How about product activation?

[Jawa Jocky]

I've noticed a lot of questions about crack. Not from wearing pants too low, or smoking coke. I'm talking about cracking Civ3 so the CD isn't required.

While this idea does sound convenient (I hate leaving the CD in too) it violates the Terms of Agreement for Civ3. I can only think of two possible solutions for this annoyance.

1) Product Activation (like XP products).
or
2) Everybody in the world can stop stealing software.

So my question is....

Would you prefer product activation over CD boot activation?

[Solver]

Well why not activation... it would then be easy for me... activate it ONE TIME after I got the game, and stop worrying about the CD thing. However, neither stops piracy, and that's what they got to understand, too .

[notyoueither]

What about if you have to re-install and you're a complete, disorganized mess Slover?

6 months from now, how do some people remember where they put that thing? Unless they need it every day to get the fix.

Just a question.

[sabrewolf]

no, activation would be BAAAAD

think of how many times you had to reinstall civ3 because of overwritten files, falsely edited civ3bic, patches and mods, that didn't work.

i don't want to have to phone or email firaxis every time that happens.

[Thrawn05]

I don't care either way (what happened to the banana option?! That's a sin not to have one! ).

I change so much hardware on my computer when I upgraded to WinXP and never got a damn call, nor WinXP's need to call. This included increasing RAM, and changing video and audio cards among other things.

[Adagio]

Product activation sux...

[Solver]

Oh well I don't change too much hardware... and I've only had to reinstall Civ 3 once, due to a fatal crash of all my PC.

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by sabrewolf
no, activation would be BAAAAD

think of how many times you had to reinstall civ3 because of overwritten files, falsely edited civ3bic, patches and mods, that didn't work.

i don't want to have to phone or email firaxis every time that happens.

Um....once? Because I reformatted? If you back up your files when you mod the game, you don't have to reinstall...

[Sheik]

Product Activation doesn't protect software. I hate leaving the CD in the drive and think that people should be trusted. I have safedisk problems and every patch I have to get a special patch and re-install the game. We should not have activation.

[Solver]

Nothing protects software. CD checks are removed, activation is, too.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Solver
Nothing protects software. CD checks are removed, activation is, too.

and if your really really really talented, you can program and make your own Civ3.


I'm working on it.

[Solver]

Yeah, get them to release the source code, change the title screen, and there you are .

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Sabre2th


Um....once? Because I reformatted? If you back up your files when you mod the game, you don't have to reinstall...

And if the install didn't actually work properly? On 98 i've reinstalled roughly 4 times, but when it was XP....I used to have to reinstall nearly three times every day (And Firaxis never helped. I'll never forget when they told me I didnt have access to my computer..... )

Would I have liked to call Firaxis each of those times? No. That would have sucked.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Solver
Yeah, get them to release the source code

I've tried that, but Soren wouldn't give up under gun point.

[Jawa Jocky]

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I don't care either way (what happened to the banana option?! That's a sin not to have one! ).

I didn't add banana, because everyone would have voted for it since the other options suck.

After thinking about this for a while I have to go with the CD start myself. I can't imaging the support for getting re-activited when something goes wrong being anything but terrible. Infogames/Firaxis just don't have the resources IMO to handle product activation.