27 réponses à ce sujet

[MordachaiWolf]

I just wanted to express my sadness at Bioware's choice to go with EA as a publisher.  They wrap draconian DRM around a game and ofen make it very hard to play the game.  I've had bad experiences with Battlefield, and Spore's DRM is a nightmare.  So was Mass Effect come to think of it (was that EA?).

At any rate, it is now Tuesday evening.  Last Friday I paid for (they got that part downright instantaneous) DA:Origins from Impulse.  It took me about 24hrs to download (it took 3 attempts to finally get the blasted thing to download & install properly).  That is not anyone's fault but Impulse's, but still, it added to the frustration level plenty.

On Saturday, I finally had an installation.  I tried running it, and it asked me to register it.  Okay, annoying, but whatever.  I logged into my EA account, and I was told I had to link that up to bioware's social site.  Okay, no problem, I have an existing bioware forums account, I was certain.  I went to log in to bioware, and I find a new site, social, and I try to log in.  It asks me in a very odd and hard to understand way what my screen name is for the web site.  I think its one of my common ones (why it wasn't associated to my email in the first place, I'll never know), and I try that.  After several failed attempts, I try several other common screen names - no luck.  I think I must be losing my mind, so I log in directly from a web browser.  Yep - my iinital memory of my screen name and password are correct - I can log in immediately.  I alt-tab back to EA's authenticator, and it suddenly aggrees, I am who I say I am... but then I get the "The product key entered cannot be used to activate this game" error.  Huh?

So I go do some searches on this and the Impulse forums, and find that many suggest that I make sure not to register the game with Bioware's social site, but do so only through the game's authentication system.  Okay, well, that is what I have done, so far.

I try exiting the game's authenticator, rebooting my machine, running it again, trying the whole process again... same results.  I try lots of variations.  Same.  Finally, I give up and try logging in to EA.com and seeing if I can manually register it.  I cannot (and still cannot) find any way to do so.  After a while, I give that angle up.

Then I try logging in to Bioware social, and registering the game here.  Okay, bioware social seems pleased with the serial number / authentication code that Impulse sold me!  Good, go back to run the game, go through its authenticator... BOOM.  Nope.  No go - same exact error.

I have now spent many emails back and forth (but far, far, far more time waiting on someone to contact me) to figure this out.  Impulse says its not their fault.  Bioware tells me its not their fault.  EA is the least rsponsive of them all, but eventually they give me a new code to try (when I finally pin them down on live chat having waited my 45 mins 3 times in row after being disconnected by that stupid system repeatedly).  I rush home tonight, fire everything up, enter the new key, and BOOM!  No F!@#$ dice.  Same.  Exact.  Error.  Message.  (Product key cannot be used...)

So I try logging in to EA's live chat again in their support forums.  I'm waiting, I'm waiting... time passes, then BOOM.  They hang up on me at 7:02PM EST.  No support personell available.  I guess they went home to their familes - must be in central or western time zone.

So here I am.  Currently out $50, and many many hours of my time, waiting to get this thing to work.  Reading forums, reading support sites, asking questions, with THREE different parties giving me either the run around (not our fault), or just ignoring me, or failing to do anything of real use (give me a code wihich appears to do nothing to solve the actual problem).

BioWare has in the past treated me to some excellent games.  I have happily forked over my dough to them to buy their quality entertainment.  But this sucks.  This really, really sucks.  Its unprofessional, its slimy, and it feels very much like I'm just a number.

Why use EA?  What can they possibly do for you that Paradox couldn't have done, as a distributor?  They've tarnished your reputation in my eyes.  They've soiled what is probably a great game experience for me.  They've made me very, very wary of buying another BioWare game in the future - at least if it has Mass Effect or DA:Origin style DRM on it.

I don't mind paying money for quality goods.  But I do mind paying good money for the run-around and error messages and ******-poor support.

