What I just E-mailed Aspyr, Sick of their shoddy ports and copy protection.

[0098386]

Having a hissy-fit, and getting your panties in a twist, because you have to insert a DVD into a DVD DRIVE to play a game!! Oh my god, that is ridiculous.

I bet it took you longer to write that email, compared to all the time added up inserting the disk to play the game, during your life-time.

Well somebody doesn't get it!
The comparisons are being brought up because the PC versions (in most cases) do not require the CD to be inserted. It needlessly decreases the life of a drive, causes extra noise and uses more power etc, takes longer to load. This isn't great for laptop gaming.

It's something that was used years back because games couldn't be stored on the HDD, but now there is plenty of room and in most games the whole package is copied to the drive.

 

[Sijmen]

"Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

Have a nice day,
Aspyr"

 

[GSMiller]

I hate Aspyr. SimCity 4 is horrible and you don't even get half of the features as the Windows version. When I buy games I buy the Windows version and run it on my Boot Camp partition.

 

[FizzZ*]

I'd suggest those of you feel the same way e-mail them something similar to feedback@aspyr.com
---------

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my disappointment in your decision to require ET: QW (Quake Wars) to require the DVD in the drive to start up. Quake Wars on Windows and Linux does not require the CD in, only your Mac port. It has been argued time and time again by all gamers that this is a ridiculous measure of copy protection.

You are punishing normal gamers like myself who LEGALLY pay and buy your software, while only make a small nuisance for people who pirate it (go on the internet right now, you can find any number of "no cd" cracks to over ride your copy protection.) I am sick and tired of having to put the CD in every time I want to play. It puts wear and tear on my drive, it makes my system slower because every time I open up Finder it has to spin up the CD (if I leave it in the drive).

What is worse is you are unduly punishing Mac users with your port when the ORIGINAL game doesn't require a CD. The login system that verifies your account name is all the copy protection you need.

Suffice to say I wanted to express my anger at this decision and let you know I will not be purchasing any more Aspyr games if this is how you all operate. It makes me upset because I wanted to support Mac gaming and was looking forward to buying CoD 4 from you. Perhaps I would change my mind if you released a patch update to disable the CD copy protection (like Blizzard did with the OS X version of Warcraft III).

If you are interested, go to http;//forums.macrumours.com and click on Apple Games. There you will find MANY threads lamenting, bashing, and bemoaning your use of copy protection which punishes people who legally buy your games and just want to relax and play them. Does not look good for business.

I am sorry for my harsh e-mail, but I paid a lot of money for your product and intended to pay a lot more for your other products, but I think I will go to MacSoft now as they do not include the archaic "enter DVD/CD in drive" method.

Thank you.

i agree with u a 100% and to support you and other victims i wont buy any of their games, i bought Descent 2 for mac ages ago and i had problems with the key and they blamed me instead of helping me, macsoft is a very good company and i have been buying thier games for almost over 2 years now and if anything was wrong they will get their bosses to fix it for you , my graphics were poor when i bought halo universal and they tried their best to help me but it didnt work i had to buy a new video card as mine was old but i couldnt as i had no money, i told them its abit not fair and they sent me a whole new CD rom that suits my computer, now i updated my halo to 2.0.3 and i am getting graphic problems as my video card is old, and i emailed them and i am a 100% sure they will help me, kind people. go macsoft

 

[punkybadhip]

Well somebody doesn't get it!
The comparisons are being brought up because the PC versions (in most cases) do not require the CD to be inserted. It needlessly decreases the life of a drive, causes extra noise and uses more power etc, takes longer to load. This isn't great for laptop gaming.

It's something that was used years back because games couldn't be stored on the HDD, but now there is plenty of room and in most games the whole package is copied to the drive.

LOL! oh my god, I'm not even going to bother.

 

[palebluedot]

Yes, but many people are not aware of these things. If it were pointless then they wouldn't do it.

--Eric

Even 13 year olds know about gamecopyworld. Any "gamer" knows of it. Maybe the 15 other mac users who dont know about gaming but buy Rail Road Tycoon fall under that claim but I dont think thats a correct statement, IMHO.

 

[palebluedot]

LOL! oh my god, I'm not even going to bother.

Maybe because its something that frustrates us, just because you dont understand doesn't make us wrong. Geeze.

