued childish remarks, i'm merely pointing out why it's not a big deal and why crusades are pointless if anything it's the "anti-drm" folks like you that's getting worked up over this, your efforts are futile and have no effect on me, i'll continue to support good game developers and enrich my collection of steam games nearing the 300.

Not quite pointless, Ubisoft PC sale department was down by 90% by their own admission few years ago because of DRM problems and it was people like me who kept the issue afloat and fresh in people's mind so they couldn't get away with it until improving their practices, which they did. Uplay is still bullshit but it's nothing compared to how they handled things prior.

Saying that clients such as uplay and steam are however malware is simply being false or uninformed about what malware really is since neither has any negative effect on your computer, at most they collect information anonymously, which is why it can be seen at most as spyware.

I didn't say they are malware, I responded to whetever they have negative effect and you failed to reply whetever they take HD space or RAM space. If they do, obviously there is negative effect, despite how minimal. And if you want some actual negative effects, pray you don't ever have to resort into Steam's offline mode at unreliable times.

If you loan something and you sign for it and someone steals it from you yes it's theft, it does not however make you the owner of said property. You own the box, the disc and so on, you don't own the software.

It does in Finland because in Finland I didn't loan, I bought and there are laws about buying and renting. You can keep harping about license stuff but here a lot of it is simply invalidate no matter what the TOS says.

Piracy is an issue regardless if you like it or not. The whole notion of "making good products and they'll buy it and not pirate it" is a simply a fairy tale that people that frequent pirate tell themselves to justify their actions to one self.

Yes it is, but it's not product issue, it's service and pricing issue. Services such as Netflix and Spotify has not only cut deep hole into older media forms but also in piracy rates because of their relatively cheap (or even under some plans and services free) and easy to use & start up products. Steam has also been onto it with their sales. Do you know where piracy ratings are typically highest? In low income countries where service providing has not been functioning.

Interview with GoT writers pretty much underlined this. It (at the time of interview) was the most watched show in Spain, yet it wasn't even released there legally in time for them to go shoot new scenes in the country. Yet everyone knew about it and they found it positive effect of piracy and the only mourning point was the systems built around that made certain it simply was better option even if morally wrong

I don't find it normal and found it has hurt the music industry the most, especially good artists of smaller labels that don't seek to whore themselves out seeing that doing performances is the only way to make money.

Music industry is being killed by dinosaurs unable to adapt into new markets.

being a cowardly internet activist

Blames others of childiness, rides the high horse.

[-aiko-]

So you can't launch in offline mode when the net's down?

After you've logged in at least once you can load both Steam and uPlay in offline mode.

Of course, some games require an internet connection to play them. Even if they shouldn't.

[Ferocity]

Steam has never hindered me in anyway and no it isn't malware since it doesn't harm your computer in any shape or form and has no negative effects on its working.
You're free to try to proof this i'll grab the popcorn.

Nah, I don't want to prove anything. I feel like in gaming paradise when don't have to deal with various steams and ubis. For me personally it is enough.

All software is rented this has always been the case, you don't own it. You aren't free to change it how you see fit this is the price you accept if you want to have an online gaming scene. And with all software i mean all software, including OS'es windows especially with the CAL's you need to buy to set it up in a business environment.

You misunderstand licenses to use product in commercial ways with "renting". Win OS has its kind of DRM but it is a small evil (avoidable with using Linux or... being creative).

Also what do you mean by online gaming scene? Gaming scene was never about socialization or social platform or any kind of that stuff. It was about gaming. Personally, I feel that gaming forums and sites are sufficient for online gaming scene (not speaking about MMOs here) and everything else is luggage and bloatware at best.

Clearly it's about getting fucked in the ass, what a childish notion is that.
I would like to see that law that states that SOFTWARE PURCHASED GIVES THE BUYER FULL RIGHTS TO SAID SOFTWARE. Go on, i'll wait you won't find it.

But it is baseline right. Noone states that breathing is legal right of humans, but it doesn't mean that if there is no law, free breathing suddenly becomes a deviation from common sense. For all the honesty, Ubisoft and similar companies should explicitly state that they sell game licenses and not actual games. Because otherwise it is scam and fraud.

