What software protection?

[SilentOtto]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

One good way to insure that people buy a legal copy of the game is to include good extra features in the boxed version, such as a comprehensive manual, a high quality map of the pacific, a good ship identification book, etc. etc.... that way you REWARD people for doing the right thing.

And of course, they have a right to implement some anti-piracy mechanism in the game itself, but please, nothing that penalizes or unnecesarily burdens the legitimate owner

I cannot agree more with you on the first point. How many years has it been since we've seen any game with a good printed manual?? (AOD, Flight simulator anyone??).
That kind of thing, or a calculating ruler, ID book as you said, you can give buyers a printed ID book and not include it in-game for example. A nice map! Those can't be so costly when we talk about thousands of units sold.

On the other hand, copy protections are _always_ going to be a PITA for legit users. Crackers can and will crack anything you throw at them, theres lots of young people with the skills, time and impulse to do it, just to be "cool" in their own underworld, so I'm not too sure it would be a good thing.

If they give us a nice online gaming (not too easy for a subsim I know) they could use the method that ID software (QUAKE) or Blizzard (Diablo, Warcraft) have been using. The game is "easy" to crack for offline playing, but if u want to play online (and they should make us _want_ to play online) then you need a valid serial number which can _not_ be cracked.

But basically I'd crave for nice printed doc and maps...