Spore and Mass Effect copyright protection discussion

[frogbeastegg]

3 activations is stingier than Bioshock. I lost one of my Bioshock activations because something broke so I couldn't remove it via the uninstaller. I had to delete the directory and regedit the entries away. I have never been able to discover what went wrong.

I also remember them being huge because each page would have a unique piece of information that the game would ask for as a copyright check. They figured no one would photo-copy a 200 page manual. Oh how wrong they were...

Some of those checks were really very cute. Ah, the days of spelling out words in the Aurabesh in TIE Fighter ...

[Privateerkev]

Some of those checks were really very cute. Ah, the days of spelling out words in the Aurabesh in TIE Fighter ...

I remember that being in X-Wing. Once I misplaced my manual and spent all afternoon plugging in symbols... :/

I remember old style RPGs that came either with a comic (a few Atari games) or a "choose your own adventure book" style of manual, where you were told to flip to page 42 instead of being told what was going on in-game (Dragon Wars). Annoying, but they stuff a whole lot of crap into those manuals, which is good filler to read.
Sadly, those days are long gone, since it seems like the game producers think the average IQ of a gamer is less than a rock (re: Madden and GTA gamers). The days of "smart" mainstream games have long since been over with.

I think my mom still has a couple of those Atari comics.

As for smart games, I remember the old ones where you actually had to type what you wanted your character to do. Now your mouse just changes when you can open a door or walk to a new room.

Sorry if I am derailing this topic but my posts are part of a larger discussion regarding the work companies used to put into games. As well as older forms of copyright protection.

[Ramses II CP]

Ahh, the good old days. My favorite PC game of all time had nearly no copy protection, it was just good. I bought four copies at various times, won two others ones via various means (Three are still in the box), bought the (Stupid, useless) strategy guide, and even picked up the sound track. I don't see much hope for that kind of (mutually profitable) gaming experience coming around again.

Oh, and about the photocopying 200 page manuals, I actually memorized the word pairs for the copy protection on the Dark Queen of Krynn series, if anyone remembers those. Not really made an effort to do it, just punched 'em in so often I knew them off the top of my head.

I had already given up on Mass Effect, but it's a bit sad to take a pass on Spore as well.

Mostly I think it's the big business of PC games that is dying, and frankly, good riddance to most of it. Gaming's version of iTunes will be along soon enough to wipe them and their laughable 'protection' schemes out.

[TinCow]

Oh, and about the photocopying 200 page manuals, I actually memorized the word pairs for the copy protection on the Dark Queen of Krynn series, if anyone remembers those. Not really made an effort to do it, just punched 'em in so often I knew them off the top of my head.

I remember those, though I only played Champions of Krynn and Death Knights of Krynn. The former was copied from a friend and I did indeed have the 150-200 page manual photocopied, partially for the copy protection. Castles and Castles II, by Interplay, also had similar copy protection where they asked you words from the manual. The original Castles only asked on install and when changing settings. The sequel asked after a few months of playtime and gave you multiple choice answers.

I also remember (not so fondly) the code-wheel style. That was used for Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (Lucasarts), and I think you had to match plane bodies with nose art. I vaguely recall some kind of secret decoder page copyright protection for some random TMNT game. It had a red plastic window that you had to place over the words to read them. This thwarted simple photocopying, because a the color contrast of the ink was lost, making the red window thing useless and the words unintelligible.

[Kekvit Irae]

Ahh, the good old days. My favorite PC game of all time had nearly no copy protection, it was just good. I bought four copies at various times, won two others ones via various means (Three are still in the box), bought the (Stupid, useless) strategy guide, and even picked up the sound track. I don't see much hope for that kind of (mutually profitable) gaming experience coming around again.

What game was that?

[Ramses II CP]

Myth: The Fallen Lords

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_(computer_game_series)

A buddy of mine still runs a MP server for the game (And it's sequels, and Marathon) here:

http://www.mariusnet.com/

Hilariously ugly webpage with a review of the game from 1996:

http://www.csoon.com/issue21/p_bungie.htm

One of the TFL CDs I have is signed by the Bungie guys. It was a grand old game, from the halcyon days of gaming, when we surfed uphill over snowy old telephone wires with creaky 28.8 modems and we liked it!

Okay, thread derailment halted. The old man is tottering back to his shelf of DOS games while cackling to himself.

[Praxil]

I got X360 Mass Effect. And I got to admit it's a beautiful thing, the fact that assuming my X360 and its controller will work let's say after 10 years from now. I can simply hook up my X360, get Mass Effect in to the drive and play the game if I want to. That thought feels great as a matter in fact, I really get that kind of feeling that I own the product.

The cold fact that these servers could be shut down at any time, and that leading to a situation where you won't be able to play that game. That is simply not acceptable.

I think that the "activating games online" is the future. In the end most of the games will require some kind of "check" to a server, either during the installation or when the game is installed. You know this is the thing that I keep hearing that PC games are so much less expensive and all that. When internet plays so huge role in it (to update/mod/even to install the game), and you have to pay for it. It's kind of funny how people ignore that fact, or simply forget it.

I think that this is nothing... I mean, I'm waiting for the information on how will Empire: Total War be protected. Yeah...

[Lemur]

This pretty much sums up my feelings: