Getting very pissed off

[tsuraan]

I bought the game yesterday, assuming that I could relax and spend a few hours playing the latest incarnation of my favorite game. I initially installed on my laptop, which didn't meet the minimum requirements by any means, but I figured I'd give it a shot. It installed happily, but without a 3D card it really can't do much :-/

So, I figured I'd give the game a shot under cedega (also unsupported, but why not). It looks like firaxis has gone the greedy path and is selling the game on invalid (safedisc or something?) CDs, so my linux computer can't recognize the disc as anything worth mounting. The game does run beautifully up to the point where it says to insert the disk and restart the game...

So, I install Windows XP on my desktop. Now, my CD-ROM drive, which has served me well for many years, cannot recognize that it has a CD in it when the primary disc is inserted. I just installed windows, so I know that there's a working drive on this computer. The second disk does the same thing; the drive just denies that it has a disc in it. DeusEx is recognized, Windows is recognized, but neither civ disk is seen.

Now, I can easily copy the successfully installed Civilization game from my laptop to the desktop and manually import the registry keys, but since Meiers apparently loves money far more than his (former) fans, I won't be able to play the game anyhow. It really pisses me off that the only way I'm going to get to play this $50 game is to wait for some russian site to issue a no-cd crack so I can install some questionable executable on my system and possibly play the game I just purchased. Yeah, I'm annoyed...


CDs in paper sleeves for a $50 dollar product!? I spit at you, Sid.

[Franklinnoble]

Don't expect much help around here. All the folks with any weight to throw around are Firaxis stooges who don't want to lose their beta tester status.

[tsuraan]

Not really expecting any help; I'm just pissed off and feel like complaining

[yin26]

I am not a beta tester. Firaxis itself realizes that the CD protection scheme is not ideal. Find the solution. It's out there.

[Thorpe]

Originally posted by Franklinnoble
Don't expect much help around here. All the folks with any weight to throw around are Firaxis stooges who don't want to lose their beta tester status.

How completely accurate of you

[Mylon]

I play my games on a laptop. Normal procedure for me is to copy the game CD to the HD and mount it as a virtual drive so I can play on the go without lugging a big CD wallet so I can play my games. This also means I don't have to risk $200+ worth of games in addition to my laptop if it gets stolen. Unfortunately my usual tool doesn't work with the Civ 4 copy protection scheme. I've heard word that there is a tool for this specific copy protection, but I haven't tried it myself.

[Gelondil]

Re: Getting very pissed off

Now, I can easily copy the successfully installed Civilization game from my laptop to the desktop and manually import the registry keys, but since Meiers apparently loves money far more than his (former) fans, I won't be able to play the game anyhow.

CDs in paper sleeves for a $50 dollar product!? I spit at you, Sid.

Ouch, that's mean. Don't blame Sid for something that was likely a corporate/marketing decision entirely out of his control.

And yes, CivIV discs are protected with Safedisc. From what little information I have gathered, I understand some drives just plain can't read Safedisc protected discs.
Around here there are stores that sell cheap used computer parts, if I were having your problem I'd go buy a new used drive for $10, try it, and return it if it doesn't fix the problem. If it IS your hardware that's the problem, then it is much more your fault than Sid's for not fixing the problem.

[VetLegion]

Originally posted by yin26
I am not a beta tester

OMG, What have I done! Now people are using disclaimers

[tsuraan]

Re: Re: Getting very pissed off

Originally posted by Gelondil
Ouch, that's mean. Don't blame Sid for something that was likely a corporate/marketing decision entirely out of his control.

From the slashdot interview, it looks like he's entirely supportive of his company's effort to infuriate loyal customers while ensuring that pirates get a superior product. I also find it rather hard to believe that someone with as much name-recognition as Sid would have trouble finding a publisher willing to go a non-broken disc route, if he wanted to.

