Dungeon Siege Review

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Dungeon Siege

Review by Skinny MinnieMay 2002

Do you desire to delve into a role-playing game but feel unanimated about anime or blasé about turn-based battling? Have you been dealt a deathblow by the Dexterity Department of the action gaming world? Do you also demand to see full screen-sized, three-dimensional characters instead of one-inch high sprites in an RPG sometime before your demise? Well, flail that mouse-clicking index finger of yours into the air, flip it flagrantly at the gaming gods, and consider yourself officially flung into the RPG fray, okay?

Yes, you are solely one mouse-clicking finger away from having an invigorating, addicting, real-time fighting RPG experience, and you don’t even have to dress up for it. You are first deposited into the gorgeously three-dimensional Kingdom of Ehb as a lone, lowly farmer. Dungeon Siege’s single-player game actually houses many sumptuous geological locations, including lilting forests, spooky crypts, medieval towns, dusty mines, swampy bogs, opalescent ice caves, boiling lava pits and imposing fortresses.  All you’ll have to worry about straightaway is your home on the farm, though, after you choose your gender, facial features, hair and skin tones, and garb in the Start New Game menu. You can also shut the gore off and set the game play to Easy (but tell everyone you played it on Normal or Hard). You can adjust graphics and difficulty settings as you’re playing along, too.

The Siren Wails

My poor peasant girl, dubbed the Siren, had nary a chance to toil over her crops before a dying friend hobbled over a nearby bridge to impart most of the game’s plot in a few sentences. The local fauna had mysteriously been prodded into attacking the farming community, and the Siren was commanded to head for town and seek help in battling whatever was ultimately behind this uproar. The Siren could then be seen wielding only a small knife, and I wiggled my mouse around in a panic as “krug” (bearish, troll-like creatures) slowly began to charge at her. The first thing I noticed was the whole beautiful farmland rolling ever so gently in response to my edge-of-screen cursor movement, a compass in the upper right corner changing to reflect the direction of my current view. What a great camera system! Quickly noting an unoccupied area of the Siren’s homestead, I swerved my mouse cursor to it and clicked once. The Siren obediently galloped there, happy to take a breather and get her bearings. I only did it for her.

Glancing to the upper left of my screen, I saw an icon of the Siren’s face followed by four slots. The first slot held the knife; the others were empty. At the bottom right was a little command center with various icons. Did I want the Siren to hold back, attacking only when attacked? Did I want her to roam freely in offensive pursuit of all enemies, perhaps targeting the strongest one first? Did I need to access my automatic notebook of quests, or the mega-map? Did I want to exit the game, or just save it every two minutes? It was all there, each icon and command only one mouse-click away. I also noticed that by rolling the scroll wheel of my mouse up or down, I could zoom in on the scene to see the exciting and gorgeous details or zoom out for the Siren’s safety, providing maximum area viewing. (If you are scroll button-impaired, you may program both zoom in and zoom out to keys on your keyboard.) The entire world was also seamless, with no load times except for the initial one when entering the game from the Start menu.

Bug the Krug

Finally, I focused on the matters at hand. (Here come the krug, here come the krug.) What is that sparkly thing on the ground?  Click on it—now! (Here come the krug, here come the krug.) Where did it go, and what is that strip with the arrows on it attached to the Siren’s face icon? (Run from the krug, run from the krug!) Oh, that strip opens my inventory! The gold book inside is a spell book, that sparkly thing I picked up is a spell, and if I left-click on the spell it flies right into the book and shows up in one of those weapon slots—woo hoo! (Come and get it, krug! Come and get it, krug!) I clicked on the slot with the Fireshot combat magic now housed in it, and the Siren went to town fighting on her very own. If I wanted her to target an especially crabby krug, I just left-clicked on him and she obediently flung her Fireshot in his direction. I was hooked! It was both an intuitive and exhilarating experience, this Dungeon Siege battling! Krug dropped like flies, as did gold, more spells, and archer’s bows and close-combat melee weapons like axes, swords and hammers (which needed only to be dragged into weapons slots in inventory to equip). Unfortunately, likewise dropped the red life bar and blue mana bar near the Siren’s face icon, although they quickly rose back up again on their own.

