For example, we were quite disturbed to discover that the company that makes Starforce provided a working URL to a list of pirated GalCiv II torrents. I'm not sure whether what they did was illegal or not, but it's troubling nevertheless and was totally unnecessary.
All software is pirated, there's no way around it. We've been making software for over 10 years. We don't like our software being pirated. Like I said, every lost sales has an impact on us. But there are other ways to reduce it than through draconian copy protection systems.
Incidentally, the site that Starforce's forum admin linked to "prove" how much our software was being pirated we visited, followed the instructions on the site to get our game removed and the links were removed within a couple of hours. We'll continue to follow-up with them.
They are a small company, and the exception to the rule.Midway is not small and did the same thing with Area 51 after complaints.
with a small German company that most people haven't heard ofAspyr is NOT a small German company. It is a midsized American publisher, and it is the one which decided not to use Starforce in Spellforce 2.
I was thinking about the big boys, like EA,EA doesn't use Starforce in its games, and maybe negative public reaction is why. And large publishers like Activision and Atari have removed copy-protection from some of their games when their respective developers, i.e. id and Epic have. If Sony would bow to public pressure, so would the likes of EA.
While mainstream notice and opposition to Starforce would certainly help, it is not necessary to effect change in the PC market. You said it yourself, the market is relatively small and in such a market, even a little noise can make a difference and has. Spellforce 2 won't use Starforce for example (and is on the same page as this news item).They are a small company, and the exception to the rule. They actually care about their fans. I was thinking about the big boys, like EA, when I wrote my post (after all, I was comparing them to Sony, which doesn't have much in common with a small German company that most people haven't heard of).
Of course, even if enough people DO stay away from the product because of SF to make the developer and or publisher notice, there is no guarantee that the thick-headed dev's and publishers would actually get the message. More likely, it would be interpreted as just another sign that PC gaming is dead, and future releases will suffer as a result.Isn't that exactly what I said in my post?
But those looking for a solution like what happened with Sony's Audio CD DRM are in for a sore suprise - the PC games market doesn't have nearly the visibility to get anyone to change anything.While mainstream notice and opposition to Starforce would certainly help, it is not necessary to effect change in the PC market. You said it yourself, the market is relatively small and in such a market, even a little noise can make a difference and has. Spellforce 2 won't use Starforce for example (and is on the same page as this news item).
War...what's he good for?Judging from the content of his post he's good for a lot more than you are, nin.
I have been watching the Blues Nazis' Nin, Parallalax etc for years. Blue backs up all of his board. Go look. Go see how many times Nin and Parallalax and others start bitching and crying about how people are talking about things they don't like. The evidence is right their that they are crybabies who think they are hall monitors or Nazi guards. Or mabye Abu Ghraib guards now that this is 2006.
Our primary weapon to fight piracy is through rewarding customers through convenient, frequent, free updates. If you make it easy for users to buy and make full use of your product or service legitimately then we believe that you'll gain more users from that convenience than you'll lose from piracy.
...But there are other ways to reduce it than through draconian copy protection systems.
Where does it say they were hackers?Of course it doesn't say that on the company website, but google around and you will learn about the developers. I have also read that the company has ties to the Russian mafia which would not be surprising given the bullying tactics it uses on its critics.
No offense WAR, but I found your post far more pointless than any of the supposed bickering that has occurred due to Starforce(the names's still brain-suckingly stupid). Pretty ironic to me.