Starforce Boards

[Knightshade Dragon]

I'm not saying "Cause and effect" but their boards have been down since mid July...right around the time I started my push against them. 

....

Ok, its a slow news day.   

[CeeKay]

wait, you didn't want them dead?  er... oops..... 

[Tals]

I'm not saying "Cause and effect" but their boards have been down since mid July...right around the time I started my push against them. 

....

Ok, its a slow news day.   

When did they post the torrent link to GC2? For me that was the end for them.

Tals

[Knightshade Dragon]

I'm not saying "Cause and effect" but their boards have been down since mid July...right around the time I started my push against them. 

....

Ok, its a slow news day.   

When did they post the torrent link to GC2? For me that was the end for them.

Tals

About a month prior.

[corruptrelic]

They probably took the boards down because half of their "customers" were bitching about how bad Starforce was.. if you can't even keep your own boards under control, how's that going to look when potential clients come to the boards and see everyone complaining about Starforce?

I'd like nothing more than to see Starforce go out of business. Their posting of the GCII torrent was unprofessional and unethical.
In some sick way they were trying to send a message to the rest of the community "This is what happens when you don't copy protect your games" but it ended up backfiring.
While I appreciate games like GCII where they didn't choose any copy protection, I'm all for game developers using copy protection.. just not Starforce!

And seeing as how Midway has been using them, what's this going to mean for Unreal Tournament 2007?

[Tals]

I'm a little different - i'm all for Starforce if it works and it was so close to being a very good copy protection. However it caused issues on peoples pcs - that is the only issue I had with it.

I see most copy protection schemes as a total waste of effort which are cracked shortly after (or sometimes prior) to release and just inconvenience the customers rather than the pirates. So if it doesn't work i'd prefer to not have it incovenience me rather than just having as nice tag of copy protected game

Tals

[stiffler]

I'm a little different - i'm all for Starforce if it works and it was so close to being a very good copy protection. However it caused issues on peoples pcs - that is the only issue I had with it.

Hope you don't want to play those Starforce-protected games on Vista...

Are there companies that still use Starforce?  No big publishers, surely.  And I would have to imagine smaller publishers, despite the perceived protection it offers, are not equipped or able to deal with the huge backlash and tech support issues.

[Tals]

You didn't properly read my answer, I don't like Starforce but I have no issue with a good or perfect copy protection system (should one ever exist) - unlike i'm afraid some 

At the same time I see very little point in putting copy protection systems in that hurt the consumer but do very little to the pirate.

I also don't see myself installing Vista for the next couple of years at least.

Tals

[stiffler]

You didn't properly read my answer, I don't like Starforce but I have no issue with a good or perfect copy protection system (should one ever exist) - unlike i'm afraid some 

I wasn't neccessarily pointing you out, though I did quote you.  I just keep wondering about that potential issue.  The whole Starforce saga (thankfully) didn't have much of an effect on my gaming habits.  I am thankful that, regardless of these games not working on Vista, I didn't miss out on anything and certainly won't be looking to play those titles a few years down the line.

I am curious if there are still products being shipped in the US with Starforce protection.

Like you, I don't mind copy protection as long as it isn't invasive.  Starforce was bad.  The Microsoft activation is annoying.  Things like that I don't care for.  Stop the casual copiers because the hardcore will always find a way.

[EngineNo9]

Midway just shipped Rise & Fall with Starforce protection.  Considering they are also publishing Lord of the Rings Online as well as Unreal Tournament 2007 that is probably not good news. 

There are also numerous games shipped in Europe/Asia that still include Starforce, although usually the publishers for the North American version usually changes to a different copy protection scheme.  Ubisoft and JoWood dropped it for their NA releases, but still use it elsewhere.  Codemasters still uses it everywhere as far as I know. 

EDIT: I speelll goood!

[stiffler]

If UT 2007 ships with Starforce I will be sad.

Then again my machine might not even run it so maybe I'll be sad for other reasons.

[Tals]

re Europe that is pretty old news - i'm not aware that Euope is still shipping that many Starforce games - at one point it seemed to be them all

I'm not that bothered regarding it - but if I have any issue Starforce will always be my first victim.

Tals

[EngineNo9]

re Europe that is pretty old news - i'm not aware that Euope is still shipping that many Starforce games - at one point it seemed to be them all

I'm not that bothered regarding it - but if I have any issue Starforce will always be my first victim.

Tals

There are still a number of games being released in Europe with Starforce.  A few recent examples: FlatOut 2, Age of Pirates, Call of Juarez, Night Watch, Micro Machines 4. 

[Zarkon]

Night Watch has it in the US also.