It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
bansama: Simply put if these crackers think so highly of the software they are cracking, they wouldn't crack it. They wouldn't crack it so that they can ensure the producers of said software get the monetary compensation they deserve.
Providing the ability for others to use such software for free while urging people to by it, does not cut it. Just like those stupid little claims on ROM sites.

There are plenty of reasons to crack a game. I had to use a "crack" on Knights of the Old Republic on Steam to play it in my monitor's native resolution. Is that so terrible? I'm so glad that someone was willing to crack the game and upload it for me, because I would have had a much worse experience with the game had it not been cracked.
avatar
Wishbone: SHAPE UP, YOU ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLE! If we foreigners can handle your language properly, you should be able to as well :-D

We don't need to shape up cos we can figure out the mangled words better than dem non-native speakers.
avatar
PhoenixWright: There are plenty of reasons to crack a game. I had to use a "crack" on Knights of the Old Republic on Steam to play it in my monitor's native resolution. Is that so terrible?

Was that a new release? Was it a game still getting support directly from the developer? If not, then it doesn't really counter the argument that such cracks should be made available to those seeking to obtain the product for free. I.e., there is no reason to release it as close to day zero as possible.
Why couldn't the cracker, if they respect the developer's work so much, simply wait until that point in the future where the crack was actually needed to get a purchased product working? Why did they see the need to rush out and crack at close to day zero and such, help hinder sales of the very product that are supposedly urging people to buy?
avatar
bansama: Was that a new release? Was it a game still getting support directly from the developer? If not, then it doesn't really counter the argument that such cracks should be made available to those seeking to obtain the product for free. I.e., there is no reason to release it as close to day zero as possible.
Why couldn't the cracker, if they respect the developer's work so much, simply wait until that point in the future where the crack was actually needed to get a purchased product working? Why did they see the need to rush out and crack at close to day zero and such, help hinder sales of the very product that are supposedly urging people to buy?

Thats where the whole argument that the crackers are not supporting piracy falls apart. If the cracks appeared weeks or months after the release of the game then yes you could argue they are doing it as a service to get games properly working or to bypass dodgy copy-protection but no. There is a rush for fame to be the first to have a crack out there on release day ready to accompany the uploaded iso that often appears hours or even days before the retail release. Assassins Creed 2 did prove one thing and thats pirates have zero tolerance for games that are not available as cracks the moment the retail version is out.
avatar
Gundato: For the exact same reasons that they don't really do it for movies or music. Bad publicity.
Games have pretty much always been gotten in one of three ways: Usenet, Torrents, and IRC. I am not familiar with how Usenet handles things, but Torrents and IRC are pretty hard to take out. You stop Suprnova or PirateBay, another twenty sites take their place. And the legal fees involved in suing a private tracker just aren't worth the hassle.
So that leaves taking out Little Billy and his Grandma. And while that does make people think twice, it also makes you look pretty bad. And since it would actually have to be EA or Activision doing the lawsuits (and not a blanket organization like the RIAA or MPAA), that actually matters.
avatar
Delixe: I don't follow your argument. You are saying they don't go after filesharing sites because of bad press? Surely it looks worse for a corporation the size of Activision suing kids than issuing C&D to torrent sites?
I agree there is nothing that can be done about IRC but then not many people these days use it or are even aware of its existence. Remember I am taking about just making it hard for people to get the torrents not making it impossible. The casual pirate only does it because its so bloody easy to do. All a larger company would need is to take some of that money they use for these utterly pointless lawsuits and invest it in online police teams. If Activision had a team of 5-6 people checking torrent and Usenet sites daily looking for any Activision games being torrented and issuing C&D orders on them it would be far more productive. This torrent sites only exist because they claim they don't check what is being shared (although we all know this is bare faced lie), if companies took measures like this then they would be made aware and would have to remove the torrents. In the same way YouTube has had to remove copyright videos for the same reason.
Eventually (after a long time granted but eventually) people would simply stop bothering uploading torrents knowing that they will be taken down almost as quickly. Files may even be pre-checked for content like YouTube does now. The harder you make it for people to get the cracks the more the casual pirate (the ones who are the real problem) is going to think "Ah sod this I will just buy it".
My point is a simple one. If you stop making the torrents available then people cant pirate as easily and over all piracy rates would decrease. Far more than the current system where people consider it an acceptable risk as realistically you have a one in a million chance of being caught.

