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[Expack2]

Originally Posted by TheChosen

Pachter. Little typo there and you immediately think Im referring to someone else?

Thanks to time lag, I thought you were referring to one of the people who commented on the Gamasutra article I to which I linked. Sorry 'bout that!

[jonh_sabugs]

Unless we face a complete paradigm shift in computing (which is quite unlikely), DRMs will always be completely ineffective. I don't see why companies even bother with such crap.

[Eagle of Fire]

Well, I'm not ashamed one bit to say that I'm one of those so called "pirates" who would likely download a game to try it out... However, if I like a game or am impressed by it I will go buy it ASAP to support the developer.

But you know that? It never happen. Well, it does, but less and less. The last time I did download a game to try it out before purchasing it was Spore and I found out I could not play the game in full because it didn't want to support my graphic card. I didn't bother purchasing the game... Why would I purchase a broken game? Not to say that it was labeled and marketed as a revolution in gaming, which it was clearly not after playing it... I wasn't interested.

A good example of this though would be Civ III. I hated (and still do) Civ II in comparison to Civilization. So I was really lukewarm in "wasting" money on Civ III. Then a friend of mine brought a copied CD of his own for me to try, and believe it or not but I ended up purchasing the Gold Edition only a few weeks later.

My own opinion goes toward what DarthHelmet already said: those companies already treat me like I'm worse then the worse shit they've ever met even before I purchase their game. When I do purchase their game, I need to do what they want me to do on my machine or the game won't work! For someone like me who block all outgoing program traffic with my firewall, even downloading an online installer is ludicrous... Imagine if I'd need to stay connected to the net only to play the damn thing?

I feel insulted and because of it I'm far more likely to be what those companies refer to a "pirate". Because respect is a two way street.

[Red Fortress]

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

A good example of this though would be Civ III. I hated (and still do) Civ II in comparison to Civilization. So I was really lukewarm in "wasting" money on Civ III. Then a friend of mine brought a copied CD of his own for me to try, and believe it or not but I ended up purchasing the Gold Edition only a few weeks later.

The Gold Edition was kinda worthless as it only include first expansion pack (PTW: which was stupid), not second one "Conquests".

Conquests was the one used for all the cool mods and total conversions...

[GTX2GvO]

About the cracking of DRM.
I've always looked for either a full crack or a plain No-CD for every game I Played.
Whether it was a pirated copy or an actual Store Bought CD/DVD.

Now With GOG (and steam) there's no need for it.
At it's worst I need to be online to play.

But things Like Starforce and Tages are hated here.
If I can't get rid of these kind of draconian DRM's I'm not even bothering with pirating the game. Let alone buy it.
If I can get rid of the DRM (or the store doesn't uses it) it's all about the price and availability.

Originally Posted by Lulu_Jane

A personal example is that I no longer buy music from the Gorillaz. I bought 3 of their albums from their website about 5 years ago, the files were so crippled that I basically threw money down a hole, being unable to move the files from one machine to another among other things. I ended up having to download the music illegally afterwards so I could actually play the damn stuff.

I got the 1st 3 albums too. (1st one still needs to be bought though )
But I bought 2 of the albums in the store and ripped them afterwards.
This ALWAYS gives you the filetype and compression YOU want.

[TheChosen]

I think Steam is a great example on good DRM. Some of it is still online only, but as a counter balance it offers lot of services and great prices. I mean, GTX gave it a change and now he uses it, and he's the guy that dislikes DRM a lot. Not to mention that after adding possibility to pay in rubles, Steam has become hugely popular in Russia, where piracy is widely spread.

[Eagle of Fire]

Conquests was the one used for all the cool mods and total conversions...

Well, I haven't looked at my case in ages (if I still have it). It was the version with both the expansion and conquest.

But even then, I would not care less about mods and conversions or whatnot. The chance that a normal player mod something I like are abysmal. I prefer to play the vanilla games, always.

[Lulu_Jane]

Originally Posted by TheChosen

Not to mention that after adding possibility to pay in rubles, Steam has become hugely popular in Russia, where piracy is widely spread.

I didn't realize they'd done this, I'm impressed.

[Red Fortress]

Originally Posted by Eagle of Fire

Well, I haven't looked at my case in ages (if I still have it). It was the version with both the expansion and conquest.

But even then, I would not care less about mods and conversions or whatnot. The chance that a normal player mod something I like are abysmal. I prefer to play the vanilla games, always.

In that case your missing about 30-40% of the possible enjoyment out of Civ 3:

A large game editing suit came with the "Conquests" expansion pack, and the Civilization community makes many excellent Scenarios/Mods.

Just take a quick look:
Medieval European Mod II
Escape From Zombie Island 2: The Remake
The Desert and the Mountain - Empires of Africa
Age of Imperialism
The Cold War - 1950s

Scroll down and look at the Screenshots, this is really polished stuff!!

[Eagle of Fire]

I think what you just linked prove my point well enough. I'm not interested in content which change the original game (the one I want to play) or only make graphic changes...

I might try the zombie one though. But only because it looks interesting while at the same time changing the whole game upside down. It certainly is not Civilization anymore...