[macfoshizz]

i hear you man. i've read so many complaints about the stupid registration process its ridiculous. luckily i bought mine on a xbox so i can at least play it. however my character doesnt appear on my profile and now after registering my game, my achievement appears.



i've been on bad company as well and i've heard so many things registering issues with gun codes and what not. EA needs to really fix this

[Groumph099]

Bioware uses EA as a distributer simply because EA holds a majority in Bioware.

I never experienced any DRM what-so-ever on my DVD install beyond the account, which is obviously used to link DLC and the online profiles, and a simple required DVD presence.

Modifié par Groumph099, 18 novembre 2009 - 12:49 .

[macfoshizz]

is registering the game the only way to play the game? ive read somewhere you can still be offline and play it without registering. but im not sure if thats for retail box version or download versions.

[Ognamus]

Your best bet is to download a bit of 3rd party software to launch the game with... IE, a crack.

[ZootCadillac]

I don't know what the score is in the US but we have distance selling rules here in the UK regarding internet purchases. Just demand your money back from the vendor on account of the purchase being unfit for purpose and just buy a hard copy.

I pay for all kinds of things on the internet, I use paypal and ebay like it's going out of fashion but when I want software I want it on a disk from a shop I know will be around next year and I want a hard copy that I can get replaced should it become unusable.

downloads, crippling DRM, vendors you can not be sure will be around should you need to download again in future? Not for me thanks.

Suggesting, as above, that you download a crack for the game is a sure fire way to get your account banned. Demanding that it is either fixed or you get a return is sensible though. Check the distance selling rights for your country and act on those rights.



The thing that confuses me is why it won't run without registering the game. I'm heavily involved with online privacy in the UK and as such I'm very choosy about who I allow to take information from my machine. I can assure you that the game can be played without registration of any kind. It is required for DLC content and posting in the spoilers forum here.

[Demonbox1]

have to agree with the op, worst experience ever (at least for me) buyin online/digital download.

simply EA sucks (yes ban me or whatever but i'm sick of it) at managing online orders

[Dateranoth]

So, if you're interested there is likely an easy solution.

Download the EADM

http://eastore.ea.com/eadm

Install it.  Login with the same login you use to login here.  Activate the game to your account using the Activate tab and the key provided to you by impulse and then goto the downloads tab.  Game should show up as downloaded and be able to play by clicking play.

If that doesn't work you may have to uninstall Impulse's version and reuse the EADM.  The DRM is very very light for what EA usually uses and Impulses version in this case is actually worse than getting it straight from EA. Luckily, as long as you have a valid key ( which you obviously do ) you can use EAs Download Manager.

[Chadthesad]

Digital downloading is sketchy at times. I'm sorry for what happened. I would personally order with Steam and not Impluse, the latter being a lesser of the former. Your best bet is always to get a hard copy if EA has the publishing/distribution rights. EA has been around the gaming industry for years though, they are not a terrible company, just large.

[MordachaiWolf]

Thanks for the many sympathies, and the suggested solution. I'll try that now.
My experience with online purchases has been positive, on balance. But yeah, this time around, I really haven't had much fun with it.

Spore, which was an EA DRM, requires not being installed more than X times. Same thing for Mass Effect - I was able to install on my PC a couple times, then NOPE. Too many times. Doesn't help that Windows wants to ShXX the bed every so often, or that I like to upgrade my hardware, and so it decides I need to reauthorize everything.

Edit - I'm deeply opossed to Steam as well.  They usually mangle a game's normal install so badly that most games that are moddable have to have different instructions if you bought the steam version vs. every other version out there!  And Steam is draconian about not letting you play unless you're logged in to Steam.  And steam fails to keep user-acounts and logins separate - so if you login to a given computer as "Fred" - and then login to Steam using Fred's account with steam, okay.  But if someone else logs into that machine as "Sally", and then tries to run steam - it forces Sally to input her credentials.  And next time Fred comes back, its completely forgotten Fred's credentials (no matter whether you ask it to save your login data).  And if you lose your password for a Steam account - God Help You, you poor sodden shmuck.  And can you tie more than one steam account to a single email account?  No.  So can I manage my LAN's full set of computers for Steam?  Not unless I have a separate email account, login, etc., for every machine in my home.  Sigh... - no, Steam leaves me deflated.

