Riipas Blog

When I learned about the upcoming release of Ubisofts "Silent Hunter 5" I was really looking forward to this game. One of the first games I ever bought for my brand new PC was Silent Service back in 1991 and since then I played nearly every submarine simulation I could get my hands on - even such awful ones as "Das Boot" or "Wolfpack". I fought Japanese vessels with American Gato class boats, sunk whole convoys with the (in)famous German type VII boats, softly whistled the Tipperary song while watching my prey through the periscope and got sunk by depth charges from nearly every country imaginable. In other words: I was not just "looking forward", I was freaking exited!
I was perfectly ready to spend my money for this game, but just when I wanted to add the game to my shopping cart on Steam I found this unsettling notice that said "3rd-party DRM: Ubisoft’s Online Services Platform. Ubisoft requires a permanent Internet connection to play this video game at all times." within the product details. Wait, Ubisoft wants me to stay on-line while playing a single player game for the mere reason of enabling them to permanently monitor my usage of the game I bought?!?! If the game loses connection for whatever reason it will pause until E.T. is able to phone home?!?! They gotta be fucking kidding me!
Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely OK with the idea of protecting intellectual property - but I don't think the legit customer should pay the bill while so called copyright pirates get to play the better game without all these silly restrictions. Steam for instance is a damn good example. You buy games on Steam, you add them to your account and you just play. You don't have to care for discs being in the drive while you play, you don't have to care for discs scratched or lost and you don't have to care on how many computers you installed this in the past. You're perfectly allowed to install your stuff on every computer in the whole, wide world. You log in, you download your stuff, you play. And if want to, you play off-line I might add.

How could anyone possibly imagine selling more by making the product less appealing?! If you guys don't sell anything this is a matter of your products being just not good enough. Left 4 Dead 2, Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2... all these game sold a couple of million copies within weeks, the whole games industry showed a double-digit growth for years. Think about it guys! Seriously! Create games instead of DRM software. Only a game worth playing is a game worth buying!

Edit: Just wanted to add this enlightening article from 2008: It's unlikely Ubisoft has learned any lesson

While the Winter old and weak downward sends an impotent shower of icy hail* it's definitely time to prepare for spring time. I thinned out my winter coat, started cleaning up my place and even shaved that scrubby, reddish something that started to overgrow my face. So the stage is set for a lot of sun and for ice cream during lunch breaks. Hey spring, don't let me down!
Some days ago my personalized edition of "Drakensang 2 - Am Fluss der Zeit" arrived. To my knowledge it was the first game ever that was delivered personalized. If I feel less lazy maybe I'm going to upload some pictures of this awesome box. Besides the game itself the package also contains the beautiful soundtrack on CD, a map of Aventuria printed on cloth and a (also personalized) card game from the "The Dark Eye" universe.
The game-play really fits my liking because it's an old school, slow paced RGP with a strong focus on group interaction and a lot of talking. The narrative style cery much reminds me of those wonderful days and nights of pen & paper role-playing. Those were the days my son, those were the days!**

*Classic education reference! How cool is that?!?!
** Nerd reference! Yeah!

Last Friday I felt like playing TFC for old times' sake. I quickly looked for a server with real people playing instead of bots and after some time I found the old magic to still be there. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are as ugly as ever, the net code still sucks big time, but this game kicks butt anyway.
With no grenades present (and therefore no concussion grenade jumping) it's successor Team Fortress 2 played very different from the beginning and since then Valve tried it's best to make it suck more. With every new update some new "super-powers" were introduced and at this state it's much more a one-shot-kill type of game, than TFC ever was. So if you're into cooperative shooters give TFC a chance! It might look like crap, but it's definitely more fun than most other games out there!
Enough advertisement, there is more to tell. The most exiting thing about this session was the people. When I saw clan tags from FsA, ALK and even our legendary brothers in arms YWC it was a bit like coming home for Christmas with all your family being there waiting for you. What a great evening!

After five long years of playing I decided to more or less leave the World of Warcraft behind. What once was just a world full of adventure and delight to me, also became a strange kind of burden somewhere along the way.
I surely had a lot of fun and I feel privileged by having led the oldest and surely the craziest guild on our server for more than four years. I found some true friends and what more could I possibly expect from playing a computer game? But then again... my previous addiction brought me in my current job as a return, so maybe there are still some things to come. Just maybe.
Just to be clear: By saying "more or less" I mean that I'm not going delete my characters, give away all my stuff and upload a video of this featuring a lot of drama to Youtube. I don't like that kind of pathetic affectation anyway. I'll doubtlessly be even in the game from time to time. Seldom.
Right now I'm wasting my spare time with reading an awful lot of things (mostly blogs and journals) on the net and getting in shape for the next zombie apocalypse. Nah, not the cardio kind of "in shape" as suggested by the utterly funny movie "Zombieland", but the kind that has to do with aiming skills and reaction, as needed in Valve's super blockbuster game "Left 4 Dead 2".

A week ago it occurred to me that I had some spare money to spend for a new gadget. I couldn't decide whether to buy a lens for my camera or a Blu-ray player. Now a few days of indecisiveness later I don't have to make a decision any more. Yeehaaaw!
Not only did Vattenfall send the electricity bill for 2009 claiming some hundred(!) Euro of additional payment, but also did my winter jacket break just when the Siberian hell with 10 to 15 degrees beneath zero broke loose in Berlin. Greetings to you fate. I feel honoured about you caring so much to make my life miserable! I hate you too!
Anyway, I bought myself a new parka and of course it had to be a nifty one. This parka seems to be the thickest, heaviest and warmest parka on earth and I want to stress the point, that I didn't pay as much for it as the website recommends. Not even half as much. All hail to the mighty winter sale!