Does Civ IV use StarForce for copy protection?

[elderotter]

thanks for the info just ran the remove starforce tool and found I didnt have it - Though I was sure I had Icewind Dale - heart of winter installed at one time.

 

[Alistic]

I'm all for screwing the pirates, but not at the expense of being screwed myself. I'm not that much of a masochist.

Thats why the few bad seeds ruin it for everyone. So If it screws you too, complain to the pirates. We cant blame game devs. This is life.

 

[El_thorek]

Recently played Silent hunter 3 which came with SF. No problem at all. No complaints.
Just my 2 cents

 

[Karnak]

Thats why the few bad seeds ruin it for everyone. So If it screws you too, complain to the pirates. We cant blame game devs. This is life.

But I don't know any pirates to complain too.


Besides, I most certainly can hold the companies that choose to harm their legitimate customers though malicious code responsible for that. Nobody forced them to use code that hurts legitimate users in order to combat piracy. It is particularly grievious in that it actually hurts legitimate users more than pirate users.


I just hope Civ IV doesn't use StarForce. It is all that I can do at this point.

Recently played Silent hunter 3 which came with SF. No problem at all. No complaints.
Just my 2 cents

Congratulations, your system is now vulnerable to trojans and being spoofed.

 

[phungus420]

Yeah, Starforce made my DVD drive not work. And it was a pain to uninstall it and make it work again. Starfoce is just as illegal as piracy itself, as it damages legitamate systems, and does not warn the consumer. If CIV runs it, I wol't buy the game.

 

[senordante]

Would everyone please calm down. Civ IV does not use Starforce. Starforce does not list Take2 as a company who has licensed Starforce. So unless they have a secret deal....

I did some research and found that past Take2 games have used Securom - which does not load any drivers, software, etc to your system. It relies strictly on some tricks at the hardware level to detect an original game CD.

I don't want to tell to much about it - lest I cross the line into piracy. But I wil say that it will not cause problems on your PC. And for the mot part - unless you have a REALLY old CD-ROM it will be functional. And while not as easy as backing up a music CD, a backup copy of the media can be made.

 

[rikath22]

I hope it uses whatever screws the pirates most.

And if it helps someone also take control of your PC, format your hard drive, etc etc

Is it still worth using then?

 

[Rhymes]

Would everyone please calm down. Civ IV does not use Starforce. Starforce does not list Take2 as a company who has licensed Starforce. So unless they have a secret deal....

I did some research and found that past Take2 games have used Securom - which does not load any drivers, software, etc to your system. It relies strictly on some tricks at the hardware level to detect an original game CD.

I don't want to tell to much about it - lest I cross the line into piracy. But I wil say that it will not cause problems on your PC. And for the mot part - unless you have a REALLY old CD-ROM it will be functional. And while not as easy as backing up a music CD, a backup copy of the media can be made.

Allrright.. first one to actually have an answer!

 

[apatheist]

Thats why the few bad seeds ruin it for everyone. So If it screws you too, complain to the pirates. We cant blame game devs. This is life.

The game developers have a choice in this. I should not be penalized for someone else's bad acts, and it is not my responsibility to prevent those bad acts. Penalize the law breakers. Work to make it harder for them to succeed in their bad acts. But don't do it at the expense of the people who are behaving ethically, because you will only turn them against you and towards those you wish to defeat.

 

[Karnak]

I did some research and found that past Take2 games have used Securom - which does not load any drivers, software, etc to your system. It relies strictly on some tricks at the hardware level to detect an original game CD.

Very good. That is what we were asking. I have no issues with Securom.

 

[Rellin]

Does World of Warcraft use Starforce?

 

[Tiberc]

Does World of Warcraft use Starforce?

Doubt it. I believe the checks it does are only to detect hacks/cheats.

 

[Jaraxle]

MMPORG's don't really need copy protection, in fact some (Planetside comes to mind) encourage you to hand out your CD, to give free trials, so they can get more subscribers.

 

[rastak]

I hope it uses whatever screws the pirates most.

That'd be none of them, the only guy screwed is the dumb sap who pays for the game. (BTW, I've preordered it...I bought Civ 3 collectors edition and now this preorder edition)....but I have to admit, if it uses starforce I will have to seriously reconsider.

 

[GeneralMikeIII]

I'm glad to hear that this "Starforce" doens't seem to be used for Civ IV.

Does anyone know why they haven't been prosecuted yet? It definately sounds not only more harmful than good, but it also sounds more like a virus than anything else! Again I ask, Why hasn't anything been done so far?

 

[bky1701]

StarForce is really bad news. I have had games that didn’t run at all or ran like crap thanks to StarForce. If civ4 has it, I will not buy civ4.

The really bad thing is, StarForce may stop people from buying the game, but it is possible for the pirates to crack it… stuff like StarForce only makes people resort to piracy because the games they paid for didn’t run.

 

[senordante]

I'm glad to hear that this "Starforce" doens't seem to be used for Civ IV.

Does anyone know why they haven't been prosecuted yet? It definately sounds not only more harmful than good, but it also sounds more like a virus than anything else! Again I ask, Why hasn't anything been done so far?

Nothing has been done because the makers of Starforce have incredible lawyers who cleverly wrote an End User Licesne Agreement (EULA). The EULA is that mice type legalese mumbo jumbo you always click 'I Agree' when you install something. If you actually read the EULA, in most case you would read something along the lines of 'we can screw your computer up and you can't do jack about it'. Of course they use fancy lawyer speak. I've never read a EULA for a game that uses Starforce - but I would wager it explicitly says that they will install additional 'code' to 'protect' the CD and that they are not responsible for any damages.

There have been attempts to declare EULAs non-binding in liability trials - but as far as I know none have been succesful.

 

[GeneralMikeIII]

@ senordante
Thanks for jogging my memory, I don't fully think some times.

That and I thought the EULA was written by Firaxis, not the producer.

It just seems like viruses and other bad things like that could come up with an EULA that MAKES you agree to stupid terms like that, but they would get busted for it.

My opinion: One universal EULA, and anything that a company wants to add on to that would have to be done by the company. This seems much more user friendly, don't hurt most businesses, since now they have to write EULAs anyway, and it screws companies that try to screw consumers.

 

[bky1701]

Yeah, i'm aware of that; but i would have few qualms about doing it in order to avoid installing that Starforce spyware on my system.

I would just download it to start with if I was going to download it. If I have to do something illegal to play the game anyway, I am not going to pay for it!

 

[Antiochus]

I would just download it to start with if I was going to download it. If I have to do something illegal to play the game anyway, I am not going to pay for it!

lol fair enough...but if you still wanted to support Sid by giving him your 50 bucks then you should do so.

But since a share of that goes to the publishers and hence to starforce...well i dont blame anyone for....