The Witcher DRM...

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videogames101

Diamond Member
Aug 24, 2005
6,783
27
91
I only pirate games i've bought, and subsequently lost. Like starcraft, I've lost by CDs ages ago, so i decided to pirated the game today... I mean, i already payed for it damnit!
 

homercles337

Diamond Member
Dec 29, 2004
6,340
3
71
Both my DVD drives are now dead. One is RW one is ROM, one shows up as a CD drive, the other is dead. WTF!? I have done *NOTHING* to make this happen. This is complete BULLSHIT! Im going to sue this bullshit company.
 

Andy22

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2001
1,425
0
71
Originally posted by: homercles337
Both my DVD drives are now dead. One is RW one is ROM, one shows up as a CD drive, the other is dead. WTF!? I have done *NOTHING* to make this happen. This is complete BULLSHIT! Im going to sue this bullshit company.

Which prompts a question...is there a no-DVD patch out there that does not require Daemon tools? The only one I found required it to mount a file and I would rather just replace the executable. I hate the long startup when the DVD is in.

This would be for the UK version.

P.S. I am not asking for a link since that is verboten...just to know if it exists.
 

Pugnate

Senior member
Jun 25, 2006
690
0
0
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.
 

mooglemania85

Diamond Member
May 3, 2007
3,324
0
0
Originally posted by: Andy22
Originally posted by: homercles337
Both my DVD drives are now dead. One is RW one is ROM, one shows up as a CD drive, the other is dead. WTF!? I have done *NOTHING* to make this happen. This is complete BULLSHIT! Im going to sue this bullshit company.

Which prompts a question...is there a no-DVD patch out there that does not require Daemon tools? The only one I found required it to mount a file and I would rather just replace the executable. I hate the long startup when the DVD is in.

This would be for the UK version.

P.S. I am not asking for a link since that is verboten...just to know if it exists.

Yes.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: homercles337
Both my DVD drives are now dead. One is RW one is ROM, one shows up as a CD drive, the other is dead. WTF!? I have done *NOTHING* to make this happen. This is complete BULLSHIT! Im going to sue this bullshit company.

this may have *nothing* to do with it ... but i lost my CD/DVD-ROM drivers [in XP and in BIOS - not in Vista, it's OK] around the time i installed the Witcher

"**Error: No CD-ROM drivers found" ... at bootup

the only issues that i am having is an infinite loop with my sound drivers [onboard audio] occasionally
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
I know Alcohol and Daemon Tools have issues with The Witcher and TAGES copy protection,even after uninstall of Daemon Tools/Alcohol you should do a registry cleanup to make sure no leftover registry entries.

Gothic 3 I believe uses TAGES copy protection too(unless you install latest community patch).
 

shingletingle

Senior member
Jun 30, 2007
976
1
0
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.

Yeah, Company sold so bad they released a sequel/expansion.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
Originally posted by: homercles337
Ok, sounds like consensus. :) I was just over at the witcher forums and there is a 16 page thread on this "insert original DVD" problem. The FUD is strong there. Work-arounds that dont work. Its really pretty sad. I sent an email to Atari requesting a refund and will send one to gogamer tomorrow. Given that there is no deterrent to piracy with this users should be outraged. Alcohol in the registry means youre a pirate? Oddly, i have nothing like that at all. The only "questionable" thing i use is process explorer, but its not running all the time and is not the source of this error. Here is the sequence that led to a launch of witcher tonight:

1) start -> programs -> witcher....nope
2) open tray -> close tray -> auto lauch -> witcher...nope
3) move disc from DVD ROM to DVD-RW tray -> auto lauch -> witcher...nope
4) reboot -> start -> programs -> witcher....nope
5) remove disc and close tray -> move disc from DVD RW to DVD ROM tray -> auto launch -> witcher...nope
6) retry #1...nope
7) retry #3...nope
8) remove disc from tray -> close -> open tray -> put disc back in -> close -> void auto launch -> start -> programs -> witcher...success!
9) :confused: :confused: :confused:

WTF? Nothing in my rig, SW/HW changed during this sequence of guesses. How does one figure this stuff out?

There seems to be problem posts on everything in their "IN-GAME-TECH forum",getting back to your problem their official FAQs on the subject is here ,good luck trying to get it working.

As to my old problem I still can't get it to run in full screen mode without having random crashes( just like many other players have reported in their forum) when trying to open inventory/trade etc(Windowed mode is 100% stable for me however).

Some of their responses/replys amazes me,they basically try to blame everything else excpet their game,one thing is for sure, The Witcher is a great game but with problems, their technical support leaves a lot to be desired.
 

Pugnate

Senior member
Jun 25, 2006
690
0
0
Originally posted by: shingletingle
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.

Yeah, Company sold so bad they released a sequel/expansion.

CoH sold less than a million units. That's not success for a game of that quality.

As for expansions... OF uses the same engine, and an expansion is pretty cost effective.
 

Martimus

Diamond Member
Apr 24, 2007
4,490
157
106
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Originally posted by: shingletingle
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.

Yeah, Company sold so bad they released a sequel/expansion.

CoH sold less than a million units. That's not success for a game of that quality.

As for expansions... OF uses the same engine, and an expansion is pretty cost effective.

Crysis sold less than 100,000 copies, and that was hyped a hell of a lot more than Company of Heros. One million is a lot for PC games.
 

Stoneburner

Diamond Member
May 29, 2003
3,491
0
76
I only pay full price for nice DRM free games like oblivion and COH. I don't even play the latter much... maybe i should get back to it. It's also nice when the games aren't buggy. The Orange Box wasnt' bad either. Initiallly steam annoyed me but i'm used to it now.

