LAN GAMES

PhilD · #1 November 9th, 2003, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:
You are correct. When developers prevent LAN games from working then it encourages gamers to go search/learn for ways of defeating copy protection. [/QB]

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.

NTJedi · #2 November 9th, 2003, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:
If you're going to offer hotseat why charge for LAN. ... ... 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.

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.

Quote:

Originally posted by PhilD:
...if there was an option to purchase just an additional key at a reduced rate, ...

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.

Taqwus · #3 November 9th, 2003, 07:51 PM

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.

NTJedi · #4 November 9th, 2003, 10:40 PM

Quote:

by Taqwus
you might want to consider buying used, or reselling when you're done with them.

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.

Gandalf Parker · #5 November 10th, 2003, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:
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.

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.

Taqwus · #6 November 10th, 2003, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:

quote:
by Taqwus
you might want to consider buying used, or reselling when you're done with them.

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.

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.

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.