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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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The original post is a little misleading. the software isn't blocked by cd burning software... it conflicts with cd emulation software, which is a compltely different thing. CD Emulation just happens to be included with a lot of cd burning software but can usually be disabled without uninstalling the program.
Um...that came with my wife's Gateway machine. It's not like we copied some "l33t" CD copy program hack. It fricken CAME with the machine!
What up? Then they list a patch that will bypass it anyway? What up? Why did they even include it in the first place?
Again, what up?
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
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?
Basically, it's checking for a registry entry. That's it. Very effective. :/
daemon tools works fine
I heard that people that have Doom3 and Unreal Tournament 2004 installed are refusing to install Sims 2. (no matter how much their girlfriend complains)
http://www.kubuntu.org/
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)
I had an old version of CloneCD installed and had to uninstall it. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I had this problem with DOOM 3 as well because I had an old version of CloneCD installed. Its emulation feature was disabled as well. A lot of people experienced this problem.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
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
That's weird... I went out and bought a DVD writer so that I could play the Sims 2 DVD edition (oh yeah, and my wife wanted it for making DVDs too). The DVD drive came with a bunch of Nero programs for creating DVDs, which I installed. Then I installed Sims 2 with no problems. I wonder why I didn't see this issue?
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Have you tried to play Far Cry yet? The game came free with a brand new video card I bought, the eVGA Nvidia Geforce 6800, and after I installed it and then patched it to version 1.1, it refused to load. It said something about detecting drive imaging software on my machine, and it said it would not load until said software was removed. I can't tell you how much that ticked me off. So, rather than uninstall the cd copying software because I NEED IT FOR LEGIMATE PURPOSES, I simply found a crack for the program I legally own, and was forced to use it. It's just wrong. There needs to be a class action law suit, I'd even help spring for the lawyer.
Currently got "The Sims 2" up and running -- Illegally. Works fine with CD-burning tools. Mounted the images with the latest version of Daemon Tools, installed it and can play it just fine as well. ( It is currently running in the background ) It even works fine with Nero still installed, though for the record it SHOULD be noted that this version of Nero is an OEM-handicapped version taht came with my Plextor burner. Won't burn anything on any other burner. Maybe it won't conflict because I use CD-drive emulation software? Don't know. Bottom line is, this protection is MASSIVELY uneffective. A large site that I frequent has counted at LEAST 10k hits so far on people who downloaded the game. Works fine for the majority of them, let's assume 80%.
Personally, I really like the game though. I'm not going in depth on that; this ain't no damn review. Suffice to say, I'm going to wait a few years, then pick up the fully patched and complete game ( What EA calls expansion packs ) on 2 DVDs for EUR 29,95 in 2006. Untill then, I'll just hobble about with this pirated version. :)
Hate me!
"Let's make the game more difficult to play with a pirated version which will prevent about 0% of piraters from playing the game illegaly, and prevent about 75% of legitimate users from easily playing the game after they have paid us their hard-earned money. Sound like a plan? Good, get on it. I expect to see large ROI numbers by next week."
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?
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
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?
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
True Crime: Streets of L.A. for PC did the exact same thing. Wouldn't load until I removed Daemon Tools and CloneCD. It wouldn't even tell me what the offending software was! Like one poster above, I just cracked the software.
P.S., if you use a No-CD crack in The Sims 2, you can't change flooring! Double whammy!
You know it's a sad day when you start missing those Monkey Island code wheels!
Almost all games now-a-days come with the requirement that the CD be in the drive. UT(99) was like this. I wrote in to Epic, and the publisher (GT Interactive) and complained, and listed 5 legitimate reasons why that requirement made it impossible for a valid customer to play the game.
:) )
Epic, the developer said it was a requirement forced by the publisher. The tech support for the publisher actually pointed me at www.gamecopyworld.com to download the 'NoCD fix.' (That was good customer service.
In other news, when Tribes 2 came out it didn't have a CD check. However, it also flat out didn't work on a great number of PCs. And, on the PCs where the game actually worked, the online component (the whole game) was in very poor condition, and many of the features simply 'weren't in yet.' There was a massive public backlash and a mass 'returning' of the game to the retail outlets.
In the first patch, they implemented a CD-check. The reasoning..."Our retail partners are concerned with the large amount of returns they are getting on this game, and they feel it's because people are simply copying it to their harddrives because there was no CD-check."
Sure..it has nothing to do with the game simply NOT WORKING!!!
But I've guess we've seen that kind of attitude before in different industries. (RIAA)
--Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
What I have on my hard drive. I have three different sector editors as well as CD copy software. Are they going to scan for the editors, because I might use them to edit their executables? If I buy a program, I expect it to run with whatever I have on my hard drive. If there are conflicts with common software, I expect the publishers to fix it and issue a free patch. I definitely don't expect them to be scanning my registry for keys that they think might indicate that I might be thinking about maybe making a perfectly legal backup copy of my legally purchased software. There are a couple of RTS games coming out this fall that I'm interested in buying, but if they have this bullshit in them, they'll go right back to the store, or never be purchased if I know ahead of time.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
The moral of this story (and any other stories detailing CD protection idiocy) is to always download the NoCD crack for any game you own. This bypasses any stupid annoyances caused by misguided copy-protection software, as well as saving you the trouble of having to insert your discs whenever you plan on playing a game.
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
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.
There is one, and only one copy protection scheme that is truly effective-- registering online with a serial number.
I've played quite a few games acquired... Not so legitimately. None of them had a copy protection scheme that couldn't be easily bypassed. But with the better games-- Star and Warcraft, Call of Duty, Unreal, etc. I paid full price for copies so I could play multiplayer online. AFAIK there's no way to "hack" Battle.net so that you don't need a unique and registered SN.
This is the direction developers should turn. No copy protection at all on their games, let us copy our disks for backup and do full installs and put the game CD's safely away. If the game is good, we'll want to play online and you WILL get your money.
my password is private, but unchanged.
How long before CloneCD has the ability to change where its reg keys are located. That might fix this problem. well, at least be a hack around it.
Yeah, I hated that.