Shouldn't you be outraged by bioshock?

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I haven't read any of the replies yet, but I will leave my two cents. I think it's ridiculous for them to make legitimate users lives more difficult with their copy protection, considering it will do next to nothing to stop piracy, I'm sure cracked copy is already everywhere out there. I don't condone piracy by any means, but the fact is, it's there, it exists, and no matter what the game companies do, they can't stop it, so to make it more difficult for the legitimate user I think is pretty crappy. A true fan will buy the game anyway, the same goes for music, movies, etc. Considering how often I reinstall, I don't wanna have to deal with this DRM crap, I want to take the CD that I spent my hard earned money on, put it in the drive, and play it, without any DRM nonesense. I can't tell you how many games I've lost games due to a younger sibling or myself breaking the disc, I tried to make backups when I bought it but oops, they won't allow that. So I lost the game that I paid for, just because of some crook, who will still pirate the game anyway...

Even though this game looks amazing, and I would purchase it otherwise, I won't support something that violates my rights so much, and assumes I'm a criminal. So sorry, you won't be getting my money.
 
I am surprised that the industry has completely forgotten the anti-piracy protection methods that were used in PC games in the beginning of 1990s. In addition to game discs you used to get some fancy multilayer cardboard disc with strange hieroglyphs on it and at some point during the game they would suddenly ask you to take out the disc, align the layers in a certain way and then type in or select which hieroglyph you see on the disc. I know they used such discs in "Wax Works", "Monkey Island" and "Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis". Of course, it's not hard to recreate such discs, but that type of protection system might actually be really effective against mass production piracy. It would also prevent illegal sharing of games on the Internet because even if you got a full version of a game, you would still need to get the disc thingy from somewhere. The best thing about that protection system is that you could always give it to small kids to play with! :pt1cable:

SecuRom + CD-key + real life "protection system" object would keep newbie pirates at bay. 😀
 
I just wanted to comment on my experience with Bioshock. I bought bioshock off of Steam. It took about 4 hours to download it and I played it for a few hours. The next day, I get up and decided to take my computer to work. I get to work and hook the my PC up without connecting it to the internet or a network of any type. I wanted to show the guys I work with how the game looked. I fired up Steam and it asked to run in offline mode since there was not an active internet connection. I said ok and Steam started fine. I fired up Bioshock and it run just as it did the night before when I had an active internet connection. I have had no issues what so ever with Bioshock or Steam. So my advice is get the game from Steam and avoid the headaches. :bounce:
 

So now format your HDD and reinstall the game without using an internet connection.
 


and THAT is the achilles heal of steam... like I said, have no issues with steam but with all my reformats have always had internet. The one time I don't that would really tick me off.

But does steam get rid of the problems with the 2-install limit? Can I simply reinstall over and over again without the uninstall-first requirement? Does the DRM see the steam "install" as a perpetual single install I wonder?

If that was the case then my own personal issue of my frequent reformats would be solved. (does not fix my issue with their widescreen implementation nor the very principal of the 2 install limit... but is a start)
 

I don't know or indeed care about the the install limit if Steam have that or not, but if I shell out my hard earned I want a hard copy that I can do with as I please, if the developer wants to dictate to me how I use their product then they should give it away for free.
 
agreed, I think the message is "2k, would you kindly (ha ha reference to game) remove this immensly annoying securerom and remove/up the limit on the number of installs
 
http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/home.html

We have been reading and listening to your frustrations over SecuROM, PC activation problems, and technical support issues since BioShock launched on Tuesday, and we've devised a plan to help.

Starting immediately, we will be upping the activation count to a 5 by 5 plan. We will be raising the maximum amount of computers a user can have BioShock installed on simultaneously from 2 to 5, and allowing a user to reinstall BioShock on each of those computers from 3 times to 5 times. Also, we have in the works a revoke tool which you will be able to run on your machine if you want to free up that key and move it to to another computer (this works very much like Steam or iTunes system). We are also working with SecuROM and 2K customer service, so that when you do need to call in support problems, you get answers to your questions faster, without much waiting or being bounced around. SecuROM has been given much more autonomy to help fix your problems quickly and effectively. I am personally sorry for anyone who got bounced around in the past couple days (I even think I contributed to this problem) and we're going to make sure that does not happen in the future.

As for other technical issues, we are bringing on a team of tech support that will be on the 2K forums 24/7 to help people resolve their technical issues. Our QA guys are in the offices and on the forums, too, reproducing issues and looking for workarounds and compiling information that they can put towards making you a patch and updating the knowledge base.

Also, we are aware that our activation server went down last night, stopping some of you from finishing your installs. The server is up and running now and we have corrected the problem that caused that crash.

Finally, we have released a FAQ, which you can view in full below (and will also be posted on the 2K Forums in the Technical Support area) that will help clear up a lot of questions and misinformation that has been floating around about SecuROM and PC activation.

