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Press Release: SlySoft acquires Game Jackal

It certainly does do a disc check in SP for Stalker...
Might depend on where you are, I live in the US and just installed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Unlike most games it never asked for the CD key and when I ran it to play a single player game, it never asked for the disc which was NOT in the drive.

I suspect that the CD key is only needed for on-line play which I'm not interested in. But not checking for the disc in very unusual, could they have forgotten to add the disc check to it when they released the 1.01 (or whatever the current version is) patch?

I'm not going to complain! :D
 
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Or perhaps they took a lesson from Stardock and skipped disc-based copy protection all together!

:disagree:

Silly me. As if. :doh:
 
Could be... :D Though all the other THQ games I've played had a disc check.

Personally I've never believed in copy protection... I've always felt that if you offer a good product at a fair price, people WILL buy it.

Sure the pirates would probably have a field day but I suspect the reduction in support costs related to problems with the copy protection would out-weight the losses due to piracy.

Beside, with or without copy protection the pirates will steal it anyway, so why incur the extra costs and problems copy protection causes?
 
end of march release? please slysoft, let us have it, either that or give us an update? anything is better than the silence you've been keeping.
 
Could be... :D Though all the other THQ games I've played had a disc check.

Personally I've never believed in copy protection... I've always felt that if you offer a good product at a fair price, people WILL buy it.

Sure the pirates would probably have a field day but I suspect the reduction in support costs related to problems with the copy protection would out-weight the losses due to piracy.

Beside, with or without copy protection the pirates will steal it anyway, so why incur the extra costs and problems copy protection causes?

If that was the case would you need locks on your HOME, Copy Protection is just to keep honest people honest...........CHEERS
 
The thing that keeps honest people honest isn't called "copy protection"; it's called "being honest people."
 
Any news yet?

I had a major hard drive crash and lost my original copy of
game jackal. I sent an email to the original maker only to
find that they are no longer associated with it....:(

When is the new expected release date or does anyone
really know?
 
While there will always be people who are honest and buy the software they use, and there will always be the people who never buy software legally, software companies need to target the people in the middle.

So, looking at people on a scale of 1 to 10, where those who score a 1 never buy software, and 10 always buy their software, that is what copy protection focuses on. For those who are in the 4-6 range, these are people who may buy software legally, but may be tempted not to pay if they can get software for free, it is easy to find, and there are no drawbacks to getting an illegal copy. So, if the copy protection inspires people to have the original, or you get something good with the original(like a good printed manual), then that is the best way to go. Since people in the 4-6 range are the majority, then copy protection that does NOT degrade performance will be seen as a good thing.

So, copy protection really is needed, because those in the 4-6 range will go for the illegal copy in many cases unless there is a technical reason not to.

For those who feel that good software will sell, so copy protection isn't needed, when it costs millions and millions of dollars to develop a program, and they need to sell at least 200,000 or more with $30/copy going to the developer just to break even, then you can see how important it is for the company to at least break even for the development of the game. Sequels, or other games that use the same engine will help, but those sequels and other games will NOT be made if the original game doesn't sell well enough to make a profit. Look at Vampire: Bloodlines as an example. The game was good, though had some serious bugs in it. If the game had sold well enough to make a profit, it would have allowed sequels which would have fixed Troika's financial problems.
 
In every case of 'uncrackable' software I've seen, I've never observed any notable impact on sales in comparison to 'crackable' software.
 
In every case of 'uncrackable' software I've seen, I've never observed any notable impact on sales in comparison to 'crackable' software.

What software out there has zero protection these days? CD keys or activation tend to be the two most popular ways to protect software other than using CD/DVD copy protection. With multi-player being such a big deal at this point, activation keys will become more common, but the need for some sort of protection is still there.
 
You make some good points Targon but I disagree with your assesment that the majority of the '4-6' people would choose an illegal copy of a game.

Over all I think gamers want to support the people and companies that make our hobby possible. Sure, not all are that way but that doesn't mean a company should penalize the majority of us who do pay for our games.

The real loss a company experiences from piracy comes from professional pirates. They make thousands of the games and then sell them cheap. The company should go after them instead of their customers. After all, the pirates can figure out a way around any copy protection if there is a ill gotten profit to be made.

I'm not totally against CP. But I do think it should be done in such a way as to minimize the inconvenience to customers and such that the client can play a game how they choose to play it. I.E. with the DVD NOT in the drive. Personally, I'm partial to activation codes as they are generally the lesser PITA as long as they are printed clearly in the manual. Making unique codes a requirement for online play would discourage most people from sharing it with someone else if the consequence was that they could no longer play online with that code.

I like the ability to download my software or install it from a CD, enter in my activation key, and then use the software. If you have to connect to a server to authenticate your copy and the company has gone out of business, you're out of luck.

You have an excellent point about the game companies offering something special to purchasers of their products. Microsoft does something similar with their genuine windows program. You can only get certain software from them if you have a legitimate copy.

Perhaps developers could offer special in-game bonuses or something else. What if they offered everyone who registered their product a way to turn off the copy protection of the software...that alone might be sufficient motivation for people to register. Of course it would have to be done in such a way that it would only work for the copy registered. My point is that companies could make more money by being creative than by trying to seal up every possible leak...
 
Perhaps developers could offer special in-game bonuses or something else. What if they offered everyone who registered their product a way to turn off the copy protection of the software...that alone might be sufficient motivation for people to register.

I know that with 'Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends' when you first install, you need to boot the game from the disc. After you register and perform the in game updater, one of the patches removes the protection and allows you to play disc free! Why couldn't all software companies do this?
 
I know that with 'Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends' when you first install, you need to boot the game from the disc. After you register and perform the in game updater, one of the patches removes the protection and allows you to play disc free! Why couldn't all software companies do this?

Now THAT, is awesome! As to your question, I have no idea but maybe more publishers will do something like that for 'We the Gamers'. :) After all, we do pay their salaries...:D
 
Unreal Tournament and Quake 2+ have traditionally done this as well.
 
So I can just use CloneCD in this case to make a 1:1 backup for safekeeping?

For Oblivion? Yes. There's no protection at all--other than a disc check.
Game Jackal works as well. I would just use Game Jackal instead. Why
waste blank media if you don't have to?
 
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