StarForce causes 0/10 review for game

If I could give it a -10/10 I would. This kind of crap is completely unacceptable, and content producers are going to have to reach one of two conclusions about piracy:

1) Accept that a certain amount of piracy will take place because not everyone obeys the law.
2) Quit producing media.

Yeah, it'd be nice if there were a way to completely stop piracy, but you can't. It will never happen. Should they go after companies and groups that are making a profit off of their hard work by reselling the game? Absolutely. Should they cripple every machine the game is run on under the delusion that they are preventing piracy? Absolutely not.

These solutions don't stop ANY piracy. They just piss off people who actually purchased the game legally. Or, if you prefer, you can listen to Tycho of Penny Arcade fame:

"All of this confusion for paying customers, so that pirates will be detained an additional fifteen minutes before they descend, their scythes awhirl." - Tycho

Add me to the masses who have been driven to console gaming because of crap like this.

Nadeo, It doesn't matter how many times you say it's Starforce Lite, or it doesn't have drivers, etc. It doesn't matter. It still supports Starforce and enables them to continue to make PC crippling malware.

Support them all you want, just don't be surprised and angry and defensive when gamers choose not to support you.

Really, why would a developer even use starforce at all. As previously stated. Any pirate who wants the game will down load it striped of starforce or any other copy protection. It's so easy. This starforce protection just gets in the way of legitimate owners that want to play the game.

PiratePete: to reduce the cheat capacities. TrackMania is one of the four PC games at eSports World Cup and has been the online game for the last Verizon tournament with 40k$ prize money. No cheat for only game helps a lot. If people can hack for crack, it is more easy to do it for cheat. Again, I don't think basic anti starforce basic behavior like 'doubful' one is ready to understand this... and to use console as the solution is the best way to the termination of real independant developers.

The problem is that in order to sell the game in certain countries, copy protection is mandatory.

I just wish that publishers would find a solution that works, and stop using this Starforce crap. Everyone hates it. Not because it can't be cracked (because it can.) but because when it functions properly, it frags your system.

Some systems don't have problems, but that's because Starforce is a gradual jacking up of your system. I loves Space Rangers 2 to death, but it's not getting anywhere near any of my new machines after it and Starforce effing toasted my last machine.

I had 3 Starforce games installed, SR2, Trackmania Sunrise, and Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich. At the end of that computer's life, I was getting a 25% crash rate on my computer any time I opened a game.

These were legit, store-bought copies I had bought, and they absolutely thrashed my system.

I know some game review sites that have simply won't review a game that has Starforce copy protection on it, because how can you? You either do what Angry Gamer did here, and give it a 0, or you do what Netjak did, and you have to post a huge disclaimer paragraph in the middle of the review that says, "Yeah, this game is awesome, but I have to go off course and rail on Starforce."

I respect the smaller developers that are smart enough to find an alternative to this crap, and I'm happy as hell that some review sites are starting to fight back. Kudos to the ol' 'Stiq for publicizing this, too.

Question for Angry Gamer...

Does this series still have no collision detection?

I've had several games use StarForce with no problems. Every problem that occurs after StarForce is installed isn't 100% due to SF.

"OMG my comp died after SF was installed." Just stop downloading porn and getting viruses. Spybot and adaware are good things.

Hey, Florent, and all you StarForce supporters, explain this:

Company of Heroes and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, both games developed by Relic and published by THQ (who do know a thing or two about piracy) have NO copy protection at all. Just a cd-key required for online play. You install, remove the disc, play.

And they're still selling well, in fact Dark Crusade is one of the best selling PC games currently.

If you have a good game, if you KNOW your game is good, you don't need copy protection, simply because a gamer will buy a quality product. Hell even pirates from time to time will go out and buy a game if they feel like the developer deserves it.

All StarForce and annoying copy-protection programs does is annoy the user, and turn off potential buyers.

Geez, Florent sure doesn't absorb criticism. I don't even play that many PC games but I know that if I bought something, or maybe I went to a bank and the security was provided by, let's say, Hitler and I go into that bank and Hitler starts shooting at me and nails the people around me. I wouldn't want to go back to that bank even if they said, "Oh, its not Hitler anymore, its Hitler-lite." I don't care what Hitler-lite is, it's f'ing Hitler. I don't think the people that are playing your game now Florent will care if Hitler is gone.

