Gamers are being caught in the crossfire in the war between pirates and game publishers.
Game publishers are so paranoid these days they’re releasing game demos with copy protection schemes.
This wouldn’t be an issue but some of these copy protection schemes are equally paranoid. From SecuROM’s web site:
SecuROM scans for active emulators with built-in cracking features and stops the application if one of them is found.
It’s not merely preventing the program from being copied, the copy protection scheme is preemptively acting even if there’s a possibility of the game being copied.
Gamers have been just as paranoid about the ill effects those copy protection schemes might have on their systems. From dlsreports’s write-up of the StarForce copy protection scheme:
While stopping software piracy is the scheme’s goal, the system instead causes system slowdowns, PC instability, device conflicts, is nearly impossible to remove manually, and remains long after you’ve uninstalled the software it came with.
There’s a lot of suspicion but there doesn’t seem to be any irrefutable proof StarForce does actually do all that. (That hasn’t stopped gamers from taking action, though.)
It’s not inconceivable that a copy protection scheme might cause problems, of course.
From the StarForce web site:
Some versions of StarForce Copy Protection will install dedicated drivers on your PC. Those drivers are necessary for the StarForce specific CD/DVD checking procedure, only.
…
In some cases, updating StarForce drivers can improve system performance or improve compatibility.
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Sometimes the un-installation utility of the protected application does not uninstall all StarForce drivers.
You could infer from that StarForce might install buggy and incompatible copy protection drivers that won’t be uninstalled when you uninstall the game.
And here’s something that isn’t mentioned in StarForce’s support page: those copy protection drivers are hidden by default.
And lest folks think this is a brouhaha mainly because of ifs and maybes, it’s worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time gamers have had issues with copy protection schemes. BioWare was aware that some Hordes of the Underdark users had issues with SecuROM but did little more than shrug it off. There were also SecuROM issues with Knights of the Old Republic and gamers were told to get another game executable from the publisher.
(There are even older examples.)
I suppose I should count myself fortunate I haven’t had major problems with copy protection schemes but that’s just absurd. Why should I be thankful when I paid money for the game? Have I not earned the right to play the game without being treated like a prospective thief after I’ve purchased the game?
