My wish for Civ4:Warlords

[AoA]

Hey Firaxis!
You know what would be great in the XP? Take a page from Stardock and GalCiv2 and remove the disk check completely (and no 'net checks either).

Accept that we are honest people and let us run the game solely off our hard drives. Let's all just be civilized.



P.S. Don't worry about dishonest people copying the game. They'll crack whatever protection you use anyway, so don't bother. Have faith in us.

[LordShiva]

This should be addressed to Take2.

[AoA]

Ah, but maybe I'm idealistic and feel that the Firaxians are just like us and would fight tooth and nail to bring this about.
On the other hand, Take2 is a heartless corporation that steals milk from kittens.

Maybe this would be better received by Take2 if some Deities and Emporers and MarkG and Sid supported it.

[Urban Ranger]

Well, there is something I could tell you, but it won't be wise for me to do so. Maybe Yin can do that.

[gilfan]

Copy protection DOES prevent theft. If you make theft extremely easy, as would be the case if there were no protection at all, many, many more people would do it. However, even the smallest of barriers is enough to stop people from giving the game away.


Robbing a convenience store is easy. Anyone could do it. Grab a carving knife from the kitchen, point it at the cashier, and take the money and run. Anyone could do it, but the vast majority of people don't, even if they were certain they could get away without being caught. If, however, there were no cashier, no camera surveillance, no nothing... just an open tray full of money on the counter with a sign that says "Pay Here"... some people would pay for their stuff, and some people would steal money from the tray.


Most people are basically decent folk, but when presented with overwhelming temptation right in their face, might give in and do the wrong thing. Any sort of discouragement is enough to keep most people from giving in to their baser instincts. That's what copy protection does.


On top of all that, there's also the fact the large majority of the public is totally unaware of no-cd cracks or where to find them. Yes, anyone who's reading a civ fansite web forum has probably heard of them, and probably knows google well enough to find such a site with some effort, but that does not describe most people. I wouldn't take it as an indictment against the consumer base in general. Personally, I think copy protection is aimed mainly at younger teen boys, who aren't old enough to have their own income and are less likely to have formed a solid moral code.

[Son of David]

The DVD version does run solely off the hard drive - it just needs the DVD to be inserted for a few seconds while starting up.

So if there was no DVD-check, it would be easy to, um, share this game around in a very casual manner.

[Nacht]

Originally posted by Son of David
The DVD version does run solely off the hard drive - it just needs the DVD to be inserted for a few seconds while starting up.

That's the way almost any CD check works.

[Nacht]

double post

[Robert]

Grab a carving knife from the kitchen, point it at the cashier, and take the money and run.

So, it's against the Poly-house rules to explain how pirate software, because it's illegal.
But it is allowed to explain how to rob a store?

[Nikolai]

[Adagio]

Re: My wish for Civ4:Warlords

Originally posted by AoA
You know what would be great in the XP? Take a page from Stardock and GalCiv2 and remove the disk check completely (and no 'net checks either).

I agree

Even though there's almost no protection in GalCiv 2, it still sells well... or at least that's what that big guy at StarDock says

Originally posted by AoA
Accept that we are honest people and let us run the game solely off our hard drives. Let's all just be civilized.

We can already do that

Because of this I lend out my copy of the game to a friend of mine, one week later he bought the game himself and I got my copy back... that reminds me... ever since he bought his copy, I haven't been able to contact him at all

[alva]

Re: Re: My wish for Civ4:Warlords

Originally posted by Adagio


I agree

Even though there's almost no protection in GalCiv 2, it still sells well... or at least that's what that big guy at StarDock says

Some starforce employee linked to a torrent side where you can download Galciv.

http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?forumid=161&aid=106741&c=1

http://www.star-force.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=670&st=0

[Saldrin]

I'm for the removal!! Quake 4 recently did it also with the 1.04 patch.

If you really think about it, majority of the sales of Civ4 are basically done. So piracy really shouldn't be an issue anymore IMHO. Not that I'm condoning piracy, because I'm not; I'm just innately a slob and I ruin CDs by not putting them back in cases. Which come to think of it, Civ4 didn't even have a case...

Putting CD/dvd checks on a product protected only by a paper sleeve is asking for trouble if ya ask me. At least for the love of god, send the expansion out with a proper CD/DVD case.

[AoA]

To clarify, by running solely off the hard drive, I mean that once the game is installed, I never need the disc again to play or boot the game. Like GalGiv2 is, like SMAC is (but not SMACX) and like Microsoft Office is.
Evil Evil MS doesn't ask me to prove the program is bought by me at every use, why should Civ4. MS Office sure cost a lot more money than Civ4 and it gets a lot more use than Civ4 (and I would imagine that may even include teenage boys who ned to type for school)

Well, the big question is how can a small company like Stardock have faith in us to not steal. I mean, they are leaving the door wide open for us to all steal the game, yet I don't think that's happened.
Yes, there are a lot of pirates out there, but I think that lawful people outnumber them and a company would still make good money.
Did people pirate SMAC like crazy, does anyone know?
And Adagio, I'm sure you're knowledgable enough to help your friend run the game without the CD, but your friend bought it anyway. Good wins.


and yes, I could always go to that special site and skip the CD check but I haven't
and now the Stardock and Starfoce issues has me thinking that we shouldn't accept being treated like potential criminals any more

[Adagio]

Re: Re: Re: My wish for Civ4:Warlords

Originally posted by alva
Some starforce employee linked to a torrent side where you can download Galciv.

I know, I posted the news about it