Have you played any of the earlier Anno games? If so, how would you compare?

I really enjoyed 1701 and I'm considering picking this one up.

You're right. As an example, I sold WarCraft III + The Frozen Throne to my nephew and then when I wanted to play against him I downloaded cd-key generators (that didn't work....) and read a guide on how to make your own key based on a real one (which OFCOURSE didn't work!).

So I looked up the games in a priceservice to find the cheapest retailer and bought The Frozen Throne thinking that Battle.Net only checked the cd-key in use so my nephew and I could use the same Reign of Chaos cd-key while having different Frozen Throne cd-keys (MAN was I wrong!). I ended up having to go buy Reign of Chaos to....

So in my place, Blizzards cd-key measures (which I do not consider DRM) made me buy games.

The meaning of DRM has been lost...to some it means StarForce and SecuROM and to others (like you) it means cd-keys....

I wouldn't trust those sites. I knew a few but they have disappeared. I'd buy from one if they had a proven track record of being able to get me a new cd-key or banning the thief from the servers.

No it doesn't. You can enforce licenses by suiing the people breaking them (which happens to companies that pirate business software and get caught). That fits no definition of DRM on the planet. It's also not DRM if you need an account to get in, ala World of Warcraft. DRM has a specific meaning.

 

Oh, the cult! How lovely. At this point if I were to reply on your level, I'd ask how much the copyright lobbyist industry is paying you to shill here.

Software companies do not have the right to break computers (which Starforce did). They also don't have the right to install random crap on my computer, because I refuse to give them that right. If they could only manage to get the pirates to install their DRM they might be okay, except all the pirated versions just strip it out.

DRM like what they're doing here is a proven failure, only affecting paying customers. Any company run by people with a clue would quickly realize that pissing off your customers in exchange for no real change in piracy rates is a really poor trade.

I mean, even EA figured it out and dropped this limited authorization nonsense.

Your major problem is that you see everybody who dislikes DRM as one group, which is wrong. Steam fits my father in law's critera just fine: buy the game and it works. He doesn't care about DRM. He wants the product he buys to work. DRM has caused games he bought to not work, repeatidly (but downloading a pirate version solves the problem). Steam doesn't have that problem.

Therefore, he has no problem with Steam.

Any DRM where the solution is to just go grab the pirate version and not install the retail one is beyond idiotic. At that point you're actually advocating piracy because the retail copy is defective. Which is the whole reason I have a problem with it in the first place.

I would like to make a distinction between:

1. Conservative measures, measures that will prevent gaming only when it is sure that there is a case of piracy.
2. Optimistic measures, measures that will prevent gaming if a situation is encountered that may be related with piracy

Checking wether 2 copies are being used at the same time is a form of (1), checking how many times a serial is installed is a form of (2). I consider (1) as perfectly okay to protect your copyright., while I can't think of any acceptable protection in category (2).

I've played all three earlier Anno games, and Dawn of Discovery is the best since the original 1602 (which I still play from time to time). It gets a little complicated later on but it's an excellent game, well worth the price. One word of caution is that you'll need a pretty robust system; it's a resource hog.

You're arguing over semantics, my point is that DRM isn't just the Securom/Starfoce type protection, it has different levels of protection, you're ignoring my point.

I work in software myself, we sell to customers who have a history of reverse engineering products to make their own at cheaper cost.  Luckily we work in a vertical market so we are able to protect our software and make it not economically viable for them to reverse engineer/copy/reproduce it instead of buying another copy off us, after all we paid for the development cost of the product.

Fortunately for us our customers are professional adults who can understand why we would protect our IP, if we delivered something that was broken because of our software protection they would be angry for sure, but we would fix it ourselves.  With a commercial market, with way more customers, they have to weigh up how many people is this actually going to break the software for, a small minority, and how much this is going to save them on pirating.  I think most companies are bright enough to realise they are protecting themselves from students/friends passing games round to each other, not people downloading.

If that were the case, it would have had to ask you for an exception to your firewall to let it communicate with the server. Seeing as it never did that for me (And I own a few games that use Tages, and that is how it always works), I would suspect it's basically 'dormant' in the demo.

I can't remember a single game that hasn't been cracked, isn't that proof enough that DRM doesn't work and never has worked? There are only two groups that deal with DRM, paying customers and crackers. Pirates never have to deal with it because some groups crack the games (for kicks & e-peen), so that really leaves only paying customers who are in any way affected by DRM. And I've never heard anyone say that DRM did something good for them and I highly doubt anyone else has either (but if you have, then please do tell). Seeing as only paying customers have to deal with this stuff, and all it does is generate complaints and anger, I can't see why it's still being used. It's pointless, and if you can't see, well, then I think you should quite frankly open your eyes and look again.

(Now I don't really mind cd-checks (they are annoying though) or CD-keys since I can't remember ever running into problems with them, but any specific software that's designed to stop piracy I count as DRM)

That's normal, rather then the exception. If you release a demo without the DRM, it makes it easier for the crackers to compare that .exe to the defective retail .exe and find the DRM.

Not that it's really causing them much difficulty right now, but that's the reason.

Actually, the F.A.D.E. in Arma 2 has led to some pretty hilarious stuff. I guess if you play a pirated version of it, you cannot hit anything with a weapon, and after a certain period of time become...a seagull.

I really like the Anno games, or I should say I like 1701 since that is when I got introduced to the series. However, since this one has TAGES, I'll have to give it a miss. I'll meet publishers half way on DRM: Goo is perfectly fine, Steamworks is ok, and I can live with Safedisc so long as it works with my drive. However limited activation phone home types? Nope, not happening on my system. If I can't play the game 10 years from now, I'm not going to pay you for it. When I buy something it is mine to keep forever.

If they can the TAGES later, I'll probably pick it up because 1701 was good fun.

Suggestions?  Bought Dawn of Discovery on Impulse, but it crashes after the Ubisoft and Blue Byte flash screens.  Ubisoft support keeps telling me to update my drivers, but they are all up to date.   The demo worked fine.

Could it be a Tages problem?  I have a router with NAT.  Could that be blocking Tages?  Do I need to open a port or something?

thanks in advance