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Saturday May 01, 2010
Alpha Protocol PC DRM Details * Updated 5/17/10I’ve got a big post on the DRM solution for the PC version of Alpha Protocol. I know this info was discussed recently and there were many concerns, which is expected for DRM. I’ve talked with our teams and given some of the other solutions out there, this seems pretty straight forward and very accommodating. The only major requirement is an internet connection, and there are workarounds if you don’t have a PC connected to the internet. Here’s the official statement on what to expect:
We’ve got a full FAQ detailing exactly what to expect, but please, ask questions if you have them and I’ll do my best to get them answered. ————————— The PC version of Alpha Protocol uses an internet based licensing system. After installation, the user is required to enter a valid product registration code (license key) in order to begin playing the game. An internet connection is necessary to do this. Your registration code, like the software and license that you purchased is your property. Please keep it in safe place and don’t give it out to others. FAQ’sWhat licensing system is used on Alpha Protocol? Why does SEGA recommend that I keep my product registration code secret and safe? How will this licensing system affect me? You will not need to repeat this process unless you significantly change your machine hardware, or you deactivate your product (please see the deactivation section below), or install it on another machine. How many times can I activate? What if I want to transfer the game to other computers, more than five over the life of the product? I have multiple computers at home and often swap them out you see. In order to do this you will need to deactivate older installations though. The best way of doing this is to install the game on the computer you want to play the game on and follow the on-screen instructions. Please see the FAQ’s regarding transferring licenses and deactivating older licenses below. What happens if my computer crashes? Do I lose that license seat? What if I change a large percentage of hardware? Do I lose that license seat? Just start the game as normal and if this is an issue you simply enter your ‘activation key’ into the activation screen and click ‘Activate’, as you did when you first activated the game. At this point, if you have reached your license seat limit you will be taken through the process of deactivating the previous installation which only takes a few mouse clicks. If you have not reached your license seat limit then within 30 seconds of reactivation you will be playing the game as you did before. In this case, you can still get the older license seat back via our web based deactivation option (please see the deactivation section below) or just wait until you install the product on more computers. Am I protected for the future if the Uniloc service is discontinued? I do not have internet access. How do I activate the game? Do I need to have internet access to play the game? We wanted to provide a realistic solution so that customers can play the game without interruption in cases where an internet connection is down or is unreliable. We also wanted to support laptop users, who might wish to play on the move without internet connection. I have internet access but I am having internet connection problems. How do I activate the game? I have internet access on my computer, yet Alpha Protocol is not able to authenticate. What’s the problem? Do I need the disk in the drive to play the game? Transferring a License Seat/License Seat DeactivationI have installed Alpha Protocol already and I want to install it on another computer. How do I do this? I have installed Alpha Protocol on five machines, so I have used all my license seats. I want to play Alpha Protocol on another computer so how do I transfer a license? How do I deactivate my key from my computer? 1.If you have access to the internet, just uninstall the game while the internet connection is active. We take care of deactivation for you in this case, but please bear in mind if the internet connection is not reliable or drops out during the un-installation then deactivation may not occur. 2.In order to provide greater flexibility we have created a deactivation service. Simply navigate to the following our website (not yet active) and enter your ‘activation key’ and you will then see all of the devices associated with your key. Simply click to delete the device(s) that you no longer require. Once you have successfully deactivated the device(s) you can then re-use the key on new devices, up to your limit of five (5) seats (please refer to ‘How will this affect me?’ section for information on seats). Please bear in mind that this is the exact same process that you will be guided through if you install the game and attempt to activate having used the five license seats. Generally people will not need to go directly to the web site. Web Based Activation (if you are experiencing issues trying to authenticate, or do not have Internet access on the computer you are trying to authenticate) To activate from within the application itself, the software must not be blocked (by a firewall) from sending and receiving data over the internet (Port 80 – standard HTTP port). For many users this will not be an issue and it will be handled automatically. Users with firewall issues will always have the option of updating firewall settings. However, in the cases where you can still browse the web via a web browser it may be easier to use Web Based Activation. Web Based Activation may also be of interest to if you are a user with no internet connection, have an unreliable internet connection or a firewall that will not allow even web browsing and you can still activate the software via another computer that does have web access. This process involves saving a file and transporting it to the computer that does have web access. Using that computer you upload the file to a website and in response save another file out and transfer it back to the machine you wish to activate software on. A local network, USB memory stick, floppy disk or other writable media are ideal for the purposes of transferring the files between the two computers involved. In all cases please proceed to install the game on the computer of your choice and you be provided with full guidance to assist you in activating through the web page. The URL is provided at that time. SupportI’ve been through the FAQ and I’m still having problems, is there anything I can do?
