T w e n t y S i d e d

This is a followup to my earlier post on this topic. 2KGames, the publisher behind BioShock, is enjoying the sort of attention that only mobs of pissed off fans can give. The forums are now a place where thousands are going to unleash their impotent anger at the indifferent machine responible for marrying a game they love to a DRM system they hate. There is a thread there with over two hundred thousand views, and it looks like it’s one of a dozen on the topic.

I’m avoiding the game myself, but from reading the forums here are what looks like the primary sins of 2kGames:

1. The game installs the copy-protection software SecuROM onto the user’s machine without warning and without asking. There is no mention of this program on the box. This means they a sneaking some fairly onerous software onto a user’s computer.
2. The game requires online activation, and the servers for doing this became flooded and went down right after launch, meaning those that picked up the game on day one (the most avid fans, the ones who pre-ordered) couldn’t get permission play their game.
3. There are limits as to how many machines you can have the game on at one time.
4. There is a limit on the number of times you can install the game. Un-installing should give you an install “back”, but this isn’t working right and many people have “used up” their allowed installs just trying to get the game to work.
5. If you “use up” your allowed installs, the process of re-activating your game is very annoying: Instead of making a phone call or providing a serial number, you have to send a scan / photograph of your disc to 2kGames. This is assuming they respond at all.
6. When people needed help with SecuROM, the SecuROM tech support email told everyone to email 2kGames, and the 2kGames email told people to contact SecuROM.
7. Uninstalling the game does not uninstall SecuROM. Nothing does. Once you install it, the only way to get rid of it is to re-install Windows, or dive into the registry and try to dig it out yourself.
8. SecuROM causes conflicts with some anti-virus, anti-malware software.
9. Most people are calling SecuROM a “rootkit”. The point is debatable, (mostly because of the varying definitions of “rootkit” everyone is using) but what is clear is that the program circumvents the standard Windows logins & permissions, giving itself “admin” powers even if it was installed under a non-admin login. This creates problems if you delete user accounts later, and it is believed that it also creates security vulnerabilities on the user’s machine.
10. The game is available via Steam. Despite the fact that Steam already has a strong DRM system in place, the Steam version of BioShock still comes with SecuROM.
11. Even the Demo of BioShock comes with SecuROM.
12. Despite the presence of SecuROM, the game still requires that the DVD be in the drive.
13. It took a couple of days to get any sort of official response out of 2kGames on all of this. When they did respond, they did almost nothing to address the primary gripes that users were having. The only substantive thing they did was increase the number of installs from two to five.
14. As part of the response they posted a FAQ on SecuROM to their forums. Details of the FAQ have been picked over and found to be inaccurate. The FAQ is either lies or ignorance on the part of 2kGames. People have demanded further explanations, but its been two days now and still nothing more from 2kGames.
15. In addition to the SecuROM headaches, there are lots of more common but serious problems with the game. The system requirements were already steep and required an expensive card, and now it seems that some cards which meet the minimum requirements still don’t work.
16. Response from 2kGames support have been slow, sometimes days. When the responses do come, they rarely address or correct the problem.
17. All of this is compounded by the fact that most places do not take returns on PC games. This means that for some the game doesn’t work, support won’t help them, and they can’t get their money back.

Again, I’m not experiencing this first hand, I’m simply going by what I see to be common themes in the forums.

Related links: The Daily Jump, consumerist, Completely Random Thoughts, hylomorph, The Rampant Coyote.

Kotaku has a response from Ken Levine.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

Thanks to Taffer for the link to this news item. It’s swiped from the PC Gamer Blog, but I’m linking to Taffer and not the original source because the PC Gamer blog doesn’t have permalinks. (Come on guys! I KNOW you can do better than that. Blogs are not mysterious devices. The functionality is well established and easy to comprehend.)

The upshot of the article is that:

1. You must activate the game on-line to play it.
2. It can only be activated on one machine at a time. I hope you weren’t planning on playing on your home computer AND laptop, or your home AND work computers.
3. You can only activate the game twice.

In order for the following to have the proper impact, I should establish my love for this series. The original “Shock” game – System Shock – affected me so strongly that I wrote an entire novel based on the game. The sequel is one of my all-time favorites. I’ve been waiting for this one for the better part of a decade. I’ve been following the story since the first hints of it dropped way back in February of 2006. I’m not just a fan of this series, I’m an avid, nearly rabid fan of this series.

Dear 2kGames. I’ve got sixty bucks right here. And you guys will never see it. Never. I don’t care if I see the game in the bargain bin two years from now for $5. I don’t want it. I also don’t want to hear your crying about pirates ripping you off. You started it. Your box claims “This game requires Online Activation to play”, but if you were honest about what that really means – if you let people know what you were really selling – it would demolish sales. And you know it. I don’t use pirated software, but my fond hope is that the pirates give you the quick humiliation you deserve.

Activating the game twice? I picked up Doom 3 a couple of years ago, and I’ve reinstalled it four times since then as I’ve shuffled games around or upgraded my computer. There is no excuse for thinking like this.

And this just backs up my earlier post on the uselessness of game reviews. This should be the first thing mentioned in every review. PC Gamer talked about it on their blog, but I’ll bet this never makes it into print. It is my hope that gamers pass this along, so that nobody buys this game without knowing what they’re getting into.

EDIT: More here. Looks like you get an activation “back” when you uninstall? How magnanimous of them.

EDIT: More here on the 2k forums. They have flatly claimed that secuROM isn’t a rootkit. That announcement is followed by about four pages of angry responses from users talking about how it is exactly that. I can’t say one way or the other, but if they have added lies to the mix then I think it ought to act as a Tony-Hawk style multiplier on the negative feedback and publicity they might be experiencing.

In the comments below someone points out that the number of installs has been upped from 2 to 5. I will admit that 5 is indeed larger than 2, although it is less than inifinity, which is the number of installs most games permit.

EDIT: More on this at other sites:

The Daily Jump
consumerist
Completely Random Thoughts
hylomorph

Kotaku has a response from Ken Levine

And even the demo installs the rootkit.

EDIT: Looks like The Rampant Coyote is giving the game a pass as well.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.