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EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around For RA3 CD-Key
sunderbear noted that EAs Command & Conquer 3 shipped missing the last digit of the CD Key. He writes "EA's brightest minds have put their synapses into overdrive in order to whip up a comical work-around. 'There is currently a work-around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try guessing the last character,' said a note on EA's customer support site. Yes, they're serious. 'To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game.'" It appears that the helpful hint has been purged.
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This new sub-game called "CIA unlock" puts you in the shoes of a CIA agent attempting to gain access to a secure terrorist computer subsystem. The first 19 characters are given to you, but you need to randomly crack the last digit before the timer runs out and the game deletes your hard drive. If you win the game, you get to play again by pressing a reset button.
Rumors are circling from insiders at EA, that the next amazing title from EA will enable players to enter the shoes of Joe a shoe salesman from Kentucky. Joe has a problem. He can't find the right shoe for his fat smelly customer. Players will only be able to play if they purchase and install the F.O.U.L. hardware (FOUL stands for Fresh Olfactory Universal Layer.), and you get more points from actually smelling and withstanding more and more disgusting customers. The final boss of the game is a 700 pound woman that has never bathed, and who has developed nearly every possible degenerative skin condition. The game fills your house with something totally unbearable and if you can find her a pair of good shoes after she tries on about twenty or so different ones and tells you about her whole life history, then you get to have an achievement added to your online profile, aptly named the Bundy award, named after Married With Children's Al Bundy, a reputed shoe salesman with class and pinache. Pre-orders start tomorrow and EA expects massive sales on this amazing title, that is loaded with DRM that actually forces customers to perform lude acts with garden utensils for the purpose of cultivating data necessary for visual biometrics to prove the copy of the game is legit. EA denies that anyone who cracks the game will not be able to play, and a spokesperson from EA that shall remain nameless, went on record saying that customers would never play without FOUL hardware because they wouldn't have the benefit of the use of the FOUL hardware, which is revolutionary and next generation by design.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Certainly they didn't just post details of how to circumvent a copy protection measure, right?
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Statistically you should be able to guess the right letter/number in half the keyspace. But in practice, it will always be the very last character you need to try.
So take the character that you were going to start with, and take the very opposite character in order to improve your chances of getting the correct entry faster.
.. and just copy/paste the serial from the .nfo-file once.
Not that I care about this game or am planning to buy, download or otherwise even look at it, but it's just another hilarious instance where the pirated version wins hands-down in the convenience department: apart from not needing the DVD to play the game, you don't even have to type the serial, never mind guessing what might be the last character because EA screwed up.
And even after such a major fuckup EA can't even be bothered to release a "no-serial" executable/installer themselves. Who cares, the customer^Wconsumer already paid for it anyway, what are they going to do about it?
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
...like violence; if a little doesn't solve the problem, use more.
What if the phone number in the manual is only 9 characters instead of 10?
I'm not sure why this is such a big deal.
People are laughing at it because it's just another example of copyright "protections" only inconveniencing paying customers. Pirates just run a key gen or download a serial online or run a crack.
So what do you want them to do?
Make it so I can put the disk in, click install, and play.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
the problem only affects SOME, not all, units.
Yes, and we trust EA on that one, right?
Yet another reason not to buy anything published by EA.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
now that they've revealed how their copy-protection scheme works, what's to stop the heinous pirates from using this advanced work around for the rest of the digits? The entire industry will crumble!
I went out and bought the game, but to avoid their damn DRM, I instantly cracked it. I figure- best of both worlds. They get there money, I get to avoid Securerom!
But then I felt let down, it was kinda a waste of time/money...
Maybe I'm too used to command and conquer 3 and generals (zero hour), but I just cannot get used to the new computer players. I feel like defenses are severly limited in this game, and nothing is sacred. Turtling is not an option for this game. There is only one gameplay- fast, furious attacks. Don't even bother securing resources- you can't. You can't secure anything. Your job is to be the first to build a small army, and bomb the crap out of the other guys. Build resource gatherers later if you need them.