Posted by Clumsyorchid in Alpha Protocol on 9:33:18AM May 01, 2010
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Comment # 1
I’m not a big fan of this DRM, but the one-time-only online activation, the possibility to revoke activations, and the future unprotected patch planned are all good choices, the only downside is not taking advantage of Steamworks, since achievements and other features would be really welcome.
Posted by Andrenekoi on May 1st, 2010 at 10:11 am
Comment # 2
I really appreciate Sega making this clear at the outset. I am not a fan of DRM but this form of it seems very reasonable and it appears that Sega is striking a good balance between customer rights and protecting their product from unlawful distribution. Good work, Sega.
Posted by Narles on May 1st, 2010 at 10:56 am
Comment # 3
Thanks Narles, I was concerned when I saw the news break on what we were using, but not much else detail-wise. I definitely think it’s a good balance and very customer friendly and applaud the teams that have been involved in making it so. Hopefully this helps those on the fence about a PC release.
Again, if you have questions, I can reach out and get these answered if something is unclear in the post above.
Posted by Clumsyorchid on May 1st, 2010 at 11:02 am
Comment # 4
Better than what the competitors are putting out. SEGA’s really shaping up in the PC market, wow!
But will there also be a Steam version of the game for us Steamy folk, without the retail DRM?
Posted by Furyhunter on May 1st, 2010 at 11:48 am
Comment # 5
Op, nevermind, didn’t read the last part. Sorry.
Posted by Furyhunter on May 1st, 2010 at 11:54 am
Comment # 6
No Steamworks is sad, but expected. Frankly, I think it would bring SEGA a lot bonus points for two reasons: no redundant DRM (as Steam is DRM) and achievements, cloud etc. is what every Steam user appreciates. Buy as stated above, this is way better than what competion is doing. I’m looking at you, Ubisoft.
Posted by strelok on May 2nd, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Comment # 7
While I do not like any form of DRM, this seems to be reasonable. This sounds far better than the other DRM schemes some other developers are trying to shove down our throats; and is the reason why they are on my black list of developers and publishers I will not buy games from.
Sega probably sees the bad PR some other publishers are getting right now with their draconian DRM and is going the other direction while still protecting their IP, hoping to gain some new customers if Sega’s DRM turns out to not inconvenience their paying customers.
I will have to take a closer look at this game, especially since I personally love RPGs.
Posted by Crusader on May 2nd, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Comment # 8
Clumsyorchid, thank you for taking a progressive and realistic stand against piracy but not against your comsumers. Believe it or not, you just hooked me into to buy this game. Please forward to your product planner
Posted by Namielus on May 2nd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Comment # 9
This seems like reasonable DRM. One time activation I can live with, no dvd in drive necessary is nice, and I can play if my net crashes or on the move? Good Sega, good.
Posted by Paul on May 3rd, 2010 at 12:53 am
Comment # 10
This is sad. I was looking forward to pre-ordering this game on Steam as it looks awesome but I will not buy it if it has DRM beyond Steam. As one of the few people in my social circles who actually pays for games, often at full price on release day, why am I punished for that? Instead, I’ll just wait until they patch it out of the Steam version and then buy it for $5 or $10 on sale in a year instead of $50 just as I did for Mass Effect, Bioshock, Mirror’s Edge and anything else pointlessly encumbered with DRM. There are plenty of other publishers who want my money on release day instead.
Posted by Zach on May 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 am
Comment # 11
So, one question: Why?
This will be a hassle for ALL of your paying customers (us) for the next 18-24 months (Can we sign a contract on that with a $1 mil fine if you do not live up to your promise if giving us a patch?)
It will provide an EXCITING CHALLENGE for ONE or a SMALL TEAM of crackers before it will be provided HASSLE FREE to every single pirate int he world.