DRM will always be around as long piracy continues to be a problem, Also due to how consumers reacted to it DRM's have become less intrusive and much more user friendly since that's what consumers what. Platforms like Uplay never kicked off for that reason and platforms like steam did.

Piracy will always be here just because of poor countries. But anti-consumer policy, like incorporation of DRM, makes piracy spread well over the richer countries as well. In fact, piracy makes a serious competition because it doesn't contain any malware in it (well, it might contain non-DRM malware if you are not careful, but those are easy to get rid of, unlike DRM rootkits and other shitware). As I said on personal example, I will decline offer of getting DRM-infected game even being paid for it (unless we speak about price of PC system).

If game publishers want to fight pirates, to have serious advantages in this fight they should stop infecting their games with malware.

[Wilian]

After you've logged in at least once you can load both Steam and uPlay in offline mode.

Not always. Steam just randomly likes to think you need to log in for offline mode despite you doing that just moments ago.

[Ripster42]

So you can't launch in offline mode when the net's down?

You can, but you don't have full access to the games' features even in single player mode. When anno 2070 was released it was a nightmare trying to play it at all, not just in offline mode. It's the only ubisoft game I've bought on PC, and it made me decide to never buy another ubisoft game for pc.

[RoKPaNda]

You poor things, having to use a program that barely uses any resources.

At least you're consistent and you dislike Steam as well as uPlay/Origin. It's the people that praise Steam while shitting all over uPlay/Origin that bother me, it wasn't that long ago that Steam was a heaping pile of shit as well. Origin/uPlay are improving. Slowly, but they're getting there.

If game companies take my buying their games as support for DRM, so be it, I've yet to have the DRM be a hindrance to me as a legit consumer. I support DRM, sure. I support companies that choose to forgo DRM as well. *snip*

Please do not promote piracy. -Edge

[Edge-]

At least you're consistent and you dislike Steam as well as uPlay/Origin. It's the people that praise Steam while shitting all over uPlay/Origin that bother me, it wasn't that long ago that Steam was a heaping pile of shit as well. Origin/uPlay are improving. Slowly, but they're getting there.

uPlay is pointless and provides next to no service/benefit for the end-user other than existing. It's hardly a storefront and beyond that it just clutters things up. Thankfully it works for the most part now, but it was pretty awful when it launched.

Origin, people hate because "omg hate EA!" and because it was truly terrible for some time after it launched. It's a fine enough launcher nowadays, not providing anything Steam doesn't already provide (and provide better) in terms of services but also not really screwing anything up.

Remember, Origin and uPlay are competing with Steam as it is now. They're not competing with the Steam from 2006 when it was awful, when there were no other platforms to look to for what works and doesn't. It's the Apple Maps launch situation, where Apple Maps wasn't competing with Google Maps launch quality, but Google Maps current quality. So it may have been infinitely better than Google Maps at launch, but it was shit compared to the current Google Maps on the market that it was actually competing with.

I can get some dislike for those launchers still (especially since uPlay forces you to launch it to play current Ubisoft games through Steam because they want to collect data on your play habits), and there are plenty of gripes about both that are legitimate. Just as there are about Steam.

I've yet to have the DRM be a hindrance to me as a legit consumer.

Ever use GFWL? : P Locked me out of games tons of times because it was down or because there were issues registering games through it. Glad it's dead.

[dextersmith]

After you've logged in at least once you can load both Steam and uPlay in offline mode.

Of course, some games require an internet connection to play them. Even if they shouldn't.

Wow, so much tedium just to play. Will uPlay auto install or do I have to make an account manually?

[thewallofsleep]

I needed UPlay for both games I think. Definitely for Anno 2070. I can't remember for Heroes 6. Uplay is absolutely debilitating. I couldn't be bothered to play either game after fumbling around with the account creation. It completely sucked my will to play the game.

[Daws]

Some companies like ubisoft love there DRM though others like CD Projekt are against it. Comes down to what they think they will actually gain from using it, should a company be able to protect there product from been pirated to hell and back - yes, should a company include DRM so restrictive that it annoys, frustrates and in some cases actually harms the users PC - no. Bottom line for me is if your going to do DRM do it well otherwise don't even bother because your customers will hate you for it (see SecuROM for many examples of bad DRM).

