My Concerns

[Mark Sam From Alabam]

Count me as one person who shares similar beliefs as Mikesla. The problem that I have with SoW's DRM is the one activation limit. I've had numerous hard drives crash and with this DRM scheme, I would be without a game in my computer with SoW crashed before I could uninstall it.

Battlefront has a similar (exactly the same?) DRM scheme as Norb is using but they allow 2 installs per purchase. This gives me some piece of mind that I will not have wasted $45 in my computer crashes as I can then go into by external hard drive and still load the game up again. With only 1 chance to install the game such as with SoW and the risk of hard drive crash preventing me from playing again, my willingness to pay for SoW is reduced significantly.

I fully support DRM in games because I know that if a designer is not making money then we will not get any games in the future but likewise, I want some sort of guarantee (or close-to-guarantee) that I can still play my games in the future if the publisher goes belly up. That's where my issue with SoW comes in.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

Davinci wrote:

Well, go ahead and download the Demo – this will give you the opportunity to enjoy a little of the game, and you still have the TC2M game to keep you entertained!

If you ever decide to change your mind, I’m sure that Norb would appreciate your business.

davinci

Hi davinci

I have downloaded the demo,and I am enjoying it. As far as TC2M goes, I play it at least twice a week, and I just came across a mod called "Horse & Musket", which is just allot of fun to play. Not to mention CMP3.0.

Well, you never know what tomorrow will bring.

Chat later.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

GShock wrote:

There's only one problem here, the internet connection. Anyone having access to an internet connection, be it on cable or wi-fi has absolutely no problem with the internet protection code selected by NSD.

I am on a laptop but i have a cable connection which I am not using because I bought a router and switched to wi-fi. This is basically the best solution. If you have a PC then you have an ethernet card and if you haven't got a cable connection you can still activate and deactivate even with an old 2400 baud modem.

I have had issues with copy protection from games on DVD, namely ArmA, the so called SECUROM but I never had probs with activation keys. It is your duty to keep your life up to date with the technologies available, mikesla, and if your problem is the internet, how are you going to even download the game, or the patches, and the mods? How are you going to play online if even the activation is a problem to you? Why is the activation a problem to you and to you alone?

I'd be thinking to these questions if I were you and, of course, I hope you can solve the problem because, as you can see from the Demo, you are missing a huge game here.

Hi Gshock.

Well, just to have the internet is actually my point. The internet is not always 100 percent proof, meaning if I wanted to install the game, and my server is down either for maintenance, or someone just decided to race his buddy down the road in his new hot rod, and smacked into a telephone pole(which just so happened to be the one that is feeding my home with internet), at that moment I cannot play the game because I don't have the internet to install the game, so I am playing the demo once again.

As far as getting the Mods, and the patches, I do of course have an internet connection, but that is because I can only afford the $9.95 a month for a Dialup.

I use to own an extremely fast fiber connection, but I was laid off, and things had to be trimmed back a bit. Mind you the dialup does annoy me at times, but it does the trick for now. Tomorrorw, my wife could be laid off, then no internet.

I'm not complaining, and it took me over 9 hours to download the demo, and I am very thankful to Norb for allowing the use of a download manager which I need. Most download sites won't even allow you to use a download manager in fear that some people may bleed their bandwidth dry.

Anyway...I am enjoying the demo.

Thanks again Norb.

[bedbug]

It seems to me your problem is more financial and protecting your investment which is totally understandable in todays world.
Too bad, as you've already done the heavy lifting of downloading the whole game.

[Michael Slaunwhite]

bedbug wrote:

It seems to me your problem is more financial and protecting your investment which is totally understandable in todays world.
To bad, as you've already done the heavy lifting of downloading the whole game.

Hi bedbug.

Being laid off does make one count their pennies. If I had my job, I doubt I would be spending so much time on worrying about purchasing this title.

Well, unfortunately for now that is the way it is, and not much can be done about it. Who knows what tomorrow brings, maybe I'll get that call.

Later!

[DrMike1997]

mikesla wrote:

DrMike1997 wrote:

have fun playing old games and consoles!