Old games with Starforce may run perfectly fine while new ones may not. They've had more time to add crap that will totally hose your system. They aren't going to keep using the same version forever, the only way to keep the hackers at bay is to release a new one every week. Even that is a fairly limited solution. Some companies have up and said forget protections all together. They save money, sell their games for less as a result, and get more buyers. Pirates will always pirate, but you may lure customers with a game that works and is actually affordable.

starforce to prevent cheating?
anyone remember punkbuster? if you really want to prevent online cheating you don't have to sneak it in, you can REQUIRE it, offering an optional download for ranked matches.
all of this had been done before, so i don't know why this is such a CRAZY idea.

And as for "florent":
you just offered some of the most un-customer friendly answers i have ever seen. You basically just said "Good, we like having DRM because it keeps stupid people out of our community".
You are clearly not business oriented in any sort of fashion, because last time i checked, if you don't want as many people to buy YOUR niche product as possible, YOUR game studio isn't going to be around to keep making games, and YOU'RE going to be out of a job.
I would say maybe you should leave the answers to your PR firm, but seeing that your some mom and pop firm that needs shady russian DRM to protect their project, you probably don't have one.
Maybe you should let someone who understands the native language of the questions/comments, instead of using babel fish translator, because i think some things are getting lost in the translation.

I personally do not like starforce because it is shady and run like a cartel, it is the antithesis of good customer relations. In business, if you treat everyone as a theif, your not going to get very far before you reach opposition, and starforce has been finding theirs rather rapidly.

and if anyone considers the people at starforce "good wholesome folk" remember the whole civ II episode?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145864.html

Sounds like a very reputible company to do business with huh?
Maybe Nadeo is just a little bitch and doesn't feel like having their game posted up for free either and doesn't have the power to fight it. Or maybe as our friend Florent has shown, their not to customer satisafaction oriented themselves either.

What a bunch of whiney babies you are, you make me ashamed to say I like gaming in case people associate me with the likes of you.

I have Trackmania United DVD edition - I use it on my work laptop, with DVD burning, emulated drives for software testing, mapped drives, remote connections to servers, virtualisation and PC emulators installed, and so on ... if it was going to cause problems, it would do for me. But it doesn't.

This is a fantastic game, if you lot don't buy it then I'll consider myself lucky that I don't have to live with your whining while I'm playing. Please do carry on with the 'I hated Starforce before you' posts - anyone that listens to this diatribe deserves to miss out on one of the best games available today.

Wow, another child reviewer trying to be "EXTREEEMMEEE MAAAANNNNN" by stickin' it to the "MAAAAANNNN"!!!.

Like every other nitwit the explanations of what the problems amount to with Starforce are these vague generalities, nothing specific, just "it got all weird". Finish it up with a few smarmy comments and then everyone is supposed to be impressed (I'm guessing).

honestly, NADEO doesn't deserve this. Granted Starforce should be dropped from their builds but other than that the company has been a model developer when it comes to supporting their product, giving away content and nurturing an enthusiastic community (and making a damn fine game as well). It's very obvious this author had it in mind to do this long before he played the game simply to milk the attention despite his claims to the contrary on their site.

If you don't like Starforce, fine. At the very least review the game as the game and not turn it into an 'effing editorial/tantrum.

I've run a few games with starforce and have never had any problems. I would prefer not to have that kind of copy protection - or any copy protection as it means more wear and tear on my CD. I've seen worse things that aren't technically malware - like that Sierra uninstaller (I forget the game) that uninstalled everything under the base directory - so it would remove all Sierra software when it ran.

Florent from Nadeo, you know what would be nice? If you didn't pretend to know what I am 'ready to understand.'

Ready yourself to understand this: you give money to a company that makes malware. Period. Even if you don't use it, you support it. Period.

That's all I need to know to eliminate your company from my potential purchases list.

And consoles != the end of indy dev. Your just grasping at straws and making false assumptions in a feeble attempt to justify your choice to use Starforce.

I can't fault the game producers from wanting to protect their game.

Also, from a software packaging and deployment background, I know that things that work 100% on every test system I have available can and will screw up when used on thousands of PC's, and that is just in a controlled work environment (let alone thousands of ppls personal PC's).

