Marthos
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Posts posted by Marthos
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I tried this on the 14 day free trial before it became free to play, but just couldn't get into it, the combat system bugged me the most. Does anyone know if there are any mmo's with a combat system like oblivion and also have first person view ?
I find WOW a bit too cartoonified for my tastes, shame really as that sort huge world is what I'm after.
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"It sure is fun whitewashing this fence!"
I see what you did there :thumbsup:
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Makes you wonder if it was Steams policy of "no returns" that attracted Bethesda.
Dont matter what the product is, if you get sold a duffer you open your trap and complain like hell.
Edited. You've been here long enough to know better. -myrmaad
Edited to add:
Indeed I have, my apologies Madae.
I'll try and word that one a bit better, I know it seems that putting complaints in doesn't seem to get you anywhere, but as a consumer paying good money for a product its your absolute right to complain if your less than satisfied with your purchase.
The way a lot of companies in all sorts of different product genre's operate these days tends to make you think they couldn't care less about their customers, but who knows, if enough people complain maybe some companies will start think, "hey, we need to sort this".
I'm not holding my breath on that but it costs nothing to try.
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The thing is that its not piracy thats directly costing us money, its the ineffectual attempts to combat it.
Yes game companies can calculate that theres X amount of pirated copies of their game being circulated and therefore calculate how much revenue they would have recieved if all those games were genuine, and that will amount to quite a lot of dosh.
But, if all those people hadn't been able to get their hands on a pirate version they wouldn't have all gone out and bought the genuine game as a matter of course, only a percentage would, so the amount of revenue lost isnt as great an amount as it first seems.
Moot point though as any amount of revenue lost due to piracy is TOO MUCH.
What "is" costing the game companies and therefore the customers (us) money and inconvenience are the somewhat clumsy, ill informed, poorly implemented and in some cases downright disgraceful attempts to combat piracy through the use of DRM.
Seriously, DRM doesn't work, Fallout New Vegas was cracked within hours of its release, as are most other games, so why keep on insistantly using a system that doesn't work and in a lot of cases alienates your customers because DRM is more of a PITA for your legitimate customers than it is for the pirates.
Drop the DRM, stop messing about wasting time and money and inconveniencing legitimate purchasers of your products.
Deal with pirates by catching the swines and for a first offence giving them a HUGE fine to pay, second offence = jail time, and before you say thats a bit harsh just remember, pirates are thieves and we pay the price for their thievery.
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Yup, its scary, whats even scarier is that you get Steam fanboys insulting the people who neither like nor trust Steam, the mind boggles.
Removing access to the games for people in the EU may be illigitimate and therefore equals the theft ( crime ) of a product purchased and paid for by the user but it still happens ( a lot ) these people dont know their rights and Steam walks all over them and to be honest, everybody else too.
The fact that they are mostly faceless and unreachable makes this even worse, they dont care about customer support because they dont have to face their customers.
I wish to high heaven that Steam was based in the UK, if they were, they would have already have had a visit, (hell, I enjoy driving) they owe me money and they owe me an apology.
For those that think Steam is the dogs nads, read the agreement, properly.
And those that think offline mode means offline mode, monitor your network traffic, after you do, dont whinge, you agreed to it.
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Came across this document whilst mooching about, it was written a while ago but is still applicable and raises some interesting (worrying) points.
I wonder just how many Steam users have actually read the agreement they have with Steam and whether or not they realise just what they have given Steam permission to do.
The document:
Violation of consumer rights with DRM-based usage control systemsAbstract: For a long while, DRM for computer games just meant copy protection and it wasn't a hot topic. This is about to change with the Internet enabling DRM-based online usage control systems. The case of Half-Life 2 illustrates the potential of this approach and how it can be abused to violate consumer rights. Even though most players are heavily complaining about the usage control system, most of them do not forgo to play Half-Life 2.
Introduction
Discussions about DRM usually focus on digital music or movies. The game market is often neglected in these discussions, despite its rising market size and the increasing relevance of DRM for the game industry.
