f13.net

It would seem the creators of STARFORCE don't like people stating the truth about their crapware. Over at boingboing.net they're attracting the wrath of the StarForce overlords.


from http://www.boingboing.net



From: "Dennis Zhidkov" <denis.zhidkov@star-force.com>
Date: January 31, 2006 9:55:40 AM BST
To: "doctorow@craphound.com" <doctorow@craphound.com>
Subject: StarForce Response to Cory Doctorow

StarForce Inc. response to Mr. Cory Doctorow 

Dear Sir, calling StarForce "Anti-copying malware" is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now. I urge you to remove your post from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html because it is full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors. Your article violates approximately 11 international laws. Our USlawyer will contact you shortly. I have also contacted the FBI , because what you are doing is harassment.

Sincerely,
Dennis Zhidkov
PR-manager
StarForce Inc.
www.star-force.com

Some industrious hacker should just write a damn virus that piggy backs starforce then tell Symantec or something.

Wow, that PR Manager sounds like a douchebag. Great public relation!

I call fake - that PR manager writes like a petulant 12 year old girl.

Welcome to Corporate Communications 101.

Starforce can suck my left nut.

Then how would you uninstall it from your colon?

I have a special procedure for that. It involves lots of bran.

Once it starts sucking, it never stops.

Or an eastern european.

/rimshot.

He's real. It's typical of their attitude. In their mind the guy that makes 300000 pirated copies of software in China = you making a backup of your game or just wanting to play without the CD in the drive. You're both filthy pirates.

They have a $10,000 prize if you can prove Starforce can ruin computer.
http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=261&id=707

Being a pain in the customer's ass and a security risk isn't /ruining/ a computer. It's just a lousy way to do business, but that seems to be their MO.

Bear in mind that as far as they're concerned, YOU'RE not the customer.

If Starforce is on the PC version of Resident Evil 4 published by UBISoft, I'm going to start taking action. Those frenchie bastards have it coming.

I refuse to buy or play any game locked up by Starforce or similar software. Incidently if you have a website, link to the Boycott Starforce (http://www.glop.org/starforce/) website (notice the link emphasis) for a good time.

Apparently x3 was.

Didn't notice till after install.

That website is misleading. Neither Still Life nor Obscure had Starforce far as I could tell. Hell, Fabricated reviewed Still Life, he might have starforce on his computer RIGHT NOW. Har. Also - Area 51, Freedom Force 2, Sudeki, Silent Storm, Scrapland, and XIII did not have Starforce in America.

Needless to say, that website hurts as much as it helps.

As far as I could tell Still Life did NOT have Starforce.

However, The Third Reich did. I dd not play the Third Reich for long after noticing.

Tell them, not me. Another site (http://www.similarities.org/starforce.html) with similar list of games has some labeled "only European versions" and "German version" so it's possible StarForce is only on certain games in specific regions. Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps does have it and I didn't install it because of it. I'm pretty sure it told me right up front in the install process that it was locked by Starforce.

Same. Fuck them.

Spread the word far and wide, brothers and sisters.  Given enough public outrage and a corresponding dip in sales for Starforce games companies will have no choice but to wash their hands of this bullshit.

Actually it's a $10,000 prize if you go down to their office in Moscow and reproduce a particular DVD/CD writer malfunction.  So they set up a contest they knew nobody would have the time or money to attempt, and then use the fact that nobody is attempting it as "proof" that there must really not be a problem.

It's even worse than that. If you read the fine print you had to prove (the contest is over now) that Starforce *physically* damaged your DVD/CD drive -- not simply that it messed up the drive (e.g. messed up the burning abilities, a very common and reproducable complaint). In other words the contest was setup so there was no way they could lose (only the most frothing at the mouth anti-Starforce people ever claimed Starforce damaged the physical hardware) and was simply designed as a PR stunt.

Reminds me of the SDMI Challenge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_Music_Initiative).

"Come crack our uncrackable DRM! =)"

"Fuck, you cracked it. :("

Does it breaking EVERY MMO I have on my computer count? Cause, that shouldn't happen.

Please also note that some games may not have had StarForce in them during their inital release, but that subsequent re-issues may have.

I'm going to boycott all products by companies that use StarForce, not just specific games.

I am incapable of boycotting UBISoft. They make Splinter Cell, I can only hope they stop what they're doing.