Originally posted by Gelondil
And yes, CivIV discs are protected with Safedisc. From what little information I have gathered, I understand some drives just plain can't read Safedisc protected discs.
Around here there are stores that sell cheap used computer parts, if I were having your problem I'd go buy a new used drive for $10, try it, and return it if it doesn't fix the problem. If it IS your hardware that's the problem, then it is much more your fault than Sid's for not fixing the problem.

Of course, my hardware works fine on valid discs. On deliberately broken discs, it might have issues (although all my other games work fine). It probably is the drive, since the discs worked on my laptop, but they really should work anywhere. Heck, the CivNET cds (or maybe it was CTP) would play in an audio CD player, and you'd get the game music. That was a standard-conforming system I know that Sid really likes money, but if we could just convince him that what he's doing is pissing off everyone, maybe his pride would get pricked a bit and he'd grow a bit of a social conscience. I, for one, would love to be able to play this game without it constantly spinning the drive, and without having to resort to infringing tools; it would just be really nice. As it is, I'll be playing a russian copy of Civ4 as soon as I can find one

[asleepathewheel]

Great thread!

Instead of a $50 game, why not buy a new $30 drive and wait a year and get the game for $20. That seems like it would help you out in more ways than one.

[Gelondil]

Of course, good luck pricking Sid's social conscience from the obscurity of a fan forum Hmm... maybe he's reading, but I doubt it.

[Saldrin]

I also copy all my CD1s to a harddrive and mount them to play. I don't want to describe my method, but it works fine for Civ4. My computer has 4 harddrives, and one is dedicated just for my "play CDs".

To be honest, the only people copyprotection is hurting are the people that legally buy the games. I don't understand why the game industry hasn't moved forward with new technology yet. I would think something like a USB KeyROM would be perfect. To play, you just insert the key into a usb port.

You could be all geeky and stuff and put them on a keyring like car keys before you go to a lan party

[xxFlukexx]

Ha, not half as bad as what AoE3 did. In that game you are limited to only one account per cd. And AoE3 is really a MP game, man is that pissing off a lot of people.

Sounds like a really weird issue you are having with installing OS's and compatibility with the drive. Sounds like it's more Windows or the drives fault than anyone else. Sid just made the game and slapped on whatever copy protection everyone else is using.

I wouldn't blame Sid specifically, but all computer program manufacturers as being pretty dumb in regards to copy protection.

[tsuraan]

Originally posted by Gelondil
Of course, good luck pricking Sid's social conscience from the obscurity of a fan forum Hmm... maybe he's reading, but I doubt it.

Yeah, I guess I'd just like to convince people that this form of copy protection is simply bad. I personally always liked the one where it asked you for a word on a given page of the manual; it's much easier to carry around the manual than to always have a CD-ROM drive in your laptop (I still have the shattered lands manual by my monitor . Maybe if enough other people are upset about this silly form of copy-protection, which only hurts honest customers, then Sid will hear about it. I don't think he wants to hear, but if enough people are complaining it may reach him as a real issue.

[tsuraan]

Originally posted by xxFlukexx
Sounds like a really weird issue you are having with installing OS's and compatibility with the drive. Sounds like it's more Windows or the drives fault than anyone else. Sid just made the game and slapped on whatever copy protection everyone else is using.

I wouldn't blame Sid specifically, but all computer program manufacturers as being pretty dumb in regards to copy protection.

If I wrote a program called "Tsuraan's Super Puppy Dance" that started people's computers on fire, I'd expect that people would be mad at me personally, because I allowed my name to be plastered on a product that made people angry. I don't think Sid wrote the copy protection, but I do think he could have vetoed it if he cared. I don't think there's a distributor in the world that could have made Civilization 4 into a flop. Firaxis could tomorrow issue a patch that disables the CD check, if they felt like it. They won't, but if they felt it were in their best interest, they would.

Who am I to talk though; I just blew $50 on a game that I haven't even been able to start yet So much for voting with the wallet...