Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Which would be c.£1M to 6,454 backers.
About DRM and the need to connect to the internet
- Thread starter beelbeebub
- Start date
Which would be c.£1M to 6,454 backers.
The majority won't want a refund, but yes.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
The FAQ answer talks about updates and server synchronisation while not specifically referring to multi-player at the same time.
Even if only 10-20% want remedy, that's going to sting. Then you've got people turning around and cancelling pre-orders, as well as lost sales. That can add up fast. Deciding to drop offline could turn into an exceptionally expensive decision from the business perspective long term.
Well yes, but its their expensive decision to make. They can make up any short term financial needs by just issuing new shares to AIM.
Mm. Hence my speculative answer and adding online solo to that part of it. But I doubt we'll ever know now :/
Yes and surely, surely, someone at FD did an impact analysis on this decision to work out what was least costly..but I have a niggling doubt they did not, it sounds engineering led instead of business led.
Last edited:
The real kicker is attempting to factor in for lost sales (which is always a hard one, you can trendline based on pre-order cancellations and in this case, kickstarter refund requests, and that might give you a dovetail to work with for a rough idea to see what -kind- of financial damage you might be looking at), but then you've also got the reputational damage and loss of good will, the story's now doing the rounds on Rockpapershotgun, Polygon, Gamespot, The Register, all the major european markets and customers will now be reading it, so if they weren't aware of the loss of offline, they are now, and they'll know that FDEV fell through on their KS promise, as well as knowing that FDEV is essentially going the Simcity route with a forced online singleplayer. People know what happened with Simcity and that is not going to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy.
I was not going to come back on here until the 22nd but grrr I can't.
Just a quick little question.
I have not read everything published by FD but I have never seen a promise or hit from FD using the words DRM free, could someone please clarify if they have or not. As far as I can see the issue is not whether you can install ED on as many macheins as you want, but whether you can play without an internet connection. Windows is definitely not DRM free but you do not have to be online to use it once you have installed and verified it.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Yes and engineers live in the real world whereas marking people live in cloud oo land, do you not think that it is just possible that they are not able to get a decent game experience off line and that is the reason they have had to drop it.
Just a quick little question.
I have not read everything published by FD but I have never seen a promise or hit from FD using the words DRM free, could someone please clarify if they have or not. As far as I can see the issue is not whether you can install ED on as many macheins as you want, but whether you can play without an internet connection. Windows is definitely not DRM free but you do not have to be online to use it once you have installed and verified it.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Yes and engineers live in the real world whereas marking people live in cloud oo land, do you not think that it is just possible that they are not able to get a decent game experience off line and that is the reason they have had to drop it.
Yes, the pledge rewards are literally called that.
Always online is DRM,too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always-on_DRM
Yes, we gamers hate even the thought of mandatory online DRM. I've never pirated a game in my life but I fly a lot for example, so anything depending on crappy airport lounge wi fi, or that I cant play in the air, is a game I wont buy. Eg I really looked forward to Simcity but as soon as I read about the need for online I dropped it.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
I Absolutely don't question the technical merit of the decision Hawkmoon. They are coding it not me.
I just question how well they considered the human impact of the decision.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
I Absolutely don't question the technical merit of the decision Hawkmoon. They are coding it not me.
I just question how well they considered the human impact of the decision.
Last edited:
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
I understand that the omission of the offline game has significantly upset some prospective players, however, if there is no offline game, is the argument over DRM not moot as to share the same background simulation, all players will require to be connected anyway?
Yes it is. No offline game means no DRM free version by definition.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
So, by that token, no games that are online are DRM free?
That's the grey area isn't it. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I would guess that the people wanting a refund over DRM will be the exact same people entitled to a refund for no offline mode anyway.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Fair enough, although the following then seems to be a bit contradictory:
Elite Dangerous Kickstarter FAQ said:
BOOM! DRM argument out of the window
Lol. Most people are just whinning now. I even saw someone in SC forums all proud of himself about asking a refund because no-offline... and wanting to buy another ship for an always-online game with it!It's just ridiculous.
I have two issues with this whole "offline only" furore. 1. If you don't have an internet connection, how are you even playing the Beta? 2. The original Elite, and Elite Frontier were two of the most pirated games of all time. You cant honestly expect a game that is only sold via the internet to have no DRM in place, that would be lunacy from a business perspective.