How can you guarantee that I can play this game 10 years from now? Where do I download that patch from? Magic fairy land where servers are run for free?
So, why?
And please stop lying to us and thinking we’re morons. It’s not nice.
Posted by Johannes Pihl on May 3rd, 2010 at 8:39 am
Comment # 12
Zach, I hear your response as someone who doesn’t like DRM except for Steam. What in particular about our system has you troubled? I’m not saying we can fix / rectify, but for feedback purposes, I can make sure it’ll get to the right people.
Johannes, will ask on patches and download destinations. From what I gather, this is essentially a CD Key system with a 1 time online authentication. It’s the furthest from a hassle (unless no internet connection), but if I’m not seeing what you are seeing, could you post with what specifically you think will be a hassle?
Posted by Clumsyorchid on May 3rd, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Comment # 13
Glad there’s no Steamworks. People don’t realize how bad that is for digital distribution and competition…the features are nice but not worth it. Ideally they’d be exclusive to the Steam release.
Anyway, very reasonable. Good stuff, Sega.
Posted by Sean on May 3rd, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Comment # 14
Also I hate being tied to a client~
Posted by Sean on May 3rd, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Comment # 15
i liked uniloc on football manager 09 and 10, as we used to sometimes buy 2 copies of the game (when it was called championship manager)
and some years we just skipped due to the cost of 2 games, we didn’t buy for multiple years.
so now i play FM10 using steam and my brother using uniloc, that’s quite reasonable as we don’t have to wait for each other to be done with a game either.
this is the best DRM from any big game publisher out there, it’s actually a better experience than on consoles!
Posted by mark on May 3rd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Comment # 16
Now that’s DRM I can deal with.
Posted by Kyle on May 3rd, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Comment # 17
Thank you for explaining the intentional limitations that the DRM creates and the mechanisms you’ve made available for your customers to reclaim their license seats. I applaud you for being up-front and proactive in getting out this information.
In particular, I commend you for thinking hard about how to allow consumers who have their computer stolen or broken to remotely recover their license seat, and as someone in a rural area I appreciate the thoughfulness behind providing some kind of mechanism for offline gamers to use. The fact that you are willing to commit to sunsetting/patching-out the DRM in a given time period is also forward thinking IMO.
I’ll be honest. When I heard you were implementing activation-based DRM I decided against buying AP. This explanation and more consumer-focussed article has me wavering.
I have three things for you: one a comment and two broad questions.
The comment is: why not release the patch once the drm has been fully cracked and widely available for those who would steal your game? If the scumbags can skip all the restrictions within days/weeks, why make the paying customers continue to jump through the pointless hoops? (I’m asking this seriously, not sarcastically. I honestly want to know your reasoning on this.)
The first question is: What other communications are going on between your servers and our computers? Partly this is a question about privacy/data mining. Obviously if there is a remote mechanism to retrieve license seats, there must be some background communications with your servers to prevent the old computer being able to continue to play the game after the license seat has been revoked. The frequency/timing and content of such communications would ideally be made transparent to gamers who wish to see it. Not everyone is entirely sanguine about hidden communications.
The second broad question relates to the uniloc client itself. Does it use kernel-level/ring-0 permissions and does it prevent the computer owner from running any other software by design (software blacklists etc)?
I do appreciate your willingness to confront this issue proactively. As I said, I’m now seriously re-evaluating my intial response to the announcement since it is clear from your post that this DRM system has had a lot more consumer-centric thinking applied to it than has been the case with some other companies. Regardless of my final decision regarding buying AP turns out, and if/how you answer my questions, I thank you for showing some respect to your consumers and doing your best to satisfy legitimate concerns over DRM.
Posted by Craig Dolphin on May 3rd, 2010 at 8:39 pm
Comment # 18
I don’t get all the negativity about this DRM.
I buy 95% of my games online now. The DRM activation will add maybe 0.5% of internet connection time to activating the game. You can revoke activations without the install that that activation is tied to. Where is the downside?
Hell, you could probably do the activation with your mobile phone without too much effort. Why bother with the web activation?
Posted by Michael Constantin on May 3rd, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Comment # 19
Sega does what Ubifails.
