118 replies to this topic

[Mr. RPG]

Mike said today, but there wcould be delays.

[Mike.Dailly]

currently testing..... shouldn't be long now - fingers crossed this end!

[Mike.Dailly]

Update is now out.

[Robto]

Great job! Thanks

[Danielzxzx]

Haven't experienced any crashes with this new version. Thank you!

[Debels]

No skulls on my sprites now :D, but now i can't test my games on android, maybe it has something to do with today's update?

[Andy]

We have considered a lot of these options, and I agree with Futhark, the world isn't quite there yet. Perhaps as an option in the future or something, but not yet.

This protection has been in for some time, and does help keep pirates busy trying to figure out how to remove it, but I also agree it's unacceptable that it's effecting paying users - which is why this particular check is being removed just now.

If I thought for one minute we were going to effect customers, I'd never have put it in. Something we simply didn't expect has been happening on end users machines, and while we think we now know, again, I agree, customers should never - ever - be effected by it.

Of course, how I feel about effecting pirates project files is less...err... clear. />

Remember the goal is to drive pirates to buy, and if they think a copy will destroy their game, that's a pretty strong incentive. However, we'll make sure our concern for paying customers now takes precedence over trying to force a sale from a pirate - which will probably not happen anyway.

We've become blinkered a little in trying to stay one step ahead, and for that I totally apologise, there are certainly other ways of doing this.

I am glad, you have decided to take out this type of DRM Mike, thank you.

[daspirit]

I'm glad that the skull glitch has been fixed. It hasn't happened to me, but it happened to my friend whom I personally bought GM:Studio for. Our whole team shares files with Dropbox and it was only a matter of time before we noticed those weird skulls popping up.

If anyone is smart, they would make constant backups of their project files. Thankfully, my team has assigned days where each person updates the folder. Just had to replace the sprite directory with a simply copy and paste. It should not have set back too many people.

I hope you guys can find a better way to detect actual pirated copies. I figure it's tough to be a starting business as yourself, that's always the hardest obstacle for any company.

[score_under]

Mike, why did you assume that people capable of enabling [not-]paid-for features in GMS would not be capable of disabling this one?

I'm not majoring in Law so I wouldn't know, but isn't targeting and destroying someone's data (in a malicious manner identical to that of a virus) of questionable legality at best? Regardless of whether or not the victim is committing a crime?

if they think a copy will destroy their game, that's a pretty strong incentive.

Here you have even stated that destroying data is the intent of this feature.
From what UK law leads me* to understand, it's completely illegal "to impair [...] the reliability of any such data". http://www.legislati...k/ukpga/1990/18 section 3.2.c
*IANAL, and other countries will of course have (slightly) different laws

The point I am making is that not only is this (likely to be) illegal, but it is also one of these DRM problems that are less likely to affect pirates.

/minirant, got linked here by a friend and this is one of the few ways to really raise my ire.

As for a slightly more constructive and slightly less "oh god the horror" comment (relating to data recovery ) -
I wonder how practical it would be to keep GM projects under version control... If the GM IDE ever got plugin support, this could become more feasible with simple(r-than-commandline) right-click menus for your favourite VCS.
Alternatively, the GM IDE could support silent compiling via command-line (errors going to stderr instead of GUI, etc.) and people could use custom GM IDEs, which would sidestep the problem of plugin systems altogether.

inb4 delete

Edited by score_under, 28 November 2012 - 05:17 AM.

[greyzebra]

Just sharing here. For windows users who regularly updates, this november updates has the potential to kill your system. I know because it just killed mine, for the first time ever, and I have to do reinstall. So make sure your system works correctly before updating GMS.


http://pcsupport.abo...m#comment-32205
(see the comment section)

So this week, at least for me, is skull terror and failing windows week. Wow XD

Edited by greyzebra, 28 November 2012 - 05:30 AM.

[chance]

If I thought for one minute we were going to effect customers, I'd never have put it in. Something we simply didn't expect has been happening on end users machines...

I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, what could go wrong?

Anyway... looks like you fixed it. But you'll have to keep that "knuckle-head award" we gave you. />

[Katipo Games]

hey this might not be related to any new antipiracy but, mods please look into this topic: Link

I'm pretty sure this is happening to some other users too

[magus424]

I totally understand that those who have paid for GameMaker and are getting this are feeling very upset by the whole matter, and I can only apologise for the problems. As to why it’s in there should be reasonably clear. GameMaker has traditionally been one of the most pirated programs around, and it’s simply not right that some pay good money for it, while others simply pirate it.

And yet even GameMaker Studio has cracked versions available, so you've simply helped show that once again, DRM does not help anyone.

You've hurt legitimate purchasers of your program and done nothing to stop pirates, just like every DRM scheme ever created.

[Passa]

Oh my god. I am just. I'm speechless. This is unbelievable. ALL MY SPRITES ARE RUINED. I bought HTML5, and immediately on Studio's release, purchased the full version with both Android and iOS modules.

I've dumped $500 into this program, and you setup some anti piracy **** that DESTROYS my assets? DESTROYS THEM? I don't understand WHY you would do this. I would undersdtand a bug that causes compiled applications to show skulls and crossbones, but DESTROYING MY GAME ASSETS?

I have a clean install of 1.1.666 that I installed after formatting to Windows 8. My copy is legitimate. You have SEVERELY DAMAGED MY PROJECT. I have backups, but I've made huge changes in the past two days. I was literally hours out of release, just working out the kinks with iAP. I now have ZERO CHANCE of releasing later tonight as planned, before I hit up a conference for the next four days.

