DRM Conundrum

Look, I get it - no one likes to have their stuff stolen. This is why Ubisoft elected to require that your PC contacts the Ubi mothership every time you fire up Assassin's Creed 2 - to make sure that you are who you are supposed to be and that your copy of the game has been bought and paid for in a legitimate manner.

I knew this when I bought the game - there was a bit of sturm and drang on the internets when this practice was announced but I paid it very little mind. After all, if I wasn't doing anything wrong what did I have to worry about?

Well, as it turns out, a lot.

I bought my copy via Steam - yes, that Steam - the same one that validates your credentials EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU START THE GAME. That, evidently, isn't good enough for Ubiparanoid - they want to check me out, too.

Well, shockingly, Ubisoft appears to be the target of god knows how many hacking communities and find themselves in the unenviable situation of having their DRM servers pretty much crippled.

I'm not here to defend the hackers - but I totally get WHY they are doing it. Internet 101 pretty much baldly states that what you don't do is to arrogantly challenge people to try to break self-indulgent vendor-centric practices.

So I, like thousands of other people, can't play the SINGLE PLAYER game that we bought with our (totally un-counterfeit) cash until Ubisoft yanks their head out of their collective cloud of delusion and turns the goddamn thing off.

Here's a thought Ubi: I wouldn't be writing this bash piece about how much you suck if I was able to log on to Assassin's Creed 2 (wait, why the hell do I have to log on to a single player game again?).

It's practices like these that drive people to the dark side that organizations like Ubisoft fear so much.

I can't play a game that I bought. *I* am the person in this equation that got swindled.