The New Era of copy protection on PC games.

[Sarxis]

Meh.. the games I buy these days? Require neither super hardware nor are seriously copy protected. And besides? I do not see any difficulty with getting a pirate copy of BioShock (not that I have.. I just see it being pirated as much as any other game).

In fact.. I think the pirates are ready to accept the challenge of more difficult copy protections; it does not seem difficult to break them as it stands now.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST
As ethical as deliberately buying a faster processor (or other piece of computer equuipment) not at the time when it comes out (and stll costs lot of money) but only after there is already a new generation available (and the prices for equipment of the older generation have dropped considerably)

No, since you don't actually get to use the processor until you buy it.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


No, since you don't actually get to use the processor until you buy it.

Then maybe I misunderstood BKeela.

I assumed that he implied that you only use the pirated copy after you have bougt the original.
If you use a pirated copy before buying the game than it is, of course, unethical.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Sarxis

In fact.. I think the pirates are ready to accept the challenge of more difficult copy protections; it does not seem difficult to break them as it stands now.

Exactly, they see it as competition.

The Football Manager 2008 demo was recently released which allowed you to play half a season and continue the save with the full version when it was released, because it was literally the gold version.

Obviously pirates cracked the demo to create a full version.

What the developers failed to mention was that they put a bug in the demo so that in any cracked demo's allowed to continue a bug would appear that would reverse Euro 2008 qualifying, so the bottom teams in qualifying groups would qualify and the top teams go out. Except the problem is this bug even appears when you try to continue the demo save with a legit release version. Obviously this somewhat contradicts their claim that save games from the demo could be continued, since it really hurts the long term realism of a game if the crappiest teams in Europe are winning the Euros.

The worst part is that this really isn't hurting the pirates at all, since the proper pirated version based on the release version runs from a mounted CD image and doesn't even require a cracked exe. Plus their forums are full of people having problems with Securom. YAY.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Whoha


Do some research before you get something from them, they've been known to hose games with their copy protection.

I've bought every game I own in the last three years except Madden from them, and never a single problem of any sort.

[Vesayen]

I bought Port Royale 2, a game made by ascaron.

I love ascaron. One of my favorite companies. They are more well known for making Patrician and a ton of other great games, like the UFO series and Sacred. I REALLY liked the company. I buy all their games and eagerly followed all their new ones... I did anyway.

Port Royale 2 will not run if you have any virtual drives on your machine. So if I had daemon tools installed, a totaly legal program, their copyright protection scheme means I cannot play the game.

I went onto their forums and asked for help and a moderator told me it was my fault for having a virtual drive.

.....

I will never buy another game from ascaron, ever. Prior to this, they could of considered me a company for life, they were one my favorite developers.

Stardock(Galactic civilization) on the other hand, does not even add copyright protection to most of their games. I buy them all. They are a great developer.

My decision is hardly that of the mass market, but that is how I feel.

Ascaron? Go #### off. Stardock? You the man!

[Main_Brain]

Wasnt the UFO- Series a Microprose Series? *confused*

[Quillan]

In Europe, the original game was called UFO: Enemy Unknown. But in North America, it was called X-COM: UFO Defense. Ascaron has been putting out another series called UFO, the most recent of which is UFO: Extraterrestrials, if I'm not mistaken.

[El_Cid]

Originally posted by Bkeela
I think it is ethical to download pirate copies to avoid copy protection viruses and for the sheer convenience providing one buys the original. But is it ethical to wait for the game to hit the bargain bin, years after the original release?

well I know the trend of more intrusive copy protection often moves me in the direction of the later(as it often gets removed), and maybe at a later date I will start to do the former also? Also the advantage of the bargin bin release is you often get the fully patched game, so can avoid the 'paying to be a beta tester' syndrome. Of course it means the company will get less of my money as these releases are much cheaper than the original release, still that is also a problem entirely of the game industries creation imho.

Originally posted by Maquiladora
..edit....The worst part is that this really isn't hurting the pirates at all, since the proper pirated version based on the release version runs from a mounted CD image and doesn't even require a cracked exe. Plus their forums are full of people having problems with Securom. YAY.

Ok now i'm really annoyed - FM2008 uses SecurRom also? So that's another of the few yearly games i normaly buy to scratch of the list - well done again Sega(I'm guessing it was their decision rather than the developer?).
Lol and they want me to keep buying PC games? Still i'm not going to get into console gaming from this generation onwards, even if mainstream PC gaming goes to the dogs - it still has alot to offer from the better indies and older games imho.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by El_Cid

Ok now i'm really annoyed - FM2008 uses SecurRom also? So that's another of the few yearly games i normaly buy to scratch of the list - well done again Sega(I'm guessing it was their decision rather than the developer?).

Who knows. I wouldn't totally write it off though, IMO it's their best game in years, bar a few bugs that are due to be fixed in the first patch, as always.

Maybe you can go the digital download route? Although that still hasn't been set up yet, which is frustrating for a lot of NA's, and I'm certain it's losing them sales.

[Blake]

The Copy Protection strategy really doesn't make sense.

Because once someone has determined that they're going to pirate a game, it doesn't matter what it's protected by, it's just a matter of downloading the work some smart cookie has done to break it. The procedure to download a noCD / fixedEXE is the same regardless of copy protection - and it's trivial to the point where it can be quicker to download a fixedEXE than find the CD (depending on how organized you are)

So the only real purpose of copy protection is to prevent casual piracy - sharing of CD's between friends and burning CD's. It only needs to be "good enough" to stop that.

Once someone has decided that they're going to pirate a game, no amount of copy protection will stop them. It only presents a barrier to those who are not yet pirates.

[Proteus_MST]

One wonders why the gaming industy till now hasn´t used the strategy of selling their games with hardware dongles.

I somehow doubt that it will piss off the gamers more than SecurRom already does and at least provides some real copy protection to the game (as software pirates would have to replicate a piece of hardware if they want to provide working copies).

[Kuciwalker]

One wonders why the gaming industy till now hasn´t used the strategy of selling their games with hardware dongles.

They have been: it's called the CD.

[Main_Brain]

Originally posted by Quillan
In Europe, the original game was called UFO: Enemy Unknown. But in North America, it was called X-COM: UFO Defense. Ascaron has been putting out another series called UFO, the most recent of which is UFO: Extraterrestrials, if I'm not mistaken.

There is another UFO Series (UFO:Aftershock,Aftermath,Afterlight) but thats produced by Altar / published by Cenega in Germany.
I did not learn until now that Ascaron did indeed Publish these in UK =)

UFO:Ex was published by a Russian Publisher I never heard of before

[Dis]

I would forgo protection for an online check to play games. Yeah it's kind of annoying you would need an interenet connection for it to work, but I'm okay with that.