DRM Shuts Down Gears of War PC - Updated
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Like Grobut said, it's all about money, but don't worry, pirates fight for your freedom. 
New generation motherboards include the TPM (or h/w DRM), but there's always going to be some sort of way to disable that. Be that with a h/w mod or software emulation. Even if piracy stops now, there WILL be TPM enforcement, just because everything in this god damn world is about controlling others. Laws, police, terrorism, religion, politics ... you name it. That's something all Europeans realized when Russia stopped the natural gas for a week. The one in control holds the aces that win his game.
New generation motherboards include the TPM (or h/w DRM), but there's always going to be some sort of way to disable that. Be that with a h/w mod or software emulation. Even if piracy stops now, there WILL be TPM enforcement, just because everything in this god damn world is about controlling others. Laws, police, terrorism, religion, politics ... you name it. That's something all Europeans realized when Russia stopped the natural gas for a week. The one in control holds the aces that win his game.
LOL, pirates do not fight for your freedom, they do it because they do not want to pay for the games they play. Seriously, are you going to say that most pirates steal software because they are protecting consumers? That would be what Col Potter used to refer to as "horse puckey."Like Grobut said, it's all about money, but don't worry, pirates fight for your freedom.
I remember playing old forgotten realms roleplaying games on my commodore 64.
At certain points in the game you had a random "code" generated that had to be looked up on a spinning code wheel. If you didnt buy the game, you didnt have the wheel, and you couldnt progress at all.
It's sad that a little cardboard wheel with a pushpin was 10x more effective than all the expensive research they've put into failed DRMs.
I remember those, they were barely effective at all. Whenever those games were cracked, the cracked versions would usually just allow you to input random digits and letters.
that's the theory, but I wonder how many actually understand (or would bother) with checking the certificate ?
I'd argue that the flaw is in the design of GfW instead.
Shouldn't the GfW-'certification' check for potential problems like this ?
If it doesn't then I wonder how many GfW-games will fail in the near future as their code-sign certificates expire ...
Lots of things are not meant to be used for DRM, but that doesn't mean no one will.
it's pretty easy to get confused though as it isn't something most people will know about until stuff like this happens.
I really wouldn't want to be working the phones at EA right now. I'm pretty certain they were using SafeDisc in The Sims line of titles up until they switch to SecuRom a couple years ago.
Grobut pretty much explained what i meant in my original post, i just didnt have the patience to do it, evil is of course a metaphor for the fact they dont care about you.
As far as what you are saying Crotale, you are confusing two things - leechers, the people that download stuff, and the scene groups to hack, rip, and release stuff. And yes, the scene groups are fighting for freedom of information and speech and generally consumer rights, go research hacker culture, the hacker manifesto, interviews with scene members, and also if you happen across an NFO file from a scene release (from torrent, for ex), you can check they always include the text for you to buy the game and support the developers.
DRM and any kind of enforcing policies are control measures, and serious hacker / scene groups are, for the most part, trying to ensure the shackles arent enforced too tighly around us. There are, of course, people doing it for the lulz, but its like everything, its not black and white, but shades of grey.
For the most part, big business isnt your friend, they dont care about you, and need counter mechanisms to be held in check - simple cause and effect, for every action, there needs to be a reaction. For every movement there is a counter movement.
In this case, we are talking about socio-political and economical ramifications, but its the same everywhere. Its not about silly conspiracies, its just how the world works.
Masakari said it right, but I'll add something more:
Yes, the ones cracking the software are fighting for something. Even if it's not freedom, it's to prove what they are capable of. The fact that it's against the law is what makes it thrilling I presume. Why do people jump off from tall buildings with wing suits (or whatever they are called) when it's against the law? The experience, that's why. Hackers don't do it to earn money or because they don't want to pay for a product. They actually buy whatever they are using and if there is no protection there will be no crackers.
An interesting update:
http://i44.tinypic.com/15yetlw.jpg
If true, then this puts a slightly different spin on things. I can understand this being part of an anti-cheat implementation since it seems that the easiest way to check for an original OEM .EXE would be to either check the MD5 hash or look for some sort of certificate. So they do the latter. OK, fine. But what I don't get is why this is stopping EVERYONE from playing the game. Even on non anti-cheat servers, or even SP on your own machine for F's sake. What kind of ass hattery is that?! If that's indeed the case, then shame on Epic for shipping such a poorly designed system that failing a simple anti-cheat check renders the entire game inoperable for all users. Fail.
