Same here. I've been burned by the "next Master of Orion!" so many times (even by MOO3!) that I was skeptical of GalCiv (and never played the first one), but no copy protection and it just being that damn good (ship designer helped alot, too ) made me say hell with it I'm buying it. A true beacon of light in this sea of big corp gaming crap (Empire At War, I'm looking at you).

Empire at War is actually quite good. It's really innovative, if not too deep. An expansion or a big patch would is all it needs to be fixed.

Don't worry, Duffman, I still hate you

There's a "realism" mod for EaW I saw at gamestop. So maybe the game is better now than what I saw in the demo. Wasn't impressed.

I did the exact same thing, i dled to try it out, (cause demos can be hiped uP) and played it for a couple days, and bought it.

Concerning EAW, i played the demo and thought the game would be really good. So i bought it, boy did that teach me a lession.

Its SO unbalanced, the multiplayer connectivty is a joke. No diplomacy, basicly all it really is, is total war. Thats it, 2 factions hammering it out the whole time and conquring planets by any means nessiory, not concerned on how the indengus people care if u trapple through thier world. If any one here rembers Rebellion, thats what i was hoping EAW would be like, how ever i had no idea GAL CIV II, would be so close to MOO2, and Rebellion. Got to lov it . But i am sad that i paid 50$ for EAW, and almost bought the collectors edition until i found out its only adds 2-3 skirmish maps , AND SOME WALLPAPPERS/SCreensavers.... an extra 10$ for that.... NO WAY!.

I learned my lession, i dont even play EAW, anymore, am waiting for a major patch or a really good MOD.

Not quite sure how you went from illegally stealing games to talking about Empires At War.

Bad nasty people buy games.

Interesting people talking about diplomacy, based in the star wars universe, when did the Empire have anything other to say to rebels than "Die rebel scum"? So thats why theres no diplomacy. And what would you do in diplomacy anyway? Ask for a cease fire? cmon.

Some people are bashing a game, that despite being in the star wars franchise they simply havnt played, yes it cashes in on star wars, yes its not perfect, but its a far cry from anything like force commander (simply a terrible cash in). Its not hard to see why its being perceived this way because there have been a lot of bad star wars games in the past. EAW is more innivotaive than other rts's (ie combining a strategic map with sspace and land battles rather than just 1 medium) But then again it has just taken all of those feature from the brilliant Imperium Galactc II (which i bet quite a few people round here played.)

Try going into a store, eating a loaf of bread, then telling them you were only making sure you liked the whole loaf, since you had some bread before that had disapointed you as a whole.

Software/music stealing is the same thing. The whole try before you by idea is just an excuse people use to try and make themselves fell better about thier theft.

I'm glad you decided to buy it, it's much better then to continue stealing it. But when you do that, even when you later decide to buy the game, you justify every copy protection measure out there, which cuases headaches, trouble, and money for the rest of us.

Some people are bashing a game, that despite being in the star wars franchise they simply havnt played, yes it cashes in on star wars, yes its not perfect, but its a far cry from anything like force commander (simply a terrible cash in). Its not hard to see why its being perceived this way because there have been a lot of bad star wars games in the past. EAW is more innivotaive than other rts's (ie combining a strategic map with sspace and land battles rather than just 1 medium)

Thing is, the "innovation" is shallow. It's essentially a standard RTS, with the building phase paused while the player fights. The battles themselves, which consume a good chunk of the game, are poorly thought out and don't involve much of any strategy. It's not that terrific an RTS.

People are merely comparing it to other RTS games, ignoring the license (which I would hazard to guess is the main reason why you think it is a good game). I'm a big Star Wars fan, but the novelty of a Star Wars game wears off, and my desire to keep playing does as well when I realize it's not as fun as the other games I own or could own. KotOR, TIE-Fighter, and a few others were really good games that held my attention because of that, but I'd rather play Command and Conquer: Generals than EaW, and I've owned for the former game for a few years now.

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As for piracy: I don't know. I actually pirated Sim City 4 because it lacked a demo. I made myself play it for only a day, then uninstall it and buy it if I enjoyed it. I did turn out buying it, and its expansion pack. Honestly, I'm not going to go and purchase a game for $50 that I probably won't be able to return, just based on what reviewers say. I'm done with that, it's insane (coincidentally, so are said reviewers). Gal Civ 2 is the only game I've pre-ordered, and I have no idea why I did that. I don't regret it though.

