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drawfour

Join Date 03/2006

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Web Poll: Copy Protection

The web poll entitled "Did GalCiv II's lack of CD copy protection influence your purchase?" doesn't really have enough choices. I may have bought the game if it didn't have CD copy protection -- I'm not sure. What the lack of copy protection did allow me to do though was to play the game a couple times (pirate!) -- enough to realize that I wanted to keep the game. At that point, I decided if I was to continue playing, it made sense to purchase it.

I originally was going to purchase it after recommendation from a friend, but couldn't find it in any stores. So I downloaded an ISO and installed it. Played it a couple times and decided I definitely wanted it, but still couldn't find it, even in stores that said they carried it. So I finally just purchased it online. Cost me a couple bucks extra to do it that way, but without going through the middle man of game stores, I thought that the company would get more of the money that way, so I was OK with that.

So while I may have purchased it with or without copy protection, what the lack of copy protection did was enable me to "try before you buy", and the game spoke for itself. Which in turn convinced me to purchase.

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bump, in case I still need to do it

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bump, in case I still need to do it

Yup you do

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Same here, plus the price of 29.99 is something unheard of with most games just released and top-sellers. I think that if every game was about that price and didn't have the intrusive cp schemes most do, then I would be able to go out and find alot more games I might like. I think it is pretty selfish of most publishers to push the price of copy-protection on consumers at 50 bucks a game, with much less actual Stuff too! I remember buying falcon 4.0 coming with a whole binder full of manuals, now PDF's are par for the course. Anyways back to the point: I just appreciate companies giving us more of what we ask for, less of what we don't.

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I also have to agree. I hadn't heard of the game (though I have a semi-long history of Stardock products) but I read the reviews, specifically GameSpot and GameSpy, and decided that I might want to try it out. Unfortunately, there wasn't a demo out, and I didn't know anyone who had it. So, seeing as how I didn't want to spend money on a game I may not like after a couple run throughs, I decided to get a pirated version.

And boy oh boy! I love this game. I only played a couple of games before I decided 'Screw it! This is a pretty damn good game!' So I went out and bought it. And I would have to rank it, so far, up amongst some of my favorite replay games (MoO2 and Total Annihilation take the top two). I also love that graphics aren't the heart of the game. While it looks very nice, the actual gameplay is very solid and fun, something that seems to lack too often nowdays.

Also, I think that Stardock has helped bring a good discussion up about the whole CD protection 'problem'. Here is a game that, as far as I can tell, has had a fair amount of admitted piracy\pirates. Yet most of them are happy and willing to shell out the money for a lower than average price game and also to support a smaller independant developer that has been amazing in dealing with its communitty. Really guys, It is great to see such a wonderful game come out, and also to see the kind of fan support you have. Keep it up!

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For Stardock...a little off the main topic.
When I use my favorites button to come to this website the Recent Posts and the Poll is not updated. Meaning that I must click something, usually "Everything", for them to update. This is minor except that it appears that I could vote again, over and over. I have not tried it but could the voting be cheated like this?

-Wade
Edit: Now I've noticed that it does not allow another vote always.

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I originally got my copy based on Starforce's recommenation of a torrent. So I'd have to say, yes, the lack of copy protection got my hooked. The registration mechanisms and hooks into the game reeled me in. That, and coupled with the repution I read about Stardock supporting and enhancing their games very well.

I'm pleased to support this product.

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Funny really, it could just be that in this case the pirate industry gave Stardock the best advertisement going and a good leg-up as far as sales go. I did notice on some not so legally binding sites that the message was ' This game has no copy protection and is well worth the asking price so go out and buy it' ( strange world we live in)

I don't know about you but I immediately hate a company that pushes a game with the likes of SF copy protection, because they are sending out the message ( We don't give a **** about you or your wants and wishes, just giz-uz your money like a good little gopher ).
And the big truth here is that the likes of SF copy protection only hurts the legal purchaser.

Stardock have made a lot of friends and future customers throughout the game playing world simply because they have taken time to think out their approach to this and other consumer problems , and as a result have come down heavily on the side of the customer, us customers like that, we like that allot.

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While I did not pirate the game first (heard enough good things from people I know that share my taste in games), I think stardock has the right idea with anti-piracy. People will pirate your game, with no CP or with starforce, it will happen. But with galciv, people will pirate the game.. get hooked.. visit the official site and really want the cool features in the patches. Patches really are an insentive to buy.

If people don't want to shell out the money for the game even with the patches, you wouldn't have had a sale anyway. So nothing is lost.

-Neb

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I totally agree, but there are exceptions. Take our little computer gang, we all now own legal copies of GalCiv2, but there is one of us that GalCiv2 is "as far as we know" the one and only legal copy he owns. He even brought it down the pub to prove his ownership to us. I would like to say what class packaging GalCiv2 comes in, I know its the game that counts, but still 10/10 for packaging.

Give people a game with a un-crackable CP, and they will all endeavour to have it cracked by tea time, and usually succeed. Give people a game with zilch CP and they all go out and buy it
.....

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This is minor except that it appears that I could vote again, over and over. I have not tried it but could the voting be cheated like this?

Yes it can, I have voted multiple times, alot of online surveys have the same flaw.

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GC 2 was a rare game, one of the few I paid full price, usually wait a while and get the original at a reduced/budget price. This was based on GC 1 which I loved. Think the new release price is too expensive of most games, but GC 2 is an exception as I will get real value for money with months of playability. Several friends of mine use copied games and I will not lend them GC 2 because I know they will copy it. I have thus persuaded 2 of them to fork out the price of the game because its so good, I think they got sick of me going on at them

My computer shop has a policy of being able to return any game with 10 days (no questions), so if GC 2 had turned out to be a Master of Orion 3 (full of promise, but rubbish), I would have returned it and got a full refund. As its brill, it gets pride of place in my games collection.

One further point, civilization 4 which came out at a similar time, I have still not got, but will at a reduced/budget price as I have heard good things about it. Reason I did not snap this up straight away like GC 2 was I got burned with loads of civ rehashing of the same game (I have the original civ 3 and only ever played it once). The original civilization and civ 2 I played to death, loved and payed the full price for.

Quality should be encouraged, its for better then quantity.

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I can't seem to vote in the poll. All I see are results.

Anyway, I read the Slashdot story and the thing with Starforce telling people where to pirate it. Came here and read about it, went to a bunch of sites and read more about it, thought it sounded pretty cool and bought a copy. Glad I did.

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how ironic that SF's torrent linking scandal has in fact helped GalCiv2's promotion & sales...

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Same here, I downloaded an ISO decidided I liked it so much that I bought it online and plugged in the serial

Honestly this is even saving on bandwidth costs for Stardock

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I wouldn't not have purchased the game if it had a copy protection. They cause too many issues and i have too many games i can't play because the software chooses what i can and cannot have installed.

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The update system really does reel in people who download the game.

I DLed it and was impressed enough to throw down the cash because of the promised updates and the nice prices associated with games without protection.

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The poll needs another selection. Not having copy protection was a significant part of the decision to buy but it was not the only reason.

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If they had invasive copy protection, like Star Force, I would not have bought the game.

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I votes Yes, though the lack of protection was only 1 factor in my purchase. The presence of StarForce or something similar would have resulted in no purchase, but the lack thereof is not inherently sufficient to cause me to buy the game - it also had to look as if it would be much fun. It did, and it is.

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In my case, what made the sale is the lack of CP on GalCiv *

. When I heard the hoopla about GC2, I pirated GC1 to see whether it would be worth buying GC2, and it went above and beyond in convincing me it would be.

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