[Growler]

Here's why Staforce is bad, in my opinion.

Silent Hunter 3. Bought it, installed it, made my wife a subsim-widow for a few months. After some time, I noticed my then-desktop starting to run a little... differently. No biggie. Time for a backup, system restore, and back in business, right?

Yeah, not so much.

Starforce COMPLETELY blocked write access to my DVD-ROM and CD-ROM writers. No getting around it. No backup feasibly possible.

OK, common story, everyone's had Starforce issues, I know that.

Here's the sad part: I never checked my copy of Pacific Fighters for Starforce - I just assumed that, because it was an Ubi game and roughly contemporary, it too must have that POS Starforce, and was therefore not going to be installed once I got my computer running again; went ahead and donated the copy I had to Goodwill.

I missed a GREAT GAME because I didn't check. Which brings me to my point: In this, I behaved like a typical, nonthinking customer, and because I drew conclusions without backing those conclusions with facts, I missed out on a great game. Starforce left such a bad impression that, based on an erroneous conclusion, I still avoided it like I would a SARS-filled elevator. Customers can - and do - make those levels of emotional free-association decisions every day.

I'm not suggesting that I'm not culpable for missing out on PF; what I am suggesting is, that in the volatile world that is software and business, a bad impression can have longer-lasting ramifications than are readily apparent. I refuse to buy a Starforce protected game today.

Copy protection that punishes a legitimate user is pure bollocks.

(The opposite, by the way, also holds true: I played a ton of MicroProse games back in the day, because the CP was easy to use. I also read labels more diligently now.)