BioShock Copy Protection Sucks

[EvilGrin]

The eagerly awaited FPS BioShock has hit some criticism this week, mainly centred around copy protection issues.

Kotaku reports that gamers are discovering that the 'SecuROM' anti-copying technology will only permit them to install the game twice, after which the DVD becomes nothing more than an expensive coaster.

Oh well, this is sure to deter piracy, isn't it?

[assassin]

That sucks indeed. :/

I've read it might actually unregister a product when it's uninstalled, so it's actually just stopping more than two installations at any one time.... whether that's true or not is anyones guess.

[Inertiaman]

I've rebuilt my games pc three times this year. Anyone else?

[Sh0cked]

twice so far mate that said though im not sure if im buyin this game through steam (I wont have the above problem) or to play on my xbox as I wasnt overly wowed by the PC version (smaller screen)

[Spanks]

the steam copy as has the same problem from what i read

[Minty]

Originally Posted by Inertiaman

I've rebuilt my games pc three times this year. Anyone else?

Think Im up to 4. Fucking Vista.

[TheBuZZard]

Another reason to get 360 version!

[Neutron]

Typical copy protection, only hurts the legit users

[TheBuZZard]

Apparently if you uninstall the game properly then you should be able to reinstall no problem, even if you dont you can phone securerom for a new activation code. Still a pain in the arse but not the end of the world.

[funkeh]

If it was a multiplayer game it would really piss me off, but as I'll probably only play it all the way through once, cant say it bothers me tbh.

[Rojin]

It's being misreported though isn't it? You can install it onto 2 computers but anymore than that and you have to uninstall it from one of them. If you're rebuilding a machine just uninstall it first, then re-install when rebuilt. No problems.

[FTM]

aye big panic over nowt

people cancelling pre-orders seems a tad over the top and just means they miss out on a great gaming experience

[Noodles]

I read all the problems on the 2k forums, and at a first glance its bad. But the thing is if people have a good experience with the game they will keep quiet, enjoy it and thats that...if people have a bad experience they jump straight to the forum to have a moan.

I can't affort it at the moment, but I think when I get paid I'll buy the steam copy, as at least with that I never have to look after my CDs, Manuals and Auth Codes

[phantom]

Rojin; sure and what happens if you machine dies? or your harddrive dies? or a number of other things which render it impossible to uninstall? opps, now you have one 'install' locked to your machine and no way to get it back.

The fact that Steam also has the BS in it makes it worse considering it costs about £7 more to get it via Steam than on DVD!

Also, you've now got a rootkit on your machine which requires that legitimate programs are stopped in order for the game to run.

And it's just another step down a bad path of you not owning what you pay for, just using it at the whim of the person who produced it.. but hey, lets not worry about the reduction in consumer rights or anything, at least it's a great gaming experience... now, please excuse me, we've had two power cuts and now I have to phone someone to re-auth my TV, it seems to think that because it's lost power twice I might have stolen it...

[Noodles]

The thing is, its not the only software to do something like this. If you fuck around with windows and change your hardware loads sometimes you have to reauthentificate, whilst working at PC World a few years ago I had to call microsoft to re-activate a few copies of genuine Windows XP.

If you do have a massive system failure and can't uninstall the game, call them for a new code. I know its not idea, but its not the end of the world.

And tbh it will probably be cracked in a week

[phantom]

That's the funny thing; it's cracked already. Even the XB360 DVD has been doing the rounds.

And at least with Windows activation you get some slack; I've reinstalled WinXP x64 3 times, once with a whole new mobo and gfx card, and it automatically authed each time. I've known others who have been able to do it more than that with more changes.

This game, unless you can uninstall, two strikes and you are calling the USA to get things working again, costing you both time and money to use something you legitmatly own.

[Rojin]

Originally Posted by phantom

Rojin; sure and what happens if you machine dies? or your harddrive dies? or a number of other things which render it impossible to uninstall? opps, now you have one 'install' locked to your machine and no way to get it back.

How many times has that happened to you? I've had one hard drive fail completely (others have failed but had time to get data off etc.) in 20 years of computer ownership. Well you can get it back apparently, you just give them a call. For the vast majority of consumers this wont cause any problems at all, you can't expect them to cater for a minority?...

[EvilGrin]

Personally, over the course of 18 years, two dead hard drives. Four dead ram sticks. One dead CPU. Two dead graphics cards. Numerous trojan/virus/spyware infections.

[phantom]

I've had numberous dead hard drives (infact, I've got one waiting to go back now), 4 sticks of ram blow out, 2 dead motherboards (and one half dead one I managed to limp along with for around 6 months) and god knows how many windows reinstalls.

And yes, you can get it back, at the cost of both time and money; and why should I have to? I brought this product, I own it, why should my ability to use the product be controlled by someone else? Again, I direct you to the example I came up with of the TV which refuses to work because it's lost power and you've not 'deactivated' it properly so it assumes it was stolen.

If this protected the majority in some way then yes, I could see a point to it, but it does NOTHING to protect the consumer at all. Instead it forces problems on them, the only ones who stand to benifit from this are;
- shareholds of the publishers
- phone companies
- the people who write the DRM

If that isn't catering to the minority I don't know what is..

But you know, I'm done here, if you can't see the problem and are willing to accept a future of products out of your control despite you paying money for them, then fine, go ahead, it's your dollar. I'd say "if I ever catch you complaining about DRM in music, software or anything else I'll remind you of this moment" but chances are I'll forget you didn't care... I just hope you, and others who aren't complaining about this, haven't complained about other forms of DRM (such as all the Windows activation stuff), because if you have then... well.. I'm out of words tbh...

