About the Starforce Copy Protection

[protecyon]

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1124733950

[Corribus]

Why doesn't Ubisoft sell copies without copyprotection to the trustworthy people and sell copies with copyprotection to the untrusty people? That would be more convenient....

[-Olorin-]

"What does this all mean to you? Well if you planned to acquire Heroes V by illegitimate means, then you are going to have some problems." No, it wont be a problem and that is the problem, it all the honest buyers that will experince all side effects.

[HMMFan]

It is hard to determine what is the truth of this program. I do not burn CDs (Well, never actually), but I can do it, and I am thinking of doing so by legally downloding songs, etc. If Starforces interferes with those types of legal activities, then there are problems. If not, and it merely keeps people from copying Heroes 5 or cracking it, then it is a legitimate protection employed by Ubisoft. I suppose each of us consumers will need to investigate the product before making our purchase.

[Radwar99]

One of the problems with Starforce is that it has problems with certain CD-ROM drives. Quite a few had this problem with Neverwinter Nights when it shipped. Those people couldn't even play the game after PAYING for it. After lots of complaints, Atari (Neverwinter Nights publisher) decided to remove Starforce from the game altogether.



When people who buys games have problems because of copy protection then that copy protection should be removed from the games and not return until it is reliable, PERIOD.

[Anthriel]

@Corribus: Who exactly is "trustworthy"?

As for Starforce: meh.

Obviously companies want to protect their intellectual property, but this protection should not interfere with playing a legimate version. There have been numerous severe problems with copy protections before, sometimes people had to crack their own legimate version just to play it.

I have no intention to have the same problems, so preordering is definitely out for me now. Let's see what the reviewers will have to say about it in the future.

[Ethric]

Well I for one don't care for copy-protection that inconviniencesdamages the legitimate buyer unduly. I have had experience with starforce, but I don't think it caused any problems at the time. As in, there were some glitches with the game but I don't think it had to do with starforce. Though it might ahve been, I'm no expert.



But the thing is, for those who intends to make illegal copies this sort of copy-protection is a minor speedbump, not to hard to overcome. I don't think the little bit of extra protection is worth potentially annoying the rest of us; the legitimate buyers.



If I buy H5 and there is any problems because of it I will make noise... and return it to the shop if no resonable solution is found.

[Corribus]

@Anthriel - I was being facetious, of course. The point is, as Ethric already stated, if people want to crack the game, they're going to crack it, no matter what is used to protect it. So why annoy the honest users then by unnecessary programs that run in the background? Surely there's a better way. Of course, I know nothing at all about Starforce so I'm just reacting along with the reactions of "those in the know". If they're over-reacting about nothing, than so am I.

[Sikon]

I agree with Ethric. It only complicates things for legitimate customers, as pirates are going to crack copy protection anyway. (Like StarForce hasn't been cracked already.)

[Campaigner]

Difficult topic....Fabrice and Starforce say one thing and the web says another....the problem is that you sometimes don't know if the complaining one have taken the necessary steps (firmware update, no windows skinning utility, disable/uninstall virtual CD/DVD devices etc.).



Since the Ubi forum moderator in the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory forum says that you should disable or uninstall virtual CD/DVD devices while Fabrice says that Starforce doesn't interwene with them I think I'll have to keep posting in the official thread and also on the Starforce forum. Would be interesting to see what Nerva (Starforce siteadmin) says. He visisted the fileforums and debuted the statements by people there.

[Psychobabble]

Everyone seems to be saying that Starforce is just a speedbump for hackers. While that might have been true for earlier versions, Fabrice gives strong indication that it isn't true nowdays - Spinter Force 3 released in march still hasn't been cracked according to him.



Further, even if SOME can bypass the protection, that doesn't remove the fact that the huge amount of low level piracy which goes on and which is probably responsable for a lot of lost sales will be severely limited by effective copy protection. Not everyone has the technical knowledge to go searching for Warez sites and complicated workarounds.

[Dragon Angel]

I do not think you need means so strong as StarForce 3 to stop an high amount of low-level piracy, Psycho.

[Gunjack]

Well there is one thing , if you buy a legal copy of the game you can stil use a crack or a loader just to avoid inserting the H5 playdisk over and over to avoid damaging it and from what I know these programs would bypass the starforce scurity issues ...

[Ethric]

Psychobabble wrote:



"Not everyone has the technical knowledge to go searching for Warez sites and complicated workarounds."



Hmm... I daresay anyone capable of day-to-day operating a PC and knows how to use the net wouldn't have much trouble locating various sites with cracks and similar. Of course, if the program is so secure there is no way to come up with a way to easily overcome it you would be right. But I don't really see that happening... the people trying to break copy-protectors aren't any less clever than the ones making them, and it is always only a matter of time, IMO.

[Wildbear]

I'm ok with copy protection, but a driver is different. I prefer a steam-like authentification, I really have no problem with that, and I have no problem with server-side check when I connect to battle.net or other UT-like servers. But having a driver, with all the incompability issues it can possibly ave with other programs is the worst thing in my opinion.

I suppose I'm not the only one here using my computer for more than playing. A computer is not a free space for every paranoiac company to install its own copy protection drivers, this would necessarily lead to incompatibilities.

Again, authentification is fair, and I do it whenever it's needed without any problem, but changing the way my computer works only to ensure I won't make a backup copy of the game is intrusive.

[Amgor II]

What happens if you buy and load the product in good faith, and for some reason The program crashes one or more programs on your computer.



Now who is responsible for the mishap.... Does Ubi.Soft pay for the repairs, or did you just get the shaft and have to pay out of your own pocket to correct what ever went wrong with the computer?