unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

I've recently discovered that Quake 4, like its predecessors, does not require the DVD to start up, thus freeing people with one disc drive to play music off of their own CD or a previous Quake disc. As a side effect, you don't have to play Musical Discs just to find where you put that Quake 4 DVD just so you can start the game up.

This brought up an old sore point with me. $100 & more applications such as Office, Windows, Photoshop and 3d development utilities are just as pirated as games. Yet they do NOT require you to insert their discs (or in the case of Steam, constantly update software online under pain of not being able to run anything, thus making it impossible to play any mods that aren't constantly updated to suit each and every one of Valve's tweaks) each and every time you start them.

Gone are the days when people need to leave vital data on a media disc to conserve precious hard drive space. The only thing an honest complete Quake 4 install requires is the CD key inserted upon installation and, to play online, a patch. That's it. Nothing else. You're set! Why can't more AAA and lower quality games follow this example? Why are they so paranoid that they have to punish honest customers who don't want to risk using no-CD cracks (which is generally against software's EULA or TOS). Why am I ranting? The inquiring mind wants to know.

As it is, for example, every time I wish to run the Battlefield 2 Expansion, I have to chuck the Expansion CD in. If I wish to join a regular BF2 server, I have to shut down the game, insert the original BF2 DVD, and restart vanilla BF2. What a pain in the arse.
oberst_enzian
Member
+234|6713|melb.au
i get no-cd cracks just because my fricken dvd player emits such a loud whine when it spins up. its really annoying... and i don't live alone + play at night, so even things as small as that become an issue. but seriously, the 'lower quality' games need anti-piracy measure even more, I would say, because more often than not they are made by small games companies that stand to lose so much more if people are pirating their games instead of buying them, as opposed to massive companies like EA, for which piracy won't make much of a dint in the profits.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6742|PNW

No-cd cracks occasionally include intrusive software, forcing you to scan for spyware and other forms of malware when you install them. I choose not to crack. And if anything, the more irritating protection measures are on software, the less likely I'll be tempted to buy them. These ridiculous protection measures tempt people into these cracks & warez websites because nobody really wants to deal with playing Musical Disc Swapping. Once these websites are visited, people will see links to illegal downloads, which leads to even more piracy than before. The tighter grip game companies maintain on their software, the more customers will slip through their fingers.

Put it this way. Software piracy was present way back in the days of the large floppy disk, and funky protection measures were almost unheard of. Still, it didn't stop (then) small-time game companies from growing into AAA dev houses. Still, I suppose I should be glad that I don't have to sit through showings of "Don't Copy That Floppy" anymore.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2006-01-02 20:12:24)

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