I appreciate that its not reasonable for everybody to go that far. Some folks might even find it necessary to play the malware infected games. As long as you make your contempt for these motherfuckers known, you're on the side of the righteous and just.

Maybe you could just kill a hooker and carve Starforce into her abdomen. That'll show 'em!

There's a pc version of RE4 in the works? I'm glad I held off on that one, then!

The Playstation version is great.

I'd put Starforce on my pc before I'd spend money on a playstation. PS3, perhaps, but not that other LCD garbage.

Ass.

Yes, Ubisoft is apparently releasing RE4, Onimusha 3 and Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening for the PC this year. Onimusha is the first one in February this year.

Motherfuckers put Starforce on RE4 and they're "DEAD TO ME."

I think this is a good way to go. We (meaning someone who isn't me) should compile a list of publishers and games that we can update. We can even sticky it for added fun.

Did anyone else catch that the "contest" originally only was for $1,000?


Hah only one person hated us enough to try to break his computer for $1000!  wewt!

I call BS. Considering that they are russian PIRATING is a norm rather than exception there.

Thus they probably have a greatly distorted view of how bad piracy is.

List of games using StarForce.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/

(thanks wikipedia)

Thanks!  Oh... and Yikes!

Thanks for the link, and welcome.

Note to all lurkers- THIS is a good example of a first post. On topic, useful, and not spammy. Good show.

Yea, that's the list I was looking at. It's a little off but a good starting point. Many of those games don't have starforce in america (but they do in europe) and vice versa. Also, some are just incorrect. There needs to be a very expansive list made one day.

They Starforced Pac Man. Honestly, wtf...

Pac Man was asking for it.

Was it removed on Freedom Force or do I have to send my PC to the cleaners?

Bloody hell, Scrapland has Starforce.  Good thing I haven't installed it yet.

Luckily, Google found me a workaround. (http://m1010.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc_scrapland.shtml)

Oddly enough most of the games on there that i would want to play are also available on consoles. Generally i prefer PC's unless it's racing or sport games but I'll be renting those titles for the xbox before i pick up bargain bin versions for the PC now.

Next time I'm at Best Buy I'm going to buy all the games I can find that have Starforce.  Then the next week I'm going to bring them back in a giant unopened pile to the returns desk and say "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that this software would install malicious drivers onto my system, so I'm returning it.  Do you have a non-Starforce version?  No?  Well, I'd like my money back then so I can go hit the arcade."  Nothing pisses businesses off like having to give refunds.

I don't mind passive systems like Securom. I'm not interested in making backup copies or whatever - I just want to play the game without having to install intrusive software. Starforce is why I didn't buy X3, UFO: Aftershock, and Space Rangers 2. That's a good $150 US I'm spending elsewhere. It's not going to other games, because there's else quite like those available - it's going to anime and small-label music instead.

Good job, fellows. Way to protect your investment. Please allow your RIAA-paranoia to continue alienating customers.

Is that any kind of assurance that Bioware games will remain herpes-free?  I think I'd die a little inside if I couldn't pick up your future PC titles, assuming you make anymore...

An Icewind Dale expansion? Now thats low. I'll have to watch out for this more. I though only obscure software houses with shitty titles do this. It really hurts when I can't buy some roleplaying games anymore.

As fun as that may be, all it's going to do is annoy the guys at your local Best Buy (who may then reexamine their local return policy, since you're obviously abusing it), it's hardly going to make a difference to the publishers who are the cocksockets putting SF onto their games.

And damn I was glad that Heroes of the Pacific doesn't have it. Being a Codemasters release and all, I didn't even have it occur to me..

Time to smash my Heart of Winter disk. I don't want that shit even mingling with the rest of my games.  Might give them ideas.  I'll have to check my Silent Storm disk for herpes too.

Reading the list makes me sad, there's a few games there I wanted to play some day.

Generally annoyances like that get pushed up the chain.  They can't change their return policy without alienating a broad range of customers - far easier to reexamine whether it's really worth stocking Starforce-bearing titles (which probably make up a relatively small percentage of their sales compared to the potential sales loss from making their return policy less friendly).  If publishers start hearing that retail outlets are reluctant to carry Starforce titles due to their high return rate, publishers start getting reluctant to put Starforce on their games.

At least, that's the idea.  It might sound crazy, but so does democracy.

I have no say in such things. I'd rail against it, but only those who do have a say could give you an assurance.

