Requiring a disk in the drive doesn't stop piracy, there are fixes, virtual drives, and .iso burning to get around that.Securom Experiment (failed but interesting none the less)
[QUOTE=''Levrar'']Requiring a disk in the drive doesn't stop piracy, there are fixes, virtual drives, and .iso burning to get around that.[/QUOTE]Neither does Securom, I think everyone is aware these anti piracy measures are useless.But as long as publishers choose to remain in dream land they may as well use methods that are less annoying.
In my opinion this kind of DRM on discs is an attempt to kill the buying and selling of used games. Rather than attempting to curb or prevent piracy (which of course they can't), I think they are trying to get every penny they can out of those of us who actually buy our games.With DRM infecting (yes, that's the right word) the industry like this, soon those who like to buy used games to save money will have to live under the constant fear of getting a copy that cannot be activated. Or maybe the publishers intend to implement a ''certified used'' system where retailers work with them to make used games that are out of activations reusable, while pushing the price up a few dollars to get a piece of every used game sale.
i should think youre right about the paul.dll file, it tends to be the file that is cracked for securom disabling.
EA were the creators of DRM and they have since long been saying that the one thing they hate, more than weakness, is the second hand games market. EA utterly hate, loathe, detest, abominalise the second hand market like if it killed their families. THAT is the only reason DRM got created, so that EA games could increase (their diabolical) sales by limiting the amount of times a game can be installed (essentially how many times it can swap hands).Piracy was the inevitable scapegoat of this DRM because EA want to mask the fact that they want to crush eBay's game selling market because EA Games do not make a shred of profit if you resell your game. Essentially, we the consumer play the game, finished the game, then resell the game for roughly the same price as we bought it for, meaning we don't make a loss. But no sais the big corporate entity ''We want ALL the money''. EA's size and power means we can't do anything about it, but I recently have taken to buying games off Steam only and to avoid hard copies and to avoid EA games altogether.
[QUOTE=''AnnoyedDragon'']There is a workaround for Mass Effect that switches it to disk detection rather than online activation, legally enabling unlimited installs if you don't mind needing the disk to play. I was wondering why they didn't provide this option for all Securom games, after all it fulfils the publishers need for anti piracy protection while empowering gamers in how they play their games. After a little checking around I realised pretty much all EA Securom games have paul.dll in their directory, which of course begs the question can these all be switched to disk detection? If they could the problem posed by Securom wouldn't matter to me.So I installed a bunch of my Securom games and prevented them from activating using my firewall, I then navigated to their directories and renamed paul.dll to oldpaul.dll. Astonishingly the majority of the games I tried, DeadSpace for example, did switch to disk detection. The problem is unlike Mass Effect they either produced a Securom error or didn't recognise the disk, so the developers have either failed to support it or gone out of their way to prevent it working.So the option is actually there, they just don't want you to use it in most cases. Even if the option was officially provided gamers still couldn't sell their games to second hand shops, so I have to wonder why developers would restrict gamers ability to choose between online or disk based checks, either way they have their anti piracy protection. [/QUOTE]
Why would a disc check option prevent you from selling the game? Even limited activations hasn't stopped the second hand market.
[QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps''][QUOTE=''AnnoyedDragon''] There is a workaround for Mass Effect that switches it to disk detection rather than online activation, legally enabling unlimited installs if you don't mind needing the disk to play. I was wondering why they didn't provide this option for all Securom games, after all it fulfils the publishers need for anti piracy protection while empowering gamers in how they play their games. After a little checking around I realised pretty much all EA Securom games have paul.dll in their directory, which of course begs the question can these all be switched to disk detection? If they could the problem posed by Securom wouldn't matter to me.So I installed a bunch of my Securom games and prevented them from activating using my firewall, I then navigated to their directories and renamed paul.dll to oldpaul.dll. Astonishingly the majority of the games I tried, DeadSpace for example, did switch to disk detection. The problem is unlike Mass Effect they either produced a Securom error or didn't recognise the disk, so the developers have either failed to support it or gone out of their way to prevent it working.So the option is actually there, they just don't want you to use it in most cases. Even if the option was officially provided gamers still couldn't sell their games to second hand shops, so I have to wonder why developers would restrict gamers ability to choose between online or disk based checks, either way they have their anti piracy protection. [/QUOTE] Why would a disc check option prevent you from selling the game? Even limited activations hasn't stopped the second hand market. [/QUOTE]It won't stop people selling their used games, but it will halt people from buying second hand. The issue is that there is enough mistrust running in places like eBay, I personally wouldn't think of buying Mass Effect if it's used from there, because you have no idea how many allowed installs are left. Maybe they have all been used up and you are buying a dead copy? This DRM has rendered some people quite paranoid of buying used games from eBay, and they will likely seek their purchases elsewhere....from EA's dreaded donwload centre perhaps! *spooky noises*
[QUOTE=''Solidus171''][QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps''][QUOTE=''AnnoyedDragon''] There is a workaround for Mass Effect that switches it to disk detection rather than online activation, legally enabling unlimited installs if you don't mind needing the disk to play. I was wondering why they didn't provide this option for all Securom games, after all it fulfils the publishers need for anti piracy protection while empowering gamers in how they play their games. After a little checking around I realised pretty much all EA Securom games have paul.dll in their directory, which of course begs the question can these all be switched to disk detection? If they could the problem posed by Securom wouldn't matter to me.So I installed a bunch of my Securom games and prevented them from activating using my firewall, I then navigated to their directories and renamed paul.dll to oldpaul.dll. Astonishingly the majority of the games I tried, DeadSpace for example, did switch to disk detection. The problem is unlike Mass Effect they either produced a Securom error or didn't recognise the disk, so the developers have either failed to support it or gone out of their way to prevent it working.So the option is actually there, they just don't want you to use it in most cases. Even if the option was officially provided gamers still couldn't sell their games to second hand shops, so I have to wonder why developers would restrict gamers ability to choose between online or disk based checks, either way they have their anti piracy protection. [/QUOTE] Why would a disc check option prevent you from selling the game? Even limited activations hasn't stopped the second hand market. [/QUOTE]It won't stop people selling their used games, but it will halt people from buying second hand. The issue is that there is enough mistrust running in places like eBay, I personally wouldn't think of buying Mass Effect if it's used from there, because you have no idea how many allowed installs are left. Maybe they have all been used up and you are buying a dead copy? This DRM has rendered some people quite paranoid of buying used games from eBay, and they will likely seek their purchases elsewhere....from EA's dreaded donwload centre perhaps! *spooky noises*[/QUOTE]
A disk check will halt people from buying second hand? That doesn't make any sense, disk checks have been common for years. And as for ME, I would buy it from ebay, depending on feedback, and what the user says regarding this issue. Even if all 3 activations were used, it still wouldn't be ''dead'' as you can get more activations.
