Shogun 2 total war's anti piracy method is really creative!

[the_tyrant]

I believe that mocking piracy is allowed right?

I just popped in the CD, currently installing Shogun 2 now
And so i dropped into my favorite Chinese total war forum

and i saw people complaining about the new anti piracy method

There is no intrusive DRM, and the game has already been pirated many times

But from what I hear, the anti piracy approach is really creative
You can play on a pirated copy, but your in for a nasty surprise
after a few turns (enough to allow you to make some progress), this will pop up (translating back from Chinese):
"playing on a pirated copy corrupts the save files!"
And than random events mimicking save file corruption happen, increasing in severity, ruining the game

[Dowly]

This is nothing new. Many games have done this before, like FADE DRM for OFP, ARMA and ARMA 2. Which made your bullets shoot out like from shotgun. Unfortunaly, Steam DRM has been cracked years ago already, but only SP AFAIK. MP is still firmly under DRM and uncracked.

EDIT: Mirror's Edge had FADE type DRM thing too, it was cracked very fast. I just say that: If it's made by a man, it can be cracked by a man. Simple as that.

EDIT2: Or another example: Assasin's Creed 2, it's cracked. So is Assassin's Creed BH. Both were to be "uncrackable"

Valve has it right, no DRM, just good games that ppl want to buy.

[the_tyrant]

ahh, well I didn't know about this before!

Anyways, my installation just finished, I'll take around a month to fully master single player, and I will come back and play you in multi player!

[Castout]

That's not creative they are just being an arse imo.

[Safe-Keeper]

I believe that mocking piracy is allowed right?

My experience with pirates is that many of them take it as a God-given right to take certain goods and services without paying for them, and that they take offense even if you joke about them.

But yes, I love it when developers pull stunts like this. I prefer them to do more subtle things, though, so that players may not be aware they're the victims of a pirate-punishing feature. Like Silent Hunter 4's "bug" that turned the submarine crewmen around you into fish-eyed monstrosities if you played on a pirated game copy.

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

like Silent Hunter 4's "bug" that turned the submarine crewmen around you into fish-eyed monstrosities if you played on a pirated game copy.

Of course this happened even if you owned the game and installed it legally.

Personally any developer/publisher that does DRM I will consider an idiot and if met in person I would say so.

DRM tends to screw over the non-pirates more then the pirates, and I see infesting your software with it as a symptom of greed and corruption as well as being afraid of pirates.

Make a deep meaningful game and you'll make a profit, ignore the pirates because no matter what you do they are gonna pirate your game. Even if you require a blood test match every 15 minutes or the game auto-exits and calls the police on you it will be cracked within hours of release.

Oh yeah, Toady One, the developer of Dwarf Fortress found a way to make your game never get pirated. Make it a free game. (Yet he still made 54 Thousand dollars last year from it)

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Safe-Keeper

My experience with pirates is that many of them take it as a God-given right to take certain goods and services without paying for them, and that they take offense even if you joke about them.

But yes, I love it when developers pull stunts like this. I prefer them to do more subtle things, though, so that players may not be aware they're the victims of a pirate-punishing feature. Like Silent Hunter 4's "bug" that turned the submarine crewmen around you into fish-eyed monstrosities if you played on a pirated game copy.

Well coming from a poor country I had had my share with playing pirated copies so I can offer insight.

First these pirated copy gamers are not making losses for the game developers and publisher at least not directly. They simply don't have the finance to buy genuine copy and until several years ago there was simply no place to genuine copies as well and the temptation is great when pirated copies became the norm. It doesn't mean I support pirated copy gamers though but I'm merely saying that game developers and publishers don't lose much from pirated games in my own personal opinion.

Second these gamers are not going to be broke and penniless all the time. They'll find a decent job and a good career and rise the climb of social ladder. They will in time buy genuine copies when that happens and that usually happens and within a short time frame as well!!! So copy protection that aims to agitate pirated copy gamers would have long term negative effect for that game developer and publishes because it antagonizes their future customers in what they feel a personal way. Everyone would not appreciate being pisse* off intentionally and many carry that memory and disgust into much later in their life. Copy protection should try to minimize pirating but not aim to agitate pirated copy gamers who will likely become their future customers. Doing otherwise imo is foolish and stupid but I've learned that even the stupid and foolish could succeed too in life and in some places it's even the requirements.

Anyway it's just my personal insight coming from my own experience. I've since buy and play genuine copies and when they are not available from local retailer I get them from abroad through the internet. Most popular PC games are available in genuine copy nowadays though. Excluding somewhat niche games like Arrowhead and Total War. They stopped selling TW after Empire for some reasons.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

And so i dropped into my favorite Chinese total war forum

Figures they'd be amongst the first to pirate a newly released game.

and i saw people complaining about the new anti piracy method

Sweet!

You can play on a pirated copy, but your in for a nasty surprise
after a few turns (enough to allow you to make some progress), this will pop up (translating back from Chinese):
"playing on a pirated copy corrupts the save files!"
And than random events mimicking save file corruption happen, increasing in severity, ruining the game

HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAH Serves em right!

[Spike88]

Sad thing about all this? It makes me want to pirate the games that have this forms of anti-piracy just to see it in action.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Spike88

Sad thing about all this? It makes me want to pirate the games that have this forms of anti-piracy just to see it in action.

Someone will make a youtube clip eventually.

[Biggles]

Haha! Good show! I'm always glad to see those pirates being pulled back on earth.

Wow I'm surprised they don't have antipiracy in it.

Stardock and Paradox don't use antipiracy either and it seems to work out pretty well for them.

Honestly I think the piracy issue is a bit over blown anyways. Yes there is no doubt a problem but what I mean is the amount of money lost I don't think adds up to all that much in the long run.

<personal admissions removed, NeonSamurai>

I am by no means condoning piracy by any means, I was a young dumb kid and honestly I think 90% of pirates fit that description.