I own X2, but swear I will never ever buy another SF protected Game.

X3 is the same its stuffed with errors because of starforce crap!!
I myself am sick of these companys!

They've all entered themselves into shamefull Useless Mechanics Guild

A further bla bla bla!

What really happens when you go to buy a game today!
A person enters a store to buy a game!
there's a smile on his face!
he gets pushed to the wall! frisked! from top to bottom!
he's told to strip down!
they empty all his pockets!
they search his house and go through his accounts!
salesmen says! SIR! WE DONT TRUST YOU!
he snatch's his card or takes all his Cash ..
Salesmen:thankyou! have a nice day!
he finally gets home
installs the game!
the load screen Appears SIR! WE DONT TRUST YOU!
he gets stripped searched over and over, raped and pilaged! as he trys to play!
he spends hours and hours updating and patching!
constanly he is hit and bashed! and raped even more!
4 hrs have past! hes exhausted, tired and distressed!
the game was never going to work!
he goes back to the shop! hit! smacked and punched!
he enters the shop brused and battered!
he gets frisked! from top to bottom!
he's told to strip down!
they empty all his pockets!
they search his house!
salesmen says! SIR! WE DONT TRUST YOU!
salesmen with a smile: i'm sorry sir but there's no refund at all!
he leaves the shop!
he gets followed along the way, pushed and kicked!
he takes the disc and throws it in the street!
deadly silence! he walks in peace!


lol bla bla bitch lol :))

Permission to quote you? With better grammar and spelling ofc. :D

Not Really Joe, it is a genuine question.


Trying to figure out who has the most problems, legitimate users or warez kiddies.


That would kinda show how bad SF is or isnt.

Dabhand I guess you don't really get it. The point is Starforce should cause NO problems to legitimate users, as this comes BEFORE causing problems to warez kiddies. I don't think people who are used to d'load gamez would buy SF-protected games as they can't play with warez versions; on the other hand, a lot of honest players just stopped buying them. You can verify it by yourself, the solution is worse then the problem itself.

Why they additionaly don't search our chatlogs, mails, posts of our forum accounts, even our google search strings with the application of SF?!?!?

I want it! Scan me you bas**rds!

IT shouldnt be a problem to anyone be it they own an original or warez

the simple fact is starforce is f**ked it's is an intrusion of your pc as it doesnt ask permission to install it just does it and also only people who
wish to play without dvd or cd will have problems

so it not whether its a warez or orginal thats the problem its those of us who want to play without a dvd or cd that have problems which is nearly everone on this forum:)

This is the problem you are all mostly going on with what someone else said.

Also what most people dont realise is not all PC's are the same. SF could have errors due to certain motherboards, drivers, hardware and other software.


Doesnt matter what game or protection is out there, people will always and I mean always have problems.


DUKE_NUKEM: No you dont get it, like I just said, no protection will work 100% on everyones machine, what im trying to acertain is what is the main problem to people with SF.

Im assuming that SF has a built in preservation API, that when detected that an original disc is not in use, it starts problems.


What I have said before also is, why dont people contact SF support for help with some games they cant seem to run, I did it for one SF protected game and they were glad to give me another executable which worked perfect. But they do need legitimate game details, which is why I think the vast majority of people who moan about SF is because they cant play their downloaded game and cant contact support for help cause they dont have legitimate details.

No protection asks, as ive also said before the protection comes with the game, and you agreed to game being installed.


You show me a game where it asked you if you wished to install the protection?

Dabhand I've never heard of protections compromising the stablity of the OS or even destroying hardware components; the assumption that no protection works with every pc configuration is simply ridiculous, if starforce programmers knew what they are doing they would have imposed to put warnings on packages about compatibility issues.
Remember, I spend money buying games, so I have the right to just put the disc in and play, without the risk of damaging my hardware. Publishers who use SF are losing (mind?) customers after customers and the result is that NOBODY, neither legit nor warez users, will buy their games anymore. Sorry, man, but I don't have time to waste after games, just a little time to play; as a consequence I don't want to spend my days formatting and reinstalling every time I change game.
Just the last thing: SF support is not GLAD to help you, it is OBLIGED to help you cause you are just one of them who have the patience (time to waste?) to try all possibilities to make a game work; I just don't have it: shame on me.
But SF programmers are just bastards, like warez kiddies they claim to fight again.

@ Dab Hand (which i guess is the real meaning ?)

If you talk about a new executable, do you talk about an executable without copy protection or just a fixed one?
but i wonder
a) why you wouldnt upload it, guess you would do that :confused:
and b) why this didnt come with a patch for the game (whatever this might be)

Protection was still intact, but I got to play my game which is the main point :)

They do put up warnings in amongst the EULA, which unfortunately most people wont read.

