StarForce makes PC gaming hard... and it kills kittens
by Christopher Grant 
{ Mar 12th 2006 at 11:00PM }
PC Gamer's Greg Vederman
takes a look at
some of the copy protection systems being employed for PC games, including the totally sketchy bane of legitimate PC
game buyers everywhere: StarForce! He writes, "StarForce, is notorious for not only making it difficult for a
small percentage of legitimate users to load up StarForce-protected games, but also for leaving potentially
problem-causing StarForce software behind on your PC, even after you’ve deleted the game it was
protecting."Most of the article is about StarForce--and a pitch to check out the more in depth coverage in this month's PC Gamer--though it's worth noting that not every game uses these methods of copy protection, despite Vederman's proclamation that "any PC game bought at retail is going to have it embedded on the game disc(s) in one form or another." Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II not only refuses to use the "draconian DRM schemes or CD copy protection" offered by companies like StarForce, but they've incurred StarForce's juvenile wrath for their abstention.
On their official site, Stardock defends their customer-friendly decision to avoid the hassles that copy protection entails while linking to a forum post in which StarForce actually "provided a working URL to a list of pirated GalCiv II torrent" (image). It seems StarForce doesn't like when successful games (apparently the #1 PC game at Wal-Mart last week) don't buy their snake oil.
[Thanks, Joseph]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vc @ Mar 12th 2006 11:24PM
Starforce this, Stardock that. So friggin confusing.
Basically, Starforce is evil and Stardock is good?
LaughingTarget @ Mar 12th 2006 11:37PM
Yes, the Galactic Civ 2 method of absolutely no CD required to play is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, it is hard to gague just how effective it is given how terribly programmed the game is. The game frequently crashes, both randomly and, the most painful, at key points in the game. You crash a turn after you saved, and guess what? No matter how many times you load that game up, you keep on crashing. Really takes the wind out of your sails when you have to start over.
Galactic Civ 2 does have its flaws, though, they seem to require you to type in your CD key every time you want to download a patch. Not cool.
Clay @ Mar 12th 2006 11:49PM
Basically, Starforce is terrible and crappy and made me have to reformat my PC.
Stardock is good for not using it.
And I wish other developers would follow suit.
bazald @ Mar 13th 2006 12:02AM
So, let me get this straight. Stardock decides to do the customer-friendly thing and avoid DRM, probably improving customer relations and possibly increasing sales. StarForce then decides to help people pirate Stardock's game? I think Stardock should sue, honestly...
Counterfe1t @ Mar 13th 2006 12:04AM
I do agree with stardock developers lose money integrating these parameters of copy protection but only to have them cracked later on as so many starforce protected games have been cracked already.
Jago @ Mar 13th 2006 12:07AM
"Basically, Starforce is evil and Stardock is good?"
No actually its:
Starforce is evil and Stardock slows down your computer
GlitchCog @ Mar 13th 2006 12:49AM
StarForce sounds a lot like the Sony DRM rootkit.
It's becoming quite common for companies that sell data that can be copied to treat all their customers like criminals. Somehow these idiots think it will help sales to lock down their product to the point of annoying paying customers. They hide behind the idea that they're stopping thieves, but anyone who stops to think intelligently on the subject will conclude that it isn't good for business. And any protection is breakable anyhow. With Sony's music, it's often safer to play a downloaded copy of a song than to buy their CD in a store with the rootkit on it. I can imagine PC games following suit if people keep tollerating products with harmful anti-copying software built in.
Jon D @ Mar 13th 2006 5:09AM
All this will only run with the CD in the drive c**p lead me to seak out ways round it.
Now whenever I get one of these games I just make a image of the CD and mount it as a virtual drive, this method is also commonly used for pirated games.
PiNPOiNT @ Mar 13th 2006 7:54AM
With all of the games out there these days, im sure that any company would rather that you are playing their games instead of someone else's, whether your pirated it or not. Because if you tell someone its a good game, then by word of mouth alone, others will try it an so on and so forth. Its the same thing as they always say "any publicity is good publicity" look how popular GTA got because it was so "controversial". Its probably the most popular game of the century!