You know, there are only two games I am looking forward to right now on the PC.  Hellgate:London and TES:Oblivion.  If either of those games have Starforce on them I am going to be in a serious dilemma.

Can't have Starforce if it never gets to retail.

Demos have Starforce on them nowadays.  Well, that's if it ever has a demo.

Sure, if hundreds or thousands of people all over the place do it. You doing it by yourself makes you like that guy who got banned from a supermarket here for buying individual mushrooms - they were under the minimum weight/charge amount,. so by "purchasing" his big bag of loose mushrooms "one at a time" he got them all for free. The second time he tried it he was politely asked to leave.

Like I said, same is true of democracy.  I can only hope others will follow my selfless example.

Out of interest, whats the extent of your campaign outside of the above post?

I just ate some lasagna.  Got to keep my strength up.

Don't go too heavy on the cheese there.

And let me know if your local best buy soon has Homer Simpson-esque photos of you with "do not sell to this man" written on them. ;)

Sadly, I think if that were to happen, it might be the proudest accomplishment of my life.

Heart of Winter having StarForce is kind of bullshit.

I played the original release, and it didn't have it - must be the re-released collector's sets.

After reading this thread I found the solution to a problem that's been plaguing me for almost a year. I upgraded my motherboard a year ago and moved my existing hard drives over to it. I started having a problem with the primary IDE channel  getting set down to a lower speed setting from ultra dma 100 mode due to too many errors detected. I checked using the guide on that page and sure enough, I had starforce drivers installed. So I removed them and since then my primary ide channel has stayed at dma mode 5 ever since. Grrr.

Having had not one, but two DVD burners work immediately before installing a game with Starforce and then not work immediately after installing them, I've come to the decision that any game released by a company that uses Starforce on anything available to the public I'm just going to pirate and give out copies at work for free. Even if I have no interest in the game personally. I might even burn a bunch of copies and stick them under people's wiper blades in mall parking lots. Starforce has has cost me a good $500 in top of the line drives and troubleshooting. If a company wants to wreck my hardware and waste my time as well as money assuming I'm a pirate for actually buying their product, a pirate is what they get.

And developers reading this, copy protection doesn't work. It never has, and it never, ever, ever will - EVER. Even with the good groups like Razor gone, the stuff is cracked and on USENET in under two days. So just fucking stop it already. And I don't care that it's not ultimately your decision. Explain it to the people who's decision it is.

Le brilliant.

Wait, what happened to Razor? Not that I care much for what happens to the l33t kids but... ah... you know.

At least one StarForce employee/board admin was nice enough to demonstrate what happens when you don't use StarForce:  people can download pirated versions of your software, using the torrent link they were so helpful as to provide.  The GalCiv2 message boards have the story:

http://forums.galciv2.com/index.aspx?ForumID=161&AID=106741

and image at http://www.galciv2.com/temp/starfo2.jpg

-Torinak

I fucking hate those red bastards.

This is what I think:

The Russian mob needs more revenue so they have extended their protection racket to cover games.  They scare companies, such as UbiSoft and Codemasters, into using their product with wild stories of hacking.  The punishment for potential customers who complain is being labeled a terrorist  software pirate.

Am I close?

I totally forgot Ubisoft is letting Starforce slip the dick in their ass. I'll assume G.R.A.W. will have StarForce. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.
FUCK

The goddamned Spellforce 2 demo has Starforce on it.  The DEMO.  The FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE demo.

Cockmasters, the motherfucking shitmouthed cockmasters.

The NA version of Spellforce 2 isn't even going to have Starforce on it, I wonder why?  Could it be because actually putting Starforce on a game will get you less sales in NA?  I see no other reason why they woudln't put it on there unless there are legal reasons from the Sony rootkit fallout.

It's good to see that the bullshit ethical arguments put forth by these companies against pirating have been proven to be just that: bullshit.

Man, that's dirty fucking pool.

Well, my HP laptop now has Starforce on it. All because I wanted to own and play a legit copy of the classic arcade game Wizard of Wor. I could've gone on playing the MAME version but I wanted exact game and sound emulation. Why even bother putting Starforce on something that has been essentially pirated for years before the current product was even released? Last damn Midway product I buy. I don't use my laptop to burn anymore so I'm not too concerned if the burner part dies. I really hope it doesn't though. I hope someone comes up with a method of 'spoofing' Starforce copy protected games so that the software only 'thinks' that Starforce is running or Starforce is by-passed altogethor.