Hi.

Hmmm, actually I am one of those people who still have all the original games starting from 1987 till now. All DRM, but all do not require the internet to install, and play.

I have no idea how old you are DrMike, but it seems that only ones who do not have a problem with requiring the internet to play a game, are those who have grown up with the internet.

I have over 1034 ( I think) titles, all great titles, and non of them require the internet. You are trying to make it sound that the people like myself are the one's who are losing out, when I think it's you who is actually losing in the end.

While your games that are now useless to play because you have lost your internet is piling up in the closet, for me my games are all boxed, all organized in my specially built shelve unit. When I have guests over, they always comment on my collection, and which I still play to this very day because I have the manuals, and CD's, and I use Defend Reloaded to play them (those that require this program).

If your idea of a future where you need permission to play a game is your idea of heaven, all the power to you.

Later!

Well first of all I am 50 years old. (this is the first time I have been carded in quite a while :cheer:

The last couple of games I bought before this had DRMs much more obtrusive than
one that Norb has set up here. Once you activate your game you don't need to "get permission to play the game ever again! (unless you are playing on line) Your fears of 'losing your internet seem far fetched to me and of no consequence to your ability to play this game. Those old games you have; how many have you lost the ability to play because your computer os is no longer compatible with the games? I am willing to bet that you will have lost many more titles to os compatibility than you will ever lose because the internet has died. One of my first loves on the computer was the Original Red Baron. I still have the box, the floppy disk :woohoo: and all the manuals and maps to that game. However, because of the speed of modern computers it is unplayable. But why would I want to play it anyway? There is a game called Rise of flight that is so far ahead of that old game that it isn't even funny... oh wait ROF has a DRM horror of horrors.


Your argument that the internet isnt 100 % relaible is silly. Electricity isnt 100%
reliable either. I remember this one time, last spring, there was a big storm and the electricity was knocked out and I couldn't play any games on my computer. So, unitl this developer can come up with a product where I don't need electricity to play I wont buy the game :blink: :silly:

It is a good thing you have all those old games because it is unlikely that you will be able to purchase any new games. This is the least intrusive DRM I have seen in some time.

[norb]

The concept of the hard drive crash has already happened to a hand full of users and we've worked through the issues. We will not leave anyone hanging. I've also stated that if something were to happen to the company then we would remove the DRM and that when we are finished with this game, we will remove it. I believe that we have handled the vast majority of the concerns, but I know from past experience that it is impossible to handle every concern.

I'm also glad that we can have a civil discussion about this One argument that I have is that MS Windows requires activation as well. So if you have to activate the platform that this game runs on, I don't see a huge difference in activating a piece of software that runs on it.

[7th Cavalry]

I'm just wondering how many ancient computer one must have to play over 1,000 games dating back to the late 1980's. For goodness sake, I can't even play CWG2 on my Windows 7 rig, let alone games older than any of my four kids . . .


I can't run 'The Lost Crown' on my Windows 7 rig but have had success with older games .... Oh well.

[Mark Sam From Alabam]

Fair enough. Thanks for the response. I'm glad you have given the same pledge as Battlefront about deactivating the DRM if the company goes under. That does matter a lot to me.

[Slick Wilhelm]

I used to get really bent out of shape about this type of DRM when it first came out. But then, I realized a few things:

1) Internet connections are getting more stable every day.

2) It's not fair to lose income to software pirates.

3) There are so many quality war games released today, that I couldn't possibly find enough time to play all of the ones that I buy. So wanting to play SOWGB in ten years time will not be an issue. I'll most likely be playing the latest, greatest Gettysburg simulation.

4) DRM is here to stay. Until pirates stop stealing software, it's going to be with us, always.


That being said, I agree with the idea of allowing two activations instead of one. Even though online deactivation/activation of the license is relatively painless, I still find myself too lazy to walk upstairs, boot up my monster gaming rig and deactivate the license so that I can activate it and play the game on my laptop downstairs while I'm watching TV. I always end up playing the demo tutorial instead.

It would be "really nice" if we could log onto a website and change the activation there instead of having to do it via the machines.