I guess I will start off the Debate forum with something I hate to see; DRM. Not any old DRM mind you. I hate the intrusive, potentially game-killing variety of DRM. You know, the always-online DRM like Ubisoft has decided to use in many of their products.
Here is my argument, and why I think this type of DRM is dreadful. Turn on your television, watch a few commercials and tell me the running theme in all of them. That would be "ease of use" and "value."
As someone who has experienced issues with always-online DRM (Assassin's Creed II, I'm looking at you), I can tell you it is unpleasant. On more than one occasion playing Assassin's Creed II, I ran into a connection issue, not my connection mind you, but an issue with Ubisoft's servers. It was not a DDoS attack; they just went down for one reason or another. Each time this happened, I lost progress in the game as I was booted to the menu. Don't forget, Assassin's Creed II is a single player game. That is not ease of use to make customers jump through hoops to play a game.
Another issue that could rear it's ugly head is the possible shutting down of Ubi's servers. I don't know about any of you, but I still have and play games from the early 90's when I feel a bit of nostalgia. I do not like the idea of buying a product that will not work at some point for the arbitrary reason that the online component of a single player only game has been discontinued. That, in my eyes, cuts into the value of a game. Maybe that's why I waited to get Assassin's Creed II until it was on sale for $7.50.
And I know all the counter arguments. I know some will say, my Internet is good, no worries (so was mine, and I had issues); they will say Ubisoft has to protect their investment (Protect what? There's a crack. Multiple cracks actually).
There is one simple truth that needs to be acknowledged here. Piracy, in all forms, will exist forever and ever and you cannot and will not ever stop it. There is no security in the world that cannot be undone. If it can be assembled, it can be disassembled. It's a plain and simple truth.
It almost appears as if some companies want to make their products less appealing in an effort to fight piracy. How the hell is that supposed to work? From a business standpoint, this strategy is destined to fail. You cannot make products with arbitrary requirements to stop people from copying it who never bought the legitimate product to begin with. There is one person who suffers from DRM like this, and that's the people who pay for it. So why is it there exactly?
Forgive me for any errors in this post, I typed it in haste.
