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Continued Ubisoft DRM failure

Almost a month ago, I posted about how Ubisoft’s DRM servers for Assassin’s Creed II had gone offline, meaning that nobody who had paid for the game could play it.  The reason Ubisoft later gave for this outage was a deliberate attack on their servers.  But honestly, who cares why the servers went down?  The fact is, Ubisoft’s DRM has a single point of failure, and that point of failure can prevent everyone from playing their legally purchased single-player game.

Well, on March 25, Ubisoft released a third game using their always-connected-internet DRM, Settlers 7.  The following day, users all over the world again started reporting a complete inability to contact Ubisoft’s authentication servers.  As far as I can tell, these problems still persist a week later.

So, Ubisoft, do you still not realize how stupid your DRM scheme is?  You’ve already lost your sale of Assassin’s Creed II to me; I’ve been curious about Settlers, but I won’t be buying that either, for the sole reason that it uses this insane DRM.

Ubisoft, does it matter that pirates can’t play your game, if your customers can’t play either? Do you really not see the problem there?

I’ll state this clearly, Ubisoft, so you can’t misunderstand: for the sole reason that they use this DRM, I will not buy your games, nor will I pirate them.  You cannot blame piracy for not getting my money – you have only your own DRM to blame.

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I wish this were an April Fool’s joke…

We went to sign the closing papers for our house this morning.  At 2:30 I was informed that my lender had funded the loan.  All that was left before our realtor could give us the keys was for the title company to get the recording numbers from the recording office at the county courthouse.

At 5 my realtor forwarded me an e-mail from the escrow company.  Apparently, the recording office rejected the Deed of Trust.  No, it wasn’t filled out wrong; the reason they gave was that the font is too small.

You read that right.  The font is too small.

This is absurd.  Looking at the Deed of Trust they copied for me, it appears to be a standard form; how did nobody know about this requirement?  How did none of the people processing the papers know about it?  How did none of them catch it?

This cannot seriously be the first time this has ever happened to this escrow company, can it?

If anyone out there is buying a house in King County, Washington, I suggest you make sure the escrow company processing your closing papers knows that there’s a minimum font size requirement for the Deed of Trust (and possibly other paperwork) and that they should make sure their paperwork meets those requirements.

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What’s going on?

At least zero of you are wondering: “Hey Dan, where’s this week’s Let’s Play Star Trek Online?”

Couple problems:

1) Lord of the Rings Online.

2) I’m (hopefully!) buying a house this week, which is kind of over-stressing me.

3) Star Trek Online has been frustrating me lately. I’ve been comparing it to LotRO, and I’ve come to one inescapable conclusion.

That conclusion is simply that Star Trek Online was not ready for release; it needed (needs!) another four to six months of development.

Compare the amount of content between levels 1 and 30 in Star Trek Online with the amount of 1-30 content in Lord of the Rings Online (that’s well before you hit expansion territory). The difference is staggering.

Compare the graphics between the two games. Despite LotRO’s older engine, it offers far more appealing landscapes. STO’s levels are blocky, repetitive and… boring. Visually speaking, that is.

What’s more, the playable area in LotRO is… vast. You can literally walk for nearly an hour (not in a circle!) without hitting a loading screen. Start at Elrond’s place in Rivendell, and walk to Needlehole in the Shire… and that’s mostly east-west. There’s tons of area to the north of that path.

Compare that to STO, where you can traverse basically any playable area corner-to-corner in five minutes (assuming you ignore enemies shooting at you).

STO has space combat down pretty well, but ground combat leaves much to be desired, especially if you’re a solo player.

The more I think about this, the more I wish Cryptic (or Atari, whoever made the decision) had waited another six months before releasing Star Trek Online. They wouldn’t have fixed all of my complaints, but they could have improved a lot of it.

What it comes down to is that LotRO has so much more content to offer that I have a very hard time making myself choose to re-play old missions in STO instead.

At any rate, I just need a break from STO for a week or so. I’ll hopefully be moving to my new house a week from Saturday, at which point I’ll probably feel a lot less stressed out and hopefully return to my former full enjoyment of STO.

