EA Responds To Battlefield Hardline DRM Complaints

[Vlad Rose]

Perhaps the answer may be to get a pirated copy of the game as I heard that plays without all the hassle.

The stupidity of EA never ceases to amaze me. Far from stopping pirates, they are actually driving people who would not otherwise consider piracy into seeking out pirated games just so they can play with hassle and keep their privacy intact.

The day EA goes out of business will be a day I will celebrate.

That is my thought exactly with all this DRM crap. Lets make the common people suffer while the people they're targeting laugh at their futile attempts to stop them.

 

[Kadathan]

I think they're implying that it's a new configuration, rather than a new computer, and yeah it's designed to stomp out mass account sharing by the looks of it. This particular DRM does not affect 99% of us, though the idea that this will always be present in future DRM is certainly a possibility, so I can see being against it...

Lawsuit, though? That's pretty doubtful. If, -IF- you happen to replace five parts of your computer, and load hardline once in between each change, then on the 6th attempt it will lock you out until tomorrow. This is a pretty specific use case that gets interrupted. And as someone pointed out earlier, it is remarkably easy to circumvent: Either don't load hardline between each change to your computer, instead do all changes then load, thus they count as one change.... or, if you absolutely must because of some strange compulsion, then you may be needing to buy a second copy of the game to go along with all of your extra hardware.

Honestly the only people who are genuinely affected by this is benchmarkers, and they're told to contact EA to resolve this use scenario.

So, yeah, someone could try a lawsuit here, but it would be laughably empty. There's simply no logical disruption of service that involves anything but a user's stupidity.

 

[Vlad Rose]

This particular DRM does not affect 99% of us

Well let's see. You have your main computer (1). Your laptop (2). Your wife's laptop (3). Upgrade the video card every 6 months (4). Replace the computer at any point (5). There goes all your DRM changes. This doesn't even include if you have children. And you may ask, "Well your wife and kids should each have their own copy". Name how many console games you've bought individual copies of unless you plan on playing together online at the same time. 5 change DRM will affect a lot more people than you might think.

 

[Kadathan]

Fair point. In my house, I have two desktops, two laptops, a netbook and a tablet. Suppose I was of the mind to play battlefield hardline on all devices on any given day. I would be left out on my last attempt - the netbook would be locked out due to different hardware.

We, of course, are ignoring here that the tablet, the netbook, and in all probability at least one of the laptops would not run the game. If I have more than five devices capable of running the game well enough that they are actually a viable, competitive option when compared with a main gaming computer, then the owner of said devices has far too much disposable income and I would not hesitate to tell them that if they insist on being able to, on any given day, play hardline on all (minimum) 6 of their high end computers, that they probably need to buy a second copy, because their requirement is fairly unrealistic. Not that it's unacceptable for them to expect such a thing to be possible, but more that it's an out of this world kind of unrealistic need.

You appear to have missed a part of the article I realize, in that you think this limit of five devices is a lifetime restriction. It isn't, it is a daily restriction. If you play the game of five different machines today, then when you try the 6th, it will lock you out. If you tried tomorrow then, you could play on five different machines/configs again, then locked out for a day. If you seriously think this will affect more than (maximum) 1% of people who will actually even buy this game, then you better have a damn good argument to support it!

 

[Vlad Rose]

Fair point. In my house, I have two desktops, two laptops, a netbook and a tablet. Suppose I was of the mind to play battlefield hardline on all devices on any given day. I would be left out on my last attempt - the netbook would be locked out due to different hardware.

We, of course, are ignoring here that the tablet, the netbook, and in all probability at least one of the laptops would not run the game. If I have more than five devices capable of running the game well enough that they are actually a viable, competitive option when compared with a main gaming computer, then the owner of said devices has far too much disposable income and I would not hesitate to tell them that if they insist on being able to, on any given day, play hardline on all (minimum) 6 of their high end computers, that they probably need to buy a second copy, because their requirement is fairly unrealistic. Not that it's unacceptable for them to expect such a thing to be possible, but more that it's an out of this world kind of unrealistic need.

You appear to have missed a part of the article I realize, in that you think this limit of five devices is a lifetime restriction. It isn't, it is a daily restriction. If you play the game of five different machines today, then when you try the 6th, it will lock you out. If you tried tomorrow then, you could play on five different machines/configs again, then locked out for a day. If you seriously think this will affect more than (maximum) 1% of people who will actually even buy this game, then you better have a damn good argument to support it!

I must have completely overlooked the 'per day' part of it... lol

 

[ZelmoQuad]

This is BS. They do it because nobody is stopping them. I've purchased and played completely BF4 and BF3, other before Origin came onto the scene. I have three games machines, all high end and used to try MBs, GPU and CPUs. If they stick to this plan it good by to EA Origin games. I played the Beta. I'll hold off buying another EA game. Dead serious. These games both were prematurely release with many bugs. Nothing but frustrations making people suck it up while they resolve on the fly.

 

[childofthekorn]

This is BS. They do it because nobody is stopping them. I've purchased and played completely BF4 and BF3, other before Origin came onto the scene. I have three games machines, all high end and used to try MBs, GPU and CPUs. If they stick to this plan it good by to EA Origin games. I played the Beta. I'll hold off buying another EA game. Dead serious. These games both were prematurely release with many bugs. Nothing but frustrations making people suck it up while they resolve on the fly.

I'd say the same thing but I know as soon as Mass Effect 4 or Dead Space 4 (especially the latter) go to 75% off I'll pick em up unless they totally bombed on all fronts.