I've bought 1503 and they've promised for a long time to get multiplayer . I didn't buy the game expecting it but would've loved. No multi is a game-breaker for me. Not another Anno without it.

I loved 1701, 1404 looks great. I'll gladly pick the game up... just as soon as they drop the install limit. Until then, well, I don't rent PC games.

As for multiplayer, having played a few games of MP 1701 let me just say: there's nothing more pointless than multiplayer in a city builder.

Really?  I'm completely uninterested in playing that game on my own, but I love playing it with a couple AI with my friends.  Why? Because it's great fighting over islands and setting up trade routes for needed resources between my friend and I.

its quite a good game, i got it at awhile back for 35$ (retail box), and am very happy with it, only used 1 activation so far and I bet Ubi will release a patch down the road to removed the TAGES once demand has died down.

This patch to remove DRM after the game is released does not cut it for me. If it has this type of activation scheme, I just won't buy it. As for multiplayer. Yeah I played Patrician III multiplayer and felt there was a complete disconnect between me and the other players. I am still hopeful that city builders + multiplayer will mean more than some combat mode.

Indeed... but not from playing it!

And to see a Stardock member advertising for people to install malware saddens me a bit. I guess we will soon see Elemental War of Magic annouced with TAGES or maybe SecuROM.

I'd like to try it out, but... (Click for full-size.)

Awac A,

So...just because a product comes with any protection at all, is REASON enough to steal now?  So if I lock my car around you, I can expect it to disappear?  I should just trust that you and others won't steal it, and leave it unlocked?  

I get it, offend the "sensibility" (oxymoron on it's own) of a pirate and he/she gets to feel JUSTIFIED in their theft.  So the only way to stop thieving is to stop attempting to protect things.  WOW, why didn't someone think of that before?  I've been locking up my bicycle, locking my home and my car, password-protecting my PC's.  My god.......I'm going about it all the wrong way!  I'm just INVITING theft........thanks for setting me straight!!!

/sarcasm

the Monk

Yes, because clearly pirating it will teach them that people are trustworthy and they can stop trying to keep people from pirating it... oh wait.

If the DRM is a deal breaker for you, grow up and learn to do without.

Well certain types of DRM is a deal breaker for me. I simply won't buy it, and I didn't steal it either. I did play the demo, before I knew about Tages and it looked like a game right up my alley. Of course they could wrap the demo up in DRM crap too for no apparent reason just like Spore and I believe it was Spellforce 2 that gave me Starforce once through their demos. I did pass those games over for DRM reasons alone though, and i believe Reclaim Your Game mentioned the one removed Starforce from the US versions with a patch, still not good enough for me though, don't want something like Starforce on my computer again.

There is a certain amount of DRM I will put up with, disc checks, cd keys, for online services which I refuse to pay full retail price for (not getting the cd, the box, the manual... basically little publishing costs and still pay the same price to make walmart happy.... nonsense). I'll put up with online activation. But if it comes in a box and it doesn't have multiplayer and still requires online activation, no way.

As for pirates, hey the gaming industry seems like the dim witted kid in the back corner who watched the music industry fail at their attempts at the black board over and over again and still thinks its a good idea to try the same approach. It's fuel for the pirates. You gotta know that by now. As for me, I went through roughly 15 years of not buying music (and not stealing it either), so I can certainly manage to avoid buying titles from a publisher whose goal in life is to screw their existing customers while doing nothing to stop pirates.

50$? No thanks.

EDIT: Oh yeah, also the DRM.

I think nothing can teach the management of the big publishing companies that people are trustworthy, because they themselves aren't. The problem is also that they do not realize they're not selling cars or toasters. They're selling digital media in a society permeated by a digitial medium.

In other words, they're broadcasting. It can't be helped, unless you have a camera on everyone's shoulder. Game publishers and developers need to realize that fighting piracy via DRM and similar methods only frustrates their legitimate customers, while illegal users enjoy their products without hassle. It came to the point where it is perfectly normal to see someone buying a copy and then going online to find a DRM-removal patch made by pirates. Isn't that absurd.

As a respone to the_Monk and kryo.

I do fully support and understand people who pirate games when it comes to extremly restrictive DRM. And please stop with those stupid comparisons of stealing a car. Havent people learned by now that interlectual property and physical propterty cant be compared 1 to 1.

To Kryo. What do you suggest one do then? Publishers/Devs clearly havent learned that they shouldnt use DRM. And yes im offended when i get treated like a pirate which i also belive warrent that i behave as one. It should be less problems buying the game then getting it pirated, but its not. As of now i stand a higer degree of getting a computer infection from installing a random game then i do from same random game pulled from some warez site.

I work as a software developer myself. Yes i would get pissed off if i found out somone used my companies software without paying for it, i would also be pissed if i found out my company used unlicensed software they havent paid for say (MS Visual studio, SQL Databases, Office, Windows, WMWare etc. etc.) to make money for itself.

But looking at the kind of software game publishers sells i just dont think the DRM is warrented. The software they sell aint the cure for AIDS. Yet they try to protect it like it was. We are talking about average Joe who buys a game for 50$ and wanna go home and play. Why should i put up with any DRM crap when i can get the game off the internet with none of those problems? Look at any forum where they used TAGES(Servers down, slow support, etc.)
So yes i think piracy of restrictive DRM games is perfectly understandable. Is it bad for the devs? YES but its there own fault really. Atleast from my perspective. If my boss came and told me we would start treating our customers the way many publishers do, i would start looking for another job.

There would be no incentive to pirate games if it wasnt for the DRM so i dont get why publishers put it on. They would properly make up the mony lost to piracy from the cash they spend on DRM if they dropped it. And yes there will always be people who pirate games, but most of them are probably kids who play it for 2 days and throw it away again. 99% of the people buy a games why let them go through all that DRM shit when its 1% who is to blame and that 1% gets to play with no problems.

I cant remember when i last pirated a game myself, maybe back in the 90's. But ill admit if i had more time to play games i would pirate every single DRM game and feel damn good about it simply out of spite for the publishers who think they are oh so clever. Dont they get there are people out there smartere then them for which cracking games is a challenge? The harder they make it the harder they try.

That said i probably own more games then most on this board. Legaly bought. But sure go support the publishers. In 10 years you wont need a internet connection to authenticate. You will need a hardwire from your brain to there mainfraim in order to authenticate your legit copy of there game. Have fun.

*breaks out Jolly Roger*

Many stores have anti-theft detectors which regularly give false positives, so by your reasoning that would be ample justification for shoplifting.

In which case you're just a hypocrite. The purpose of a piece of software is irrelevant; you have no more right to a game just because you disagree with the maker's anti-piracy policies than your company would have to pirating Office because they disagree with Microsoft's pricing policies.

It doesn't particularly matter to me if you opt to not buy something. But to try to reason that you somehow are owed a luxury good or should get it for free just because the company attempts to prevent people from doing so (whether that's worth doing at all is a completely separate argument) is just silly. You're only fooling yourself.