Posted by Diogo Ribeiro on May 4th, 2010 at 6:25 am
Comment # 20
Good game SEGA, This is the way to handle DRM… Probably the best I’ve seen of any Publisher.
Posted by Sharky/Ryan on May 4th, 2010 at 6:38 am
Comment # 21
Outstanding work guys.
Actual explanations, a reasonable system that the consumer can manage and will go away at some point, no talking down to your audience. I’m quite pleased and while I’ll likely buy the 360 version, I will have no problem suggesting the game to my PC playing buddies. You guys should talk more about this to make the comparisons against your competitors clear.
Posted by Mike on May 4th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Comment # 22
Dear Sega.
Thank you for looking at the concerns of the consumer instead of those of the board member assholes that ruin everyone’s fun.
DRM is never great, but at least you looked for that balance so it’s not overly intrusive and unusable, instead, you made sure the game can’t just be passed around while allowing me to install it on my laptop and computer without huge hassle.
Thank you
Posted by Matt on May 4th, 2010 at 7:48 am
Comment # 23
go sega. i hope developers will follow in your footsteps. if youre not going to use steam works (i respect that) then this is the way to go. especially the part of unlocking it in the future.
Posted by washd123 on May 4th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Comment # 24
Good day,
There’s some excellent, well thought out, cogent comments here. I too was one of the potential customers looking at the DRM on this title and previously excluding it as a buy option due to the DRM.
After looking more closely at the specifics I believe this is overall a reasonable and acceptable solution. While no knowledgeable gamer is going to be happy about DRM, most of us understand the business reality of needing to limit illegal distribution as much as possible.
No system is perfect and this one will likely have some release day issues as most others have previously. What sways me more is Sega’s apparent willingness to work with its customer base and make reasonable decisions. Had you used SecuROM or StarForce, this would have been an unconditional no-sale.
Congrats Sega. You’ve just secured +1 customer, along with recommendations to my friends. Looking forward to this title, and hopefully you will be one of the publishers that the gaming community can stand behind. There are fewer of those each year.
Kind regards,
~Shendai
Posted by Shendai on May 4th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Comment # 25
All very good to hear, if you have to have DRM this is the way to go. I love you guys.
I especially loved this little dig at Ubisoft in there:
“We wanted to provide a REALISTIC solution so that customers can play the game without interruption in cases where an internet connection is down or is unreliable. We also wanted to support laptop users, who might wish to play on the move without internet connection.”
Nice.
Posted by The Tingler on May 4th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Comment # 26
Piracy is always a problem that exists no matter what you do. Excessive DRMs like Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed 2 will just drag down sales and just end up been cracked anyway.
The only solution is to not release it for PC (or 360 -> modded 360′s) and just do it for the PS3 since this is the only system that hasn’t been hacked yet.
Posted by Tom on May 4th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Comment # 27
@ #1: Using Steamworks for Achievements and additional features is sensible if you’re only using Steam. If you’re using other retail channels (eg. stores, other digital stores), if you use Steam on those titles, you lose out an extra 30% in licensing fees that goes to Valve on top of the regular fees those channels will require.
Posted by Ririnador on May 6th, 2010 at 6:26 am
Comment # 28
“Additionally, the pirates will STILL not deal with any of this as they will have cracked copies.”
Also, this just in, Steamworks IS DRM.
Posted by Wolvenmoon on May 6th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Comment # 29
Sounds like a good DRM
.
Posted by mordaza on May 6th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Comment # 30
I am glad to see a reasonable DRM solution and would gladly support this game and Sega.
I do have one question.
If the game requires no internet connection in order to play, just the one time activation connection, how would an install know it was unregistered?
Example, I install the game on 5 PCs. Then decide to install the game on a 6th. During that I unregister one of the original 5. How does the unregistered install know that it has been unregistered if it never needs to connect to the server?
Posted by E. Zachary Knight on May 6th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Comment # 31
This all sounds pretty good – I don’t really mind about activation limits so long as a functioning revoke tool is included.
HOWEVER – The more pressing issues is, does the Alpha Protocol DRM install any system level drivers? Does it drop registry entries onto the end user computer? Will the DRM blacklist programs and tell me what I can and cannot run? If I uninstall Alpha Protocol, will it uninstall the DRM as well?
