EA to start charging for Online play with used games

[Ed Oscuro]

I just don't like how it's always loaded into RAM even when I'm not using it.

Edit: I misunderstood what you meant. Second try...

You unload it from RAM by stopping the program. There is an easy setting to stop the program from loading at startup - in the Settings menu there is a box checked by default for starting along with the computer. Then, whenever you decide to game on Steam, you just spend a few seconds loading Steam up. I'd rather load Steam when I want it, instead of having it waste my time when I load my computer, as you also seem to prefer.

Options are useful, don't forget to look at them. Lots of programs do this "load with Windows" crap by default, but for many you can stop it.

Other steps you can take are going to mini mode (or whatever it's called now...the first version of the new style recently released didn't have the option that I saw, but another update put it back in I think), and going Offline from the Friends menu to save a very small bit of CPU / internet bandwidth if you aren't using the chat function.

[Therealqtip]

Wait gamestop supports this? lolwut?

[Viper187]

With the millions of sales of multiple titles, are some of the bugs that bad? No game is perfect. I think, being on the internet, we hear from the more vocal minority than anything in many cases. And I don't get your beef with encrypted online content. Um, if the content is for your game, what's the big deal that it's encrypted?

Bugs used to be a lot more rare. Sure, you can crash Mario RPG, but you really have to try. Now there are bugs all the time, and they only patch them half the time. I've seen mention of glitched achievements on 360 too, not that those were a good idea to begin with. Most of them are mind-numbing crap. Plus, there's a serious lack of in-game cheats this generation compared to previous ones. The encrypted content is bad because (1) you can't back it up and just restore it if your drive crashes, and (2) I'm not even sure putting an HDD with encrypted content on a different 360 works. Encryption just complicates things all around and there's no point to it. People are still cracking the downloadable content for use on modded consoles.

While I'm not one to let go of things easily, I'm starting to dig digital distribution. It has the potential to offer games to people at lower prices than retail. Granted, it could all come tumbling down years later but for the majority of people who game, they probably wouldn't care. Remember, we here that hang at DP are a minority. Gaming will continue as it was, just not in disc form. The only thing that would "kill" anything would be individual titles that require regular DLC to make it playable.

Have you heard about what Warner started with movies? The WB Archive. They burn titles to order. Why can't game companies do that instead of us being stuck paying out the ass for some titles that either got under-printed or were ubsurdly popular? Look at PC games. Once they're a few years old, you can rarely find them retail. They could easily burn those to order. Instead, they'll sit there and whine that people are pirating the old games instead of buying the new ones. They rarely seem to keep old games available. That's another issue with DRM and requiring online connections for singleplayer stuff. They can turn off the verification servers anytime and there goes your copy of Assassin's Creed 2 unless you crack it. Kind of like those digital copies of movies they keep including with DVD/BD releases. The activation code is only good for a few months or a year then the disc is worthless because of the DRM. Doesn't stop anyone from sharing copies of the DVD or blu-ray itself online though.

You make it sound like ALL games are like that. And people really have THAT big of a beef with having a disc in the drive? Why even play on your consoles? Gotta keep the disc in the drive and the 360 and PS3 have hard drives....

Yes, we do. I've got terrabytes of HDD space. There's no reason to keep a disc in the drive. I won't do it. Consoles have always been, insert game and play without installing. Now PS3, I would argue with. I actually heard that Sony forces all publishers to use the same disc access functions and the functions are so insane that putting a faster BD-rom in the things would break the games. Why would they want to be stuck with 1X drives in those things forever instead of giving people an incentive to buy a newer "special edition" console with an 8X BD-rom? PC games installed no matter what speed CD/DVD drive you have. You have to wonder what kind of idiot would want to hard code things to the speed of the optical.

As for the "certain OS's"-what's the deal with that? After a while, OS's like Win 9X or 2000 just don't have the ability to run the new stuff. Why should Microsoft keep supporting their old OS's? That's like saying you should be able to send your Atari 2600 to the current Atari company and expect them to fix it.

