Big Business
2. Our Personal Property - We Mean Your Playing Experience Is Important To Us!
DRM (Digital Rights Management) have become the fall guy for one of the more recent and blatant lies in the gaming industry. EA is back at the plate again, this time lying about their latest version of Sim City (no, Im not going to argue that Sim City isnt a true simulation) which launched in early March of this year. The launch proved to be one of the biggest debacles in recent history mostly due to server malfunction. A key component to the server issue was the always-on DRM that required players to be online in order to play the game, a game that is historically single player, and marginally still so. Players became angry that they couldnt play offline while EA got their act together. However, offline play would completely negate the effectiveness of their always-on DRM. EA could have simply came out and said that the DRM prevented piracy and therefore protected their product necessitating a server connection and to simply wait until they worked out the kinks. After all, launch day crashes and other complications werent anything new. However EA decided that lying would be easier, and released an official statement intimating that the game wasnt designed for offline play and that it would take an extensive effort at that point to make it so. Outsiders had no idea that this wasnt true, it seemed feasible. That was until a lone development staffer remembered he had a soul, and decided to call BS on the entire idea that the game would require such an effort to run offline, oops. This staffer, who was authenticated but remains anonymous, explained that the game's online component basically regulated typical online functions like messaging, trading and file sharing, but running the game itself wasnt an issue at all. The official statement made it seem like Skynet was literally keeping the entire game together. EA created a teachable moment to be certain, as their initial position made a great deal of sense. Downloadable games that play on PC offline are simply waiting to be pirated (see stolen, yeah call it what you want, you no pay, you steal). Put it this way, from where youre sitting you are about 20 minutes away from playing a full version of the original Star Craft complete with activation code for a whopping free 99. EA could have been honest, but by lying they allowed DRM to take the blame for the whole deal, which has now become a legal issue which in the end could make it harder for publishers to protect their work. Way to go EA.
Shock Value It seems like the higher ups at EA think that the internet is a magical place full of demonic fire and muscular little people. How is it fair that these people make millions while proving that their formative years were an apparent waste?