Re: Play, Want, Bin 8th September 2008


"CK" <zsimo64@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:svhxk.178046$oT7.116223@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kendrick Kerwin Chua wrote:
In article <6il4j5FqvtapU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Paul Evans <paul.evans913@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"CK" <zsimo64@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:avcxk.1326$qs5.798@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<snip long discussion>
Which is another point, do you think Spore will be compatible with
whatever version of Windows/MAC/Linux is available in 10 years time?
No, because EA will have shut down their authentication servers by then
or moved over to a purely digital distribution-based system where you
pay a monthly fee to carry on playing games you own.

I'm with Paul on this one. Somebody challenged me to assert that I might
want to play Pac Man CE in ten year's time. My response is, no company
gets to tell me what I can and can't play, or when. Superior product, and
not planned obsolesence, is what should drive me to the next purchase.

-KKC, who just got dragged back into Sharepoint configuration. Joy.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the system works. Its designed to combat
piracy, and it blatantly fails. My only gripe is that people will
completly flat out refuse to buy the game, simply because of this measure.

EA should've thought about that before fucking the law-abiding customer
over.

As an example, I would throw in any MMORPG, or any game which is largely
dependant on online players (Unreal Tournament or Phantasy Star Online).
Do they not have a time limit imposed upon them?

One reason why I'll never pay for a MMORPG. At least Steam's model is
different when it comes to multiplayer arena-type games - there can be no
shortage of servers because it is the end user who set up their own to host
games.

If Spore was a truly exceptional game, that I thought had literally
hundreds of hours of game time that I would want to come back to again and
again over the coming years, then I would concede that it would be
extremely off putting to be limited in such a way. But Spore seems to me
to be a novelty game, and one that will probably wear off after 3-4 months
tops. £25 for 25 hours of entertainment seems to be a fair deal to me.
Maybe that doesn't make a difference to yourself, and I can definately see
the viewpoint of "I bought it, I should be able to do what I want with
it." For me, it just isn't an issue after a year or so.

Well, if I bought a DVD box-set for £65, I would be incredibly pissed off,
if upon playing the first one, it installed some malware that will then only
let me watch that DVD three more times before it becomes a useless beermat.
Why should it be any different for games? Some DVDs I might not watch for
years, but I'll be more than pissed to discover that if, say I wanted to
watch Toy Story five years from now, I find that I can't because it needs
authentication from a now-defunct server.

As I've said before, the pirates are not the ones being harmed by all of
this. In fact, they're probably laughing their heads off at us stupid morons
who shell out the cash to play what are effectively, time-limited demos for
full price. EA are punishing the legitimate customer in their persuit to
monetise every little thing.

I would be surprised that changing a DVD-Drive, or RAM or adding a new
Hard drive would constitute a "new" PC. Are there real life examples of
this happening? If so, then that is outrageous and I'm in complete
agreement with you. As I recall with Bioshock, it only really became a
factor if you reinstalled the OS.

SecuROM 7 doesn't work in the same way as Windows activation does. When you
install a SecuROM-protected game, it takes a snapshot of your hardware
configuration and sends this back to EA's servers. Every time you play,
SecuROM verifies your configuration against the snapshot and decides whether
or not it is the same PC as before or a new one. Sadly, swapping out RAM
boards, hard drives and DVD writers is enough for SecuROM to think it is
different hardware as a few Mass Effect players found to their cost on the
official forums. Where Windows will allow a lot of leeway when it comes to
updating hardware, SecuROM does not - it is extremely rigid.

There is also the additional problem of uninstalling. Bioshock would release
an install token when you uninstall so you still have a maximum of five
installs. EA's servers do not do this. If the game screws up because EA's
crappy patches (as any Sims 2 player will tell you) has prevented the game
from working properly, you need to reinstall. If your hard drive dies, you
need to reinstall again. That's two out of three chances gone already. Many
hardcore gamers will often reinstall Windows every three months to keep
their hardware running at full speed. In other words, nine months from now,
there'll be a lot of £35 placemats lying around.

One thing I completly agree with you on is the price that EA are selling
the download for. £39.99?! To paraphrase DeKay, *** Off EA.

Indeed - they are trying their best to maximise profit at the expense of
user experience. They want to move over to a total digital distribution
system that will not allow cheap boxed copies to be sold. In short, they
want to set prices on their terms and screw the gamer.

I came across this interesting article this afternoon. It seems to sum up
EA's position pretty well on all of this:

"There is a longer-term transition from a disk-based model for retail sales
to an "average revenue per user" model. Five to seven years from now,
investors will look at EA as how we have 100 million customers where we have
an ARPU relationship that amounts to so many dollars a month. It's different
from selling so many disks a month at wholesale prices. It's a gradual
evolution. But we need the tools to be able to do that. The ARPU model is a
better margin business for us. It's less cyclical. It's a better business.
Some of our businesses have characteristics like that: EA Mobile, Pogo.com,
and The Sims. We want to move in that direction. People predicted the demise
of the DVD rental model for Blockbuster a long time ago. I don't want to be
the guy with a retail store renting DVDs in a world that has moved to
Netflix and pay-per-view. We want to innovate and drive along that front,
whether it's with FIFA Online or Pogo or The Sims. "

http://venturebeat.com/2008/07/21/e3-perspective-an-interview-with-john-riccitiello-ceo-of-electronic-arts/

*** off EA.

Paul.


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