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218 Reader Comments

  1. So wtf happens if your internet goes out? My cable has been out for the better part of two weeks in the past due to some unfortunate circumstances. This might break the deal for me, its retarded. I dont need my stats tracked by EA for a single player game.

    Why does EA have to fuck up EVERYTHING they touch. grrrr
    2675 posts | registered

    I'm still really sad that they bought Westwood. Imagine how much better the games would have been if this were not the case.

    EA can go fuck themselves. I'm so sick of stupid bullshit like this!

    @konrad872 Good point. What are you supposed to do if your internet shits itself?
    166 posts | registered
  3. I wouldn't be worried.. if the crackers have taught us anything, it's to have patience. They'll have it "fixed" so that online isn't necessary, probably within a week of launch.
    194 posts | registered
  4. It's pretty obvious this is just a way to try to impose strict DRM scheme and potentially kill the resale market.

    How many people really care about having your single player stats tracked online? I can't imagine it's very many. It's a major inconvenience for a very minor "feature."

    The StarCraft issue doesn't really bother me as much. Using for multiplayer games isn't all that big an issue as LAN games aren't all that popular (although I played Starcraft most frequently over LAN). For most people, it won't make much difference to them.
    133 posts | registered
  5. It'd be nice if EA made this optional. I can get behind the explanation of wanting to use single player game stats online, but for all those who are stuck in the past and couldn't care less about playing online (*raises hand*) and don't mind having their stats lost somewhere in the ether it'd be nice if an Internet connection wasn't a requirement.
    113 posts | registered
  6. um, this won't be the only one.

    get used to it is all i can say. also get used to paying for a "service" for games in the future. you won't own em and you'll only get to play them when the publisher allows. it's a bleak future.
    12759 posts | registered
  7. I guess I can add this to my list of games never to play, too.
    9 posts | registered
  8. Wow... I thought EA Actually may have learned something after the Spore DRM fiasco.. silly me..
    20 posts | registered
  9. Doesnt bother me in the slightest. All my PC's are hooked up to the internet anyway, so its a non issue. A computer without the internet is borderline useless these days.

    The model may actually work too. I quite fancy an RTS that has persistence qualities like an MMO.

    And we dont complain that an internet connection is required to play WOW now do we !

    What worries me is that it was hard enough getting C&C3 working properly through my router when multiple people were at the house to play others online and host games, so without LAN play C&C4 better improve in this area.
    584 posts | registered
  10. -1 sale.
    1424 posts | registered
  11. YEah, I don't use dialup anymore, but when I did, we only had a single phone line. If I had to stay on the line anytime I gamed, I wouldn't have played nearly as many games. Razz
    13545 posts | registered
  12. Just when they made the impression to ease up on the DRM shit, they pull a new one.
    1257 posts | registered
  13. If you're internet is constantly going out, don't get mad at EA. Get made at your provider.

    However, to sympathize with you for a moment, I, too, am pretty miffed when a game wants to log me online even though I'm just playing it solo. Halo 2 on the PC comes to mind ... stupid thing forced me to create an xbox account and log online everytime I wanted to play. I was pretty pissed about that.

    Another annoyance is what if you're on a limited "per month" bandwidth plan? You're playing the game by yourself, which would normally be fine w/o an internet connection. But this game wants to hook to the net and do whatever it's doing behind the scenes, perhaps transacting enough info to put you over bandwidth limits. Who knows. Guess we'll hear more complaining when the game hits shelves.
    4252 posts | registered
  14. --edit: wtf double post.
    1257 posts | registered
  15. I'm not much of an RTS fan, but I have purchased and played a few when they've caught my fancy in one way or another. C&C 4 will not be one of those. I've chosen not to buy or play games that require one-time online activation, so there's no way I'd buy or play a single-player game that requires an active 'net connection, and for some of the same reasons. For example, what are the odds that EA is going to care enough about their customers to still be running the C&C 4 servers ten years from now?

    Unfortunately I'm starting to come to the same conclusion that sword_9mm has. In their attempt to eliminate the used game market because of their egomaniacal sense of entitlement, the major publishers are going to largely kill PC gaming. Home users don't want software as a service, for games or anything else, because they recognize that it doesn't offer them any benefits. In fact it costs them more, both in actual cash and in value and use for the money.

