According to this Ars Technica report, citing a report from advocacy group Reclaim Your Game, the dreaded SecuRom DRM has made its way into PC version of Dragon Age II, despite BioWare (and EA) saying in its forums that it "does not use SecuROM." Surprise! Not only does the game use SecuRom, but all involved have failed to mention this fact to users in any way. There is no warning in the EULA, during the install, on the game's packaging, or on its official web site.
Back in 2008, EA was sued for failing to inform consumers about the DRM scheme in free trial versions of some of its games. Now EA could face similar legal action for its secret implementation of SecuRom in Dragon Age II.
Could this have been some sort of odd mistake or was EA trying to sneak the DRM past consumers? We will have to wait and see what they say.
Source: Ars Technica
Comments
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Bioware,
I have defended you so ardently in the past. Why would you allow EA to do this to your beautiful work? Sorry but I'm afraid I wont buy your game now as I have been bit by the securom rootkit before and refuse to subject my PC to that crap ever again.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
"I purchased a broken product from a company with a track record of broken products". Exactly. You know the pain is coming. Like purposefully hitting your thumb with a hammer. Why get mad at EA? This is what they are. Is there any doubt at this point? Next time you see a shiny new game with the EA label, pick up a hammer and smash your thumb to remind yourself. You'll get the pain but be $60 richer.
I do understand the desire to play RPGs. I played Demon's Souls instead of the first Dragon Age. Excellent game. I got Two Worlds II instead of Dragon Age II. Not polished, but a 7.5 to 8.0 experience. I also supported with my money another company who is showing improvement and doesn't use that money to buy a hammer to hit my thumb with. I know we aren't all alike, some people want to play Dragon Age. I just don't get the anger and surprise. I recognize the Lucy's of the world holding the football, I'm just not Charlie Brown.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
I don't understand the anger. This makes as much sense as picking up a hammer, deliberately smashing your thumb, and then getting mad at the hammer. You bought an EA product, what did you expect? Stop hitting your thumb with the hammer Einstein.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Most people get angry when somebody commits fraudulent behaviour against them.
We blame EA because EA lied to us. They commited fraud. They told us one thing and done the complete and utter opposite for their own benefit, and to our disadvantage.
When you hit yourself with the hammer, it is because you missed. What exactly, did I miss here? Thinking that a company as big as EA wouldn't want another lawsuit over fradulent activity as rather reasonable?
EA is not a hammer. They are perfectly capable of intelligent thoughts whereas a hammer isn't even sentient at all. It has no thought process in the least. A hammer can't do wrong because a hammer has no concept of right or wrong, a hammer has no concept in regards to thought at all. EA does.
-- Randi Tastix
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Randi Tastix - http://randomtastic.com
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
No. Securom is more akin to buying a hammer, and when reading the instructions, it says that every fifth strike with the hammer must be on your thumb instead of a nail or the hammer will no longer function properly.
A more appropriate hammer analogy would be buying a hammer from a company where the hammer head falls off the handle all the time. The company says it has created a new hammer head that doesn't fall off, but lo and behold, here I am holding another broken hammer. The problem isn't that I'm using the product incorrectly, but that I purchased a broken product from a company with a track record of broken products.
I hate broccoli/ and think it totally sucks/ Why isn't it meat?
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
I bet this crap is going to be in Mass Effect 3 too? Wonderful. Guess I'll spend that money somewhere else.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Bravo, EA. Bravo. You have lied to people, attempted to sneak DRM past them, and insulted their intelligence by thinking they wouldn't have noticed something so fucking obvious, all in one fell stroke.
This is why I don't buy from them. That, and the "SPORTS ATHLETE'S SPORTS GAME, +1 YEAR AFTER THE LAST ONE" series.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Well good; my finances are tight and I was wondering if I could justify the purchase of Dragon Age 2. EA has made my decision for me.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Well, now I know which version I won't be buying.
DRM is killing the PC gaming industry.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Wow....... EA fail!
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
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http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
gg EA.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
As if the "get banned from the boards, lose all the games you paid for" bullshit wasn't bad enough, there's this too?
The best part of all this is that only the people who bought the games have to deal with this shit. The people who pirated it don't have to put up with it at all. I wonder if any publisher is going to figure out that DRM doesn't work. After all, everybody else figured it out years ago.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
This along with the guy who was banned from his account and subsequently his game for saying that "Is Bioware now in bed with the EA devil?" and you've got to sit back and say that yes, EA is evil.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Awesome
, nothing better than punishing the users that actually want to pay money for the game with a poorly designed DRM that brings far more problems than it solves and what was that problem it was trying to solve because it doesn't seem to fix the pirating issues. The only winner here seems to be the creators of SecuROM, as for the gamers willing to pay money for these games we've been thrown under the short bus once again.
I don't condone pirating software, but the more intrusive the DRM gets on these games the more I understand why some people keep going back to the torrents.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
And this is why people downloaded copies of games that are stripped of DRM schemes.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
No, people download it for whatever reason they can come up with.
------- Morality has always been in decline. As you get older, you notice it. When you were younger, you enjoyed it.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Of which stealth DRM is one.
Spore was pirated more heavily because of its DRM scheme. I'm sure games like Assassin's Creed 2 have been too. While I'm willing to guess that a majority of those pirates would have pirated the game anyway, I'm also confident that some are lost sales over DRM.
I personally will not be buying Dragon Age 2 because of this. I don't intend to pirate it, either, but a lost sale is a lost sale.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
SuckuRom sucks and should be destroyed completely.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Thank you for your highly mature and cogent summary of this complex issue. It's always great to see somebody on the consumers' side clearly articulate the issues in a reasonable fashion.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Why use an entire page to explain the problems with securom again when you can use a single word to refer to them.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Maybe if SuckuRom wasn't so sucky, I wouldn't have given it that nickname.
Re: Report: SecuRom DRM Found in Dragon Age II
Yeesh, that's not a good career move...
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