But on the subject of piracy, the notion that people downloading games/music/movies for free has anything to do with freedom is laugh-out-loud funny. I might cut you slack for something like lifting region coding from a DVD player, as that does allow you the freedom to watch a movie that you paid for from another region. Or that unlocking a cell phone that you paid for gives you the freedom to use it on another network (which you also pay for) or in another country. In general, I'd say that modifying something that you paid for so that you can use it the way you want to is always fair game in my book.
But getting stuff for free b/c you're too spoiled or lazy to pay for it? That's not protecting anyone's "freedom," that's being a thief. And not in a "steal from the rich, give to the poor" kinda way. In a "I'm stealing stuff because I'm cheap and I think I'm entitled" kinda way.
If someone wants to toil away tinkering with code for the challenge, then fine. But once they start making torrents and the like of the entire package so that anyone can play the game without paying for it? Then they're just being a douche.
http://i44.tinypic.com/15yetlw.jpg
If true, then this puts a slightly different spin on things. I can understand this being part of an anti-cheat implementation since it seems that the easiest way to check for an original OEM .EXE would be to either check the MD5 hash or look for some sort of certificate. So they do the latter. OK, fine. But what I don't get is why this is stopping EVERYONE from playing the game. Even on non anti-cheat servers, or even SP on your own machine for F's sake. What kind of ass hattery is that?! If that's indeed the case, then shame on Epic for shipping such a poorly designed system that failing a simple anti-cheat check renders the entire game inoperable for all users. Fail.
But on the subject of piracy, the notion that people downloading games/music/movies for free has anything to do with freedom is laugh-out-loud funny. I might cut you slack for something like lifting region coding from a DVD player, as that does allow you the freedom to watch a movie that you paid for from another region. Or that unlocking a cell phone that you paid for gives you the freedom to use it on another network (which you also pay for) or in another country. In general, I'd say that modifying something that you paid for so that you can use it the way you want to is always fair game in my book.
But getting stuff for free b/c you're too spoiled or lazy to pay for it? That's not protecting anyone's "freedom," that's being a thief. And not in a "steal from the rich, give to the poor" kinda way. In a "I'm stealing stuff because I'm cheap and I think I'm entitled" kinda way.
If someone wants to toil away tinkering with code for the challenge, then fine. But once they start making torrents and the like of the entire package so that anyone can play the game without paying for it? Then they're just being a douche.
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BooGiTyBoY
The ImPaCt-DaMpeNeD BooGeRaToR
I pirate games.
I do it for my own personal needs and not anyone's "freedom."
I buy games I like enough and will get my moneys worth out of and is designed by a company I want to support.
I pirate games I know I wont play more than a couple hours or is single player only and I know ill be done with it the first time through or possibly may not even finish it.
If Im pleasantly surprised by the sp's replayability or online play, I will go out and buy a legal version.
I basically look at pirated games as an extended demo. Sometimes you just cant judge a game by the actual demo if one is even released as it's not always an accurate representation of the full product plus the fact it may run completely different on your system from demo to first release.
Think of a movie you've seen tons of trailers for and looks freakin' awesome. You are going to the movie theater and spending your money based on a 2 minute clip on television.
You then sit through 2 HOURS of a horrible film, and come out feeling like you wasted your money and realize the trailers made the piece of sh!t you just sat through look like polished gold.
Same happens with game demos. You play a level and go WOW this is FREAKIN AMAZING AND INNOVATIVE AND BLAH BLAH BLAH and you must buy it. Then you get the full verison and realize the "ooooh and aaaaaah" factor lasts that one level and the rest of the game is completely mundane and craptastic.
Pirated games have their advantages and disadvantages. As was mentioned above, it circumvents retarded DRMs. Hell I even use cracked exe's for games I legally bought due to this. Disadvantage though is you usually dont get multiplayer which in some games is worthless without (L4D anyone?) and in some cases you cant fully update the game as patched exe's sometimes are late as heck or never get made in the first place.
But to say "Pirating is good" in any manner is just silly. You are still stealing from the company and breaking the law in many countries. I have no misconceptions about what I do whether I justify the "why" or not.
I do it for my own personal needs and not anyone's "freedom."
I buy games I like enough and will get my moneys worth out of and is designed by a company I want to support.
I pirate games I know I wont play more than a couple hours or is single player only and I know ill be done with it the first time through or possibly may not even finish it.
If Im pleasantly surprised by the sp's replayability or online play, I will go out and buy a legal version.
I basically look at pirated games as an extended demo. Sometimes you just cant judge a game by the actual demo if one is even released as it's not always an accurate representation of the full product plus the fact it may run completely different on your system from demo to first release.
Think of a movie you've seen tons of trailers for and looks freakin' awesome. You are going to the movie theater and spending your money based on a 2 minute clip on television.
You then sit through 2 HOURS of a horrible film, and come out feeling like you wasted your money and realize the trailers made the piece of sh!t you just sat through look like polished gold.
