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Civilization 4 complete $16

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gft

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Civ 4 looks like a great game, and this is a great deal, but I hate D2D's activation. Basically I'm not buying it since if there's a sale on Impulse you get it DRM free, or at least on steam you get unlimited "activations." Heck if you buy it on DVD I'm pretty sure all there is is a disk check.

So if you don't mind the DRM, go for it! I'm kind of hoping someone who bought civ 4 on D2D replies saying that there is no activation.

http://www.direct2drive.com/holiday/
 
Actually, I bought the Civ4 complete edition when it came out in May. There is no DRM on the retail version, none. You don't even need the DVD to play.

Not sure how that's changed with D2D implementation of DRM. Great price, though.
 
gft said:
Civ 4 looks like a great game, and this is a great deal, but I hate D2D's activation. Basically I'm not buying it since if there's a sale on Impulse you get it DRM free, or at least on steam you get unlimited "activations." Heck if you buy it on DVD I'm pretty sure all there is is a disk check.

So if you don't mind the DRM, go for it! I'm kind of hoping someone who bought civ 4 on D2D replies saying that there is no activation.

http://www.direct2drive.com/holiday/
Click to expand...

I agree about D2D's activation limits. From what I understand, after you install a game so many times, you reach a limit and then need to e-mail D2D for more activations? Seems like a nuisance. Never bought a game from D2D before and that's the one thing that stops me.
 
That's exactly right. I bought the expansion for supreme commander from them. They emailed me my key and also an activation code. It turned out that the key worked for the dvd installer so I ended up installing from my friend's dvd.

D2D's DRM is another example of DRM hurting legit buyers more than pirates, but I don't think from a business perspective that they have any other choice.
 
shingletingle said:
I agree about D2D's activation limits. From what I understand, after you install a game so many times, you reach a limit and then need to e-mail D2D for more activations? Seems like a nuisance. Never bought a game from D2D before and that's the one thing that stops me.
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Seriously, how many times do you reinstall your games? I think the limit is 5, but I have never heard of anyone having any sort of problem when contacting them to activate again. They can't make it entirely DRM free or else one copy would be good for everyone.

gft said:
That's exactly right. I bought the expansion for supreme commander from them. They emailed me my key and also an activation code. It turned out that the key worked for the dvd installer so I ended up installing from my friend's dvd.

D2D's DRM is another example of DRM hurting legit buyers more than pirates, but I don't think from a business perspective that they have any other choice.
Click to expand...

Please explain how it hurts you. Even if you format/reinstall every year, it will be five years before you run out of activations! When that happens, shoot them an email and get it taken care of.., but in all likelihood you'll be playing something else by then anyway. 😛
 
jlee said:
Seriously, how many times do you reinstall your games? I think the limit is 5, but I have never heard of anyone having any sort of problem when contacting them to activate again. They can't make it entirely DRM free or else one copy would be good for everyone.
Click to expand...

Apparently you're not familiar with people that have hobbies, notably those that are PC hardware enthusiasts.
 
jlee said:
They can't make it entirely DRM free or else one copy would be good for everyone.
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Their DRM is irrelevant because every game's copy protection ever is broken. One copy is ALWAYS good for everyone in that sense. Just look around the internet and it's obvious.

There are so many other problems with DRM, for instance in 100 years old games won't be playable since their activation servers will be gone (contrast this with old books). I could write a book on how DRM is in fact harmful, but as one example for one game from D2D, here is some small text from their Penumbra Requiem page: "Requires the following digital version of Penumbra Black Plague to play." This is an example of vendor lock-in.

Because their DRM is so restrictive, I won't buy games from D2D if they use their activation. If you don't like that then go ahead and buy extra games from them to make up for my little boycott, but you're not going to change my mind.
 
shingletingle said:
Apparently you're not familiar with people that have hobbies, notably those that are PC hardware enthusiasts.
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Apparently not.

You have time to replace stuff, format, reinstall everything, but not 30 seconds to send D2D an email?

gft said:
Their DRM is irrelevant because every game's copy protection ever is broken. One copy is ALWAYS good for everyone in that sense. Just look around the internet and it's obvious.

There are so many other problems with DRM, for instance in 100 years old games won't be playable since their activation servers will be gone (contrast this with old books). I could write a book on how DRM is in fact harmful, but as one example for one game from D2D, here is some small text from their Penumbra Requiem page: "Requires the following digital version of Penumbra Black Plague to play." This is an example of vendor lock-in.

Because their DRM is so restrictive, I won't buy games from D2D if they use their activation. If you don't like that then go ahead and buy extra games from them to make up for my little boycott, but you're not going to change my mind.
Click to expand...

I'm not seeing that as specifically D2D's problem. I have Far Cry 2 on DVD and I had to activate it online before it would do anything. Apparently I'm the only one here, but I don't mind online activation for digital downloads..but requiring online activation for games for which I own the physical media is ridiculous (Supreme Commander, Bioshock, Far Cry 2 come to mind).
 
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Yes, that's very true, it's not specifically D2D's problem (assuming you meant specifically as in not just them).
 
I bought several D2D games like Titan's Quest during their $5 sale and had no problem activating or running them.

For $16, it doesn't seem worth worrying that you might have to send them an email to reinstall in 5 years.
 
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