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LGP Is Partially Back Online; More Unforeseen Issues

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  • LGP Is Partially Back Online; More Unforeseen Issues

    Phoronix: LGP Is Partially Back Online; More Unforeseen Issues

    It's been seven weeks since LGP's server disaster where their single server with a single disk with lackluster backup capabilities suffered a massive failure. The disk suffered from firmware corruption, chemical degradation, and file-system damage, among other problems, and located on this drive were LGP's web-sites, their online store, and their entire Digital Rights Management implementation for the games they ported to Linux. Fortunately, their services are starting to come back online...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    OMG, I will promise to be careful not to use so many swearing words in the future, they do look bad on the website :-(

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    • #3
      OK, I have to say that even having received no formal IT training, this incident strikes me as the most moronic lack of fault-tolerance, redundancy, and backup that I have ever seen.

      You can get a five- or six- year old server off e-bay for around $600 that will have Raid5 on 3 server-grade SAS drives. You need two or three of those for something like LGP. One for the website, another for the DRM platform, a third for backup and miscellaneous stuff. If something dies, you can have the system up again in hours and replace the dead hardware later.

      Also, the DRM platform that's authentication-based doesn't exactly inspire confidence, especially when the company is small and can go under at any time. If I buy games from LGP, and they go under five years later, my games suddenly stop working: how fun is that? What about a customized executable system, or something else that doesn't require a connection to possibly inoperative LGP servers? I don't think I'll be buying anything from LGP any time soon.

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      • #4
        In defense...

        I've purchased a couple games from LGP and have kept up with their blog and generally like the company. They are the only game company I've ever seen that stands behind their games for years. I purchased Majesty from them like 8 years ago and they have updated it and kept it running like a charm on pretty much all the modern platforms. They generally do a good job on ports and stand behind their product.

        Regarding the DRM and the possibility of them going out of business and leaving games unplayable... They have promised to release patches to permanently unlock all games if they ever went under and given my track record with them I believe them. This is not to say that I agree with their decision to use DRM. Just that I believe what they say about it.

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        • #5
          This whole thing has done just one thing. It confirmed my belief that I should never ever pay for anything containing DRM. It just shows that even if you have GOOD intentions, DRM just hurts the paying customer.

          Gog.com -style distribution is the way forward, it really is.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Kazade View Post
            This whole thing has done just one thing. It confirmed my belief that I should never ever pay for anything containing DRM. It just shows that even if you have GOOD intentions, DRM just hurts the paying customer.

            Gog.com -style distribution is the way forward, it really is.
            Did you read CD Projekt's latest announcement? (They are the company behind GoG). They will be releasing The Witcher 2 without any DRM, but will be going after pirates through the legal system.

            Sounds about right: don't penalize legal buyers with DRM but go after the downloaders. Granted, this is a battle they can't win, but the lack of DRM means I will probably buy TW2, unlike TW1. (I really wanted to play the first one but it used Tages DRM so no money from me.)

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            • #7
              I don't think that lgp protection is hard to break, i don't have got a lgp game, but most likely it downloads a missing part on first connection (similar to crossover office). The additional online check could be easyly avoided with a hosts entry - at least that would be the logic behind that server error as it still worked for old customers.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by BlackStar View Post
                Did you read CD Projekt's latest announcement? (They are the company behind GoG). They will be releasing The Witcher 2 without any DRM, but will be going after pirates through the legal system.
                Yeah, I think they are making a big mistake there. Mainly for two reasons:

                1. There is no reliable way to determine who is downloading stuff (IP doesn't indicate a specific user) and innocent people will be targeted (see ACS:Law etc.)

                2. I believe if someone wants to purchase a game, they will do. GOG should focus on winning customers, not going after people that weren't going to be customers anyway.

                Also, GOG has a winning formula, I would rather pay GOG than pirate because they provide a BETTER service than bitorrent. Again, if someone was going to part with their money they would have done.

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                • #9
                  As an IT professional, something like this is totally inexcusable. Servers as critical as the DRM keyserver and the store server should be fully backed up DAILY and the backup media kept offsite but within easy reach in case of a server failure. Having a properly configured RAID is also a BIG must with critical hardware needing to be up 24x7, not to mention clustering. Spare hardware should be easily available so as to quickly rebuild the hardware. Also separating out the roles into discrete servers is highly recommended too with the store on one server and the DRM system on another as well, which will also ease management and maintenance

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                  • #10
                    Well steam for Linux would solve those issues

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