Nocd Patches

[Joe Forster/STA]

@Jedimaster Player: Wake up from your dream and learn much more about what crackers are capable of. E.g. Windows XP's activation - which is similar to what you described - was cracked within days or even hours... Also, activation is a bitch if you 1) have no Net access at home and 2) there are no distributors for the game in your country in which case you have to do an expensive foreign call! (Mind you, no, not all people live in the USA...)

[DABhand]

The only way to do it properly, is to either..

1. Distribute games with a unique code on each cd, which has to be activated via online or via phone call.

2. publishers to keep a note of all serials being used when games are shipped, and ask people to call or activate online, and cross reference the serial. If used more than once in a short time, they will know if one copy has been leaked.

[Jedimaster Player]

@Joe Forster/STA
Yes I can see where you are comming from, as this topic took me by surprise & its what I had 1st impressions of what they should do, but after you pointing that out with me its not as good as I 1st thought.

As they say there is always another way wether it's better or for worse, I reckon that Protections on Games will always be around...

Gotta think about what the guy thinks about his own Copy Protection when it comes to buying a Game with his own Protection Creation on it ? LoL

1. Does he get rid of his protection in the Game to play without it

or

2. Does he live with it & use the Original Disk all the time (I Bet Not)

or

3. Does he get the Game without the Protection on it ?

What do you think... What would you do in this sitsuation. Especially if you created the Protection for the Game you bought.

[glenbo]

sounds all good,but if i had to ring a phone number everytime i bought a game i just wouldnt bother anymore.

people dont like hassle.

hell i never even rang microsoft for my activation code,i just cracked it.(before i had the net)

[Jedimaster Player]

Yea ok But what if the Phone Call was free for the 1st Time only just to get your Code ?

[glenbo]

like they would pay operators and not get anything in return... and if they did,it wouldnt be many,so there would be like 5 hour cues.

also,the more hassle that comes with a game,the less people buy it,look at teh awful sells of chaos theory as evidence.

also if each key was protected,what would teh point be of these forums,because you wouldnt be able to make a backup.

[Jedimaster Player]

Good point

I'll rest my case, it just go's to show that Protections just might stay around for a long time comming, the only problem being is that it will just get worse, just look at StartForce & Tages.

[japajapa]

Originally Posted by Joe Forster/STA

@Jedimaster Player: Wake up from your dream and learn much more about what crackers are capable of. E.g. Windows XP's activation - which is similar to what you described - was cracked within days or even hours... Also, activation is a bitch if you 1) have no Net access at home and 2) there are no distributors for the game in your country in which case you have to do an expensive foreign call! (Mind you, no, not all people live in the USA...)

Any ideas on what would be a good system in your opinion then ?

Would an ideal system be that all games would be free of copy protection and developers and publishers would just rely on good human ethics so people wouldn't copy/download games instead of buying them ? And more importantly, do you think such a system would work in real life with the modern society ?

Didn't think so...

[Joe Forster/STA]

I was only saying that Jedimaster Player's idea, the phone/Net activation, was not only annoying to the user but also easier to crack than most copy protections. (Although some said on this forum that they'd rather activate their games via Steam than have this awful Starforce installed on their PC.)

As for my dream - now that you asked for it -, I believe in free (or very cheap) software, without goddamn publishers/resellers/distributors/shops taking away like 95% (there was an estimation about the percentage on this forum a few months ago) of the final price of games/applications/music CD's. (And, yeah, I am reading/watching too much Star Trek and other sci-fi all the time... )

[DUKE_NUKEM]

@ Muji.Fighter (is that your name? lol)

In my country it's not so easy to lend PC games, as anyone takes them only for ripping. There's no need to pay for a week lend when in few hours you can have isos on your hd, don't ya think?
Anyway, I really don't understand the matter of betas. If all works fine, one should ask himself "will it work good also in the retail version?"; otherwise the question will be "will they solve the problem in the full version?"
Lack of respect for gamers is a matter of fact, especially for laptop owners (anyone remembers the res problem of SH4? Why a game should check my hardware if it isn't able to do it properly? The game said I had a 112 Mb Video Card....never seen one before lol), so I don't want to spend more words about it.
There was a time for few games, good games, with packages which made you remain on the seat staring at the case, not at the game. It was amazing to "smell the circuit" from Gran Turismo 2 GT Mode Disc.
Today, with little money you can almost replicate the packaging of everything you want, you have to be feared of protections that could kill your hardware, and, after all, games are no more so special. Take e.g. F.E.A.R. (tried the demo): exceptional concept, ordinary game.
Wasted too many words today, it's time to relaz

[Zaganoth]

What if they made a jump drive instead of a dvd/cd . The new HDs coming out will not have any moving parts and will pretty much be a USB jump drive. What if they made a jump drive that could only be read , put the protection on there so that it is encrypted with a key. Kinda like the floppy's but the write protect switch was always on so you wouldnt accidently overwrite them. When you have to start a game , you just switch what jump drive is plugged in. They would definitely last longer then a cd and would take up less space on your desk.

[TippeX]

all that does is change the medium, and it will still be copied, all you have to do is sniff the data, and it would cost more to produce, thus increasing the cost of the software.. nice idea, flawed in concept though