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Starforce Petition!
There seems to be some strong (maybe even heated) discussions happening through these forums regarding the Starforce protection.
Which brings me to start this thread. I would hope that only a simple comment is needed here: "Yes, I am boycotting Starforce games". That is really all that needs to be said! There is no point in congesting this thread with arguments, its not what I would like to see happen here! There is no need to say anything else! If people are serious then leave a short message here. I would also hope that if this thread gains enough support then it could maybe become a future 'Sticky'? After a few weeks or months we will know if this is worth persueing. Its not that I am supporting Warez or Piracy, I just dont agree with Software being installed onto my system without my approval! Come on all, place your support post here. If you dont agree with what I am saying then simply do not post here! A post here is a post counted. ;) Thankyou for your post/vote. Ok, a big thankyou to Morglum from cdsteam who has been kind enough to let me use his original Starforce Protected Games List. It was originally a Spanish only list! Feel free to let me know of any other Starforce games which are not on the list? I will edit the list to keep it up to date. NOTE: List was updated on 21-6-05 from the list supplied by 'thebluegr'. Nice work 'thebluegr'. ;) An Updated list can be found HERE. 'thebluegr' has also supplied some interesting reading which can be found here in Post #125 of this thread. ;) Starforce Protected Games - 1944 Battle of the Bulge - 7 Sins [3.4.71.19] - Ace Saga - Afrika Korps VS Desert Rats [v3.3.31.21] - American Conquest (Russian) - Anstoss 4 - Area 51 - Army Men (Russian) - Asterix & Obelix XXL - Beyond Divinity - Blitzkrieg Rolling Thunder [v3.4.50.1] - Breed - Chaos League - Club Football 2005 - Codename: Panzers Phase One (3 CDs) [v3.3.37.2] - Codename: Panzers Phase Two - Codename: Outbreak [12-10-2001] - Colin McRae Rally 2005 (DVD) [v3.4.49.1] - Cossacks: Back to War (Russian) - Cossacks: European Wars (Russian) - Cossacks II Napoleonic Wars (2 CDs) [v3.4.65.11] - Counter Terrorist SF Fire for Effect (DVD) [v3.4.71.19] - Creature Conflict The Clan Wars - Cross Racing Championship - Cycling Manager 3 - Cycling Manager 4 [v3.3.36.1] - D Day (2 CDs) [v3.4.41.1] - Dead to Rights (3 CDs) [v3.3.37.26] - Demonic Speedway (Poland) - Domination - Etherlords - Etherlords 2 (2 CDs) [v3.3.31.21] - Fair Strike (2 CDs) [v3.3.33.3] - Fire Department - Fire Department 2 - Gadget and the Gadgetinis - Gangland [v3.3.36.1] - Garfield - Gooka – The Mystery of Janatris - GTR FIA GT Racing game (2 CDs) [v3.4.70.2] - HOMM 4 (Russian) - Horse Race Manager - Icewind Dale 2: Heart of Winter - IL-2 Sturmovik (Russian) - I-Ninja - Kill Switch (2 CDs) [v3.3.33.8] - Korea Forgotten Conflict [v3.3.27.36] - LMA Manager 2005 - Magna Carte (Korean) - Magnamedia (Russian) - Maximus XV: Abraham Strong Space Mercenary - Medieval Lords - Might & Magic 9: Writ of Faith (Russian) - Narsillion (Russian) - Obscure (1 DVD) [v3.3.36.1] - Pac Man World 2 [v3.3.30.11] - Pax Romana [v3.3.30.11] (no information available) - League Manager 2005[v3.4.50.1] (Spanish) - Postal 2 Apocalypse Weekend - Pro Rugby Manager 2 - Psi Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy - Psychotoxic - Rally Championship Xtreme - Real Madrid Club Soccer (DVD) [v3.4.50.1] (Spanish) - Rendezvous 3 (Russian) - Restricted Area - Scrapland (2 CDs) [v3.4.50.1] - Second Sight - Seventh Seal (Asian) - Shade Wrath of Angels [v3.4.53.0] - Shtyrlits 3: USSR Agent (Russian) - Siege of Avalon (Russian) - Silent Hunter III [v3.4.71.19] - Silkolene Honda Motocross GP - Singles [v3.3.33.6] - Singles 2 - Sniper (Poland) - Soldiers Heroes of WWII [v3.3.36.1] - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory [v3.4.71.19] - Still Life - Street Racing Syndicate - Sudeki - SuperPower 2 - Tennis Masters Series: Battleground of Champions (Asian) - The Black Mirror (2 CDs) [v3.3.27.36] - The Fall Last days of Gaia (2 CDs) [v3.4.63.3] - The Heroes of Three Kingdoms (Asian) - The I Of The Dragon (Russian) - The Kreed [v3.3.27.36] - The Moment of Silence - The Suffering (2 CDs) [v3.3.37.2] - Toca Race Driver 2 (1 DVD) [v3.3.35.2] - Trackmania - Trackmania Sunrise - UFO Aftermath ( 2 CDs) [v3.3.27.31] - Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun [v3.3.30.5] (no information available) - Virtual Skipper 3 - War and Peace - Will of Steel - WWII Frontline Command [v3.3.0.26] - Xpand Rally [v3.3.x.x] - Xuan-Yuan Sword 4 (Asian) (no information available) Changes ======= - Juana De Arco [v3.3.36.1] ----> Joan D'Arc, protected by SecuROM New / CD-Checks http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/game...an_of_arc.shtml - The Entente [v3.3.37.26] ----> protected by CD-Checks http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/game...e_entente.shtml - The Black Mirror ----> updated StarForce version, correct is v3.3.35.1 http://m0001.gamecopyworld.com/game...ck_mirror.shtml - Updated Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun with the proper English