Serial Question

[JulianPrice]

Just curious but how does a gameinstaller know if a cd key is correct?

(also hope this wouldent count as No WAREz, SERIALz or Keyz Questions!!)

Thanks

[caki]

Hard to explain... But look at it this way:

It takes the number you have inputted and checks if some type of mathemtical operation can be performed upon it... If it can't, invalid serial.

[DRAGoN.X]

i always thought that there was a pre-programed list of cd-keys in the installer, if it's wrong then it's not valid. I don't know?

dragonx

[Joe Forster/STA]

@DRAGoN.X: What you're talking about is called "white list" (i.e. serials to be accepted). That's not really possible as there may be several thousand different genuine serials. Also, if a hacker managed to find them in the installer, publishing the serials would be extremely easy.

But there certainly are "blacklisted" (i.e. not to be accepted) serials. However, those won't be added to the installer as such stolen serials are not yet known at the time when the game goes gold. (Unless the game was already stolen and published during its development. )