copy protection?

from Stardock Forums
have you all thought about copy protection? I have been messing with sim city 3000, and noticed that they are chasing piracy in a different way. the new unlimited version website requires that you register your copy on the site before it will allow you to download any type of addons or new building, scenarios and such. seems to me that this might be an excellent method of controlling piracy to some extent. all software is eventually cracked, no way to avoid that. but the registration requirement on the website seems like a much more effective method.

boils down to this, If you want access to new content for the game, you have to register the software on the site.
153 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Perhaps by retaining some small but crucial file, such as the tech or ship file until the game is registered would do the trick. That way the game
is unplayable until it is registered.

If this is too extreme, how about an abreviated version of a critical but small file, such as the ship or tech file, then they could start the game,
but would need to register it before getting more than, say, half way through a game.

Cheers,
Jack
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Hehe I love the applications with built-in humor. Plz try to implement some if ya have time over. Hahaha time over? Who am I trying to fool? :-)

Like when a pirated ZOC hung up the modem near the end of downloading a huge file from a BBS with the responce like "You should be glad that I didnt do anything worse". Or a copied Strike Commander (or whatever it was)that was playable but in the fist or second mission all the friendly aircrafts turned their aims to you and stated "you have gone over to the dark side" and hunted you down. I think Ive heard of a settlers-version where it became imposs to play after a while when used a copied cd...something ingame made it hard...like no trees or too many trees or something.

On the other hand...it's extremely hard to solve this crap. No matter what one do ppl will always find ways around it. The one thing that have helped a bit is Internet. Like beeing able to block out certain serials from internet-play. like diablo on battlenet or so. but for applications that are supposed to work without an internet-connection it's hard...

I'm sure Stardock have a strategy for this...
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
haha. I'd say that with regards to copy protection, we tend to go pretty light on it. Just enough to make it so that it's not trivial to copy but we don't want to inconvenience users.

The best weapon against piracy are regular updates that are worthwhile that only those who purchased the game can use. (i.e. requiring the crackers to keep making cracks).