Combat, in a Mana of Speaking

Acquiring a new nature magic electrical spell called Zap, I added it to my spell book, and it showed up in another weapons slot.  Like combat magic, nature magic drained the Siren’s blue mana bar down with use. Certain felled krug did drop blue vials of mana replacements, though, as well as red health-increasing vials.  Like everything else in this game, I only had to click on them to add them to inventory and to use them. I finally noticed actual health and mana icons at the lower left of my screen, which, when clicked on (you knew that was coming), topped off the Siren if she was under 50% full of either one (and later could be used to simultaneously rejuvenate all ailing party members).

Spell casting was visually impressive but sadly slow in delivery.  I came across some fast-attack melee weapons and archer’s bows as I made my way through Dungeon Siege, but not so with the combat and nature magic. The use of spells did not build up the strength or health points of the Siren at anywhere near the rate that melee weapons did, either, rendering her too weak to wear the heavier armor or wield the more powerful melee weapons as the game progressed. Of the two, combat magic packed a greater punch than nature magic from the get-go. Both types of spells facilitated an increase in intelligence points, however. This allowed the Siren to wield slower attack weapons like staffs, which frequently bore magical properties that would increase her health and mana points when put in the melee weapon slot. I only swapped melee weapons when finding something intriguing, magical and useable at the Siren’s strength level, like the melee Hammer of Coldness. That baby claimed a 10% chance of turning baddies into ice cubes with every swipe, and I never got tired of watching that event! Even though the Siren did not actually use ranged weapons like bows or the quite rare guns, I did come upon a magical bow here or there that I left in her ranged weapon slot so she could take advantage of its health or mana-increasing properties as well.

A real strength of this game is that whatever attack specialties you choose for your characters will cause certain of their personal attributes to increase to higher levels in response. Melee weapon characters, axing through the front lines of battle, will quickly gain strength and increased health. Archers will increase in dexterity.  Spell casters will gain intelligence and increased mana. You will find, though, that strength and health come more slowly to archers and most slowly to spell casters, unless you branch out their attack skills to include quite a bit of melee as well.

A Tale of Woe

The Siren blazingly battled bright blue, behemoth bugs, barreling boars, and even a bear. She also passed through much lush greenery, and then later cleared a path right through hordes of skeletons and gargoyles underground via some stony crypts. Along the way she talked to and took on quests from certain nonplayable characters (via rolling text only for the most part). “Clean my basement of krug” ranked only slightly higher than “Clean my basement of mold and mildew” on the popularity chart, but that particular bloke allowed my heroine to raid his place for goodies afterwards, so whatever. The lack of truly compelling side quests, back story, and cutscenes were this game’s weakest aspects, barring it from a Skinny Minnie all-star rating. A to-do list like “Please find and return my trilogy of spell books that various people in town have borrowed,” or “Let’s help Merik retrieve his magical staff so he will join our party” get the vanilla award. There was some light puzzle solving here and there, involving collected inventory items being used to trigger new pathways or to right magical wrongs of the past. Even so, I wish they had tied more compelling quests into the “Mysterious Force of Evil Behind All These Attacks” back story much better.

There was a weak plot and kingdom history in Dungeon Siege, but it was mainly revealed through the finding of various books that, although well-written and poetic, had no influence on the game’s outcome. They did describe landmark people, places, events, and even critters of Ehb down through the ages, but some mention of these facts by the various NPCs I met throughout the game would have given them a stronger tie-in. I came across these books in dungeons, crypts, caverns and the like, but I subsequently wound up selling them for gold to free up precious inventory space.  The game manual also added some poetic background information for each area, but I still would have preferred more gaming interaction to glean the story from.

Party Time

The Siren did come upon a compatriot named Ulora in the wilderness, who offered to fight alongside the Siren. I equipped Ulora with an archer’s bow, and her dexterity (and to a much lesser extent her strength and intelligence) rose quickly, enabling the use of new and better bows as they were dropped by fallen foes or found in goodie stashes. Ulora, much like the Siren, was not strong enough to wear the heavier armor by game’s end, though. An older gent named Gyorn, whom the Siren was supposed to contact in the town of Stonebridge due to another quest, actually joined the party for free as well and promptly became my main melee fighter.

