Sun Jun 25 12:32:03 EST 2006
The Future of Copy Protection
My friend Chris mentioned a desire to play a little Neverwinter Nights when I hang out with him and that
Bioware had recently released some nice looking Premium
Modules that he'd like to play. Last night I went on over and spend the $8
on Infinite Dungeons which is a randomly generated 10 level dungeon with a
minor storyline but includes puzzles and the ability to dynamically adjust to
your character or party of characters. Basically, it's a mindless dungeon
crawl with essentially zero plot, but that's OK because that's exactly what I
bought it for.
So, I downloaded this thing and in the purchase process I had to feed the website my original Neverwinter Nights CD-Key to authorize my key to play Infinite Dungeons. What I found out after I installed it and tried to play is that you absolutely can't play it at all without an Internet connection. The reason being is that it calls home to check it's validity when you start a new game, load a saved game, or save a game. The trouble is, I installed NWN on my laptop and there may be times I won't have Internet connectivity. And, sure enough, searching the Bioware forums came up with a few people who bought it for play while traveling without Internet access. Needless to say they were not all to happy of the situation because Bioware will only refund your money if the module hasn't been activated or played on-line. At least for me, it wasn't painfully obvious that was the case and if I'd want my $8 back I'd be basically screwed. I know, it's only $8 but it's the idea.
I think what I'm running into here is the future of game and possibly application copy protection. I've seen things moving in this direction for quite a long while and am honestly not surprised in the slightest. Since the number of people with out Internet access is so small this sort of thing effects such a small number that, even if Bioware really pisses them off, it will have nearly no influence on their profits for the product.
I've never liked things that phone home. You never be sure exactly what they are up to and what they are sending back home unless you have the skill to put a sniffer on the line and analyze the network traffic. Besides, what happens when the company goes under? Or decides to stop supporting the game? What about people like me who love our retro games? I hope that Bioware has the where-with-all to issue a patch removing such silly check prior to abandoning support.
I'm fairly certain that this sort of protection will be a native part of Neverwinter 2 and that having such drastic phone home methods in the premium modules is simply a test bed to see how well it is accepted.
So, I downloaded this thing and in the purchase process I had to feed the website my original Neverwinter Nights CD-Key to authorize my key to play Infinite Dungeons. What I found out after I installed it and tried to play is that you absolutely can't play it at all without an Internet connection. The reason being is that it calls home to check it's validity when you start a new game, load a saved game, or save a game. The trouble is, I installed NWN on my laptop and there may be times I won't have Internet connectivity. And, sure enough, searching the Bioware forums came up with a few people who bought it for play while traveling without Internet access. Needless to say they were not all to happy of the situation because Bioware will only refund your money if the module hasn't been activated or played on-line. At least for me, it wasn't painfully obvious that was the case and if I'd want my $8 back I'd be basically screwed. I know, it's only $8 but it's the idea.
I think what I'm running into here is the future of game and possibly application copy protection. I've seen things moving in this direction for quite a long while and am honestly not surprised in the slightest. Since the number of people with out Internet access is so small this sort of thing effects such a small number that, even if Bioware really pisses them off, it will have nearly no influence on their profits for the product.
I've never liked things that phone home. You never be sure exactly what they are up to and what they are sending back home unless you have the skill to put a sniffer on the line and analyze the network traffic. Besides, what happens when the company goes under? Or decides to stop supporting the game? What about people like me who love our retro games? I hope that Bioware has the where-with-all to issue a patch removing such silly check prior to abandoning support.
I'm fairly certain that this sort of protection will be a native part of Neverwinter 2 and that having such drastic phone home methods in the premium modules is simply a test bed to see how well it is accepted.
Wed Jun 21 07:50:42 EST 2006
Fun Quotes
A couple of quotes courtesy of The Quotations Page.
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams
"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." - George Orwell
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - John Adams
"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." - George Orwell
Mon Jun 19 21:41:00 EST 2006
Darwin at Work
))
One of the pictures is shown here in this post. It's a guy riding a motorcycle with the helmet on the back of his seat. Lots of good it does there! I'm rather glad PA dropped that silly law forcing people to wear helmets. Now we can let all the stupid people have just one more avenue to remove themselves from the gene pool.
Like the title says, this is Darwin at work.
Thu Jun 1 20:56:45 EST 2006
Enron Execs Guilty
I recently found myself reading about the Enron executives being found guilty about a week ago. I can't
say that I've been following the cast in any more than a superficial way, but I
think it's a good thing. It's obvious to anyone no living in tunnel vision
mode that corruption is rampant in many of the largest corporations in America
and this is just the sort of thing that needs to happen to send a message.
With all these corporate scandals going on it's good to see a bit of justice
serviced. Just because they are rich and powerful doesn't mean they shouldn't be
held responsible for their actions.
I say, string 'em up. Make one hell of an example out of them to scare the bejesus out of every other executive out there who's getting a big head. I hope they get to share a cell with Leroy and Bubba.
I say, string 'em up. Make one hell of an example out of them to scare the bejesus out of every other executive out there who's getting a big head. I hope they get to share a cell with Leroy and Bubba.