Agreed.
Well, technically it still has its own site, but they've clearly distanced themselves from it and removed mention of it from their other sites.
As for making updates mandatory, you'd have thought they'd have learned from Demigod on that one. They killed the game by releasing it in such a state. Every game that has been released unfinished has seen a massive blow to its expected sales for that reason. No matter how patched up it is afterwards.
It's idiocy, plain and simple. Companies should realise that fighting piracy by devaluing their games is actually detrimental to sales. What they should be focussed on is maximising sales. Paradox would seem to have the right idea here. But few other publishers do.

haha
sorry

Dare I ask?

It is changing the files to bypass the activation/authorization. Maybe you don't want to call it a crack, but it is still bypassing the DRM.
And the main bugs of Elemental:
If you have an ATI and x64 combo, you are boned. That is pretty bad, but Saboteur had an even worse version of that (ATI alone killed it)
Slow performance/Memory leaks: Again, bad, but not unheard of
Disabled Faction Editor Workshop: Pretend it is DLC :p
It is obvious that they intended people to get the 0-day patch and never really intended for people to play with Gold, but it is in the same sense that EA/Bioware intended for people to use all the DLC they shoved down their throats. I agree that the DLC-model is less restrictive/forcing, but they are the same fundamental concept. it just happens that EA/Bioware are MUCH more competent than Stardock/Wardell.

I'd say there's a big difference between releasing a fully playable game that has optional DLC that you can choose to register for to gain additional content, and (intentionally) releasing a bug ridden game that ultimately forces people to register in order to get game fixing patches at release. One is going to do far more to damage your reputation and lower expected sales than the other =)

I'm used to your snide comments by now but trying to call me a cracker is low even for you. This is editing an XML file with notepad not cracking anything. This was even posted on the BioWare site.
As for comparing the DLC with Elemental you are talking rubbish. You said they never intended people to play with Gold and yet thats what shipped in retail boxes isn't it? You need to have an Impulse account to download the patch don't you? If you buy a copy of Dragon Age do you need to connect to the internet AT ALL to play and finish the game? No.

Well, from what I am hearing, the 0-day is still pretty bugged :p
But you are right. But either way, it doesn't change the fact that both are just less blatant forms of DRM. 0-day DLC implies that it was cut content. 0-day patch implies that it is intentionally buggy.
Jesus H Christ (the H stands for Herbert). I was not trying to mock you. I apologize if you are so sensitive that you took that as an insult. It was not meant as one. I was merely stating that it was in the grey area, at best. Same deal with the guy who wanted to make a 1:1 copy (a "CloneDVD" if you will :p) of a game a few weeks back. Maybe the intentions are 100% honorable and what not, but, at the very least, it sets a bad example for the new guys.
And I am not going to argue the semantics of DRM to you, but I will say that a large chunk of people feel that the DLC-approach IS a DRM model. If you don't, good for you. Enjoy it. If you do? Good for you. Enjoy it. Whether or not you classify it as DRM or not doesn't change how good or bad the concept is for the customer and the publisher.

I don't know if it's 'sanctioned', but this method has been posted on BioWare's social site as a solution to the problem of DLC suddenly not being authorized and the devs haven't removed it or said anything about it. So it appears to be at least unofficially sanctioned.

In that case, no problems. Just sounded like a textbook hack/crack.

Paradox and GamersGate split a long time ago.

Also, didn't Paradox recently push an achievement/MP-oriented DRM model anyway?

In fairness has any Paradox game ever shipped without bugs?

Wardell is a moron (didn't think I'd be saying that one so soon). Aside from not knowing how to handle the PR he expects people to buy an unfinished game and register it? Releasing something playable and not buggy with a huge content patch (like the mentioned DA:O) if you 'register' the game sounds fair to me and not what they did with Elemental. Got burned on Demigod with this so I waited and my gut was right, skipping this one.

In all fairness Wardell mentioned that they will support Elemental with lots of patches, and additional content for the next years, and that they aren't going to release any new titles next year because of their full support for Elemental. Not a lot of companies do that these days.