In the USA 2001, the market volume of the game industry (9,4 billion Dollars) exceeded for the first time the turnover of the movie industry (8,1 billion Dollars) (Wirtz 2003, p. 493). The production and marketing costs of high quality games such as “Lord Of The Rings – The Two Towers” by market leader Electronic Arts was above 25 million Dollars (Jensen 2003, p. 49). Successful games like Myst have realized revenues of 125 million Dollars (Wirtz 2003, p. 493). It is estimated that the turnover of the PC and video game market worldwide is about 18,8 billion Euros (VUD 2005).
Rising importance of DRM in the game market
Piracy and the emergence of new DRM-based business models are a big issue in the game industry as well. National entertainment software associations worldwide like the British ELSPA (www.elspa.com) or the German VUD (www.vud.de) are complaining about massive sales losses due to illegal circulation of game copies. For example, it is estimated that in Germany about 11 million blank CDs/DVDs have been illegally used to burn copies of games between January and June 2004 (GfK 2004).
Therefore, the most important role of DRM in the traditional gaming market has been pure copy protection for CDs and DVDs. But other roles of DRM are gaining more and more importance. Similar to the digital music and movie market, DRM systems are now more frequently deployed to enable new online distribution (streaming, full-download) or revenue models (subscription services, pay per game/time).
In addition, new roles that are rather unique to the game market are gaining significance. Examples are the management of the game play and persistent online usage control. The management of game play relates to the control of a played game itself. For example, in multiplayer online role games, the developer is in charge to supervise a virtual world. Among other things, a developer prevents cheating among role players or controls the trade of virtual assets. Virtual assets, such as valuable weapons or virtual money, have often been traded on eBay without the permission of the game developer. Therefore, DRM can be implemented in virtual assets to control or restrict such trading.
Online usage control encompasses the management of access to and further usage of retail games via the Internet. Retail games are sold in CD or DVD boxes, which are usually played in offline modus on PCs. Traditional access control mechanisms of retail games are focused on a closed system environment: When the copy protection of a game has been cracked or a license number is shared, it can be easily disseminated to other systems beyond the developer’s control. However, the Internet has enabled new control mechanisms, which have the potential to manage the access and further use of a game persistently. They can be considered as DRM technology, because they give a content distributor a sophisticated means to manage game users’ rights persistently. Persistent usage control mechanisms have a special potential on the game market, because for game players there exist incentives to uphold an online relationship with the game developer. Unlike music or movies, games themselves are highly adaptable and can be enriched with additional features like new game levels, maps or weapons. There is a high demand for such features for an enhanced and continuous game play.
Online usage control systems force the purchaser of a retail game to validate it via the developer’s online platform. If a developer assumes an illegal use, he may disable an account instantly. Game access activation can be required only once during game installation or repeatedly over a given period. The latter gives the game provider an ongoing control system to identify illegal licenses. Although a user might have successfully registered an unlicensed copy of a game at the initial activation process, he cannot be sure if this illegal license will not be detected the next time. As a result, to crack a game only once will not be sufficient any more. This is especially efficient against the casual user, who often receives cracked games or licenses from friends.
Case Study: Half-Life 2
The first game developer to use DRM as an online usage control system for retail games is Valve. Valve uses its online platform "Steam" as a Digital Rights Management system to verify legitimate access keys and to keep control of the further usage of its games. Steam is also deployed to administer customer billing, to provide updates and to allow the users to backup games on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. Valve introduced Steam as a DRM system with the release of Half-Life 2 in October 2004. Half-Life 2 is a so-called first-person shooter game, in which the user basically takes a first-person perspective in a three-dimensional space to battle against enemies. It also provides the option to play it in a multi-player mode. Half-Life 2 is a long-awaited sequel to Half-Life in the game community. Its production time was several years.
To install Half-Life 2, Valve requires in addition to an online activation the creation of a personalized online account via Steam. If Steam detects any identical licenses, it will cancel all accounts that have used these licenses. Steam even disables the account of the user that originally obtained the license legally. Valve claims to have cancelled more than 50.000 (allegedly) illegal accounts so far.
