Direct2Drive's Disapointing Policy

I purchased my Warlords copy from Direct2Drive because I thought it would be more convienat. While at first I thought this to be true and was joyed with downloading and immediately playing, today i've come to the realization that their licensing policy of 5 installs is not sufficient for one as myself that formats often as I use my laptop A LOT. I've since sent a ticket to their support staff and will let you all know the outcome. I did mention to them if they deny my request to have more licenses I would post a detrimental thread on this site to warn people of this policy that stayed hidden from me. While I do realize most companies have this rule in place to protect from piracy, for an owner such as myself that will install multiple times, this would seem like a bad idea, and would be more practical to buy the actual retail game as the price is the same. Updates to come soon!

Edit: I was going to purchase BTS on the site but have now decided against it and will buy my retail copy because I don't exactly need the Warlord scenarios.

does it allow you to reinstall the game if you do something like a system recovery or does this take up one of your 5 instalations. if it takes up one, then that sucks but if youre going to buy it from a store, i sugest bestbuy

I'm not entirely sure ATopic22; I guess I should have asked myself these questions. I believe I ran into the same problem with Itunes and my Ipod. This problems just urks me!! Somehow the program should realize your unique pc and allow infinite installs, that would be great Maybe in the future

hotstuffjsn said:

I'm not entirely sure ATopic22; I guess I should have asked myself these questions. I believe I ran into the same problem with Itunes and my Ipod. This problems just urks me!! Somehow the program should realize your unique pc and allow infinite installs, that would be great Maybe in the future

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yeah i agree. but the fact that they havent already developed something like this just makes you realize how crapy the company is. I personaly would be mad as hell myself

I'm definitely mad. I just wasted an entire CDRW on this damn .exe file for Warlords haha. But seriously, I'm just glad that BTS replaces Warlords except for the scenarios (which I don't play anyhow.)

i have an external hardrive and was able to copy the entire firaxis folder into it allowing me to just copy and paste it whenever i loose the game or if the cd gets to damaged. maybe you can try to get an external hard drive yourself if you dont already have one. It sure saved me alot of stress

Easily solved. Want digital distribution with no install limits? Come over to the dark side and buy it on http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=8800&cc=US

Rest of thread now reserved for irrational anti-steam posts based on misinformation and generic fear, mixed in with TMI references to reading the game manual while performing bodily functions.

Wait a minute, you can copy and paste an ENTIRE program? maaan, I thought of this awhile back and just couldn't figure out how it would work. Would it be the same thing if I copied it to a flash drive? Once I have it on there, do I just then paste it into my programs list and avoid the entire "setup" process?

Goombaz said:

Easily solved. Want digital distribution with no install limits? Come over to the dark side and buy it on http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=8800&cc=US

Rest of thread now reserved for irrational anti-steam posts based on misinformation and generic fear, mixed in with TMI references to reading the game manual while performing bodily functions.

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I almost forgot, Steam has it yes! I already have a bunch of Half Life games on there, why not right? Ok, so screw Direct2Drive, hello Steam once again!

hotstuffjsn said:

I almost forgot, Steam has it yes! I already have a bunch of Half Life games on there, why not right? Ok, so screw Direct2Drive, hello Steam once again!

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So glad that another has pierced the F.U.D. and made a steam purchase

just copy the firaxis folder from Local Disk C, and paste it on to something like a e-hard drive. Ive actually never tried to do it on a flash drive but e-hardrives work extremely well. I took my hard drive to another computer and was able to open civ from the hard drive without moving and installing anything. this works especialy good if you also have a no cd patch instaled. but you can copy the folder inside the program files and you wont have to install anything. Just remember that you copy the entire folder

UPDATE:

My ticket I opened last night was looked at my customer services' Associate Manager and they decided to re-activate my product key given from Direct2Drive.

Their reason why I received my installation limit? I hit enter instead of clicking on submit...I don't know if this strikes you as stupid but it sure does me! Anyhow i'm pretty sure I did not hit enter but regardless it's working and i'm just wondering if it'll happen again. In either case my BTS copy is coming from retail; that way if my warlords install craps out on me again i'll just say to hell with it and install BTS in addiction to vanilla civ of course.

This wasn't meant as a complaining post but rather an informative look at how their site works in case anyone was deciding to purchase there. Overall i've been happy with no problems up to this point and it's up to you if you think you wouldn't install it more then 5 times. Cheers!

thats good. lol

Goombaz said:

Easily solved. Want digital distribution with no install limits? Come over to the dark side and buy it on http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=8800&cc=US

Rest of thread now reserved for irrational anti-steam posts based on misinformation and generic fear, mixed in with TMI references to reading the game manual while performing bodily functions.

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if you're going to buy online buy from steam. unlimited downloads ftw. plus they're not likely to go under. but i would always recommend buying physical copies. they can't take your physical copy or deny you access to it. plus it's the same price anyway.

additionally game manuals are nice

Only problem with physical copies is that Firaxis likes to put this safedisc feature on their discs and a fair amount of CD/DVD drives cannot read it, so basically you cant play.

ATopic22 said:

yeah i agree. but the fact that they havent already developed something like this just makes you realize how crapy the company is. I personaly would be mad as hell myself

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"They" already have ...

Virtually every network adapter (NIC) has a quasi-unique MAC address.

You can use this number to "hard code" virtually any program to a specific computer. The only problem is that the installer itself would have to be compiled somehow using the MAC address of your NIC.

I'm sure this could be implemented easily enough with a simple web app, but I doubt there's enough demand for it.


-- my 2