Same happens with game demos. You play a level and go WOW this is FREAKIN AMAZING AND INNOVATIVE AND BLAH BLAH BLAH and you must buy it. Then you get the full verison and realize the "ooooh and aaaaaah" factor lasts that one level and the rest of the game is completely mundane and craptastic.
Pirated games have their advantages and disadvantages. As was mentioned above, it circumvents retarded DRMs. Hell I even use cracked exe's for games I legally bought due to this. Disadvantage though is you usually dont get multiplayer which in some games is worthless without (L4D anyone?) and in some cases you cant fully update the game as patched exe's sometimes are late as heck or never get made in the first place.
But to say "Pirating is good" in any manner is just silly. You are still stealing from the company and breaking the law in many countries. I have no misconceptions about what I do whether I justify the "why" or not.
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BooGiTyBoY
The ImPaCt-DaMpeNeD BooGeRaToR
Well then at least you're honest with yourself about it. You can rationalize and try to justify all you want, but it's still illegal and immoral IMHO. As opposed to, say, downloading a cracked EXE for something you legally own (like a no-CD crack) which is also illegal, but totally moral IMHO.
To put it in perspective, I think stealing games because you want an extended demo is like saying "The test drives they give at car dealerships are too short. So I like to come back on Sundays when they're closed, and steal the cars off the lot. I drive them around for 24 hours, and then bring them back. If I like it, I'll come back on Monday and buy it."
OK, so maybe you didn't truly harm anyone, but it's still wrong.
The people downloading the torrent are NOT the ones creating it. Also, these things are posted on scene trackers, where a small amount of people have access, which means that the torrents are spread by someone else, not the one who created the torrent for the scene.
95% of the ppl do. But I don't believe, that you play the game, and then buy it, just for the sake of having bought it, since you already played it.
The leechers are just like a living botnet. Leechers are traced as criminals in many counrtries, and held responsible for the "damage" they do - Only, because they're easiest to find. It's much harder to trace the real criminals - the crackers themselves. The leechers only accept an offer in the internet, and theoretically, they cannot be held responsible for that, because they cannot know, that the offer is illegal (it's like buying a stolen car, and not knowing about it). The crackers are the ones who are selling the stolen car, and imo, they should be convicted ones in the end. But they're smarter than the masses, so for a big company, it's just easier to milk hundreds of the leechers instead of finding and judging the source of the problem.
Personally, i had many experiences about cracked games. I bought all the games i played, or friends borrowed me them, when they wanted to make me play it. But in some cases, i just have to thank crackers for their work, because some games just don't run without it and they increase the quality of the games.
For example, a Starforce Protected game messed up my system, (wasn't able to boot anymore->system repair), because it was not compatible with 64 bit, which was not indicated on the packaging. Cracks help! Some Copy-protected games weren't recognized by my S-ATA drives correctly, because I also a IDE drive, and they wanted me to insert the DVD to that drive, but I think, it's MY decision what drive i use (in the IDE drive, there was a DVD-RAM which i was using for backups etc. and never removed). Crackers help! One year later, copy protection was messing up my 300€ Blu Ray drive. (weird noises) crackers prevent damage! To prevent DVDs and CDs from being stolen from my laptop, and myself from having to carry additional, i also have to crack the games on it, when i'm on the go. I mean, what's real stealing? Stealing the CD from a laptop or cracking a game I bought? I alsodon't give the cracks to anybody, if they don't have a reason like me. I'm aware of most ppl just wanting to play the game for free.
Also, without crackers, all the nice games we can play now won't be playable anymore in 10 years. Do you really think, that we still have S-ATA DVD drives to check the CD then? Do you really think, that the DRM Servers are online in 10 yrs? I don't.
In germany, many ppl download their games on bittorrent, just because they aren't available in germany at all. Yes, it's even illegal to sell them, so people just pirate them, because pirating Manhunt, Comdemned etc. is less illegal than selling them! (is till buy these games, but have to hope, that they don't open the package, i'm smuggling over the border
)so - can someone please change the news title to something like "Cheat Protection shuts down Gears of War PC"?
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Methinks that number is rather hyberbolic.. if only 5% of gamers actually bought games, then thouse 5% certainly do buy an impressive amount of them to reach the sales figures games actually reach..
Nah, its still used as DRM, if it where just kicking people from servers due to thinking it detects a cheat, then it would be cheat protection gone bad, but it goes well beyond that, it prevents the whole game from beeing launched, similar to if you got your Steam account disabled for cheating, and that places it firmly in the realm of DRM.
And i don't really care if it was intended for that purpose or not, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck.. i'll call it a duck!