Each character came with intrinsic and differing capabilities, but I was able to mold them to my liking naturally by just equipping certain weapons and subsequently leaving them to fight on autopilot.  I mainly clicked solely on the Siren to designate her leader of the party, clicked on where I wanted her to go within the landscape, then all other party members just followed along behind her. As the story went on and the party size (which could go up to eight total) and the action increased, I did actually break down and program one hot key (gasp!) defining the Siren and two melee characters as cooperative leaders to the rest of the party. That way, those three would dash in first, programmed to attack the strongest character. The weaker party members would then fall in behind, using bows and arrows and nature magic spells against the weaker enemies from a distance. I could also set some of them to fight only in their own defense at times, using the simple icons at the bottom right of the screen.

Many more keyboard-programmable commands were available, but I made it through the game without them. I preferred to fight on the fly in real-time, although there was an option to pause the action with a keyboard key. It was then possible to issue commands to the characters while in pause mode, then unpause the game and watch the resultant havoc. Should that sound too much like work, rest assured that you can leave all members to their own devices and just pump the health and mana icons in the heat of battle, possibly having spell casters switch gears to heal party members (or resurrect dead ones) here and there.

One last point about human party members: I did not need to pay for any of them. I’m not saying I didn’t bribe a prospective party member with gold to join us, I’m merely saying that I shouldn’t have. I got plenty of fine coconspirators who merely volunteered their services, shaping up into great warriors as the thrilling battles ensued.

Let it be said that Zed, the nature magic sorcerer hanging out in Stonebridge, was a conniving, greedy liar. His claim to fame was nature magic healing, but Zed the weakling baby was the one who constantly required healing or downright raising from the dead. A woman’s work is never done; he was just another drain on the Siren’s mana, I’ll tell you. He also wouldn’t listen to commands to save his life—literally! I tried all kinds of things in a hopeless attempt to hold him in the back of the line or to keep him out of the fray of frontline battle. I dragged his little face icon all the way to the bottom of the list. I even tried putting my pack mules (who are described further below) in front of him. I made sure the attacks he used were long-range so he wouldn’t need to come up front. I commanded him to hold back and only to fight in his own defense. Still, every stinking time the Siren turned around in the front lines, she was tripping over Zed. I nicknamed him Zed the Dead. He would actually barrel right up behind her even when there were no enemies present! I think he had the hots for my Siren. I could actually have chosen to force Zed to break from the group and get left behind with one mouse click on the correct icon, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to abandon him to the wilds of fate, either.

Bad to the Bone

The baddies in this game were quite varied in appearances and attacks. Some bore many of the same types of bows and magical melee weapons that my party did or cast spells full of special effects. Others had their own intrinsic biting, snapping, swatting or flying attacks instead. All manner of wild animals, crustaceans, bugs, spiders and fish both foreign and familiar attacked from the forests, mines and swamps. The crypts, dungeons and fortresses bore witness to gargoyles, skeletons, trolls, zombies, demons, and bloodied corpses. Frozen caverns offered scores of icy, translucent creatures who flew like bugs or appeared as Ice Archers, attacking with frozen, see-through bows and arrows (those Ice Archers were visually my favorite villains of the whole game). Mushroom-spawning caves contained large, vividly colored crystals that hid crystal-impersonating, green electrical bolt-throwing enemies.

Baddies did not spawn again once killed (except for one with about 8,000 hit points to begin with that needed demolishing, ahem), so I could usually backtrack for goodie pickups without fear once an area was cleared. As the game progressed, enemies had higher and higher hit points, which means that they took more and more of my party’s attack hits without succumbing. I felt fearless, though, because my party was building in experience and strength all the time too, and I could shop ’til I dropped in the sparsely located towns for better armor and weapons. Throughout their travels, my party also found many barrels and crates to break open, as well as hidden treasure chests that contained additional armor, gold, weapons and spells that I could pick through and equip them with in between towns.