Maybe you work for Aspyr in disguise and are trying to do some PR realizing tha Aspyr is getting hammered here. Hrmmm maybe I should e-mail them a URL to this thread

Anyways, I go to LANs and take my laptop everywhere. I dont want to have to have my DVDs with me or realize that I forgot them and not be able to play a game. Plus it slows my laptop down a lot becuase I used finder a lot. All around its a foolish scheme.

 

[Eric5h5]

Even 13 year olds know about gamecopyworld. Any "gamer" knows of it. Maybe the 15 other mac users who dont know about gaming but buy Rail Road Tycoon fall under that claim but I dont think thats a correct statement, IMHO.

You need something more to back that up than just a feeling; what I wrote is correct. Whenever you say something about "everybody knows...." you can be guaranteed that, in reality, everybody does not know. Let's keep some perspective here: do you really think that the only reason Aspyr does the disc check is to annoy legit users? I mean, seriously?

--Eric

 

[punkybadhip]

Maybe because its something that frustrates us, just because you dont understand doesn't make us wrong. Geeze.

Maybe you work for Aspyr in disguise and are trying to do some PR realizing tha Aspyr is getting hammered here. Hrmmm maybe I should e-mail them a URL to this thread

Anyways, I go to LANs and take my laptop everywhere. I dont want to have to have my DVDs with me or realize that I forgot them and not be able to play a game. Plus it slows my laptop down a lot becuase I used finder a lot. All around its a foolish scheme.

LOL! yeah there is a lot of concern, I mean a whole 10 or so people!

Frustrated about putting a disk into your computer. Performance issues. LOL!

Thanks for a laugh. It was funnier than the Swede at the Olympics having a spat because he didn't win gold, or the US gym team screaming cheats, and saying they lost to CHILDREN! LOL!

 

[Eric5h5]

It's a concern for a lot more than 10 people. Do you think you could address the issue like an adult?

--Eric

 

[palebluedot]

It's a concern for a lot more than 10 people. Do you think you could address the issue like an adult?

--Eric

Lets keep the insults out of it ok? I haven't attacked you personally, your argument shouldn't require you sending an ad hominem my way either.

Show me statistical data that proves that it saves them money from piracy. I'm not running off a feeling. As I said I have been heavily involved in the "gaming community" (for lack of a better identifier) since the early days of CS. After meeting gamers of all walks (and normal users) in multiple cities at colleges, LAN events, clubs, etc. I can safely say that GameCopyWorld is common knowledge. I would say that roughly 90% of the people I have met at LANs and other events use mini-isos, direct ripped isos, or no-cd cracks. People dont want to deal with the frustration of having a disc in for the game they bought when there is no reason. Look at the prevelance of piracy, mini-isos, and no-cds and you will see. I can do a search on Usenet right now and pull up pretty much any game you want on the Windows side (that isn't digital distroed) and get you a no-cd. This is for new games, games that were updated within the last week (i.e. Halo for both Windows and Mac), etc. I can go on torrent sites and IRC, its the same story - this stuff is readily known and readily avaliable in the gaming community.

I'm confused as to what you mean by it being a concern to more then 15 people. Are you implying that there are more then 15 people who DON'T know about GCW but dislike copy protection.

If I search google for "how do I play [insert game] without a cd" I can find the answer in less then 2 min.

Is this adult enough for you? Just because I wrote one response in this thread (which has some how turned into a flame war of sorts) in a jest/shortened manner does not mean I am arguing from out of left field. I still haven't seen any proof that DRM on CDs protects the game companies or is a good system.

The reason Aspyr and the bad companies (like EA) put it on is the same reason we as a nation do things like criminalize drugs (stay with me on this hypothetical, not trying to turn this into a political debate or anything). We make a drug illegal and thus push it underground. People still do drugs and simply comb the seedy underground of the organized crime world to get their fix. The criminalization just makes it harder and punishes the "end user" but lets the criminal profit. This whole system causes headaches and pain for all parties involved. But we continue to criminalize it because we think it works. We ignore the evidence that shows that there are larger issues at play that we would have to tackle instead of just making it illegal out and out.