[thewallofsleep]

You must have a pretty challenging life if signing up for a Uplay account was so debilitating to you. It took me less than 30 seconds.

Well aren't you a snarky little bastard.

I bought a game on Steam, which in itself is a form of DRM. What's the point in also needing UPlay? If you want to defend Ubisoft and their horrible business practices, I don't have anything else to discuss with you.
I downloaded UPlay and created my account, as instructed. While this is annoying, I can bear it. I then proceeded to frig around with UPlay for over an hour trying to get it to recognize the code for the game I purchased. After I sorted that out I played for a while and logged off. I had to deal with the same problem the next day. UPlay is garbage.

[Attackrabbit]

Well aren't you a snarky little bastard.

I bought a game on Steam, which in itself is a form of DRM. What's the point in also needing UPlay? If you want to defend Ubisoft and their horrible business practices, I don't have anything else to discuss with you.
I downloaded UPlay and created my account, as instructed. While this is annoying, I can bear it. I then proceeded to frig around with UPlay for over an hour trying to get it to recognize the code for the game I purchased. After I sorted that out I played for a while and logged off. I had to deal with the same problem the next day. UPlay is garbage.

To be fair I had problems getting it to recognise my Trials Fusion code, got to the point where I was about to actually phone Ubisoft to find out wtf was going on but one last relog of Uplay and it was all good

[Ripster42]

You must have a pretty challenging life if signing up for a Uplay account was so debilitating to you. It took me less than 30 seconds.

It's not setting up the account that's the problem. It's the game that won't update. Or requires you to log in a third time (steam, uplay, then the game again for some reason). Or download the client a 2nd time. Or just doesn't work for weeks with no tech support then randomly starts working again. Or the launcher that launched from steam then launching uplay, then launching the same launcher that launches uplay again in circles. The problems went on and on and on. Hey, maybe it's gotten better, I'm not stopping by to find out. Uplay is the reason I don't play that game. I'd try to play it once a month and it was a pita trying to get it to work every time. I'd be fucking with it for anywhere from 30mins to eternity trying to get it to work.

[dextersmith]

I needed to make a new uplay account after Anno install but can't because uplay crashes on startup. What can I do?

[Vankrys]

Yep, for some reason for ubisoft there's a double DRM, even microsoft moved away from it.

It's not that bad, but i remember also when buying anno 2070 at the start their uplay servers were done so much, you were better off pirating the game if you wanted to play it.

depends

often you can completely ignore steam and only start uplay. When i played splinter cell or assassin's creed, i didn't need steam at all, only uplay.

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I needed to make a new uplay account after Anno install but can't because uplay crashes on startup. What can I do?

redownload it, your install might be corrupted, or maybe you tried to install the wrong version. I don't remember how the uplay installation went, i only installed it once and it worked first time, long time ago.

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Remember, Origin and uPlay are competing with Steam as it is now.

is it really competing? i mean, i chose the game i want to play based on the game, not the launcher. If a game is steam only, or origin only or uplay only, there isn't really a competition.

Some games are offered cross plateform that's true, but i don't see it as competition, i just buy the game i want to play.

[Ripster42]

I needed to make a new uplay account after Anno install but can't because uplay crashes on startup. What can I do?

Good luck I hope that's the end of your problems when/if you eventually get it fixed. I'd re-download uplay. See if you can set up a uplay account on their website.

Instead of starting through steam, just directly start uplay and run as admin.

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depends

often you can completely ignore steam and only start uplay. When i played splinter cell or assassin's creed, i didn't need steam at all, only uplay.

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redownload it, your install might be corrupted, or maybe you tried to install the wrong version. I don't remember how the uplay installation went, i only installed it once and it worked first time, long time ago.

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is it really competing? i mean, i chose the game i want to play based on the game, not the launcher. If a game is steam only, or origin only or uplay only, there isn't really a competition.

Some games are offered cross plateform that's true, but i don't see it as competition, i just buy the game i want to play.

It's a competition because they're going to market share. Ubisoft/EA have to pay a % of the sale to steam for every sale on steam even if the purchaser is still required to use origin/uplay. It's also a competition because Uplay's launcher is so awful many people won't even buy the game if it's on uplay, people like me.