Wirehead Studios

This time it's Blizzard.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/securityupdate.html

nothing can ever be safe

-Update-
Around Tuesday, the Battlenet database was hacked- If you have an account there, I'd recommend changing your security info.

Honestly, I have a hard time feeling sorry for Blizzard. They have forced all of their customers into Battle.net, after all. I remember playing hundred of hours of the first Diablo game, and probably about as much of the sequel. I have no interest in purchasing the third title though, and the forced usage of an always-on connection to Battle.net is at the forefront of my reasons why.

Blizzard used to be an awesome company. Then they released World of Warcraft. :(

I recommend Torchlight 2 then.

Isn't Blizz owned by EA?



That would explain some of their suckiness

Actually it's Activision, but no difference there.

The primary reason I post this stuff is to keep you guys informed if you have any of these games and might be affected.  :doom_thumb:

I've been keeping an eye on it. It keeps getting pushed back though! I rather liked the first Torchlight. It became boring after so long though, as it had no multiplayer available, and the story was kind of weak. Ironically enough, the team behind the Torchlight series were the real talent for the first two Diablo games. :)

Well i understand blizzard for wanting diablo 3 always be online with todays piracy and it really doesnt bother me since most ppls do have an constant internet connection anyways. battle.net is just like all the other services provided by gamecompanys nowdays (steam, ea, xbox, ps3,ubisoft and so on) game beeing online is the future and i bet we will see even more of it.

But i understand the frustration regarding diablo 3 especially the first weeks when it was released, major pain when server went offline or when you could not logon.. ( i dont play diablo 3 anymore but thats mostly cuz i couldnt be bothered farming it like i did with diablo, diablo 2 mainly cuz there aint much new about it anways)

Anyways sucks that battle.net got hacked and since quite many ppls use the same password for all their online accounts is even more sucky (but maybe they'll learn a lesson ;)) i know the password is encrypted at blizzard but everything that's encrypted can be decrypted.

:rant:
I find it stupid we have to prove that we bought a legit copy. I bought Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for the Xbox at 60$ only to find out I had to pay an extra 12 bucks for full access. (Are f'ing trolling me?!) The game was fine, but I don't understand why publishers have to be money-sucking douches.
:rant:

I've been against DRM any copy protection from the start.  It does not stop pirates.  People that otherwise would not buy the game (or movie, or music) still are not going to buy it, and all it does in the end is annoy the legitimate users.  Software activation is something I absolutely despise.  If I pay for something that means I'm entitled to use it.  You already have my money and that's permission enough.  They sure as hell don't wait for my permission to use the money, proving they're the legitimate recipients, now do they?  No other commodity except software has this kind of crap attached to it.  Imagine if you bought food but then you had to call the food company for permission to eat it, to "prove" you're the actual buyer, and couldn't even open the food package without them "activating" it?  It sounds absurd because it is absurd.  Software users are treated like worse than criminals.  You're assumed guilty until you prove that you're innocent, and if something goes wrong... oh well, too bad.  They have your money so they don't care.

Hear, hear.

It's for the same reason that I laugh at DVDs/BRs that have copyright / FBI warnings that you can't skip. In practice, they almost exclusively accuse, offend, annoy and hinder legitimate consumers. There is not a single instance of pirated movie-viewing where such annoyances actually reach the viewer. The only available way to 'legally' watch a movie without getting horribly annoyed is to buy it, then download it and watch the pirated version. That's ridiculous.

  I don't get why they think a lot of people will download or buy pirated copies. In my life, I can only recall about 3 stores I've been where illegal movies were sold. Online there's a bunch of websites where they say you can watch a brand new movie for free, but it's damn easy to shut it down without all this P.I.P.A. and S.O.P.A. trash.
 The only major place that I've seen pirate movies being sold were in Mexico, I was just walking across the town when I found some sort of black market.

Companies want to protect the product that they produced.. I can understand that point of view. However, they seem to be getting more and more obscene as time goes on.