[QUOTE=''AnnoyedDragon'']There is a workaround for Mass Effect [/QUOTE]Cool! Does it make the game fun?
[QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps'']A disk check will halt people from buying second hand?[/QUOTE]
Not the disc check. The limited number of activations. As already stated, informed buyers would be wary of buying a used copy on the chance that the allowed number of activations have already been used.
[QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps'']Even if all 3 activations were used, it still wouldn't be ''dead'' as you can get more activations.[/QUOTE]
I'm curious to know how this scenario works out: ''Hi, (insert game publisher)? I just bought an original (insert game title) disc off eBay, but the allowed number of activations have already been used up. Can I get some more so that I can play?'' If they're nice about it now... how long do you think that will last?
Personally I haven't run into any trouble with games that install from disc and have a limited number of activations - mostly because I have so few. Over the past few years I've become a big fan of Steam. I don't really care if theirs is another method that hurts the used PC game market. For me, the conveniences offered outweigh any money I might save by getting the games used elsewhere.
[QUOTE=''deadfirezero'']
Not the disc check. The limited number of activations. As already stated, informed buyers would be wary of buying a used copy on the chance that the allowed number of activations have already been used.[/QUOTE]I mean games like Mass Effect, where apparanly you can use a disk check OR activation. There are plenty of used copies being bought and sold on ebay. [QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps'']Even if all 3 activations were used, it still wouldn't be ''dead'' as you can get more activations.[/QUOTE][QUOTE=''deadfirezero'']I'm curious to know how this scenario works out: ''Hi, (insert game publisher)? I just bought an original (insert game title) disc off eBay, but the allowed number of activations have already been used up. Can I get some more so that I can play?'' If they're nice about it now... how long do you think that will last?
Personally I haven't run into any trouble with games that install from disc and have a limited number of activations - mostly because I have so few. Over the past few years I've become a big fan of Steam. I don't really care if theirs is another method that hurts the used PC game market. For me, the conveniences offered outweigh any money I might save by getting the games used elsewhere.[/QUOTE]Umm... Don't tell them you bought it off ebay?!
[QUOTE=''Johnny_Rock''][QUOTE=''AnnoyedDragon'']There is a workaround for Mass Effect [/QUOTE]Cool! Does it make the game fun? [/QUOTE]
lulz
[QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps'']Umm... Don't tell them you bought it off ebay?![/QUOTE]
Of course I understand that. My point is that I don't think it will be long before a number of common excuses are met with an automatic refusal.
[QUOTE=''Solidus171'']I personally wouldn't think of buying Mass Effect if it's used from there, because you have no idea how many allowed installs are left. Maybe they have all been used up and you are buying a dead copy?[/QUOTE]
Then call EA and get more installs. Unlike you, I've actually tried it to see how hard it is. They don't care about stopping second-hand sales in practice, it was easy as hell to get more activations for Mass Effect even though I didn't even need them when I tried.
Yeah, EA should provide this as an option.
[QUOTE=''Makari''][QUOTE=''Solidus171'']I personally wouldn't think of buying Mass Effect if it's used from there, because you have no idea how many allowed installs are left. Maybe they have all been used up and you are buying a dead copy?[/QUOTE]
Then call EA and get more installs. Unlike you, I've actually tried it to see how hard it is. They don't care about stopping second-hand sales in practice, it was easy as hell to get more activations for Mass Effect even though I didn't even need them when I tried.[/QUOTE]
How long did it take? Don't they charge you by the minute?
[QUOTE=''Captain__Tripps''][QUOTE=''Makari''][QUOTE=''Solidus171'']I personally wouldn't think of buying Mass Effect if it's used from there, because you have no idea how many allowed installs are left. Maybe they have all been used up and you are buying a dead copy?[/QUOTE]
Then call EA and get more installs. Unlike you, I've actually tried it to see how hard it is. They don't care about stopping second-hand sales in practice, it was easy as hell to get more activations for Mass Effect even though I didn't even need them when I tried.[/QUOTE]
How long did it take? Don't they charge you by the minute?[/QUOTE]
no, lol. for us americans at least, calling CS is a regular 650 extension at EA's headquarters in redwood city, it's like calling anybody else there. there might be an 800 number too, but i never really had cause to check; i live about 25 miles away from their HQ. i did all this like 6 months ago when mass effect came out, because i was curious myself what would happen and decided to try after i bought the game. it took a few minutes, they didn't seem to really care that much.
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