With so many new pc games coming out and many being same genre it is hard to pick and choose. SO many games ive bought past few years have really sucked. Wish i illegaly downloaded the game and tried it first (not all games have demos). Though GC2 i had no fears that it was going to be crap, they do good work at SD.

But now that most computer game retalers wont even exchange games or use them as trade in now you will see more people doing this.

It really sucks that games can run up over 50$ USD and if you dont like it you cant return it or trade it in. Granted there are many ways to copy and then return a game, but 50$ is 50$ and thats a good bit of money for some people.

I dont see anything wrong with people buying something after they try it out, even if it is illegal. But shouldnt take advantage of other peoples hard work.

WHy i like some companies now that offer free downloads of the game, they have like a 24hr to 30day trial and at the end of the time you cant play or use app anymore. You can then purchase it or remove from your HD.

Companies have been robbing the consumer for decades. Only difference between them and us is they press charges when we do it

In my opinion piracy is a two way street these days. You have the software pirates and then you have the publisher/developer pirates that put out a crap game and then don't support it. Anyone remember "Pax Romana"??
I'm not a pirate of software and I will either buy it outright retail or if I know it's crap out of the box wait for a bargain bin price of less than $10, $5 or less most of the time.

Of course with publishers it's "legal" to steal peoples money with "hype" and then when you get the game you find out it's a piece of crap and most software retail outlets nowadays won't allow returns of opened software. If publishers wan't to prove their trust in paying customers, then bring back the "refund" policy either directly or thru the retailer. I see so many promise a lot and then deliever so little. I'm tired of it myself, but, rather than go the piracy route I just wait for bargain bin pricing and hopefully the full patch load that makes the game play like it should have out of the box.

I jumped on Stardocks GalCiv II though before it was released. Preordered, because the feedback from beta testers and the constant info from the devs to us the customers just spells greatness. Of course the game has it's issues out of the box, but, when I know the publishers and developers are going to support and fix what is broken, I'm not so angry at the purchase. But, a game like "Pax Romana" man, I wish that publisher and developers would be hanged.

No copy protection or cd required in the drive also tells me they trust me to purchase the game and as I can see here it tells me some pirates download the full game to see if it's "worth buying". A FULL DEMO sotospeak, not a bad idea. Hey if it gains sales from a pirate it's got to be good. There's always gonna be those that aren't going to pay for a game no matter what, but, seeing that and knowing that and not punishing your paying customers makes Stardock stand out like no other. I personally hate Steam/Valve and will never purchase or download any of their games.

The big question is how many customers do you lose to piracy because of copy protection and cd required or some system like Steam/Valve? The Industry should start asking themselves that question. This new STARFORCE is another issue that is keeping me from buying some games that I would have normally bought. It ruined two of my CDroms made them where they wouldn't read anything, my system wouldn't even recognize they were installed after STARFORCE got secretly installed into my system. Once I found the STARFORE remover file, they went back to working as before, but, of course I can never play those games that I paid good money for now because of this crap out of Starcrapforce. This is something that could certainly throw someone over the line to piracy just so they can play a game they "BOUGHT" without ruining their hardware.

Ok then, the next time you come to a rolling stop at a stop sign and then go, don't use your blinker when making a turn, go 1 mile over the speed limit, then you should make sure you report this to your local police station or highway patrol dept because you are effectively "stealing" from them by not paying those fines for the laws that you have broken. Oh wait you say, you didn't get "caught" so that makes it ok huh? lol I love how people will unjustify one thing and then break laws everyday and justify those. No one is the perfect model human being. From taking a pen or pencil from work, using the work place copy machine or printer for their own benefit, etc. etc. Stealing is stealing and breaking the law. Now I will anxiously watch how others will "justify" some forms of stealing and breaking laws as opposed to software piracy.

i download a lot of games before i buy them because from my experience a lot of games either dont run well or are really really blown up in previews after that i get the whole game so i can play without being bothered by anything.

but i had the confidence in stardock that galciv2 would be good off the fly and atleast untill now it lives up to that expectation.

I support small developers and companies that make good games,but EA GAMES can go to hell.I will pirate every piece of EA software for the rest of my life.EA is the devil I tell you.