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Best Diablo 3 Announcement reaction gifs ever...
ChrisK:
The security camera analogy isn't a good one because they are completely passive devices. I don't like intrusive DRM. I remember waaaaay back when Diablo 1 was released I brought my copy home from Best Buy and installed it. When I tried to run it, I got an error that told me to insert the original CD into the drive. I couldn't play the game.
Turned out they had copy protection in the game where it would read your CD-ROM drive in CD audio mode to make sure you had the original CD. I imagine the idea was that it was hard (at the time) to rip a multi-mode CD (one with data and audio tracks), so if the game detected a CD without the appropriate audio tracks you were deemed a dirty pirate. The problem for me was I didn't have a CD audio cable attached from my CD-ROM drive to my Sound Blaster, so I always failed the check. I had to go download a crack for the game to play it.
There are countless other examples of DRM screwing things up for legitimate owners. There are also systems that are customer-friendly (like Steam). I won't buy Ubisoft games or D3 for their always-on DRM, but I've got a boatload of games purchased from Steam. I'm happy to buy stuff, I'm just not willing to be screwed with when I do buy stuff.
shmokes:
That's the point I tried to illustrate with Draw Something. I just turn the game on and play it. It never asks me to connect to the internet. It just does what it needs to do with the connection that's always on. The same is true for games that do online checks. The are not intrusive. They may be other things. They me violate legitimate conceptions of property rights. They may violate privacy. But they are not intrusive. They are the opposite. They're invisible. The check typically takes place in the background and if you didn't know it was happening you'd never know it was happening. In that respect it's actually LESS intrusive than a typical suveillance camera, since at least you can usually SEE the camera and you know you're being recorded.
ChrisK:
Ah, sorry Shmokes. I misread your post.
Behind-the-scenes check-ins are disturbing to me, too. If you run an app-level firewall on your computer you'll know just how many programs check in. It's a LOT of them! Many are just doing it under the auspices of an update check, but there's nothing to stop a program from sending any information it wants when checking for an update. Such as: "my name is Chris' Computer, I'm running win7, my Win7 product ID is 123, I've got version 3.4 of your app installed, oh and by the way here's the Firefox password file for this user".
Not saying any apps do that, but even without root access on a machine an application can behave very badly without your knowledge.
knave:
This has been an interesting discussion. The example of Draw something rubs me the wrong way though...this game and many like it on android (words with friends) seem to want to integrate so much with all the social media crap. I don't want it all connected. So it bothers me to be forced to in order to play the game. This seems to be a issue I have personally with android. I just have to get over it since it's the direction the software is going.
I have much less of an issue with steam. Even though the distribution system is on line I have had good luck playing in offline mode. Playing a game like Diablo 3 however I'm torn. While I do not like the idea that I am limited in how or when I play the game it becomes less of an issue since they made it very clear before I purchased the game. So if I buy it, it's my choice.
Malenko:
using "drawsomething" as a parallel is ---smurfing--- stupid. You cant play that game alone, cause you would already know what you drew. The capacity to play Diablo 3 solo is there, I'm actually OK with the DRM but I'll be bitching and moaning when the server goes down, or my internet goes down, or they eclipse the server and I load it up on my 50th birthday for nostalgia and cant play.