DirectX 10, Securom and You

[Angelspit]

It was revealed <a href="/http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/ ... 060795">on the official forum</a> that Tribes of the East has no copy-protection, not even Securom. Kudos to Ubisoft for making the lives of its legit customers easier! To think that nearly two years ago we were the guinea-pigs of that thing called Starforce. A lot of things have changed.



Elsewhere, Kevin Sung (<a href="/viewtopic.php?t=7231&highlight=directx">lotusreaver at the Round Table</a>) found out that in addition to restoring your faith in Heroes of Might and Magic V, the Tribes of the East demo can <a href="/http://kevinsung.wordpress.com/2007/09/ ... /">resolve the DirectX 9 issues</a> you might have.



<i>"As you know, DirectX 10 is separate from DirectX 9 and the files don’t overlap. As a result, lots of DX9 compatible games don’t work on a system with only DX10. Well, up until yesterday, if you wanted to play Heroes of Might and Magic V, you would have to install DX9. And based on reports, this had the possibility to screwing up your computer. But if you really wanted to play the game, you’d have to take the chance. Otherwise, a message would pop up upon running H5_game.exe, alerting you to several missing files. Thanks to Ubisoft’s Tribes of the East demo, (...), these problems are gone. Heroes V and Hammers of Fate run great. Why did installing a demo fix my games’ incompatibility with DX10. I have no idea. Perhaps the TotE demo overwrote some files in the Heroes V folder?"</i>



We can't make any promise regarding the results of that fix, but if DirectX is causing you problems, you might want to give it a shot.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1192118751

[ThunderTitan]

C'mon... will they stop copying WH games already...

I wonder to whom will they give the 3rd expansion for development....

[rdeford]

This is good news indeed. Being a legit customer, I've been annoyed for over a year at having my one and only copy of HOF exposed to the hazards of my office without a backup. And, I hated the long wait each time I loaded the game while it went through the verification process. This wait was the single most annoying aspect of developing a scripted map where the only way to find scripting errors was to exit the editor and load the game, over and over again.



Which brings to mind a few questions... will TOE ship with an editor? Will it be easier to use than the HOF editor? Will the scripting language remain, or be replaced with a menu system of equal power? Will TOE play HOF maps made with the old editor?

[MistWeaver]

I wonder to whom will they give the 3rd expansion for development....

To some chinees' apparently.

[arturchix]

I don't think there will be a 3rd expansion.



Kudos to Ubisoft - they must be testing whether releasing the game without a copy-protection program have any effect on sales. Nowadays pirates can crack everything, it's just a matter of days.

[Pol]

It's a step in the right direction. Congrat to Ubi

(managment should take care about the rest)

[ThunderTitan]

@arturchix
Relic said the same thing...

And Relic already did their testing for them.


And they are moving in the right direction with this game... but i still have to many Rage Points saved up... hit me with it a few more times and then will talk.

[MistWeaver]

>Nowadays pirates can crack everything, it's just
>a matter of days.

They always could, actually. So the point is to make it for crackers as hard as possible, so users will tire of waiting and just buy the game.

[ThunderTitan]

coz that happens...

[Jolly Joker]

>Nowadays pirates can crack everything, it's just
>a matter of days.

They always could, actually. So the point is to make it for crackers as hard as possible, so users will tire of waiting and just buy the game.

That sounds as if it were the pirates who did the "crime". That, however, is only half of the coin. The crime is prepared by the pirates, making it possible, but actually committed it is by downloading it. If pirates are "guilty", then all users downloading from them are at least as "guilty".

[ThunderTitan]

wait, who made any assertions of guilt?! he just said how it's supposed to work, without implying any moral or legal judgment.

[Jolly Joker]

You did note the " ", did you?
Anyway, it's "crackers" and "users". Hmm.

But now read MistWeavers post again.

And now imagine someone fumbling with a lock on a house, a crowd watching. One minute. Two minutes. They start tapping with their feet. Five minutes. What makes things so interesting, is the fact that in this guy's house a lot of bottles of high-quality liquor are stored that will cost 30 bucks in the store round the corner. However, the crowd is thirsty. Ten minutes. the crowd starts to dissipate. Some are moving to the store - grudgingly, but fast. Most of the rest start to follow, mumbling silently.
Finally. The "cracker" opens the door, but only a handful of people come running and slip through the door...

Question: who sucks here? Yeah, I know: Either JJ or MistWeaver or H 5 are answers that might be witty on first look, but on option are only
crackers or crowd.