DRM on the CD is the same. Aspyr and EA think it protects them but I've never seen either company back that up with statistical data or even an argument. Instead they just say "it is for copy protection purposes." (You can read this in a number of interviews with developers). They think it protects their IP and keeps pirates from getting it. They dont realize it doesn't (or they dont want to spend the time to create a better system for the higher ups perhaps) and instead just force the burden onto the end user. Pirates profit, the company profits, legit purchasers have to deal with an archaic and unnecessary burden. Instead of facing the larger issues of piracy and finding creative solutions to deal with it they "criminalize" the product. I know this analogy doesn't carry much but I am too tired to think of a better one.

 

[DrD]

LOL! yeah there is a lot of concern, I mean a whole 10 or so people!

Frustrated about putting a disk into your computer. Performance issues. LOL!

Thanks for a laugh. It was funnier than the Swede at the Olympics having a spat because he didn't win gold, or the US gym team screaming cheats, and saying they lost to CHILDREN! LOL!

What don't you understand? It's a needless irritation. A lot of people don't like it.

Why is it irritating? Because functionally speaking, it serves no useful purpose whatsoever.

What this means is that every single time you want to play Quake Wars (or game x), you need to find a disc, insert this disc, wait for this disc to spin up, and then run the software that you're actually trying to run - from your hard drive - not from the disc you just inserted.

Is this hard? No. But I'm not talking about difficulty - difficulty is not the issue. The issue is the major annoyance of having to perform a pointless, somewhat time consuming step, which does nothing towards what you are actually trying to accomplish. And knowing the entire time that this step is the results of someone else's attempt to solve a problem which this solution has a painfully obvious negligible effect on.

Perhaps that clears things up a bit.

 

[palebluedot]

What don't you understand? It's a needless irritation. A lot of people don't like it.

He's just a troll, leave him alone. I never thought in all my days I'd find people defending the practice but then again I've found a lot of crazy things since coming over to OS X

At least all Mac users aren't like him.

"LOL" "OMG" "LOL", etc. At least he should say "luls" and be a true troll like the 4chaners of old.

 

[punkybadhip]

He's just a troll, leave him alone. I never thought in all my days I'd find people defending the practice but then again I've found a lot of crazy things since coming over to OS X

At least all Mac users aren't like him.

"LOL" "OMG" "LOL", etc. At least he should say "luls" and be a true troll like the 4chaners of old.

It isn't trolling, I find it ludicrous you are complaining that you have to place a CD in your computer to play it. Especially since you are creating threats about it, and yep, I am laughing my buttocks off!

In addition, I know the importance of trying to protect your propriety rights from not being pirated.

"go on the internet right now, you can find any number of "no cd" cracks to over ride your copy protection" so go get one, and use it!

 

[knightlie]

LOL! yeah there is a lot of concern, I mean a whole 10 or so people!

Only a fool treats a single internet forum as indicative of mass opinion.

Frustrated about putting a disk into your computer. Performance issues. LOL!

Thanks for a laugh. It was funnier than the Swede at the Olympics having a spat because he didn't win gold, or the US gym team screaming cheats, and saying they lost to CHILDREN! LOL!

I love the way you debate by hurling insults - including people competing in the Olympics. Thanks for a laugh. It was funnier than some kid in his parents' basement using the word LOL too much.

Here it is in big print - Mac users are being treated as second-class citizens compared to PC owners of the same product. And there ARE performance issues when optical media is present in the drive, whether you notice it or not, and inserting and removing discs puts wear and tear on the drive mechanism. What if the Mac version of your browser required a CD in the drive to operate when the Windows one didn't? Would you still mock people who complained about that?

If a game requires the disc on Windows then fair enough, but if Windows and Linux versions of a game don't and the Mac version does then people have a right to complain. Personally I feel Aspyr's responses in this thread alone are more than enough to ensure I never buy anything from them.

 

[erikistired]

Well somebody doesn't get it!
The comparisons are being brought up because the PC versions (in most cases) do not require the CD to be inserted. It needlessly decreases the life of a drive, causes extra noise and uses more power etc, takes longer to load. This isn't great for laptop gaming.

It's something that was used years back because games couldn't be stored on the HDD, but now there is plenty of room and in most games the whole package is copied to the drive.

the only reason the pc versions don't require cds are the hacks right? no_cd hacks and whatnot? i haven't used a pc in a bit, but when i gamed on one almost every game i had required a cd in the drive out of the box til i either hunted down a no_cd patch or used alcohol to make a virtual drive.

i only ask because i saw someone mention that mac users were being treated as second class citizens, but that isn't really aspyr's fault, because it's not like ea (or whoever) is making no_cd patches and then releasing them into the wild.

