Dr Horrible and RA3

Author: jawapro
Date: Sat 25/10/2008 04:02 PM




 

I should have posted about this earlier - but I havent - so I am now.

I'm not a big fan of most musicals. In fact - most musicals are enough to make me leave the room - but there are a few I like. Things like Phantom of the Opera, Joseph, and the Pirates of Penzance (Jon English version) are pretty good.

But I have now found a musical that is FANTASTIC!

It's called Dr Horrible - and it's produced by Joss Whedon.

Need I say more?

For those with leaky brains - Joss Whedon is the guy responcible for Serenity and Firefly (my favorite movie and TV series).

During the Writers Strike in America, Joss didn't have any work - so he and his family and friends got together to make a musical for the internet. Basically as a way of shoving it to the studieos (who weren't giving the writers a raise) and proving that you can be successfull without the studieos help.

It's a story of a guy who wants to become a super-villian (who is NOT from Maclom in the Middle), the girl from the laundry that he has a crush on, and a hero called Captain Hammer who is extremely up himself (like Superman and most heros really).

The bad guy is the good guy and the good guy is the bad guy etc.

It's designed to be a blog. Sort of like the people who video blog on Youtube. Dr Horrible is blogging about his attempts to join the Evil League of Evil.

It's highly funny - with some fantastic songs that I still haven't stopped singing.

It's not out on DVD yet, but you can buy it on iTunes (if you're not totally opposed to iTunes) or watch it on youtube or get it via bittorent etc.

As soon as it comes out on DVD, I'm buying it.

It's some of the best stuff I've seen for years.

If I havent already forced you to watch it (like a lot of my firends) I highly recommend it.

 

In other news - I've been watching/reading a lot about Red Alert 3 lately (it's due out next month!) and it's looking really good.

Except for one thing.

Copy Protection.

Now - while copy protection itself is understandable - this sort isn't.

When you install it, it registers with a website to make sure it's legal. That's annoying and evil etc - but I could put up with it if I had to. By the way - I'm going to buy it - so my copy will be legal - I'm not complaining because I want to pirate it.

The big problem is that it will only let you install it 5 times. After that - you'll have to ring EA to get more licenses activated.

I install and uninstall games a lot - so this will get stupidly annoying.

And the bigger question - what happens in ten years time when I want to install it? Will they still be supporting it?

One of the EA reps said something like "in ten years time hopefully Red Alert 4 will be out so you won't need to play it anymore" which is insane! I still play Dune 2, regardless of the 3 or 4 games that have followed it. I still play Command and Conquer (original) even though it's had 7 or so sequels.

The even more stupid thing is that Spore (which I haven't played) had the same sort of copy protection. Fat lot of good it did them - within a week it was cracked and you could download a version that didn't need to register.

Spore was massivly pirated - partly by people who decided not to buy it just because of the protection.

So RA3 will be cracked quickly too (probably before it's even for sale in Aus) and people will pirate it.

I'm going to buy it - I've already reserved my copy of the Premier Edition. I like owning my games, and I want to encourage them to make decent games. But I'm almost certainly going to pirate it too sometime, so I'll have a copy that will keep working in 10 years time.

And if I wasn't such a huge fan of the Command and Conquer series, I'd be joining the ranks of people boy-cotting the game and pirating it instead of buying it.

Stupid move EA.




Comments: 15

 

Comment: 1

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Sat 25/10/2008 06:10 PM




A little bit of background for those of you who don't pay a lot of attention to the games industry, or pay attention to the whole copy protection thing: Spore is officially the most torrented game in history. Impressive really, seeing it hasn't been out that long, and a lot of games have had a lot of downloads. The main reason for this is that you may only install Spore once. That means that if you have to reformat your computer, buy a new computer (quite possibly just for Spore), or more simply just choose to uninstall it for a while, you must buy the whole game (at $100) again. Now seriously, I don't want to pay $100 every time I format (about 4 times a year at the moment), and even Micro$oft doesn't expect you to do that! Not only that, the whole shebang is backed up by some of the most stringent copy protection in the world. But hey, that's what torrents are for! (I don't have Spore in any form, legal or illegal, by the way. As if I'd even consider supporting a game like that!)

Now, I do see the whole point of copy protection, I mean, a lot of work goes into these games. But what I don't like is limiting in such ways. There are ways of stringent copy protection that don't actually interfere with gamers. In fact, some of the time, the copy protection is actually a blessing. Take Valve's approach, with it's Steam client, for instance. It knows which Valve games you have bought, and that serial is locked to your account. Also it offers an online store with ridiculously discounted prices (You can get 22 full length games for $100, compare that with Spore!), digital delivery systems, and it means I don't have to have disks in for the game to work. Seriously, I love digital delivery (where I legally download games off the Internet), and I also love not having to worry about DVD's and such like things. It's so much better. All this goodness comes with some pretty serious copy protection, such as if you don't have a Steam login, you can't play, etc, but it doesn't limit you from installing on multiple computer's at a time. The EULA (end user licence agreement) actually states you may install your games on as many computers at a time, but you may only have a single login from any of those computers at a time. Really, it's not that bad. So the moral of the story is, if you're going to go and make your software with copy protection, PLEASE do it so that it doesn't get in my way, and I don't have to continuously buy your software. Because it sure isn't going to happen!