And no I dont have time, I have a business to run :D


Thing is was all these people who lost drives had new ones that were lost? I know some had that problem. But SF does use the discs heavily to read the topography of a disc, if a drive had problems it could be due to that and while its checking the disc the drive could give up the ghost.

In a way you could say SF benchmark the discs somewhat.


Again, no one company can test their protection on every possible scenario. You could have a PC with a certain piece of software which is harmless but affects SF, if the SF team knew about that piece of software then they probably would have found a fix for it during testing, but if they dont know they cant really forsee the future.

Its the same with all software, no one company can test their product 100% fully. Its practically impossible.

If software is buggy by its nature then why add even more, "redundant" software (i.e. the copy protection) to it, when that "redundant" software is known to be based on undocumented or, for other reasons, not completely reliable system functions or heuristics and, therefore, is also known to cause even more problems? (I think I'm counter-proving your statement with your own arguments...)

Easy to place a thousand warnings in the EULA, when the user have already thrown his money away. Too easy.
Thieves. That's what they are. Just like warez kiddies.
And, of course no, they can't check every possible configuration. But their "heavy disc checking" seems to be harmful to ALL drives, either they are in good health or not.
I wish I could see a package with the warning "The heavy disc checking necessary to start this game could potentially damage your CD\DVD drive. The drivers contained in this software could be unpossible to remove and cause problems to your OS. Remember to format afte playing and possibly to buy a new drive". But I still can't see anything of this. So, who is stealing now?!?

Totally agree with this

yeah i agree with that when i frist but my pc i bought an sf game and it screw my new drive within a week

just as well i had my warrenty or i would have had to shell out 20 quid or more for a new one

here's a StarForce driver remover, if it wasn't posted already:

http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55

screwed my whole system with that crap, was running smootherwith SF3... :mad:
Actually there was no way to avoid reinstallation of Windoze..
Nothing i can recommend...

I concure. No Starforce games will be purchased by me.

Yup, i wount but them neather !:D

yes i ban too starforce , only if the games company spend less in copy protection and discount the game price and trust in the people they selling more games, here in mexico the games cost no less than 90 us so i only can afford buy 1 game in a month or two and if this game can ruin my pc :mad:
sorry for my english

Just read this on Blues News. Anyone want to take them on?

StarForce Challenge [December 14, 2005, 11:04 pm ET] - 15 Comments
Destroy your PC and receive $1000 from StarForce (thanks Andrew) is an offer from the copy-protection maker in an effort to combat what they feel may be unfounded rumors about their software:
There have been a lot of rumors in the Internet concerning DVD/CD writers malfunction after installation and star-up of StarForce protected applications. Some have even mentioned that should such “malfunctioning” drive be placed in any other PC without StarForce protection installed it will fail to work as well.
...
After the installation and start-up of StarForce protected product the problem with (CD/DVD read-write malfunction) must exist and be reproduced in any other configuration.
If you can be the first to reproduce this situation in our office, we will be happy to award you with $1000.00 US, cover your trip to Moscow and pay 2 days’ lodging.

If everyone hates sf so much why would you help them? And for a measley $1k IF you reproduce the error. I can't see anyone in their right mind doing that.

See now its swings and roundabouts, they issue a challenge, to prove the ideas wrong that people have been saying about SF.

Only $1000 not bad, since you could get a new machine for that easily. And its not your machine they want to destroy.

Plus even if you fail you still get a trip to moscow, to me this is a great deal.

hehehe, I like your thinkin there Dab! So who wants to meet up with me in Moscow? We could all join up there and have a great party in Moscow at Starforce's expense! Now thats payback. :p

I am very tempted to send SF guys a mail to demostrate what they say r "not just rumors". I dont want their money, just to have satisfaction they r wrong and doesnt want to admit it.

Because it cant be reproduced in just a day with a completely new equipment, i will say them how to reproduce it. It is a six month-year test only in the case u hadnt a lab to test with.

Take a clean computer, install Windoze, and install the drive u would like.
Then, install a lot of SF games, from SF 3.3 to SF 3.6, and begin to test.
In the first month execute twice a day any 3.3 SF protected title, or even three times ( because in this stages prot not always verified disc).

Some drives will pass almost inmediatly, but others will need two or three passes. (Toshiba/Plextor drives didnt enjoy such games)

Go testing upper SF versions till final ones versions and finally try to burn/read with such drive.

Be sure to burn a test CD at the begining of everything. This will be a pattern CD if the selected drive is a recorder. Measure burning time, speed and then use any c0/c1 CD error tool.

Use this test every month and note results.