Oh wow, the Midway collections have Starforce? Gah.

Yeah, I guess they're afraid someone is going to illegally copy the CRAP video interview bonus clips with the original game programmers. I tried watcing the interview with the guys who did Gauntlet but the sound quality was soooo bad, I'll be damned if I could tell who they were or what they did if not for the fact it was tied to the Gauntlet game bonus section. And why should an emulation take 30 seconds to start? I can only assume it takes 30 seconds to dump the stupid menu system out of memory.

Very soon we will be foundly remembering days when Starforce was all that we had to worry about. DRM that is on horizon going to be built-in into OS (Vista) and all hardware, from data storage all the way to your I/O devices.

explain DRM please? Or linky?

Wiki wiki wiki (Trusted Computing) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing)

The super brief explanation is that in the future your new hardware in combination with updated software will make it a lot harder for you to use your computer as you wish -- in other words you'll only be able to do the things the software and services providers will let you do, even if they clobber all over your rights as an individual (as they are already doing now).

I still fear about all those poor software developers. Starforce might break some legs and gift developers with disembodied horse heads in the future if they dare not use their copy protection products.

Thugs!

I was about to post this to the front page, and still may. That's got to be winner of the 2006 Most Ragingest of the Raging Douchebags award.

Yeah, it really smacks of a strong arm protection racket.

"Ya, see.  If ya's brung us on to protect ya's none of dis wudda happened."
<kidney punch>

Penny Arcade's picked up on it now.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/03/15

Wonder if the PA influence will make Ubi think twice about continuing to use them? I wouldn't normally be so naive, but when you look at who Gabe and Tycho are doing commissions for these days, or their massive lists of game-corporate sponsors for Pax and Child's Play.. Or Smed's recent gift of non-shit-filled Krispy Kreme donuts for that matter.. those guys have a bit of ear to them.

Unfortunately they probably won't outright boycott a company. They'll take EA, UBISoft, or whoever's dollars. That's problematic. They don't even MENTION UBISoft on that post. And, comeon, they fucking did the Splinter Cell comic last year for Chaos theory. Fuck Gabe and Tycho in their pretty pretty princess ballerina shoes.

I read that earlier I couldn't for the life of me figure out what Tycho thought we should be doing. "No no don't boycott the publishers and don't try to convince them not to include Starforce on their titles". Then WTF should we be doing? Buying their titles and then telling them their "image" was been "decreased"? Oh yeah that'll make them weep -- all the way to the bank.

Edit: fixed typo

Read it as well. A pretty toothless stance. Might as well just say "I'm your bitch but please don't hit me too hard while raping me."

That pretty much sums up Penny Arcade of the last few years, doesn't it?

I don't get my politcal views from media pundits.  This includes cartoonists and musicians.

The thing I don't get is why even bring it up if you aren't going to give an actual opinion?  I would have just avoided the issue since commenting positively on Ubi or some other source of money would be obviously biased and negative comments would impact my revenue.  Any commentary is going to be tainted in this situation.  I don't even pimp my own company, despite their encouragement;  I am actually not opposed to talking about it, but no one has ever so much as directly asked me who I work for so I keep my yap shut, since there is an obvious bias toward the entity that gives me my paycheck.

I read it along the lines of "this is a hot issue right now so let's make a comic about it, but please, Mr. Publisher, don't pull your ads from my site because then we'd have to get real jobs again".

That's what it is, but maybe I have too much personal intergrity to do the same.  I'll never be rich, obviously.

I refuse to buy a game with StarForce on it knowingly. I guess I can kiss any UBI titles goodbye. I wonder if the "Free" Shadowbane has StarForce in it? Not that I plan to play it mind you, just would be funny.

I can't see any reason an MMO would use StarForce... or am I missing something?

Why would a free demo need Starforce?  But, here we are.

Maybe I'm being too generous, but it sounded like he was just trying to be realistic.  A boycott is not going to do a lot, I suspect.  A hundred people who have the initiative to compare every game purchase they make against a list of "NO" titles isn't going to make any major company reconsider it's stance.  I boycott a lot of companies that piss me off, but I'm not under the impression that it has any impact, at all, on them.  If a big company does something I don't agree with, there doesn't seem to be much I can do to stop them, so when Tycho comes off as sounding a bit disorganized regarding how he's going to bring down THE MAN it doesn't strike me as that much different from how I'd personally react.

