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Tycho

Alright.  So, Ubisoft’s new DRM.  Supports unlimited installs and Cloud-based save data.  Requires absolutely unbroken access to their master servers, or the product ceases to function.  I can boil it right down for you:

Nobody wins.

Well, except pirates.  Pirates always win, on a long enough timeline.  Honestly, the timeline doesn’t even need to be that long.

Visit any thread regarding the topic, and I mean any thread, and it won’t be three posts until someone raises the Goddamned Jolly Roger and says they’ll pirate the game as a gesture consistent with some comprehensive ur-morality they’ve ginned up, one where stealing things is alright provided they were very angry when they did it.  It’s entirely possible that you don’t like being spoken to in this way, but somebody has to get this done.  What Ubisoft is doing here is Draconian - I don’t mean those lizard dudes, I’m talking about laws which are characterized by their severity.  Before they eventually dismantle it, and it will be dismantled, it will have achieved exactly the opposite of their intention.  But what I won’t tolerate from rational beings is the idea that you don’t understand why they’re doing it.

Every avenue of convenience for the user is also a vector of exploitation.

They have given up.

As fiery rhetoric goes, this sucks.  It doesn’t have that revolutionary quality that rallies the faithful.  The trouble is that this dialogue between pirates and publishers, one which was always characterized by falsehood and ill-will, has ceased to exist in this case.  A maneuver this extreme means that they’re finished talking altogether: this mechanism is their response, the final word.  Only it’s impossible to get the final word here in The Cloud.  Ever.

And no-one of any sense has ever bet against the scorn and resourcefulness of young men.

(CW)TB out.

these wounds they will not heal

Gabe

It is Friday and that means PATV has been updated with a brand new Blamimation!

 

Also if you like D&D and you also wear shirts, you might find this interesting

-Gabe out

Tycho

I loved Dragon Age, and I loved making a comic for Dragon Age.

When they started to spin up talk of an expansion, I was glad to see that it was something of a substantial nature instead of the more a la carte offerings, playsets really, hors d’oeuvres when what I was looking for was a hanging side of beef.  A bit after Dragon Age: Awakening was announced, they dropped us a line to see if we wanted another crack at the fiction.  Man, what do you think?

It’s about a character who’s still locked on the info page, but he’ll be available soon enough.  Trust me, though:  if you like DA, if you are a DA fan, to the extent that you might truncate it down to just DA instead of writing out Dragon Age in full, you’ll want to know about this guy.  

(CW)TB

Tycho

I called the expansion “Awakenings,” as opposed to Awakening, which is the actual name.  It seems to me like they’re missing an opportunity to give greater value to the customer, but if they’re content (for whatever reason) to deliver a single awakening when they could have offered more that’s between them and their conscience. 

(CW)TB