Does Civ IV use StarForce for copy protection?

[Kazper]

As it stands chances are very good that Civ IV doesn't have Starforce though. Of course nothing is certain, but It's like a 0.1% risk that Take 2 would make this the first game they ever released to use Starforce.

So discussions on "what if" etc. are rather pointless at this point. I share the anger at Starforce, but it's pointless to rave about it on a forum for a game that is almost certainly not using it

 

[Alistic]

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.

Or maybe you could just leave your car unlocked cause its an inconvienence to unlock it every morning. After all you never stole a car, why inconvenience yourself?

This is life man. The bad seeds ruin it for everyone else. You should be used to it by now, if not get used to it.

 

[Alistic]

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

Is it still worth using then?

Wanna get into a technical conversation about why that is impossible?

 

[apatheist]

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

The EULA is written by Take2. Take2 is the company that has the rights to Civilization. They just happen to have chosen Firaxis to develop it for them.

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.

But who writes that EULA? That just wouldn't do. There are just too many different types of business models, too many different types of software.

Or maybe you could just leave your car unlocked cause its an inconvienence to unlock it every morning. After all you never stole a car, why inconvenience yourself?

I try to be polite, but that is just inane. "If Chewbacca lived on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests."

Wanna get into a technical conversation about why that is impossible?

Yeah, bring it on. I hope it's better than that ridiculous car theft analogy.

 

[rikath22]

Wanna get into a technical conversation about why that is impossible?

Impossible you say?

careful with that word sir; you're inviting humility imho

(I'm not into ruining your ego; so you're safe from me but...)

 

[Lord Shadow]

Take2 is the company that has the rights to Civilization. They just happen to have chosen Firaxis to develop it for them.

Wrong. Firaxis has the rights to Civilization. Take2 is merely the publisher, the company who puts the game on the shelves once it's finished.

 

[playshogi]

Starforce is something that detrimentally corrupt your PC, usually with little notice, and is a pain to remove. ... it only elude pirates for a handful of hours, days, or at best weeks, and after that it's useless, can be quickly removed/nullified, and only bother legitimate consummers.

So which is it?

1) A pain to remove
2) quickly removed

Can a complete wipe of the hard drive and re-install the OS from scratch get rid of it?

 

[Antiochus]

What he meant is that once the hackers have cracked it, an unprotected non-Starforce version of the game would be available for download. However, if you bought and installed the game you'd still have all the Starforce spyware crapon your system.

And yeah, the system wipe and Windows reinstall would do it, other than that it's quite difficult i hear unless you really know what you're doing, and you do a thorough job (deleting drivers, removing system registry entries etc). Windows reinstall would be the way to go.

 

[UglyElmo]

That would explain, after installing Splinter Cell Chaos Theory for my son, my pc runs very slow and spontaneously reboots or loads without the mouse driver. I am going to reformat my PC anyways and start clean, but this explains a lot. I guarantee I will check the copy protection method before I purchase games in the Future.

One to add to the list, if my friend is correct are the latest MechWarrior games.

I have several games that use SecureRom and have not had any noticeable problems with my PC, so it is not as bad as Starforce.

 

[PekkaM]

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.

Fortunately those EULA's or "I agree to this and that before opening"-stickers on CD covers don't hold any water outside US.

If I recon correctly, France is actually banning sales of "CD"'s with copy protection.

 

[general_kill]

secureROM does NOT do a good job. I bought san andreas the day it came out (well my parents did), and people were already pirating it when i went to forums. it was disgusting, i do not support piracy but it is just so unfair that i paid money for something others get for free. especially when those others have the ability to pay for a game. the ignorance of piraters are incredible.

 

[gunburned]

Ive heard that Worms 4 uses Stareforce, and that there was a crack already for it, though the game cant get past the main menu cause it keeps crashing. Im shure theres ways around Starforce, just give some time.

 

[PekkaM]

secureROM does NOT do a good job. I bought san andreas the day it came out (well my parents did), and people were already pirating it when i went to forums. it was disgusting, i do not support piracy but it is just so unfair that i paid money for something others get for free. especially when those others have the ability to pay for a game. the ignorance of piraters are incredible.

I'm pretty sure that no method ever will prevent skilled people willing to make an effort from pirating a game. The less intrusive methods are enough to keep ordinary people from making copies and sharing them with friends and relatives.

StarForce: Won't prevent piracy, harms legitimate user
SecureROM: Won't prevent piracy, makes no problems for legitimate user

 

[Alistic]

Impossible you say?

careful with that word sir; you're inviting humility imho

(I'm not into ruining your ego; so you're safe from me but...)

Normaly I dont use words like that. But when we are talking in my field and formatting a HD with windows up and running. From starforce alone. I know what im talking about.

Now will it mess up your rig and cause you to reformat? Thats another topic.

 

[Alistic]

I'm pretty sure that no method ever will prevent skilled people willing to make an effort from pirating a game. The less intrusive methods are enough to keep ordinary people from making copies and sharing them with friends and relatives.

StarForce: Won't prevent piracy, harms legitimate user
SecureROM: Won't prevent piracy, makes no problems for legitimate user

All of this is exactly right.

 

[Tarascan_King]

Yeah I hate starforce or anything they install without my consent for that matter. I also bought Silent Hunter III and lucky for me I didnt have any problems with it, but this is not good it seems more and more games are coming out with "copy protection" garbage I also downloaded a demo I think it was for that Imperial Glory game, it was just a demo & it installed SecurRom on my computer what the H is up with that?

It annoys me because I try to keep a minimum of processes running on my computer only the most necessary stuff to free as much ram as possible for gaming.

 

[Akka]

So which is it?

1) A pain to remove
2) quickly removed

Can a complete wipe of the hard drive and re-install the OS from scratch get rid of it?

It's a pain to remove for most consumers, and it's quickly removed for pirates who know the ropes.

Does World of Warcraft use Starforce?

No. WoW doesn't use any protection whatsoever, not even the usual "let your CD in the drive" protection.

MMORPG are based on subscription and one-user account linked to bank account number. They are practically impossible to crack because of that. They don't need any protection.

 

[Naveed]

Wrong. Firaxis has the rights to Civilization. Take2 is merely the publisher, the company who puts the game on the shelves once it's finished.

Wrong! Take 2 bought the right of Civilization from Atari for $21.3 Million. Firaxis are just acting as contract developer, of course having the name of Sid Meier on top does help Take 2

 

[rastak]

Or maybe you could just leave your car unlocked cause its an inconvienence to unlock it every morning. After all you never stole a car, why inconvenience yourself?

This is life man. The bad seeds ruin it for everyone else. You should be used to it by now, if not get used to it.

If the car dealer made it so incovenient that I had to leave it unlocked I'd get a different car. And yes, it's the bad seeds fault in the end, it does not justify measure that don't stop them anyway. Trust me, they DO NOT stop them anyway.

 

[senordante]

Wanna get into a technical conversation about why that is impossible?

Not only is it possible - but there are pre-written scripts for script kiddies to run!