Starforce

[Signe]

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?

[NiX]

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

[Murgos]

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.

[Modern Angel]

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.

[raydeen]

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.

[schild]

Oh wow, the Midway collections have Starforce? Gah.

[raydeen]

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.

[sinij]

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.

[Azazel]

explain DRM please? Or linky?

[Trippy]

Wiki wiki 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).

[Tebonas]

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!

[HaemishM]

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.

[Murgos]

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>

[Azazel]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Trippy]

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.

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

[Tebonas]

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."

[Shockeye]

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?

[Yegolev]

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.

[Yoru]

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".

[Yegolev]

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.

[Morfiend]

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.

[Signe]

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

[Yegolev]

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

[Kail]

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".

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.

[schild]

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.

[ahoythematey]

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.

[Yegolev]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Yegolev]

[Kitsune]

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.

[Samwise]

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.

[sinij]

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.

[Trippy]

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

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.

[Krakrok]

StarForce is not just a copy protection scheme it also can hinder attempts to "peak inside" an application to figure out how it works.

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