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Battlefront refuses to reset my lisence of a broken computer!


anton meise

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So far I've been playing my version of EoS on two computer (a transportable and a non-transportable). The notebook broke without me having a chance to delinsence my EoS.

So no EoS elsewhere than home for me. I asked around what to do and people told me I can reset my liscene at Battlefront - which sounds like a normal thing to do for me, now look what they've answered:

______answer from Battlefron Helpdesk:__________

Resetting a license from our end is something that we do in emergencies only, because there is a limit as to how often we can do it. Therefore, we usually only do it when there are no activations left at all. Your key still has an activation left, therefore no reset is required to play the game.

You get *up to* concurrent activations per key, not *at least*.

---

Questions? Check out our extensive Knowledge Base at:

www.battlefront.com/helpdesk

Ticket Details

===================

Ticket ID: WKN-851xxx

Department: eLicense

Priority: Low

Status: Closed

__________________________________

What am I supposed to think of that? I can't realy believe that reseting my account would have been much more work than writing this friendly email...

So far I had a quite good impression from Battlefront. However this might be due to my experience with the EoS team...

Cheers from a bit confused,

tntom

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So far I've been playing my version of EoS on two computer (a transportable and a non-transportable). The notebook broke without me having a chance to delinsence my EoS.

So no EoS elsewhere than home for me. I asked around what to do and people told me I can reset my liscene at Battlefront - which sounds like a normal thing to do for me, now look what they've answered...

Hi Anton. It looks to me like they're saying that you have only used 1 of your 2 activations. I don't know why that would be if you installed it on two computers. Did you uninstall it from your desktop computer and that's what freed up one of the activations - and, meanwhile, your laptop activation is still "on"? Anyway, we'll get it sorted out for you.

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This is why I hate eLicense. This DRM is another factor in why this game isn't getting popular. Having to License and unlicensed the game to just to play it. It's a hassle, and it doesn't do anything to stop the pirates, it just inconveniences the legit customer. While I love this game and support you Brit, eLicense has to go.

Sorry for my rant.

I'm in the same Boat as the OP, my last laptop died on me and I couldn't unlicense it so now I'm down a License.

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As far as I understand it EoS is only playable if you eLicense it on the computer. However this is only possible on two computer at one time. If I'd like to you use my version of EoS somewhere else I will first have to deactivated one of the license on one computer and activate it again on the computer I'd like you use somewhere else.

In my case a computer broke beyond repair, so no chance to deactivated the license here. Now I just have one left and have to deactivated it if I choose to use my notebook.

I don't have no general issues with eLicenses 'cause they might be a good tool against pirate copying. However I do have problem with it if it turn into a hurdle for normal users.

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It is rather poor form because they are happy to let the user assume and have even encouraged the perception that the user is entitled to both of their activations, one for a desktop one for a laptop etc. It has been used as a "selling" point of the elicense system.

Having said that, unlicensing is pretty easy so you can have it installed on both computers and unlicense and relicense. I've also had no serious trouble with the helpdesk service. I think resetting licenses can be abused to have the game working on more than two PCs so I understand the resistance.

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tntom, I am not sure what problem you think you are seeing here. I think that what has been said explains the situation clearly:

Your key still has an activation left, therefore no reset is required to play the game.

In other words - what problem do you have exactly? Your laptop broke down and you want to play the game on another PC? Well, you can. Your key allows you to relicense on another PC *without requiring a reset*.

Either I am not understanding what you mean, or you are seeing a problem that doesn't exist.

This is why I hate eLicense.

Actually, it seems that you hate eLicense because of what you think you know about it, and that's (most likely) wrong:

I'm in the same Boat as the OP, my last laptop died on me and I couldn't unlicense it so now I'm down a License.

Actually, that's not true. If you are out of (re-)licenses, and would like to play on a second PC, then submit a support ticket at www.battlefront.com/helpdesk and we'll reset it. tntom's problem above isn't like yours: his key STILL ALLOWS for a relicense without requiring a reset.

However I do have problem with it if it turn into a hurdle for normal users.

And so do we. Which is why we are using a system like eLicense in the first place, with many user friendly features such as "mobile licensing" (transferring licenses from one PC to another without any restrictions) unlike other systems which enforce a hard limit on the number of PCs you can play on. Another thing about eLicense is that it is transparent - there is nothing going on in the background that you are not aware of, as is the case with most DRM systems out there, including (especially) the leading ones.

It is rather poor form because they are happy to let the user assume and have even encouraged the perception that the user is entitled to both of their activations, one for a desktop one for a laptop etc. It has been used as a "selling" point of the elicense system.

And nothing has changed about it. When you buy the game you can have the game activated at the same time on two PCs, indeed. This is an added service for our customers that we have deliberately chosen to offer (again, unlike many other DRMs out there). What I have clarified with tntom above is that there is no legal *right* to two activations, however. The second activation is *extra* and you may use it to run the game on two PCs at the same time if you wish, but there is no obligation in the End User License Agreement to that second activation.

