SEV: What am I REALY getting for my money?

[Raapys]

Steam hate.

From what I remember, Fyron, wasn't the MoO2 combat system such that the attacker always got to start? I remember eradicating entire Doom Star fleets with a single Doom Star of my own, simply because I always got to start and had massive amounts of plasma cannons. Guess it might have been fixed/balanced in a patch, as I only played it unpatched.

[Fyron]

The 1.31 patch added a decent initiative system. This is what I was refering to. The original release did indeed have a crappy combat model. If you ever play MOO2 again, make sure to get the patch.

Of course, you can still abuse it with phased cloak and the temporal device that gives you 2 turns for one... But that's not necessarily an issue with the combat mechanics themselves, more with not thinking about the consequences of these two high end components.

[Renegade 13]

Pirates buy games too. I personally know of some examples of people who pirated a game, then bought it because they liked it. I'm not saying I support such a thing, but it does happen.

You mentioned Starforce, and not having had a problem with it. I know this thread isn't about Starforce, but I have had problems with it. I had a CDRW drive die on me for no particular reason, shortly after installing a Starforce protected game. Now, that could be coincidence, but coincidence only goes so far.

But anyways, this thread isn't about Starforce so I'll shut up now.

[Sivran]

I've pirated games. I deleted the ones I didn't like, and bought the ones I did. The remainder I either never bothered installing or just simply forgot about. The "didn't like" and "forgotten" categories are by far the largest. This and the appearance of StarForce have a significant impact on my game buying.

Whenever I'm at Fry's looking at games, I really DO think to myself, "Can I find this game online? Is this game infected with Starforce?" It's the Starforce question that tips the scales toward putting down the box, going home, and either forgetting about the game (in this way Starforce hurts even those who don't use it!) or looking up the list or an illegitimate source. On the other hand, if I've downloaded a game--demo, or warezed--and I see it at Fry's, I might just pick it up as an impulse buy. Hell, I bought GalCiv II for no other reason than its lack of copy protection. I might install it one day, I've heard it's fun.

[dogscoff]

I too will be holding off on my purchase of SE5 until I've heard some feedback on this forum regarding the copy-protection methods used. If it makes the game unplayable, or it means I can't install it on more than one PC, or can't install it on a replacement PC, or it's going to break my PC by installing a rootkit or something, then I won't be buying it until it's fixed.

[frightlever]

To quote myself "I think people willing to pay will pay and those who can't, or won't, won't pay no matter what." which just agrees with you that copy protection or lack therof hasn't got a bearing on whether a game will sell. If you're going to buy it you'll buy it. If you're not then there are plenty of excuses to make to yourself why not.

I'm amazed at the way forums have been taken over by anti-Starforce sentiment in the last year or so. There are plenty of good reasons why I may not buy Space Empires 5 but copy protection definitely isn't one of them. I'll likely pre-order a physical copy and then crack on release day and buy the download too. I ended up buying 3 copies of Silent Storm because I liked it so much I just wanted to spread the word.

As for Steam, which I never really touched on, if you want to play a MP game you need to validate through Steam but if you're playing a MP game you're probably either already on the Internet or on a LAN and if you're on a LAN in the 21st century I can't believe there are too many times you won't have some Internet access.

Again I want to stress I'd prefer it wasn't the case but OTOH I'm not that worried about it. Your life must be pretty sweet if you consider this a hardship. Running a house and holding down a job (to spend on food and games) give me more than enough grief for me to worry about copy-protection.

[Phoenix-D]

You have to validate SP games as well frightlever. And I'm not keen on spending money on a game only to have it turn into a coaster a few years down the road. Starforce is unlikely to work when you upgrade your OS, for example.

And that's not even counting its tendancy to kill CD drives, the scummy tactics of the people that make it, etc.

[Fyron]

I'm amazed at the way forums have been taken over by anti-Starforce sentiment in the last year or so.

Its not just these forums, it is the entire Internet and gaming community in general. Starforce is horrible, horrible malware that does nothing but harm. It is only natural for the hate to show here too.