Nocd Patches

[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