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Ubisoft And Starforce Parting Ways?
Ars Technica posts about the possibility of Ubisoft ditching StarForce in the wake of some very bad PR for the copy-protection company. From the article: "'To return from there good on an important subject, that of Starforce, here information which should interest you: it was decided that protection anti-copy used on the very new Ubisoft plays would not be the Starforce software...Yes, that relates to Heroes as well!' The translation may not be pretty, but the news is. Starforce should be considered malware if you ask me, and treated accordingly. If this really does mean Ubisoft is going to stop using it on their new releases we can all do a little dance of joy."
...out in pain!
Yay for Ubisoft. Getting rid of that horrid copy-protection scheme and the most annoying of all slashdot trolls, in one shot.
This is great news. With all the crap that Starforce has done to people's computers. Finally a major publisher is paying attention to the protests for their customers. Score 1 for us!
You're not allowed to use the term "grammar nazi" until you learn the difference between plural and possessive.
kthx.
So, to come back to an important subject, that of "Starforce", here is something that might be of interest: It has been decided that the anti-piracy tool to be used on all new UbiSoft games will not be Starforce.
P.s. To answer the actual question: Yes, this includes "Heroes".
I'm trying to improve my English. Please correct me on any spelling/grammar errors in this post.
...that the NEW anti-piracy system will not be Starforce. It doesn't mean it won't be copy protected or that the new system will be any less malicious than Starforce.
Something in me hopes the system will also be bad and eventually Ubi will announce that copy protection is impossible, finally acknowledging what we all knew for ages.
^_^
So now what are all the 15 year old little crakers going to do in the 10 minutes it would have taken them to crack the next version of StarForce?? I wonder why this was abandoned???
"But this one goes to 11!"
You're not allowed to use the term "grammar Nazi" until you learnt to properly capitalize the word Nazi.
I'm trying to improve my English. Please correct me on any spelling/grammar errors in this post.
The plural of Nazi is Nazis, not Nazi's.
You fail at criticizing grammar.
Some idiot decided to run French text through Babelfish and post as-is. Sigh.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
I'm happy that this decision was related to bad PR. Starforce posted links to torrents of pirated games that didn't use their protection, they blew off legitimate complaints as whining from pirates, they held an unwinnable contest (regarding hardware failure) that didn't address the most contested issues (software failure), and the CEO is a pompous loudmouthed ass.
I have the utmost respect for the programmers of Starforce as it is a creative solution to a widespread problem, but such talented engineers are working for the wrong company. I truly feel bad for the programmers because their brilliance is overshadowed by their managers' childishness.
Although you might want to check that "learnt". :p
There is always hope that the next scheme is decent... and not destructive. I know that game developers have released games without copy protection, and after that experience, went back to copy protection. I honestly think that you need some minor form of protection, to keep the clueless from just copying the product. I think you really run into 2 classes of gamers. The casual, "I put the CD in the drive, and it runs" crowd, and the rest that know at least how to go to a crack site. :-) I think the former crowd is generally much larger than the latter, which is why copy-protection really does work.
Me fail criticizing grammar?
That's unpossible!
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
... they'll see an improvement in sales. I used to only do one thing when I purchased games -- check a couple review sites to see what the general opinion of the game is, and to make sure I'm not buying something fatally crippled.
Now, I do two things... the aforementioned review checking, and checking to see what kind of copy protection scheme it uses. I refuse to buy Starforce "protected" games, and I refuse to install it on my computer. To me, they aren't gaining anything. At best, they're preventing pirates from installing their games and playing for free, but that doesn't net them any profits... because I seriously doubt those same pirates go "Oh well, I guess I'll buy the game!" and go out and purchase a copy.
I won't lie, I download games. But I also buy any game that I intend on playing. Generally I download to either get it sooner, or have something to do until pay day, or just to make sure the damn thing isn't a train wreck. But I also have several CD cases filled with hundreds of games I've legally purchased. I don't know very many other pirates who pirate exclusively, or who won't purchase a game they really like. All Starforce does, is make them refuse to purchase the game at all out of anger.
I don't understand why these companies think that by preventing piracy, these people are going to suddenly decide that they've seen the error of their ways and start buying software. It's not. You just piss potential fans off.
When I saw the headline "Ubisoft to Drop Starforce" for this on http://www.dailyrotation.com/ I thought that it meant a game project had been canceled.
So does this mean you will be able to obtain a new copy of an earlier game without Starforce?
Het word "learn" moet in tegenwoordige tijd zijn. Graag gedaan.
I thought Star Force was by Tecmo. Or has Ubisoft bought Tecmo? Or does Ubisoft publish Tecmo's games in at least one territory?
Sure Grammar Hitler did some pretty nasty things, but I think we can all agree that turning people who don't understand basic grammar into lamp shades would make the world a better place today.
Uh no. See the word "nazi" appiles to people with overly rigid and critical belief structures, while the proper noun "Nazi" applies to the National Socialist Party of Germany, active during the 4th and 5th decade of the 20th century. If you were applying the proper noun in every instance of the meme (noun) nazi, you'd be variously attributing a lot of false beliefs...Just because someone is obsessed with subject verb agreement, doesn't mean they are for the extermination of Jews, and the creation of an empire through conquest and eugenics.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
It is possible they will dump SF, but I don't think the reason is bad PR.
Reason is that SF3/4 is now ineffective. Reloaded is getting grip on it, Daemon-Tools4 is owning it, while in the same time it is too expensive for something which can be beatenwhile for probably less money you can have Securom or Safedisc which still renders most simple attacks useless and sometimes can even be uncrackable or at least hard ot do it.
Year ago, Ubisoft released SC:Chaos Theory and protection was invincible for 6 months until sfcure trick came. Probably a world record for AAA PC game title (OK, not counting USB trick, but not many people had facility to do that). It just isn't possible to have that today, although SF4 might try again.
If they really ditch StarForce (and don't replace it with something even worse), I'll go and buy an UBI game. No matter which one. Just to show that NOT forcing your customer is actually the incentive to buy a game.
Not crippling the customer's machine in fear that he might consider pondering about copying it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Something in me hopes the system will also be bad and eventually Ubi will announce that copy protection is impossible, finally acknowledging what we all knew for ages."*
Who invited "we" to this party? If you see the world in absolutes, then yes copy protection is impossible. So's security by the same measure. However If you want to make it difficult for the impulse copier, then copy protection has succeeded. Much like security stops the impulse thief.
*I should point out that "we" haven't ptoven as an absolute that copy protection is impossible. Just the implimentations so far. Please feel free to come up with the mathmatical proof.
"to be used on all new UbiSoft games"
That should read "to be used on the next Ubisoft Games".
"les tout prochains" means "the very next". "All new" would have been "tous les prochains".
You can't take the sky from me...
As a long time Heroes of Might and Magic player I was disappointed to hear that the new game would be protected with Starforce. I have a personal boycott on Starforce and do not purchase any games protected with it.
I will however wait until Heroes 5 is released because I don't trust Ubisoft not to use something as insidious as Starforce in protecting their games.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
So does that mean I can mail them my Chaos Theory DVD and get an unencumbered version that will actually work on my computer? :P
I guess I can't really complain. There was an extremely tiny warning on the box that it might not work with all DVD drives. Unfortunately the only way to find out for sure it to buy it, open the box (at which point it becomes unreturnable) and pop it in the drive.
I wouldn't be so upset if they'd at least bothered to answer the e-mail or postal mail I sent them about the issue.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
... online activation.
Like with Sony's Blu-Ray DRM, their "region-free" PS3 or GalCiv2 we-have-no-protection online activation, don't jump on conclusions and wait for the full story...