[Maltrease]

Frankly, I'm not even sure that piracy is that big of an issue as long as people couldn't play multiplayer games with a pirated copy.

I found Dominions 2 on a "trial" game index website. Downloaded and liked the game. Downloaded the demo to play with the latest patched versions and promptly bought the game to play online with others and to get the full version with the latest patches.

A "trial" version on a game like this will never be up to date... or if it was Dominions would be so vastly more popular that I doubt shrapnel or Illwinter would be complaining.

And someone that is into the game is going to be dying to read through a huge list of patches and additions that they don't have access to.

If it wasn't for that "trial" site I may have never found Dominions and Shrapnel would never have got my $110.

Its kind of a separate issue, but if you take a reduced stance on piracy it can simplify an online distribution.

Basically you need to let anyone who has bought the game be able to download it (username and password login to a download site). Track how many times it was download... so you can cut them off at 10 or 20 times unless they send and email (basically in case the account was shared with others).

Then you just protect the serials numbers.

I haven't checked the "trial" sites for Dominions. But the last thing you want is someone that wants the game right now... and finds out that they can get a version immediately illegally versus waiting a week to buy it legitimately. But I suppose even in that case they will still eventually buy it so they can play multiplayer. What you wouldn’t get are people that ended up not liking the game enough to buy it later who might have dropped the money before they didn’t know they wouldn’t be in love with it (Sword of the Stars in my case).