Biggest threat to the SOW series

[mondo]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

The game was an old fashioned hack and slash rpg using ideas stolen from a thousand such rpg's like diablo that filled a void in the market.

Thats beside the point. They didn't equip the game with sensible anti piracy measures. People could have a copied version of the game and play it online or offline at will. They shot themselves in the foot because there was nothing on or offline to authenticate the game as genuine.

[Feuerfalke]

Back in the old days and partially upcoming again was the most effective and unproblematic copy protection ever invented: Complex games with tons of handbooks and goodies in the box.

[Sturm_Williger]

Hmmm, but what are "sensible anti-piracy" measures ?

As an example, I recently decided to upgrade my Medieval II Total War with the Kingdoms addon. Browsing, I discovered a "Gold" edition pack which contained both games. It was fairly cheap, so I bought that. What I didn't know was that it ( unlike the original standalone MTW2 I bought when it came out ) was protected by SecureRom. Now I didn't think this was as bad as Starforce, but when one of the Kingdoms campaigns crashed on install... I couldn't see my CD/DVD drive anymore. It took a reboot to fix this.

Then this "piracy" protection failed to recognise the disc when I attempted to play the game. And then removed my ability to see the DVD drive again. Cue another reboot.

And so, ho hum it was off to find a NoCD crack ... for the game I paid for, but couldn't play due to the piracy protection. Why do they bother I wonder ? Stuff like SecureRom and Starforce have done more to enlighten legitimate buyers of software to the world of hacks and cracks than years of piracy ... because they HAD TO in order to get their legitimate copies to work.

ELicence sounds like a far more intelligent way to go.

[Bobb4]

Originally Posted by Feuerfalke

Back in the old days and partially upcoming again was the most effective and unproblematic copy protection ever invented: Complex games with tons of handbooks and goodies in the box.

You are so right, Falcon 4 came with a staggering 700 page manual... Talk about pirate proof!