No copy protection in GalCiv2?

[MarineCorps]

I find the idea excellent. -cough- Microsoft take heed-cough-.

unlikely. This is an intresting. No protection and it's the doing extremly well? Thats something I never thought I would see.

 

[ChuckLe]

I find the idea excellent. -cough- Microsoft take heed-cough-.

Microsoft products aren't copy protected either.

 

[Frakin]

One of the impetus's for that is that players of strategy games, particularly turn based strategy games, don't tend to be as likely to go around pirating things.

And I've lost way too many CDs over the years and strategy games tend to be the types of games that we keep around for a long time.

Our "copy protection" are the free updates. Reward people for buying the game.

That is completely right. I have bought more than one copy of Civilization III, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo II, etc. because I lost my copy or lost my installation code. I would have probably been justified downloading a copy but instead I just hit up ebay ($4 games from Thailand lol). It's good to see that developers actually take this into account. Altho, it still doesn't do any good if someone is dumb enough to delete the game from their old, 5 gb hd

 

[Ralts]

The big reason I bought this game was to support Stardock. I liked the lack of copyright protection that was invasive and had a habit of making my DVD-RW vanish from my system.

My wife saw me playing it, watched over my shoulder for about 10 minutes.

Now I have to buy 2 copies.

 

[mossmonster]

Finally a company that treats its customers with respect rather than suspicion.

 

[Arkanin]

I was just visiting the official GalCiv2 site and found out there is no copy protection in Galactic Civilizations II. I am shocked. In these days game publishers are trying all sorts of copy protection programs possible. For example, in the upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic V, UbiSoft is going to use StarForce, despite the many complains/protest in their HoMM forums.

It's great that Stardock is taking a whole new approach to the issue (and I hope they sell lots of copies so other game publishers would follow).

Don't take this as condoning piracy, just some food for thought.

I don't at all, but I know a few people from lanning who pirate many of their games. Talking to one guy, I bought GalCiv 2 and he heard about it from me and so downloaded his illegally.

I was talking to him the other day and he said the two games he'd feel best paying for are Oblivion, because it's such a high-quality production, and GalCiv 2. I asked him why GalCiv 2 and he said that "As far as I'm concerned, guilt is a way more effective copy protection than SafeDisc."

Also, he said that he probably wouldn't have been interested in buying it (he says he's going to) if it weren't for the metaverse feature that he wants to get into, since it's such a great game. AFAIK he has ordered his copy from EB, but ironically, I don't think he would be buying a copy if it weren't for his illegally downloading it and then deciding he wanted a serial because it's a great game and he wants to participate in the metaverse.

In conclusion, I think the serial / metaverse system is a very clever way to encourage people to pay for the game. Games I have and am playing right now are Oblivion, this, Civ4, and Battlefield 2 among some other freeware and if I had to choose, I enjoy this more than Civ4 (barely, of course, Civ4 is a great game). This has probably been my best-value game purchase of the year.