And another thought: SHIII is now available at reduced price in the UK, so now that the window of genuine profits has passed why can't Starforce be removed in a patch?

I also have just got a 64bit system and can't run SHIII. Fortunately my works laptop is good enough to run it! That's the advantage of working with 3D graphics!!

But as Lamarck suggested:

I fully agree. This level of protection is no longer appropriate. I mean, in the future, most users are going to be 64bit users anyway, so won't be able to use it even if they buy it.

I must say, this kind of protection is the worst kind of thing that can happen in the games industry. It causes nothing but problems. There are much better alternatives.

What they should do is just get rid of the Star Force thing altogether. Either in a patch, or by making SHIII available for download to users who have valid CD keys. I think what we will probably see is SHIII get republished in a special edition series, without the key, at bargin bin price. But it would mean buying it again.

There might in fact be some additional profit for them now in releasing a Starforce-free version. Speaking for myself, a re-release of SHIII without Starforce is the only way I might have purchased it. And I know I'm not the only one (others here have echoed this stand).

But I suppose it's foolhardy to hope that Ubisoft would value my purchase, since in Ubi's eyes everyone like me has been branded a would-be software cracker just because we had the temerity to say we didn't like what Starforce might do to our computer systems. Come to think of it, I'm disinclined to put any money in Ubi's pocket at this point, irregardless of what they do, because of that attitude.

Even though SHIII was the one game I'd wanted more than any other game released in the last few years (since the disappointment that was MOO3, in fact), and even though I was a constant purchaser of sub sims before SHIII, I've nonetheless managed to live without playing SHIII to date (solely because of Starforce and Ubi's attitude about it) ... and it's been long enough now so that perhaps it's starting to not mean as much to me anymore because of the distance. I guess that's Ubi's true legacy in sub sims ... to drive away formerly good consumers like myself and hasten the end of the genre.

- David (past purchaser of SHII, SH, Sub Command, Jane's 688i, Seawolf, Command: Aces of the Deep, Silent Service II, Sub Battle Simulator, etc.)

My sentiments exactly, Mystic. :up: Could not have said it better.

And I really wanted SH3 so I could play at Wolves At War. :damn:

Still having a great time with SH2 over at The Atlantik Kampaign. You could join us over there. Email or PM me for details.
:lurk:

Raptor

Where theres a will
 

Come on guys. Where there is a will there is a way.
Look and ye shall find.

Re: Where theres a will
 

No thank you - I don't want to look. I'm not in the least bit interested in using cracked software, and I depend too much on my PC to even contemplate downloading something from one of "those sites" that could potentially include a virus or be a trojan. Furthermore, as a software developer by trade, I am 100% against piracy in any form, and want nothing to do with such activities. That's why Ubisoft's instantly writing off people like me as would-be software crackers is so deeply offensive to me.

Re: Where theres a will
 

Very subtle! :doh: That´s the second time you do that in this thread, will you ever learn not to make any such suggestions? Thread locked.