Painting the Town Red

Besides being able to buy upgraded armor and weapons, which the characters needed varying experience points build-up to use, I could also purchase different spells if I didn’t acquire them out yonder. This option for commerce was presented by vendors in the towns and outdoor caravans scattered about. Those pit stops were too few for my liking, though, especially toward the end of the game when I really needed them. Transport spells were not available in Dungeon Siege as a quick means to travel back and forth to the vendors, either. This meant either a lot of ground hoofing to return to them, or much discarding of loot out in the field for lack of carrying space. There was an almost unending wealth of weapons, spells and armor that could be earned through the adrenaline-surging battles of this game, but what to do with it all? In desperation I bought two of Dungeon Siege’s infamous pack mules (who comically sport useless mana bars) for their extra carrying capacity, but even at that I left many items behind as I went along. As much as I loved the critters, I got a little tired of chasing my skittish donkeys as they fled during the livelier confrontations. I also became weary of trying to pile them on to small lifts and elevators so they didn’t get broken off from the rest of the party in certain medieval buildings and underground locales.

A Few Points

At first, Dungeon Siege seemed to have too much a lack of control over what spells could be used, compared to a game like Diablo where your character earned experience points and you applied them to whatever categories (like fire spells or lightning spells) you wanted. I was relying upon picking up whatever spells came along and hoping I had enough required experience to put them to use. However, once I came upon the spell vendors, my attitude changed drastically. Yes, I could buy spells that the Siren wasn’t able to use until she had more experience, but I could also sell back spells that I tried or found along the way and didn’t like. There was also quite a plethora of exciting spells available, ranging from combat categories with nice special effects to healing for your character, another party member, or even a whole party at once. I also got the same money back when selling spells (or armor or weaponry for that matter) as what they would normally cost! Bad choices did not wind up being costly like in dear Diablo, where you got ripped off royally when you sold things or lost valuable experience points forever because you made unwitting initial choices in where to invest them.

Sounds Like a Hit

Despite a party strangely devoid of any vocalizations whatsoever, their weapon and spell sound effects were varied and sometimes even unique. Most enemies, on the other hand, emitted war cries of one sort or another, which gave the main clues of an impending ambush. Sparse were background noises, with hardly more than a footfall to disturb the stunning scenery. The new-age musical orchestrations, however, were absolutely top-notch. They soared, they swelled, they rumbled warnings, and they did it all with much elegance and variance throughout the game.

It’s a Wrap

When the game was finally over (albeit sans a satisfying ending, although the final battle was a lulu), I could have moved on to the multiplayer battles had I so desired. Even without the multiplayer option, Dungeon Siege is definitely an exciting and addicting medieval romp, especially for those uninitiated to or overwhelmed by the more detail-oriented RPGs available today. It may not have nearly the character classes or stat options that many micromanaging RPG gamers are accustomed to, but more armor, weapon and spell choices do open up as the game progresses.

Dungeon Siege ran without a hitch under Windows XP on my 1.6 gig Athlon XP PC with 1 gig of DDR RAM and a Radeon AIW 8500 128 video card, although I have heard complaints from other players about slight hesitations or occasional frame rate jerkiness with their own PCs during certain scenes.

Dungeon Siege could have used a deeper plot, more vocalizations and some good cutscenes, but like its predecessor-type RPG Diablo, it eschewed deeper storylines and kept the gamer busy with high-intensity fighting against rushes of unique enemies instead.  It only broke from the Diablo mold to better it for the most part. The addition of fabulous graphics (and the ability to actually zoom in enough to appreciate them!), an easy and intuitive interface, more natural character development, and less punishing trading all combined for a fine game play experience. Microsoft has an astounding winner in Dungeon Siege, which was very far indeed from a solely dungeon-based RPG. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Gas Powered Games Publisher: Microsoft Release Date: April 2002

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Win98/Me/2000/XP 333 MHz CPU or faster 128 MB RAM or higher 3D video card with 8 MB RAM or higher

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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29 Responses to The Long, Sordid Tail of DRM

  • Meho

    Good one.