title http://spacetarget.com/games/pc_victoria.shtml - Updated some of the unknown games - added some more games -------------------------------------------------------------------- Here you can read an article about Starforce. It is an interview with Abbie Sommer of StarForce. She discusses many aspects of the Starforce Protection, what it is, what it does and why it is needed. Here is just a small portion of that interview: Question: There's an uproar among segments of the game community that StarForce is installed without user approval. Is this a potential legal concern for your company? Answer: There is no legal concern because before a user loads a game, he or she has agreed to accept the conditions of the end-user licensing agreement, typically known as a EULA. These are also known as click and go, or click and accept agreements. When you accept, you are saying I will load this game or application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms. Or there will be a disclaimer that protects the publisher from damages of any kind due to their products’ use. Our product is licensed to our customers, and becomes part of their product, so the user by accepting the terms, is giving approval. Now here Abbie states "When you accept, you are saying I will load this game or application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms." Tell me please people, how many of you, after reading the EULA, actually understood, from those terms, that an intrusive protection was going to be installed onto your system? Do you think her statement only implies to 'The Game' itself? I believe the EULA should tell us about the protection being installed! If in fact there was nothing to worry about why is this statement included? "Or there will be a disclaimer that protects the publisher from damages of any kind due to their products’ use" The word 'Products' should really only say 'Game'! After all that is all we have been made aware of installing, as thats all it says earlier! To be fair to the gamer this is how I believe that part or the EULA should be written: "I will load this game and the Protection application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms." I still believe it is only a matter of time before this issue finds its way into a court of Law! The wording of documents like the EULA must be written in a way so as not to decieve the consumer! We must be given the opportunity to be 'fully' aware as to what we are actually installing! Grumpy |
Id just like a sticky here with links to the gamelist with SF.
But I hope they do go down the tubes too..... I buy all my games,and will attempt at my very best to avoid any SF games,mainly because I use a RAID system on SCSI. The GTR demo,back last year,gave me a fit I'd care not to explain..... |
I will boycot Starforce too, because i dont like Drivers, which run in the back and i don't know what they do!
Sry for my bad english :o |
that`s the reason why i will boycott sf games. and i think that it can`t be that the protection drivers don`t allow to read dpm info from cd`s anymore. that is a feature, which is necessary to make copies of your original discs.
i think that it should be forbidden for the programmers of protections to manipulate installed software or to run a driver like a trojan in the background. sorry, but my english is also not perfect |
i refuse to buy any more starforce protected games :mad:
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I am boycotting Starforce games.
Starforce=Virus |
I have always been boycotting them, since I tried a sf3 game once (it was Black Mirror, I think).....
Many titles slipped me by, but...so did the money for the developer! |
time for an anti-virus application :p
I HATE StarForce, I will never buy any SF protected game, even if it is rewarded as 'Game of the century' or whatever. |
No starforce for me either.. Never ever... EVER!
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yes I refuse to buy any starforce game i wont mess up my pc over that Shlt did it once never again DIE STARFORCE DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Don't worry guys, Sooner or later D-tools or any emulation tool will find a way to solve this problem as I am sure Starforce is also a great problem to them besides to us.
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And with the new Starforce Version after the new D-Tools release there wont work anything! And the Starforce Virus is still installed on your PC! :mad:
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As with any addiction, I'll buy it if its a must have. But as a rule of thumb, no I wont purchase Starforce protected games.
So far I've only bought one and that was the last one. I had to reformat and the game went on Ebay. But if 9/10 of my buddies are playing the game and the game lasts more than 6 months, then I will try once more. So far that hasnt happen. Most games are a flash and forgotten in a couple months. Oh well, at least I found a way to save some money. |
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Perhaps because U installed a Non Starforce protected game! Stronhold 2 protection is:Securom 7 |
@Grumpy.
