Sadly the game has now been cracked

[Yakoob]

I don't read that crap, my computer can handle anything

...except internet.

To be fair, some people wanting to support the developers pre-order the game. That information isn't always available pre-release (after all, the marketing people for the games company don't want anything to be leaked that may look negative before release).

I pre-ordered not knowing about online activation, secretly-installed hidden rubbish, limited installs etc. Fortunately that wasn't the case with any of my previous games (Deus Ex, Thief 1 and 2, SS1 and SS2), but it meant I hadn't expected such a rude wakening here either.

True. I was refering those who bought the it normally at a store, in a box they could see before the purchase.

[dontsimon]

The irony of software CP is that it's increasingly considered morally acceptable to use cracked games, to counteract the difficulties it creates for legitimate users.

Not only does the CP seem to punish the honest customer more than it hinders the pirate, but it now drives piracy and persuades those who would normally not go that route to DL cracks, NOCD's etc.

Supply and demand at work.

What it's trying to achieve on one hand, it's taking away with the other. No wonder Oblivion shipped with no CP at all. Perhaps someone with some brains realised it all evens out in the end?

I guess it's often just there as a token gesture, to keep the suits upstairs happy.

I can't even decide where I stand on the matter. Not sure I even care. We should harness our outrage towards causes that require and deserve it.

Celebrity weight problems for example.

[SubZero2040]

Yeah you're right and I want to say that that securocrom crap actually works, lol.

Because if a game like oblivion is cracked day 1, I bittorent it.

But if it takes forever I buy it IF I REALLY WANT IT BAD. I bought Half life 2, Chaos Theory and BioShock. I bought them because I knew it would take a month to get a good cracked copy (or longer) I wanted these Games Last Year already. I've never been sorry when I bought a GREAT GAME.

The other games I bought, I bought simply because you had to play them online, like WoW, Company of Heroes, Halo (even though online sucked)

Bottom line, If I was a dev I would put all that securom crap on there and if anyone don't like it well you probably wouldn't have bought it. Yes I know there are some odd balls who boycott but screw them.

Video games I think are like Movies, they do super well in the first few weeks then taper off drastically, so anything to delay the pirates for a month is good for sales, not bad. I just made this up and have no Idea if its true but it makes sense to me.

[redrain85]

If everything regarding the SecuROM protection on Bioshock remained the same, except for the activation limit, it still would have been just as difficult to crack and "thwarted" piracy just the same. But the limited activations is what has taken things a step too far.

[CocoClown]

SubZero makes a good point. The notable thing about Bioshock's copy protection is that, unlike a good many games, there isn't a working cracked copy available before the game has even been released.

Sure, you've got a group of people who'll never buy a game, regardless of whether it's cracked or not. You've also got a group of people who are refusing to buy the game because of the DRM (an action I personally think is somewhat nose-cutting-off-to-spite-face-ish, but that's another debate).

Then you've got people who want to get the damn game as soon as possible. For a game as high-profile as Bioshock, that's generating a lot of positive media attention (for good reason IMHO. I think it's awesome), some of these people are just going to bite the bullet and buy the damn thing instead of waiting for a crack.

Of course, some of those people, if they downloaded a game they thought was good, would buy it on principle. Unfortunately not everyone is that principled, and the sales of the games which were just "pretty good" or "average" are lost.

So... uhh... yeah. Protecting the game up until release (and the first couple of weeks) is probably the most important part of copy-protection

[Martek]

If everything regarding the SecuROM protection on Bioshock remained the same, except for the activation limit, it still would have been just as difficult to crack and "thwarted" piracy just the same. But the limited activations is what has taken things a step too far.

Yeah, Coco but redrain also makes a very good point - the DRM without the draconian install limits would have been the same amount of trouble to crack thus giving it the results your mention while not making it like it might be difficult to play down the road as a legacy game.

Martek

[mothra]

SubZero makes a good point. The notable thing about Bioshock's copy protection is that, unlike a good many games, there isn't a working cracked copy available before the game has even been released.

those games get leaked without the wrapped copy protection installed properly most of the time. therefore they can release both beforehand.
it's more of a leak than a crack.

[Jeshibu]

Martek: If they removed the install limits you'd still have to download the data that isn't included on the disk from SecuROM. This comes with the same worries of not being able to play it in ten years.
In order for that fear to be alleviated they'd have to release a patch that would include that data.

[mothra]

that is exactly what I am hoping.
in order for this to work you would have to start the patch first which in turn installs the game, disables the SecuROM checks inbetween/auto-update and Activation and then exits. because if you install BioShock Vanilla it will always fail and remove all installed data when quitting the activation process.

[Nameless Voice]

This was the one game I really wanted to buy this year. I had planned to buy Bioshock as soon as it was released here, to show my support for the developers by boosting their initial sales.
But after reading up on this insane copy-protection, there's no way I'll buy this game. Not unless they release a separate installer that bypasses the SecuROM and activation.
I'm just glad now that the first shop I looked in didn't stock it.

People are still playing System Shock 2 eight years after its release.
From my experience, the devepers of good games (for example Looking Glass, Ion Storm) never seem to last very long. Let alone the ridiculous 5 installs 'rent-a-game' system, what are the chances of the activation servers even still existing in 8 years?
And that's not even mentioning the installation of unknown, dodgy DRM software that cannot be easily removed.

I think raph summed it up very well in the other thread, when he said that in a mere 24 hours, Bioshock had gone from his most desired game to something he absolutely won't be buying.

Someone should really set up a petition of people who won't be buying the game - or have already bought and returned the game - due to the copy protection, and send it to 2K Games.