[Pulse]

That would be an interesting virus if this new securom protection becomes widespread: a virus that just deletes all your securom game folders!

[Rojin]

Originally Posted by phantom

I've had numberous dead hard drives (infact, I've got one waiting to go back now), 4 sticks of ram blow out, 2 dead motherboards (and one half dead one I managed to limp along with for around 6 months) and god knows how many windows reinstalls.

And yes, you can get it back, at the cost of both time and money; and why should I have to? I brought this product, I own it, why should my ability to use the product be controlled by someone else? Again, I direct you to the example I came up with of the TV which refuses to work because it's lost power and you've not 'deactivated' it properly so it assumes it was stolen.

If this protected the majority in some way then yes, I could see a point to it, but it does NOTHING to protect the consumer at all. Instead it forces problems on them, the only ones who stand to benifit from this are;
- shareholds of the publishers
- phone companies
- the people who write the DRM

If that isn't catering to the minority I don't know what is..

But you know, I'm done here, if you can't see the problem and are willing to accept a future of products out of your control despite you paying money for them, then fine, go ahead, it's your dollar. I'd say "if I ever catch you complaining about DRM in music, software or anything else I'll remind you of this moment" but chances are I'll forget you didn't care... I just hope you, and others who aren't complaining about this, haven't complained about other forms of DRM (such as all the Windows activation stuff), because if you have then... well.. I'm out of words tbh...

Don't get me wrong, I can see where you are coming from. I just can't see it being a problem for the majority of users. I haven't complained about DRM or WGA etc. as with those we do know what we are buying into when we purchase those products.

These things do have to be made clear up front before purchase, you're certainly right about that. At the heart of all this is piracy, companies will continue coming up with weird and wonderful ways to safeguard their products (and cashflow). Things are quite possibly going to get worse, but I don't know what we can do about the problem if I'm honest...

Oh, and remind me to never let you near my computer, you're dangerous

[Inertiaman]

Phantom if you're such a pro mate I'd have thought you'd have a decent backup in place. I sure as fuck don't download all 12 gig of steam each time.

[EvilGrin]

Just a little update. According to NoFrag, it seems when people hit the 2 install limit, Securom are referring people to 2k Games and 2k Games are referring people to Securom. NoFrag also helpfully photoshoped a picture to explain the situation.

[Inertiaman]

Despite massive leaps in photoediting software, it's still MS Paint that delivers the most funny.

[phantom]

Originally Posted by Inertiaman

Phantom if you're such a pro mate I'd have thought you'd have a decent backup in place. I sure as fuck don't download all 12 gig of steam each time.

I'm not even sure if that'll work with this issue, which is another part of the problem...

Personally, I dont' have that much downloaded on Steam anyways, this would have been the biggest thing (HL2 would have been the other), infact I haven't even redownloaded CS:S or DoD:S, right now the game I play the most is Geometry Wars (which set me back a whole £2!). Frankly, with sneaky extra-DRM junk on Steam I'm less likely to buy things in the future

[Inertiaman]

Yeah it's a real lose for the paying customer here whichever way it's cut.

[Scrobbs]

I think.. PC Gamer did do the proper install thing...and it's borked.

Apparently the steam update last night fixes this copy protection issue.

Originally Posted by PC Gamer.com

8/22/07 - DRMShock

By Dan Stapleton, Senior Associate Editor

Yesterday began as a joyous day. By the whim of the mailroom gods, my copy of BioShock was the first to arrive at my desk. After I finished dancing around the room rubbing it in everyone's face, we needed to install it on a DX9 and a DX10 machine to compare.

"But wait," I said. "This product requires activation. What if, by installing it here, I cripple my copy and am unable to play from home? "So Greg called the 2K support line and talked to a support rep, who told him that it would be fine as long as we uninstalled the game before installing it on another machine. Ok, that's fine... a little annoying considering the game also has a DVD check to make sure the disc is in the drive, but I can handle that.

So we installed on one machine, then uninstalled and installed on another with no problems. So far, so good. I got in about an hour of play time, but I do the majority of my game playing at home, where I've got my heavy-duty gaming rig set up, so I was really looking forward to bringing it home with me. I uninstalled the game from my work machine and happily headed home...but when I got there and went to activate, I was stopped dead by a failure message that informed me I'd installed with this code one time too many. What... the... $%~&!

Ok, still not a disaster. I've had this happen with Windows XP before—all I have to do is call the number in the manual, read off the reactivation request code supplied by the activation wizard, and they'll give me an unlock code. Well, not so simple in this case—the support number for the US listed in the manual didn't work, giving me a "We cannot connect your call at this time" message. So I called the Canadian number, which went through. After four minutes on hold, I was told that the only way they'd unlock it is if I take a photo of the disc and the manual and email it to them. Wow… even Microsoft doesn’t make you do that.

Having now jumped through all their hoops hours ago, I’m currently waiting for 2K to get around to allowing me to play my legitimate copy of the game on the system of my choosing. Meanwhile, the pirates who cracked Windows Vista’s activation in a matter of days are already at work on the game, and I sincerely doubt that the BioShock copy protection wall will still be standing a week from today. And while those pirates play their ill-gotten games without a care, those of us who came by our copies legally will have to put up with draconian obstacles that will then serve no purpose whatsoever.

Well done 2K, well done indeed.

Oops.

[Ashen]

Jesus whats next a DVD that self destructs after two installs?

[Inertiaman]

Representatives from large games publishers roaming the streets randomly kicking people in the crotch.

[Spanks]

that mental imagery will keep me laughing till the weekend +rep