To hell with (tm), (r) and other crap

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I must be a complete thicko but I still don't understand what on earth you are talking about. You're all venting and angry about something, but I can't work out what it is.

 

@Harbourboy : This topic is a part of "Corporations are evil (tm)" discussion I think.

They try to manage our gaming habits, create new rules just to make us pay more. All they want to do is to sell more games, gain more money... but they don't care about the quality of their products, if we're having fun with their games or not. It's the age of marketing we're living in and we're not happy with it. Pirating was a little off-topic I think.

Maybe I've completely misunderstood what chevalier(r) wrote so don't take me serious.

 

@ Harbourboy

Imagine this: you buy a brand new movie and pay the price with your hard-earned money. Real cash, swiftly and unreversably moved from your wallet to the next. A result of one hour of work, and your life, now gone like it never was.

Then, at home, you notice the fine-print behind the case. It read: "You have purchased a license to view this movie, which is valid for 2 weeks after it was viewed for the first time. During this time you can view the movie a maximum of three times in players that meet XYZ standards (something you don't have). Non-standard players will display a reduced picture quality."

But damn, the movie doesn't work at all. The money is gone and you didn't even see the movie. Wouldn't you feel a bit annoyed?

 

Yes. But that has never happened to me. On the rare occasions I buy a DVD, it has always worked fine.

 

That's the thing: it has never happened to you yet. With the new anti-piracy measures the likehood increases, not to mention that you have less rights.

 

So you are saying that there are new laws coming in which mean I won't be able to play DVDs any more? What are you talking about? Won't they go out of business if they do that?

 

Ah yes - I feel a little pissy over all this stuff at the moment. Not only does the PR talk get disgusting, but I've finally had an experience with new games and the ****ty copyprotection that they have.

To begin with the game wouldn't even install. I got around that by burning it to CD and installing it from that. Okay - two hours of my life wasted trying multiple ways to just install the bloody thing.

Right - the protection program kicks in and checks that it's the legal disc - obviously it isn't because I just burnt it (so much for backup copies...). So I change to the actual disc.

Alrighty then - finally the game works ... until it stops doing that. At some point it decides that the CD I have is not the legal one (having decided differently on several different occasions). It now refuses to run the game.

Finally I download a crack and all is well. All this **** for a game that I bought legally (I have very very few pirated games - those that are are mostly abandonware).

So Harbourboy: now do you see why people might be getting a little pissed off at how the games industry is going?

 

The peak of the copyright (tm) (r) (etc) is the Steam protection system. It is so artfully created that it is garented to stuff up your computer system in more ways then one. And it takes over three hours to set up if your on a 56k modem. and if you forget your password your registed games are usless (I have two copies of Half-Life 2 because of a "secure" company protection policy).

 

No, I'm saying that the companies will screw with with your legal rights at your own expense. Although, the way I see it, laws really do not matter much when a huge, international company begins to dictate rules.

 

Exactly. What RIAA does or M$ has done in the past is hardly legal. And the way copy protection aims to deprive you of backup copies. I sometimes think they pair up impenetrable (or they think so) copy protection with crappy disks just so that people will have to buy new copies of the software when the disks get scratched or wear off. And if you pay for the license as they claim, you should get replacement for what replacement disks cost only. Some of those EULAs even seem to say your children don't inherit it when you die. There must be a limit to all the one person one computer one whatever crap. If things go on like this, giving out spoilers is going to be prohibited. Wonder if they are going to forbid quoting books without express permission. Or you could go to prison for telling your buddy what a film was about that he didn't pay for the ticket to see. Or for whistling a tune in the street.

Another thing is that yes, with all their fancy new anti-piracy measures prices are not going to go down because there's no piracy anymore. Prices will go up because you have no alternative. And they will come up with 3-times viewable DVDs. Sure. Or games playable from hour X to hour Y. Or a one-run-through-the-OC RPG game. Why not? Imagine a D&D MMORPG with Premium Feats(tm) for Premium Customers($$).

What I hate about all the crap is that they sell you a normal, physical, tangible, real product with a ton of made-up crap of imposed restrictions, artificial and absurd as they are.

[ November 11, 2006, 02:24: Message edited by: chevalier ]

 

This may sound silly, stupid or whatever, but some time ago, some people sue a movie because it had the song "Happy birthday to you" and didn't credit it.
The song has copyrights
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp

 

Seems like the US law-makers are only interested of preventing the expiration of copyrighted material.

[ November 11, 2006, 22:18: Message edited by: Wordplay ]

 

It's strange, but such extensions usually correlate to the time that Mickey Mouse and Superman's earliest appearances would fall out of copyright.

 

Oh, wow; deja vu extreme! (or will I get sued by these guysfor saying that? )

Already had this rant over on other fora: Rant about...guess what - NWN2

What I said there (if you can stay awake through the long-winded diatribe) still holds; BUSINESS people are corrupting the law in shady and morally bankrupt ways with the intent of self-profit regardless of the consequences to the gaming industry.

Oh and Ofelix?

You've been doing that LOONG before Baldur's Gate, son - you never owned the software, just paid for *permission to use said s/w*...

But when I saw the thread title and the OP's name, I had to go change into a dry pair of britches!

 

No, because every game I have ever bought has worked perfectly on my PC. I'm not sure what you guys are all doing wrong, but when I buy a game, I put the disc in my drive and it virtually installs itself.

 

Um - HB - we're not doing anything wrong. It's not all in our heads and it's not the fault of our computers. If you've managed to avoid getting screwed so far you've either been lucky, or haven't bought all that many new games. It's a pretty widespread problem.

 

Why would anybody ever buy a game then, if they didn't work? I would just take it back to the shop and ask for one that does work. What you are saying still makes no sense to me. Every disc I have ever bought just works straight away. If there is a widespread problem with faulty discs, wouldn't the companies that make them all be going out of business?

 

It's not faulty discs, HB. It's the copyright protection software that makes you unable to install the game (from what I understand; I've never encountered it either, but I don't buy many new games). And while you would think that'd make them go out of business, when the majority are doing it, some people will actually put up with the problems in order to have ANY good games to play at all. Not to mention that you're not going to know that it won't work until you buy the game and try it, because most people buy new games when they come out. So the grapevine doesn't get them the message fast enough that it won't work, and the companies still get their money. Eventually it may cause gaming to dip considerably, but that will take quite a while to happen, and in the meantime people are getting screwed. Not to mention that an overall gaming dip isn't a good thing either.

But unless I'm mistaken, that's not quite the topic here. While I've never seen them adding the (tm) and (r) stuff all over the place, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they did. And putting it in dialogue to ruin immersion...well, marketing people get strange ideas.