I've owned a number of Starforce titles. Some have been flawless, some didn't work well at all and at least one caused massive system problems after it was installed. I generally avoid SF like the plague now, and because of my past experiences, Starforce Lite just leaves me suspicious and unwilling.

So, while the game may be excellent and thousands of beta testers may have had no problems, chances are that I won't bother because I've been burnt before.

The second thing, I think, that pushes people away from SF is the companies track record. Publishing a copy protection that accesses your network installing drivers where it can go is tantamount to viral infection. The software is not installed with your consent and it initially proved difficult to remove. They then tried to cover all this up. I don't believe a company this morally bankrupt can be trusted to be a part of my software setup, so there it is.

So, while I sympathise with Nadeo (?), Starforce Lite is paying for the sins of Starforce. The name is synonymous with malware and a lot of people will refuse to buy your software purely on that alone.

My guess is that "Florent" is a mole from the StarForce publisher. A little viral PR as it were. No developer would ever call his potential customers idiots.

Good thing that is seems like VISTA will be the death of StarForce.

@Latano:"My guess is that "Florent" is a mole from the StarForce publisher. A little viral PR as it were."

Possible. They seem to have that attitude. OK sysadmins, does Florent's e-mail and IP match Nadeo, or Starforce in Russia?

"No developer would ever call his potential customers idiots."

Two words: Derek Smart

Just to clear a few things up

Florent is no mole, he's a regular from the TM forums and is the real deal, and works for Nadeo

I have played all of the trackmania series on a total of three pc's, with no problems whatsoever.

Now, its obvious that this 'reviewer' if he can be called one, is trying to get some attention. He hasn't even attempted to fix it. Just got one problem, and given up. Hell, if the whole world tried this tactic, humans would of been dead ages ago.

Why hasn't he posted his problems on the TM forums, got in touch with nadeo support with his exact problems (including tech specs) rather than just thrown his toy outta the pram and written a pretty useless review?

Trackmania United is an amazing game, it is a massive game with THOUSANDS of players connected, posting 'hot lap' times, creating tracks and cars and movies, and generally making this community grow. Hell, the dam things massive and it hasn't even been released in north america or much of europe yet (March 2007)

Think of all the gamnes released in todays ever changed hardware world...they all have problems. A real fan and reviewer would of written up the review saying yes, there were some problems, but due to the quick response of nadeo support (you'll be surprised how quick they reply) he/she was able to get the game working and be amazed by it.

Don't judge a book by its cover...

Starforce stops piracy? My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > Disable your physical IDE drives. Boom, Starforce will now bow down to virtual drives. That is, for pirates, Starforce pose no threat whatsoever. Yes, it's true that Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had their exe's cracked quite recently, the games could be played illegitimately by using the methods above.

Starforce does not stop piracy, but quite rather, hurts the paying, innocent consumer. Your computer may not have been affected, but many, many others have seen computers fail and disk drives die because of Starforce, myself included.

The review linked is a review. If you just look at numbers before buying a game, then you have some serious issues. The article explains the game in a fair amount of depth and then, as someone previously stated, gives the game a numerical score based off the experience as a whole, which includes Starforce.

Oh, and I wouldn't berate Florent too much; English doesn't appear to be his first language, so, please, give him a break.

This is a very bitter.
Bitter like a big ol' bowl of bitterness.
I will attempt to sum up the arguement:
1:Starforce does not prevent pirates from pirating.
2:Many people do not like Starforce because it messes with their computers.
3:Not everyone ends up with a messed up computer.
4:Florent is a weenie.

Here's the thing, Starforce is not doing what it was originally meant for. It is crippling only the legit consumers. The hackers are unnaffected. I do realise, however, that not everyone is affected by StarForce. That's very nice. Just keep it to yourself because it is (whether your computer is affected or not) screwing up PCs, specifically, the PCs owned only by the people who actually bought the game. StarForce is not a well thought out solution to piracy.

I would also like to add that The Boo's Hitler analogy was very informative.

Any games I've purchased in the past with Starforce, have automatically been taken back to the shop for a refund. As a musician I rely on my DVD software and hardware setup and refuse to play any games that compromise my system in any shape, way or form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law