Too few hours in the day //Jafoca.com

So Amazon launched it’s new Kindle 2.0 “e” book reader on monday.  The original device was intended to save the forests of the world by allowing us all to read our books off of a re-usable platform, vs the standard paperback, or in other words make Amazon a crapload of money by locking users into a proprietary platform for reading books that has a long long payback period.

I like the idea of the kindle.  I would much rather read my books from a small reusable device that I could take with me anywhere, and the screen does look really really close to actual print.  There is, however, some problems: the platform is proprietary, closed, AND DRM laden.

You see when you buy a book from the amazon store you may NOT:

1. Let your friends borrow the book (without the whole reader) when you are done
2. Sell the book when you are done

And this really annoys me.

Now, back to the original point of this story – the kindle 2 release came with only one “surprising” feature – Text To Speach.  The kindle can now read books to you!  Pretty interesting right?

Well, the writers guild has decided this is a violation of copyright law because it is read out loud.

This begs the question: is it illegal for me to have an inner monologue while I am reading a book? =D

Just a quick message to Amazon – I would buy the kindle tomorrow the following changes were made:

• Some sort of new payment scheme for books – subscription, buyback, who knows
• It could read RSS feeds – i know it wouldn’t want to be “syncing” rss all the time, but maybe over wifi only or something?

So I bought Fallout 3 around Xmas time.  I am only about 1/2 way thru and it has been a fun little experience.  The game is a post nuclear war apocalypse RPG/FPS – combining some of my favorite game genres.  I like FPS games with STORY.  This has it, it is good.

So I have noticed that Bathesda, the development studio, recently released an expansion called Fallout 3 Operation Anchorage where you apparently get to fight some communists in alaska.

Anyway, I bought Fallout 3 thru my favorite gaming platform, Steam.  Its great!  I have the game legally installed on my laptop and on my desktop, i even managed to set up a system to sync my gamesaves between the two.

Well, Bathesda released the expansion ONLY THRU Microsoft’s new steam platform rival, Games for Microsoft Live.  So to get the expansion I would have to move my current game files into a different folder, install a new client, buy 1000 microsoft points (the expansion itself costs 850, but points are only purchasable in quantities of 1000, what BS) and download the game.  After that I would have to repeat some steps to get it working on my laptop.  I also wonder if it would then require that I log into Seam and GFWL (isnt that a awful acronym to say) both to play my expansion.

Ugh.  Installing a new DLC client just to get an expansion is not for me.  Too much of a pain in the rear.  Bathesda, stay away from GWFL if you want any more money from me.  I hope this isnt another stupid attempt to “thwart piracy” that has gone horribly awry.  

BTW, I am not a MSFT hater either.  I just prefer not to be told where I have to buy stuff, especially if its an addition to the stuff I already have.  ”Here is your dvd player – we don’t carry the cable however…”

In an interview with Wired’s Game|Life blog, a VP from blizzard stated that the game will not have player-hating (haha I used that term in a proper form) Digital Rights Malware Management components installed.

Instead of punishing loyal fans, and I am certainly a fan of Diablo, Blizzard has opted to keep the same verification measures used in Diablo II, which includes verifying the game for online use only.

“Pardo: The thing that I think helps us, is that since our games have such a huge multiplayer component, Battle.net really is our most effective DRM.

If you wanna play online on Battle.net with other players you’re going to have to have a legitimate copy. That’s really kinda been the thing that’s always saved us from a lot of the PC piracy that I think hurts a lot of other single-player-only games.”

Gamers Win!

Blizzard gives us a fair balance of features in return for restrictions.  You can not just steal the game and get the best experience from it, you give up a little to gain access to the multiplayer parts (the fun bits).  Spore may hopefully have taught the game production businesses a valuable lesson.

EA is beginning to cave.  In a series of responses over the past week, EA has been addressing the demands of consumers. Apparantly they will be loosening the DRM restrictions.

The head of the EA games division, Frank Gibeau, was quoted as saying something to the effect of  “The consumers don’t understand that we need drm to secure our economic structure,” and also, “If games are just going to be stolen on the day that they are released, developers will have no incentive in investing 4 years of development time into them”.

Frank has apparently missed the gravy train – by a long shot.  While I understand that they don’t want their games stolen, the simple fact is that they can NOT accomplish this in the current digitized economy.  Proof of this was seen with Spore itself, which was cracked and pirated DAYS BEFORE IT’S LAUNCH!!!

I can understand the necessity for people to be paid for what they create, after all I have a rudimentary understanding of economics, however disenfranchising paying customers with overly restrictive digital malware technology is NOT the way to nix this problem.

EA has decided to allow 5 installs of Spore per account key, but what is more important is that they are allowing users to authorize and de-authorize computers to use the game, in the same way that Apple does with its itunes music tracks.  This is a much more acceptable solution as opposed to the original predicament.

Overall however, I would say that the Steam platform has the best overall solution.  Not only does steam allow installation on any computer system, it encourages social gaming.  Steam does this by allowing me to have steam installed on two or three of my computer systems, and then friends who come over can log into their accounts and play any steam games with me that they also own.  Purely brilliant for Team Fortress Two.

So there has been even more news on the Spore front this morning.  I have come close to completing the game, and will release my review once that has been accomplished.  I am in the midst of the Great war of Spodeification, so hopefully I will prevail soon.

Anyway the news relating to Spore’s awful DRM this morning concerns both a future game release, and more details about EA’s consumer abusing policy. Jump to the next page to read more!

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