Assassin's Creed 2 Review and test of DRM

[ziddy123]

There was a case for the music industry.

Found a couple who pirated music. About 500 songs or something. Decided to sue. During the case they discovered the couple OWNED all 500 songs on CD. But it was far easier for them to just download the songs already in mp3 format and on the computer.

Internet piracy can't be straight forward. The couple above were obviously not alone, a lot of people do this. Not many people want to convert their own music, tag it, that takes time. I don't see the direct correlation between piracy equaling sales loss nor do I see the harm in doing the above. It's the same games. People don't want to deal with DRM, wanted no-CD versions, even though they owned the game etc.

Also for the HDI, how is it someone can afford a good enough PC to run the game but can't buy the game? Or is the computer stolen also? Are these people using high speed internet to pirate or are they stealing hard copies?

[trvelbug]

so true.
although a majority are in it for the freebies, there are those with other reasons for doing it. thats why i would never be too hasty in generalizing piracy as morally bankrupt, as some people are prone to do

[HTWingNut]

DRM and piracy are NOT correlated.

The availability of a demo and piracy is NOT correlated.

Quality of a game and piracy are NOT correlated. (You guys get the hint yet?)
.

Sorry, but I take exception to these comments.

First, "DRM and piracy are NOT correlated" well then why have DRM at all then if they're not correlated? That statement makes no sense. They have DRM, in their minds, to "prevent or reduce" piracy.

Secondly, where's the proof to back up these statements? There is none, so you can't make blanket statements like this. Publishers and developers are making the same assumptions but are clearly wrong because piracy hasn't been hindered or haltered as far as I can tell, based on the number of games cracked and how quickly on any easily accessible torrent site.

[Lithus]

What does it mean? It means that a game with DRM is pirated just as much as a game without DRM. It means that a game with a demo is pirated just as much as a game without a demo. It means that bad games are pirated just as much as blockbuster hits.

Where is the data to back this up? In the article linked by the OP and by myself.

[KernalPanic]

One fact left out.

DRM of this kind is not effective... it doesn't stop the people they are trying to keep from pirating it.

It DOES stop legit owners from playing under less-than-optimal conditions and those that crack it have a superior copy.

The gaming industry will NEVER win in this endeavor. Its all 50-100 of their employees (or whatever) against millions of smarter cracking teams.

The correct method is to release the base game and offer enhancements available only to those with legit keys/accounts.

This is how Bioware, Blizzard, and other successful companies have correctly battled piracy. The users can indeed crack the main game without an issue but without a legit key cannot access the online enhancements or at best have everything else but cannot have their achievements tracked properly.

Note the above companies make games so good that even borderline people WANT to keep them making games as well.

[Lithus]

I actually want to directly address the Assassin's Creed 2 DRM. Apparently it's been cracked already, so all I can say is that Ubisoft is doing it wrong.

When you have a form a DRM that requires a connection to a server at all times, you have a form of DRM that is basically impossible to crack if you structure it correctly. What you're basically doing is turning your single player game into an MMO. There are quite a few tactics to completely stop piracy with this method, and one of them is to stream vital data to the user for gameplay.

You cannot crack data that does not exist, for instance, in WoW, you cannot make a crack that allows you to send and receive data from Blizzard's servers. This is because the data that is being streamed to you is non-algorithmic. Thus, if you stream a similar type of data in a single player game, you've created a DRM that, while extremely prohibitive, cannot be cracked.

[KernalPanic]

You are incorrect... as long as data exists, it can be intercepted and interpreted.

Even WoW was compromised... but other MMOs have faced pretty stiff cheating. (speed hacks, duplicating items/money, free accounts, account compromising, etc.)

Note you do still need an account... but if necessary the accounts are stolen or bypassed. (using trial accounts which magically work like complete accounts)

The thing with MMOs is that the game will never work as intended without support somewhere. Interaction with other users over time is the point of such games and removing this is easy enough if the progression curve is longer than the few weeks most scripts kiddies have for an attention span.

MMOs win with TIME and live-game master support on their side.
Any game that doesn't have that edge will never have functional DRM of any kind that isn't compromised.

[HTWingNut]

What does it mean? It means that a game with DRM is pirated just as much as a game without DRM. It means that a game with a demo is pirated just as much as a game without a demo. It means that bad games are pirated just as much as blockbuster hits.

Where is the data to back this up? In the article linked by the OP and by myself.

Ok, if that's the case, I agree with you there. That is my issue with DRM's. Since games are pirated whether DRM is there or not, the DRM is just a waste of time, money, and an inconvenience to the customer.

[Pman]

I actually want to directly address the Assassin's Creed 2 DRM. Apparently it's been cracked already, so all I can say is that Ubisoft is doing it wrong.

When you have a form a DRM that requires a connection to a server at all times, you have a form of DRM that is basically impossible to crack if you structure it correctly. What you're basically doing is turning your single player game into an MMO. There are quite a few tactics to completely stop piracy with this method, and one of them is to stream vital data to the user for gameplay.

You cannot crack data that does not exist, for instance, in WoW, you cannot make a crack that allows you to send and receive data from Blizzard's servers. This is because the data that is being streamed to you is non-algorithmic. Thus, if you stream a similar type of data in a single player game, you've created a DRM that, while extremely prohibitive, cannot be cracked.

I can confirm that there is a crack for both AC2 and Silent Hunter 5 out and working

I cannot blame anyone for getting pirated copies of these titles and ubisoft deserve what they get for this extreme DRM

[trvelbug]

as mentioned in another thread, these hackers have cracked os'es from a company with 1000 times the resources of ubisoft. whatever made them think these same hackers couldnt crack a videogame?
the biggest problem with this drm (that doesnt work) is that it penalizes the mobile gamer the most- us.