I am an avaid WOW player, and I probably won't get time to play your game for a while, but I just wanted to say that I going to buy it today, because of your attitude towards the customers. Keep looking after us in this way, and we will keep coming back for more....

For a number of years, i have purchased very few games, because of copy protection problems, so it's nice to be able to spend my money on a company that deserves it. Thanks again.

I can't believe someone would say a company WANTS its game pirated... why on earth would any company want that??? Stardock's way of doing things is almost impossible to hack, so I really wish people would stop slandering it..
Looking forward to many more decent (and hopefully still un-pirated!) games.

Posted on x3 site trying to get them to take starforce off , plz take part in poll and help get egosoft to do 2 starforce what ubisoft did.

[quote=Ryan Vincent] What does "Draconian copy protection" mean?

Draconian: Excessively harsh

[quote=HaDAk]Why do I pirate games? Simple. .....

I must disagree. I completly understand the trials of a heavy financial burden, just as I completly understand the plight of those with low income.

I have a terminal medical condition, and must survive on the pittance I get each month to pay for my meds and other basic necessities. If I buy a game that turns out to be a POS, I really have no recourse. I have to wait until I eek out enough money for the next one. Is it irritating when I get shelfware? Of course. Is it frustrating when I have to wait several months to get a game I really want because I have to wait for the price to drop or save enough? Indeed. But that does not give me the right to pirate someone else's work. Have you ever had anything stolen from you? Remember how that felt? Yet you state you do the same thing. Stealing from an individual is no more immoral than stealing from a company. Whether it's the local thrift shop, a monster company like Microsoft, or the guy next door. Stealing is stealing, and justifying piracy because your financially challanged makes it that much more disgusting. Perhaps if you put the same effort into legitimate work that you put into piracy you could afford the buy the game.

I am only stating my opinion to your opinion. Take it for what you will.

hi all I am a south African male age 24 it takes me all of 25 minutes to crack any game that includes games with star force I’m glad to see companies like this actually trying something new i will buy it when it gets released here if for nothing else as to have full content and updates also cause the game developers actually earned their money on this game I take my hat of to a brave and bold company furthermore I condemn what starfoce did and know they did it out of fear for windows is going the same root as you guys (developers of gal civ 2) sure have the product but hehe if you want all the cool stuff we please buy the fact is cd copy protection is the old way of doing things and it’s not working at all if the software community is to survive this torrent of piracy well we have to adapt and I’m glad to see you doing just that KEEP ROCKING and boy I can’t wait to buy your game the updates really look impressive

Star Force is the Worst invention Ever.

No offence but it actually INCORAGES! me to pirate the game sicne a pirated version excludes starforce.

I just bought beyond divinity which I knew had star force but when I use software taht uses starforce I unplug all my CD drives and place my cheap 5$ 4xCDrom

and to my suprise! Star Force isn't compatible with Windows XP 64 bit!!!!

This is horrible! I payed 20$ for a game to en up it doesn't run!

no offence, but that is stupid.

why should WE! the loyal customers be given penalties for things other use, and whom do in criminal methods not get our trouble!

I Loath Microsoft, but I loath Starforce even more. They ruined some of teh greatest games, Trackmania, Splinter Cell and brother in arms. games taht demand a powerfull PC, but if you have 64bit, forgeth playing it.

Thanks Star Dock. You guys are a shining example in the gaming industry, you give us superb game at resonable prices and make it so I can play at home and on my laptop anytime.

I have been using computers and playing games on them for 27 years now (let's give a shout out to the Atari 800 - woot!)

Anyway, when I was a little kid I acquired a lot of games through questionable means. I didn't have any money, I liked games, you figure out the rest. What I learned then is that there isn't a copy protection scheme on this planet that can't be easily cracked by someone with a bit of talent.

I got older - I got a job. I started paying full price for all the games I play. I have spent a LOT of money on games over the years, and as an older and wiser person, I believe that companies deserve to be rewarded for their efforts through my cash contribution to their efforts.

Two different philosophies - two different times. The fact of the matter is, if someone seriously wants to pirate games, they are going to find a way, no matter how much inconvenient, and with the advent of things like Star Force, INVASIVE, copy protection is on them. For the rest of us, we deserve a bit of respect from the companies we do business with. Stardock's copy protection on GC2 is good enough to stop casual pirates, and the serious ones are going to crack whatever they want to anyway.