Well, keep in mind that they don't want to alienate people. So if we see in the news "Activision sues Pirate Bay" or something, it is going to make a lot of people angry. Then you will have the idiots who pretend this is about net neutrality and that everyone on that site was just exchanging Linux distros :p
Then you have the morons who spin it as "Activision doesn't want you to try out their games before you buy them!".
So just massive headaches. When the RIAA or MPAA do it, it is pretty neutral as far as the individual brands/companies/whatevers are concerned.
As for having a special task group whose job is to go patrol the torrent sites and the like: Four words for you "Big Brother is Watching". Sure it has jack all to do with that and is really just a matter of protecting a company's interests, but really, how often do any of the things people call "Orwellian" actually have anything to do with the crap in the book? :p
So yeah, they are basically screwed on the virtue of public relations. That being said, I think EA are part of something that does this for "abandonware" games.
avatar
phantomax: http://i40.tinypic.com/wit361.png
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=42099
If true it's quite cheap... Have you turned to the warez scene to "crack" other releases as well?

In all fairness. As long as it works i couldn't care less.
It doesn't really matter to me whether the game uses a crack made by someone else or not.
To be honest the main reason I buy games on here, is not as much for the game itself, (which is fairly easy to get these days), but for all the stuff you don't normally get in the pirate version, (or even in the retail vesions themselves!) like the OSTs, the Maps, the Manual, nice avatars, and artwork, (especially the artwork! :D).
The fact they work on my vista laptop without me having to tinker with it a lot, is excellent too!
Besides, quite a few games run on a modified Dosbox, (unusually a relatively older version... 0.6?), and that program can be a bother to work with! (It took me hours to get Toonstruck to work right!)
You could call them "lazy" for that! XD
(Though on the topic of GOG's Dosbox, anyone know how to get Might and Magic 2 to work. It just loads up and then shuts down on my lappy, which is odd since all the other M&M games work perfectly!)
avatar
Delixe: The thing I have never understood about the fight on piracy is why corporations throw millions into suing downloaders and next to nothing is done about the uploaders. I'm not talking about the preople making cracked exe's but the people uploading the iso's. If the big corporations want to stop piracy then they need to cut it off at the source, if the only thing people could get there hands on is the damn exe files there wouldn't be any piracy. But no filesharing sites are allowed to continue distributing these torrents (and making money off it) while big Activision goes suing a 14 year old for downloading MW2.

Just figured I'd mention that they're going after the uploaders in Sweden - a few years back a guy was found guilty for uploading a number of films and stuff in court. Supposedly a watershed case. Dunno what happened after that, as it wasn't actually big news; I only remember it because the person had to pay an obscenely big fine or some such for uploading a handful of films. Maybe s/he got acquitted later? I don't know.
The difficulty is supposedly in tracking down uploaders: according to an article in a local newspaper a few years ago the initial uploader group for a given work is either very small, or a very small group of people is responible for uploading most of the works available - I can't remember which, to be honest.
Why doesn't GOG just address this so we can end this thread?
avatar
Lou: Why doesn't GOG just address this so we can end this thread?

Their contract with Activision may not allow them to comment on it.
avatar
Lou: Why doesn't GOG just address this so we can end this thread?
avatar
Wishbone: Their contract with Activision may not allow them to comment on it.

Then they should say so
avatar
Wishbone: Their contract with Activision may not allow them to comment on it.
avatar
Lou: Then they should say so

It may not even allow them to say that :-/
avatar
Wishbone: Their contract with Activision may not allow them to comment on it.
avatar
Lou: Then they should say so

But that would be commenting on it; it's a catch 22 scenario. Besides, as has already been said so many times in this thread, does it really matter? They might have used or been supplied with a scene crack, or they might not have and just stumbled upon the same DRM removal solution the crackers did. Either way, the game works and is DRM free, where's the need to discuss it any further or comment on it?
avatar
RetroVortex: (Though on the topic of GOG's Dosbox, anyone know how to get Might and Magic 2 to work. It just loads up and then shuts down on my lappy, which is odd since all the other M&M games work perfectly!)

It's been covered a few times in the Might and Magic forum, but just run it as an administrator and it should work fine.
avatar
Wishbone: Fixed. Remember, the comma is your friend. Use it well young padawan, and you won't unintentionally say the opposite of what you intended ;-)
avatar
Delixe: You are expecting perfect diction at that time of night? Welcome to the interwebz my friend.

Just a small example of why using commas can be important, even on "teh intarwebz".