The 'online only' restriction that is seeing more and more use today is a bit annoying.. I mean.. seriously, lag in single player? But, the worst that I've faced is with my disc copy of Fallout 3. I played it for a bit and didn't find it to be my cup of tea and uninstalled it. About a year later I tried reinstalling it to give it another chance, and I got told to please insert a real copy of the game.
At that point, I took the disc out and never really looked back.

During the PS1/2 eras, in my neighbourhood we used to have guys doing regular door-to-door sales of copied games and DVDs. Not so much now due to new formats and even those who condoned piracy knew it was a rip-off. I sure as hell told 'em where to stick it.

Fact is, piracy is nowhere near the apocalyptic bogeyman that these companies make it out to be, and I'm getting fed up with the bullshit that they put me through every time I hand over my hard-earned for a new title. I've even had a PSN Store top-up card fail on me with absolutely NO recourse to get my money back. Thank feck it was only a tenner, but that's not really the point.

I am now at the point where I WANT the games industry to implode. What was it that Thomas Jefferson said about 20 years without a rebellion? Well, the gaming industry is almost at 30 years without one, and we need one now more than ever. The last implosion in 1983 ended up giving us the NES, go figure.

Maybe it's time to go back to carts ;)

Touche.

Actually, I find myself playing (and buying) more boardgames than anything nowadays. The so-called "designer boardgames" available are incredibly diverse and entertaining. I never liked Monopoly or Risk, but I can definitely get into titles like Settlers of Catan, Pandemic, or Carcassonne. I just got some D&D books in the mail last week. I've never played before, and intend to explore that avenue of analogue gaming next. I've played other RPGs before, like Rifts and Vampire the Masquerade, but even then it was close to 15 years ago.

Not only is it a nice change of pace to physically hold and move your character, but it reintroduces a social aspect of gameplay that seem to have died with LAN parties in the digital arena. Besides, it feels a lot better spending $40 on an actual, real product that will never become obsolete... as opposed to a bunch of ones and zeros that will be made obsolete within six months.

Maybe it's just because I'm old, but I don't feel like the video game industry has really offered me much to be exited about in a loooooong time.  The market has changed in a way that some of the more enjoyable aspects of the hobby to me are now gone and unlikely to ever really return.

Physical games that require more than one player have rarely been much use to me.  Those I did play, such as chess, I rarely ever found a match for among those whom I trust enough to know personally.  I favored complex mechanical puzzles prior to video games, but even those are of limited value as, once solved, they were no longer a challenge.  I think that's why I like programming.  It's always a new challenge, always a new puzzle to solve of how to make something work.

As for becoming obsolete... I don't think I'll ever tire of certain classic games.  :doom_love:

No one will play chess with me. I don't consider myself to be astoundingly good, but I do almost always win against the rare opponents available to me.

As for obsolescence, I don't think it applies to older games quite as much. It wasn't part of the business model then as it is now. Online passes, the aforementioned DRM, account-locked consoles, and annual sequels ensure that you won't be playing most modern games much past the intended time frame. In comparison, here I am on a forum, for a mod, for a game over 10 years old. ;)

I'm not much of a fan of Chess, though Shogi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi) can be fun. But I absolutely love Go (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29) -- I'm happy to play a game online with anyone who wants to, anytime. :]

I am ashamed to say that I have never learned to play Go. I have wanted to make my own board/set for a long time though.

Well yeah DRM and any copy protections sucks i agree on that but still i understand why it exist. saying that piracy is not hurting the gaming industry is a lie, of course it does. Im not saying the companies are lying there bleeding cash, there still are enough paying customer.
However if noon buys anything they can't afford to make the games either then we all loose :)

Im still enjoying "Modern" games thought time is the issue..not enough time!

Oh man... I remember that. I still have around 600 to 1000 bucks worth of AD&D books and was worth every dime I spent over the years. I DM'd for almost 8 years up though high school. It far blew away any game on the market IMO. Nothing was more satisfying than to either entertain or scare the hell out of any of the players I had then. But that was soooooo many years ago.

Yes I know  :offtopic: But that comment brought a ton of fond memories to mind. Gotta love Ravenloft.  :doom_love: