Civ V Cracked Already

[DalekDavros]

It's like those alarms at the exits to stores or the guys that check receipts. They deter casual theft, but they don't catch the really dedicated.

Not really. In the software cracking case, you just need one dedicated person who then tells the casual crowd how to do it easily (e.g., "download my cracked file").

Anyway, DRM isn't intended to stop piracy; it's intended to destroy the secondhand market.

 

[Earende]

Even if he was using a Mac, he would still have to use Steam to get to the game.

<i>going with the Steam path is a sign for future anti-mod games and overpriced DLCs</i>

This statement is just ignorant. Anti-Mod? You do know that Half Life 2 and the entire Source engine has a HUGE modding community and it is only available through Steam. Whether or not a game is on Steam has nothing to do with how it mods. In fact, having the game only on Steam will make things easier than what they did with Civ IV and support Steam and non steam installations.

Also, DLC is not Steam exclusive nor do you have to buy any of the DLC. At least in the future they are going to offer DLC even if for a price. How much extra content did Fraxis give us for free in Civilization IV?

Ignorant, no. It's a half-joking comment. Notice the smiley? Also, I specifically mentioned companies turning to Steam. Also notice, I mentioned my displeasure of Steam comes from them instead of Steam itself? Who cares how the maker of Half Life 2 (and Steam) does it? Last I check, they didn't make Civilization, or (best example) the company that successfully lied to and completely screwed its fans. If it weren't for their previous games, 80% of their fan community would cease to exist. (Exaggerated)

 

[salaminizer]

Yet Ubi's DRM still got cracked. I watched my friend play Assassin's Creed II offline with a crack

Though apparently AVAST! decided three days later the crack was a virus so he removed it.

yep, that was my point
it's actually sad, because I wanted to play AC2 and Settlers 7
and at the same time... with RUSE they didn't use it, so there's hope they'll drop it one day and will remove from older titles.

 

[rallion]

Steam for protection? No, no... going with the Steam path is a sign for future anti-mod games and overpriced DLCs, any other reasons given are rubbish. Now, I dislike Steam, but only because I'm terribly frightened with companies that go that way; look at Total War. People somehow believe that pirates will buy the game if it can't be crack, how wrong that thought is. No, they'll just play another game. Why'd you think they pirate in the first place?

Also, it's always within a week or so for a game to be cracked (and multiplayer evenutally, if it's popular enough) and lots of times, the cracked version works better. I would know; where I live, I'm the only idiot who had gone legit and I suffered (still suffer) for it. Now, I do not promote piracy, but these are the sad facts.

1) Steam is not anti-mod, and I have no idea why you would think that.

2) In reality DLC is relatively rare on it. There are a few titles with a bunch of DLC, yes, but just a few. It's not like it's anywhere near XBL levels.

3) Nobody, and I mean nobody, puts their games on Steam because it offers formidable DRM. It doesn't, and nobody sane thinks it does. (This is including Valve and the publishers who use it.) It offers some token DRM that everybody knows will be cracked in moments. ("Days" is optimistic.)

 

[Rexflex]

The people downloading a cracked copy of the game are more than likely not going to see the bug fixes. I remember playing a certain game I had myself with a friend on his computer, and I noticed the game version was old and asked him why he didn't update it. He just shrugged and said that the patches wouldn't work on the cracked game.

While it would be technically just as possible to crack a patched copy as it is to crack the original release, typically it seems those cracked revisions never see the light of day. Given there have been a significant number of complaints about problems with Civ V, I imagine people using pirated copies are going to miss out of the true potential of the game.

Still, it may get some people to purchase a legitimate copy anyway. Admittedly, Civ owes my continuing custom to the fact that I had originally obtained a copy of Civ 1 from a friend when it was first released... and I liked that "trial version" so much that a week later I bought my own copy and have been buying each version of Civ since.

 

[Homemcomh]

Sucks to see filthy pirates playing it before me

 

[mamba]

A Cheap skate would be someone who waits until the game is in the bargain bin before purchase

A Pirate is just a excuse for bad business practices.

Yeah right, so creating a game, movie or music album is just bad business practice as they are all cracked / pirated.

Stardock and Egosoft at least still treat customers right, lots of patches and FREE content added after purchase if you register the game, yes their games get pirated alot, but they also get purchased alot, and the customers appreciate the service.

Elemental sold 82,000 copies according to Brad Wardell. For Civ V this would be considered a failure (and Brad saw it as that for Elemental too), so much for selling a lot.

Yes, Stardocks support for their games is extraordinary, but given the state it was released in that is also needed.

Civ 5 just lacks content, and punishes us in the name of protecting the copy right and shares of a company.

What content is missing compared to vanilla Civ 4 (and don't start with religions, that is an intentional removal) ?

Civ 4 was copy protected too, having to have a DVD in the drive is more of a punishment for me than registering with Steam. Of course there was a patch for that on day one as well...