SecuROM was a heinous piece of software, not because of activation limits, but because it sliently installed, rooted in, and played gatekeeper on your computer without so much as alerting the user. Please, Sega, don’t go that route!
Posted by Vibration on May 6th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Comment # 32
I’m not a fan of DRM at all but I’ve found Steam to suit my needs the best by far. Why don’t you guys use Steam instead?
Posted by Matt on May 6th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Comment # 33
This DRM is at least a step in the right direction. The limited number of installs I do not like one bit, even if i can deactivate an install. Would much rather to just see this use steamworks if you buy it via Steam.
Posted by MalXenos on May 6th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Comment # 34
Thank you for chosing a resonable option over that steam crap. thank you wery.
Posted by Per Kristian on May 6th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Comment # 35
Zach Knight – You need to have an internet connection for AP PC. To deactivate a license through uninstall, you need to be connected to the internet. If you are not, then you’ll need to deactivate through the website. I don’t know the exact response, but if you have 5 PCs licensed to you and install a 6th, you wont’ be able to unless you deactivate one of the licenses.
This is how the FAQ outlines it, if you mean something different, let me know.
Posted by Clumsyorchid on May 6th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Comment # 36
What if I have the game installed on a portable hard drive and play the game on different computers from the hard drive? How will it affect the liscences?
Posted by Aguy on May 6th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Comment # 37
Thank you for choosing a reasonable approach (or at least as reasonable as possible while using any DRM system). I’m currently boycotting AC2 due to its unreasonable DRM; I’m glad I don’t need to do that with this game.
One thing that does irritate me though: you really *should* be using SteamWorks for the Steam-based release (and *not* use it for any non-Steam release). What annoys people is when there is a mismatch between their platform and the DRM — since Steam already provides DRM, it annoys people using Steam when a third-party system is layered on top of that, and it also annoys people who *don’t* use Steam when a game requires Steam be installed because it inappropriately uses Steamworks.
The DRM layer in the game should be kept abstract, so you can swap in whichever one is appropriate. For a Steam release, link the game to SteamWorks. For an Impulse release, link the game to the Impulse API. For an Xbox release, link it to Xbox Live. For a [Company X platform] release, link it to [Company X's platform library]. For a retail release, link it to Uniloc (or whatever, as long as it doesn’t require additional installation… and isn’t evil). (The same goes for achievements — if I buy a game from Steam it should give me Steam achievements; if I buy it from GFW it should give me GFW achievements; if I buy it from PSN it should give me PSN trophies; if I buy it elsewhere it should either not bother, or do publisher/game-specific achievements [like Dragon Age], or give the *option* of linking to one of the achievement systems without *requiring* it.)
Posted by Miral on May 6th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Comment # 38
I really appreciate the apparent thoughtfulness and putting customers first in the implementation of this DRM, especially in the light of recent developments.
As someone with a very shaky internet connection, I appreciate not having to use Steam, and “always-online” is just not an option for me. I am also very very thankful for the fact that your DRM solution respects those PC Gamers that have a non-connected gaming PC and a second (much, much less powerful) PC to browse the internet.
Thank you for setting a sign in the right direction!
Posted by VexingVision on May 7th, 2010 at 5:33 am
Comment # 39
Good job Sega. At least there are a few publishers who pay attention to their customer base. I do not like DRM but something like this is not unreasonable in the least, ESPECIALLY if a DRM-free patch is promised (and actually delivered), I would most certainly buy this game.
Posted by Kevin on May 7th, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Comment # 40
Thanks all for your questions, we’re happy to have them answered below:
On Patches, where do we download the release patch from? Does it come from Uniloc, or Sega?
The patch will come from Sega. It is too early for us to tell where it will be available from, but likely it will be hosted both centrally and distributed widely. With this strategy it will always be available from a place where Sega controls (so availability will persist over the years) yet it will also be available in many places (as a convenience to users).
What if Uniloc as a company ceases to exist?
The patch would be released without any dependency on Uniloc. Post-release, the dependency on Uniloc is for authentication server hosting. If Uniloc were no longer able to provide this service Sega would either provide the service directly, or we would release the patch earlier.
