I never heard of starforce(or came across it ) b4 i got galciv 2 and came to these forums, and it seems ever since then all i hear about is starforce! Its funny how so many ppl are saying they will now buy the game after starforce is gone, and copy protection is said to help sales? Ha such a joke. I for one am also one of those ppls that will now buy HOMMV, ive been waiting for a HOMM sequel since 3(im going to pretend 4 doesnt exsist) and when i heard 5 had starforce my dreams were destroyed lol.
Is this really the only way to go about copy protection? *sigh*

Anyway i wanna thank Stardock for helping me relize my ignorance in terms of copy protection, it was completly ignored by me in the past.

Bravo Stardock for trying a radical approach to software piracy and DRM that big name companies did not have guts to try.
Looks like other companies such as Ubisoft are now following your example and ditching Starforce.

I was just explaining this whole incident to my wife last night, so I wanted to add my congratz and best wishes. Copy protection only costs everyone money and does sqaut to stop theives, that was true when we first ran it out of existence with CopyIIPC and it's still true today. Theives steal, most people are NOT theives but did need to be educated as to what stealing in the digital world is, and isn't.

You guys have been leaders in every way all the way back to the OS/2 days, I'm glad to see you still are, and I'm happy to see Starforce making so much money for you! I personally know 3 on-line friends that had never tried GalCiv, even though I talked about Galciv I all the time, but when the whole Starforce thing hit they came to this site to see what your response was, then they started looking around, now all 3 are hooked. I wonder how many times over that story has occured for you, I bet more then a few!

I can't believe they can just stop using starforce, It's that kind of like trying to quit the mafia.

Heheh.

I'm really starting to enjoy this

And a correction to the thread topic is that more than Ubisoft not using it in HOMMV,..they are not going to be using Starforce at all anymore period.
It was inevitable though I guess,..Ubisoft was losing money with people not wanting to buy there games because of it having Starforce in it.

Hope you guys didn't think they were going to use NO copy protection:

Linky!

-HM

I bought Gal Civ II because it was a great game... and also to support your no-copy protection stance.



Plus the developers are great... they put out upgrades/patches all the time.

AWESOME. Spellforce 2 is back on my must buy list.

Getting rid of the activation would be nice. X-plane is better. CD-dongles are easier to crack than Activations (Eather No_CD crack or Alchol 120% copying, or both). I havn't tried putting my legal, activated GalCiv onto an external hard drive and playing it on strange machines yet. Would it make me activate it on every machine? I can do it with x-plane. The DVDs aren't copy-protected and X-Plane doesn't tie itself into the registry in any way. GalCiv has activation and has registry ties (havn't tried running it on a machine without a proper install yet though)..

" One small step for Ubi, one large step for gamers."

This _could_ be huge. What's still needed is for fans of the series to buy it and Ubi experience good sales #'s. Then other companies might start scratching their heads and follow suit. I guess what I'm saying is its one victory, but DRM and Starforce are still out there.

Edit: It can also be said to be due to the $5 million lawsuit, rather than "a change of heart"

I will be be picking it up asap. I wish the demo had a manual with it as I,m lost with it, but it looks sweet.

Yes, this is good news indeed. HOMM5 looked promising, but I wasn't going to buy it because of Starforce. Now it looks like I'll be able to pick it up after all.

It's nice to see long time homm site celestial heavens give props to galactic civ's for the starforce episode.

And I preordered the limited version today. Wasn't originally planning on getting this too, though I've been a fan since homm I. But this news just blows my mind.

YAY UBI!!!

HOMM 5 wasa no buy for me with SF no it has turned in a must buy!

Finally the customer wins. Of course they'll still dongle with the CD, but its a step in the right (Stardock) direction!

It was about time.

Who is gonna pay for my destroyed hard disk drive though?

(except me)

Maybe I don't play the right games, but I encountered SF more in games by smaller developers. Big-name games like Oblivion don't have SF, things like Spellforce and Bet On Soldier do. Maybe the Starforce hard-sell of 'zomg tehy will piratezor your game' is more effective on smaller, more vulnerable publishers? I can't really see Starforce intimidating EA...

errr before you rush out and load up the demo don't forget the homm5 demo has starforce!! So does Spellforce 2 demo! using a different copy protection scheme from demo to full version makes sense because many pirates use the demo version which has no protection to hack the full version.

errr before you rush out and load up the demo don't forget the homm5 demo has starforce!! So does Spellforce 2 demo! using a different copy protection scheme from demo to full version makes sense because many pirates use the demo version which has no protection to hack the full version.

I believe Ubisoft has said on their forums that the demo no longer contains starforce either.

I may be missing something, but why include copy protection in a demo? If you're not selling it, but giving it away how can lost sales be a problem?

I may be missing something, but why include copy protection in a demo? If you're not selling it, but giving it away how can lost sales be a problem?

Most protection encrypt files and if you release the demo without encryption you make it easier to figure out how to crack the game protection.

Thanks

It sounds like starforce got a tad touchy that someone could make a game that has no copy protection and still be a great success. Besides most competent pirates can crack a game in little to no time.

I love Gal Civ 2, back to the old school , turn based and totally brimming with game play. I had no hesitation when it came to buying it, but it would have been a different story if Gal Civ II had Starforce, I would have bit my lip and passed it on by. What ever anyone says Starforce is a bad thing, I have 2 prematurely burned out DVD ROMs to prove it.