All right, time to set my sights on the next game that interests me instead. Let's hope Blizzard don't make such a mess with Starcraft 2.

[David]

It has been stated that the activation will be removed once the initial rush is over.

With the PC version of the game being the best selling piece of software on any platform in the week following its release I don't think there would be a huge amount of people inside 2k that would worry too much about the 'lost' sales due to the copy protection.

[poroshin]

I'm content just waiting for the eventual GOTY edition that will be fully patched and without activations and copy protection.

[Kefren]

With the PC version of the game being the best selling piece of software on any platform in the week following its release I don't think there would be a huge amount of people inside 2k that would worry too much about the 'lost' sales due to the copy protection.

You are probably right, but I still feel that it does harm overall. Instead of me becoming a fan of 2K, I'm now going to avoid their software in the same way that I generally avoid EA software. Likewise, because of the hassle I went through returning the game, it is going to make me a person who won't pre-order again, and who will wait for budget releases for some titles, both of which probably impact on the game publishers in the long run. If my experience had been good, then I probably would have started pre-ordering more games instead.

I'm not saying that to be spiteful, or in a ranting way, it is just a fact that in a few days I have gone from a level of excitement where I was rediscovering my love of PC games (and annoying my girlfriend with all my talk of Bioshock, and all-things-shock), to being incredibly frustrated with the whole business.

Oh well, back to Aliens vs Predator and Vampire Bloodlines I suppose...

[David]

Gamers With Jobs has an interesting article on the copy protection. It says that a Triple A PC game has been released with online activation, has hit the #1 chart position, has not been cracked while the console version has and has not broken some computers like StarForce. Expect more.

They do raise the point that this could lead to the PC being seen as a safe development choice, especially given that the console version was cracked and up on torrent sites on release day where the PC version has not and is still flying off the shelves.

[Nameless Voice]

That article seems to me to be sending quite the wrong message.
Sure, on the one hand, it implies that the PC is a safe platform for people to develop on, which might encourage more companies to make PC games rather than console games (which would be a good thing IMO). But, on the other hand, it also implies that it's OK to treat your paying customers however you want, to force them to jump through hoops to play a game that they paid for, which those who pirate the software (who may be a little slow, but I have no doubt they will manage it soon) will be able to install and play the game without a single issue. How is this supposed to encourage anyone to legally buy their software? It seems to me to be sending more of a "pirate or ignore this title" message.

As has been stated a number of times already, copy protection only seems to affect paying customers, not pirates. I'm sure the cost of implementing the copy protection system is much greater than any loss due to piracy, and that's not even counting the losses due to 2K loss of reputation over this whole fiasco.

[jay pettitt]

That BioShock has been so successful in a commercial sort of way is really quite cool. Hopefully publishers will look at the PC and rich games like the ones we tend to like on TTLG afresh. That's a nice thing. Whether that's because of the copy protection or that 2k did the marketing with gusto, we'll never know. I suspect the latter.

And I find I'm minding the Securom thing less and less. But only because, having played through a bit, I don't think Bioshock is quite the classic System Shock was. If my DVD breaks in 5 years time I won't mind much beyond being slightly miffed.

But Securom still takes the michael in a consumer rights sort of way. I'd be happy to settle for a replacement, securom free, disk in six months or a year or something; but I suspect a replacement disk isn't really on anyone's agenda.

[heywood]

I think it sends three messages:

1. A dual platform game can be a big seller on the PC side.
2. DRM protects sales.
3. The market is willing to tolerate online activation and non-intrusive DRM, but draws the line at intrusive DRM like StarForce.

[justmea]

I wouldnt say market is not fine with the method BioShock is using. If they release sales you will see that most people don't care about securom implementation. I would even say that each passing day there is even more people who bought it because they couldnt steal it, then those who are scared the big bad securom will find their porn folder and see they're into blondes (yes, that was ridiculous, but so is your privacy stand. Instead of crying rivers, why don't you actually see what securom does/accesses and educate yourself)

[heywood]

I didn't say the market isn't fine with the method Bioshock is using. I said the market seems to have drawn the line with StarForce. Bioshock is (so far) proving that you don't need to fsck up people's computers to effectively prevent copying.

Of course, there will always be a vocal group who isn't happy with any kind of copy protection, but if it works without messing up their computer, they will apparently buy the game anyway.

[SubZero2040]

There are thousands of people downloading cracks and finding they have trogans in them, ROFL. (Noobs)

But the thing about Computer games is sometimes they don't work and this has been going on for years. It frustrates people and they buy a console because it always works.

But I'm PC forever... unless I get big LCD tv. I'm actually sick of buying video cards and mobo's and ram.

For crysis...pfft.. I don't wanna think about it.

[Bjossi]

It frustrates people and they buy a console because it always works.

Consoles don't always work.

[vurt]

Mods, time for a topic change plz: "Gladly the game has not yet been cracked"

[heywood]

But I'm PC forever... unless I get big LCD tv. I'm actually sick of buying video cards and mobo's and ram.

For crysis...pfft.. I don't wanna think about it.

Me too. And if SplitFish offered their FragFX mouse controller for the 360 and not just the PS3, I'd be tempted to buy a 360 just to play Bioshock. It would be cheaper than upgrading my PC again.

[Bjossi]

It's a matter of strategy. A smart PC upgrader can make his upgrades last for many years without spending much money.
But the consoles are generally cheaper gaming systems, can't deny that one.

[justmea]

Mods, time for a topic change plz: "Gladly the game has not yet been cracked"

Money hats all around! Well... if we actually worked at 2K.