There is one problem with adding a activation termination date to something.... you dont NEED to crack it. all you need to do is install your computer with the same date, but 28 years from now, even your calender will still be the same that way. and there is no way to validate that the date in the bios is actually right or not, not without AGAIN an internet connection.
That will not work if you set the date internally and have it connect to a server at Larian to check the date.
This form of auto activation failure can be triggered if the Larian activation server has been set to no longer activate and the server can upload a file that will automatically override default activation protection.
This would work if the activation was done after the game is installed.
Valve have already offered an offline activation patch.
Even for HL2, they have already cracked it. so no form of copy protection is uncrackable.
No one to my knowledge has "cracked" it. They have a Steam emulator which bypasses the need to use Steam.
The main idea of copy protection is to slow down the piracy speed enough to get a decent sale figure.
Exactly! The first few weeks of sales are vital to a company's profit.
After a few weeks Epic release a patch that gets rid of the CD protection.
So have other companies.
While we dont like the fact that we need to connect to the internet just to be able to play the game, its just another failed attempt to get better sales figures, resulting in unhappy gamers.
I reiterate my above idea about phone/e-mail/post activation.
Gamers will be unhappy with any kind of protection because in the end all protections will cause some inconvenience.
Internet activation has always been painless for me(and many, many others I have spoken with) as all I have/they had to do was push a button or two.
Unfortunately another thing is true, the better they make a copy-protection, the more hassles its bound to cause. Personally i think starforce is one of the better ones, unfortunately that makes it too fussy for some computer systems.
That's no different from people having to use protections that automatically doesn't work because the user has certain software/hardware installed that automatically decides that user is a pirate for having a CD writer or imaging tools.
Worse yet, I have neither of the above and it had taken me an hour in order to get the game to install.
It isn't just me either, others have had the same problem.