Beyond the pure authorization of legally obtained games, Valve’s Steam also has the potential to intensively control the user. For example, Steam has been abused to postpone the point in time when users were able to start playing Half-Life 2. After the official release of Half-Live 2 in November 2004, purchasers were not able to install and play their games for almost one week. Valve had been in a contractual licensing dispute with its distributor Vivendi, which did not allow Valve to unlock Half-Life 2 during this legal issue. In this case, the purchasers of Half-Life 2 were locked in a licensing battle between two corporations (Grimmelmann 2003).
The relevance of usage control systems will gain significance, when they are used to enforce changes to an End User License Agreement (EULA). For example, Valve reserves the right to change fees or billing methods at any time. Therefore they force users to agree to review the EULA periodically for any amendments:
"Valve reserves the right to change (…) fees or billing methods at any time and Valve will provide notice of any such change in at least thirty (30) days advance. All changes will be posted as amendments to this Agreement or in the Rules of Use and you are responsible for reviewing the billing section of Steam to obtain timely notice of such changes."
"Your non-cancellation of your Account thirty (30) days after posting of the changes on Steam means that you accept such changes“ (Steam 2005, section 4b).
In other words, Valve basically allows its customers to use their game only as long as Valve wants them to have it. Valve claims the right to demand additional fees at any time without notifying its customers personally. When a user connects to Steam to receive additional features or necessary patches, which are normally provided for free, he cannot be sure if he will not be billed. With Steam, any changes in the EULA will affect the game user instantly. Regardless of whether Valve has the legal right or not to disable accounts, Valve can simply do it. And if one considers going to court, it is especially difficult for non-US citizens to sue this US-based company for any unfair practice. With Steam in combination with its EULA, Valve can be described as judge, jury and executioner.
In another section of the EULA, Valve claims the right to download via Steam additional software or updates on users’ computers without noticing them:
"Steam and your Subscription(s) require (…) the automatic download of software, other content and updates thereto onto your computer. (…) You understand that Steam may automatically update, pre-load, create new versions or otherwise enhance the Steam Software and accordingly, the system requirements to use the Steam Software may change over time" (Steam 2005, section 2b).
Users of Half-Life 2 have to agree that Valve is going to download software beyond the users’ control, when they connect to Steam. This can be convenient to keep the game up-to-date automatically. But the consumers do not have the choice whether they are going to allow it or not. This lack of control is especially critical, because Valve does not guarantee that the downloads will be virus-free or secure (Steam 2005, section 9b).
Even though playing the game does not require a connection to Steam after the initial activation process, the default setting of Half-Life 2 automatically establishes an online connection to Half-Life 2. Many game players are not aware of the possibility to play this game in offline mode and changing the default settings is rather complicated. The documentation about this function is limited.
How do the consumers react?
However, Valve’s online usage control system and its restrictive EULA did not result in low sales of the game. Quite the opposite can be observed: Between November 2004 and January 2005 Half-Life 2 has been sold more than 1.7 million times. Currently it is still one of the best sold games worldwide.
Looking at different game forums on Half-Life 2, the online activation via Steam and the continuous binding to this online platform is by far the most discussed topic. But although there are mostly massive complaints about Valve’s rigid usage control system, most of the players would not forgo buying the game. In contrast, there are hardly any extensive discussions on how DRM systems might enforce amendments to the End User License Agreement. Therefore it can be assumed that most users of Half-Life 2 are not aware of the content of the EULA. Often users of games or other software products do not read EULAs. EULAs are considered too long and incomprehensible. Above that, Valve’s EULA is only available in English, which is a hurdle for many non-English speakers. It can be assumed that most users are not aware of how amendments in the EULA can be enforced by Steam. Game players have so far no experience with this kind of extensive user control.
This case is also about transparency. Recently the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) sent a cease and desist order to Valve and its distributor Vivendi, complaining about their insufficient DRM information policy. The term „Internet connection“ as a requirement is merely listed in the “other” category on retail boxes. The need for online activation is not clearly indicated. Because the EULA is only available in English and cannot be read before the purchase it raises the question, whether it is at all legally valid. However, Steam is still in use and controls 1,7 million customer accounts at its will with its DRM.