Neg. Penny Arcade has a LOUD VOICE. Not that they ever use their soapbox wisely, but it's there. If they made a top post and left it up for however long that said "Boycott UBI and their Starforce bullshit." Guess what, it'd be gone in a matter of months.

A boycott against UbiSoft would only work if people refused to purchase their console titles as well as PC titles, and even then it's not a sure thing.  Being upset about starforce in chaos theory for PC and then buying the PS2 version just won't cut it, which is why I still haven't had the pleasure of the game.  I miss out on the possiblity of a fun experience, they miss out on my dollars, and nobody wins here except Starforce.  The game industry cannot sustain itself if the majority does not learn from other service oriented industries instead of trying to mime hollywood, but UbiSoft will never learn that because they are filthy, cheese-eating frogs with poor taste in comedy.

Me boycotting Ubi is not the same as a PA clarion call to boycott Ubi.  I would do it just to protect my optical drives.  Tycho could just not buy the games to protect his hardware just like me, but talking about it on a site with that sort of readership is entirely different.  His statements have weight, which is why Ubi would give a shit if he came down on them, and why he won't come down on them due to the business relationship between PA and Ubi.  I think he should have just stayed silent, but whatevs, as VDL would say.

Essentially Tycho and Gabe are big pussies who've shown their true colors with this last little post. They could've said, boycot UBISoft's PC Games until they remove Starforce. UBISoft wouldn't have pulled their collaboration with them. Penny Arcade is bigger than UBISoft. That's just how it is. They're the EA of the comics and online gaming world. To say it wouldn't have weight if people didn't stop buying the PS2 and other systems games is missing the point Of course, the majority of gamers still doesn't dick around online and a good chunk of them are probably too young to give a shit about what Starforce is. I'd love to know what led UBISoft to start using SF as their copy protection choice.

(http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/barracks/4858/gun_man.jpg)

It galls me to say it, but I actually do see the reasoning behind Tycho's manginal statement.  The developers of a game aren't to blame for the publisher being a raging asshole who slaps Starforce on their game.  Not buying the game may penalize a more or less innocent third party, assuming that the developer wasn't for Starforcing.

That being said, I'm still not buying anything with Starforce.  And my hosts file blocks out the in-game ads from Massive.  Fuck them, too.  Bad enough to be paying for a game to screw with my computer, even worse to be paying for a game to screw my computer and throw tons of Sprite ads at me.

* Free games with in-game ads are exempt from my rage, they deserve a revenue stream.  $50 games with in-game ads can suck Satan's bitter shriveled testicles.

I maintain that the most effective outlet for rage against StarForce is returning StarForced titles.  Returns are much more tangible and noticeable than lost sales.

You will be hard pressed to return any computer game title to any store if you open it, not even if it "destoyed your PC and ate your soul" clusterfuck and they know it.

StarForce is not just a copy protection scheme it also can hinder attempts to "peak inside" an application to figure out how it works. This can be useful if you are trying to prevent people from writing hacks and cheats for your program, for example.

There are other applications which can do that (like Thinstall (http://www.thinstall.com/) for example) and you don't have to sell your soul to do it.

So don't open it.  You bought the game, got it home, then heard from a friend it was StarForced and realized you'd made a terrible mistake.  This does happen. (http://www.f13.net/commentary.php?subaction=showfull&id=1112205757&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&)  Except that not all game companies are even decent enough to warn you on the box.

I since found out that's a generic warning. It has nothing to do with Starforce. That makes it even more fucking annoying.

That looks like an enterprise software deployment solution, not something you would typically use with consumer software and especially not for video games (virtualization layer? okay...). The two case studies they had for consumer software were for a digital photo package to solve Microsoft's screwed up .NET deployment strategy and the other was for a German tax software package to solve Microsoft's screwed up VB deployment strategy and the rest of their major references where all for enterprise/intranet applications. If the first two companies had used C or C++ they wouldn't have had those .NET and VB installation issues.

Future Shop (Canada) was kind enough to give me store credit for my copy of Battlefield 2 after it corrupted my Windows install. I've found that stores here are good about giving you store credit if what you buy just doesn't fucking work.

I was in line at a FutureShop returning something and watched a guy return a video card box... with a rock inside. He got credit.

PCGamer did an article on Starforce and other piracy prevention software in their most recent issue. Softball bullshit.

Did they look inside and see the rock (inside job, scam), or put it aside for later scrutiny (idiots got pwnt)?

