Anyone know if Civ5 has been pirated yet?

[Zyxpsilon]

...they set up dozens of servers to allow players to connect to them. It didnt work well. You were not allowed to play single player games without connecting to those servers.

You might want to remember what happened on SD's DemiGod release initial few weeks of activation. China based piracy ruled the online realms while thousands of illegal copies were floating around and hitting the servers to join any available MP matchups pipeline!
It was really wild & crazy.
But, Brad Wardell & staff fixed it all - eventually!

 

[PieceOfMind]

"IF you are running a Pirated copy of *insert your favorite software title here* -- you simply are a thief just as much as those making it available through illegal means!"

Sorry if this is just nitpicking, but is there any reason you put the word 'favorite' in there?

 

[AlpsStranger]

But DRM is not the solution.

I've long since checked out of directly Civ5 related discussion, but I have to comment on this. I'm not convinced that if DRM goes out of style it will cause things to revert to 'the good old days.' I fear, rather, that they will progress in even more unfortunate directions.

"Better the devil you know" sums up my current position quite nicely.

 

[bryanw1995]

Assassin's Creed 2 for PC was pretty effective, you needed to be constantly connected to the internet to proceed in the game, almost nobody bothered to pirate it.

lol. make it so that nobody wants it and it won't get pirated...

pirating is just like a tax. when you're young/poor it's not a very nice thing to do it, but your friends won't kick you out of the treehouse if you tell them you did it. when you're older, have a job/money/etc then you are just paying a bit extra for your transgressions when you were younger. I get very upset at my cousin who sits in his $300k house and pirates dvd's, etc for example, but I wouldn't get upset at a teenager from a poor family for doing it.

 

[blind biker]

I've long since checked out of directly Civ5 related discussion, but I have to comment on this. I'm not convinced that if DRM goes out of style it will cause things to revert to 'the good old days.' I fear, rather, that they will progress in even more unfortunate directions.

"Better the devil you know" sums up my current position quite nicely.

Hah, yeah... you are right, that is scarier than DRM!

 

[Rudster816]

The legitimacy of pirating issue hurting the gaming industry aside, the solution is a strong multiplayer. All games get cracked, but you still can't play online. The Call of Duty series doesn't really suffer from piracy because the game focus's so much on the MP. Games like CSS\TF2 are almost entirely pointless to pirate (you can only play with bots). Making single player focused games in today's industry is quite silly IMO if your really concerned about piracy.

Also, games that are built to use steam from the ground up (not like Civ V or the latest COD's) are such a PITA to run with pirated versions, that it pretty much prevents a lot of people from running them. (only super nerds can figure out how to get them to work).

 

[bryanw1995]

Omg... did we ever discuss the very same issues at great length(s) over at the GC2 Forums for months - if not years!

DRM, Impulse's GOO, Piracy, Copyrights, perspective potential of true sales for both distributors & designer studios, EA's Securom and just about everything else related.

I'll sum up my own humble opinion in a quick but obvious sentence;

"IF you are running a Pirated copy of *insert your favorite software title here* -- you simply are a thief just as much as those making it available through illegal means!"

I agree with your statement mostly, however, if you guy a game first and hate the drm then I don't have a problem if you decide to actually play the game using a pirated version.

 

[JBConquests]

How come those web sites which have images of games for pirates to download are allowed to stay up and running? I would think the law enforcement for whatever country they are in would shut them down.

 

[The_J]

That clearly depends on the country.
Some sites might even stay up, because the intelligence agencies are observing them to catch some "customers" (depending on what else is on the server; search for "honey pot" at google to get more infos).

I agree with your statement mostly, however, if you guy a game first and hate the drm then I don't have a problem if you decide to actually play the game using a pirated version.

Moderator Action: Reminder: We don't have any tolerance for piracy here, and this post is getting relatively close to the border where we begin to disapprove posts.

 

[Markstar]

Guess what I did when I wanted to play my newly-purchased Civ3 Tin Edition on my Toshiba M200 (a tablet PC without a CD-ROM drive)?

But just for the record - if you like a game, buy it!

 

[El Caballerion]

CiV has a 50% chance of getting pirated if you play as the Ottomans.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Guess what I did when I wanted to play my newly-purchased Civ3 Tin Edition on my Toshiba M200 (a tablet PC without a CD-ROM drive)?

But just for the record - if you like a game, buy it!

You used an external cd drive.

 

[Senethro]

I have to admit I was a bit in a dilemma, as the release was limited to several countries at first, but luckily I was able to buy a digital copy from a website that had no limitations for Macedonia (it was frustrating to get several websites refuse payment as you were not from a listed region).

Wait, this is interesting. You have a Steamless version of Civ5?

 

[The_J]

He didn't say that.
Payment != steam availability.
e.g. the D2D version is not available in the Netherlands, but the Steam version is.

 

[Louis XXIV]

The one thing I'm curious is if the patches can be downloaded without steam. If they've managed to achieve that lockout, there is a strong incentive to have a legal copy considering the huge update that is likely to come with the new patch.

 

[PawelS]

Patches are being pirated too

 

[Guardian_PL]

Omg... did we ever discuss the very same issues at great length(s) over at the GC2 Forums for months - if not years!

DRM, Impulse's GOO, Piracy, Copyrights, perspective potential of true sales for both distributors & designer studios, EA's Securom and just about everything else related.

I'll sum up my own humble opinion in a quick but obvious sentence;

"IF you are running a Pirated copy of *insert your favorite software title here* -- you simply are a thief just as much as those making it available through illegal means!"

It is obvious. That you're ignorant. Check Google News for more news about piracy perhaps.

The one thing I'm curious is if the patches can be downloaded without steam. If they've managed to achieve that lockout, there is a strong incentive to have a legal copy considering the huge update that is likely to come with the new patch.

Have you even read this thread? It is clear that patches and updates are easily accesible for pirated games. Heh, I've read that pirated Mafia 2 had all DLC included (like that stupid clothes or cars) too.

 

[kaltorak]

xDDD you ask like if there would be any offline game which hasn't been pirated yet.

All are pirated. Usually between a few days before release and a few days after.

 

[Bad Brett]

The DRM and Steam is still usually in the pirated copy, the crack just circumvents it. People pirating it to avoid Steam are not helping anything, all that will encourage would be for Publishers to insist upon extra DRM (not that any of it works).

The cracked version of Civ 5 is completely Steam-free.

But it's a pointless discussion. Some people just refuse to open their eyes and accept the truth, which is that Steam is about control over the legitimate customers, not a pathetic attempt to stop piracy.

The software companies know that it can't be stopped and they are also starting to realise that piracy actually can be a great way to market a game. They also realise that most of the pirates wouldn't go out and buy the game even if it was impossible to crack.

So why do they love Steam?

- Because they can release rushed, unfinished games and use the automatic patch system to fix the bugs before the customer finds them.

- Because they can keep track on exactly how their customers play the game and what systems they have. They use this information to custom design content that they know will sell.

- Because they can present pop-up adds that the majority of all users are to lazy to disable.

- Because the interface is so dumbed down that even console players can understand it. And as we all know, dumb people are more likely to spontaniously buy crap without looking it up first.
Moderator Action: Trolling is not allowed here.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Have you even read this thread? It is clear that patches and updates are easily accesible for pirated games. Heh, I've read that pirated Mafia 2 had all DLC included (like that stupid clothes or cars) too.

I read the thread. I saw some people speculate that Civ5 patches were being pirated, but, until I asked the question, nobody specifically said it. I wonder how they are able to prevent multiplayer from being cracked, but every other aspect of the game can be pirated.