 

[Blue Monkey]

Moderator Action: To re-emphasize what ainwood has stated: there is zero tolerance for piracy at CFC, as stated in the FAQ. Instructions or links result in bans. Strong advocacy of such runs the risk of incurring infractions. The same applies to "no-cd cracks". OTOH, posts of a general nature are likely to be okay. Threads like this are bound to be closely watched, both by CFC staff and interested third parties such as company reps. Consider what you post appropriately.

 

[KingMorgan]

Folks your paying for the patches, Civ 5 as it stands is a beta version - the real game is out in a few weeks.

 

[mamba]

there was posts from people on the 22nd saying that they were playing with a pirated version.. ONLINE.

I could have written that on the 21st, doesn't mean it is true though. I am not saying it was a lie, just wouldn't see this as proof either.

so either a bunch of people were lieing or it was 'cracked' or at least had a work around in less then 3 days. not to mention if it wasn't working it is a bit weird that over 20,000 people were downloading it which would be a big waste if it didn't work.

How would you know they were lying unless you downloaded it (or 20 other people already commented on the torrent that it was a fake)

the best way to keep pirating down is frequent updates!! so pirates will most likely be stuck with an old unpatched version without the added content / fixes of the patches.

Generally correct, I just wish the updates were additional features, not bugfixes. Otherwise the best way to combat piracy were to release buggy games (sometimes you can get the feeling that this is what is happening...)

 

[mattcrwi]

You know Pirates play DRM-free games right. Publishers enforce by DRM that punishes you, not a pirate... it rewards Pirates, there is a whole scene biult around cracking games... Who do you blame?

I blame the people doing something illegal on a massive scale?

 

[mamba]

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.

I very much doubt this is Steam's fault. What is your basis for claiming that (you did some analysis, rather than just taking the crashes as indication, right ) ?

Fort what it is worth, I played it all yesterday evening and this afternoon, no problems whatsoever.

Steam can easily handle a few more civ users, they handle an order of magnitude more users for all other games without a hitch in parallel as well.

 

[mamba]

Steam may be used to buy the game but after that nothing has to exist between the game and the player, above all M$ or Steam.

So it should not run / rely on (M$) Windows either ?

 

[Earende]

The people downloading a cracked copy of the game are more than likely not going to see the bug fixes. I remember playing a certain game I had myself with a friend on his computer, and I noticed the game version was old and asked him why he didn't update it. He just shrugged and said that the patches wouldn't work on the cracked game.

Your friend's either a failed pirate or he simply couldn't be bothered with it, most likely the latter since most pirates are. Any decent enough game will have the updated cracks.

 

[PickledDictator]

Moderator Action: *snip

I hate disc in policy it just puts undue wear and tear on the disc.

All updates always get cracked quickly and/or a new torrent with the most recent update is put up, so yes, old editions get weeded out, but since bandwidth is of no consequence to the majority of gamers, one just snags a new copy.

Moderator Action: *snip

Or try a friends at his place

I love the civ series and I purchase all of the games and add on packs, but I do admit that it pisses me off when they don't properly beta test and work out what are obvious flaws in a game ahead of time.

Moderator Action: *snip

In time, I am sure Civ V with have its rightful place in the series, it will just take time.

Oh and whoever said copy write was to stop the second hand market is BANG on... it certainly isn't for piracy

 

[Dontar]

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.

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.

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.

Discuss

Well I think they should back to the days of the code wheel

 

[Teodosio]

We all know the game has been cracked and it is available "for free".
Patches and DLCs will be available for the pirates too... the DRM system is always the same so it would be easy to crack and release the upgrades. It depends on the willingness of the releasers to spend time to provide cracked updates.

I bought Civilization V because I am a great fan of the series and I wanted to support the developers. Buying the game meant to me to miss Babylon civ and to endure Steam*. The pirates have DLCs and don't have Steam. I support the developer but the pirates win.

* I don't like Steam for two reasons: it takes too long to start and an account cannot be simultaneously opened on two on-line PCs, i.e. I cannot play Civ V if my wife is playing Civ 4 in the other room. Better to make it optional.

 

[Mahi]

Someone mentioned patches as a deterrant for rats. Wrong again, those are easy to get, since the dawn of Steam there are cracked Steam clients which lets you download patches FROM THE OFFICIAL SERVERS

This!

I think it's kind of laughable that so many of you think that the patches will be unavailable for the pirates. Pirates ALWAYS find a way through these problems especially with games as popular as Civ 5.
What makes you think that a pirate can't download the patches to his own legal copy and upload that new version on a torrent site?? The patches are downloaded into the game's folder you know. It's not like steam downloads the patches everytime you start up the game.

I buy games that I like and I bought civ 5. I DO use torrent games to see if it's something that I like. I really hate the idea of using 50$ on something I won't be playing the next day. I always end up buying games that intend to keep and play through....

 

[Ashdrake]

Moderator Action: *snip*

 

[Zelig]

@Blue Monkey

A big upside of Steam is that there's no need for cds, so there's no reason people should get around to discussing no-cd cracks.

I, for one, much prefer an online check to a cd check. (Although I think a civ1-style paper-manual-content-knowledge check would have been pretty great too.)