Painkiller: Overzealous CD Copy Protection ruins yet another game

[Bigjakkstaffa]

http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=15988

Harks back to the hazy days of 1998

--Jakk:t

[Happy Joe]

I was looking forward to Painkiller... now I'm not even going to pick up the box untill it hits the discount bins. They seem to have protected the game right out of the market.
Does any one know if there is an effective way to arouse the interest of the Walmart and/or Best Buy, etc. national management? If we could get them to complain it might be effective.
Enjoy!

[cbh]

Oh man! I think I need to use the Ricoh CD-RW drive to play it.

[bubbalou32]

Here's the second demo release for those of you can't get your paid-for copy-protected versions to run:

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/demos/painkillersingle-playerdemo2.shtml

[Someone Stupid]

FarCry has this same problem as well. It uses the same copy protection.

http://ubisoft.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ubisoft.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=9455

Sadly this protection is overzealous due to it's ineffectiveness over the years.

[Vampiel]

I never really understood why they had to make such harsh protection so that it wont even work on some cd-roms. The people who are gonna get a copy are going to get a copy one way or another. Just put some copy protection thats tried and tested and leave it be.

Why **** off customers that do by it?

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Its an exercise in futility anyways, only the most inexperienced and casual users will not know how to crack or accquire the means to crack the protection systems, and it is not these types of casual users who typically pirate games as they lack the knowledge of how to go about it.

As such, these systems tend to only cause trouble to those who are legitematley using the game, and as such theyre hurting their own genuine customers by implementing such measures

--Jakk:t

[Someone Stupid]

Late to edit above post: The editions are different, Farcry uses Safedisk 3.15, PAINKILLER uses 3.20. The issues are FAR fewer with farcry by the look of things, the new version just doesn't like many popular drives somehow. :rolleyes:

[blunted]

Originally posted by Bigjakkstaffa

As such, these systems tend to only cause trouble to those who are legitematley using the game, and as such theyre hurting their own genuine customers by implementing such measures

--Jakk:t

I totally agree. That is why i download all my games before i actually fork out my hard earned money for them.

Half of the games out there are ***** anyways and after playing with them for an hour are thrown onto a spindle to collect dust.

when and if the game is good thats when i choose to pay and support the developers.

games i recently bought

Battlefield Vietnam
Lock On
UT2k4
Raven Shield
Prince of Persia
FarCry

besides , if i paid for all the software i use (OS/OFFICE/APPZ/ETC) i'd be poor, or bill gates himself.



just rambling....

[mrpickles]

Originally posted by Vampiel
I never really understood why they had to make such harsh protection so that it wont even work on some cd-roms. The people who are gonna get a copy are going to get a copy one way or another. Just put some copy protection thats tried and tested and leave it be.

Why **** off customers that do by it?

Agree, I don't understand why they waste there time with extreme copy protection. It can drive away potential customers + all games need is a cdkey for online play to help stop the coping of & produce more buyers if the games good enough.

All games pc, ps2, xbox, gameboob etc, & dvds, music, dongle protection is broken anyways... why bother?

[zybch]

I'm simply amazed at why game publishers don't just drop the prices by 50% along with normal CD Keys and perhaps a version of safedisk (or other CP thing) that doesn't have the incompatabilities?

Selling for 1/2 current prices would get the publishers more than twice as many people buying the games, hence their revenue would increase.
Or better yet, publish the games on DVD with both layers being used and some layer detection thingy that would make the game unplayable if the DVD only had 1 layer.
This way, gamers wouldn't be so put out at having to stick 3-4 CDs in during installation, and the publishers could relax, at least till the multi-layer burners finally appear in the marketplace.

[Vampiel]

Then you would need a dvd-rom to play it so that cancels out about half of the pc market.

[bob05]

Part of the reason some developers are going to DVD versions is because of piracy. Let's be real, would you rather download a 700 mb file from Kazaa or a 4.7 gb file? Also, not every one has DVD burners yet (as they aren't very cheap yet). But on the same token, having to find 5-6 different ISO's on Kazaa would be challenging.