 

Comment: 2

Author: omnimors
Date: Sat 25/10/2008 11:15 PM




Thanks for sharing about the musical.  I'll have to take a look at it.

EA's approach to DRM is nauseating.  This whole idea of limited installations is ridiculous.  I understand copyright issues and the need for a business to protect its property, but this method is going to alienate a lot of customers.  When I buy a book, I can read it as many times as I want, in as many locations.  When I buy music, I can listen to it on as many players as I want, where ever I want.  When I buy a movie, I can watch it on as many TVs I want, and whenever I want.  Yes, these systems have flaws, but there is no way any of them would survive EA's business model for copyright protection. 

The way I see this going is where some of the high end software is going:  USB dongles.  You can install the software on as many computers as you want, but only the one with the dongle works.  USB dongles are like USB flash drives, but they are hard wired with the serial number of the software and some of the initialization code.  This may increase costs of the games, but its what the $5,000 pieces of software are doing to ensure that you are only using the number of licenses that you paid for. 

 

Comment: 3

Author: jawapro
Date: Sat 25/10/2008 11:19 PM




I like owning the real CD. I'm still pretty annoyed that the days of the full size boxes are over. I love collecting that sort of stuff.

But apart from that - I like Steam. I bought a version of Half Life 2 that came with CDs and a box (full size too) and things, but you needed to tie it all in with a Steam Account. I don't mind that - it's a good way to go.

I'm not sure if Spore's as bad as you make it sound. It's bad - but might not be that bad. From what I heard, you could install it three times. Plus you can reinstall it on the same PC multiple times. Not sure if that covers reloading the OS, but some people were saying it did as long as the hardware didn't change too much (mobo etc).

Still - you're being charge full price just to rent the game.

The USB dongle idea is good - but it's not that different to requiring the CD to be in the drive. When it gets popular, people will develop wants to emulate it.

 

Comment: 4

Author: DarthOblivion
Date: Mon 27/10/2008 08:58 AM

Well.... How much is RA3 going to cost?

Sorry, silly question. $_$

So yeah, pirating could be the only way to go.

But they deserve it. What they have done is stupid.

 

Comment: 5

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Mon 27/10/2008 12:54 PM




I do have to say, I could be wrong with how serious Spore's copy protection is. What I said is what I heard, but that was second hand from some friends (mind you, they do pay attention), so I don't actually have any way of confirming what I've said. Rob, you might be closer, but either way you look at it, the whole concept of copy protection that ties you like that sucks.

And another thing to remember is that I've blown 2 motherboards in computers in the last month. Admittedly one of them wasn't my fault, (the other one was sheer n00b moment material), and they were old systems, but it's still possible that it could happen. People like me don't want to have DRM that only allows us to install software on a single system, permanently.

 

Comment: 6

Author: klutz
Date: Mon 27/10/2008 12:56 PM




A command and conquer game is one of the only ones I would buy, if I had the required fundage, but if I buy a game I want that copy & key to be mine, to install and reinstall and play however I wish. They have alienated a large group of the more tech savvy fans (which I'm guessing would be a fair share) who do reinstall games & computers frequently!

 

Comment: 7

Author: klutz
Date: Mon 27/10/2008 12:57 PM




Oh yeah, Dr Horrible rocks.

 

Comment: 8

Author: jawapro
Date: Mon 27/10/2008 01:02 PM




Yeah - if the same protection was on a game I didn't really care about (ie Spore) it's enough to turn me right off.

RA3 is a game I'm buying anyway - but EA are not making themselves any fans by this sort of thing.

Mike, RA3 will probably cost about $100 when it first comes out.

 

Comment: 9

Author: DarthOblivion
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 07:50 AM




oh, well that's not so bad :) Spore's more expensive, and I reckon RA3 gonna be a heck of a lot of game :D *sigh* but I still can't get TFU...

 

Comment: 10

Author: LittleSis
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 03:05 PM




New post! New post! I call for a new post to entertain me while I avoid studying.

Did you notice that the woman from Dr Horrible was in House the other week?

 

Comment: 11

Author: jawapro
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 03:26 PM




No - I didn't notice that.

I watched that episode before Dr Horrible I think though.

Otherwise I'm sure I would have picked it.

 

Comment: 12

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 03:41 PM




I haven't seen Dr Horrible yet, though I do want to. So I had no idea she was in a recent House episode.

Also Jawa, have you noticed the bug that's saying there's 1 more comment than there actually is? Before I posted this, your main page was saying there were 12 comments, even though yours was the 11th. This is the 12th, but it will be displayed as the 13th. Just thought I should point out the obvious. Mind you, this is the only post doing it too...

 

Comment: 13

Author: jawapro
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 04:30 PM




yeah - there's a hidden post here somewhere. I started to write a reply, and then went to work before I made it live. When I did submit it, my session had timed out, so it sort of went in, but I was logged out, so it never appeared.

It's not much of a bug. More worryingly is the way comments are killing the background (at least in Firefox). It's adding some stupid STYLE tags to the end of the comments which are messing with my layout. I'm just to lazy and tired to fix it when I get home from working all day.

 

Comment: 14

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Wed 29/10/2008 06:13 PM




Makes sense. Mind you, the fact that you can pseudo-post when timed out is still an issue if you're planning on getting serious about your engine. But I agree, the background thing is more of an issue, that's for sure!