    Of course, it will be very interesting to see the battle between crackers and UBI’s cryptographers. PC version of Assassin’s Creed II is already circulating the warez scene, although as yet uncracked. Everybody seems to think it will be cracked in a couple of weeks time at worst, which, admittedly is better for UBI than what usually happens (games cracked before release). Of course, I won’t be buying it because I find this practice unnacceptable (and I do have the console version anyway) but the success of this game and its DRM might mean quite a lot in the future. Of course, we ARE moving towards the age where you will be required to be connected to do any playing at all, whatwith the Gaikai and OnLive systems rearing their heads on the horizon. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, eh?

  • Spike

    I went to the Ubisoft website and looked at their list of published games.  It seems that the last of their games I played was the last Myst game in 2005.  In fact the only Ubisoft games I’ve played have been Myst games.  So I don’t see that their new DRM crime-against-my-privacy will have much of an effect on me.  But I hate the idea.  It’s an “Off with their heads!” kind of development.  Reminds me of the idea that people will put up with lost privacy in exchange for security.  In this case the security is only to benefit Ubisoft.  Yes, I allow my privacy to be violated every day – each time I visit Amazon, or read Google News -the list goes on and on.  BUT THOSE ARE MY CHOICES.  I also have a choice about where and how I spend my money, and I’d refrain from buying a game that allows so much intrusion into my computer/life.  A game that tells me how I must live my life even in the smallest of ways such as always being connected to the internet is a game I can forgo.

  • Jason O

    Consoles CAN be connected to the internet 100% of the time, but there are still many consoles that never go online. Modern Warfare 2 sold over 11 million copies, yet XBox Live only shows 840,000 users that have been on-line with it. That’s not played online, that means they played the game in any mode while connected to XBox Live.

    Games that have required an internet connection and were multiplayer only have a history of vanishing quickly from the console marketplace. Phantasy Star ONLINE did much better on the Gamecube then it did on the XBox. What was the difference? Oh yeah, you could play PSO without an internet connection on the Gamecube, the XBox version require a live account and an internet connection. That’s hardly the only example but one that is near and dear to my heart.

  • Bennet

    No, no, you don’t get it! Ubisoft’s “always connected” requirement isn’t DRM, it’s value-add for you, the beloved customer. Just like the Albertsons supermarket chain requires employees to plaster obnoxiously bright orange “Thank you for shopping with us!” stickers on your Coke and milk not because they think you’re stealing them but to express their sincere gratitude for your patronage.

    Maybe my memories of a time when consumers paid for a product and got the product, unadorned by FBI warnings and impossible to open wrappings and authentication servers that can vanish at any time without warning were planted by aliens. In the current cultural climate it’s certainly difficult to believe that time ever existed.

  • Meho

    But Steerpike makes a good point: business model, retail model is lagging behind the times. And developers, instead of researching ways to use the existing systems to sell more games rather research new ways to piss off their paying customers.

    Seriously, in my opinion, pirates pirate games because they are better value than retail games. Not just in the sense that they get to spend less money on them, but they get them faster, do not have to go through any hassle with DRM and have full control over the game. I think that Gabe Newell put it best saying that Valve sees pirates as customers who haven’t been served yet.

    I think UBI and their ilk should look for ways to make retail games more valuable to their customers than (free) warez copies. Yes, stuff like achievements/ trophies helps a little, sure. There are other ways too and one of them is resale value. But, oh, what a surprise, used games market pisses publishers off MORE than pirates do. In fact most of the current DRM schemes are only effective against resales. EA’s ten dollar project and all other free DLC on day one initiatives. So, honestly, I’m afraid that UBI’s online-all-the-time-or-no-service DRM is basically only going to affect sales of used games. The crackers are going to bring their games to pirates eventually. I believe that draconic DRM schemes such as this will only inspire people like GeoHot, Dark Alex and Yoshihiro to spend more of their time on circumvention. Their street cred is going to be huge after all…

    What Valve seem to understand is that playing games through Steam should make playing MORE valuable/ comfortable than not playing games through Steam (which is, at the end of the day a DRM system). Being able to instal a game on as many machines as you want and not having to have a disc in the drive is exactly what pirated games give us too, but with Steam you also retain all your stats, friends lists, achievements and everything. So it’s BETTER than playing pirated games. I only hope that UBI wake up and realise they have to ADD value, not just subtract freedoms.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not really sure I see their DRM as a huge problem.  If my PC is turned on, so is my internet.  I’m fully aware that my name is probably on a million data bases already, and although it might be annoying knowing that Ubisoft have implemented such a security feature, if you don’t physically notice it, I don’t particularly care.