Bottom line
DRM-based usage control systems can be abused to violate consumer rights. It is alarming to see how little consumers have reacted to this practice and that it has not negatively affected sales of the game. This could pose an incentive for other developers on the game market to use online usage control system to restrict consumers' rights. DRMs developments on the game market, therefore, have to be closely watched in the future.
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No tinfoil hat needed, I've seen that happen quite often over there, and you could say that now is a "sensitive" time for Bethesda.
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You know your tired when you wake up, hands still on the wheel and think you're still driving, then realise you're parked on your drive, nearly had to change my pants after that one.
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English and fluent in Geordie
Canna wacka man, wa ya tackin aboot, whyaye like.
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People have paid good money for this, they have a right to be unhappy.
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If it was that easy the pirates would have already done it, or have they ?
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He's 11 years old and can't afford to buy a legit copy? Steam is very good.
Why do the Steam Lovers always see fit to immediately insult some one that states they don't like Steam ?
I mean seriously !!!
He doesn't like Steam, he's not eleven years old, he's probably got more dosh than you, he's not a dick, he knows all about Steam and exactly what it does and thats why he doesn't want it on his PC and neither do I.
Which means that I'll miss out on Fallout NV unless Bethesda release a version that doesn't need Steam but I'd rather that than have Steam back on my PC.
Yes, I've tried Steam, and I'm chronically disgusted at their business ethics, what their software does and its intrusiveness, their lack of customer support (support ticket? LMAO), and their almost total monopoly of PC gaming.
My money, my computer, my CHOICE.
And here's another thing, Steam states that when (yes I said "when", not if) they go bust and stop trading they will make it so that all games purchased or registered through Steam will be made playable without Steam.
OK, just ask yourselves this.
HOW ?
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This whole activation thing is turning into some sort of demented joke, admittedly at the legitimate purchasers expense (literally).
What ever they come up with to stop the pirating of games will be defeated sooner than later if not immediately.
You are forced to have an internet connection.
You are told to "take your PC to a friends house that has internet if you don't".
You are forced to download and install 3rd party software.
Said 3rd party software (Steam) constantly monitors your software and hardware enviroment.
Said 3rd party software (Steam) customer support unreachable to the extent of being none existent.
Said 3rd party software is as relible as an ancient Skoda.
I'm a perfectly reasonable middle aged adult with scruples and I don't like being unreasonably dictated to.
And all this for a game thats going to cost about 20 quid something.
FOR GODS SAKE.
What else has these sort of conditions ?
Do you have to have pain in the pants 3rd party sofware to activate and use your new:
Book ?
CD ?
DVD ?
Blu Ray ?
Watch ?
Hifi ?
Car ?
Underkeks ?
Its going too far and the ones suffering aren't the game pirates, its us, the average joe's legally buying the games.
It Stinks.
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Steams support section recommends that if you are having problems running "Steam" you should disable UAC and/or disable your Antivirus program.
WHAT ?
Any online retailer who provides software and recommends that wants a bullet, period.
I feel badly let down by Bethesda on this one and will not be purchasing any of their games that require Steam activation so they've just lost a customer.
I know I'm only one person and therein lies the problem, who gives a toss about one customer, or even a few customers, Steam doesn't, and it now seems that Bethesda doesn't either, shame on them.
Untill people vote with their feet, those same people will continue be walked on.
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Did you try?
Yup
We cant be held liable for what may have been caused by a fault with your PC
No Refunds
Period
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Not puttin it up on here, don't want to spoil it for others :teehee:
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"Welcome aboard our swamp icebreaker" lol.
Loved all three of these games, they have kept me busy while waiting for new stuff from Bethesda. I know they have bugs but that can be sorted with mods etc. I think the atmosphere in them is outstanding, and nevermind Snorks, its those invisible Bloodsuckers that give me the willies.