Just out of curiosity, since you need to activate the software to use it, do you still buy software and crack it?

I mean most Starforce games worked on XP, but not XP 64-bit. Hell, they only worked on IDE CD/DVD drives, so people that adopted SATA early were screwed. Software? No, I've mostly taken to using linux anyway. I do still buy PC games on occasion.

Lots, looking at recent ticket sales. Reason: people like to go out. You can change this argument to ask "How many people actually WANT to eat at a restaurant anymore? Why go get raped for 2 dinners when I've got a cook top and an oven at home?!" I don't know about you, but while I've got a lot of fun stuff at home, I still like to go out to a theater to see a brand spanking new movie on the big screen with friends and family.

Eating at a restaurant is convenient though. It saves anyone cooking, cleaning up, etc. I've got a 50 inch TV here with surround sound. There's nothing convenient about burning gas to go to the theater when I can have a nice viewing experience here without noisy assholes and their cell phones.

Ok....now we're getting into conspiracy theory thoughts. Withholding DVD releases? C'mon. This has been a concept (theater first, home copies later) for like what, 30 years? Longer maybe as you could buy movies (or at least parts) on 8mm/Super 8mm/16 mm for home projector? Again, it's not about just the movie, it's about the experience. Like, why go to a live concert of your favorite rock band when you can buy the CD and crank up the tunes at home?

Conspiracy theory? Just because it's been that way for 30 years doesn't mean it SHOULD be. There was also a recent article about certain studios keeping their titles from netflix/blockbuster until a month or more after release. It's like these old directors that won't give up film grain. I've really never seen the point of concerts though. Bunch of screaming idiots listening to a singers that 9 times out of 10 sound better in the studio anyway. There are very few singers I'd really consider hearing live. I happen to enjoy the studio recordings.

So, you buy a used CD at $2, but what about the artist? Don't you want to support them so they continue to make the music you like? Oh wait, that's what concerts are for but hold on! You don't wanna get raped for a concert ticket when you can play that used CD on your surround sound system at home.

As far as supporting the artists, I'd love to support them if I didn't have to support the RIAA in the process. The record companies make more that the artists anyway. I'm tired of seeing TV shows on DVD with altered music and even new themes becuase the original music was to costly to put on DVD...even when the singer is freakin dead!! For example, the theme to Las Vegas was "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis, but it wasn't on the DVDs because the company cheaped out on the music rights. So excuse me if I choose to buy albums used and support the record industry as little as possible.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wait gamestop supports this? lolwut?

They want to deal more with shiny new games, less with nasty used ones. That and they likely want to stay on the good graces of the publishers who are moving this direction anyway - the writing is on the wall. You're right, they'd rather keep the used sales, but they must know they haven't any leverage there so they are moving towards areas where they can be relevant.

[kupomogli]

Off topic but I wanted to quote about this right here.

You can change this argument to ask "How many people actually WANT to eat at a restaurant anymore? Why go get raped for 2 dinners when I've got a cook top and an oven at home?!" I don't know about you, but while I've got a lot of fun stuff at home, I still like to go out to a theater to see a brand spanking new movie on the big screen with friends and family.

Eating at a restaurant is convenient though. It saves anyone cooking, cleaning up, etc. I've got a 50 inch TV here with surround sound. There's nothing convenient about burning gas to go to the theater when I can have a nice viewing experience here without noisy assholes and their cell phones.

I can't tell you the last time I ate at home or the last time I brought food to work. Well. I could, but it's a figure of speech. I rarely eat at home because it's not much more to eat out.

When it comes to purchasing food for work. Canned food and frozen meals are priced that it's far more affordable to stop at a fast food restuarant. Though it really depends on how far you work from a fast food restaurant on whether it's affordable or not.

Also. Movie theaters in this day and age aren't worth going to solely because most movies now days suck. If there's a movie that I want to watch I can always wait a year until it hits DVD and rentals are almost nothing in comparison to theater prices.