Starforce now reboots your machine  (http://live.gadgetlife.org/news/2006/3/21/starforce-drm-exposed-and-its-not-pretty) if you do something it finds "suspicious."

Yeah, it does look like that (now). I own a licence though and I paid less than 10% of what they are charging for it now (and no client per seat costs either). For the most part it works as an EXE packer where you can pack up all your data, dll, and executable files into one 'secure' executable. It can 'securely' cache those files to disk (or just memory) and then catchs all API calls and re-routes them to it's own virtual file system. The packer software itself connects to their server and does whatever calculations server side to pack up your file. It works better than nothing (for me anyway) and it isn't system intrusive like the Sony rootkit or Starforce.

I saw that on digg yesterday and tried to find the original source but could not. I searched through the Futuremark site and the big Starforce thread on the forums and could find no mention of this rebooting behavior. There is talk about the fact that the drivers install themselves in "ring 0" so the drivers, assuming that's true, could force a "hard" reboot if they wanted to.

Here's a reply from a Futuremark developer on the forums (http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=gaminggeneral&Number=6011174&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&vc=1#Post6011174):

Do publishers list DRM/Starforce stuff on their boxes?

No, they put something like this on the box:

(http://www.f13.net/screenshots/PC/chaos_theory/drm_box.jpg)

Funny, 'cause I bought Medieval Lords on the cheap, interested in having a new RTS awhile back.  Never ever worked properly.  Bug ridden.  Whatever.  But, saw this morning it was on the Starforce list.  I check my hw properties, and lo and behold there sits 4 versions of Starforce.  Checked the box up and down, and nooooo label.  Nice.  Honestly --- there's nothing on the box at all saying it's copy protected.  Just min sys requirements, and the great feature you can play in English and Spanish.  That must be code for something.

In other news, the DEMO of Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (PC) also has Starforce on it.

A shame, that game looked like one I might have bought.

Class action against Starforce:

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=66009

To my untrained eye the case looks weak.

It seems to alledge that the ubisoft knowingly sold products that make PCs insecure without informing customers.

To get anywhere it has to prove ubi knows that Starforce makes your PC insecure.

It installs without you asking. That's a pretty goddamn strong security breach.

In other StarForce news, StarForce points people to an "unbiased" site (http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55) about StarForce on their forums (http://www.star-force.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=841) which turns out to be a site run by StarForce itself (it shares the same IP address).

Totally unbiased then.

They don't have highly visible labeling. That's the point. What they're doing is basically what Microsoft did with Internet Explorer that got them in such deep shit. Everyone knows games have anti-piracy measures and OS' come with web browsers. But when they start fucking around with your other shit, it becomes a problem. The real problem is Russia couldn't give a fuck less about these quackjobs. In America they'd have the BBB riding up their ass with a microscope due to the number of complaints out there about their product. UBISoft deserves this lawsuit and this lawsuit deserves better, stronger, faster lawyers that can get all this shit sorted out before Splinter Cell 4 comes out. Just sayin.'

I want a job where I can write like this:


I think I'm going to have super fucking strong words with UBISoft at E3. So strong in fact there might be blood and broken booths. Or at least a lot of liquor in a lot of eyes.

Wait...E3 is one month away. Maybe I should start a blog about mailing broken CDRoms and Harddrives to LA for me to pick up when I get there and drop them all off at the UBISoft booth.

That would be a Classic Moment.

Make sure you tell them that "they've diminished" in your eyes...  :roll:

In that case publisher doesn't lose a thing - box goes right back to the shelf and you only wasted your time with that filth.

I'm 99% sure that I never installed anything with Starforce, still how do I check for it?

I found out after I installed a game and it said "Thank you for installing Starforce" or something ludicrous.

Speaking of ludicrous, check out the press releases at star-force.com. I'm fairly sure the company is run by two year olds.

http://www.glop.org/starforce/detect.php

I'm clean!! I'm clean!!! Now I can go have more unprotected se^h^H games!

Quick question for clarification on the whole "Starforce doesn't work" thing for you guys - If I install a game that uses Starforce then install a no-cd .exe/other cracks as appropriate, while I don't need the original disc in the drive, etc, my machine still had fucking Starforce on it, right?

As in even with a no-cd patch, the game won't run if I manually uninstall SF?


Not that I'd want to even install that poison on one of my machines and risk it fucking over my drives. I just found UFO:Aftershock cheap at a local store, and I'd like to buy and play it, but I don't want to hose my machine.

