I want to start this post by saying that I am not a pirate and I believe that it is important to buy the games you enjoy.
Totally agree with you on supporting good work and actually buying games which are well done. We do want to promote people to make more games like this so to do that you do have to promote this by buying the games.
However, I think it is very interesting to note that Civ V has already been cracked by the pirates. This comes after a lot of work to make Civ V's copy-protection difficult to crack. I just think it is interesting that gaming companies will go to such extremes to protect their games (often hindering the legitimate gamer's experience) when they are still cracked in a little under a week.
Not a surprise. After the extreme measures that Civ went to, this was a glove to the face of the pirate community. That and the fact that as soon as Civ 5 "REQUIRED" the internet to play, it became a "#1 MUST HACK" as most people despise being forced to play games online which do not and should not require this. All Civ 5 did was hurt its sales not boost them.
So my question is, why even have protection? It is never going to stop the pirates, and it usually just leads to unnecessary hoops for the actual gamer to go through.
Should there be some sort of copy protection. Sure. We have a code or something which is registered to our person that says we do have a legal copy. The game goes and checks this "ONCE" upon install and you are registered. "DONE" no more needless crap. No UNRELIABLE third parties.
So, after playing Civ 5 since tuesday. My opinion of the game is good. So far I like it a lot and would recommend it to my friends. But I am here talking in this forum because my concerns about "REQUIRING" internet and "UNRELIABLE" third parties has been absolutely confirmed today. Today, the game is completely unplayable. I average a few turns and it crashes. After working just fine all week. So what is the difference. TOO SIMPLE. STEAM CAN'T HANDLE IT. By it I mean the extreme flood of extra users which get added by the weekend. Instead of going online for a moment and saying yup your copy is legal, now go have fun without any problems which no one can control. No... we are going to force you to be online all the time and dependant on unreliable third parties.
The game gets an A+
The playability of it just got an F
In short. I may have a legal copy of this game. But if the cracked version does not "REQUIRE" me to be online to play it. Guess which one is going to be on my PC?
Have fun all. Maybe, just maybe game makers will learn something by this. This game will not do anywhere near as well as it should and it is because of their attempts to protect it.