Just replayed through Call of Pripyat with the "White Mod" installed, gave the game that cold snowy Siberian always winter impression that many westerners seem to have of that area of the world, twas quite excellent.
If you like the Stalker series you might like Metro 2033 as its made by a group that broke away from the Stalker gamemakers to do their own thing, similar post apocalyptic genre but more linear gameplay but I forgave its linearity when it started to creep me out in the tunnels etc.
Later in the game theres plenty of unexpected cack yer pants moments and one in particular had my heart hammering away like a steam train, my housemate laughed himself silly at me till he played it and shat his pants at the same moment.
Wish there was more game out there like these.
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Well
I too was wondering "why all the hate for Steam" ?
Well now I hate it too.
Call me old fashioned but I prefer to go to the shop and buy my games, on a disc, then its either in the drive being played or in its case on the shelf, I bought it, its mine.
I can still do that but I disliked the idea of being forced to install another program just to run the game I've forked out my cash for, notice I only used the word "dislike" at this time.
A couple of the games I bought recently required Steam activation, (Metro 2033 & Sniper Ghost Warrior) so I had to install Steam, and hey, everything was peachy, the games ran fine and I had no issues at all.
So I bought a game on Steam (Gothic 3) and downladed it, wish I hadn't.
The game downloaded and I clicked "play game" and it all went to cack, screen went black, PC locked up and I had to turn it of via the power switch. I started her up and tried again, same result so booted up again and tried to run another game, one that had been working fine before hand, it wouldn't start, in fact none of them would. This file is missing, as is that one etc etc.
After having a look about I found that it had tried to overwrite Directx files and only succeeded in corrupting them, same with the Visual Basic Runtimes file too. It had also dumped a shedload of game files, Directx files and Visual Basic files on my D drive (backup & storage, no programs installed on it). In the Gothic 3 folder in the steamapps folder, half the game files were missing.
So I'm pretty dischuffed and what recourse do I have ? None, naada, zip, if I'd bought it in a shop I'd have been down there till I got my dosh back but as its Steam there aint a damn thing I can do.
For all those that say things like "the only people that hate Steam are the ones that haven't tried it", hey I've got news for you, some of us hate it because we have tried it.
As for me, rather than try and repair all the files that were corrupted, its format dot com day tomorrow and I really didn't want to put Steam back on afterwards, which would have meant that my Metro 2033 and Sniper Ghost Warrior couldn't be played again but I could have lived with that.
But now that Fallout New Vegas is Steam activated I'll have to install it again, so thanks for that Bethesda, thanks very much indeed.
If there's any game dev's out there that read through these boards and threads like this one (doubt it) I'll give you one piece of advice.
Yes piracy sucks and costs the industry a fortune in lost revenue, but please, come up with a way to combat it without forcing more and more restrictions, limitations and conditions on the legitimate purchasers of your products.
I for one am sick of being penalised for the actions of others.
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You HAVE to convert
I rest my case.
Though perfectly acceptable results can be and are obtained every day the world over "We HAVE to convert"
This is the sort of narrow one track thought process used by the Euro MP's in their quest to standardise everything.
I'm going to withdraw from this debate now as it seems impossible for the Metricists to see or consider any point of view other than their own and I'm starting to get angry and these forums arent the place for that.
Nice talking with you folks.
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@ginnyfizz
Okay, there is no problem ... xD
But theoretically could make a law.
(I for myself wouldn't start adopting a whole production line into metric while everyone else decided to stay with imperial.)
Do you think that all your industry in Germany uses Metric for everything ?
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Well said Vagrant and perfectly well put.
One thing that your well informed post brought to the fore is the fact that there are still hundreds? thousands? hundreds of thousands of business's out there that are still tooled up with Imperial measured machinery, can you imagine the cost of replacing / converting all that if some law is passed saying it can no longer be used, or what percentage of those business's would survive?
Dont forget, theres more than one Imperial, you've got AF (American Fine), NPT (National Pipe Thread), BSP BSPP BSPT (British Standard Pipe / standard / parallel / tapered), BA (British Association Imperial), NPTF (National Pipe Thread "Fuel"), UNF (Unified Fine), UNC (Unified Coarse) and Whitworth Imperial just to mention a few.
