Originally posted by: pontifex
Originally posted by: mindcycle
Originally posted by: pontifex
you do know that if the check isn't done it doesn't mean that your disc explodes or becomes unusable, right? you just have to re-do the check.
It's still unnecessary and treats paying customers like criminals.
i'm not saying it's right, i'm justr saying some people are taking it way too far.
I can go for a month without internet access, if I get a gaming laptop to take with me to these places then the 10 day check makes the game
useless to me. In the case of spore, it is a single player game that bases the NPC's from the creatures that other players make. I can go online to update the NPC's with player made ones so a constant internet connection is not required. I also format my computer every few months and uninstall games I'm done with but hang on to them and play them a few months or years down the road so the 3 install limit makes any game with this useless to me.
The retail product is inferior to the pirated version which people can get for free. I know I probably say this too much but Stardock has the right idea. The
ONLY DRM that they have is a serial number that you register with their program manager StardockCentral which will check the number of installs on different OS's (formatting will show a new OS to SC iirc) but with a rather high limit on the number of installs (also something about allowing for lan parties but I forget) before it no longer allows you to download updates. No one has voiced any complaints on this that I am aware of, and SD have stated that should you ever hit the limit you can just call customer support to reset the limit (i'm sure some has found the limit by now).
That is the active protection, now here is the passive protection.
StardockCentral program manager is NOT required for you to play the game unless you buy the digital (no hard copy) version in which case it is required for downloading the program at whatever your internet connection can suffer (~1G). The CD has no copy protection what-so-ever. Here is a example, my friend wanted the game but had a 2kb/s internet connection and no store around him carried it (retailers only bought 1 to 3 copies for each store on average for the release) so he bought the digital download and I copied the game CD and mailed it to him, he registered it and updated it and it worked just fine on and off line. StardockCentral also allows you to download the game as many times as you like AND has the option to back the game up on a CD. For updates you run StardockCentral (once again it is not required to be running for any game it supports to work), right click the game under the games tab and select "check for updates" and that is it, you go surf the net while it downloads and installs the updates automatically. The developers release patches to add content and fix bugs/unbalances as fast as they can, there is no limit on how long the game will be supported and if there is interest there will be expansion packs. Stardock ignores pirates and focuses ONLY on those who buy the game, giving them what they want rather then what the largest number of people want. They aim to provide a better experience for those who buy their game then what they can get from pirating one of their games. Sins of a solar empire was sold for $39 Canadian on release (COD4 being $49/$59 on release), cheap by todays standards.
Their latest game SD published and was created by IronClad (Sins of a solar empire) sold 100,000 copies in the first 2 weeks, this doesn't include walmart and digital download sales. 9 people made the game and was fairly low budget, aiming at a niche market rather then appealing to the largest number of people and failing. IIRC Stardocks business plan for games is to be making money after the first 100k copies are sold and IronClad followed their lead. Despite the low budget those who the game was made for love it, some even bought 2 or more copies just to show support for SD/IC.
This is a little long winded, but I just wanted to show that there are better approaches to over hyped, DRM crippled, unsupported, high budget games that have to sell a huge number of copies to turn a profit thus being jack of all trades and master of none. Some games will be worth the high budget but more will fail then succeed, and DRM never does anything good for the customer.
I have begun boycotting any and all games which I fell treat me poorly as a paying customer and everyone else should do the same.