People shouldn't carelessly sign NDA's if they are unwilling or unable to abide by the rules.
If I were Crytek and online activation is required for Crysis, then I would ban those people for life. Or at least until those people get a new MAC address from either a new motherboard or NIC card, and change their IP address.
Message edited by jaguarskx on 10-17-2007 at 05:51:42 AM
Sounds like they're trying to threaten people into conforming. It wasn't really put together professionally. To me it kinda sounded like some kid got on and sent out a threat letter to make his boss happy. With the beta you're dealing with the general public, and they should have suspected that there were going to be a fair share of people willing to $hit on them at the drop of the hat. If you don't like it then don't release the beta or at least do something about it sooner or dang just make it where this crap isn't possible. My point isn't to justify breaking the NDA because it is stupid and careless but just to point out that there are people out there who just don't care.
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Of course they're trying to threaten people into conforming! And rightly so. The testers signed a legal agreement and have broken the terms. Crytek are within their rights to pursue them for damages (assuming the testers are legally old enough). I doubt they'll go that far (the legal costs and the distraction won't be appealing), but the threat of it needs to be wielded to get people in line.
Isn't it sad that people are so untrustworthy? You'd think they'd be grateful for getting to see the game early, but apparently not. It's no wonder gamers get treated like sh*t (i.e. DRM) when w*nkers behave like this.
See no problem with them at least threatening to go after the people that voided the NDA. They agreed to the terms of being a beta tester and voided them, they knew the consequences and didn't care
It's a shame, i know. I would have crapped my pants if i would have been able to get in on the beta. And I would have kept it to myself. I wouldn't want my chance with the game screwed up just because i chose to show some screen shots or bench's. To me it just sounded like the letter was written by an intern. This game was basically the deciding factor in me creating my new build. I hope it lives up to it. Come on guys, you're gonna screw it up for the rest of us and we'll never have a chance at a beta again!!!
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Based on what I've seen, there's a number of different classes of NDA violation. There's a huge difference between somebody taking screenshots and putting them on their desktop pattern, and people selling hack kits, trying to start their own servers, ect. It would not suprise me if people haven't tried to sell the beta.
I suspect the ban on benchmarks is more about message control, keeping ignoramuses from making ridiculous statements. Some pictures and word of mouth actually helps more than it hurts.
Real life example. I know a guy who finagled himself some beta time. Runs a dual 8800, but only two gigs of ram, which is, of course, loaded down with 50 widgets and the spyware that comes with his wrestling porn addiction.
He's has a ludicrously skewed idea of what the expected hardware requirements are.
I'm betting the letter was written by a harried bee eater, who's inbox is filled with 250 thousand requests for invites, and another half million requests for tech help on how to pirate the game, and considering the level of ass hattery they're dealing with, I don't blame them.
They have a right to crack down. NDA's are very secure and perfectly clear: do not publically release information on the game. PERIOD. And people are wondering why games like Bioshock came with a DRM installed in the game. If stuff like this continous then DRM games will become the new standard. People may huff and puff but they don't when they leak out info when they "know" not to.
I think they're a bunch of cry babies....they release a beta knowing full well that everyone wants to know what the game is going to look like. I can see banning those putting out hacks and glitches, etc. But come on. If you have an awesome product, don't you think someone would want let everyone else know how awesome it is??? It's called building up the hype. I bet that is all it is, too. They're just jealous they're hype isn't as big as Halo 3 was.
The NDA is there for a reason...when a game is in closed beta your not supposed to post screens or videos.....and you sure as hell are not supposed to develop cheats(at ANY time for that matter)
They don't want screenshots, framerates, etc released early because it's not a finished product. Hype is exactly the concern - if dodgy screenshots or videos with naff frame rates gets leaked, it will damage the game's reputation before it's finished - let alone sent to reviewers or put on shop shelves. Surely no-one is THAT impatient that they can't wait a couple of months to let them finish the game properly?
If you sign an NDA you should stick to it.
For what it's worth, I'm not that fussed about Crysis anyway. Everyone's been harping on about the graphics, but I've heard very little to suggest that the gameplay will be any good. I have a strong suspicion it's going to be eye candy... but that the jar will be broken.
I think they're a bunch of cry babies....they release a beta knowing full well that everyone wants to know what the game is going to look like. I can see banning those putting out hacks and glitches, etc. But come on. If you have an awesome product, don't you think someone would want let everyone else know how awesome it is??? It's called building up the hype. I bet that is all it is, too. They're just jealous they're hype isn't as big as Halo 3 was.
You have a dim witted understanding about contractual agreement it seems.
This is about protecting intellectual property, but at the same time allowing non Crytek employees the opportunity to beta test a game so that bugs can be caught and fixed before the game is released for sale to the general public.
Message edited by cafuddled on 10-29-2007 at 01:50:08 PM
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