Running RTW 2 on two personal computers

[gurudennis]

I have a question to developers. In the light of the recent DRM announcement for RTW 2, I'd like to know if it will be possible for me to run RTW 2 both on my main desktop PC and on my travel-and-bedside laptop without buying the game twice.

It would be a matter of significant inconvenience if this scenario ends up not being supported due to DRM constraints. I hope that this system won't end up hurting legitimate users much more than the pirates, as has been so often the case.

[gurudennis]

Never mind, apparently there was an answer on the "discount" thread. You will only be able to run it on one PC, apparently, William mentioned they would internally consider relaxing the restrictions to two PCs.

Suffice to say this is a highly frustrating and perplexing decision that is likely informed by misconceptions and a fundamental misunderstanding of the market and of the potential for cracking and pirating for a title of this nature.

What a massive shame. Thumbs down from me, a legitimate paying customer.

[faennion]

I might be buying a low range notebook soon in addition to my gaming desktop, so being able to have the game installed, but not played on both machines at the same time would be very cool if the DRM is so needed

[Warspite]

I really hope they relent and allow the game to be installed on two computers at the same time.

[yemo]

It is a fundamental lack of understanding of their target audience.
Which sadly is in line with their misunderstanding of game pirating and the effects of their countermeasures.

[orkel]

The problem with anti-piracy everything is basically that they punish the legitimate customer in some way, always. Some games like Assassin's Creed have noticeably higher CPU usage due to DRM running in the background (while pirates do not suffer from it, because they crack it away), some require always-online (while the pirates don't due to cracks), and it seems that, RTW2, will punish the paying customer by only allowing one PC.

I do not like this decision and hope that it will be more lax (2-3 PCs at least, preferably unlimited). There is a very high chance of pirates cracking this system within mere hours or days of release, allowing them unlimited access, while paying customers are stuck with 1 PC.

[iridium]

Indeed, I was under the impression that DRM and its lack of results were well documented. Not worth the money spent on it from both a public relations and sale perspective. This said I don't want this to get out of hand, please keep the pitchforks at home everyone.

[williammiller]

Ive spoken with Christopher Dean (NWS Store Operator/Owner) tonight, and we are looking into the possibility of RTW2 owners having two concurrent copies of the game installed, I will get back to you when we have gone through the logistics and related issues and have something definitive to report. Thanks!

[William Miller]

Hi all,

First... We are not novices about PCs and the industry. Both WM and myself have been around PCs since the early 1980s and we have done our homework extensively plus we both, and other business relations that we have, have some backgrounds in PC internet, gaming security, and wargaming that goes back for decades.

Second.. The system we are working with is very simple and easy to use and will allow all to instantly play RTW2 after download for a certain time length while you wait for the final registration unlock code. No more waiting for me to manually email an install code before you can start playing. So.. you start playing, get the final registration code while playing after you email the request for it, and keep playing. That is the simple plan.

Third.. Yes we are looking at going with the original licencing arrangement of up to 2 personal PCs at any given time so those of you, much like ourselves, can have your laptop and desktop available to play RTW2. We just need to finalize how the technical parts will work out but we do not see that being a problem.

Fourth.. We will not involve a third party as part of our business operations. That is a final decision.

If there are any questions please let us know.

Thanks
Christopher Dean
NWS Wargaming Store

[thenewteddy]

Apr 19, 2019 23:28:19 GMT -6 William Miller said:

Fourth.. We will not involve a third party as part of our business operations. That is a final decision.

If there are any questions please let us know.

as I mentioned over here 

nws-online.proboards.com/post/40007/thread

the #1 reason I like steam is the convert things into local currencies in a way that's closer to actual purchasing power parity VS simple current current conversions. 

Basically my question is; what plans, if any, do you have, to model pricing better for local currencies?

[akosjaccik]

Allowing two hardware units to run the game per registration would be a big leap for me as well, for the same exact reason (PC & laptop). Still, some questions remained, and do excuse me if I am dense somewhat in this case - let's say, I'm legally installing RtW2 on my computers, and I'm a happy camper. Great. Suddenly, my graphic card decides to commit seppuku. (Happened before, I also lost power unit, and HDD as well.) I bring down eternal hell on NVidia, then sell my kidney and buy a new one, slap it in, PC works, yay! ...however, now the hardware-generated code changes obviously and I have to send a mail again with my serial to get a code for the game - but, strictly speaking, this is my third computer, isn't it, forcing me to buy the game again? Even more, considering I played a good fifteen years of Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin (and would do so now if Win10 didn't screw the game over), even "simply" upgrading my PC a good five years from now on is a possibility.