Modifié par MordachaiWolf, 18 novembre 2009 - 01:59 .

[Aesir Rising]

Broken install of a service that is used to circumvent local machine security features of the operating system. Stuff I would prefer not to have on running on my PC at all, but I'm just an end-user and am required to let EA and Bioware have greater access to my PC than my own user account does if I want to play a game.



It would have been great if they spent the time since last April (when the PC version of the game was ready for release) and now to test the installer though. Because 24+ hours into two installation attempts (one from Impulse, one through EADM) and still trying to get the DLC to show up in the game, I'm pretty sure Bioware, EA, and Stardock can all have equal share of the blame for a crappy "OOBE" on a $65 game. I don't like how folks try to separate things between developer, publisher, and distribution channel - they're all involved and it's up to them to provide a common front when facing the client. It's not up to the client to sort through over-complex (and yet, under-developed) support processes to fix what they broke.

[Dateranoth]

Sadly the only DRM is in the digital version. The DVD has nothing but a simple disc check. However, I have also tried the EADM digital version and its worked fine for me and many people. All in all the DRM is WAY better than pretty much anything else EAs ever had a hand in.

[MordachaiWolf]

@Aesir - very well said, Sir.

[MordachaiWolf]

@Data - I am wary now of whether buying a DVD in a store even means anything! Empire - Total War appeared to be a disk - I bought it in a brick & mortar store, got home, went to install, and !@#$!@#@#$@ it was only a cd-key which required logging into steam, downloading the freakin' thing, and then of course only playing it through Steams crappy "phone the mothership to authorize you every time" system of DRM. No, you never know anymore what you're getting when you buy software. Sad, sad state of affairs for the Gaming industry, IMO.

[MordachaiWolf]

(deleted double-post)

Modifié par MordachaiWolf, 18 novembre 2009 - 01:51 .

[ZootCadillac]

Dateranoth wrote...

Sadly the only DRM is in the digital version. The DVD has nothing but a simple disc check. However, I have also tried the EADM digital version and its worked fine for me and many people. All in all the DRM is WAY better than pretty much anything else EAs ever had a hand in.

Being old fashioned and wanting a box I did not know this. However it makes you wonder why they go to the effort to install such DRM, annoy and ultimately lose customers when the pirates were playing it without problems on release day and they have every piece of DLC running too.
You'll have to take that on faith as I obviously can't go into that here.

As always though the lessons are never learned. DRM cripples, disables and disillusions the paying customer because the pirates play it for free regardless.

[ZootCadillac]

MordachaiWolf wrote...

@Data - I am wary now of whether buying a DVD in a store even means anything! Empire - Total War appeared to be a disk - I bought it in a brick & mortar store, got home, went to install, and !@#$!@#@#$@ it was only a cd-key which required logging into steam, downloading the freakin' thing, and then of course only playing it through Steams crappy "phone the mothership to authorize you every time" system of DRM. No, you never know anymore what you're getting when you buy software. Sad, sad state of affairs for the Gaming industry, IMO.

There are strict laws about such things in the US and the EU so I'm sure a quick read of the box would have explained that.
My ETW contained the disks, manual and various cards of no use just asking for personal information so thay can spam me with crap in the mail in future.

[Dateranoth]

MordachaiWolf wrote...

@Data - I am wary now of whether
buying a DVD in a store even means anything! Empire - Total War
appeared to be a disk - I bought it in a brick & mortar store, got
home, went to install, and !@#$!@#@#$@ it was only a cd-key which
required logging into steam, downloading the freakin' thing, and then
of course only playing it through Steams crappy "phone the mothership
to authorize you every time" system of DRM. No, you never know anymore
what you're getting when you buy software. Sad, sad state of affairs
for the Gaming industry, IMO.

