News

EA/BioWare DRM "just nuts", users "were locked out" for 3 days
Posted: 13.04.2011 11:26 by Simon Priest Comments: 10
Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 are critically acclaimed with big sales figures under their belts, but what's under everyone's skin is the "poorly-thought-out DRM".

Ars Technica reports that for 3/4 days users have been "unable to play" their DA:O saved games because EA servers were down - "incompetence and malicious neglect".

I myself have known the pain this type of DRM causes as I have had my Mass Effect 2 career 'suddenly forget' I had completed The Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC because the authentication failed - once - which also 'wiped' the other DLC adventures.

"Thanks to a combination of DRM idiocy and technical and communications failures on the part of EA and Bioware, I (along with thousands of fellow EA/Bioware customers) spent my free time this past weekend needlessly trapped in troubleshooting hell, in a vain attempt to get my single-player game to load," wrote Ars Technica's Jon Stokes.

"The problem, it turns out, was the Bioware's DRM authorization servers, and as of Tuesday afternoon, the situation still is not resolved. For four days now, those of us who made the mistake of shelling out for Dragon Age:Origins (especially the Ultimate Edition) have been unable to play the single-player game that we paid for." No official response yet.

"I have to admit, I was pretty livid to find out that I had spent so many hours troubleshooting the game, only to find out that it was a server problem and that this server problem had gone completely unannounced." He's not opposed to all DRM just stupid ones.

"...my beef is with buggy, poorly-thought-out DRM schemes that have legit users sniffing around torrent sites to see if they can get their hands on a working copy of the game they paid for. The fact that DA:O has to reauthorize my DLC every time I log into the Bioware server is just nuts, and it sets users up for all sorts of problems."

"Then there's the fact that, again, EA/Bioware didn't address this issue for three whole days. For three days, users were locked out of a game that they paid for due to these server problems, and there was no notice posted," he continued.

"Not only that, but they either don't monitor the Bioware forums, or they don't care enough to participate in them, because no one from Bioware showed up during this period to even acknowledge the issue informally. This mix of incompetence and malicious neglect is startling to me, but it's apparently par for the course for these two companies."

Check out the full righteous rant from Ars Technica's Jon Stokes. Have you been on the bad end of DRM authorisation from EA/BioWare? Should they be limited to one-time checks? Hopefully a new approach will be adopted by the time Mass Effect 3 releases.
Source: Ars Technica

Comments

By djole381 (SI Elite) on Apr 13, 2011
djole381
This only shows that DRM can force legit players into getting pirated games which, ironically, don't suffer from this kind of problem.
By BoneArc (SI Elite) on Apr 13, 2011
BoneArc
I dont like when they punish People who PAY for the game , it just makes people Angry and Feel betrayed by the people they Bought the game from ... which is just ridiculous
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Apr 13, 2011
JonahFalcon
Still locked out, but here's a nice thing: the rep gave me a $20 discount on EA downloads or games.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Apr 13, 2011
JonahFalcon
Note to Electronic Arts: you will NEVER stop piracy. Ever. You can't stop robbery. You can't stop car theft. You can't stop kidnapping. YOU CAN'T STOP CRIME.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Apr 13, 2011
herodotus
Yet EA persists in punishing their legitimate audience with this antiquated and draconian system. Some Pubs still use SecuROM and StarForce (Eagle Dynamics and YuPlay come straight to mind), but they are getting few and far between. Even the GOTY edition of "Borderlands" removed the controversial DRM from two of their DLC's and Ubisoft's UPlay died a well deserved death. When Devs publish torrent sites for legitimate downloading of patches, they must know that these torrent sites will be used for not so legitimate practices.
As you say Jonah, Piracy will just never be stopped and no amount of warnings or punishments will stop them.
By PowerJack (SI Elite) on Apr 14, 2011
PowerJack
Funny, very funny.
Dont you love when things like this happen?
I know I do.
^.^
By MindCoil (SI Veteran Member) on Apr 14, 2011
MindCoil
As someone said in a different forum.

They punish the paying customers by having DRM.

While pirates don't have this kind of issue. They deal with probably nothing from DRM.

Once its cracked it's over. DRM for paying customers is a constant issue.
By Zvezdalina (SI Veteran Member) on Apr 14, 2011
Zvezdalina
Hah! You go and buy a game, and then you can't play it because of the too paranoid publishers who want to over-protect their game. This creates a counter effect and makes people turn to pirates. It's sooooooo wrong. :-(
By Knave (SI Core) on Apr 14, 2011
Knave
I think I draw the line at one-time online authentication. I haven't had any trouble with Mass Effect 2 yet, but I didn't buy any of the DLC so maybe that's why. Personally this whole tie your game to an account is just punishing the legitimate buyers unfairly.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Apr 16, 2011
FoolWolf
And people wonder why even legit paying gamers don't actually can't abhor the pirates fully: they offer a better product!
EA is working for me with Crysis and Battlefield BC2 - but all BioWare games, especially Dragon Age Origins have always been iffy. I had to tweak my services for my Dragon Age Origins Pre-order for collectors edition to work. I have had constant head aches and having to tweak more a legit games then I have had to do with games I in the past downloaded a no-cd patch and be done with it...
This has led to me not buying a single DLC for Dragon Age or Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect. Why? Because the damnable DRM and constant check up don't work and isn't trustworthy.
But this is just a fact to face - honest gamers has to suffer for both piracy and greed of game companies. Tying us to accounts and DRMs and DLC's to spend more more more and no re-sale...