Hi LZ

Quote Originally Posted by Lord Zimoa of Flanders
Piracy is a real problem for many developers, some very talented companies had to close the books in recent years because of the high investments and development costs to produce good games. When a big part of the revenue is flowing away due to illegal copies and piracy, I can understand protection is required and desired by many developers.
I don't mean to be rude, but statements like these from the gaming industry are completely contrary to what I've read on realistic projections of numbers of pirated games. It's also my suspicion that sometimes when bad sales are blamed on piracy, it's actually on the fact that the game in question is miserable and really didn't sell well at all, hence finding a scapegoat. Further, these numbers assume that a pirated game means the individual did not buy the game after downloading it, in a sort of "try before you buy" routine. I know of some publishers who've closed down, but most of those were due to horrible mismanagement (Interplay, anyone?). As the old saying goes, there's lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Although it will always be a cat and mouse game. I wished it should not be a necessity in the future, but game protection is something we should better get used to as piracy will never be halted.
That's true, but as anyone can see, even the worst copy protection mechanisms do absolutely nothing to stop the pirates. Bioshock has one of the worst variants of Securom installed, and it only took the pirates 2 days to fully crack it. The only one that I'm aware of that hasn't been cracked is the 'worst' type of Starforce which is implemented on the expansion for Lock-on Modern Air Combat, and it's apparently due to extreme lack of popularity, not for want of trying. Build a "better" armor, and the other side will build a better gun. The problem here is that the "better" armor (copy protection) is now at the point where it's becoming a problem for the average joe consumer (Starforce destroys hardware), and people are becoming more aware as technology know-how increases of what exactly is happening to their systems when they install this spyware and garbage.

I do hope that you and your company consider this when you release the upcoming game which I'm still anticipating. Doing something like Stardock or Moonpod where you don't have cd checks but simple key activation. Both companies had very successful, profitable games, and doing as such will go miles to improving your relationship with your to-be customer base. You'll always lose some to piracy, but as history indicates, there's no copy protection that'll stop it and the tools are freely available. Make a game that's worthwhile and maintain a good working relationship with us, and we'll sing your praises to heavens and spread the word to buy the game. Stand up and be an example to the big publishers that you don't need to treat your fans (customers) like criminals, it's been done before and you can do the same. And as always best of luck.

Off my soapbox now.

Cheers