Copy Protection in NS2?

TwiStEr

<div class="IPBDescription">... in light of recent events, I felt I must ask ...</div>Hey Guys ... I lurk around these Forums and especially the site a lot. I loved and still do love the originl NS and still play it. Obviously I cant wait to for NS2 to come out and I crave every Blog and Twitter post there is.

Now there has been a development latly especially with EA Games that I find very disturbing. Im talking about the CopyProtection / DRM being used in the recent releases: SecuRom and limited activations.

This "Protection" has the effect, that we as the paying customers basically only rent the game and infest our computer with malware (at Ring0 Level) that wont uninstall with the game and dictates us what programs we can use and which not. I refuse to buy any game with this kind of "protection" especially because all it does is heckling the normal customer and does nothing to the pirates. Spore being available 3 days before the US release on torrent sites and all time record in downloads. DRM like this is actually fuelling piracy ....

Having said all that and really not wanting to start a flame war about the topic <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> I want to ask if theres gonna be something similar in NS2? CD-Check and Serial are things everybody is fine with, Im not talking about these soft methods ... but having me call a crappy/expensive support to reactivate game I payed for I consider very nasty!

Since NS2 is gonna be Multiplayer only I doubt it would make sense to put something that invasive in, then again they put SecuRom on Steam Games.

I would be very happy to hear something on this from the developers <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />




(In the meantime keep on working on this great game and I already have my roommate hooked and he is gonna buy a copy as well ... cant wait)

SentrySteve

<!--quoteo(post=1693486:date=Nov 14 2008, 04:48 PM:name=TwiStEr)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TwiStEr @ Nov 14 2008, 04:48 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693486"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Since NS2 is gonna be Multiplayer only I doubt it would make sense to put something that invasive in<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This.

Most DRM is useless and only affects legitimate customers. Whether it be limited installs or always requiring a CD to be in the drive the pirated version of games do not come with these limitations. That is one excuse pirates can use to justify their actions.

That said, I would expect NS2 to have some kind of CD key system. Most multiplayer games are piracy immune because you must have a valid key to fully enjoy the game.

locallyunscene

I'm curious too. I had always assumed they'd go the cd key + plus steam approach, but I don't have anything to base that on.

w0dk4

Multiplayer only games (which NS2 will be, or not?) have the great advantage of not having to care about copy protection at all.
If you use unique keys for each sold product, there is no way to hack yourself into the validated servers.

And since its always pretty hard to convince enough players to go to private, cracked servers, this can be almost ignored.

So the bottom line is: NS2 wouldnt actually need any copy protection.

Sirot

<!--quoteo(post=1693500:date=Nov 14 2008, 08:45 PM:name=w0dk4)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(w0dk4 @ Nov 14 2008, 08:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1693500"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Multiplayer only games (which NS2 will be, or not?) have the great advantage of not having to care about copy protection at all.
If you use unique keys for each sold product, there is no way to hack yourself into the validated servers.

And since its always pretty hard to convince enough players to go to private, cracked servers, this can be almost ignored.
<b>
So the bottom line is: NS2 wouldnt actually need any copy protection.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Needs CD-Keys to allow for validation.

haymo

Pretty much steam > piracy for multiplayer games. The amount of players that use other cracked steam clients and on cracked servers are dismal. So I wouldn't worry too much about this issue.