    I’m currently playing Myst at the moment, having never before.  What an odd game…

  • Meho

    Well, you know, just from a philosophical standpoint: if the game is unplayable as soon as you don’t have Internet connection (which, I’m afraid, happens to me more regularly than I am comfortable with) for no other reason than making sure you have paid for it then to me this is pretty much unnacceptable. Requiring a connection for something that is a function of the game itself is OK, but enforcing it just for the sake of protection of the publisher, sorry, no sale.

  • Lewis B

    True Meho.  I had 40 minutes the other day before I went out and thought I would have a quick skirmish on Dawn of War II.  Steam (despite my love for it) wouldn’t launch the game because for some reason it kept freezing and refusing to connect or launch in offline mode.  I couldn’t actually locate the source directory either to boot the game up manually. So, I didn’t get to play and instead spent 40 minutes in a fit of rage cursing Valve and all who work under them. 

    Not exactly the same situation, but not hugely dissimilar.

  • Gregg B

    I’m really not concerned about the privacy issue simply because that illusion is just that, and doesn’t really comfort or unsettle me. My problem with this whole thing is that internet connections can be temperamental at the best of times and the idea that if the connection falters I will lose my progress (and thus my invested time which I’d argue is more valuable than my money) then quite frankly Ubi can fuck off. I’ve been pretty placid up to press with DRM simply because it’s not seemed that intrusive but this will affect the paying customers more than the pirates. It devalues the product and I fear it will push otherwise paying customers to download cracked versions that don’t suffer from this shit. Which, of course, will play into Ubi’s hands.

    Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.

    “I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where a person would be just as likely to invest in a beloved classic as a hot new release.”

    From my experience there are a lot of people who simply can’t stomach old looking games, even some of my friends who’ve been playing games since they were young have turned into total graphics whores. Seriously you want to see the totally underwhelmed look on their faces when I show them XCOM for any period of time. We’re at a stage now where graphics are so advanced that for a lot of people going back so far to sample an allegedly classic title is simply too much. Thankfully GOG is doing a fantastic job of making these titles as accessible, and valuable, as possible.

    EDIT: Spot on Meho. My point exactly.
    See what I mean though Lew? Time. Valuable stuff. A quick skirmish on DoW turned into a 40 minute skirmish with Steam.

  • Mat

    This seems like an awful idea.. or at least one which sounds like a good idea to somebody somewhere, but in reality is unworkable.

    Since I’ve been a paying internet customer I have lived at 3 different addresses and used around 5 different ISP’s. I have ALWAYS had problems with my internet connection. With my current set up it tends to go down if a menacing looking cloud passes overhead..

  • xtal

    Some people may like to play a game offline now and then; this is especially easy with older ones before the dawn of activation codes and online authentication. While those aren’t that annoying, having to maintain a constant internet connection just to play a game that you paid for, which is not specifically a MMO, really bites.

    Gregg B said:
    “Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.”

    I agree with this. Just a few years ago I couldn’t see myself paying for intangible, digital goods. Fast forward to now and it’s really my preferred method of computer gaming, whether it’s GOG, Steam, or elsewhere, I find it’s the model that works best for the customer. If I’m not mistaken, I believe once upon a time that was who the industry was trying to serve, no? The customer?

  • Cesar

    You know, I’m from Brazil and there piracy is HUGE. Maybe for that reason I feel for the industry and understand the efforts to stop it. However, I suspect this crack delay would have a very minor impact in markets like Brazil. People can’t afford the games, so they wouldn’t pay full price anyway.

    It is a shame that we don’t have privacy anymore. The other day a friend of mine on XBox Live sent me a message to congratulate me on a goal I scored in Fifa 10. I didn’t know but apparently not only you can see I’m playing Fifa, but you also see when I score and my avatar cheers! While that sounds very cool, it is also very disturbing. But like Matt points very well, privacy is already gone. And since I don’t have it anymore, why not help stop piracy?