Excellent my dear Grumpy. This is what we need, someone with a little time to maintain and monitor the thread, I would have done something along the same lines if I had more time on my hands to give it the level of attention that it deserves. May I make a suggestion? "Yes you may comrade dajunka", thank you. It would be great if you could maintain a list of games that have had the SF removed such as X2 the threat and all new game releases that are SF free. This not only gives readers I quick guide to what they may buy without breaking the boycott but also will reflect the mod of the publishers, giving us some insight to if our message is getting though to their bank accounts or not. Most new releases of late have adopted SF as their chosen protection so any fluctuation in future releases should become obvious. Keep up the good fight Grumpy and I would like to nominate this thread for a sticky. |
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Great idea, Grumpy :)
I have never bought any Starforce protected game before, and i never will. I have encountered several issues with Starforce protected demo's: after installing such a game demo, my system became unstable... i randomly got Blue Screens Of Death. I uninstalled the SF drivers, and hey, all of a sudden no more BSOD's ! However, almost no protection is 100% "clean": Safedisc, Securom, Tages, VOB ProtectCD and most other commercial copy protections do install 'hidden' drivers: - Secdrv is a driver installed by Safedisc - UAService7.exe is a service installed by Securom 7 (i do not know if this protection installs a driver) - Enodpl/Tandpl/Lemsgt/Hwpsgt are drivers installed by Tages - SshDrvXX (where XX is a number) is a driver installed by ProtectCD As you can see, almost all protections install "something" without your knowledge. But there is one big difference: the drivers installed by the protections apart from Starforce seem to be totally harmless. For example, I have never ever heard problems that were directly related to the Safedisc driver. The Starforce drivers are getting worse each time they are being updated: the latest versions even prevent you from properly reading DPM info from CD/DVD media, which is, in my opinion, a real shame, and illegal ! The SF coders surely know of the current USB drive trick. What will be next ? That the new drivers will prevent you from using a USB CD/DVD drive ? I hope not. |
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Im not gonna start a flame in this thread, just saying congrats to this guy for having knowledge of what he is debating about :) |
Hi guys,
As a software developer, I believe that adding suspicious or potentially malicious code to a software hurts the user and voids the trustful connection between the developer and the user. While the developers always disclaim all damage and loss, caused by their own software, they shouldn't add questionable code on purpose. As a hacker, I believe that using undocumented system functions is a very bad idea (unfortunately, M$ operating systems are known to be extremely ill-documented, except when a third party comes to the rescue!) because their functionality may not be exactly as documented and may change any time, without notice. As a result, you may have strange problems if your PC has "non-standard" hardware or software installed. (Meaning: hardware and software that the code hasn't been tested with.) As a self-conscious user and administrator of the home PC's of my family, I would hate to have any software running on my systems, without my knowledge. This even includes those sh*t little icons in the system tray, which I carefully get rid of; viruses, ad-ware and other malicious code is much worse than that. The Starforce copy protection has gone too far in the last year or so. It's becoming too similar to trojans and may have severe consequences to the stability of your system. (And the average user doesn't even know the reason as all copy protections are well hidden, for a reason!) Whether this thread has any chance to call the attention of game publishers, I don't know. Actually, I don't think so... Still, I'm against intrusive software, be it trojans, ad-ware or copy protection! Joe |
No SF game for me. Never :(
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To all others who have posted here already I thank you also. The only reason I am thanking Dabhand personally is because he believes there is nothing wrong with what Starforce does!! But still he posted a vote? :D |
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@Dabhand
LOL Yes thats because from here I cant poke you in the eye to wake you up! |
Ok just incase all of you who have started to follow this thread do not read the first post again, there is now a Starforce Protected Games List in the first post of this thread. ;)
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Thanks Grumpy for the effort. I do hope this gets out to the unlearned customers in the hope the bloody PC gaming industry doesn't sink any lower than it has. Its beyond pathetic now.
However, how do we, the learned consumer, make a change to the PC industry? I gather this is one small step. The madness MUST end! I cannot begin to express my absolutely disdain for both Securom7 and StarFarce3! Hidden virtual device drivers are simply wrong!!! YOU DON'T NEED TO SELL A GAME AND THEN TAKE THE CUSTOMER'S RIGHTS AWAY! A game sells on merit and doesn't need over-protection. There are better ways to make money then further alienate your customer base with such assinine measures. I've already said plenty on this matter in other forums across the web and I do pray this "protection idioicy" ends soon. Also do wish game devs would release NoCD/DVDs upon their first or second patch as a goodwill gesture for thanking us, the paying public, for buying their games. A gaming industry that still requires the CD/DVD to be inserted before and during gameplay is sooo 90s. Gawd industry WAKE FRICK'N UP ! ! ! ! THe ReB. |
You have my vote. No SF for me. :cool:
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Thanks for that games list I was wondering why my system developed problems after I installed heroes ww2. I will never ever purchase a product that uses starforce again.