    As someone who's been playing computer games for almost thirty years, I'm both saddened and sickened by this.
    1477 posts | registered
  16. this is the reason i gets most of my games now from either or Stardock.
    89 posts | registered
  17. quote:
    Originally posted by Tundro Walker:

    at home, I have the choice between two providers, which are crap and even worse crap. yelling at them is a total waste of time.

    why couldn't they put in something like Steam offline mode so people can play if their internet goes out or if they're travelling with a laptop?
    4432 posts | registered
  18. My response to this move by EA will result in the same response I give for all of these crappy mistakes made by the big publishers. That is, I will speak with my wallet. I will not be doing that out of spite either. I will be doing it because I see this move as reducing the quality of the game play experience for both this game and the gaming industry in general as more titles follow suit. I don't pay for anything that I view as lacking too much quality.
    21 posts | registered
  19. quote:
    nd we dont complain that an internet connection is required to play WOW now do we !

    Eh yes because its a massively MULTIPLAYER game. No single player there. We would also complain if WoW had a single player and would require you to go to the internet for it.

    Now I would like to know what they freaking mean? Persistence? Ever heard something of a hard disc? So it is what? Bullshit like the awards, trophies on PS3 and 360?.

    The beauty of RTS is that they are some of the best multiplayer games but offer an amazing single player as well.
    I am really curious.
    4796 posts | registered
  20. Requiring an active connection for a single player game = EPIC FAIL

    Trying to repackage DRM as a in-game "requirement" = +1 for insidiousness.

    Trying to kill the second-hand market in the name of a "feature" = +2 for vileness.

    Ruining a classic franchise for "innovative" purposes = +2 for stupidity.

    EA never fails to amaze me with its naked greed coupled with its total lack of respect for gamers.

    -1 sale here and I'll do my best to get all my friends to skip on it as well on shear principle.
    1054 posts | registered
  21. Perhaps someone with a lost internet connection would want to fire up a nice game to pass the time. Too bad they can't do that with C&C4's singleplayer mode...
    8994 posts | registered
  22. If EA's motivation here were really just about stats tracking and persistant info, then they'd do something like having a dialog prompt you to upload your stats after you finish playing, or even have it try to do that behind the scenes afterwards.
    Your hard drive is quite capable of storing this info until you get an internet connection.

    It's quite obvious the real intention is to try and reduce piracy. That goal itself is a great goal, but this implementation is horrible.
    198 posts | registered
  23. I can't see the big deal. Most pc gamers are online all the time anyway and have desktops with broadband connections. Iphone games are for traveling. This is the future. What about Quake Zero, WoW and Battlefield Heroes? No outcry about those requiring internet access, eh? Do you think PCs are going to have cd drives in 10 years?

    It's not an inalienable right to sell used games, you know? Most of these companies are hosting matches for free, so there's a tradeoff.

    Yes, it's nice being able to play old games, but (ironically) that's a thing of the past. Constant patches, internet servers going away, etc. There's no way to play the original field runners, right? The original WoW. The original Calling All Cars. We've come to expect free updates, i.e. ongoing work, thinking that there are no repercussions because a couple mega successful game corporations (blizzard, Valve) could get away with it for years.

    Get over it. There are thousands of new games released every year and eventually they will all require internet connections. Because streaming content can't be pirated.
    4148 posts | registered
  24. Merlin, are you honestly that blind?

    Comparing an online only game to a single player game? Some of us with "jobs" can use computers without the 'net. Then there's also road trips where you can bring a "laptop" and use that; but CNC4 won't be played on those now. Good God I hope they don't let you outside.

    So much for the excitement over this game, another sad attempt at calling DRM something else to try and fool your target audience.
    134 posts | registered
  25. I can't wait until EA's server gets DDOSed and no one can play.

    That would be fun. Devious
    2699 posts | registered
  26. Will not be buying. I've played nearly every C&C installment from the beginning. But, like others have pointed out, I like RTS's on my laptop while I'm traveling and this game would be useless in times that I have no connection. I'm a 99% single-player person, and have no desire to have anything I do tracked (on the flip side, I have no desire to see what anyone else does either).