    On the other hand, the plurality of solutions is a different matter, it becomes a hassle. I think the solution should be platform dependent, not publisher dependent. In Brew phones, the control is embedded in the system and you cannot use an app if it cannot be verified, which means if you are not connected to the network you can’t play.

    Unfortunately that cannot be applied to consoles, there’s a considerable number of devices outside the internet umbrella. But if the game constantly checks if you are online and tries to authenticate the copy, online piracy will suffer a big hit and the technological move towards full connectivity will make the practice more and more efficient over time.

  • Andrew

    Not going to buy the game, long tail or not, it sucks to have that kind of persistent connection needed for offline play. Not even just startup authorisation either. I must admit any Game For Windows Live games can be similar (Dawn of War 2 being one of them necessitating it) although most of them allow offline profiles, and most of them allow the saves to be moved easily between any online or offline accounts.

    Oh, and if you’re disconnected it won’t kick you out of the game too, even Microsoft didn’t get that wrong.

    I don’t even understand how privacy comes into it, my main issue is twofold:
    – The above note about simple, offline play (and disconnects for blips in service)
    – The fact it isn’t just your connection that is necessary, it is THEIR connection and servers

    The second point as a partial game historian leads me to wonder how many years (not decades) the servers will be there. Publishers have removed much more necessary servers quickly if they are a cost liability (or they want to push people onto a newer game…). Downtime is also, considering some of the services require payment (Xbox Live for instance) devastatingly poor considering the user base sizes, especially on high load days (and I wonder if we’ll see “Assassins Creed 2 unplayable at launch due to server overload” at all, heh). Lucky it’s “just games” though, no worries if we only have 99% uptime right?! 😉

    (Also, frankly their Assassins Creed 1 port was poor until they patched it, where at least then it was playable (in full on 16:9…for some reason), which makes me wary of any PC release of a console game they do. I wonder also if they still have unskippable cutscenes, I’ve not checked it out on the consoles).

    The fact they’ll never have enough sales of this PC version due to the earlier console release to either say this is a roaring success or roaring failure. It’s the longest end of the tail in the first place. Or they’ll lie about whatever happens anyway. It’s utterly bizarre…I just don’t understand it.

  • Meho

    Cesar: I’m in Serbia and here piracy reigns supreme (much worse than Brazil, I imagine) but still, this is pure and simple bullshit. I purcahsed BioShock 2 today, for my PS3 even though I’d prefer to play it on my PC just because of the stupid DRM that won’t let me control the use of a game I pay for. They can fuck off with that. So, my purchase was influenced by DRM, depsite the game being more natural to play on a PC. Protection measures should not create this kind of bitterness in a human being.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    The issue of server overload on release days is significant. Think about it – a game like Modern Warfare 2? Or any other hotly anticipated release? Of course the servers would go down. It’s not cost-effective to install a server infrastructure capable of handling Day Zero traffic. That would royally piss people off.

    Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.

    Around the holidays here, big stores like Best Buy station a guy at the exit. His job is to go through your bag and consult your receipt to make sure you haven’t stolen anything. That’s a very similar ideology to this one: treat all consumers like thieves in hopes of catching the few who are.

  • Lewis B

    Considering most MMOG servers cannot cope on launch day, I see it as a gaurentee that when the next Modern Warfare is released, if they do follow through with this, would see many unhappy players.

  • lakerz1

    This new DRM policy will totally be screwing me over because I have a wireless internet setup, but my signal is a bit weak so here and there it drops out for a 10-15 second period before it reconnects.  Plus my wireless router is a bit wonky and will just stop working once in awhile until I cycle power to it.  So, until my setup changes, I will be forced to avoid all Ubi PC games that use this.

  • Igor Hardy

    I seriously doubt a person which would normally pirate a game, will pay money for it just because she has to wait a short while longer for the cracked version. This can work only for very cheap games – like 1$ cheap.

  • Meho

    Just for those keeping tabs: the Russian version of Assassin’s Creed II has apparently been successfully cracked, with a fix for the saves too. Of course, I don’t KNOW this for sure but that’s the word circulating through the grapewine.

