Number of copies of game required for home network play

[kisertn]

Hello,
I am interested in getting Civ IV for myself and my daughter to play on our home network and I was wondering how many copies of Civ IV I have to buy to make that happen.

Can I just install it on our two home computers and play over the LAN with no technical or legal issues - or must I purchase two copies?

I can't justify spending $100 for a single game for us to play it together, but neither am I interested in breaking any rules - I just need to know straight up, before I make a purchase, if I can/am allowed to have two people on a local area network playing against each other with just one copy.

Thanks for your help

-Neil

[Gibsie]

You only need the game disc to start up the game, but I'm not sure of the legal issues...

[Keygen]

You need to have a copy for each computer, in your case two copies, in order to simultaneously play from both computers over LAN and be legal at the same time.

According to the license agreement you can only have one copy per computer.

However you can use the "hot seat" feature and legitimately have two persons play on the same computer the one after the other.

Also the price for purchasing two copies of Civilization 4 is less than $100, near $80, but I am sure you can find even cheaper copies either new or used.

Here's an excerpt from the license agreement:

LICENSE CONDITIONS

You agree not to:

(a) Commercially exploit the Software;

(b) Distribute, lease, license, sell, rent or otherwise transfer or assign this Software, or any copies of this Software, without the express prior written consent of LICENSOR;

(c) Make copies of the Software or any part thereof, except for back up or archival purposes;

(d) Except as otherwise specifically provided by the Software or this Agreement, use or install the Software (or permit others to do same) on a network, for on-line use, or on more than one computer, computer terminal, or workstation at the same time;

(e) Copy the Software onto a hard drive or other storage device and must run the Software from the included CD-ROM (although the Software may automatically copy a portion of itself onto your hard drive during installation in order to run more efficiently);

(f) Use or copy the Software at a computer gaming center or any other location-based site; provided, that LICENSOR may offer you a separate site license agreement to make the Software available for commercial use;.

(g) Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise modify the Software, in whole or in part;

(h) Remove or modify any proprietary notices or labels contained on or within the Software; and

(i) Transport, export or re-export (directly or indirectly) into any country forbidden to receive such Software by any U.S. export laws or accompanying regulations or otherwise violate such laws or regulations, that may be amended from time to time.

[kisertn]

Thank you both for your advice. I did end up purchasing two copies. However, it was a waste of money (at least for the second copy), because it will not run properly on my laptop with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 with 64Mb of RAM.

Must say that I am disappointed in Mr. Meier and company (not to the point of turning my back mind you, just have lowered them from the lofty seat in which I had them). This is a strategy game, and it shouldn't be encumbered by such heavy graphics requirements (or they should be optional).

Anyway, I digress. I did take the safe route and purchase two copies, for about $80 as you said. Just wish I could use the second copy

Thanks again,
-Neil

[Keygen]

kisertn, you should had read the system requirements on the back of the case. Then you would had avoided buying a second copy.

Anyway, you can always make a good gift out of it or if you're planning to buy a new computer soon you will find a good use of it for yourself

[kisertn]

According to the system requirements, my laptop is supposed to support it. Video card that supports DirectX 9 with 64 MB. That's my system, sorry. Doesn't work as advertised.

But my disappointment isn't that I bought something that doesn't work on my laptop. My disappointment is that someone felt that a strategy game needed such a heavy layer of graphics. Just unnecessary in my opinion. Or at least provide the option to turn it all off. (the excessive stuff).

[Robert]

That license agreement is absolutely insane.

(g) Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise modify the Software, in whole or in part;

This game has been made to be modified.
The tools are given to modify the software.
If I were you I would write to Take2 and Firaxis and tell them that you bought the game TWICE to install it on two computer, as required by the agreement, and that it now doesn't work on 1 of these computer, despite that it should work according to the system requirements.

Remember that these license agreements aren't written to harm people like you. They are written to have a case in trial against people who truly abused the software and installed it on many computers on big networks.
It's not been targetted to someone who wants to play it with his brother on a home LAN.

I salute you for being that honest to actually buy 2 copies.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by kisertn

According to the system requirements, my laptop is supposed to support it. Video card that supports DirectX 9 with 64 MB. That's my system, sorry. Doesn't work as advertised.

You're absolutely right. I was mistakenly looking at the recommended requirements when I was responding to you in my previous post.

What exactly isn't working properly? Can you be more specific? Just in case it is something fixable...

Also is you graphics card's memory dedicated or shared? Might or might not play some role.

Originally posted by kisertn
But my disappointment isn't that I bought something that doesn't work on my laptop. My disappointment is that someone felt that a strategy game needed such a heavy layer of graphics. Just unnecessary in my opinion. Or at least provide the option to turn it all off. (the excessive stuff).

That is the trend, better graphics as the time progresses and I tend to agree with that as long as they primarily target on the game play and not the graphics.

64MB is kind excessive for a turn based strategy game indeed but actually not that much at list for typical systems bought during the last 5 years or so.

However there are some options you can use to lower the demand in graphics.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by CyberShy
That license agreement is absolutely insane.

(g) Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise modify the Software, in whole or in part;

This game has been made to be modified.
The tools are given to modify the software.

I presume that this part was only meant for people willing to modify the game's content with the solely purpose to distribute it modified in such a way either to be able to install it and play it bypassing all built-in security checks (commonly known as cracks) or as a new custom product and make a profit out of it.

[Robert]

Well, maybe it should've said that, if that would be the case.

But I think that Take2 just has a standard license agreement that's being putted on all games they release.

[Keygen]

There is a contradiction between (c) and (b)

You agree not to:

(c) Make copies of the Software or any part thereof, except for back up or archival purposes;

(e) Copy the Software onto a hard drive or other storage device and must run the Software from the included CD-ROM (although the Software may automatically copy a portion of itself onto your hard drive during installation in order to run more efficiently);

Point (c) says that you can make a copy for backup purposes while point (e) forbids it!

What bothers me the most is that they use security/locking techniques that make it hard for legitimate owners to make copies for backup purposes - which they say it's OK - or worse not be able to play at all. Did you know that if you have a SCSI CD-ROM installed and no other IDE/SATA CD-ROM you won't be able to run Civ4 even if you have the original CD-ROM inserted?!?! Unless of course you make use of "illegal" software to bypass the check...

edit by CyberShy: we cannot post hints here on how to illegally play the game.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by CyberShy

Well, maybe it should've said that, if that would be the case.

But I think that Take2 just has a standard license agreement that's being putted on all games they release.

I think the entire electronic gaming industry has a more or less similar "template" for end user license agreement

[snoopy369]

I would expect for a mobility radeon 9000 to work at least minimally. It supports pixel and vertex shaders v1, which is beyond the T&L requirement, and 64MB is technically playable, although I'd use 128 of course.

Indeed, why are you unable to play the game, precisely? Have you applied the most recent patch to the game? Is it refusing to run [error message] or just uber-slow, or is it black textures or things like that?

Check out a couple of the threads in the Civ4-Help forum, such as this thread discussing which cards should work, and this thread on how to apply a commonly needed fix for ATI cards.

Also, make sure you have the newest ATI drivers for your laptop's video chip - old ATI drivers [and some random newer ones, for some reason] don't work with the game properly due to improper implementation of T&L by ATI (or so I understand).

[snoopy369]

And when did you get Mod powers in here, Cybershy? I must have missed something

[Keygen]

Originally posted by CyberShy

we cannot post hints here on how to illegally play the game.

Aren't you exaggerating a bit? I was merely making a remark here, nothing more...