 

Not true.  The game will work.

Case in point, Silent Hunter 3 wouldn't work after I upgraded my processor to a 64 bit AMD and bought a copy of XP64 because the version of Starforce packaged with the game only has 32 bit drivers.  I installed the game, but Starforce couldn't be installed on my computer, and therefore wouldn't launch the game.  I download the crack and voila, the game now runs without Starforce being present.

Neg. The new versions of Starforce fix that workaround.

The end result is: Don't fucking buy Starforce Games!

Yeah, that's absolutely true.  Should have noted it.

Yep.  Bought SH3 before I knew it was Starforced.  That was before I really became aware of even what the hell Starforce was.

Those fuckers are making me not buy PC games anymore! Bunch of fucking cunts.

Shame that list isn't accurate.

It's accurate enough.  The wife bought Syberia 2 and installed it. 

My rig now has digital herpes.  Woot. 

I guess I can play Chaos Theory now.

Ubisoft is dropping Starforce. (http://forums-fr.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/7501009903/m/9071096924/r/7911042234#7911042234)

That's good news if it's confirmed by somebody higher up than the French forum community manager and it applies to their US releases and that's their policy going forward -- i.e. no more StarForce on their PC games forevar!

Edit: here's confirmation (http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/1851065692/m/2661050234/r/5521023234#5521023234) from a/the HOMM5 producer that it won't have StarForce.

Oh man. What a day.

Lets hope rest of DRM follows Starforce's example. :ipod:

1) Will Penny-Arcade mention this?

2) Will they give themselves some of the credit vis-a-vis "ubisoft has diminished" in the eyes of the consumers?

Not a big fan of PA, I take it?

Actually, I like them on balance. As mentioned in some other thread, they do a lot of good stuff, like Child's Play, and coughing up the 10k on Jack's behalf, and so forth. However, for such an all-swearing acerbic "voice of the little computer people" that they present themselves as I thought they were a bit of a soft touch on the Starforce issue. Not biting the Ubihand that feeds and all that, I know, but still.

I'm so conflicted.  On the one hand, this is awesome because it means I can play HoMM5 now(assuming they don't switch to some new and unheard of equally shitty copy-protection).  On the other hand, I was starting to look forward to a world without France.

I'm happy I can look forward to playing HoMaM 5 without guilt (or a condom).

Saw the collectors edition of Spellforce 2 in the electronic store today and I have to wait another few weeks for the US version to come out with a different copy protection. My hatred for Starforce grew by leaps and bounds. I want those fuckers dead by chainsaw massacre by the Russian mafia, but I suspecct they are just a branch of it.

Aaaaaaaaargh, seriously?  I just saw the review for Space Rangers 2 on Gamespot today... looked like the coolest thing since "Pirates!".  I HAVE FURY!

I bought X3, but haven't installed it yet because I had other things to do.  I'm not sure if that is lucky or not.

When did they do that any more than every third poster on this board does?

pretty frequently if you've been reading their news posts over the last couple of years. Not the "defining voice" but definately a voice of the peep-hole.

Also, every one of us wankers on this board is a faceless internet entity. PA have a little more pull and influence than some guy called "Azazel" or some other guy called "eldaec" or even some guy called "Schild" on an obscure rant board.

Even if we have Heavy Hitters?

I think we're still wating for them to show up...  :cry:

You mean as in hitters who are heavy?  Yeah, we got lots of those around.

Don't stop there, elsewhere on planet f13 someone was calling us 'ultras' the other day.

Which presumably means we are expected to begin ripping up the seats and throwing them at each other any time now.

New Starforce DRM Uses CD Made from Plastic Explosives (http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/04/starforce-drm.html)

They need to make the company's responses much worser engrish.

So, every so often I go hunting to see if someone has cracked Starforce. Now, mind you, it's not a perfect crack, but a group called SCRABBLE has come up with a way to get Starforce running by making their own mini-ISO that you mount once you have the game installed. I don't know what version they're onto, but the version Scrabble cracked was StarForce 3.7.13.00.

It'll only be a worthwhile crack if you can run StarForce infested games without needing the StarForce drivers installed.

I agree.

There will always be cracks to any security. There are plenty more people to crack software than to write it. So the people it's meant to deter go along their merry way and the consumer is left with the bleeding anus.

Same as it ever was.