Ok, what if the download link disappears, etc. How can we be sure the update will be available 20 years from now?
Given the broad distribution, even if the central availability of the patch was to go away it would likely be available on other sites for some years to come. Sega will make sure this is distributed broadly and available on partner sites.
What other communications are going on between your servers and our computers? Partly this is a question about privacy/data mining…
The system is very similar to what Steam does in that we do obtain some data about PC configurations. It is anonymous in the sense that this data is collated and combined with the data of all other users before we can see it. As such we cannot point to any single user and tell what hardware or software they specifically have, we can only understand the % of users that have a specific configuration. Please bear in mind that in mentioning software we are only talking about the Operating System and Direct3D version information – we don’t collect any software information beyond this and we do not survey the software programs that customers have installed.
The data (hardware and software) is used to make sure that we target the correct PC specifications for future releases and is a very important part of the feedback loop from customers. We can target customers needs much better as a result, ensuring performance and compatibility across the appropriate configurations and focus development efforts towards better serving our core customers.
None of this is any different to what Steam does and of course they publish their data to the public via http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/. This is actually very similar to the sort of report we can see.
The only other thing we do on top of this is we collect a very small amount of information about how the Alpha Protocol game is played. Again, this is only broad information and cannot be tracked to any individual. This data could be used to tweak the game in future patches for the benefit of players, but it is not extensive data (we are really only doing this to test out the idea for future titles). To be specific, the game is an RPG and RPG games generally have the concept of ‘perks’ that are earned. This is what we track in Alpha Protocol and it is really a question of understanding the style of play. We could use this information to spend development efforts on perks that are more appreciated, more widely used for example and more relevant in future RPG type games, which would be better than spending time developing things people are not interested in. Our goal is to make better games.
Obviously if there is a remote mechanism to retrieve license seats, there must be some background communications with your servers to prevent the old computer being able to continue to play the game after the license seat has been revoked.
There is actually no requirement for this to occur. We purposely did it this way to allow users to reclaim licenses from a computer that perhaps had broken, which is a common criticism with ‘DRM’ cases. We felt this was very important for a number of reasons, most notably because life happens and drm shouldn’t penalize people just because their computer breaks but obviously points like this we feel speak highly of our goals and commitments to customers too.
The frequency/timing and content of such communications would ideally be made transparent to gamers who wish to see it.
If there is an internet connection the system will check-in with our servers on a regular basis. You won’t notice this. If there is no internet connection it simply won’t check-in. You also won’t notice this, because nothing will happen as a result. We felt it very important that customers are not penalized simply for not having regular ‘always on’ internet connections.
Not everyone is entirely sanguine about hidden communications.
Given the comments above, everything the system does is now in public knowledge – there is simply nothing hidden.
Does it use kernel-level/ring-0 permissions and does it prevent the computer owner from running any other software by design (software blacklists etc)?
No, the system doesn’t prevent you from running any other software – the protection is fully self-contained and it doesn’t step outside the realm of protecting Alpha Protocol. Whatever else you are doing with your computer is your business and the neither the software, or Sega will get involved with that or monitor it in any way.
The more pressing issues is, does the Alpha Protocol DRM install any system level drivers?
No.
Does it drop registry entries onto the end user computer?
Most installed software record entries in system registries, please bear that in mind. The registry is a place to store very basic information that allows the software to work without error, even to install and uninstall properly and so on. Alpha Protocol and its DRM system does not and will not abuse any system registry in any way whatsoever.
Will the DRM blacklist programs and tell me what I can and cannot run?
No.
If I uninstall Alpha Protocol, will it uninstall the DRM as well?
Yes it does uninstall with the software. It’s probably worth point out though that even if it didn’t uninstall there would be no problem with that. The software really only does bother itself with licensing Alpha Protocol so if it was to be left behind it would have nothing to do and you simply wouldn’t notice it and suffer penalty from it. While this is a moot point because it does uninstall, I am pointing this out because it might help to understand that this isn’t like the drm you might have used before. This just works in a different way and is well intentioned.
Posted by Clumsyorchid on May 17th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Comment # 41
Well, that works for me. I think you get about a 90% pasing mark from me on the answers.
