When I bought the complete GC2 package by download I was a happy guy. I had bought GC2 off a discount rack some time before and thought it was great. I never updated it. I was thinking about updating it, but opted to just wait for TotA.
When my downloaded package was ready I ported it over to my game machine, and in just three weeks I managed to push all three titles through the manual activation process. That seemed a bit of an extreme PITA, but it was a great game, so I was happy.
Then I did a major upgrade/rebuild on my game machine. I thought about reinstalling GC2, but there was an upgrade to 2.0 in the near future rumor mill so I waited.
Right before Thanksgiving I saw the 2.0 available, downloaded it, and spent the better part of a week screwing around trying to get everything activated. DL good, DA good, TotA no good. Rather than hang around crying in my beer I got distracted playing another game.
For early Christmas yesterday I got Mount & Blade, on disk, from a store. Loaded it on my game machine and immediately bumped into the dreaded 'Internet connection required for activation, or you can activate manually'. Five minutes later the manual activation was complete, no sweat. I was amazed and strangly gratified, and overcome by a motivating force.
So, I am about to embark on the ultimate mission; getting my bought and paid for Stardock software to work. Wish me luck. I will provide updates as I go along.