Brand recognition of a different sort...

Many of our regular readers and listeners may have noticed that we tend to have  very pro-developer viewpoints lately…especially where there is some doubt in any given issue.  After all, as grandmother used to say, you get more industry professionals with honey than you do with vinegar (or was that flies…in any case the expression works either way). But this is one time where there is no doubt that the developer and publisher are solidly in the wrong.

*rummages around in her old duffle bag, gets out her bdu’s, and puts on her uniform.*

My strongest feelings on the matter, as you know from prior posts, come from reading articles over at Ars Technica that served as a slap in the face and a strong reminder not to forget my roots, nor the people serving over seas in places like Afghanistan.   Ars Technica has another article out today that caught my eye when the news feeds crossed my desk concerning the recent “outage” of Ubisoft servers – here is an excerpt (you can read the entire article here):

Ars Technica contacted Ubisoft to ask about the issue, and we were told that the issue wasn’t simply a server malfunction. “This ‘failure’ was due to a massive DDoS attack on our servers,” an Ubisoft spokesperson told Ars. “Our servers didn’t go down but 5 percent of the overall people attempting to connect received denial of service errors. This is, of course, unacceptable and our teams are working around the clock to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” – Ben Kuchera, Arstechnica.com

Ubisoft, per the same article, goes on to say the following:

“We worry about our customers and apologize to anyone who couldn’t play ACII or SH5yesterday. All in all, we hope people understand all this is done to preserve the future of PC gaming.” – Ubisoft

Now it may have rained here yesterday, but no one on staff on the No Prisoners, No Mercy team came down with it.  This isn’t about perserving anything but a draconian attempt at preserving the line on the quarterly profit and loss statement that reads “Net profit before depreciation.”  If anything it is a surefire way to drive off customers and drive a nail into what some in the main stream media already see as a nail in the P.C. Gaming coffin.   If Ubisoft were worried about their customers they wouldn’t be using the bizarre form of “Brand Recognition” that refers to an attempt to shove a hot brand up the nether regions of the gaming public.

It is, of course, their game, their product, and they have a right to do whatever they want with it.  They have the right to tell us that we can’t play their games unless we first put it all in a large paper bag, bring it out on the front lawn, twirl it above our heads and scream like a chicken (one no-prize to the first person that can tell us what 1960′s television show that line is from).  Even if the execs at Ubisoft making the decision to have an “always need to be connected” DRM failed to learn the lesson that Spore taught Electronic Arts – perhaps then names like Asherons Call 2, Earth and Beyond, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, and lately There.com will ring a bell.   Now many of you will point out that those names are all mmos and this is supposed to be a single player game. 

What is important about all those names is this…

There are some companies in game development industry, with names like Cryptic and Icarus, that listen to thier customers, and do so intently.  But sadly there are still some companies that develop what I have come to think of as the “Activision 800 pound gorilla” attitude.  They feel they can do whatever they want, treat (or more appropriately mis-treat) their customers in whatever manner they chose and we will all just bend over and take it up the bum.  Hopefully the market will teach Ubisoft a lesson that you don’t treat customers like something that crawled out from under a rock and then say “But we care…no really.”

*update*  Those reading the article may ask themselves, “What would it take to make you happy?” Or perhaps “How about a solution other than removing the DRM altogether?”  Want to keep us happy?  The Ubisoft CEO should apologize to veterans and active duty military everywhere and offer a free copy of Silent Hunter 5 to any active duty service member in a hardship tour for a limited time – and furnish a special (but complete) “military copy” that does not require an active connection.  As a further suggestion, Ubisoft could perhaps make the military copy require a disk check with a limited number of installs, upgradeable by request of the active duty service member.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Side Note:

Side Notes

We here at No Prisoners, No Mercy would like to thank Rubi Bayer, and Massively.com for the kindness of featuring show number 55 on thier web site.   We had a fantastic time recording the show and I must say that Glen Swan had us salivating at the thought of playing there upcoming mmo “The Secret World” by the end of the show.

Thanks again.