DRM is an evil, evil piece of software no matter what its use is in my opinion. You're putting something on MY computer that you didn't tell me about, and you're trying to hide it by giving it root admin access. That almost screams criminal to me.

Matthew wrote:DRM is an evil, evil piece of software no matter what its use is in my opinion. You're putting something on MY computer that you didn't tell me about, and you're trying to hide it by giving it root admin access. That almost screams criminal to me.

I'm not sure it's required to give root access, myself, and I think it's probably done as the lazy solution quite often.

I have a double-sided view of DRM. It does piss me off, and I try to avoid it where possible, but it isn't the case that its existence is totally unjustifiable. If DRM was limited purely to ensuring that you, the user, had a legit copy of the disk it'd be fine. It's when they add in s### like limited activations or always online requirements that the problems start - and AFAIK this stuff is more about removing the second-hand sales market than it is about actual copy protection.

aldo wrote:

Matthew wrote:DRM is an evil, evil piece of software no matter what its use is in my opinion. You're putting something on MY computer that you didn't tell me about, and you're trying to hide it by giving it root admin access. That almost screams criminal to me.

I'm not sure it's required to give root access, myself, and I think it's probably done as the lazy solution quite often.

I have a double-sided view of DRM. It does piss me off, and I try to avoid it where possible, but it isn't the case that its existence is totally unjustifiable. If DRM was limited purely to ensuring that you, the user, had a legit copy of the disk it'd be fine. It's when they add in s### like limited activations or always online requirements that the problems start - and AFAIK this stuff is more about removing the second-hand sales market than it is about actual copy protection.

I really don't understand the fuss with this DRM stuff. I don't mind it, in fact I actually quite like it. I don't find it intrusive because I have nothing to hide and don't really notice it at all, and I dont complain about install limits considering I dont unin/reinstall my games every time I want to play it, and I like being able to play a game without using the disk.

The problem is that once you have a program on your HD with root access you've created a vulnerability that didn't exist before.

The Sony music CD DRM from a couple of years back is a great example of this as it gave files the ability to be hidden from the OS. The problem is that as soon as enough CDs had been used virus writers would now have a way to hide their programs in a way that no virus checker could detect them. Instead you'd require specialised rootkit detectors which are beyond the abilities of most normal users.

ghhyrd wrote: I really don't understand the fuss with this DRM stuff. I don't mind it, in fact I actually quite like it. I don't find it intrusive because I have nothing to hide and don't really notice it at all, and I dont complain about install limits considering I dont unin/reinstall my games every time I want to play it, and I like being able to play a game without using the disk.

Aside from the issues regarding ownership - namely that DRM prevents you being able to claim complete ownership of a product, as a third part is controlling if, when and how often you can access it regardless of your possession of any physical medium - the main issue is that DRM often uses very low level access to the OS in order to monitor hardware and software components. Things like CD burning/ripping programs might be prohibited for example.

This means that DRM also creates both a security hole (i.e. for others using its access priveleges - even Windows has more security people on it that any DRM software, I expect) and can interfere with legitamate use of the computer.

I was reminded of this game when I saw it on newegg for 7.99$. Was going to download demo to see if it's worth getting. Saw it had Starforce. Almost shed a tear. Does the retail version also come with StarVirus?

A member of the X3 development community is on the Blue Planet team. He quit recently, says the whole series has gone to pot since X2.

Matthew wrote:I was reminded of this game when I saw it on newegg for 7.99$. Was going to download demo to see if it's worth getting. Saw it had Starforce. Almost shed a tear. Does the retail version also come with StarVirus?

I think so, but didn't it also have it patched out in later versions?

Reminds me, I have X-something but never actually played it.

I have X2 but never played it....

Bit of a bump, but yes, the latest patch for X3 removes the copy protection from it.

I will say this for Egosoft, they are still adding s### to this game with extra missions/ships etc, and not as an expansion pack. This is possibly because X3:TC was going to be an expansion pack in the first place.

I should probably play the damn thing properly sometime then. Last time I kept dying from shooting space dragons*.



*This is not a euphemism for injecting narcotic substances. Honest.

Ah. Forgot about this thread. I got the gold pack for christmas. Installed X3:R, got about an hour in, had my save corrupted by installed new hardware, haven't really played it since from lack of time.