EB2: The Big Question

[Mouzafphaerre]

It does seem futile and faintly hostile, but if all you need is an application to remove it for you, all that needs to happen is for said application to be provided and everyone wins.

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The removal isn't the only issue. As some posters have stated above, SecuRom is malware itself.

And no, it doesn't make illegal copies any harder. Just pisses off the honest customers.
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[Hax]

TBH, I have Kingdoms, and I use DaemonTools all the time with no problems.

[Elthore]

well, it is rumoured that these types of 'backdoor' trojan style copy protection systems send private info(as in, info you did NOT make public) to the parent company, who in turn will sell it to the highest bidder. It is clearly capable of acting in this way, as well, companies have proven be capable of acting this way as well, anything for the profit. Another issue is that more malicious people could use the same ports that are opened by this utility to access your computer. If the public can crack these protections within hours, how long would it take for them to connect to uncracked(infected by SecuROM) versions running on paying customers computers? not very long at all

[Meneldil]

It does seem futile and faintly hostile, but if all you need is an application to remove it for you, all that needs to happen is for said application to be provided and everyone wins.

Well, yeah, it can be removed (though that's quite a tedious process actually), but still, I will never ever buy a game with such copy-protection crap, that only result is to piss off honest players.

And I'm not whining for EB2 to be released as a non-Kingdom mod. I perfectly understand that Kingdom offers great features that would greatly enhance the EB experience. EB2 must be released with Kingdom, even if it means I will likely not play it.

[iceman7291]

TBH, I have Kingdoms, and I use DaemonTools all the time with no problems.

I second that statment, and would like to add I also use MagicIso and AVG with NO problems as well.

[Bellum]

seems sort of ridiculous. who really cares if you cant make illegal copies? unless its how you earn a living, it seems like NOT a big deal at all.

It seems to me that people have become desensetised by the current state of software, malicious code is everywhere oftentimes used by legitimate parties, as can be seen by this example. It's become the way things are.

IIRC, in the 90's, everybody would be pissed. Not even because of what the software does, but because it does it to YOUR PROPERTY without your consent. Why should it be acceptable. If I had known that it contained the DRM when I bought it, I wouldn't have (Which is probably one of the reasons why it isn't mentioned anywhere on the box). Installing it now that it's mine is no matter, because the actual software doesn't bother me. I won't be buying anything else from CA, though, because their software is invasive.

[keravnos]

To make EB2 truly unique, after EB1 (and how it was perceived thanks to you guys) we would need all the potential M2TW has to offer, if it is to be truly spectacular. And it will be.

If the price for that would be to alienate those of you who will not buy Kingdoms, then so be it.

[Elminster12]

To make EB2 truly unique, after EB1 (and how it was perceived thanks to you guys) we would need all the potential M2TW has to offer, if it is to be truly spectacular. And it will be.

If the price for that would be to alienate those of you who will not buy Kingdoms, then so be it.

I'm a major fanboy, but I'll be getting it pretty much just for EB...

[Elthore]

yeah, Ill only be "getting" it for EB2 for sure.

At the very least, people should be made aware of this stuff. More popular games like Bioshock are possibily going to be recieving law suits from consumers.

[I Am Herenow]

...after EB1 (and how it was perceived thanks to you guys)...

Meaning?

[Iasonis]

Just make sure you delete the registry values that kingdoms puts on your cpu. I think they stay after delete. I have kingdoms and just removed it, i just dont like it, not bc of the values it writes into your registry. After standard delete you have to play search and destroy on your own cpu, under start go to run and type regedit, but be careful you can mess your cpu up bad if you delete the wrong entries.

[hellenes]

I have a hope that by the time EB2 is released SEGA (I never call them CA because CA doesnt exist deal with it people) will remove the Securom7 from Kingdoms as happened with some other games and Starforce...just a hope...

[Starforge]

I'm not a black helicopter type of guy and I don't personally pirate / copy / crack software. Not too much worried about these types of copy protections and never had a problem with them. /shrug.

As to them gathering personal information - sure, it's possible (hell, it's possible within pretty much any software you install, games included.) The legal exposure to the company if caught (and they would be given the hue and cry over it here...probably kids sitting in their basements monitoring every packet as I type) would be devastating. Yeah, they add that language into the EULA which would last them all of 5 seconds in front of a judge if they maliciously used that software to steal private information. (gee, your honor, I told them they might get robbed...then I robbed them - how can you hold me accountable for that?)

Finally, if the team decided the features offered with Kingdoms will make EB2 a better game - given the effort and work put into v1 to make it the excellent experience it is, I'll trust their judgement on which version to make EB2 on.

Fanboy? maybe, but then the folks here have earned my respect.

[hellenes]

I'm not a black helicopter type of guy and I don't personally pirate / copy / crack software. Not too much worried about these types of copy protections and never had a problem with them. /shrug.

As to them gathering personal information - sure, it's possible (hell, it's possible within pretty much any software you install, games included.) The legal exposure to the company if caught (and they would be given the hue and cry over it here...probably kids sitting in their basements monitoring every packet as I type) would be devastating. Yeah, they add that language into the EULA which would last them all of 5 seconds in front of a judge if they maliciously used that software to steal private information. (gee, your honor, I told them they might get robbed...then I robbed them - how can you hold me accountable for that?)

