Its still a single player game.

I havent tried it though, but its very very easy.

1. Start up Stardock central where you have an internet connection

2. Find Sins, right click it, hold the mouse over Archive Application, then click the "Download and Archive.

3. When its done downloading, find the Archived file usually located at "C:\Program Files\Stardock\SDCentral\BACKUP\"

4. Then add the archived file and the Stardock central install file, to a CD/DVD, USB dongle, memory stick or what ever you like.

5. Go home, install Stardock central and install the game

Theres always the DVD option

Like Multianna said its still a single player game. (Unless thats been removed and nobody has told me!)



I didn't realise you could do this. Still fiddly but I presume all the activation crap that’s done on the Internet enabled computer will allow the game to work on my home pc?

You only need to activate on a non-Internet connected PC once, which you can do via email from a system that is on the Net. The most painful part is having to write down the activation string and enter it manually.

Copy-paste-floppy works as well...

Will that have to be every time I install the game, or once it is activated it can it be installed on any PC with the activation string?

An activation is only good on the same windows install as it was made for (you can change hardware freely, but if you reinstall windows or move to a different computer, you will need to reactivate).

I would have replied to this thread sooner but it’s been a busy week at work.

Thank you for the honesty of your replies on the subjects, it’s been very much appreciated.

I decided to leave this game alone for the time being for the 2 following reasons:

1. Patch activation – Because I only have access to the Internet at work it will be at least 24 hours, possible 72 hours (over the weekend) after installing the patch the first time before I can play the game (I’m assuming there will be patches and this game won’t be perfect on release) and this process would need to be repeated if I installed the game on another computer or if I upgraded my OS.
2. If the authors/publishers close down for whatever reason then I will be left with a product that won’t work as there will be no activation servers.

Thanks again and good luck with the game. Bye.

Alas, most games are moving in the direction where thats true -- but most groups who do things in such a manner promise to release a tool of some kind to bypass those protections in the event of a failure.

Yes, in the highly unlikely event that both Stardock (been in business since 1993) and Ironclad close down, we would remove activation from our products before turning out the lights. That is really an unreasonable fear, IMO.

But a common one, alas.

Best copy protection is a good game with a good box/manual inside. A great piece of software for the money you paid.

Stardock has a great model for their copy protection. Those who pirate the initial version won't get the full experience, while those who pay get the best version possible through the free updates. Those who choose to play the pirated copy probably aren't the ones who would buy the game in the first place. The ability to install all the games you've bought at any time on any computer connected to the internet is also appealing, no "scratched CD syndrome".

Not to mention the absence of malware that many game publishers currently force onto your computer. Those who do are losing my purchases every time.

Torrents are free advertising anyway. Although not as good without having them linked to by starforce. I know so many people that bought galciv2 because of that...

dies of laughter

Just think what big-name companies will do to 'protect' their work in 3 years

Go bankrupt

Yeah, it's only economically sensible to use the current copy protection schemes if all the pirates really would buy your game if they couldn't steal it, and they either already are or never will in nearly every case. Combined with that complete lack of a need is the "I hate you, drop dead" effect the rest of us get when we have to use the god forsaken cd to play and wait five minutes while it reads the disk even after typing in a two hundred digit serial number and having an fbi background check run on us before installing.

ah crap