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."

Comments

Roxio's EasyCD?

[sgant]

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?

This is why I play console games.

[Godeke]

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.

Re:This is why I play console games.

[gl4ss]

the only winners are the companies selling this snakeoil(it's snakeoil, since it doesn't really do anything better than the cd checks before it because it got cracked in an instant) to publishing companies.

customer loses and the publisher loses.

Re:misleading

[(H)elix1]

Except in this case, just having it disabled is not enough. Got to be removed before Sims 'no longer has a conflict'.

Why?

[johannesg]

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?

Re:Why?

[gl4ss]

uh, the window was exactly couple of hours or something along those lines. well, actually the warez version was available WELL BEFORE THE GAME WAS AT RETAILERS, reducing the window to zero. not only that but it would have been for some customers easier to just warez the game than buy it(in which case the whole setup is on it's head already, the "works everywhere" warez version being available *earlier* than the retail version and with *less hassle* - that's just insane of the publisher).

there's no valid _good_ reason.. there's valid reasons to buy this snakeoil(from companies that actively push it to publishers), but they're not good reasons. and now most new computers that come with a cd burner(read: all) have burning software that comes with such emulation so you're automatically asking for trouble, especially with such high visiblity title as sims 2 that will be copied no matter what and be tried by *legimate* customers on wide array of different computers.

(not only that but actually there's a spesific warez release just to be played using virtual drive... )

CloneCD Current Version is Directly Causing Issues

[Necromancyr]

Having CloneCD installed (the current version as of this posting) is one of the biggest issues people are having. Simply changing the Reg Entry for CloneCD allows you to run the Sims no problem - of course, you have to change it back for CloneCD to work correctly.

Basically, it's checking for a registry entry. That's it. Very effective. :/

Ironic

[DeadBugs]

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)

What really gets me is this...

[Dark Nexus]

Reading through the posts, I come across a post from someone at EA responsible for the board (or support in general, I'm not sure which), in response to one customer who got so annoyed they returned the game:

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

Check out The Urbz - Sims in the City
The next great game from Maxis!
http://www.theurbz.com

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."

State it in the System Requirements

[meanfriend]

If a company wants to take such stupid measures with their games, go ahead, but let me know *before I buy it* so I know which lousy products not to waste my $$ on. With most store policies regarding open box returns (ie. dont even think about it) they owe it to the consumers to notify them if something that has become quite common on modern systems may prevent the game from running.

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)

That's weird

[thelenm]

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?

Not the only one

[hawkbug]

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.

Works like a charm

[Dark Lord Seth]

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. :)

Useless waste of time and money

[Bonewalker]

I just want to know who the genius is that thought this was a good idea?

"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."

Just another example of why copy protection loses

[Stevyn]

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.

Future anti-infringement measures:

[base3]

The Sims 3 will refuse to run if any of the following are true:

• Suprnova is bookarked in IE
• .NFO is associated with any text editor
• A debugger is installed
• An IRC client is installed

Re:misleading

[ivan256]

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.

It ain't the first and won't be the last

[spyrochaete]

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!

Re:Just another example of why copy protection los

[Marc_Hawke]

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)

The moral is...

[RotJ]

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.

Maxis Represenative Responds: Fuck Off, Customers.

[EllF]

My goodness. I was reading the BBS for the game, and there is one individual who purchased the Sims, found it to be inoperable on the system that he uses to do photo editing and digital video work, and returned it to the store with an explanation. He then posted, trying to get Maxis to do -something- -- he is apparently a longtime customer as well as a polite, well-spoken fellow.

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.

Re:misleading

[Alizarin Erythrosin]

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.