And as for widescreen, we also want to say we completely understand a user's desire to augment their FOV. BioShock is a harrowing experience, but we don't want anyone to feel limited (or motion sick!). So we are in the process of working on an official PC patch to give widescreen PC users a choice to expand their horizontal FOV, and are investigating creating a similar update for the 360.
Click to expand...

Still annoying that there is a limit at all, but at least they are hearing what is being said... now if they would only understand that it is the limit AT ALL that is the problem...
 
I am just glad that they are listening. The issue still is with the securom being stuck on the system without rigorous registry modifications.

They need to get a tool going to get that off the system. I understand that we can free up the key but I don't want the malware from securom stuck on my system. The activations are not so much of the issue.

I am happy to hear that they are listening which is way more than I can say for any other software company to this date.
 
you were running the demo for days??, but to be honest IMO not many people have 5 computers and so only a few ppl will hit that limit (2 however was different)
 


my point was not that I approve of the DRM... I don't. I was only pointing out that the article was saying that AVG would not play nice with the rootkit, and said it was in the demo as well. I am only pointing out that not everything we read that is "bad" about the game is necessarily true.

No, I have not checked for the rootkit yet. I assumed (possibly foolishly) that you would not need DRM for a demo... but will check it later tonight. Regardless, AVG has not freaked out as described nor has the game required it to be uninstalled to operate.

@spuddyt:
whether it is 2, 5 or 10 is irrelevant. Any limit at all is the annoyance. Ya, they are now going to provide a way to reset this so you can wipe the drive and still not hit the limit, but we as legit purchasers should not have to do even that... It is not going to stop pirates, just piss off the ones that actually buy the game.
 
@ sojrner Just in case you don't see the thread http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/98250-13-bioshock-soaked-fiasco#t584100

RobWright Wrote:
2K Games scrambled to resolve the chaotic mess. But again, it seemed that many statements proved to be false or misleading. For example, Tobey posted a message on the 2K forum Sunday that stated "SecuROM is not on the demo at all," which is entirely false. This of course led to many outraged gamers who downloaded the free demo of BioShock and were unaware they were also activated SecuROM DRM on their PC.
Click to expand...

How are getting on with your rig dude?

 


havent you ever played a game on steam? the rage against steam blew over and now people seem not to mind it.
 
After reading the "work of art", "lavish design", "brilliantly conceived", "stunningly good gameplay", etc., etc., Bioshock Review by Rob Wright, http://www.twitchguru.com/2007/08/23/bioshock_review/, I preordered from Gogamer and recently received the game only to discover the hidden truth as I attempted to install on my computer.

NOWHERE in his review, did Mr. Wright mention all this DRM baloney. Well... maybe he got a DRM free copy for the review. I hope so because IF he did not, he deserves to get canned from his job at the very least.

I NEVER, EVER would have purchased this game had I known the truth. I am now trying to return the game to Gogamer and get a refund. What do you think my chances are?
 
I am not sure what you are all so worried about, someone will hack the game and online registration will not be needed anymore, then you can have your legal copy installed as many times are you want. There is no reason to get upset. God created hackers for these types of situations.

 
ttp://www.gametab.com/news/1020080/

bioShock banned at Valve offices

by Justin McElroy Aug 28th 2007 11:45AM

Do you think that the makers of one of the greatest first-person shooters ever are immune to the siren song of one of the other best first-person shooters ever? Valve head honcho Gabe Newell insists to CVG that they are not. "We had to ban BioShock from our offices," Newell said. "Nobody gets to play it until Orange Box is done - that's our reward to ourselves as a company; everyone gets a copy of BioShock."

Newell said he hasn't played it either, but he's "really looking forward to it". We're torn about this news. On one hand, we're sad for the Valve employees, but on the other hand, we really want to play Episode 2. And then, on our third hand, we think they probably should have thought of this game-banning policy before they announced they were making games episodically. Wasn't Episode 2 supposed to be out in the mid 80s? Did the team get addicted to WoW or something?

hehe funny :)
 

I think you are right there, but even so, I have a slow internet connection and its not helpful to have to spend 5 days downloading something
 
That is why I don't even buy the game. I have old old games (remember TA?), and once or twice I got bored and I bring them out and play a bit. If they have that feature and the company go under, the CD is toast.

So, I don't buy that kind of games.

--------------------------------------
http://wowpanda.blogspot.com/
 
hmm.. I suppose, but surely another company would just pick up the rights to the game for a song and then force everyone to activate again or something, and also, by the time the company goes under, there will be a cracked version of the game
 
You are not the only person angered by this. I purchased HL2, the retail version, only to discover I need to internet access to patch and play the game. As I only had dial-up at the time, this really annoyed me. I do question the wisdom of the people who decided on this. I bought the disk version and not the online version for the very reason to avoid downloading large files.

Unfortunately, I am finding this all the norm now days where almost every software assumes you have broadband access.
 
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