A real solution to the StarF**k virus for everyone.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hey Luci,

Enthusiastic game developers do it for the fun and the fame; it is good that they even get money for it but they might even do it for free, too. It is the game publisher that gets most of the money, from your purchase. It's like banks: No matter how much money you earn, as interest, by putting your money into the bank, you can safely bet that the bank will earn tons more! Simply, because you have no other choice and have to accept their (biased? outrageous?) conditions.

(A friend of mine and his friends have been doing a retro-style isometric shooter with a flying dragon for years. They've been doing other stuff -productivity software and software translation - to earn money while coding the game. Now that it's finished, they're not finding a publisher for it. Kind of end of the story. Ridiculous or sad, you choose...)

Joe

[Grumpy]

Yes I too have experienced problems with Starforce and will gladly boycott buying any more Starforce protected games!
I too had problems with Alcohol 120 and my drives after installing a Starforce game!
I too will not go to the extremes of disabling drives etc to play the few starforce games i have, instead prefering to just use the original discs.
From now on the only Starforce game which will be played on my 3 systems is Race Driver 2 as this has never caused me any problems before. It is just the later Starforce Protected games!
The way things are going with PC games we will all eventually have no choice but to buy one of the console machines. This would be a shame to have to do as ive always believed, for most games, the experience is way better on a top end PC. If we all went to consoles the gaming industry would still make their money from the games! It almost seems as if this is what the industry wants us to do!
So yes, no more Starforce Games for me!

[dajunka]

That's the spirit.
There are 3 games coming out this year that I will be buying on day of release, X3 , COD2, and Black and White 2. I am really looking forward to playing these games. But I will be checking on the copy protection that they come with, and if it's SF, then it's a big flat NO!. Ill buy something else with my money.