All of this is moot anyway in the given situation, because tntom should be able to relicense his game without problems without a reset. That's the whole point of the above response he has quoted, and either there is some kind of misunderstanding going on or I don't know what else the issue can be.

This thread is somewhat typical for discussions about DRM, though. People assume things, based on their previous experience with DRM (usually bad), and jump to conclusions.

Now, there is no doubt that DRMs suck. They get in the way of paying customers. They are a hassle to support from our end. And yet from all the sucky DRM out there we have found eLicense to be the least sucky and most transparent. If you don't mind your PC getting hijacked by DRMs that "call home" behind your back, then you may prefer different systems, but we would chose eLicense out of the bunch (currently available) any day again.

And yes, we need a DRM in place. The customers back in the 2005-2006s, when our games still came unprotected, made that point very clear to us.

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to Brit:

thanks for offering the help. Yes, right, the Notebook license was active as the machine broke.

to Moon:

from you reply it is a bit tricky to follow which person you are addressing concerning your comments. I will only answer to the first and fourth quote since these are directed to me as I understand it.

(1) My license situation: As you have problems to understand my problem in first place, I wonder were the point of not understanding is: I was used to use my software on two different computers. This was great, since one computer is tiny but transportable and one is bigger but I can't take it around.

Nowerdays, if I forget to delicense my software on the one (which might be in a different location than the other one) I will not be able to use my software anymore.

(2) Some kind of copy protection: As I mentioned in the threat already I have no problem with the eLicense in first place. BUT it is hard to understand why you guys have no problems to discuse or don't understand problems caused by this kind of protection for the consumers, instead of just mailing back to me that my license was reset and I'd could just go on installing in for my two computer which are in place.

Getting more confused,

tntom

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Nowerdays, if I forget to delicense my software on the one (which might be in a different location than the other one) I will not be able to use my software anymore.

I don't know how you arrive at this conclusion.

Let me repeat step by step:

- you have contacted our helpdesk with the request for a license reset because your PC broke down.

- we have told you that no reset is needed because your key currently only has one activation registered out of the two (concurrent ones) you get.

- you should have no problem using your key to relicense your game on another PC without requiring a reset from us

- if, in the future, you get a problem with relicensing, simply contact our helpdesk again and we'll reset your key then

What we do not generally do is that we do not reset keys when they still have an activation open. I stated the main reason for this as well:

Resetting a license from our end is something that we do in emergencies only, because there is a limit as to how often we can do it.

I am not sure I can be any more clear than this, and I still don't understand what your problem is. But: if you are having problems currently with relicensing your game, then this is bound to have different reasons than the lack of a reset. In that case, please check out the error message and number you are getting, and submit a support ticket with it. Perhaps it's a typo in your key, or you are trying to activate the wrong game with the wrong key etc.

Martin

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I think there's still confusion about what happened to the activations. Anton activated the game on two computers, one computer no longer works, which means he "lost" one activation. But, battlefront is saying that only one out of the two activations have been used. The only way I can explain this situation is one of the following situations: (1) Anton unlicensed the game from his desktop (but one is still lost on his laptop), (2) Anton's laptop didn't actually have the game activated (and the one activation we're seeing is on his desktop), or (3) there's some sort of glitch in the whole system where Anton activated it on two computers, but it looks (from Battlefront's perspective) like he's only used one activation.

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What a confusion.

What has happened is the following:

One computer which as an EoS eLicense activated is broken, so the eLicense is lost since it can't be deactivated no more.

Since I've been using two computers I have to deactivated the eLicense every time after playing since I never know which computer I will be using next. That is why Battlefront might have seen a open eLicense.

However: I have activated the second eLicense, so now no eLicense should be open.

to Martin:

Are you saying that if my next computer breaks with a active eLicense THAN a reset will be possible?

OK, that just happenend. Now I have no eLicense left for my last still working computer. I kindly request Battlefront to reset the eLicense of the Empire of Steel which I bought from your site. I helpdesk ticket was just submitted.

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Each key you purchase allows you *up to* two concurrent activations. There is no firm limit. You can unlicense and relicense as often as you want.

If you forget to unlicense, or you have a catastrophic computer failure and were not able to unlicense AND after repairing the PC the license isn't still registered (so you could unlicense or simply continue using the game), then you always have the second activation that you can use to play. If you already used that on a second PC, then we can reset your key, and "free up" one activation.

We do not, generally, reset both activations, for the reasons mentioned previously. There are exception to every rule of course.

tntom, I'll check your helpdesk ticket, and if your key is in use and has no further activations, and you cannot relicense the game, then we will reset your key, as usual.

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