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Sims 2 Blocked by CD Copying Software
bairy writes "EA says The Sims 2 will refuse to run if you have Nero, CloneCD or Roxio's EasyCD installed on the same PC. Although they link to a patch to bypass this, a lot of people are upset by this."
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I'm a developer and as such I use some of the more obscure tools: including CloneCD (I have a library of my MSDN subscription CDs imaged on my server, for example). I back up to CD, so I have CD burning software on my machine. This isn't the first game where someone decided they know what is good for my machine better than I do. "You want to *use* your machine: then don't buy our game!" they say. I have learned my lesson: I don't buy your games. How exactly does that help your bottom line?
From the discussion board it appears it took two days for a NoCD crack to become available. How does *that* help your bottom line: you have people returning the game (rightfully so, many will have no clue why you want to cripple the computer just to play a game, even if they know *how* to cripple it) and yet the pirates didn't even skip a beat?
Nothing but bad press and bad customer service. Yes, the consoles are protected, but they are protected in a way that doesn't break the game and doesn't require gutting my machine's functionality to get there.
Sig under construction since 1998.
What's the point of not allowing CD emulation? If you have a legal copy of the game I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to play it from an emulated CD, and if you do not have a legal copy the crack will take care of it anyway. So what are they trying to achieve?
Absolutely wonderful customer relations... "You have a complaint, so instead of trying to fix the problem and get a few customers back, we're just going to remove you from this board and pretend it never happened."
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Don't all games have a little section of the box indicating the system requirements? Like:
1 Ghz CPU
Direct X 9 video card
1.2 GB free Hard Drive Space
NO Installed CD emulation software: (eg: Nero/Alcohol/CloneCD)
If they did something like that, then consumers would have no complaints. Sales may tank, but that should tell them something too...
And no fair adding emulation detection code in a patch like Ubisoft tried with Raven Shield. (It was retracted quickly after a good backlash from the users)
Why do they even bother anymore... a fully cracked version of Sims 2 was available via torrent before most places had the game in stores. People who WANT to copy the game illegally will do so. The only thing game companies do by adding crappy copy protection is annoy legitimate customers.
This is just lovely! Just another nail in the coffin of PC games. The usual sort of system setup woes are bad enough without the game publisher intentionally causing pain in the name of copy protection. The average user is not going to even try to figure this out, they'll just return the game. And given the large presence of casual gamers in the Sims demographic, that could be a lot of returns.
Yeah, I know most casual gamers probably wouldn't have CD emulation software installed themselves. But a lot of people share the computer with others who might have installed who knows what, especially kids. The Sims 2 scheme is just a recipe for disaster, which still won't stop the real pirates anyway! I won't be buying this for my PC, but I might check out Sims for Xbox which is going for $20 these days and got pretty good reviews.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
This is another example of how copy protection does little to stop piracy, but pisses off honest customers for no reason. I'm sure if a crack isn't already up, it will be soon. It's the same situation with Windows activation. The customers who bought the software honestly deal with the hassles while the people who downloaded it illegally won't have to worry. It's like the audio CDs that restrict use on windows machines, but downloading MP3s lets you do whatever you want. It's like paying for songs off music distribution services gives you a product that is more restrictive than if you went on Kazaa and downloaded it.
One of these companies arguments against piracy is that you get a better experience if you're honest and buy the product. However, for these protection schemes, I fail to see how things are made easier or better.
It is interesting that this situation is similar to the ways that anti-virus and anti-spyware products detect bad stuff. I wonder how long it will be before cd imaging products have to adopt some of the sneakier ways of hiding their presence that spyware and viruses use?
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the software isn't blocked by cd burning software... it conflicts with cd emulation software
:P
HA.... you're joking right? You think this isnt intentional on Maxis' behalf?? Give me a break. I can see why they would say it's just a conflict, so they try not to piss as many people off, but it's funny that anyone would actually buy that excuse. It's intentional and you know it.
Joseph?
it conflicts with cd emulation software
No it doesn't.
It says it conflicts with cd emulation software. It really detects cd emulation software and refuses to run. They try to make it sound like there's an overlap in resource utilization, or an incompatibility of some sort, but it's a lie. They just don't trust you.