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Let’s Play Star Trek Online: Episode Six

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As we begin another episode of Let’s Play, we find O’Malley in his ready room shortly after rescuing the crew of the U.S.S. Azura.  What new adventures will Starfleet have for him now? (If you’re new, you might want to start with Episode One.)

I flop into my chair in my ready room.  I really need to find new bridge officers…  maybe a Klingon, who won’t object to just doing things the direct way.  I hear there are some ex-Borg in Starfleet, I could ask for one of them.  They value efficiency, right?

A hail from Admiral Quinn interrupts my musing.

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“Just in time, no thanks to Tarah,” I grumble.  “But a new crew member for me?  It’s like you read my mind!”

“Don’t get too excited,” he replies.  “You should probably hang on to your existing crew.  You’ll need them.”

I sink into my chair.  “Yes, sir,” I reply weakly.

“I’ve got an important diplomatic mission for you.  We’ve got the Vulcan Ambassador Sokketh here at Earth Stardock; I need you to come pick him up and take him and his cargo to the Vulcan monastery at P’Jem.”

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“Sounds easy enough,” I reply.  “Do you have any reports that the Klingons or Orions actually know about the Ambassador’s return?  You’re acting like you’re sure they’ll try something.”

“I don’t know,” he says.  “I suppose you’ll find out.  Good luck, Ensign.”

I stand up to head back to the bridge, and take a long, mournful look at the replicator.  Someday I’ll make replicated bananas taste right.

I’m about to leave when I receive a short text-only message from Starfleet Headquarters.  “We’re giving you a field promotion to Lieutenant.  Congratulations.  — Admiral Quinn”

[In-game, there's absolutely no fanfare when you automatically rank up from Ensign to Lieutenant other than Leonard Nimoy's voice saying "Congratulations".  Later rank-ups require a visit to Admiral Quinn and get you a little ceremony in the Stateroom.]

Wow.  He won’t even tell me to my face.

I walk out onto the bridge and order a course laid in for Earth Starbase.

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[The astute observer will notice that this bridge is not the same as the Innovation's bridge from Episode One.  I remodeled two episodes ago, but lost those screenshots.]

I spend the return journey looking through personnel reports, deciding who is going to take Tarah’s place as my primary tactical officer.

So, I have two things to do while I’m at Earth Stardock.  First, I go talk to Ambassador Sokketh, who is waiting for me in the Stateroom.

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“Ambassador,” I begin, “it’s good to meet you.”

“Yes, yes.”  He replies.  “You’re the one taking me to P’Jem, right?”

I nod, somewhat taken aback at his tone.

“Good.  It is imperative that these artifacts not fall into the hands of the Orions or Klingons.  They’d hold them hostage or use them against us in other ways.”

“What kind of artifacts are these, exactly?”  I start to worry that maybe someone had found another Stone of Gol, or something like it that would be equally dangerous in enemy hands.

“Oh, nothing important,” he says, “just some artifacts from the days before we were space-faring.  Purely of historic value, nothing more.”  He eyes me as if he’s daring me to question him.

I shrug.  “Alright.  Transport your stuff over to the Innovation; we’ll head out shortly.”

Next up, I need to recruit myself a Klingon tactical officer, and maybe an engineering officer.  As luck would have it, I find both:

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Golrok, the Klingon, is quite eager to begin his tour of duty as my new tactical officer.  He seems pleased that he’s replacing someone else.

Two of Five, a Liberated Borg, has valuable experience upgrading equipment like replicators.  I’m sure she’ll be of use on my quest to make the perfect replicated banana split.  Oh, and she’s good with shields, so that should help if Ambassador Sokketh’s fears for this diplomatic mission are justified.

My tasks complete, I beam back to my ship.  “Set a course for P’Jem,” I order.  “Engage.”

Join us next week to find out what happens at P’Jem!

[This episode was a bit shorter than I would prefer, but I'm short on time...]

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My adorable daughter

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This was Brooke’s first time walking outside.  Isn’t she adorable? :)

She turns one year old in ten days.  It doesn’t seem like it has been that long since she was born…

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