ninjabee.com

I just read this joystiq post recommending a long account of a (as of today) 17 day game in GalCiv II. After reading it I was really interested in trying the game out. I see that I can get the Download immediately (GalCiv II + the expansion) from Stardock (without ANY DRM!!) and they will send me the box and CDs for just the cost of shipping and handling.

Okay, so I sound like an ad...but does anyone have any experience with it? I'm nearly sold just from that article and his description of the game...but I always do my research before making purchases.

On a side note: Scott Brodie (of Aegis Wing fame) worked for Stardock on the weapons effects systems for GalCiv II.

http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?fo ... 106741&c=1

"For example, we were quite disturbed to discover that the company that makes Starforce provided a working URL to a list of pirated GalCiv II torrents. I'm not sure whether what they did was illegal or not, but it's troubling nevertheless and was totally unnecessary."

Wow. Just wow. Isn't that a step into racketeering? I understand that software piracy is a serious probem, but giving people instructions of how to pirate software because it is released by a non-client seems a lot like telling someone they need to pay protection money.

No experience with the game though, can't help you there.

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That monkey is going to pay...

Can't help you either, I'm not into those type's of hardcore micro managing games.

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Yeah...
Stardock = awesome
Starforce = evil evil evil!

As for the pirating issue, one of the best answers ever was in their FAQ for GalCiv2:

"Q: Galactic Civilizations I got some attention because you didn’t have any CD copy protection. Aren’t you afraid of piracy?

Our primary concern is our customers – the people who pay my salary. They’re my overlord and I don’t want to inconvenience them. Moreover, piracy is really about how many sales are actually lost. What we do is put out free updates after release. We got Editor’s Choice Awards from most of the major game magazines for the original Galactic Civilizations, and that was on the 1.0 version in the box. However, we put out tons of updates after release that greatly enhanced that experience.

So let’s say someone got a “warez” copy. If they like the game, they’re going to want the updates, and to do that, they have to have a valid serial number that is verified on the server side (i.e., no cracks). So at that point, we’re going to get that sale or we would have never gotten the sale.

I don’t like game companies treating me like a criminal. If I’m paying $50 for a game then I better well be able to put it on my laptop and PC and not have to futz around with keeping track of the CD. Besides, I end up losing my CDs anyway."

That is one of the most well thought out arguments against annoying anti-piracy measures ever. If we can't sell the game with our unbelievable support for our product, then we'd probably never make that sale in the first place = brilliant. It's just like how they've shown that the people with the most pirated music are also the largest consumers.

I just got my Games for Windows mag in the mail and I looked at the Review roundup and they gave Dark Avatar (the expansion) a *9* out of 10. I'll probably buy this sometime this weekend.

"I don’t like game companies treating me like a criminal. If I’m paying $50 for a game then I better well be able to put it on my laptop and PC and not have to futz around with keeping track of the CD. Besides, I end up losing my CDs anyway."

That is why most games I purchase for my computers (laptop and desktop) are throught Steam or a similar service. That and lately Steam has been getting quite a few games I never got to play for les than the retail combo packs which usually only have one game I want.

Although until you have seen the DRM on older audio/video editing software you haven't seen obtrusive. Boot disc, random asking of a number from a book of passwords which were literally 50+ pages long. If you couldn't find the answer fast enough it would shutdown the software for a while, usually an hour.

Those companies finally wised up and either created USB dongles or started giving the software away and just had lists of approved hardware. The hardware companies pay a royalty to get on the list which pays for the software. Rather difficult to pirate hardware.

Now, on the actually game I think I need to look into it a bit more.

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That monkey is going to pay...

To view this post, please tell me the correct colour/shape pattern in the third row of box D6 of your code sheet.

lol, those were crazy days. I remember Leisure Suit Larry had questions in the game every so often that you had to refer to the actual instruction book to find the answer. Sierra at it's finest.

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Which is sort of true, but it is still different. It is true that most of the songs on my iPod I would have never bought the CD to. I might have gotten the song legally off iTunes though instead of something like LimeWire. Without things like iTunes, it works the same way. I have bought CDs of artists after "discovering" them on my computer.




A friend of mine worked with Sun making hospital software. To login to their stuff, she had a little keychain looking thing that had a password. It would change about every 60 seconds, so if you wanted in at about 50 seconds, you better type fast. Be hard to get a key generator for that supposedly.

They still have those, but most of the ones I have used were on 5 minute timers. That is a little different of an issue though. Patient security, lawfirm databases, bank database and government security need to be much harder to crack than a video game. Although Starforce may disagree.

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That monkey is going to pay...

And I'm sure they do.

I went ahead and bought the game and haven't had that much time to even play it

I'm already struck by the sheer vastness of options in the game though and I haven't even really started...it's gonna be fun I think. Let the micro (and macro) managing begin!!!