how stardock figths warez

[child of Thor]

Piracy is a big problem, partly created by the industry itself.
By producing lame expensive products for the sake of making a quick buck, and not looking at the longterm situation,it(the game industry) must hopefully realise it has been part of the problem. It has been the emerging pattern since the 80's.
As a case in point over the last 5years or so i buy maybe two titles a year maximum now.
In the 80's i used to buy 5-10 depending on my pocket money situation. This has declined i feel in relation to the quality of the finished product. I'm not talking about graphics and sound here ok? I'm talking about playability and value for money,IMHO the most important elements of what makes a game good.

Then on the other hand you will always have guys who want to crack games - prove themselves to their contempories etc, and the guys who want stuff for free if they can get it.
My feeling is that with all the online warez sites it is much easier for the average punter to get a free game than it used to be. This has got to be very worring to an industry that spends millions to produce a game where it used to cost thousands. And to compound it all the industrty attitude hasn't helped them win over warez users by making them feel they are getting good value.
I think it is a much more critical situation than it was 10 years or so ago - the overheads and costs involved are just so much higher now, as is maybe the chance of the released game doing badly?

I think much more should be done in closeing down these sites - they are obviously being used primeraly for illegal activities. As more people become conected to the internet this problem can only get worse.
So on the whole i could put up with having to download content periodicaly to keep my games running, i think most of us are used to patching our games, so this isn't so different.
Will it actually work enough to make it worth it? I guess we will have to see how it goes for Galciv - I hope it does work well, it would be a shame to see video-gaming come to an end before it really had a chance to bring the kind of entertainment it promises to our homes.
At the end of the day we all love to play games, so i don't understand the pirates reasons, really they are just being as short sighted as the industry has been, but i can just about sympathise with them.........just about.
Goodluck to Galciv and it's attempts to frustrate the freeloaders, the games industry needs some good news - as do games players.

[Triphosphatase]

I think much more should be done in closeing down these sites - they are obviously being used primeraly for illegal activities. As more people become conected to the internet this problem can only get worse.

That would be a wasted effort, considering only a few users uses web sites to get their warez.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by billybaruch1
What's your next project, comrade? Convincing GalCiv players of their dialectical materialism?

Oooooh look! A neoliberal, randroid, or other variety of capitalist ideologue. Are you sure you even know what 'dialectical materialism' is?

[Ellestar]

Well all this protection may be good... But i brought pirate CD and it was with serial key. So, as long as i'm not updating game there is no way how game can check that i'm using pirate version.

But more important issue for me is these patches downloading from SDCentral (i also brought Download version of the game on galciv.com) will work with game and multimedia from pirate CD? I don't really want to download game+multimedia from inet with 2,5K/sec on modem. Well, at least Stardock Central showing that i have both game and multimedia installed.

[ravagon]

Um...
Is any of this going to have any effect on someone who runs Galciv on a different machine to the one with the www link?
I don't mind a serial number check upon installation but having to go through it just to download would be ... problematic.

[Malleus]

Yes, it checks your serial number on download.

M

[MarkG]

When you do it 2-4 times every week......It can get a bit annoying

see? stardock hasnt released an update for 3 days now.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Hey now, give the guys a break. They get weekends off too...or at least they should- that was one hella-productive week they put in. I only count it as 1 day so far.

[Cookie Monster]

Infogreed's products are part of the problem of piracy. Why pay for their trash?

I have never pirated a game. In fact I spent hard earned money on Civ3 and Moo3. I kept Civ3 and still play it from time to time even though it's got it's share of problems. Moo3 otoh was so disgusting that I am very thankful I was able to trade it in for store credit. The lesson I learned was never ever buy any PC game with Infogreeds name on it.

Now I went out and bought galciv this weekend and played for 5 hours. It was freaking fun right out of the box and even though I haven't patched my copy yet I found nothing wrong with the game during those initial 5 hours.

I will continue to be an honest customer and buy my games but I have learned that careful research is a must these days. I certainly can understand pirates though. The industry should take steps to stop them however the gaming industry better make games that are worth my hard earned money. Thankfully galciv is just such a game........

[CygnusZ]

Yeah, basically the answer is right there. Just release it into the warez scene and let the Galactic Civilizaiton people tire themselves out before releasing an offical pirate addon. After all, this whole "updating" thing can't last more than a few months. Then it's on to the next project. I find it... VERY... hard to believe that software manufactures actually have the upper hand, at least in a single player context.

I haven't pirated in years, but this guy is just tempting me to do it ^^

[MarkG]

seems like brad's post is trolling out the idiots one by one...

Stardock has already announced a years of updates. after that, with the subscription system that they have created and the fan base that is being formed, they've got all the reasons of the world to continue with the updates

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Malleus
Yes, it checks your serial number on download.

Looks like I'll have to start rooting for the pirates...

[darcy]

Brad's method itself is very smart. If you can fool the casual cracker at game start he won't play the game enough to notice the more subtle checks.

But bragging about this protection in public was a mistake. Reversers read stuff like this as a challenge, so we'll probably see a keygen soon. If the online download thingy has no additional checks that will also grant access to all patches and extras.

[yin26]

If it were purely a challenge to pirates, that would be one thing. But Brad has also made 3 compelling reasons to buy the game:

1) An excellent game;
2) A year's worth of updates -- free; and
3) A good chance your particular bug, suggestion, etc., will be taken seriously as long as it doesn't require a rewrite of the game.

Now, I tend to believe that pirates fall into a few categories:

1) Those who like the challenge of breaking code, etc., and who could really care less about the games themselves: These folks you won't likely get to buy your game anyway;

2) Those who simply like to steal and will make up any number of B.S. reasons to defend theft: These folks also likely won't buy the game because they are like leeches on your ass;

3) Those who lack enough money to buy games: Listen, not all economies of the world make it easy to pay $40-50 a game, particularly if you are a young player ... but presented with a game like GalCiv that has a year's worth of support and free content coming, and I think you might convince people who have played the pirated version to pay the money for the full thing.

4) The 'full-featured demo' players who have been burned many, many times by shoddy companies and refuse to be burned again so they d/l full versions to test them, and demos don't really do the trick, either, since the content and play are so limited: These folks are (listening to buzz) being convinced that GalCiv is indeed one of those industry gems that truly deserves your money.

So, categories 3 and 4 are, I think, Brad's target with the serial number checks, etc. People who genuinely come to enjoy the game COULD go through the hassle of repeatedly finding the latest cracks, etc., but when the game and the support are so good, I believe any but the hack freack and pirate loser will pay the money.

And GalCiv is certainly worth the money.

[Mestro77]

This is an interesting thread! Sounds like the developers have finally found an effective way to shut down piracy!

I'm new to the game though and don't understand what Brad means when he says "I delete the galaxy class ". Can someone explain what the implication of this is? Sounds like it's the sort of thing a pirate could just play without......just not use the galaxy class. Or maybe copy a deleted galxacy class file over from a 'virgin' installation. Anyone understand what this means?

Also, it would be fun to view the cut scene! Anyone know the name of the movie file?? I suppose it would be possible to rename it to the intro movie's file name and see it! Anyone tried this?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Cheers