Space Empires V Pirated!

[Romulus68]

I read a comment from Sid Mier (sp?)(I think it was his article)(or Chris Taylor....hummm
) and he commented on pirating as such, "The majority of people that pirate a game would have NEVER bought the game in the first place. So, we aren't really loosing sales."

[AstralWanderer]

Romulus68 said:
...he commented on pirating as such, "The majority of people that pirate a game would have NEVER bought the game in the first place. So, we aren't really loosing sales."

I'd agree. I copied games in my youth when I couldn't afford them (back in the Apple II days) and that certainly did not result in any lost sales. Now that I can afford such things, I purchase them.

People should take a step back and relax a little. It's the lack of visibility on the high-street and mainstream games stores that likely harms independent publishers more (less chance of impulse purchases) and the fear of piracy is what engenders consumer-hostile monstrosities like StarForce.

[PvK]

As I said, I like the idea, though certainly it could backfire.

I remember being amused by how (the Atari ST version of) Rogue had a check to see if the player was trying to cheat death by abusing saved game files. If it thought it detected that, it would still let you play, but started introducing very deadly creatures into the game who were enforcers. I thought it was neat, and even though it could be fooled or might possibly go off when someone wasn't cheating, it made the point in a humorous way that one was not supposed to Save-cheat like in so many games.

Not that that's the same thing. You make a good point that spamming disk images would add to the bandwidth problem, for example. Again, I was mainly just saying I liked the idea.

[Azselendor]

the reason why I said the key generator should be sent to aaron is because of method microsoft uses. See, there isn't an infinite number of combinations. if so, I could type in 555-5555-55-5555-555-555 and so on and get a legitimate code to use. What the key code generator does is generates codes similar to what aaron uses because someone spied on the system processes and engineered a key code generator -- or, as I suspect, aaron used a standardized key code generator and someone adapted an existing key code generator.

Now what microsoft does is take advantage of that and manipulates their programs to use keycodes that are further modified by randomization and based on various hardware signatures. Of course, the most effective means microsoft has now is the Genuine Microsoft Product program where programs have to be checked in for use. Now it can still be broken, mind you, but the idea is to just make it difficult for people steal the program.

Now this would, definitely, slow down bug fixes, that's why I suggested the fake-torrent

Now here's the thing about the demo-torrent idea, yes it will irritate people. But let's consider who we'd be irritating, people who, 99.9% of the time wouldn't by the program to begin with, and will more than likely never have an intention to buy a program. Not to mention, the torrent plan doesn't require malfador or strategy first to implement, thus it wouldn't even effect them.

But what I think I failed to mention is the fact that such a plan has a huge marketing opportunity for malfador. See, once such a plan is in effect, we can then submit it to various sites such as Digg which could then attract others find out what space empires is about. Which in turn works in our favor because once we spread word that we are inserting fake SE5 torrents, then would-be pirates aware of it will become wary of SE5 torrents while exposing the audience of digg or slashdot or another social news site to SE5.

As for rewarding legitimate buyers, that's definitely an option - but how long until the pirates steal that too?

[Atrocities]

Go Play This

It will help to take your mind off of these low life scums who posted SE V and Dominions 3 to BT sites.

[Kamog]

That maze game startled me it made me jump!

[Danipenn]

I've seen that maze...better if u don't play it i warned u

[Fyron]

I can't believe anyone is seriously considering this...