Stardock Horror Stories

Yikes. I have no idea where you heard these horror stories from. They couldn't be further from the truth. Are you sure you're not thinking of Steam ?

Stardock & Total Gaming have hands down the most laissez faire view of software protection I've ever seen. And they should be commended for it.

If you purchase the boxed version of GCII, you don't even need to install Total Gaming. Or register your serial. There is -NO- copy protection running on the game. In fact, you can play it without the CD in your drive

As for the TotalGaming.net software, you *never* need to have it running. Generic account creation is all that's required to register your purchased serial numbers. That gives you access to (frequent) game updates, and the ability to re-download any owned games if ever necessary. It also provides a platform to purchase other indie games from TG's collection.

In all honesty...your fears regarding invasive processes and fascist policies are totally misplaced. Stardock is one of the good guys. GOOD guys. No other company out there respects the fact that you own what you've purchased like Stardock. And no one else treats its customers with as much trust and respect as they do.


--LordPixie

You're probably thinking of Starforce, not Stardock. Starforce is indeed the tool of the devil. It runs lots of nasty background programs and causes freezes and crashes. I will not buy a game with Starforce. Stardock is cool. No intusive and inconvenient copy protection programs, and imho hte best game developer out there.

Ah ok maybe I had it mixed up with starforce. Is starforce use with the X series? X3 the reunion etc.?

Yup, you're thinking of Starforce, which was used with earlier versions of the X series (they've blessedly removed it from both X2 and X3 via patches, now). Starforce has nothing to do with Stardock, the two are basically polar opposites that happen to have similar names.

Lol. Other "similar names" include Star Trek, Star Wars, Starlancer and Sword of the Stars. Make sure you don't confuse those either.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I sense some other dark power is at work here. Starforce is the ultimate over-protective software ****ing up program out there, while Stardock is the company that stands for the exact opposite, no piracy protection except a damn good technical support offered to customers.

I tell you, there's something sinister going on, this can't be coincedence.

LOL. Well it's sort of like naming your favorite yoghurt "andrax spore brand yoghurt" Starforce did so much damage to the name that anything with the word star in it scares me now.

Do a google search for starforce and you will be amazed at what comes up!

http://www.glop.org/starforce/

Even Wikipedia has horrible things to say about it

]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarForce

Starforce is bad....really really bad!

"On March 5, 2006, a StarForce employee posted a link to an illegal download source of Galactic Civilizations 2, a game developed by StarDock which does not use mandatory copy protection.[13] StarForce later issued an apology for this act after it received a great deal of attention on the Internet.[14]"

The plot thickens! You see I was not entirely crazy to get the two confused. It looks like starforce tried to bring stardock down with them! Check out the article.

Goes to show, it's not just the starforce program, but also their employees that are evil bastards. But I guess you have to be to support such a program.

Well, it is not so simple. The retail version has no protection. But if you want the free updates, it is a lot more convenient to have a registred version (ie a serial Id associated to you e-mail) than a pirated one or a second hand version