To get another 8% you would have needed to say that there was an option box to allow your customers to see the text of the data payload being transmitted if they wished (or some equivalant). I can think of a couple of people who would want that. The whole ‘trust but verify’ concept.
But personally I have no problem with you guys collecting anonymized OS/DirectX and hardware spec information like shown in the STEAM link you provided.
I’ll be buying AP. For me to say that about ANY game with DRM beyond a simple disk check is…pretty remarkable really.
Oh, and the other 2%? Well, that’s for not discussing my comment about the length of time to patch out the DRM once the pirates have done so. But in the overall scheme of things, why should you care about 2% from some random commenter eh?
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I know that this post will be a great resource for those interested in AP’s DRM.
Posted by Craig Dolphin on May 17th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Comment # 42
Thanks for following up, I think 90% is remarkably good from someone who takes DRM as seriously as you do. From a company perspective, I’m glad can publish this information so openly and directly, and as a PC gamer, it makes me extremely happy to see this as an option for DRM on any game, Alpha Protocol or otherwise.
I care about the 2%, I asked it, but I didn’t get a response on it. I figured I’d throw everything out, and we got a mix of your questions and a few others
.
Posted by Clumsyorchid on May 19th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Comment # 43
hey!!! help about intallation, when im trying to install the game appears an error i cant install it (error 5005 0x8007000d) complete before installation n close applications, thanks
Posted by rozar on June 5th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Comment # 44
I read the comments on the DRM system as applied by SEGA. Based on that, went to buy the game.
Joy, joy,….. No problems!
Thanks SEGA
Posted by Bossies on June 7th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Comment # 45
While I think the system used is a lot better than others I won’t buy anything requiring online activation so will probably get it when the removal patch is released.
What I was wondering is if you intend on releasing a new SKU without the DRM as Deepsilver/Egosoft did with X3 gold edition?
Whatever the case thanks for the promise that I will be able to get this game at some point in the future.
Posted by Nyre on July 8th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Comment # 46
We won’t have a new SKU, I’m told there is a patch available that will remove the DRM
Posted by Clumsyorchid on July 8th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Comment # 47
This game was one of the best games I have ever played it is a total shame there is to be no part two I would gladly pay 60 bucks for this game I think every game lover of this game should e-mail sega an demand one what will it take this game was great.it has what so many games lack so please please reconsider to make part 2 I have hundreds of games an every system an this game is by far one of the best games I have ever played
Thanks a devoted sega fan
Posted by Frank devlin on February 3rd, 2011 at 11:53 am
Comment # 48
I just purchased a new game, alpha protocol and it wont activate!! I have an internet connection and i really want to play the game. Any idea what i can do to solve the problem!! Please PLEASE help!! I would really like to play the game!!!
Error code: -1912029
Posted by inNeedOfHelp on May 16th, 2011 at 4:00 am
Comment # 49
I’ve bought the game and after I did the installation but when I had to activate I wrote down my activation code and it said “Error code: -1912029″, and I don’t know what I have to do because I have internet connection and in theory “I could play with this game” but I can’t. Please help me!!!
Posted by vilee on June 11th, 2011 at 5:10 am
Comment # 50
I bought it, cant activate it. Sega support site down. No one emails me back. What a PIECE OF S*** im taking it back and wont ever buy another sega product.
Posted by PxWebDev on June 16th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Comment # 51
Ditto to Comment #50. Bought it, got it home, can’t activate it, adjusted firewall, internet access, Sega support site down, phone service is not service at all. All I wanted was to play a game on the one F*ing day I had to myself. Thanks so much.
Posted by Brad on June 18th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Comment # 52
I’ve bought the game and after I did the installation but when I had to activate I wrote down my activation code and it said “Error code: -1912029″, and I don’t know what I have to do because I have internet connection and in theory “I could play with this game” but I can’t. Please help me!!!I recieved a mail from your customer service saying to download the patch.but after doing so the patch is not working and it is saying close program.Kindly hepl me out.
Posted by Vishek Victor on September 15th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Comment # 53
wow, I really wish i wouldve read these comments before i bought this game. I have internet access, allowed the game through firewall, it still says i dont have an internet connection, wtf? and the sega support is still down since the one guys post in fucking june? really?
Posted by Bruce on October 8th, 2011 at 8:20 pm