But here's the thing - Stardock has respected me as a customer by not ASSUMING I am a pirate. How nice that I can use this game on 2 machines if I want. And a little tidbit - I installed this game on my wife's machine to play it there, she ended up getting into it, and subsequently BOUGHT HER OWN COPY. Why? Because we honored our license agreement. Stardock respected us enough to assume we would do that. I can tell you if Stardock had put a bunch of impediments in the way that second sale wouldn't have happened. It's the same paradigm I learned in school growing up - when teachers put draconian systems in place to keep me from cheating, I found ways to cheat. It was me against them, it created an adversarial situation. When teachers used the honor system and relied on students to monitor themselves, I behaved honorably. To cheat in that situation would, in my eyes, have reflected on me. I would have been cheating against myself.

Stardock, for the most part, chooses to work with something like the honor system. Yes, there is copy protection to keep every 10 year old from making 7,000 copies for his friends, but it isn't anything onerous or invasive. They know it's easy to crack, they rey on us not to do so. Hey, respect. Hey, honor.

By contrast, I have never, and will never, play a game with Star Force on it. There are no Valve games on my computer. I will never accept copy protection that sends my personally identifiable information to a database, to be subsequently hacked and stolen.

Good on you, Stardock. In my household, your way of doing business has doubled your sales. And now I am more likely to buy the rest of Stardock's library of games than those of other publishers, because I know I can expect the same experience and respect.

Stardock - 2, Star Force - 0

I heard about this game from a cousin who knows I like 4X games. So while googling for more info, stumbled on this posts.

It is indeed commendable that Stardock adopts a no-copy protection policy for this game. So as a show of support for companies that writes games I like and gives values to customer, I would be buying a copy later today.

PS - I come from a country where pirated games are available at US$1.25 each, buy 5 get 1 free.

My understanding is that if Stardock vanishes tomorrow we can no longer load, update and play an updated game of GalCiv II due to the activation

Incorrect. Once your GC2 is installed, it's installed. Obviously Stardock won't be providing updates after they vanish.

1) Why do I have to "activate it online?".

You don't. You can install it and not activate.

Stardock have produced a system that creates short term gain for them and long term pain for buyers.

Beg pardon, but even though I've really not read this thread, I have to protest humourguy's overall take even if I might yield on the question of whether Stardock Central is just another DRM.

One of the reasons I've ended up being one of the "fools" you so blithely dismiss is that I've been reading about Brad Wardell's devotion to this game since it was OS/2 shareware.

Mind you, I'm no capitalist and I try to get everyone I can to read John Perry Barlow's The Economy of Ideas. Copyright is wrong as we currently practice it.

But AFAIK, Mr. Wardell is "my kind of capitalist." Stardock are forthright about their desire to have us pay them to keep working. They do not appear to waste excessive resources on secondary matters like marketing or freaking out about whether what passes for (C) law is being violated by folks playing their games.

If I had my way and the Library of Congress became the world's greatest clearing house for information, I'd likely *still* pay Stardock to keep adding to that pile of "free stuff."

Ok, I have a few questions about "activation". I just purchased a copy of the game (retail copy) and I am not happy in the least. I believe I have been "bait and switched" by deceptive marketing tactics. 1) Why do I have to "activate it online?". This is the most insidious form of DRM. It means that if I am in the mountains and my video card dies (did once), I can’t reload, update and play the game because I have no net access. I would *MUCH PREFER* a copy protected CD as then I can play the game. 2) I have lots of old games (over 250 of them). A lot of them I occasionally still play (MOO, MOO2, Imperialism I and II, Close Combat Series, X-Com, Heroes of Might and Magic, etc.) If Stardock goes under, then my game is now a useless coaster. I have lots of games from many companies that no longer exist. My understanding is that if Stardock vanishes tomorrow we can no longer load, update and play an updated game of GalCiv II due to the activation. This is exactly the type of marketing decisions I wish NOT to support. I refuse to purchase Half-life 2 and any of the Steam based games simply on that reason alone. Once Valve goes under all your games are now coasters. They may look good now, but so did Microprose one time back. Once the bean counters figure out that it isn’t profitable to support old games, you loose. Am I wrong? I could be. However I was lead to believe that all I needed was the game and a serial number and I would not have to worry about the CD (which is true). But what I ended up with (phone home) in my mind is worse, much… much worse. Since it forces the consumer to depend upon the publisher to even to play an updated game at some point in the future. (flame retardant suit on)

No, you can play the game as installed from CD without needing to activate. If you download the 1.4 update and installed it, then you do need to activate. So you are correct that an updated game will not run when Stardock goes under, but wrong that you must activate to play the game.

And the activation is not tied to the hardware (or not the video card). If you need to replace the video card you will still be able to run the game without needing to reactivate. It is only when you reinstall Windows that you will need to reactivate when you run the updated game.

This was the biggest F---up they could have made, I'm sure this will hurt the use of their (ineffective) product.

I trust "they" here are Starfoce and not Stardock.

So the store sold you a used copy as new and that's Stardock's fault? Interesting...