This is unacceptable. There needs to be a full response from Yoyo about this. An email to purchasers (you have my email on record, since I'm a paying customer and all). I want to know how this happened, I want to know why this won't happen again, I want to know how I can most promptly fix my project. Is it just sprites that are affected or will there be other surprises my project YOU'VE destroyed. Removed bits of code? Changed variables around?

I'm just heartbroken. All my crunch time work in the last two days... wasted... way to treat your paying customers Yoyo....

EDIT: My quick look online indicates this is illegal, at least under Australian consumer protection law. I'll be following this up as far I have to. It's unacceptable when I buy something worth $5 at the supermarket and it has already gone off, it's quite a fair bit worse when my $500 product destroys the project I've spent a year working on.

EDIT 2: You know what really gets me? I've just read through this thread - it's the sheer arrogance of Yoyo Games in responding to this. Excuses about how it's the user's fault (you must all have viruses!) and then after failing to make it our fault, we get a series of excuses about piracy. You complain that GameMaker has always been pirated - yep, it has. It still is. So clearly your DRM DOESN'T WORK! That's the truly bizarre thing. All it does is hurt the real customers - people like me. The pirated versions remove the DRM. Their projects don't get ruined.

Let me tell you how you should be responding to this, to prevent your existing customers from telling others to not buy your product: apologise unreservedly. Explain why this happened, explain why it won't happen again. SOMETHING other than this smug "yeah but piracy, also it's probably your fault anyway" nonsense.

Edited by Passa, 29 November 2012 - 05:25 AM.

[Arusiasotto]

It should just be your sprites. If you haven't altered those in the last two days, restore them from a backup. You do have a backup, right? However, if most of those two days of work were on sprites, my condolences.

[Passa]

I had done tonnes of polish with the in-game resource editors since it was nearly finished. Fixed/created animations, colour adjustments, new assets for the menu system. Destroyed by YoYo Games.

The iAP system I had set up in my game was extremely cautious (a single iAP to unlock new modes), to ensure no one who had purchased my game would be ****ed over. Basic, no nonsense to ensure there wouldn't be problems. Stores the purchased variable without encryption or a checksum, no additional DRM. I even included a loophole where you could manually override the iAP requirement in case something goes horribly wrong with billing when communicating with Google and Apple's servers, so if people couldn't play their full version despite paying, I could let them know how to unlock the game anyway.

My 'DRM' was designed to not treat customers like pieces of dirt - and mine are only paying $0.99! YoYo's have paid up to $500 (like I have). The comparison of our two DRM systems, for me, sums it all up. YoYo doesn't get it. I'm upset the software even included a nuclear option like this at all. Can you imagine the outcry if Microsoft made pirated versions of Word delete all the Word documents on the affected computer? Even if it wasn't legitimate users affected (like with Studio), there would be an international outcry, government regulators would sue Microsoft into oblivion, they would be swamped by civil suits. YoYo will get away with this because their product has a much smaller user-base than Microsoft Word, but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

My faith in YoYo has been severely shattered today.

For those who CAN afford it, but find it just as easy to copy it. Well, rest assured, we know the games which get made, and if something does well.... I'm sure we'll be in touch.

Umm. Mike. Are you telling me that all apps report back to YoYo? Is that what you're admitting here? That's far too intrusive DRM, my deployed apps shouldn't be sending data back to YoYo HQ so you can try cross reference if my app was compiled with a legit version.

Edited by Passa, 29 November 2012 - 09:12 AM.

[Loopyluke]

This was a terrible idea... I have my laptop with me on holidays to work on a pet project of mine, and moving around a lot I don't have access to internet apart from phone tethering (although a low data plan), which I've been forced to do here to find out what the hell was actually going on. I opened up my project, run it and found that the sprites were mutilated. Thankfully at this stage they are all my own testing sprites and not actual game art, but nonetheless I was incredibly displeased, and given my limited data I can't update for another few weeks. How often do I need to tether so my license can 'recheck'?
You should really be careful how you manage copy protection, this was a disgustingly destructive way to go about it. If it had damaged resources that I were using in a game that I would be selling I'd be looking for damage compensation.
Is there any way to enable backups like the old versions of gamemaker had? At least that might help avoid these issues in the future.
Running 1.1.666 btw.

Edited by Loopyluke, 29 November 2012 - 09:48 AM.

[rwkay]

Backups have been in for a long time go to File -> Preferences -> Enable Back ups, and set the directory you want the back ups made to.

Russell

[Passa]

Backups have been in for a long time go to File -> Preferences -> Enable Back ups, and set the directory you want the back ups made to.

Are we really returning to blaming the users again?

[Nocturne]

Backups have been in for a long time go to File -> Preferences -> Enable Back ups, and set the directory you want the back ups made to.

Are we really returning to blaming the users again?

Don't start with that crap...

Is there any way to enable backups like the old versions of gamemaker had? At least that might help avoid these issues in the future.
Running 1.1.666 btw.

Backups have been in for a long time go to File -> Preferences -> Enable Back ups, and set the directory you want the back ups made to.

Russell was responding to a legitimate question with a legitimate answer... I understand that you are upset and that is perfectly reasonable but please do NOT turn a mistake (admitted and rectified) into an excuse to bash the people that are listening and responding to your criticisms in an open and admirably candid way.