Chris K @ Mar 13th 2006 9:34AM
You know what sucks? It's very difficult to tell which games use StarForce. It's not included on the box, and publishers don't advertise it.
I refuse to buy any game using StarForce protection (what a world when Macrovision is the "good" company!), so it takes a lot of browsing around pirating sites before I know if I'm gonna head to Best Buy to buy a game (ie: non-StarForce), or just download a torrent and a crack, and enjoy it guilt-free. No way I'm cracking a game I bought. I did that with the original Diablo because of their stupid CD-audio copy protection that prevented me from playing my PURCHASED game. Never again.
Draco @ Mar 13th 2006 11:05AM
I crack all the games I own if I can even windows is pirated because of all the shit put on my computer i dont need ... who needs AOL, and Compuserve when you have broadband? why do I need AOL messanger and ICQ and MSN messanger?.
Also I play on a laptop often, and carrying around cd's isnt cool.
It makes my life many times easier to play a game with a no-CD crack or using deamon tools then having to insert a CD/DVD (which drains my battery as well as makes alot of noise)
I keep all my originals with CD-Key's incase I ever get it trouble (like that will ever happen :P)
Starforce is messed up, and I would rather buy the game and install a pirated copy then install starforce, because as legit as what I do is, Starforce finds it illegal and can shut off my DVD drive.
Sourtone @ Mar 13th 2006 11:07AM
I think Starforce is important to the gaming industry. After all - up until now it's been all the rampant piracy that's kept gaming from becoming a multi-billion dollar industry rivaling the movie industry.... oh wait....
AJ @ Mar 13th 2006 11:08AM
And the funniest thing about Starforce? You don't even need a patch/crack to play pirated games protected by it. Bloody useless system it is.
Michael the Great @ Mar 13th 2006 1:00PM
Joystiq--the world's biggest hypocrites or just not paying attention.
It was only a month ago that you suggested we download Trackmania Nations--a game infected with Starforce. Thanks for being idiots.
mike @ Mar 13th 2006 1:09PM
Its easy to tell which game has starforce. Go here http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php
many pepople like myself refuse to buy or install any game with starforce on it.
Other developers like stadock would save money by not implamenting copy protection systems. All copy protection systems are cracked days before games are even released retail. Even starforces mighty protection is crackable. (actually theres methods you can use where you dont even need to download a crack for it) I say games should just stop including copy protection. We already got cd-keys to keep the multiplayer exclusive. Lots of pirated games will also make developers include better multiplayer modes.
I dont understand why developers waste their money on a protection that doesent work. Take DVds for example. they all got that CSS encryption on it, but what the hell is the point of still including that when programs like DVD dycryptor make it non existant. Might as well just save time and now put protection on + then users can just drag and drop files rather then using a piece of software to do it for them.
C. Grant @ Mar 13th 2006 1:44PM
Michael the Great:
I see your note on that thread as well,
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/01/30/trackmania-nations-eswc-free-to-download/
The post was updated to say, "It appears that despite being a free game this has Starforce copy protection built in -- labelled by some as 'malware', Starforce installs hidden device drivers on your system. More information, including removal details."
Don't see what the problem is, or why you're acting like a two year old. Thanks for being a total troll...
Becky @ Mar 13th 2006 7:40PM
The logic in this article is flawed. What people can get for free, they will get for free. Despite Gal Civ 2 having a good sales run, that good sales one would be better if you could not download the game from any number of torrent sites. The arguement used in the article to slam starforce does not hold water.
Starforce itself might not be the most pleasant method of copy protection, but at least it works better than say, Securom.
The real problem is that it is too easy to pirate, due to the malleable nature of the media that we see games and other software delivered on. Anyone with an internet connection can download near every game ever produced as long as someone out there feels the need to share the "wealth".
