Beware of BioWare!

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by wolfsrain

I loved what Stardock did. No invasive protection, no activation,

Excuse me? Are you talking about THIS Stardock? Who made a big deal about GalCiv not including any CD checks but then slipped in online authentication on later patches?

Online authentication is, IMHO, far worse than CD checks since it gives the publisher the ability to arbitrarily terminate your usage of their software. Now Stardock's online activation may be less oppressive than most (and certainly better than Bioware's NWN Premium Modules though Atari is apparently the real culprit there) but they have made it clear that they will deny users the right to resell their software (see point 3 of their Activation FAQ).

In my case, it took 3 weeks (and 4 attempts by Stardock support) before I received a valid key for a game I purchased legitimately (I now use a crack from GCW to avoid having to repeat this process). The one silver lining was that I found this applied to their other products, resulting in me boycotting them completely (saving the cost of an Object Desktop renewal and GalCiv expansion packs).