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You can add StillLife (StarForce v3.4.65.11) to the list... :(
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Me too
I don't buy any starforce protected game, never ever. It's crap and one more step to a global fascism, whenever some concerns own the whole world.
But just they will be satan's slaves. :p Maybe time to stop playing? :D |
lol ppl :D
99% here cant emulate the SF and there is no crack to it, so they became angry relax, okay games you like, forget about drivers - it didnt do any "backdoor" work http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=91 |
@nerva
Unfortunately that link has no date on the page! I have read that before and it could refer to any version of Starforce? I assure you the later versions of Starforce is a whole new ball game! Of course Starforce are not going to tell you openly about the hidden fuctions of thier protection! :rolleyes: A Quote from the first paragraph from that site: Quote:
Look many can argue we are only picking up a fuss because we cant rip of games anymore! I am self employed and earn very good dollars, I dont need to steal games! But I do like to be able to walk into a shop and purchase a game which will not cause havoc to my system! What we are trying to do here is make people aware that all is not what it seems in the Protection industry! Nerva, you say there is no backdoor function, well clearly none that you know of! ;) |
StarForce 3: Boykott
StarForce 3 really sucks hard!
The only StarForce 3 protected game I have is "Splinter Cell 3 - Chaos Theory". It came together with my new Graphics card (Leadtek Winfast A6600 GT TDH). But I will never buy such a game. This protection is very customer-unfriendly! MfG MontyBurns1985 |
Thanx for the list of games protected by SF. Will ensure that I don't download those. Pls. don't mistake me for writing this. I download games and not buy them 'cos, here in India they cost around 1500 bucks. No way someone's gonna pay that and also get their PC INFECTED with SF. So no more SF game downloads. Cheers for starting this topic.
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@ Whacko
May I suggest you go and read the forum rules! This site is not to help you choose which games to 'download'! People like yourself are the reason these type of intrusive protections are released!! Games are expensive in every country, what makes you think it is ok to download games just because you cant afford them! I cant afford a Rolls Royce car but it doesnt mean I can just steal one! Developers etc work very hard to release games, so you will have to work just as hard to be able to purchase them! You obviously can afford a broadband connection therefore you can afford to buy games! Enjoy your upcoming ban from this site! :mad: |
I don't know! Seeing how much the game industry still makes, even with Piracy, I think the reason we see such protections is more because they can get away with it than anything else. Isn't it grand how the government has no problem helping big business screw over legitimate consumers, but won't do squat to help with our rights when it comes to software?
The whole thing is BS in my opinion. I will practically buy any game I want, but (Except for Kill.Switch and XIII) I will never buy another game with either StarForce or Tages. Funny how both were cracked eventually anyway... :rolleyes: Sean |
I think it goes without saying that I’m for the boycott.
I got to say there's a lot of cool arguments mostly against SF coming from forum members, stuff that I've never really given much thought to before. One plus to this campaign is that SF is getting discussed more and more on game forums, mostly shouting for it's demise. The minus is that more and more game forums are closing or deleting threads that attempt to discuss SF, shoot, what is there to hide. Read for more info on the Starforce virus. http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000477025364/ Come on my dear mods nominate this thread to the big man for a sticky badge. |
I am not surprised, many forums don't have the balls to stand up and talk about this stuff. Too afraid of getting closed down... :rolleyes:
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Just to make one thing sure: I DO BUY all of my games......And yes, almost every protection has to install "drivers" to function properly. SF really made my system to become unstable......and before any "wise man" comes and says something like "Hey, if sf makes your system unstable, you probably have a problem with your configuration", I have to admit that I am a sysop at a rather large company, and I know how to setup a system.
BTW, I have several systems at home, some of them are pure (fast and reliable) scsi systems. I am afraid I am a SCSI fan......but sf3 developers surely don't like me.... The reason why I don't like sf is NOT tht it is very hard to crack....it is more that sf games totally refuse to run on some of my systems cos I DARE to have hardware equipment, which sf does not like. Even if it thinks that I deserve having a look at the game, sf sometimes screws up my system..... That's my bottom line..... |
I had no problem with Starforce when I bought Kill.Switch, that said, I just don't like the idea of us getting screwed over with protections, that do nothing but inconvenience legit consumers of the software. Tages is the only one that gave me problems and am glad Ubisoft decided to stick with other types since putting it on XIII...
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