[gurudennis]

Apr 20, 2019 0:53:09 GMT -6 akosjaccik said:

Allowing two hardware units to run the game per registration would be a big leap for me as well, for the same exact reason (PC & laptop). Still, some questions remained, and do excuse me if I am dense somewhat in this case - let's say, I'm legally installing RtW2 on my computers, and I'm a happy camper. Great. Suddenly, my graphic card decides to commit seppuku. (Happened before, I also lost power unit, and HDD as well.) I bring down eternal hell on NVidia, then sell my kidney and buy a new one, slap it in, PC works, yay! ...however, now the hardware-generated code changes obviously and I have to send a mail again with my serial to get a code for the game - but, strictly speaking, this is my third computer, isn't it, forcing me to buy the game again? Even more, considering I played a good fifteen years of Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin (and would do so now if Win10 didn't screw the game over), even "simply" upgrading my PC a good five years from now on is a possibility.

Then there's also the notion of keeping the game, and continuing to play it, years after the NWS store stops supporting license code transitions between PCs, or even goes out of business (hopefully not, but I felt the same way about Microprose). A game with hardware-bound DRM is simply devoid of any longevity in this respect. At least Steam guarantees that if they go out of business, users will be able to download all their games DRM-free at that point; Steam has a multi-billion corporation behind it to back up that claim. NWS neither expressly provides such a guarantee (that I heard so far), nor has the benefit of being a high-profile corporation. This is simply not OK however you look at it. If anything, this will proactively encourage users to create and/or obtain illegally cracked copies.

[akosjaccik]

Apr 20, 2019 1:02:46 GMT -6 gurudennis said:

Then there's also the notion of keeping the game, and continuing to play it, years after the NWS store stops supporting license code transitions between PCs, or even goes out of business (hopefully not, but I felt the same way about Microprose). A game with hardware-bound DRM is simply devoid of any longevity in this respect. At least Steam guarantees that if they go out of business, users will be able to download all their games DRM-free at that point; Steam has a multi-billion corporation behind it to back up that claim. NWS neither expressly provides such a guarantee (that I heard so far), nor has the benefit of being a high-profile corporation. This is simply not OK however you look at it.

I can get behind your concerns, unfortunately. I honestly believe - even though I understand, respect and aknowledge the decision - that this will not bring significantly larger audience to the game, and simply using Steam (yes, I read it, "final decision", got it) would be a massive opportunity, for two main reasons: ease of use / convenience, and strongly paired to this: avability, the ease to advertise. I am not even afraid, as a gentleman thought about earlier, about the "negative criticism" on the platform due to the graphics; if anything, well-made small games tend to get exceptionally good scores. And if someone is streaming the game and a viewer is asking about it, what will be the answer? "It's on Steam", or "It has a bit of a convoluted method to get it legally, and in the end you may or may not be forced to re-buy it anyway if you roll the dice and lose."

Let's just say I'm skeptical about how this will solve piracy. If anything, that would indicate how many people would be willing to buy the game under different circumstances. But again - I disagree, but respect the decision.

[faennion]

I think that some Russian will crack the game sooner or later and that piracy will continue as usual and the only people stuck with the DRM will be us.

[gurudennis]

Apr 20, 2019 1:19:56 GMT -6 akosjaccik said:

Let's just say I'm skeptical about how this will solve piracy. If anything, that would indicate how many people would be willing to buy the game under different circumstances. But again - I disagree, but respect the decision.

The fact that I'm effectively leasing the game that I paid for, with an unknown expiration date, rather than owning this copy in perpetuity, is quite upsetting to me and clearly I'm not alone in this.

As for piracy... Legitimate paying customers like ourselves will be inconvenienced and upset to some degree, but will still pay. Those who weren't going to buy in the first place will wait for a crack. The fact that the game has such a restrictive DRM is likely to precipitate the occurrence of a crack (as a point of reference, I'm not sure one even exists for RTW1?), hence sales are likely to show similar results to no DRM, but drop off faster over time due to the crack being there. Hardware-bound DRM is the most objectionable kind of them all, and respectfully I predict that it's going to backfire both in terms of PR and sales.