Finally, if the team decided the features offered with Kingdoms will make EB2 a better game - given the effort and work put into v1 to make it the excellent experience it is, I'll trust their judgement on which version to make EB2 on.

Fanboy? maybe, but then the folks here have earned my respect.

Anyway Kingdoms works even without Securerom...learn to google people...

[Starforge]

Anyway Kingdoms works even without Securerom...learn to google people...

Don't care - so why would I google it? Congrats, however, for those who were concerened :).

[hellenes]

Don't care - so why would I google it? Congrats, however, for those who were concerened :).

Good for you...thanks god that we got this amazing online programming community that provides solutions...Cant wait for EBII now!!!!

[Barigos]

I will definitely play EB2,even if I have to install that crappy Vista!!!

[hellenes]

I will definitely play EB2,even if I have to install that crappy Vista!!!

Kingdoms aint Vista only...its not even DX10.

[Bobolicious]

I dont care how easy it is to take off, i would have bought kingdoms just so i could play EB2 but I guess this changes things. Oh well

[Copperknickers]

Has noone noticed that the only way this affects people i have seen so far is if they are taking part in illegal activities? By breaking the laws of computer companies, you lose all their protection, that is how this works, obviously. Of course i do not want this kind of thing on my computer, but then again, i dont want to be caught on camera an average of 100 times a day, but it never does and probably never will even warrant my notice. Not to mention that if anything did happed fraud wise, you would likely make an enormous profit out of a lawsuit, they wont take that risk beleive me.

[Foot]

Has noone noticed that the only way this affects people i have seen so far is if they are taking part in illegal activities? By breaking the laws of computer companies, you lose all their protection, that is how this works, obviously. Of course i do not want this kind of thing on my computer, but then again, i dont want to be caught on camera an average of 100 times a day, but it never does and probably never will even warrant my notice. Not to mention that if anything did happed fraud wise, you would likely make an enormous profit out of a lawsuit, they wont take that risk beleive me.

Wrong actually. I can't use Filemon any more with MTW2 which is a huge shame for discovering bugs in EB. Filemon is a program that monitors the activities of programs on the computer. Securom doesn't like it and will cause the game not to start if it is running, you have to restart the computer just to get into the game. You can start the game first and then load filemon afterwards, but securom won't allow any further use of that program once you've exited it once until you restart the computer.

Just because a company states that its program is to be used to defend copyright and only harms those dealing in illegal activities, doesn't make them correct. The innocent are harmed far more than the criminals.

Foot

[Geoffrey S]

Has noone noticed that the only way this affects people i have seen so far is if they are taking part in illegal activities? By breaking the laws of computer companies, you lose all their protection, that is how this works, obviously. Of course i do not want this kind of thing on my computer, but then again, i dont want to be caught on camera an average of 100 times a day, but it never does and probably never will even warrant my notice. Not to mention that if anything did happed fraud wise, you would likely make an enormous profit out of a lawsuit, they wont take that risk beleive me.

Last I checked, those engaged in illegal activity simply went on downloading games despite all these great security programs; the only ones affected are legal buyers, as always, who are stuck with unwanted programs which may quite conceivably compromise security of a pc or affect other programs.

[Puupertti Ruma]

I think it was representative of Starforge (another nasty malware-type copyright protection software) that said that ultimate goal of copy protection software is to delay the eventual cracking of the game for the critical couple of months, during which the bulk of the games sales are made. After the copy protection has been cracked it serves no purpose, it only makes the life of law abiding retail owning people more difficult, with the added harm of enabling backdoors to their computers.

Fortunately I personally don't know of any troijan, virus or malware that uses these backdoors. Please correct me if I am wrong.

(ps. sorry for the really long sentences)

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I think it was representative of Starforge (another nasty malware-type copyright protection software) that said that ultimate goal of copy protection software is to delay the eventual cracking of the game for the critical couple of months

As some other poster told here or over at the Securom related thread, Kingdoms was cracked what? within the week of release or something like that.
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[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

As some other poster told here or over at the Securom related thread, Kingdoms was cracked what? within the week of release or something like that.

Even worse - it was under twenty-four hours.

[kambiz]

Even worse. It was under twenty-four hours.

lol Yeah. Without exaggeration ,it was cracked within first 24 hours. But I'm wondering ,Does CA not really aware of this fact after all of those years being in gaming business??! I don't understand why they think these softwares can delay cracking their games?!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Unfortunately the CA don't make the decision. It's the publishers, in this case SEGA, who select the copy protection mechanism. Due to this, SEGA are the only ones with the power to officially allow SecuROM's removal. The only problem is they are not actually part of the community, so don't see any of these problems the ordinary consumer is facing. In addition, I doubt they look around to investigate the success of their strategies, so probably are ignorant to SecuROM's failure.

[Birka Viking]

I have kingdoms and have absolutely no problems at all. The only problem with kingdom that I can think about is for you with low end computers............

[MiniMe]

All this developing technocrap actually makes me feel a bit nervous. Tracking software, passport microchips, cameras everywhere...

My grandparents were living under a real totalitarian regime.
My parents were living under dying out totalitarian regime.
I live a free life and happy about it.
Are my children and grandchildren to live under a XXI century totalitarian regime again?

[iceman7291]

If they live in America, then yes.