Starforce Petition!

[thebluegr]

@10823berlin:

Game demos DO give a good idea about what the game is about. Each game takes years and a group of programmers to make, something which you obviously don't respect. I'm not saying that I have bought everything that's installed on my PC, but I have bought a lot of software titles that I really enjoyed playing (Splinter Cell 1-3, Need For Speed Underground 1-2, Far Cry, Half Life 2 to name a few). Movies "generate some fun for very little time" as well, but I do go to the cinema. You can't just pretend to be poor, I've been a student, I've worked at the same time and still had money to go to the movies once per month and to buy a good game every 1-2 months.

As for game testing, you can always get the demo from a magazine or from the company's site, and yes that's usually more than enough to see what the game looks like. And you can still rent games from a video club. And in UK, you can return a product you didn't like (game, movie or music CD)...

Finally: nobody said that you HAVE to buy EVERY new game or movie that comes out. Noone forces you to do so. You just buy the stuff you like. That's why demos and trailers exist...

[Buck Rogers]

The key to end this war?

1) produce good quality games;
Money doesn't grow on trees so develop good games and
you have my bucks! otherwise go harvesting carrots!
Thats why game developers should have their respective public forum to ask customers what they want from the new incoming game, maybe even using them as beta testers.

2) lower the price (20 euros):
The price will be lower enought to be stupid to dwl a warez version, so the customers of original game will grow and no protection will be needed at all! we are about 60 million people around the world, get only 1 milions x 20 dollars=20 millions dollars!!! is enought for writing a game? (no other costs see below)

3) buy online and download it:
No more intermediaries between developers and customers, if a game could be sell at 20 euro, at the shelves cost 3 times more!! so you can be able to download a PERSONALIZED copy of the game, in your language and with an embed mention to who is the owner of such game (e.g.: this copy of the game belongs to etc etc, thanx for buying etc etc) let people customize what they purchase, let it be unique!

4) I really think that is my right to try-before-buy, so release ALWAYS a fully enjoyable demo version of the game (ID software docet!) before the final game, i have to know if the game is REALLY as CoOL as shown in the magazines or in the internet gaming site reviews.

but this will never happens, there is a weird project.. and al this projects leads to the same reason.. MONEY!

Antivirus: they are free.. you can use it freely but you know why? because in the future you will pay for it for sure!

antispam: same as above

Internet Game servers browsers: same as above

cheats website: same as above

and so on..

even the cracking tools have a cost! so why this mess should end? naaa... too many people earn easy money...
and my opinions is useless.. just like yours.

[DABhand]

1. They do this already, and most publishers/developers do have beta testers.

2. Even if the game was $5 people will still steal/download the games, cause they are fat greedy feckers.

3. A good option, for the broadband people, people with 56k may miss out. But, then comes the Steam idea, they would have to protect the game via a steam like app, or else someone will get the game and sell to pals for $5 so they can play it.

[whoeverxxx]

I feel Starforce ruined one of my Sata drives in my raid0 array a while back on this computer. I've heard that this can happen if you have raided drives but I have no way to prove this is what happened to my drive. The drives were just a few months old and after I installed the game called Scrapland, the problems started and then one of the drives developed unrecoverable errors and turned to scrap just like the name of the game.

[LoxHazard]

Originally Posted by whoeverxxx

I feel Starforce ruined one of my Sata drives in my raid0 array a while back on this computer. I've heard that this can happen if you have raided drives but I have no way to prove this is what happened to my drive. The drives were just a few months old and after I installed the game called Scrapland, the problems started and then one of the drives developed unrecoverable errors and turned to scrap just like the name of the game.

There are more real cases with starforce games how yours. With raid 0 and raid 5 too, with important consequences, unrecovered and data lost.

Some people continue buying starforce games without preocupation, ok, they chosen their way. Luck for them.

[DUKE_NUKEM]

@ DABhand

I don't think that, if ALL gamez had low prices, people would continue to download them. I feel sick when I see dl links to gamez which cost 15 euros, but I understand (NOT justify) the motives of those who download games which cost 50-60 euros. There are too many games, too much similar, nobody obliges us to buy everything, it's true, but if a game would last one month (= approx 30-45 hours), 40 euros (not 50 anyway) would be an honest price. 90% of games last max. 20 hours, it's not possible to include in this type of considerations the online gaming 'cause it's not a "quality" of the game, it's a mere possibility. However piracy is not so dangerous as they want us to believe, it hurts small software houses leading them to give up but the big ones (EA, Ubisoft and so on) still have big income as they are able to "recycle" their preceiding gamez without offering any of really "new". So don't worry, I don't think they will ever know what is poverty....

[Tijay]

In my opinion there are some more reasons that people DL warezed Games. Not only for the price. I´ve no need to dl such games, my wife has a games store so i can test or play the newest releases. But i can say its more comfortable to play with cracked versions. It´s extremly annoying to type endless Cd/dvd keys, 2 or 3 times reboot the system, waiting for verification the protection, hear spinning the Cd/dvd device while my playing session, the boring questions for registration the game, cancel for more and more games the fuc**** "Gamespy", watching minutelong boring Intros - in some cases without chance to break it - , and so on. I just want to install a game, remove my CD/DVD and start playing simple. For me the only reason for using Gamefixes from GCW or other pages.
And i´m sure, this could be an reason for DL warezed games. They are much more comfortable, smoother and sometimes more stable. Here´s the point for the games industry to learn. If somebody spend 50.- Euros for an game, he has to got an userfriendly product and not an bull**** like starforce and Co.

