No offline? I have asked for a full refund. I will see if this happens.
Nope. Waiting for the offline mode. Why do you find that incomprehensible?
DRM doesn't affect those who crack it, it only affects those who don't (and always negatively, at that).
No offline? I have asked for a full refund. I will see if this happens.
if they don´t refund: class action lawsuit!!
or does this only work in the USA?
EU consumer laws surely apply
Nope. Waiting for the offline mode. Why do you find that incomprehensible?
Nobody has had access to what they have paid for. Even ignoring the offline version, the home page right now is advertising an open Galaxy where players can "experience the 400 billion star systems of the Milky Way galaxy."
Have any of us seen that?
No, I didn't think so. We've been given various vertical slices of the game to test, in a restricted playing area. The people asking for refunds now, have not played the game that's described in FD's current marketing. It should be no skin off FD's teeth to offer those refunds, in any sense but the purely financial.
Sure, but that risk should be balanced against immediate damage control, to preserve enthusiasm for the launch date and keep this mess from metastasizing.
Actually people thought they could play the game offline, at their own pace, with no "people" like you hassling them online. With the ability to return to the game weekend after weekend to continue where they left. You know, some people have a real life, a job, a family... and no, Solo Online is not the solution for that.
Unfortunately other players will affect your galaxy while you are occupied with boring things like real life.
So you found that nice trade route on the border of Federation space and have a good reputation with the feds.
Now next weekend you get back... and suprise! The Empire is now in charge of the system, as you are a convicted criminal in the Empire you have to fight system security and bounty hunters to escape the system and finally the trade route is also history as all the other Solo players delivered thousands of tons of the precious good you planned on hauling there...
Or you go out in the galaxy to explore new worlds, get into a new region of space to cartograph it, can't play for some time and "woe, behold" hundreds of kids with no job after school decided to explore that region for you pushing the border of unexplored space some hundreds of light years out (meaning 3-4 days of playing for you to reach unexplored space again. Alas, the weekend just have 2 days).
So exploring is spoiled for the "vocal minority", trading means using trading tools to get at least a little orientation on markets, rather than relying on ever changing economics in real time, which leaves mining annd... wait a minute, if you mine an Asteroid field and find a good source and get back to it after some days, maybe it is already stripped bare by other players, so well, f...ed up mining also, which leaves: Right, fly around and shoot at NPCs or better join OpenPlay and right away kill "Onliners" as anti aggression therapy... as yopu get a free Sidewinder everytime, it would just require to learn how to inflict good damage with the standard rig...
Nice! Not exactly what I expected from Elite.
I'll try my luck with online and hope it doesn't get too much as I predicted, but whatever they deliver now, the circumstances of this desaster leave a very, very bad taste for my liking.
If people opt for refund and get denied, they might revoke the payment issued by debit card... that could lead to legal issues FD need to fight, ultimately may even cost them dearly, so the future developpment is at risk.
In the end it might have been the better decision to just hire some guys and finish the static, limited offline experience instead of whining about the lack of ressources to build two different games and that they want to build their vision.
Given the fact that they stated offline will be a feature since the start of the Kickstarter campaign, I always thought it WAS part of their vision?!
Human nature. People will abuse it more if theres zero protection. Of course it will be cracked but at least DRM keeps some of us honest if nothing more than its a bit extra hassle to get the cracked version, the virtual drive mounter ect.
Wrong. See the previous posts. It doesn't matter how many times people repeat this codswallop, it dosn't make it right.
An application using a process that submits username/password to connect to a server to access an account that is stored remotely is not Digital Rights Management.
IF that was correct, Frontier like it or not would be doing an offline version - the fact they are not signals they are confident about what is/isn't DRM.
Want to know my thoughts on why they've chosen to make the game online-only? (Probably not but I'm gonna say it anyway):
#1 Monetization through skins and microtransactions
#2 In game advertising to keep servers going to make #1 sustainable
#3 To use #1 to fund development of further expansions
#4 Because having an online mode is a catalyst for #1
#5 Because pouring resources into an offline mode would make the online mode weaker and therefore less traction for #1
#6 Because they promised a gazzilion star systems and they need players to fill it up so that it doesn't seem empty and pointless
#7 Because programming proper dynamic AI and economy systems for a gazzilion star systems would take longer than their investors wanted, why not just have players performing the job for free and release now
I certainly hope that you're joking. Your idea of protest is to make someone elses life miserable? Your comment is despicable.
It's started, we're weeks out and the first posts preparing for the possible meltdown of the servers has begun. Popcorn at the ready. Seriously, you're not going to defend FDEV's launch in -advance-? Really? I... wat.
And repeating that it's not DRM doesn't make your ar
gument any stronger either. It's access control to a product that requires an account and a key. If it looks like a dog and barks like a dog....
Arguing that it's not DRM because otherwise Frontier would act in a certain way is only valid if no company in history every behaved in a shady way. We gave our money to FD in good faith. They have not returned that faith.