But a game like the witcher, with DRM and numerous bugs.... it needs to be at least 66 percent off before I buy.
 

mindcycle

Golden Member
Jan 9, 2008
1,901
0
76
DRM only screws legit paying customers, almost never pirates. The guy who said that people would pirate games even more if there was no DRM is right.. but we're talking about casual gamers who wouldn't know where to download a pirated game and would just get a copy it from a friend or something like that. Problem is, do you think those kinds of people would buy the game in the first place?

It's like making a copy of your favorite album for a friend. You love the band, but they might get the cd and care less. So would they have bought that cd in the first place? Probably not. If they did end up liking the band it would be up to them to decide if they wanted to support the band by buying the cd, but the good news is even if they didn't that band still gains a new fan who might buy their next cd. IMO the same concept applies to video games.

Bottom line. Don't screw your "paying" customers.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
23,076
1,238
126
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.

you can't blame DRM's fully, but they add to it. The people who pirate will pirate regardless. But, there are people who don't pirate software typically who will feel an urge to because they wanted to buy let's say Bioshock, and found out before they bought it that it had a silly DRM. So they decided to say screw the developer and download it.

having no copy protection isn't going to make piracy any bigger, the days of Jeff making a copy of a floppy for Steve at work are long gone for the most part. COH had no protection but was still one of the larger selling PC games in recent memory - which pretty much proves the point that DRM's are a useless hassle for buyers. And pirates just wait for ONE person to crack a game and BOOM said DRM only annoys legit buyers and pirates are free to play.
 

TheSlamma

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2005
7,625
5
81
I remember when I patched CnC3 about 4 or 5 months ago, It didn't like that I had Alcahol 52% on my PC so I had to get a crack to play a game I owned. Thought that was real nice.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
Originally posted by: QueBert
Originally posted by: Pugnate
Sure copy protection sucks, but let's not kid ourselves. That is NOT why people are turning to piracy.

Company of Heroes had NO copy protection, and despite being a brilliant game, it didn't sell so well. Why? Because it was easy to pirate without any protection at all.

So let's stop blaming these piracy protections. Piracy is rampant on the PC because people are fucking cheap, and it is what will be the death of PC gaming.

you can't blame DRM's fully, but they add to it. The people who pirate will pirate regardless. But, there are people who don't pirate software typically who will feel an urge to because they wanted to buy let's say Bioshock, and found out before they bought it that it had a silly DRM. So they decided to say screw the developer and download it.

having no copy protection isn't going to make piracy any bigger, the days of Jeff making a copy of a floppy for Steve at work are long gone for the most part. COH had no protection but was still one of the larger selling PC games in recent memory - which pretty much proves the point that DRM's are a useless hassle for buyers. And pirates just wait for ONE person to crack a game and BOOM said DRM only annoys legit buyers and pirates are free to play.


Further note you can't blame game companies for trying to protect their software products,they put a lot of manpower and money into their software,pirates will be pirates regardless and do what it takes to crack a game,gamers only have two legal options either buy the game or don't bother buying the game.

Bottomline there's no simple solution.


 

Talkjack

Junior Member
Oct 4, 2008
1
0
0
If you have legally purchased The Witcher in the UK you will have difficulty installing the free official Enhanced Edition expansion after you download it. This is because the UK edition of The Witcher did not include a printed manual, just a pdf.

The Withcher Enhanced Edition has the old style DRM which requires you to key in a registration number pritned on your manual when you run the setup program. Of course, if you purchased a copy on the UK then you have no such code!

Don't download a pirate copy to get around this DRM error in order to play the expansion you are entitled to if you purchased the original. Dismayed by the lack of official FAQ on the subject at the time I went through this rigmaole, I have written some instructions on how to legally get around this problem. You can find them on my blog:

http://talkjack.wordpress.com/drm/

Hope this helps some honest customers who were stuck like I was!

... Talkjack
 

Qbah

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2005
3,754
10
81
So it is the DRMs fault that UK distributors went cheap and didn't even include the manual with CD-Key attached...? ok.

A CD-Key is the least invasive way of protection. The people who pirated will need to pirate the whole game again, with the EE included. That will take more time to download. Some of them are impatient, some pirated ones might not work (so even more time wasted), might have nasty stuff attached... A lot of things might happen :) After a few unsuccessful tries they might even just buy the game with EE (which is dirt cheap btw). Everybody else had like *no* problems getting the EE with their legal copy, except for UK it seems :p So please, don't blame the protection.
 

TheVrolok

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
24,254
4,092
136
I have the UK version of the game and my manual has a CD-Key printed on the back just fine.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Originally posted by: TheVrolok
I have the UK version of the game and my manual has a CD-Key printed on the back just fine.

I have a UK version of the EE and my key is printed on a sticker on the inside of the case, not the manuals.

I also don't recall it asking me for the CD key when I installed the EE. I did, however, experience a TAGES issue when I went to run the game first time last night. I uninstalled the TAGES drivers and reinstalled the EE, which didn't ask for a key either, and now it runs fine.
 

Eeezee

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
9,922
0
76
Originally posted by: Balt
Has DRM managed to make any title pirate-proof yet? I know that online authentication can prevent some multiplayer games from being played online by more than one copy, but that seems to be about it.

Sucks that the only people who get punished are those with legit copies.

No, none that I know of. All DRM'd games get cracked.

Edit: God damn it I didn't realize this was a 2007 post, WTF guys?
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,607
6,094
136
Company of Heroes + expansion are a bitch to install as well.

I might just sell them off...