A CD key doesnt protect against piracy

Tombo said:
Normally it's Install game, with CD-Key if required and then copy crack \ fix over to the game directory, takes a few more seconds than legally and is no problem. The protection just doesn't work and only inconveniences legitimate purchasers.

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I know how to crack a normal game:p

But there are a few tough nuts out there that need to be run simultaneously with another program to work and COH: OP is one of them last i read
 
fini said:
With the prevelance of USB dongles now - and the amount they can store- I think we might see these come back.

Think about a modified USB dongle that stores a public/private key in a EEPROM of some kind. The game would then only run if the correct keys were exchanged with the game server. and time is the most important thing here. If people can't play a cracked version of the game a month after it came out they'll say 'sod it' and go out and buy the game...
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But there is no point doing this for an online game as its possible to take/make a hash key from the components and software installed on your pc.
There s quite a lot of software that does this at the moment.
Including windows, live for speed and alcohol :D

3d studio max used a usb dongle(was it serial?) but that was cracked wide open. And if your busy watching/playing all the other pirated content youv'e downloaded will you really mind waiting a few weeks for that AAA title?

Even if the next gen of consoles have to downlod the exe before you can play it won't stop the pirates.

I don't think you can brow beat people into buying games if they really don't want to.

Just about all the games released over the last few years when virtual drived needed some other software before it would work, if you bought a legal copy there is no reason to switch off your net connection. Anyway you would need it to play online.
bioshocks online check is not bothered by a virtual dvd. And it worked from day one so I can see why there is so much effort to plug the virtual drive hole.
 
ethan said:
The whole piracy issue is a bit of a double edged sword. Ideally a games manufacturer or publisher can generally tell if they are doing something right by the amount of copies of a game that is sold. You are always going to get a certain amount of people who are not prepared to pay for a game either because they are simply not prepared to pay or theiving it is too easy.

Saying that, it always amazes me the way retailers mark up their products to the extent they overcharge their customers. I mean in the shop-Crysis is £34.99 and on the net £24.99. They might claim the price is a reflection of their overheads when in effect if they can't offer value for money then perhaps they shouldn't be in this line of business.

I mean it is absurd, though good for the customer when you can simply pop down to one of your supermarkets and get Bioshock for £22.99 and World in conflict for £24.99 whilst a retail Game shop sells them both for up to £34.99. The point is the retail practice of some game shops do nothing but make the situation of game piracy worse. Personally more people would be inclined to buy a game if they though they were getting a good deal. I admit though that this is only part of the problem but it is a part of the problem retailers could do something about by trying to be more competitive.
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that's simply not true even at 35 quid you are getting a good game.

Even if the game was 15 quid those that pirate would continue to pirate. I know people who download music even though albums are 7-8 quid which is hardly breaking the bank is it.
 
Toothpick said:
And if your busy watching/playing all the other pirated content youv'e downloaded will you really mind waiting a few weeks for that AAA title?
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I think that, if it takes a month to crack and its a AAA game, a considerable number of people will bother to buy the game. You'll never stop 100% from pirating - just like you'll never stop all muggers, but if you can bring the number down (right now piracy costs the same as *** GDP of Bangladesh each year!) then that's good.
 
You know what makes me mad - those people that continue to go on about prices and how if they were lower piracy wouldn't be as bad.
Will you please stop talking utter rubbish.