[Gameguy]

Edit: I misunderstood what you meant. Second try...

You unload it from RAM by stopping the program. There is an easy setting to stop the program from loading at startup - in the Settings menu there is a box checked by default for starting along with the computer. Then, whenever you decide to game on Steam, you just spend a few seconds loading Steam up. I'd rather load Steam when I want it, instead of having it waste my time when I load my computer, as you also seem to prefer.

Options are useful, don't forget to look at them. Lots of programs do this "load with Windows" crap by default, but for many you can stop it.

Other steps you can take are going to mini mode (or whatever it's called now...the first version of the new style recently released didn't have the option that I saw, but another update put it back in I think), and going Offline from the Friends menu to save a very small bit of CPU / internet bandwidth if you aren't using the chat function.

Thanks, I changed the setting. It didn't really slow down the computer at all, but I just don't like a bunch of stuff running when it doesn't need to be. I'm also just playing Portal while offline, I don't see a need to be online while playing it.

[Ed Oscuro]

haha my reply is so obnoxious and dictatorial it's ridiculous

THOU SHALT REMEMBER TO CHECK THE OPTIOSN!1

Anyway, glad to be of help!

[XYXZYZ]

I'm glad I stopped buying EA games a long time ago. FUCK YOU EA!!!!!

You know, it just occurred to me that the only EA game I've ever purchased was The Immortal for the NES.

[geezuzkhrist119]

u think the over flowing shelves of old used sport games at eb/gamestop was bad. just wait till this pass key bullshit starts up. im guessing EAs next move is to not have update Roster DLC which will make the customer by the newest version of the game.

im boycotting EA. So no Bad Company 2 for me.. FUCK EA!!!!!

[ScourDX]

I purchased some EA PC game such as Mirror Edge & Burnout Paradise. It was on clearance for $10. Even if I did purchased the game, I still end up playing the cracked version. I just want to play game without connecting online or register the product. If EA wants to sue my ass, I can show proof I did purchased their game.

[kupomogli]

I just remembered something.

Sega is the first one to do this with a console game(portable.) With Phantasy Star Portable 2, even though it has free infrastructure you're given a unique hunter's license in order to utilize the feature. So what happens if someone sells Phantasy Star Portable 2 and someone else picks it up used? They can't play it online.

I actually hope Phantasy Star Portable 2 keeps the feature when coming to the US. Not to combat used sales, but less piracy if those people want to play the game infrastructure.

http://www.siliconera.com/2009/10/02...product-codes/

*edit*

I also think the newest PSP Socom did the same thing also. Again for online.

[Howie6925]

Just seen at blockbuster(i forget what game it was for the ps3 ) but in order to play online you had to pay an extra $4.99 and it was on a rental copy. I was like WTF its getting out of hand.

[Zing]

It's like iTunes. The music on iTunes isn't even CD quality! It's lossy, DRM-infested crap, but people buy it because they either don't know any better or don't care. Offer up some nice, unmolested FLAC/WAV files and I'll happily buy them digitally. Otherwise, I'll buy a used CD for $2 and rip it to my HDD in the format I prefer to listen to.

Itunes is DRM free. It is also offered as 256kbps ABR files, which are going to be transparent to virtually everyone. Have you ABX'd AAC encoded songs at this bitrate compared to WAV?*

I also buy the physical CD, but only so I can rip to lossless, then encode how I see fit. It's also so I can scan the CD cover and keep that archived as well. I have purchased a few lossless releases (NIN in particular) and I have no complaints about them.

I agree that if Itunes decided to release the lossless versions of files, I might consider it. They actually have all the lossless encodes on their internal servers, since they require submissions in that format. It's just a matter of them "flipping the switch" and having the bandwidth to support 50MB per track file transfers.


*I have and I can't hear the difference (I have ~50% accuracy, which are the odds of guessing).