I certainly understand that and I don't buy much of anything without checking what kind of DRM it has.  I personally don't have much of a problem with DRM... EXCEPT for activation limits.  As long as I'm given a reasonable amount of activations then fine.. if it does give me problems there's always other means to make it work.

BTW.  Did the EADM method work?

ZootCadillac wrote...

Being old fashioned and wanting a box I did not know this. However it makes you wonder why they go to the effort to install such DRM, annoy and ultimately lose customers when the pirates were playing it without problems on release day and they have every piece of DLC running too.
You'll have to take that on faith as I obviously can't go into that here.

As always though the lessons are never learned. DRM cripples, disables and disillusions the paying customer because the pirates play it for free regardless.

Well, I know they throw numbers around about pirate this and pirate that, but I don't believe their concern are the people actually breaking the protections. Well, not entirely. It's about two things, first and foremost is that the protection isn't broken BEFORE release.  That actually has the strongest affect on sales.  The other I think is the fear that if they make it too lite then even the end user can copy it.   They wouldn't want it so easy that any mom or pop or teen could pop it in like a DVD and make copies for all their friends. 

In the aspect that pirates will pirate it regarless. That is and forever will be true.  There are even hacked servers of MMOs that float around, so yeah. Unlikely to stop.  I also believe that large amounts of people who do pirate wouldn't buy the game if they didn't.  I never believe the BS that each torrent download or actual game download equals direct hit to sales.

However, I do understand the need to protect from what I said.  Average, casual users easily making copies.  Because lets be honest.  Too most people its only really wrong if there are consequences.

Modifié par Dateranoth, 18 novembre 2009 - 02:02 .

[MordachaiWolf]

Okay, I tried the eadm - and it claims to have worked. If I open it, I can see that it claims I have a copy of DA:O installed. But it also shows an error #12019 when it tries to update the available downloadable game content. Sigh...

[Dateranoth]

.. shows that error in the eadm? Because the EADM sees the content for some reason but I don't think it was ever meant to download it.  All DLC will be downloaded in game.

Modifié par Dateranoth, 18 novembre 2009 - 02:05 .

[MordachaiWolf]

Woot - maybe a break-through. I just uninstalled "EA Shared Component Activation Module" - and I no longer get an error in the EADM

[ToyD]

Amen to this for the online portions like 10x over.

[Dateranoth]

MordachaiWolf wrote...

Woot - maybe a break-through. I just uninstalled "EA Shared Component Activation Module" - and I no longer get an error in the EADM

Yeah, and for future reference. Once the game has been installed on the computer and you've succesfully played you can uninstall the EADM.. I had no problems doing it anyhow. The core activation check is slimmed down and located in your install folder so the EADM is unneeded.

[MordachaiWolf]

Well, uninstalling that component now makes the game fail to startup (misconfiguration error). So I've uninstalled everything DA:O related, and Impulse DA:O related, and now I'm downloading the whole thing from the EADM. Maybe it will work where Impulse failed.

[MordachaiWolf]

ZootCadillac wrote...
There are strict laws about such things in the US and the EU so I'm sure a quick read of the box would have explained that.
My ETW contained the disks, manual and various cards of no use just asking for personal information so thay can spam me with crap in the mail in future.

That's really really weird.  I just looked - I do have disks.  Maybe it did install from them, but then required Steam login to play.  And a long download of a patch on day 1 before I could play.  I just have the very strong memory of coming home, installing it, and suddenly having to log in to steam, and wait for about 4 hrs for that to download something in order to actually play it

It disturbs me still that nowhere I can find on the outside of ETW's box does it say "requires steam".

EDIT: ah, there it is "Requires internet connection and free Steam account to activate." written in white on a light background, in fine print.

Modifié par MordachaiWolf, 18 novembre 2009 - 02:18 .