Furthermore, disabling the emlation functionality doesn't solve the problem, since they're not actually checking that, they're just checking for the existance of registry keys associated with certain programs. Doom 3 and Thief 3 did the same thing. You have to uninstall it, or the software won't run. In fact, with Doom 3, uninstalling didn't even work if you had a ligitamately registered copy of CloneCD, because it left a registry key behind with your license number, so you had to delete that registry key manually. Or, download the no-CD hack so you don't have to spend ten minutes uninstalling, registry hacking, and rebooting every time you wanted to switch from playing a game to doing something productive.
Here's the Maxis represenative's response: "There is no conspiracy of silence. I've seen posts from people running Nero and CloneCD who aren't having problems with the game and those that are. We can look into it, but I don't have any answers for you today. And murronrose, since you returned your game, that means that you are no longer a product-registered owner of the game. Which means you shouldn't even be using this BBS... I'm most likely going to have to remove your posting priveledges if you don't cancel your account yourself. -MaxoidLucky"
That's unbelievable. You don't threaten your fucking customers when they're justifiably angry because you released a ridiculously broken product. Fuck you, Maxis.
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
When will companies learn how fucking retarded it is to do something like that? What about the lay-person who likes to game but doesn't know much about the inner workings of the computer? Will they want to uninstall the cd burner software? Call EA support, and bitch at them!
Pissing off your customers is not a sound business model. Its sad when you have to crack a game just to run your legitimate copy.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
I hope for Maxis' sake that this is an overzealous "volunteer" moderator and not an employee. If it's an employee, he should already be looking for a more suitable position for someone so surly--perhaps the parking lot attendant profession.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
So, if someone buys a computer from Dell/HP/IBM/Gateway/etc. that comes with pre-installed burning software, they can't play? I can see the protests now. The Sims might have been the best selling game ever, but with stupid copy protection B.S. like this, The Sims 2 will be lucky if it is the bestseller of the year.
Yeah, I hated that.
Negative!
I, for one, refuse to be 'chained' to the internet or have to support a modem to use software that I have legitimately purchased. There are undoubtedly many other people who will refuse to give up their rights to anonymity, or allow access to their computer, for the sake of a copy protection scheme.
Will the parent company be around in a couple years to "Grant" you access to your software when you reinstall? Don't bet on it bud! Will the company "Grant" you access to your software when they have discontinued support for it or it's intended OS? Don't bet on it bud!
Take Microsoft for example: Windows XP and the lovely Windows Product Authorization crap. When Microsoft discontinues support for XP in 2K6, 2K7, whatever... will they still "authorize" your copy of XP when you reinstall? Don't hold your breath, especially if they can sell you (a.k.a. force you to buy) a new OS through deprecation, they'll
Soft protection schemes are NOT the answer.
NO PROTECTION IS the answer.
Lowering ridiculous software prices is the answer.
Cutting out the greedy middle-men (EIDOS, EA, RIAA, MPAA) will lower costs globally. That's the answer.
Greed sure isn't.
Pissing off your customers is not a sound business model. Its sad when you have to crack a game just to run your legitimate copy.
This topic enrages me. As if it weren't aggravating enough to implement software CD-checks that harass paid customers, limit the functionality of their purchased software (e.g., I like to have more than two multiplayer games installed despite having only two CD drives) and force a general technological retrogression (e.g., I'm forced to swap CDs constantly, just like the days of "king's quest iii", only in this case it's completely unnecessary) - now the noncomplying legit users are being forcibly retrogressed.
It's completely sad that software companies are in the regular habit of treating their customers, by default, like untrustworthy scum and criminals. Meanwhile, the untrustworthy scum and criminals are, as ever, having no trouble whatsoever bypassing blacklists and voiding copy protection. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that the warez versions come with the blacklist disabled already, and the only ones being affected are the ones foolish enough to legitimately purchase a cardboard box. Happens frequently.
When I buy a game these days (e.g. "Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield") only to find that it has a CD-check (possibly with corrupted segments) and a blacklist against other software I have installed, my first and impulse is to return the game to the store. I buy games to act as stress reducers, not inducers.
The company is intentionally lying to the consumer about why the product refuses to work. Is that legal? It wouldn't be legal for a car manufacturer to tell you your radio is causing a pinging noise, when it's the car's engine, would it?
And could the makers of CloneCD sue them? They are saying that Clone CD conflicts with their software, when it does not. This could affect sales of CloneCD, if in fact CloneCD is a product you can buy.