Biggest threat to the SOW series

[Mogster]

Oktoberfest: apologies for the 'Off Topic', but I must ask if you can play Panzer Commander on XP? Ever since I upgraded to my Sony Vaio some four years ago, I have been unable to run this tank simulator, even when telling Windows to emulate Windows 95. The game loads, but stalls and locks up about 10 seconds into a scenario. As a marginally computor literate, I would appreciate any advice.

[Krt_Bong]

Originally Posted by Oktoberfest

Well I bought the original IL2 CD but I use it with a no CD crack because the anti-piracy technology make it that my DVD driver can't identify the CD ten out of eleven times. It was really a pain just to INSTALL the game because I had to relaunch ten times the CD player to get it working. I have that since the AEP.

I'm sure games were better protected when you had real stuff inside of the box than just 1 copy of the game and nothing else. I remember Silent Hunter or Panzer Commander where you had tons of documentation about the ships or vehicles you were using or fighting plus short stories over events, etc. Today, well.... you know.

This was a problem a while back for those of us who installed Pacific Fighters I don't think it's a problem now because the US version of 1946 plays without being in drive I myself dread having to do a reinstall because I DL'd the SOM and 46 and I have to get my hands on a copy of 46 before I reformat (soon) but at $20 it's worth it. I own the original the Forgotten Battles, Aces Expansion and PF, I also use a no cd rts.dll but that came from UBI after much complaining about the right of a company to use software that makes my burner inoperable or to say what legal programs I have installed are allowed by a game program.

[BadAim]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

Maybe the solution is to make games cheaper. lets face it who would bother buying a pirated game if it was only a few dollars to buy the real thing.
.

Bollox. A thief is a thief.

[brando]

Originally Posted by BadAim

Bollox. A thief is a thief.

+1

B

[Spinnetti]

I bought the original IL2 and every expansion and version including 1946. I also use the DVD crack, because I play the game a lot and HATE having to have the CD in. When you can pirate a game easier than run in legitimately, you are asking for trouble. When I bought the original Unreal Tournament, the copy protection wouldn't let the cd drive read the disk, and the store wouldn't take it back. My only recourse? - a "pirate" version, but since I bought it it wasn't really pirated - just a countermeasure for a stupid protection attempt. No matter what the method, there is always a crack practically the second a game comes out. If you deliver enough value, people will buy it, just like I bought all the IL2 stuff! BTW, Theatre of War is cracked, though not like I would use or condone that.

[nearmiss]

Starforce and that kinda stuff is bad. I'm not a security expert, so I wouldn't know where to start to protect software.

I do know I didn't buy PE-2 because of Starforce, and I've never bought anything LockON after the first release.

I don't have alot of time for IL2 or anything else for that matter anymore. So I want no problems with a software I buy. So, if any possibilities for problems exist... I don't go there.

[Bobb4]

Originally Posted by BadAim

Bollox. A thief is a thief.

And a game is but a game, your point?
I own Il2, pacific fighters, that stupid gold edition, the one the buggers brought out just before 1946 and of course 1946.
I also own CFS3, all the battlefield games, armed assault, Guild Wars and a host of other...
Both Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes have given me grey hairs regarding copy protection.
One minute I can read the disks the next I cannot.
That is why I advocate the elicence system, it is simple, effective and does not stuff-up your system.
Having attended many lans in our neck of the woods, piracy is rife, games are out before they are even officially released.

So yes a thief is a thief but tell that to a thirteen-year-old at a 1000-man lan.
Is he the thief or is it the countries that allow sites like piratebay to operate.

[BadAim]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

And a game is but a game, your point?
I own Il2, pacific fighters, that stupid gold edition, the one the buggers brought out just before 1946 and of course 1946.
I also own CFS3, all the battlefield games, armed assault, Guild Wars and a host of other...
Both Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes have given me grey hairs regarding copy protection.
One minute I can read the disks the next I cannot.
That is why I advocate the elicence system, it is simple, effective and does not stuff-up your system.
Having attended many lans in our neck of the woods, piracy is rife, games are out before they are even officially released.

So yes a thief is a thief but tell that to a thirteen-year-old at a 1000-man lan.
Is he the thief or is it the countries that allow sites like piratebay to operate.

I'm no more a lover of copy protection than you are, especially when it causes problems like securom does, it's the suggestion that a lower price will stop thievery..... If people would stop stealing the stuff the prices would go down on thier own because the software companies would stop wasting time and money on preventing theft.

It's the idea that piracy is the software companies fault that wrangles me (you might get me to listen in Microsoft's case). Guy's like Maddox and crew are not going to get rich on thier software, how can we take the bread from thier table and say it's thier own fault for not locking the door?

I meant no personal attack but I'm passionate about the subject as I protect peoples property for a living.

[Blackdog_kt]

I'm not specifically for or against piracy. What bothers me with piracy is that it creates problems for people that make the games we play and then they make no more games. What bothers me with anti-piracy is the poorly implemented software protection that looks more like a trojan/virus than a protection program. Most of all it's the fact that anti-piracy is not really what's on some people's minds, they use it as an excuse to gradually implement software and hardware solutions that will make it easy to monitor and file everything we do on our PC, either for advertising purposes or for other more sinister purposes.

I think that responsibility here is shared. A developer that's rushing half baked projects and delivers less than promised can't expect me to pay 40 Euros for a disc with an unfinished game in a very cheap package. I will download and try the game based on what i read in reviews, if i like it i'll buy it and play through it, if not i'll uninstall it before completing it.

It also depends on the company that released the game, the way they operate, how much they value their customers and the quality of their products. In the case of IL2 i have never downloaded anything, because it's coming from a company i trust to bring me quality products and listen to feedback about improving them. It's also a small company and i want to support them with my money to help them make more quality games.

In the flight sim genre it would be highly hypocritical of me to pirate games, even if it was for sampling puproses only, when most of us complain that there's not enough independent developers and not enough good sims around. It's the same with decent RPG games too. I might still download shooters to see what it's all about, but if i don't like a game i will still delete it and if i like it i will buy it.

There could be a workaround to this, i think 1C has alreade done it and it's mentioned in this thread as well. One of my friends bought a license for Theatre of War and he told me that you can get 2 keys for one license. This is a very clever way to make more people aware and interested in the product, without doing something illegal in order to try out the game. If you don't like it, you can uninstall it and deactivate your key so that someone else might receive it-->another person that you can "advertise" the game to. Sooner or later, someone will think "hey, this is a cool game, i want to buy it too".

I would still prefer to have printed manuals and goodies in the box, instead of just the discs and a couple PDF files. I know this will drive up the retail price, but maybe it could be done if the company agreed to ship different versions for a different price (just like 1946 special edition). I know that 90% of the people in this forum would gladly pay 10-15Euros extra to have BoB:SoW with a manual. That is, as long as it was a well researched manual that includes real, useful advice and tips for each aircraft in the sim. If CEM goes the way we were discussing in the other thread a manual would be indispensible and that alone would drive piracy down. Imagine someone pirating the game only to find out that he kills his engine right away because he doesn't set the correct RPM and manifold pressure that's listed in the manual

[VMF-214_HaVoK]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

Elicences are the way of the future, no one yet has managed to crack Theatre of War's eLicence procedure and my guess is the PC Gaming industry has taken note.

Not a very popular game either. The more popular a game the more time hackers will spend trying to crack it.

S!