15:57 by FoxTwo
If you don't know by now, let me just remind you I'm an avid gamer. I play a lot of games, not just MMORPGs like Everquest 2 or Anarchy Online. I play stuff like Battlefield 2, Operation Flashpoint, SWAT 4 and so on, too.
Everyone knows about piracy. Software makers keep claiming that sales are lost due to piracy, thus they need copy protection on their software. In a few previous blog entries I have ranted about some of these methods of "copy protection". They start to border on unnecessary inconveniences to the legitimate customer, such as myself.
Today, to my horror, I learnt about the Starforce copy protection system from here. Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I installed Rainbow 6 Lockdown, because that game uses precisely that copy protection that was mentioned.
What's bad about this, as compared to STEAM (something else which irritated the heck out of me) is that this one behaves like spyware! When you install the game you bought, this "copy protection" gets installed too, and does not get uninstalled if you decide to uninstall your game later on. Please, do visit that website I linked up there and read about all the comments and horror stories.
What is sad is that now, people like me who pay for software, get screwed. The Starforce drivers have been known to cause hardware failures, and severely compromise the security of my PC. Touch wood, it hasn't happened to me yet, but I am not waiting around to find out. I immediately uninstalled Rainbow 6 Lockdown today, as well as using the Starforce Removal Tool (found on that website linked above) to completely eradicate all traces of Starforce from my PC.
The only way to beat piracy, is to price your game low enough! I have mentioned this before - if people need to pay just $5.00 more for your original software, as opposed to $500 more, they will buy your software. People now buy pirated copies simply because it's a no-brainer situation. Taking a typical Microsoft title as an example, pirate copies are $12.00 or so, compared to your software which sells for about $850.00 on average. No-brainer right? People sure buy the cheap one, what!
It's like you can buy an original Mercedes for $200,000.00, or you can buy a copy, with parts and upholstery all similar but just minus maybe the wood finishes, and maybe a lousier sound system, for $200.00. Why would anyone buy the original Mercedes? After all the major parts are the same - engine, capacity, fuel tank capacity etc... they are all the same!
I have had it up to here with game publishers trying to screw us legit customers over with all these under-the-table, spyware-like copy-protection systems. It's now so bad that I am very, very, VERY seriously thinking about getting pirated copies of games from now on. Pirate copies come without the protection, a "free service" by the pirates, to remove these unsavoury software. Much thanks to them! Not only that, they sell me their new-and-improved version for a tenth of the original price! What a bargain!
Hey man, you (game publishers) made me do it. I have always purchased original games, ALWAYS. Now I'm thinking not to buy originals anymore. Heck I can even download pirated versions off the Internet if I wanted to, but I didn't, and haven't, in the past because I always believed in supporting you guys so you can make better games.
Your games are better yeah, but your copy protection systems suck.
Tags: copy protection, software piracy, games, crackz, serialz, warez, Starforce