The answer to digital piracy will not be found in software. The answer must be found in some new future form of cheap, widely available media. The best parallel I can think of right now is the old game system carts which were at the time duplicatable only with specialized hardware that no 13 yearold was likely to have. Of course it's not a very good parallel.
Francesco Simi @ Mar 13th 2006 10:25PM
I don't know what is worst:
1) An evil copy protection that kills my ide driver and slows down my cd burner until it doesn't burn anything without errors.
2) A game (GalCiv2) that is a clear regression in the space strategy genre, offering for a price a clone of Master of Orion 2 MINUS the tactical turn based battle phase (the heart of such games), offering a ridiculous "cinematic realtime 3d simulation" of the battle instead.
This is a war between the Awfuls.
Michael the Great @ Mar 14th 2006 4:12AM
I'm sorry, I did miss the update. I should not have resorted to name calling.
I guess I'm just really grumpy about that one because I almost installed it without researching it further.
That has nothing to do with you Mr. Grant, especially since you didn't post the original article. Please forgive my maliciousness.
mocax @ Mar 14th 2006 9:00AM
the only games I play are Minesweeper and Spider Solitaire, they rox0rz!
C. Grant @ Mar 14th 2006 10:05AM
Haha... fair enough Michael! We have enough problems to worry about (what, with StarForce killing kittens and all) we don't like to get griefed by our readers... especially when they took the time to tip us off on the detail in the first place and we followed through.
Becky: Let's just say I disagree with you completely; my opinion would almost be the total inverse. If you agree that treating all paying customers like criminals is the best way for a business to make money, you must not mind when Sony installs rootkits with the music CDs you bought.
I think Stardock (GalCiv makers) are probably very pleased with their sales, and they would trade the regrettable loss of sales due to piracy for the knowledge they haven't screwed their paying customer's computers up.
Kazriko @ Mar 28th 2006 1:50AM
I guess I'll respond to some of these in order here.
#2: The crashing problems were generally relegated to systems with extremely high end hardware that had some cooling problems. As long as you have sufficient cooling and have updated drivers. I have not had a single crash with the game yet. The very first update had a change that allowed you to throttle the FPS down on the game to prevent these overheat crashes.
Also, if you either use Stardock Central to update, or if you have an account on their system and log in, it does not require you to enter your key every time. It remembers your key for you.
#12: It's crappy games, not piracy, that is keeping the PC industry down. Crappy games combined with games that are too awkward to actually play due to copy protection. I've purchased exactly 5 pc games (and pirated 0) in the last 2 years because those were the only ones that either had no copy protection or were enjoyable enough to be worth the hassle of copy protection.
#17: You have a very pessimistic view on humanity. This is quite unfortunate. Personally, I believe that humans are essentially good and that the legal purchases will far overpower the illegal ones if they are getting enough value for their bucks. If it's easier and more hassle free to buy the game legally, most people won't mind parting with a couple hours of work for the game. If the game requires you to go download a pirated copy anyway because the legal copy sucks, then the person buying it will have to spend that couple hours downloading it ANYWAY and might be more apt to pirate it. Most of the people who are hardcore pirates and wouldn't buy it if given an easy oppourtunity would never have bought it in the first place. Copy protection doesn't work. It's almost always broken in under a week. By reducing the demand for a pirated copy from people who would have bought it legally it makes it harder for the hardcore pirates to actually get one. ;)
#18: Galciv 2 was never meant to be any relation to MOO2. It is it's own game, and the series was actually started at roughly the same time as MOO1. The only reason they haven't released a GalCiv4 by now is that the Galciv 1 and Galciv 2 in their first incarnations were for a defunct OS and basically were stolen out from under them by publishers and distributors. They decided to re-release them with significant updates to a new audience on windows. I played the first GC when it was originally released. GC1 for Windows is still a good game as well. :)
I never played MoO of any type and given the zealotry I've seen from the MoO fanbase trying to make another game something it is not, I feel richer for that lack of experience. ;)