£35 or Free
£30 or Free
~~~~
£5 or Free

It doesn't matter how low you go people if given the option will always go for free.
If people stopped pirating software there is a chance we would see a drop in pricing because at the moment we pay for the pirates copy as well.
When a software house has spent many years developing software they need to make their investment back.

Of course those "cool" pirates and other software thieves don't see this.
As far as they are concerned they shouldn't have to pay.
However if a game takes on average a year to make, that is 12 months of coders, testers salary plus all of the other expenses involved with getting the game out there, marketing etc.
A game only has a limited shelf life so they have to make their money back or else it is simply not worth their time making the game in the first place.

Piracy will eventually kill of the games industry.
However pirates, like most other thieves care about themselves only so really don't care.
 
stoofa said:
Piracy will eventually kill of the games industry.
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No, not if someone comes up with a new games algorithm for security. There are plenty kinds of games you can't copy or get cracks for successfully and play them without needing to buy the original. Only takes server authentication for online gaming and some more security algorithm and it would fail to be played e.t.c.
 
bledd. said:
and whatever RA2 uses, in XP i had to get a crack for my legal RA2, just so it would work!
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I had to get the nocd because when I ran the CD it froze. Fixed it by upgrading componants. Didn't get down to what was causing it though just worked one day. Don't play RA2 now got banned for cheating on the xwis server for 2 years lol. My own fault, wanted to see what the hype was about the cheat.

EDIT: Sorry bout double post.
 
serials are fine for stopping online play, but theres no way in hell anyone can stop someone just using a keygen or whatever for single player gaming.
 
cdkeys annoy me, i want to play starcraft just for the craic online cos im pap at it, but i cant find my cdkeys cos thats before i started writing them down :(

I love steam cos of the fact i dont have to bother and cd changing is a thing of the past.
I agree with whoever said copy protection was about buying time for a few weeks to force people into having to buy, cos some patches a few months after release remove cdchecks so that legitimate users/online players no longer have the hassle
 
jas72 said:
that's simply not true even at 35 quid you are getting a good game.

Even if the game was 15 quid those that pirate would continue to pirate. I know people who download music even though albums are 7-8 quid which is hardly breaking the bank is it.
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You are entitled to your opinion but I don't quite see how you can claim it on the same terms? How long does it take to download an album? 5 or ten minutes! You can't claim the same time with a game. Similalry a lot of people download music because it is more convenient and much more accessable. A lot more people download music and simply listen to each track for a couple of seconds and then discard it if they don't like it. You can't do quite the same thing with a game as you would usually have to get so far in it to even appreciate it to see if it is any good. Not every game you buy will be worth £35.00 and i'm sure most people would be inclined to pay £15.00 as opposed £35.00: Not everybody is a pirate. Of course there is always the option of going second hand with a lot of people and I am sure this option also helps to prevent some people from pirating a game with which you could easily retrade and pass on and use the money towards another game: At the very least it acts as an incentive. It may well be that software houses have to spend money on testers and marketting etc, but at the end of the day it is the consumer who decides whether or not the product is worth the selling price, not the software developers-and so, in this respect I beleive I am not talking rubbish :) (Stoofa).
 
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ethan said:
You are entitled to your opinion but I don't quite see how you can claim it on the same terms? How long does it take to download an album? 5 or ten minutes! You can't claim the same time with a game. Similalry a lot of people download music because it is more convenient and much more accessable. A lot more people download music and simply listen to each track for a couple of seconds and then discard it if they don't like it. You can't do quite the same thing with a game as you would usually have to get so far in it to even appreciate it to see if it is any good. Not every game you buy will be worth £35.00 and i'm sure most people would be inclined to pay £15.00 as opposed £35.00: Not everybody is a pirate. Of course there is always the option of going second hand with a lot of people and I am sure this option also helps to prevent some people from pirating a game with which you could easily retrade and pass on and use the money towards another game: At the very least it acts as an incentive. It may well be that software houses have to spend money on testers and marketting etc, but at the end of the day it is the consumer who decides whether or not the product is worth the selling price, not the software developers-and so, in this respect I beleive I am not talking rubbish :) (Stoofa).
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Quite true, if games came out with an rrp of £20 it simply wouldn't be worth the time to download a game. I've found that i always buy the heaper games at £20 or under, don't really even think about it. But if its over £25 it takes ages before i even think about buying it.
 
Robbie G said:
The bit where you didn't say that in post #7 :rolleyes:
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Well, I can't say I've ever felt the need to repeat something I've written in a post a whole two posts above (even people with 10ppp should have both posts on the same page) - the forum would get pretty clogged up if every post we made was an ever-expanding redraft of the preceeding one!

You're saying I posted crap, but it needs to be taken in context with my previous post. Otherwise we'd have a horrible situation where we need to repeat caveats in every single post we make. If you can't be bothered to read even the first 5 posts of the thread, that's your problem, not mine.
 
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SkeeterPSA said:
Wheres my post on hamachi gone? Im sure i hit the post button. Ah well ill say it again.

Hamachi method of playing mp can bypass cdkeys as game developers didnt think of using cdkey checking when using lan options for their games. So if u play lan games but over the net with hamachi it doesnt ask or check cdkeys. Which is understandable as all ** doing is playing a lan game with some mates and saving the cost of a lan party like cost of transporting pc to a mates house etc.
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Actually it is illegal as yo are circumventing copy protection, which is why, even if you legally went out and bought a dvd then used program to make the copy which you are legally allowed to make, you used the program to circumvent he copy protection so in fact you broke the law :)
 
I personally feel that it would be fairly easy for the manufacturers to build a system that was not crackable. It just needs investment which unfortuantely nobody will do on their own as there is the whole "why should I be the one" thing going on.
 
Tefal said:
Actually it is illegal as yo are circumventing copy protection, which is why, even if you legally went out and bought a dvd then used program to make the copy which you are legally allowed to make, you used the program to circumvent he copy protection so in fact you broke the law :)
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Technically though the law states you're allowed to make exactly one "back-up copy" of any music or DVD disc that you actually own. Feel free to correct me if that law has been revised, but that's how I remember it going.
 
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