Tijay

[acha]

Most people that downloads games are from latin america, the main problem here is that games never reach to our stores... I would like to walk a few blocks and buy the cossacks 2 or any new game that have been released in europe and USA, but here in this ****ing far away country on the southern part of america games never reach.
I I go to a store they only sell a sims game or an AOE!!

Its too sad that some countries are left out of a certain market, here a customer is almost forced to download a warez game...

Hopefully Ive joined e-bay and bought the new cossacks, but I have to wait that the seller sends it by an expensive mail company which will double the price of the product... So ones again the poor and undeveloped countries have to pay more in order to buy legaly.

[coffin filler]

@ acha...Whilst you have my sympthany due to not getting good games released in your part of the world there are still "other" ways to obtain games without resulting to warez!! One simple option is to buy from a reputable source (many on the www) where by you can order almost any game and if you are to young or dont own a credit card you can pay with "pay pal" etc. Of course this will result in extra charge for postage but its not a massive hike in the original price. Also its not just the poor and under developed countrys that cant buy certian games as i myself (UK) had to buy a game called Enclave online from another country as it wasnt being released over here. I could of easliy downloaded a warez copy of the game but i am one of the few (mabey even a fool) that tries to support the dev houses etc that are responcible for brining us these great (and sometimes crappy) games. (i have a fast connection with unlimited usage and download size but i choose to buy it with my hard earned £s. Anyway this is getting off topic (as its a thread for SF ). (its just i see so many lame excuses where people try to justify there warez illness

[aycabron]

So let me see if I got this staright...
Ubisoft has installed a secret program (without my authorization) that can cause some problems generaly asociated with a computer virus...If I were american I would SUE THE F**K OUT OF THEM! How dare they do that? I bought a legitimate copy of their damn game and they treat me like a thief the have to keep tabs on? Maybe the starforce is also a troyan which is secretly spying on my files too...at least steam let you know what you might be getting into....I´m in too, Boycott Starforce!
I own a Pizzeria, and it´s like saying that you are not responsable for someone beign foodpoisoned because of your food, because nobody forced them to eat it...you hold a responsability to your customers. And in NO WAY is the use of starforce covered in those in the agreement...because it´s not only a troyan (insalled without warning or notification of it´s consequences), but it can cause damage to your PC and interfer with it´s operation...so by this rationale, publishers could include troyans & even more delightful virus in their games, and nobody would be accountable for it but the end user....I´m one of the idiots who paid for a legit copy of their game....but I sincerly hope that those looking for the cd fix can come through and then "distribute" their damn games all over the damn world!
HACK THE PLANET!

[Forestmarko]

sign me up for the protest.... And about piracy... Yes many (maybe too many) people are downloading/burning the game illegally but as a matter of fact those games really cost too much... By loverin the prices the pirecy would Slowly dercrease. I dont think, that it will dissapear (at least not now or in near future), but surely it will decrese a bit and game companies will still have their profits... I dont think, that the costumers(aka pirats) are the only greedy people in this bussyness

(sry for my english ... Slovakia )

[fenjy]

boycott, yes. but to all those who own the games that use sf, take the game back and say its faulty, if the shop says why then say the sf protection wont let me load it, what can they say even if has been opened, after all you cannot copy sf games.....

[coffin filler]

Originally Posted by fenjy

boycott, yes. but to all those who own the games that use sf, take the game back and say its faulty, if the shop says why then say the sf protection wont let me load it, what can they say even if has been opened, after all you cannot copy sf games.....

you can copy (some SF protected games) the problem can be getting it to play. ie no NOCD,NODVD ect ect unless a 1.1 copy is made. As far as im aware the problem arises when trying to get the SF protected game to run not to copy them. (i may be wrong though as i dont own ANY SF protected games and will NOT own any SF protected games so i can not speak from experience. Every other game i own i have backed up (and i own many games) and i belive this is a right we as consumers should have. SF is IMO a virus associated program where in it dose things that the user is not aware of and also alters the way in which windows works ect which is lets face it is what some viruses do. (thats trying to keep it in laymans terms). Come on consumers we need to let the devs ect know that we (the consumer) who are responcible for their profits know we are not happy and will not tollerate SF as a viable way to protect software when there are so many other viable options avalible to them. The only things that seem to work within the money
industry is money and so if a big enough dint is made in the profits of SF protected games the dev,s,publishers ect ect will get the message eventualy but we have to stick with it,see it through and there needs to be a larger amount of people refusing to buy SF protected games than there curently is. (in all honesty though i belive myself to be in a very small minority when not buying SF protected games which is bad news for the consumer as it gives out the message that we the consumer will tollerate anything so long as we are able to buy the games which begs the question as to what is the next thing we have to endure??)

[Bru_Master]

I fully support the petition to boycott SF games.
I had the "privledge" of having SF F*ck up my system (aka BSOD) and after removing it ...POOF bye bye BSOD

i also looked up the term "virus" at webopedia.com....heres a snipet from it..
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Virus - www.webopedia.com
"A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. "
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Hmmm...does anyone think that this remotely sounds like StarForce?
Or maybe I'm just paranoid...

[Event Horizon]

From now on I will boycot Starforce games. As a father of 3 kids I suggest to all parents to think twice before buying a Starforce protected game. I fully support this petition in all ways. I also have a small suggestion. We write on the cigarettes "It is bad for your health". Why shouldn't be write "It is bad for your OS" on Starforce protected games' case?