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Originally posted by bob05
Part of the reason some developers are going to DVD versions is because of piracy. Let's be real, would you rather download a 700 mb file from Kazaa or a 4.7 gb file? Also, not every one has DVD burners yet (as they aren't very cheap yet). But on the same token, having to find 5-6 different ISO's on Kazaa would be challenging.

Most people on cable dont mind downloading files that run into the GB's, and its very rare that large ISO's are distributed without a very high degree of compression.

In addition to this you don't need DVD burners to copy DVD based media for distribution;)

In reality, no matter what you try to do in terms of copy protection, your always goign to be beaten almost immediatley, because theres always someone out there with the patience and knowledge to undo your clever little tricks

--Jakk:t

[Vampiel]

Bigjakkstaffa hit the nail on the head. Though I think they should have some sort of copy protection, so you cant just copy it with nero, just not over-do it so it doesnt run in some cd-roms.

Also Kazaa is not the main source for hacked games.

[megaspazz]

Originally posted by Vampiel

Also Kazaa is not the main source for hacked games.


methinks he's talking about *ftp sites*
:eek: :D

--'spazz:t

[bob05]

Originally posted by Vampiel
Also Kazaa is not the main source for hacked games.

Like megaspazz, it's not just Kazaa that this applies to. Go to any IRC search engine and you can find tons of pirated games if you wanted to. But you all are right, where there's a will there's a way. :t

[megaspazz]

agreed.

[Vampiel]

Agreed, now if only game companies would see the error of their ways.:rolleyes:

Put a good, tested, copy protection on the game that doesnt **** off buyers, then they will make even more than they allready are.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Even though we are getting into a hush hush subject....tools like Daemon have been common fo rquite some time and I know alot of yo uhave it and use it...( may not care to admit it ) ,,and this tool is a hackers dream....
I have it and to be honest iI buy most all my games now and every once in awhile a friend will give me a iso copy and I use daemon to run and play it....nice tool ..even if its a cheater software.....

One of the games I recently purchased was the first add on expansion to DF Black Hawk Down.....Team Sabre..and it is made so that yo uhave to have the original game to play on the first CD....this is a form of protection and when I thought abou tit I finally came to the conclusion that they have this right and I don't blame them a bit.....Its just smart business..and even if there is a hacker out there ...it cuts down on it considerably.....

Those Posts on that site were a few people who were not too happy..and while I can sympathize to some degree ..I have to say that it must be hard to keep up with all the new hareware and its copy right protection and compatibilities..for every single maker...

It is just one game and not the end of the world and I would write and demand my money back and or a refund from the game company for this as its only fair..I believe...and re-issue a new game that is fixed so all people can play this.....a recall might be in order??

In addition....my friend has never ever failed on making a iso for any game out there ever..so there goes the copy protection....

[Bigjakkstaffa]

While Virtual CD devices do have their
potentially shady uses, they are a godsend for nearly all gamers, indeed i wouldnt reccomend anyone serious about games not to have one.

Why? Many reasons, paticularly when sharing on CD across four or five networked PC's or even as simple as a backing store (i for example am currently storing CD1 of UT2003 on my machine to be burned at a later date, as i'm out of CD-R's and have sent the original off for rebate), however probably the biggest reason is to help get past idiotic copy protection such as this, when one goes out and buys a game perfectly legally and then to find it doesnt work. Whiel soem may say this is the essence of pirated games, not really, as nearly all games that are pirated will have their copy protection routines removed by crackers before distribution.

Again implementing anti-virtual device settings in games is only really harming those people who legitematley buy the games and run Daemon tools etc for legitimate reasons, as the majority of pirates will immediatley pull out the protection routines. Indeed, the practice of 'blaclisting' certain applications as coders have done recently with Virtual Device utilities, is technically illegal.

--Jakk:t