  • Cesar

    Brazil is a strong competitor in the piracy rates. 95%-97% if I am not mistaken.

    Anyway, I don’t have a problem with the privacy issue. Not even with the assumption that we are all thieves. If you extrapolate that idea, you will conclude we shouldn’t have patrol cars on the streets. They assume people will commit crimes and have to keep watch. Homo homini lupus. Society isn’t perfect and even though losses are part of the model, no one is ready to lose out of good faith alone. I don’t mean to say DRM and police watch are the same thing, I’m just saying it’s not that simple to draw a line where it becomes offensive to monitor society.

    That being said, it is not acceptable to have a DRM impact gameplay at all. I don’t mind it authenticating my copy. But if I am offline it has to work. And if I loose connection during the game I shouldn’t be kicked out.

    And while the efficacy of the solution might be questionable under these circumstances, like I said in the previous comment, it only tends to increase.

  • Andrew

    “Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.”

    I have seen this happen to absolutely zero games ever. The fact that it is nearly impossible to sanction any work on IP if a company is in administration is the key. That and it is non-trivial to get around your own disk DRM by producing an installer that will work with your disk copy to install it.

    I’d love to be proved wrong…this is by far the most worrying thing of the deal, just installed Bioshock 2 and it has online activation (sigh)…worried I might need to download cracked versions to install it in the future!

    Oh, did you see the patch notes of the first patch? It makes the DRM very very very slightly “better” (I mean, better as in “still shit”):

    http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/17456/Assassin%27s+Creed+2+Patch+1.01+-+US

    “Game can now be continued from the exact same point when connection is restored”

    Ho ho ho. Ho.

  • Gregg B

    I like this bit:

    “Only those who purchased a copy of ACII or SHV legally appear to be affected. Pirates playing illegally downloaded cracked versions of the game are able to play without a problem.”

    Is it apparent pirates are having no problems yet? If they’ve properly cracked it then what I feared (above) is true. Last I heard was that the DRM apparently downloads levels or important files as you play. I don’t know whether this is true or not though.

  • Spike

    Meho beat me to it.  I just read a similar article on The Register.  I don’t suppose that the DDoS attack will make Ubi rethink its evil ways, but this might (I can dream, can’t I?):

    “Meanwhile Ubisoft’s much criticised controls have been broken by software hackers. A hacker group called Skid-Row managed to bypass DRM restrictions on Silent Hunter 5 less than 24 hours after the game was published. Skid Row has releasing a crack for the game based on this work, Zdnet reports. ®”

    Full article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/ubisoft_anti_drm_hack_attack/

  • Littermate

    Spike.  RE: The Register article
    There is a comment to that article that claims the crack for SH5 is not a complete crack and would only allow an incomplete experience, because not only are save games stored online but some of the game data files are stored online too, implying that the boxed game you buy is incomplete.  This seems plausible and effective IMO, because if I was demanding an internet connection for my software this is how I would do it.  It demands not only that a games code be cracked but that missing data files be supplied too.

  • Spike

    Having just read this article – link below – I’m thinking that DRM will be fine and dandy AND hunky-dory with me as long as the packaging it comes in is “green”.  Yep.  That makes it more palatable.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/1620105/ubisoft-green-recycled-case-digital-manual-sustainable-packaging

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I would kind of like to buy games in potato cases.

  • xtal

    I was thinking… and remembered one of the most creative instances of “DRM” if you can call it that: King’s Quest VI! I looked it up and sure enough it is mentioned on KQVI’s Wikipedia page:

    A booklet titled “Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles” (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game’s setting, this booklet serves as part of the game’s copy-protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

    I guess that’s not very feasible today, what with widespread use of the internet around the world. I still think it’s more creative than the “thank you for your money, we intend to treat you like a criminal” method.

  • Bluebogle

    I played the KQVI game with the booklet. I was a kid at the time, and thought the booklet was so cool! It really added to the whole game’s experience.

    The quest for Glory games came with fun booklets as well, though I don’t remember if they had copy protection elements to ’em.

    Ahh, the good old days..

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