SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Starforce Posts Their objections to Toms Hardware Article

pseudonym · 01-31-06, 03:46 PM

I have been reading up on this issue with StarForce with great interest ever since I first read about it. It is obvious to me that this kind of software is malware and has very little value to the consumer who has paid good money for the product. Consumers are forced not only to put up with the inconvenience but in fact, to PAY for the privilege! Now despite playing some of the games on the StarForce list of infected products I have NEVER encountered a problem with it. Why? Well that is simple, I don't put bought CD's into my computer, period. When I see a game I want to buy, I buy it, but before I head to the store I head over to my favorite BitTorrent site and I DOWNLOAD IT FIRST! That copy I buy never even leaves shrink wrap unless there is a CD key I need for online play. More than once I have wished that I could just buy the damn Key and let the company keep the media and the stupid box that just takes up space on my shelves, after all, with Valve software I don't even need my key! I just type in my email address and my password into Steam and my games download easily and cleanly. Now THAT is the way to do it!

The fact is that due to companies like StarForce, it is now more convenient and far less problematic to just pirate the game. How many times have you waited an hour in line at FilePlanet just to download some update needed for online play? How many times have you used the "in-game" update and gotten speeds of 1 or 2 kps or worse, dead links? Cracked patches download fast off of Bit torrent, there is no wait and speeds are fantastic! I have in a few minutes what would take me hours to receive by the "approved" channels and I don't have to worry about destroying my game media because A) it is a ISO image on my hard drive, and B) there is no cd required in the drive for play.

Basically what I am trying to say here is that StarForce has already lost the battle. Store bought games are already far more inconvenient to play than pirated games (Even went over to a LAN party with disk TWO of BF2 instead of disk one?) and technology like StarForces just make it that much more problematic. As long as pirating games is easier and safer in comparison to buying them, the game companies are bound to loose out.

pseudonym

P.S. I never thought I would consider WAREZ safer than buying software, but while with warez you may get the odd virus or spyware programs, virus checkers and spyware scanners remove these quite handedly, while leaving malware like StarForce's product alone.

01-31-06, 03:46 PM	#219
pseudonym Bilge Rat Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 1 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I have been reading up on this issue with StarForce with great interest ever since I first read about it. It is obvious to me that this kind of software is malware and has very little value to the consumer who has paid good money for the product. Consumers are forced not only to put up with the inconvenience but in fact, to PAY for the privilege! Now despite playing some of the games on the StarForce list of infected products I have NEVER encountered a problem with it. Why? Well that is simple, I don't put bought CD's into my computer, period. When I see a game I want to buy, I buy it, but before I head to the store I head over to my favorite BitTorrent site and I DOWNLOAD IT FIRST! That copy I buy never even leaves shrink wrap unless there is a CD key I need for online play. More than once I have wished that I could just buy the damn Key and let the company keep the media and the stupid box that just takes up space on my shelves, after all, with Valve software I don't even need my key! I just type in my email address and my password into Steam and my games download easily and cleanly. Now THAT is the way to do it! The fact is that due to companies like StarForce, it is now more convenient and far less problematic to just pirate the game. How many times have you waited an hour in line at FilePlanet just to download some update needed for online play? How many times have you used the "in-game" update and gotten speeds of 1 or 2 kps or worse, dead links? Cracked patches download fast off of Bit torrent, there is no wait and speeds are fantastic! I have in a few minutes what would take me hours to receive by the "approved" channels and I don't have to worry about destroying my game media because A) it is a ISO image on my hard drive, and B) there is no cd required in the drive for play. Basically what I am trying to say here is that StarForce has already lost the battle. Store bought games are already far more inconvenient to play than pirated games (Even went over to a LAN party with disk TWO of BF2 instead of disk one?) and technology like StarForces just make it that much more problematic. As long as pirating games is easier and safer in comparison to buying them, the game companies are bound to loose out. pseudonym P.S. I never thought I would consider WAREZ safer than buying software, but while with warez you may get the odd virus or spyware programs, virus checkers and spyware scanners remove these quite handedly, while leaving malware like StarForce's product alone.