LAN GAMES
 

I don't know why some developers expect gamers to buy an individual copy for each player on a LAN game. If you're going to offer hotseat why charge for LAN. Not to mention for whatever reasons(greed) they do have, I seriously doubt any of these developers would purchase a single game 7_times. 7_times that's the boat I'm in because I have relatives I see twice a year... now they rarely play games. It's insane to expect them to go buy a copy for the two times a year we do LAN games. Now 7_times is almost $400.oo after shipping&handling has been added. When watching a DVD movie from home we don't have to buy an individual copy for each person watching the movie. And gamers don't have to buy an individual license on each player for board games like monopoly.
Again... your not charging extra for hotseat so why charge extra for LAN games??

[ November 07, 2003, 23:15: Message edited by: NTJedi ]

Re: LAN GAMES
 

Why is it if something isnt the way people want they feel that it was done on purpose just to piss them off?

They didnt BLOCK lan play. Its just that they didnt allow it. To allow lan play means they have to spend alot of time trying to figure out HOW to allow it without making it really easy to rip off the game and play on any machine that anybody wants to. Allowing hotseat is much simpler.

So the question you should have asked is... why didnt they take the time to write it into the game to allow you to play as many people as you want on a lan without buying more copies.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

Hm indeed this is not very good. If I will play multi, I will more than likely will play with friends over LAN.
However, I guess they will preorder it anyways. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: LAN GAMES
 

I think it's part of the copy protection of Dominions.

However, i think it would be nice if someone who owns Dom II could play with more "sunday-gamer" type of people who don't own Dom II in LAN.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

Copy protection is easy to defeat...anyway...so if you really want to you could install your Version on their comps or whatever to play IP games..or whatever...meh.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Keep in mind that copy protection is just that. Protection against copying. Its not pirate protection or crack protection. The first line of defense is to protect against an average user who might casually give a copy to a friend if a game let him. After that its an effort to slow down the above-average user but thats a whole different ballgame.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING?? I NEVER SAID ANYTHING LIKE THAT !

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You MUST be joking... at least I hope so.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You are correct. When developers prevent LAN games from working then it encourages gamers to go search/learn for ways of defeating copy protection.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It encourages some gamers to do that. Others actually care to respect their licences.

In other words - if I have an opportunity to organize LAN games of DomII, I will either try to convince the other players to purchase their own copies, or buy them myself. Either would be easier, and more likely to occur (esp. the latter) if there was an option to purchase just an additional key at a reduced rate, but I will not look for a crack, or use one if I know there is one.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">This is the dilemma I am facing... unfortunately it's not just one or two additional CD's which are needed. And paying almost $400.oo for two weeks of LAN games is madness.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes this I would be great... even if it was $12.oo per cd-key. Unfortunately rarely have I seen games provide such an option. I haven't decided what I'll be doing when they arrive. I am hoping the developers or someone will be able to provide a 3rd legit option so the LAN game can be done.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

You're not buying a license for two weeks; you're buying a license to use basically forever. It's not Illwinter's or Shrapnel's problem that you wouldn't take greater advantage of it. You might as well whine about the cost of buying season tickets for an NFL team if you're only planning to attend one or two games.

In your case, you might want to consider buying used, or reselling when you're done with them. So long as resale transfers /everything/ sold with the game, and no installation remains, I think you'd be in the clear. Hell, you could probably legally borrow from friends for those two weeks so long as everything's transferred etc -- e.g. only one installation for each legit purchase at any given time. This is more likely to be feasible than a rental system or a low-cost limited license, or for Shrapnel or Illwinter to implement a Battle.net-style server or whatever.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Your saying I should purchase an entire 747 airplane even tho I only need it for two weeks. I need something that's more financially realistic. We could do hotseat so why go thru all the financial hassle your suggesting.

My point is there isn't a high price for multiplayer hotseat and shouldn't be for multiplayer LAN. Hopefully a thrid option will appear.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Thats alittle crazy. MP hotseat is on one machine. The slight protection that Dom has is that a host in a MP game checks for the same CD key. Thats not much protection but probably adequate vs pirates since its likely that all the copies floating around will have the same cd key.

For a LAN playable Version you are talking about multiple copies on many machines with the same ID? If it allows that then how will it verify that its on a lan? Those copies could be on any machine anywhere. If you arrange it so that a host will allow many copies of the same ID then one of those copies could be floated to thousands of computers with no consequences.

Im sorry but this game just isnt protected enough to give you what you want without hurting itself. Allowing hotseat is not the same as allowing lan.

Re: LAN GAMES
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Your saying I should purchase an entire 747 airplane even tho I only need it for two weeks. I need something that's more financially realistic. We could do hotseat so why go thru all the financial hassle your suggesting.
</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Irrelevant. Would you ask Boeing to sell you a plane for less, because you're not going to use it much? No. An airline buys the jet -- for full price -- and attempts to recoup its costs by renting passage to people who don't need it full ownership all the time.

You want to pay less because you're not going to use it that often? Find somebody who'll buy it and sell its use to you for a limited time. Boeing isn't obligated to offer you that choice; nor is Illwinter.

Quote:

My point is there isn't a high price for multiplayer hotseat and shouldn't be for multiplayer LAN. Hopefully a thrid option will appear.

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It'd require more protection measures, such as CD checks. The first Version didn't even require the CD to be in the drive, which was a prerequisite for all the "one CD per three players in your IPX game" bit.

In addition, bear in mind that spawning was usually supported only by RTS games which included a completely separate single-player campaign -- i.e. content which was locked out to people who only played in multiplayer games, and which thus offered an additional incentive to purchase. This does not exist for Dominions II.