U can do a parallel test with a clean machine and "normal" use with other copyprots (Safedisc, SecuROM, RingProtect, Laserlock, Lockblocks....)
Do the same.

Finally, compare results from drive with a lot of SF titles "launched" with a normal one. Degeneration is much more on the SF one.

TIPs: LG drives launches SF titles so fast at the begining. Then becomes slower and finally goes unstable
TIP#2: Even Plextor drives goes mad after a time. My Plexie 2410a suffered in its fleed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I m learning russian, and enjoy such languaje, but i m so busy at home, so such trip is currently impossible to me. What a pity.

If someone can give SF guys such info, lets see what they say.

Morg @ CdSTeam
--------------------------
Ups i forgot, u can also try SF 2, available on Siege of Avalon game. This one particulary damaged a lot drive.

Yeah, and I offer 1000 USD to people who can prove to me in a reproducable way, without the need for an expensive laboratory, that bio-engineered vegetables, when eaten, are bad for human health...

There are so many variables that need to be taken into account when reproducing such mystic bugs: ALL hardware parts in the PC, the operating system (and service pack), ALL installed software, ALL configuration settings, ALL currently running software etc. etc. The more sophisticated the system, the harder to find the bugs. And, in the case of low-level software like the Starforce copy protection, the whole system can affect it and can be affected by it! For this exact reason, if "normal" software needs to be written carefully and still some bugs may remain in it, such low-level software must be written EXTREMELY carefully and NO BUGS may remain in it. I have pretty much faith in Russians, probably the best programmers/hackers/coders in the world, though, but only when creating free software, not when creating software for companies, under the supervision of MANAGERS (ARGH, kill'em all, let god sort'em out!)...

Also, it may be possible that those errors with Starforce existed only in the past and have been fixed already in the latest versions, under the title of "more compatibility". (Along with making the copy protection even more secure...)

Most users, affected by Starforce, are everyday people, with (almost) absolutely no idea about computing. They will definitely not be able to find such bugs; all they will see that their PC doesn't work as well anymore as before and they won't even know the reason for it. (I would say, many PC repair shops wouldn't find it out either, knowing the average intelligence level of repairmen.) Those people who definitely could find bugs are professional hackers who, actually, know how Starforce works. But I don't think these people would go public: would you like the offer to change to 1000 USD fine and 2 years of lodging but in the jail rather than a hotel? ;)

I've seen such an offer - crack the copy protection and wits lots of money - at a computing conference, about a decade ago. My schoolmate and I had a look at it and understood that it can't be cracked in a single day, as long as the conference existed. And we havne't had our hacking tools with us either... So, we told the company representatives to kindly f*ck off and left... ;)

This whole offer is just boasting around, nothing more. Bugs in such a complicated software cannot be proven or reproduced as easily as the offer expects.

Thing got a weee bit interesting...
 

StarForce is watching us...

StarForce's $1000 Break-Your-PC "Contest"

Boycott StarForce Group

The actuall Challenge on StarForce's official page!

So, anyone still want to be a 1000$ richer?

I also just realized that StarForce is Russian! I have to respect them for that... but that doesn't mean I ain't angry like the rest!

@Doomer
Hey did you happen to read the 6 posts directly above yours?

...yes i did...
 

I did... did you happen to see any sort of direct links to the topic(s) being disscussed in the mentioned posts?

@Doomer
Errr, I only asked? ;)

My bad... I'm sometimes a little... grumpy...

@Doomer
hehehe, its ok. ;)

You have my vote, no SF for me either.

New writing here (not reading). My vote for "No to StarForce"

No Fu**ing starforce for me either.............Can some one send a link to this thread to the guys who are responsible for making the starforce.

I am sure these guys which are making star force are the crackers them selves and instead of cracking these games for free (Which they have been doing for years) they are now making money off the big companies like UBISOFT as they kjnow each and every thing about cracking/hacking and they know how anyone would be able to over come the protection.

First, rest assured, they are reading this forum. Second, as the saying goes, "thieves become the best policemen" (see Catch Me If You Can with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio for an example).

AHHHHH So true...Great film

As a rule I dont buy SF protected games and I warn every gamer I know about the danger the SF drivers pose.

As for taking it to court it wouldnt be much of a trial:

Lawyer: You work for <insert game publisher>?
Witness: Yes.
Lawyer: SF protection was intentionally included?
Witness: Yes.
Lawyer: Did you research it first?

At this point whether the guy says yes or no the game company is admitting to criminal negligence =P

If they researched it and failed to warn the consumer = guilty.
If they didnt they failed to ensure their product was safe = guilty.

Contractual limited liability clauses dont apply to criminal cases only civil torts brought by the consumer :cool: