“Last month, PC Gamer took the extraordinary step of recommending against the purchase of an otherwise excellent game, solely on the basis of its obnoxious digital rights management (DRM). The victim was Assassin’s Creed 2, and the perp was the software that required the player to maintain a constant internet connection while player…Ubisoft’s mistake is repeated in this month’s Silent Hunter 5 and The Settlers 7, and it will be attached to next month’s Splinter Cell: Conviction as well.” – Logan Decker, Editor in Chief, PC Gamer Magazine.
Recently I was gifted with one of the few material possessions that you know a nun will use (well at least this nun) – a new subscription to PC Gamer Magazine. With the first edition to arrive in the mail was the good news that one of my favorite columnists, Desslock, has returned. I was also pleased to see both Logan Decker and Andy Mahood rendering opinions on a subject that is important to us, the treatment (or in this case mistreatment) of you, the customer, by a publisher.
The new editor-in-chief, Logan Decker, lead off his Soapbox column with the quote above. What caught our eye first, however, was the review of Ubisoft’s newest addition to the Silent Hunter series. Half way through the review I found this quote, under the heading “20,000 bugs under the sea”:
“Even when you do figure things out, SH5’s numerous bugs and missing features will generate further anguish. Chief among these are a broken crew morale feature (that can zero out your crew’s morale rating when loading a saved game), a deck gun that won’t accept AI control and enough AI inconsistencies and screw-ups to scuttle half the Kriegsmarine fleet. This includes AI ships that regularly beach themselves in friendly ports, enemy warships escorts that might passively ignore you after some fresh merchant sinkings and enemy aircraft that’ll sometimes blithely overfly your surface boat” – Andy Mahood, PC Gamer
Now I understand that not every publisher can share the famous Blizzard attitude “It’s ready when it’s ready.” Still, you would think with all discussion there has been over the last couple of years regarding the over worked buzz word “polish” that Ubisoft would at least lend a modicum of attention to the matter. Granted, we aren’t talking about an MMO here. However with digital download and down loadable content (DLC) increasingly popular, even though this is a single player/multiplayer game, Ubisoft should still consider itself as selling a service, and not selling players short. But it appears that Ubisoft no longer has a problem doing just that:
“As bad as these game play issues are, they pale in comparison toSH5’s cardinal shortcoming: it’s draconian DRM scheme. PC Gamer can’t recommend purchasing any game using Ubisofts new system, which requires a permanent net connection, where any interruption …There’s a promising simulation lurking under all these hull-popping warts and hiccups, but it looks suspiciously like Ubisoft is counting on its Silent Hunter fan base to effect the major repairs. Too bad you can’t mod out the DRM.” – Andy Mahood, PC Gamer
All this leaves me wondering why a company like Ubisoft would seemly be bent on the self destruction of its reputation. We aren’t talking about a dev or two who have snubbed members of the blogging community; this isn’t a handful of gamers who have launched a futile and aborted attempt at a boycott. It has reached the point where even PC Gamer is advising its readers not to buy Ubisoft’s products no matter how good they are – or in the case of Silent Hunter 5, how good they aren’t. Given all of the above, why would you even consider selling a game that is in such an unfinished state as Silent Hunter 5? Are they truly hoping that the modding community will finish the job for them while Ubisoft moves on to something else? This has gone way past the concept of someone like Activision head honcho Bobby Kotick telling us all his goal was to take all of the fun out of making games (judging by Activison vs. former Infinity Ward employees he seems to have succeeded). This has even taken the express train beyond the realm where misguided, and out of touch executives make decisions to please un-informed investors (like the three ring circus going on over at Quest Online these days).
While Ubisoft is busy doing whatever it is doing to impress whoever it is trying to impress with its bizarre business practices, other game publishers have found a practical solution, as Logan Decker points out:
“Let’s look at who’s doing it right. BioWare and EA gave us Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network, a pipe through which it can push DLC [download loadable content], patches, new weapons and even new missions – enough to justify another play through! That’s a powerful incentive to buy a legitimate copy because it’s a better product that the pirated version.” – Logan Decker
See you online,
The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team
Dear Mr. and Mrs. No Mercy,
I’d like to add that I do sympathize with developers very much on the issue of piracy. I can only imagine what it must be like to work your ass off for years on a game — especially a great game like Assassin’s Creed 2 — or to risk tens of millions of dollars and your professional reputation publishing one, only to see it casually exchanged after its release. I get that.
My point wasn’t to pick on Ubi over this DRM, but only to bemoan the terrible effect this DRM can have on the experience for PC gamers, and to do our part to encourage the growth of alternatives like Steam, Cerberus, et al.
Later gators!
Logan
Hi Logan,
Thanks for the comment. It’s nice to know that someone in the big time is reading the site. Do we pick on Ubisoft? Yes, we will admit that we do. Do we sympathize and empathize with people who have their game pirated? You bet we do, especially independent developers (our heroes). As you wrote in your soap box column there is indeed and alternative. And as the developers of “The Humble Bundle” have shown sometimes the whole solution is just making your game worth while and treating the community with a bit of respect.
[...] who. So while we are pleased that Logan Decker, editor-in-chief of PC Gamer magazine stopped by to read our latest tirade on Ubisoft’s draconic rights…er…digital rights management we can only hope it was really him. [...]
[...] If we here at NPNM said we were anxiously awaiting Fallout New Vegas we would be understating the truth (see Wish you were here – bring ammo). In fact I enjoyed Fallout 3 so much I programmed mods for it. Now I read about characters with heads on the wrong way, dogs with eyes on the side of their head and npc’s shooing out of the middle of hills. Now the truth of the matter is that you never know whether to blame a release like this on the developer (Obsidian Entertainment) or an overly anxious publisher (Bethesda Softworks). Either way, what I find simply astounding is that in an era when developers are closing left and right that anyone would even consider letting a product out the door in such a condition. In fact I thought that the concept of making sure a game is polished has become such an ingrained concept as to make it nearly trite. (See Self Destructing Reputation). [...]