Good Birds Don't Fly Away

Just the other night I was playing Armed Assault 2 (ArmA2). It is a brilliant military sim, to say the least.

while i was playing on Armory mode, which lets me test out weapons, vehicle, characters to unlock more of those (you can even play from the eyes of a GOAT), suddenly something really bizarre happened.

So, it goes like this: it was a fine day. I was out stalking my target as usual.

 

dududu duu hmm.. this is not the guy i want. 

this guy fits the description of driving a vehicle, unarmed. now, i'll just position myself and wait for perfect time to pull the trigger. okay, deep breaths, here we go......

.....and, what is THIS? What the hay is going on here? why am i a bird? A message reads: "Good birds don't fly away from this game. I have only myself to blame". Wow, that's deep..and cryptic.

 

So, after flying for a few minutes and there was some gunshot below, i was brought to the black screen telling me that my character died.

 

Respawned. Challenge failed. What in the hay just happened back there?

So, I was left completely puzzled for a few minutes, later, dashed for the forums. It appears that you turning into a bird is actually a DRM (digital rights management) thing. Oh yeah, did i mention i was playing a pirated copy of ArmA 2? In other words, its how Bohemia Interactive Studios punishing you for pirating their game. I've heard of DRM blocking people midgame once they detected your license is a fake. or blocking you from starting the game. But i've never seen the developers trolled on pirates before. Oh yeah, except in that Batman game where you can't hurt the final boss if you're playing a pirated copy. Or Macrovision on DVDs that produces uneven audio and visuals when it detects a duplication process.

 

 

 

 

Maybe i should get a copy of ArmA 2. Its a pretty good sim, if not ridden by bugs and glitches.