DRM Broke Dragon Age: Origins For Days 214
Martey writes "Ars Technica reports that a server problem with the DRM authentication servers has caused Dragon Age: Origins players to be locked out of any saved games that include downloadable content. Quoting: 'Thanks to a combination of DRM idiocy and technical and communications failures on the part of EA and Bioware, I (along with thousands of fellow EA/Bioware customers) spent my free time this past weekend needlessly trapped in troubleshooting hell, in a vain attempt to get my single-player game to load. The problem, it turns out, was the Bioware's DRM authorization servers.'"
An update to the article indicates the problems have finally been resolved.
Not new... (Score:5, Informative)
I bought the original for my girlfriend and she had serious issues when the DRM server went down. It was so bad she stopped playing entirely.
If you tried to load a savegame with DLC when the server was experiencing problems, it would silently remove DLC and characters from the game and allow you to continue playing without it. The trouble came when you saved again. The new savegame would be created without your characters or DLC from the originally loaded game.
Well, when you play a dozen hours of the game before realizing that that character you weren't playing at the time and those neat items you picked up poofed 12 hours ago, it turns out you're not really inclined to keep playing.
EA: No thanks. You got me once with your useless support for Battlefield 2, and you got me again with Dragon Age. I won't be buying another of your products.
Took me all of 60 second to fix (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Once again... (Score:5, Informative)
Errr... TFS says it's about savegames with download content activated. If you have a pirated version, you obviously won't have download content in them (at least I'd assume).
You assume wrong [thepiratebay.org]. As usual only the legitimate customers are screwed...
Re:I too have resolved the problem (Score:5, Informative)
I am lucky that I didn't get screwed with this. I normally do a quick google search on what the DRM of a game is before I buy, and most of the matches were of the announcements that this EA title didn't have SecureROM DRM. There was no mention of the DLC having it. Is this a tactic to look like they are listening to their users' complaints while stabbing them in the back once they have made their purchase?
If you look at the game on Steam (yes, I know that adds its own DRM), there is no mention of the usual EA DRM text on the Ultimate Edition [steampowered.com] that includes the DLC. They sell that version cheaper than the vanilla edition [steampowered.com] to suck you in (your local prices may vary). It is obvious which version EA want you to buy!
You can still play all DLC... (Score:3, Informative)
...if you just log out of their server. It's non needed anyway after the content has been authorized the first time. The only people this really affected are either those that bought the DLC while the server was down (since you can't register the content without the server) and those that have no clue that the DRM server isn't needed after the install and still log in anyway. While I'm not pro-DRM, this really is a non-story blown out of proportion.
Erm.... (Score:4, Informative)
...you guys know that all you had to do was log out of your EA account inside Dragon Age and you could play, right?
I managed to figure that out without even looking online.
The real problem was people attempting to install, as I believe they couldn't activate their copy.
But I started Dragon Age, tried to load a game, got a message about DLC's not being activated on my account, so I, duh, just logged out, and hey, tada, I could load my game. (Yes, with all the content.)