Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#541

Post by jimmydorry » Fri, Dec 31, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

j_4 wrote: post #277

jimmydorry wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can only be offline for a set amount of time with Steam (last I used it), and the check is made before you go offline.

That's a different thing from what OP is saying, they're right that Steam doesn't automatically enforce any DRM. It does provide the mechanisms but it's up to the devs whether they use them or not. In lots of cases you can just directly run the executable, especially for indie games. Source: am indie game dev

Steam can work as a dumb CDN for executables, but a substantial number of games do use the out-of-the-box Steam DRM, especially the AAA games GP referenced.

Source: Have used Steam pretty much since it was released and also worked with SteamKit for a project or two.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#542

Post by BoorishBears » Fri, Dec 31, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #535

BoorishBears wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is wrong on so many counts my head is spinning. Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. You're also making a copy of illegally distributed software (not just cracking that's a problem, distribution is too...), which opens you up to liability, since again, your license doesn't cover that. And to top it all off, you're still not going to ge…

> Your license defines exactly what software it's a license for, I guarantee you "pirated copy" is not part of that. That's where DMCA anti-circumvention exemptions come into play. If I own an IP license for software X; but there are technological barriers in place preventing me from using the software for the purpose I paid for the license to enable; then computer programs that "fix the problem" to allow me to use t…

The short version is, please don't ever represent yourself in court.

Your license allows you to copy/install/etc. a piece of software. It will not apply to a cracked version of the game and you'll be no different than someone who didn't buy the game.

That's not even DCMA.

And the whole thing about "white-room private blah blah blah" really made me cringe.

It's a complete non-sequitur. 3rd part private servers have existed for ages and they involve insane amounts of work per game. It's not a solution to the actual problem: not being able to use official servers.

Not to mention "white room reimplemented" is nearly impossible. That's why these projects repeatedly get taken down. They resort to breaking copyright to provide functionality for a client that was never designed for.

Even modifying the game to have a concept of "connect to a server other than official.server.endpoint" is breaking copyright.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#543

Post by ivegotnoaccount » Sat, Jan 08, 2022, 11:00 AM UTC

CopperWing wrote: post #506

ivegotnoaccount wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question may be silly, but how does GOG handle multiplayer ? - Are players that bought the game on GOG able to play with those that bought it on steam/Uplay/other when lobbies are involved - Are there DRMs for online play that have lobbies ? If so, how are they handled ? Also, their list is sadly quite limited it seems, for the games many play. No GTA V, no God of War, no Red Dead Redemption, no Call of Duty, no…

> The question may be silly, but how does GOG handle multiplayer ? It depends: some games implement multiplayer through their publisher's private servers (e.g. Paradox games) so users can play together regardless of the shop they bought the game from. Some others (e.g. Dying Light) reimplement multiplayer replacing Steam facilities with GOG Galaxy. In that case interoperability is not possible maily because GOG Galax…

I'm not saying the model is bad or there are no AAA games, only that this currently limits the games that could be played.

I have bought games from GOG, just not multiplayer ones (or ones that don't have DRMs anyway such as Factorio)

I also don't play much AAA games. But I'll have a hard time convincing anyone when the game they want isn't there. Not that it is GOG's fault but stil...