By mtKafka (Mtkafka) on Saturday, March 3, 2001 - 04:16 am:
I read this article from pc strategy games website. . .about how some game developers are making adjustments to cracked games by deviating gameplay.
http://www.pcstrategygames.com/news.asp?articleid=616
though the article states its for a PSX game, its an intriguing idea. . . imagine playing a cracked version of Starcraft to only see that all your units have like 1 hp. . . DOH!!!
etc
By Supertanker on Saturday, March 3, 2001 - 04:35 am:
Heck, Quake 3 does this to me with a legit copy. Every once in a while when I start it up, I find my handicap has been set to 15 (meaning I start with only 15% of hit points, and do only 15% of normal damage). At least I can change it back, but it would be nice to see the 1337 hax0rs suffer a similar, permanent fate.
By BobM on Monday, March 5, 2001 - 11:14 am:
I can see something like this backfiring. You'll be hearing things like this at your local software shop: "Yo, don't buy that game, man. I got a pirated copy the other day, and it sucks. It's all buggy and impossible to win."
By Alan Au (Itsatrap) on Monday, March 5, 2001 - 11:08 pm:
What ever happened to the concepts of:
1. Putting nice artwork on the CDs?
2. Putting nice music on the CDs (which are often absent from rips?
3. Putting nice physical goodies in the box?
If you ask me, this is a QA nightmare waiting to happen. I can just imagine the readme in the first patch. "fixes issue with copy protection code kicking in when loading saved games" etc.
- Alan
By Dave Long on Tuesday, March 6, 2001 - 09:42 am:
Actually, these things have made a recent comeback. No One Lives Forever comes with a great CD full of music inspired by the game. There were "Collector's Editions" of a lot of recent games like Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption and (I think) Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. Even Ultima IX had the humongous Dragon Edition which at least gave fans something cool for the extra dough.
Quote:1. Putting nice artwork on the CDs?
2. Putting nice music on the CDs (which are often absent from rips?
3. Putting nice physical goodies in the box?
By Alan Au (Itsatrap) on Wednesday, March 7, 2001 - 05:30 pm:
Dave: I like the collector's editions idea. It lets that guy who wants the swag get it for a few bucks more while Joe Average can go pick up the game at a price that's reasonable to him.
Yeah, I kind of wish some of this stuff was standard, instead of bundled into the "collector's edition." A couple of the CE's have been superb (e.g. Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate 2), but others are just the same game with touched up box art and a small trinket not worth the extra $10 they're charging (e.g. Elite Force).
- Alan