The resources usually run out just before the game gets good, and you're off to a really slow boring ending where nobody has anything left, and you're pretty much throwing sticks at eachother.
But back on the fact that you can't secure anything. They've made if very difficult to be secure. They have a few defenses- but they're typically as useful as if you weren't using them. Expect to rebuild almost every building in your base a few times- if you still need them.
I will repeat, this game is not the long drawn out strategic game as CNC, it is an abridged, attention deficit, ADHD game for those who get bored easily and don't care about building up. Hell, there aren't that many upgrades- so building up and teching up is useless anyway.
*I will admit, I wasn't an avid RA2 fan either.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
It keeps my skillz l33t, yo.
Anything you say will be held against you.
Don't worry, I think RA3 uses securom as well.
They'll learn, someday, but remember! they'll use less DRM just like the last DRM they used! /sarcasm
What if the phone number in the manual is only 9 characters instead of 10?
Well, you guess. In this case guessing might be a lot more fun.
You: "Huh? Only 9 digits...let's try lucky 7 for the last number."
Phone: *ring*
Phone: "Helllloooo. You've reached the HOT line, where sexy women are waiting to hear from you. Please press 1 nowwww...."
My blog
That's the greatest idea ever! I'm going to save time by buying RA3 with my credit card and let EA guess the account number. Thanks EA!
I would return the game to wherever I purchased it and ask for a replacement since the product is defective. I would open the package at the store to make sure I had a copy with the correct number of characters in the serial key. If the second copy was also defective I would continue to go through all the copies they had in the store until I either had a valid license key or until they ran out of copies. At that point I would then ask for my money back since all copies in the store are defective and I don't want the product at this point. The store should be able to return to EA for a full refund since they did ship faulty mechandise.
Man, out of all of the epic sequels released recently, it's been a giant litany of failure. Far Cry 2 with it's myriad of crashing issues, not to mention all of the instances where enemies / allies just don't appear as they are supposed to, forcing you to reload an earlier game and pray it's a one time bug. (And also the fact that it doesn't feature deformable terrain like they bragged about in interviews.) Fallout 3, with even more crashing issues, including a huge number of people who crash after the intro movie. In a move deemed "hilarious" the pirates have a patch out already that fixes Fallout 3, but Bethesda still does not. It fixes it by deleting the corrupted sound files so you miss some spoken dialog and have to see it on the closed caption instead, but at least you can play the game now. And now RA3 doesn't come with a valid CD key! At this rate the next PC release will give you cancer. And they'll still blame piracy for people not buying their "99% A+++++++ BUY OR DIE" games (according to the reviewers they own).
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
So what do you want them to do? Be psychic and send you the code before you even know you need it?
No, that's what a quality assurance department is for - at least in any company that cares about the products it sells.
Yes, it would be best if there was no problem, but mistakes happen.
Saying "mistakes happen" and leaving it at that, with no consequences, means the company is either too arrogant to admit that they are far from perfect and yet do nothing to "catch" these mistakes when they happen; or the company thinks saving $200k or so a year for a few QA people is far more important than inconveniencing their customers. Mistakes happen SO DO SOMETHING TO PREVENT THEM.
I'd love to be able to get away with "mistakes happen" with my patients. "You didn't need that leg anyway".
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
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It is circumventing. The protection/DRM is designed to require a whole "CD-Key" and lock out anyone who does not have it.
Whether you are missing one letter or 15, you are employing a Brute force attack to circumvent the system that requires a whole key.
Whether it is endorsed or not does not change what it is.
An Aside - I would not call this DRM Copy Protection. It does not prevent copying the DVD, just using it. (minor quibble, but that is another topic)
It actually is one of the few relatively solid forms of copy protection, provided a large(-ish) part of your game is only meaningful online, preferably hosted by yourself. You just make sure you can only have one instance of the key logged in to the game. Of course, "non-official" servers ruin the deal, but not even the Battle.net emulators ever got all that far in popularity, AFAICT.