[Humakt]

Kudos to Ubisoft for making the lives of its legit customers easier!

Seconded.

a matter of days.

They always could, actually. So the point is to make it for crackers as hard as possible, so users will tire of waiting and just buy the game.

Matter of hours I think. And even then, you propably can download the pirated version before it arrives to your country depending of course where the game was released and where you live.

It stops only those who are ignorant of the ways to get pirated games, and annoys a lot of real customers. Game companies should make the packages more tempting with nonvirtual goods, like good manuals and strategy guides and stuff. If they don't increase the price, I think they'd be good reason to tempt more people to get the legal version.

Of course, there are always people who are just too cheap to buy no matter what you do and choose piracy instead. (I'm not imposing that leaving the game to shelf is cheap but getting pirated version is lame.)

[MistWeaver]

---------------------

You did note the " ", did you?
Anyway, it's "crackers" and "users". Hmm.

But now read MistWeavers post again.

And now imagine someone fumbling with a lock on a house, a crowd watching. One minute. Two minutes. They start tapping with their feet. Five minutes. What makes things so interesting, is the fact that in this guy's house a lot of bottles of high-quality liquor are stored that will cost 30 bucks in the store round the corner. However, the crowd is thirsty. Ten minutes. the crowd starts to dissipate. Some are moving to the store - grudgingly, but fast. Most of the rest start to follow, mumbling silently.
Finally. The "cracker" opens the door, but only a handful of people come running and slip through the door...

Question: who sucks here? Yeah, I know: Either JJ or MistWeaver or H 5 are answers that might be witty on first look, but on option are only
crackers or crowd.

------------

Thats perhaps the craziest post I've seen here in months. JJ, I dont know even what to say...

But as for my original post - the only thing I wanted to say with it, is that even if protection can be broken, it does not mean that it is useless. Thats all. Nothing about crime or guilt.

[Gaping_MAW]

Interesting copy protection move by Ubi, considering that HOMM5 is primarily played offline - so no need to log in and verify your CD key etc etc.



If they patch frequently (Gal Civ2 style) it can make it more tiresome for people to crack the exes, and more tiresome for users to bother getting the cracks.



I for one am happy to see copy protection gone, I get tired of having to use workarounds to get Homm5 running without a DVD in the drive. I'll go out and buy this expansion now (had been thinking of a boycott with allied maps once again not enabled out of the box).

[PhoenixReborn]

>Game companies should make the packages more tempting with nonvirtual goods, like good manuals and strategy guides and stuff. <

Great point! I remember when games came with thick manuals that had not only information but stories and nice pictures.

While I personally don't care for "in-game currencty replicas" such things can't hurt.

[Jolly Joker]

Thats perhaps the craziest post I've seen here in months. JJ, I dont know even what to say...

But as for my original post - the only thing I wanted to say with it, is that even if protection can be broken, it does not mean that it is useless. Thats all. Nothing about crime or guilt.

What's so crazy about it? That's what I saw before my mind's eye when I read your post.
It was no attack - it was just putting things into a perspective: the way you describe things - whether correctly or not -, it speaks volumes about the users who pirate the software.

[ThunderTitan]

You did note the " ", did you?

Which has what to do with the fact that that was not his point?!

And now imagine someone fumbling with a lock on a house, a crowd watching. One minute. Two minutes. They start tapping with their feet. Five minutes. What makes things so interesting, is the fact that in this guy's house a lot of bottles of high-quality liquor are stored that will cost 30 bucks in the store round the corner. However, the crowd is thirsty. Ten minutes. the crowd starts to dissipate. Some are moving to the store - grudgingly, but fast. Most of the rest start to follow, mumbling silently.
Finally. The "cracker" opens the door, but only a handful of people come running and slip through the door...

Now imagine most of those in the crowd have better things to do with their 30 bucks... most people i know would not play any new games at all if they had to pay full price...

Question: who sucks here? Yeah, I know: Either JJ or MistWeaver or H 5 are answers that might be witty on first look, but on option are only
crackers or crowd.

the economy... and alcoholics... (see, that's witty)

What's so crazy about it? That's what I saw before my mind's eye when I read your post.

so you're not crazy, you just had a vision...

[Jolly Joker]

Now imagine most of those in the crowd have better things to do with their 30 bucks... most people i know would not play any new games at all if they had to pay full price...

And that forces them to download illegally? Or what is your point here?

[ThunderTitan]

my point is that once the door is opened it isn't "just a few people" getting in... your imagination lacks realism...


Also, some interesting historical data: http://www.ninjastrikeforce.com/?p=174