Also, in some industries Americans decimilised Imperial measures after the point, so you would get a measurement of say, 2.75 inches rather than 2 and three quarter inches, they did this as the programs used to control computer driven machinery could understand the fractional measurements, ie: 3/4 3/16 etc, they could process the whole units so a decimilisation of Imperial was used, ie as mention before, 2.75 inch etc.
Sounds like a difficult system and it is but its still in use today, and theres another 50 or so or even more that I dont know about, all of them imperial measurements still used in industries today.
Total converstion to Metric in every industry and sector would beggar global economy and take generations to impliment and some Eurotwit MP is worried about eggs and balls of wool and a bag of sweet peanuts being sold by the gram :rolleyes:
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Your not getting my point.
Our use of Imperial doesnt cause any problems for anybody else as we can quite happily use Metric when dealing with people like yourself who are used to Metric only, Theres no pita for anybody.
What is so hard to understand about that statement ?
Just because I prefer to use Imperial doesn't mean I'm trying to make you or anybody else use it.
Btw
3 cubic feet in litres still comes to 84.9505398 litres
A useful website for you.
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I said, "Metric or Imperial are measurement units, we get by quite happily using both.".
You said "You are already metric".
Well obviously, or we wouldn't be fluent in both would we?
No I don't know what 3 cubic feet are in litres without looking, after looking I can tell you that 3 (cubic feet) = 84.9505398 litres.
And thats the point, I can look and find the answer, took me ten seconds, dont tell me you can work out every metric equation on the planet without having to look something up.
I know that these laws are made for industry and comercial sectors etc, do you think that doesn't knock on to the average Joe in the street?
Once again, its about choice, I choose to use Imperial because I want to, works for me and many people I know and deal with, when I need to I use Metric to suit the needs of others, I do so, whats the problem with that ?
You also stated,
"Despite of having old measures and units - who seriously wants to be bothered with them if you are not English?".
I think you haven't been paying attention, Imperial isnt being pushed on anybody else, so that statement is rather irrelevant.
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Why does this appear to be so hard for some to understand ?
Metric or Imperial are measurement units, we get by quite happily using both.
When we need to use Metric we do so.
When we "want" to use Imperial, we can.
One isnt better than the other at doing its job, either will tell you how long, short or heavy something is, so comments like "Metric is better" just states that the person making the comment prefers metric.
Folk in the UK aren't trying to push Imperial on anybody else so why the need to pass a law that says "YOU WILL USE METRIC" when we are fluent in both ?
Its our "choice" to use which measurement system we want to and I don't see why anybody should have the right to take that away from us.
So, Arcania, Gothic 4
in PC Gaming
Posted
Bought this the other day and after half an hour of playing it, I wish I hadn't.
A Gothic it is not.
It could have been great, all the ingredients were there but God knows what Jowood were thinking of with this one.
The good:
I was facinated when talking to NPC characters as the facial textures and animations were so realistic that I was gobsmacked.
The in game music and effects sounds were good too.
There's loads of high quality textures and the game world would have been beautiful.
Now the bad:
Its a complete and utter console port.
The game world would have been beautiful but there's no support ingame for Anti-Aliasing or Anistropic Filtering, even after enabling them in the ATI CCC neither showed in game, after a quick google I found loads of people were complaining about the same thing, I also found that loads of people were complaining about their threads about it being deleted on the Jowood forums, hmmmm.
Unfortunately without AA and AF, the games is a blurry flickering jagfest.
The plot, nap, nada, you really don't wanna know.
Open world as stated ? No, invisible walls everywhere and you can't go anywhere unless your progressing with the quest.
The voice acting, is rather not good and makes the Oblivion voice actors sound like Oscar winners, in fact I'd rather have a prolonged lust session with Bella Emburg than listen to it.
Result:
Uninstalled.
If you really want to buy it, go for the console version, least you might be able to flog it on afterwards.