 

[Nermal]

Quake Wars, the "primary" game of this thread, does not require the CD when running under Windows. No hack is required; the game is designed to run completely from the hard drive. Does that clear things up?

 

[erikistired]

Quake Wars, the "primary" game of this thread, does not require the CD when running under Windows. No hack is required; the game is designed to run completely from the hard drive. Does that clear things up?

gotcha. i haven't played quake wars on the pc so i had no idea. the thread seems to have expanded to all pc games (at least from what i've read), but if you're talking simply about that game, i see where the problem would lie.

i don't really see having to run a no_cd patch as being able to run games with the disc (as some games will flake out online, especially with punkbuster), so i was curious. i guess i missed that in the OP, if it was mentioned (and reading it again it was!).

thanks!

 

[0098386]

Maybe because its something that frustrates us, just because you dont understand doesn't make us wrong. Geeze.

His/her attitude is the biggest give away that he's either too young to understand and grasp the method of discussion. I had no idea he was a troll up until now, I'll bear this in mind.

I'd love to release my game on Steam instead of other content delivery methods or physical media. Aspyr need to install a similar system that either checks for the original disc media or, if a connection is available, that it checks that and allows the user to play the game.

Frustrated about putting a disk into your computer. Performance issues. LOL!

Just incase this point is brought up by anyone else-

Any disk based media has slower access and search speeds than the average HDD. It's entirely possible the use both to increase ingame speed (this is what the 360 will be doing soon), however it's nothing that happens on the PC. Once the system ram is full it will start using virtual memory, and then you're going to see terrible performance.
The whole point of a game checking the code adds time onto a game, it has to kick on the DVD drive which increases wear and tear (any usage does this and it's always best to minimalise it. Such as rip audio CD's to iTunes, dump a games contents to the HDD and use Daemon Tools.
For laptop users - you know how much running a DVD can drain the battery? Imagine putting the GPU and CPU under strain and also running a DVD? Kiss that battery life goodbye.
Plus there's noise. DVD drives aren't silent. And every time you insert a DVD you run the risk of destroying it. I've had a few scratches on discs from even my newest iMac. Laptops are the worst for this since everything is packed closer together and are more susceptible to vibrations and motion. Even our Xbox destroyed a few games.

Disc based media= Great cost effective way for getting a large amount of data from one place to another. Not so good for much else compared to the rest of a computer (be nice if we saw multi laser systems to read twice as much data, and an increased bandwidth along with no risk of destruction).

 

[Infrared]

The best thing you could do is to stop buying their products, thats what I did. Complaining that you bought the game and would rather use the cracked version does not do anything for them. You already bought the game, doubt they would care then if you downloaded the crack, they have your money.

They have to know why you're not buying their products,
otherwise they may assume it's due to some other factor.

The difficulty you then have is convincing them your reason
is genuine and that you are one of many like-minded people.

Good luck with that

 

[Slats66]

Halo update frees the game from CD Copy protection

It appears some software company's are starting to listen. I wish more did though.

MacSoft's recent update to Halo this week preformed the following fixes:
· Mac Universal Binary build is now in sync with PC version 1.08.
· Server-related crashing security bugs have been addressed.
· CD-ROM copy protection removed.
· This update also improves performance for PowerPC based systems and some Intel systems, fixes graphical errors, custom multiplayer game type issues and also allows the program to run properly from a case-sensitive drive....

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Games/Halo.shtml

 

[Sijmen]

I like MacSoft. The Unreal Tournament 2004 port is great (and needs no CD).

 

[Xavier]

Just to name another 2 games that don't require the CD.

Warcraft 3 and Halo. Not Aspyr games, but Aspyr should try and make games without CD verification

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

Let's keep some perspective here: do you really think that the only reason Aspyr does the disc check is to annoy legit users? I mean, seriously?

--Eric

Yes! Because they've received plenty of feedback from their customers that they are irritated by this limitation, and yet Aspyr does nothing. Furthermore we can't even seem to get a human response from them. Just "Have a nice day "
They are completely indifferent. So whether annoying legit users was their original intent or not, they are certainly aware of how we feel but obviously don't care.

 

[Sijmen]

By the way the "Have a nice day" line didn't end with a smiely, the smiley was mine (it was outside of the quotation marks). I agree with you entirely.