    Looks like I've ended my run with the C&C franchise.

    On a side note, if I choose to enter a cheat code in my single-player game, at no point should the developer feel the entitlement to stop me. How long until the developers decide that they'll play the games for us, since we can't be trusted to do it right?
    804 posts | registered
  27. quote:

    yup, and i'll save a ton of money by quitting gaming.

    sad but there's a lot of other stuff to do.
    12759 posts | registered
  28. Wonderful

    My wifi tends to conk out now and again, and I can already see being booted out of a single player game b/c of it.


    7248 posts | registered
  29. quote:
    ...EPIC FAIL

    181 posts | registered
  30. I am so glad I stopped buying games. I'd be so annoyed with this. I often take my laptop places where there is no wireless. Sometimes I like being disconnected from the internet. It has to be a disaster for people with poor quality connections too.
    80 posts | registered
  31. The balls to claim that there is no drm...
    65 posts | registered
  32. Oh yeah. Not buying that one.
    193 posts | registered
  33. @solomonrex - I don't have an iPhone, I don't want an iPhone. I'm perfectly happy with a laptop for travel gaming - it fits my needs. A manufacturer telling me that I must have Internet connectivity to play a standalone game when I'm on a yacht in the Caribbean.. yeah, right.

    It's just DRM in another form, no matter what clothing they want to wrap it in.

    That's now two games I had anticipated buying that I won't be - SC2 and CnC4. It's no real skin off my nose, I'd probably enjoy playing them, but I grow weary of software companies which try to dictate how I can play when there's no real need for them to do so (i.e., this excludes the MMO genre - I happily play EVE).
    4408 posts | registered
  34. quote:
    Originally posted by solomonrex:

    You may enjoy getting bent over by media companies, but I'm certainly not going to "get over it" and just take it.

    Anyway, I find EA perplexing these days. They actually have an improved image among console gamers due to their recent development/publishing of new IPs (e.g. Dead Space, Mirror's Edge) and salvaging Brutal Legend (and subsequent fight with Activision), but on the PC side they continue to fuck gamers over with ridiculous DRM. I really thought the Spore debacle would change their tune a bit, but clearly this shows they haven't learned anything.
    609 posts | registered
  35. And my boycott of EA continues...
    472 posts | registered
  36. Im going to play devils advocate for a second and say that the article does say that its to prevent cheating. If you read the linked article it says theyre going to make it MMO like in that you gain XP like WoW, and the connection is so you cant cheat.

    Now im going to stop playing devils advocate and say that thats BS. Its another form of control. I can see where the connection is cool, but preventing play on a SINGLE player game is fubar.

    Im not even a C&C fan, and im even pissed about this because this is where im seeing pc games go these days, and for that matter anything else you buy.
    154 posts | registered
  37. I'm not a C&C fan either, and I agree that this trend is bull$hit.
    Not everyone keeps their computers connected to the internet 24/7.
    Not everyone likes/cares to share stats with others.
    I've been to several (20-50) LAN parties that were hosted in a Catering Hall with NO internet connection.
    This precedent this is setting is absurd.

    Here's my first experience with playing a game that had to be authenticated online

    1. went to gamestop
    2. bought the new pc game (which was opened cause they store the disks behind counter)
    3. took it home, installed it on the computer while eating tacos
    4. authentication failed, serial number was already registered to someone else.
    5. contacted company about this
    6. took 2 weeks until I could play the fucking game, that I purchased legally.

    It will be a long time before I buy new PC games again, especially if they start having me connect to their goddamned servers before I can play.
    I'll stick to buying 6-12 month old used xbox 360 games for the cheap.
    1100 posts | registered
  38. Who the hell does not have an internet connection these days.

    Even airports have wireless now. Planes will have internet soon.

    What else? Are you going to go play it in the middle of the wilderness?
    4825 posts | registered
  39. Well, they almost got it right. Giving players extra or enhanced features if they log in and register is a good idea. However, it should be opt-in, to encourage people to buy a legitimate copy, rather than required, which encourages people to go batshit on internet forums.

    Once again- the folks who download a cracked version will be getting the better version of the game.
    547 posts | registered

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