rec.autos.simulators

I'm glad to hear somebody cares enought to send a message.

No more talk about rFactor, please! I can't afford it...

/andreas

--
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

What if the company goes out of business and there's no longer an activation
server.

You now have a coaster instead of a CD/Game.

It's already happened once...

That's what scares me the most with "Product Activated" or "DRM" controlled
software.  In one instant, millions of people can be left with useless
software/music.

And don't think the CEO of any such company will give one rats ass about you
if it happens.

-Larry

I'm one of the developers of Virtual RC Racing, an RC car sim download
where the game with two tracks is totally free.  After that we
primarily sell tracks as add ons.  Naturally we have a copy protection
system there so people can't share the tracks, but one of the things we
started out doing was allowing I think three different installations so
if people had a laptop and a desktop or they got a new computer it
wouldn't be such a hassle for them to get going again.

The amount of abuse was unbelievable, according to the boss who put
that policy in place in an effort to make things nice and easy for the
users.  He reported that the numbers of people who were attempting to
activate the same tracks on one account hit seven to ten or more times
within days of the account activation was very frequent indeed, which
is obviously due to people trying to share accounts.  Because of that
in V2 he sadly had to go down to allowing only one installation.  Of
course, that upsets people, but the amount of sales lost is quite
significant according to him.  I haven't seen sales records in awhile
so can't really verify it personally.

If it isn't Starforce, it's going to be something else.  You'll most
likely wind up boycotting yourself right out of sim racing entirely
rather than having any significant impact.  The boss' view from looking
at the sales numbers before and after the changes is that we lose a ton
more sales by having the less restrictive protection we had before due
to account sharing/piracy than we do with the current system where you
only are allowed one installation, which means file sharing is quite
common indeed.  And in the end, he's got a lot of money invested in
this he needs to recover so that's unfortunately got to be the bottom
line...

Unfortunately that means the honest guys like you suffer and are
inconvenienced quite a lot.  I see it in our forums and it bothers me,
but we can't do it both ways :-(

Starforce though is intrusive, and that's my problem with it.  They can
use all the copy protection in the world, as long as it doesn't install
software on my machine.

--
Yippee38

Has that happened to you?  I don't know anyone who's had their Windows
damaged by Starforce.  Starforce cleaner removes it 100% anyway so it can't
do any harm.

If anything, it's the pirates who are spreading FUD about Starforce because
they really don't like it (even though it's still relatively easy to bypass)

The bottom line is that you're either a communist if you hate copy
protection or you're a capitalist if you realise it's a necessary
incovenience.  ;-)

Yes.  Now I haven't heard of anyone who's hardware has been damaged.  That's
why this contest if a farce.
More than a few folks have mentioned issues with their SOFTWARE and
Starforce.  Myself included.
See the simhq.com thread for that.

BS, Starforce NOCD cracks for most popular titles are readily available.
It's the only way I can use my Silent Hunter III DVD.

Ahhh, yah right ....  piss poor analogy there.  ;-)

So I own the game, install it and it screws up a perfectly running system.
That's not being inconvenienced, that's not hating copy protection, that's
supporting your hobby
then getting screwed by a subcontractor making a***poor CP product.

That quite funny.  So if you don't want to be treated like a criminal,
then you are a commie?  You're a good guy if you support this kind of
crap?

You HAVE to work for the news media.
--
Yippee38

Some of the idiotic pirates were making these ridiculous claims, hence they
introduced the farcical contest to shut them up.  It worked.

These instances are very rare.  I use Daemon Tools and *** 120% and have
no issue with either.
Send an email to starforce directly if you're one of the very unlucky few.

Excellent!  So you can point all of us to NoCD cracks for GTL & GTR ?
That's great to hear.

Again, you're in the extreme minority.  It's not good to make broad
generalisations.  Lots of people have compatibility issues with software but
do you hear them running around saying all incompatible software should be
abolished?

Then you say;

ROTFLMAO!

Nope, just a regular consumer.

You didn't see the wink?  It's not a simple problem and there's no simple
answer.  Nobody likes to be treated like a criminal (one thing I'm dead
against is a tax on blank storage media and other such nonsense) but the
bottom line is that game piracy is rampant.  If you think it's not then you
really must be off with the pixies.  Society at present has 2 real choices -
try to prevent it with copy protection or have a police crackdown.  There
are other options such as free games with advertising all through them but
it's hard to see that happening when sim makers are charged for licences.
:-\

You missed the wink too?  Man people are getting blind these days....

In the mean time the last of the true Sim dev's will just dry up because
(already limited) sales have dropped due to SF boycotters.  Beyond sales the
investors will refuse to invest in a developer that will not try and protect
the investors properties (whether it works or not).  So thanks to you and
the rest of the idiots we no longer have simulations.  Is that the goal?

Just look at Sony's copy protection/eula if you want to whine, not SF.

Nothing to do with political affiliation though Id hazard a guess to which
party the majority of pirates/whiners do belong ;)  (let me guess you have a
ponytail)

He much to smart to work for the media but it sound right up your alley.

Mitch

"Yippee38" <

Oh I saw it, just it was too funny you say that ...   ;-)

This issue gets debated constantly.  The twist this time is some of the
NON-Pirates are pissed.
Besides, who's PC is it anyhow, yours or Ubisofts?

If a game wants to install this form of CP, then WARN people
clearly on the box that a) It's Starforce and b) there's a potential risk to
their PCs.
Not like you can return the game after opening now adays any how.

Because a) and b) aren't happening, people have to resort to plan c).
Which is let everyone else try the game, and/or find out if in fact its SF
protected.
Then if they really want it, wait for a crack before buying, or don't bother
and pass.

Everyone is intitiled to buy whatever games they want.
If you want to call that a boycott so be it.  The decision to buy or not to
buy
is the ONLY way to voice our opinion in this market.

I don't buy software to float share holders boats, I buy it if I like it and
I trust
it.  I buy a lot of software every year (I think I'm in the $700 bracket
now).

Where's your source for that?
The SF devs must be worried to some degree because of their contest/fud
event.
2005 saw a drop in game sales, but I don't think the SF "boycotters" caused
that.

Sound practice to me, or they could invest in companies that don't cause
"waves" with their CP software.

So people who refuse to buy SF protected games, are idiots!  Idiots who also
want to see the end of simulations?   Yeah ... right, come on.

They are/were idiots in regards to that stunt.  Caught with their pants down
big time.

It's not as easy as that.  It's too easy to paint everyone with broad
brushes.
I suspect as many neoCons voted NO to SF as there have been neoLibs.
If you don't like Liberals, are you now a whiner?  If you don't like Pepsi,
also a whiner?
I'm not sure what the solution is to piracy, maybe they should go after the
large piraters.
You don't hear that on the news do you.

What other choice is there but some form of protection on the end users side
that is reasonable?   Starforce fully meets that need and for the honest
user it isnt a big deal.

If youre so worried about software installations maybe you need to avoid a
PC altogether?  Did you use the MS auto update recently?  How about a AV
definition file d/l?  I don't like notepad (its not on the box) so I'm
boycotting Microsoft.....  Does that make sense??

Lunatic activists that have more time on their hands than sense in there
heads...

Mitch

solution is to piracy, maybe they should go after the