By clerical error the Contact Us link and page 28 of your manual are also missing.
They would probably be more helpful...
warfail?
Check out my sysadmin blog!
>>>EA will learn, someday
I'm sure they will eventually stop using DRM, but corporations are a lot like women. Reluctant.
At first.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
You get to play this COOL bonus quest before you can play the game. Neat, huh!? It's a feature! Pretty soon, all the game manufacturers will be doing it.
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Actually, Red Alert 3 is one of the first EA games that installs fully to the hard drive *and* subsequently does not require the disc to play -- not for the campaign (all the vids are on your HDD), not for skirmish, not for multiplayer.
http://www.chmodoplusr.com/
ED-209: [menacingly] Please guess the last number of the CD Key.You have 20 seconds to comply.
ED-209: You now have 15 seconds to comply. ...
Life needs more saving throws.
Why not put up a Web page that will 'generate' the last character, given the first 19? This of course assumes that it can be determined from the first 19, or it could possibly look up the first 19 in a database?
V for Vendetta: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
>>>Falco, is that you?
No.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
the problem is they took westwood studios and turned them into festering crap.
I so wish EA would go away. They keep consuming game companies that are good and turning them into poo...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What if I paid with only the first 15 digits of my credit card?
You press another random number in there and hope you don't get the goatse hotline.
Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
Guessing the remainder of the CD-Key is circumvention.
But because the copyright owner (EA) has authorized this circumvention, it doesn't violate USA anti-circumvention law. From 17 USC 1201(a)(3), with my emphasis: "to 'circumvent a technological measure' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner".
In the US, local governments are allowed to place restrictions on 1-900-based sex lines (I know someone who worked at one). The caller-id info from the incoming call is checked against a database, to see if the 'actor' must limit their conversation to: 'G', 'PG', 'R', or 'X' content. I assume that this is a "local standards of decency" argument, that does not apply if a non-toll line is used (if a toll-line is used, then the business that is charging you (the phone company) is necessarily within your jurisdiction; if you use a credit-card then it is "interstate trade". IANAL).
If you ever call such a service, and the actor speaks in euphamisms ("I love to lick lollipops, stick to tip, for hours"), then you probably live in a restrictive jurisdiction. The service usually won't tell you about the restriction (or how to get around it by using a credit card), because they want to keep you on the line. And no, that doesn't make sense to me either; they should be able to reap higher revenues by having you call back with a credit card to get what you really want.
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
The copy I downloaded from usenet had a working key. Phew!
or else!
Maybe they're into Redtube Alert?
Here's an idea: have a steamy hot sexy female voice say, to those who aren't allowed X-rated content,
For X-rated content, dial back with your credit card
and continue the call as normally.
On the other hand, I must admit that I do like the idea of gnawing on melons while my new greasemonkey friend works on my gear shift while oiling up before taking a joyride. Nothing like fresh fruit when you're fixing cars with friends.
I must confess, though, that I've always wondered why women are so impressed with my ABS and the size of my drive shaft :-?
No, if the story is true, I shouldn't buy them because of the cavalier attitude towards dealing with customers.
Alright, yes, trying 36 combinations isn't the end of the world. But I'm still basically having to crack my own game -- and this time, it's what they're telling me to do.
Sorry, guessing a single missing character from a misprinted key isn't "cracking." As far as the cavilear attitude, their initial suggestion gets you playing the game with the least amount of effort. Hardly a reason to condem them.
Any game I have to crack to play properly, I either pirate or don't play at all.
You're just guessing a letter that should have been printed anyway. Equating it to cracking is silly, and using it as an excuse to not pay for the game at all is wrong.
In Soviet Russia, key generator gives you whole key.
Again, DRM screws the paying customers.
They're using their grammar skills there.