On GalCiv 2's Lack of Copy Protection

StarForce to Stardock:

Please don't show everyone how fucking worthless we are. We're terrified of our business model going belly up just like we know it should.

i think i might buy this out of principle. i dont even know what its about, but that doesnt matter

Someone should post a link to a crack for a starforce game on their forum

Is there a list somewhere of all the games that use Starforce? I've got something on my machine (just did a registry search and yup, there it is) that's installed it but I'm not sure which game.

This is the greatest space turn based strategy game of all time. A true succesor to Master of Orion.

Bought and installed, i missed a game like this, and getting a chance to piss in the face of pirates and shitty protection systems is free bonus included in the 45$

These guys are great. I think I'm gonna buy their game just to support them, even though it's not really up my usual ally.

Does Stardock get a bigger cut of the revenue if you buy it directly from their website? I'm all for supporting smaller dev shops cutting out the middleman, whenever possible...

Though not quite related to the main thrust of the topic, I have to say: Galactic Civilizations 2, quite possibly one of the best games ever. Really well done, StarDock.

StarForce, you guys suck and you just proved it more.

Isn't it sad that the only people that get screwed by starforce are honest people who actually pay for games?

"Keeping honest people honest"

That's the most reasonable justification for copy protection I've ever heard.

Where Starforce goes wrong is that it has nothing to do with that whatsoever. An incredibly basic cd volume name check would keep the vast majority of honest people honest. Starforce aims to destroy all piracy even if there is some collateral damage, such as pissing off customers.

Have they accomplished this goal? No. Starforce protection is defeatable. It just takes more time and effort. As a kid, with no job and no income, I had a lot of free time. Starforce would have meant very little to me.

As an adult who buys all his games, Starforce is just a pain in the ass that goes totally overboard only to accomplish virtually nothing over something that would be a lot better for customers.

Heh, looks like the Star Force site is down...I was going to see if they posted an apology. Doubt we'll see one.

*sigh*


http://img472.imageshack.us/my.php?image=starforce3be.jpg


those fuckers, I haven't even had an SF game installed in months.

I see lots of people who are saying that they're going to or they have bought the game due to its no piracy stance and that's great. But I have to think that - even though this game benefits from having no copy protection, subsequent games doing this same approach probably won't. I mean, the reason there's copy protection in the first place is because piracy is rampant, correct? Could it be that the lack of copy protection coupled with the niche-ness of this title is what's causing the sales?

Then again this game has sold so many copies over the previous entry that it can't just be because all the fans of GalCiv1 came along for the ride.

There is one more thing though - you notice how games tend to get released and then forgotten about? Especially ones without multiplayer. This game is one of those kinds of titles - I dare say it would have sold its waves and then forgotten about except people keep bringing it up due to this whole "hey it's easy to pirate and yet people are buying it anyway" hype. In an ironic way the ability to pirate it easily is causing more sales. Obviously this is a bit of a fluke and I'm not saying "see piracy makes games sell more" but it is an interesting tactic to keep the game in the public eye.

Will Starforce uninstall if I uninstall Trackmania Nations? Not that I want to do that now but anyway...

Awesome to see a dev step up and prove a point most of us have suspected to be true for a while now.

Also, what do you think the starforce guys do in their off time? Punch disabled kids and burn puppies?

Starforce or not, more than often copy protections are indeed a pain in the ass for the paying customer and nothing else.
It cost money to the developer, it costs money to the publisher, it brings nothing but issues and angst to the legit customers, and of course it doesn't prevent piracy by a real margin. No one wins at this game.
IMHO the Stardock guys deserve a shoutout for skipping this copy protection nonsense from 15 years ago. I just wish most developers and publishers did this.

I picked up GalCiv2 on an impulse, because it was on sale at Fry's for $35. I turned out to be very pleased.

I'm even happier to see them have so much success without Starforce or any such copy protection.

Copy protections are there to protect mediocrity. The truly good games get bought. I personally do not play a ton of games, and since I don't have un immense amount of money to blow on games, I buy the good ones I know I will like and are good. The majority of people do that. But people don't want to buy a game that is only mediocre. So they pirate it to save from blowing $40 on it. But the good games always sell like hot cakes. And saying that piracy costs sales isn't a great argument. Pirates wouldn't buy the game anyway, they just would go without the game. Lower the prices some, and people will buy more games. I know I would.

what a joke of a defense for starforce. thousands of people download starforce protected game torrents too. piracy continues, no matter what the crazy copy protection scheme is. they'll all be broken, if only for a god damn no cd check for loyal consumers.

Wow, I'm reading some of the other posts on StarForce's forums and the admin are just class. It's like a company invited SteamPowered kids to run their online forum PR. Pretty bizarre.

By our Starforce protection or ELSE

I bought this game today, specifically because I heard it had no copy protection. Thanks Starforce guy, for making me aware of cool games that don't try to cripple my computer.

Fuck Starforce pricks. I hope that dude gets fired.

Buy this game, support good developers.

The game has no demo, but also has no copy protection. The longevity of your install depends on the aquisition of a serial number used to download patches and updates to what is apparently a great game. By even uttering what I'm about to say I've disqualified myself from doing it, but... One could pirate the game to try it, and assuming they don't tire of it in a few days they could buy the digital download for the serial number and good karma.

Is that good for sales? I doubt that piracy has that much impact on them. I've seen good points already in this thread about the mentality of piracy. Anyone willing to pirate is likely not a buyer in the first place. Not much money to go aound, and not enough interest in the game to warrant a purchase. I haven't pirated a game since before the days of BitTorrent, and I'm not about to start up again, but you know... If I weren't married to morality I'd hit that for sure.

That response defines class. I wish every company dealt with piracy issues this way instead of the ass hat ways they're used to.

I'd like to support this company and buy and download this game, but this stardock download/installer thing is confusing as fuck and I can't figure out how to download the damn game =/. wtb steam.

starforce are a bunch of fucking pussies for posting that link, and I'm willing to bet good money that they are behind the torrent

any publisher dealing with that sort of garbage should be ashamed

that really pisses me off, fuck them

i'm buying galactic civilization 2 right this fucking moment

Wow, that's just an unbelievably stupid thing to do on Starforce's part. If this isn't the final nail in their coffin then there's simply no justice at all in the world.

I will of course boycott any game using Starforce copy protection and will inform the publisher as to why I am doing so.

Ugh. The only reason the Starforce guys haven't been sued out of existence is because they're not in the US.

Over here, someone would've made a class action lawsuit out of it.

I think that might actually be a viable route, but towards the game publishers that use it. Knowing how it works, it's potentially much more destructive than, say, the Sony rootkit.

Man, I'm gonna buy this game just because Starforce did that

second print of the game has been sold out I assume that doesn't include people that are downloading and not asking for the cd to be shipped also?

perhaps stuff like this will get the ball rolling on eventually removing starforce for good.