DRM

[Brad]

All DRM, in every single form it takes, is a bad idea and one which people should stand up to. EA's latest actions illustrate the problem perfectly:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/17/eas-unwieldy-banhammer-ea-responds/

In short, people are getting banned from EA's forums for violations e.g. swearing. Fair enough. However, if you get banned form their forum then their Origin DRM is kicking in and banning you from the games you bought.

What do you guys think about this? Surely this is totally overstepping the mark?

[J0e Musashi]

More fool people for getting banned.

[cutmymilk]

Pretty funny, really.

[Holio]

DRM related, I cant believe what Sony did yesterday. They take down their service on the 17th to update it for the 18th and the whole 2 activated consoles only regarding PSN downloads. I currently own 2 PS3's, a original 60Gb and a Slim 250Gb, I had been thinking of buying a new Silver Slim PS3, and thus have 3 consoles in my house. I dont 'game share' and I'm a legitimate owner. I have 4 PSP's too, and again the new DRM means I'm boned there, and with the Vita coming out it will take away a licence for one of my PSP's.

Anyone else think it's bang out of order? Or am I totally on my own with my 1st World Problems.

[J0e Musashi]

It's only for content purchased after November 18th. You can have two PS3's and two PSP/Vita's activated at any one time. That should really be enough for anybody.

[Brad]

It's all getting worse. Surprised at the complacency on here. Sony's console activation system is broken and has caused me problems in the past (upgrading from a PSP1000 to a 2000, then 3000 then a Go). All it serves to do, as always, with ALL DRM is make life difficult for legitimate buyers. Pirates will just have custom firmware devices with ISO rips and the DRM will not affect them at all.

I'm going to crack my legitimately bought copy of Skyrim tonight because having to launch Steam to play an offline game that I bought on a disc is just stupid.

GOG.com are doing newer games now and with no DRM so I'll support them as much as I can.

[J0e Musashi]

Sony are making it easier to activate and deactivate with a new website. People who have lost activations due to broken hardware can now get them back.

[Flabio]

To be honest I think a lot of us are just outraged-out for the year.

There seems to be some new 'death of gaming' thing come along every week now and I just can't get the enthusiasm up to be angry about anything anymore.

[Dogg Thang]

Sony are making it easier to activate and deactivate with a new website. People who have lost activations due to broken hardware can now get them back.

Where is this? This is good news - I have two PSPs I can't deactivate (one lost somewhere in my house and one completely dead) and have not even gone to PSN since the hacking/outage thing because I know I've used up my activations across a bunch of PSPs and a PS3.

And Holio's case shows that, yeah, while two PS3s and two PSPs (when you include Vita, does that mean two Vitas also or two handhelds?) should be enough for many, it doesn't work for everyone.

[sj33]

More fool people for getting banned.

Can't really agree with this tbh. The goalposts shift a bit when you're talking about taking away people's possessions (digital or otherwise). I'm sure this is legally covered in the ToS of course, but it's still pretty harrowing.

[Kaido]

I was going to say EA only abuse the people that give them money... but that is a bit like saying the government only jail criminals that get caught. In this case at least I'm sure it was accidental, I'd bet good money they are using single sign on and EA management didn't realise their forum banhammer was a game banhammer by default too. Left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, typical of big and clumsy results (read: money) driven organisations.

As long as they fix it, everyone can learn from the mistake and move on.

It's not like they are charging legit customers for parts of games they've cookie cut from normal release...