Why PREY and FEAR suck...

[Yashu]

they require their game CDs to be in the cdrom drive to play.

All the content is installed on my harddrive, yet I have to keep the games cds out on my desk... just cluttering up... getting scratched... ect... I have to pointlessly insert one to play a game.

why? this is the most pointless thing that every game requires. It does nothing to stop piracy... it just makes me mad. I bought the games, now play off my hardrive, damnit!

don't even get me started on daemon tools and similar software... mounting an image... disabling my cdrom drive in device manager... fuck... it's easier to just put in the damn CD... this is no solution.

Our lives are being filled with pointless arbitrary crap because corporations prefer to treat their customers like criminals.

An advanced alien civlization would be scratching their heads wondering why we purposly damage our creations... speed bumps that damage a good road... inserting cd that damages a good game... DRM that damages good media... everything we make is damaged in some way to appease a bullshit corporate/gov agenda.

What can we do to prevent these software companies from doing this? A letter writing campaign? a pettition? there must be something... boycott doesn't work because a few geeks that don't buy something isn't going to make a dent in their bottom line.

There must be something.

 

[mwin]

If it bothers you so much, you could always try to hunt down a cracked executeable.

Admins: If we're not supposed to talk about that on here, please have mercy.

 

[133]

you don't have to disable your cdrom drive in device manager to use daemon tools. you just have to make the vitrural drive have a drive letter that isn't in use on your current setup.

 

[Erasmus354]

Create your own utopian society where all law breakers/stupid people are killed outright? That is about the only solution I see.

As long as there are people who pirate, companies will take preventative measures. Even if those measures really do jack shit, the CEO's are ignorant enough to believe that they are actually doing something. In actuallity I think all of us know that anyone who wants to play a new game and not pay for it can find a way around just about all copy protection methods. I agree that the steps they take are really only hurting their paying customers. However it is something that you simply have to deal with.

I would like to say that I dont think that putting the CD in the tray is that big of a hassle. There are much more invasive schemes of copy protection *cough* Starforce *cough* and you should count your blessings.

Also....how do speed bumps factor into this argument? Speeding is a big safety problem in areas where they put in speedbumps, not for the people driving but for the pedestrians they would hit. I dont think speedbumps serve any corporate or government agenda, rather they serve society in protecting children who might run out into the street chasing a ball, senior citizens crossing the street and any other person at risk when someone comes barreling through a residential neighborhood or parking lot at 40 miles an hour.

 

[k1pp3r]

Create your own utopian society where all law breakers/stupid people are killed outright?

That wouldn't even work, the human race would be killed off, simply because praticly no one can honestly say they have NEVER broken a single law in their life. And for the record I have never had a cd scratched because i have to put it in the drive. Sounds to me like OP just neglects how he spends his money by, and i will quote

yet I have to keep the games cds out on my desk... just cluttering up... getting scratched... ect

 

[Yashu]

protecting children

ok you just proved my point about that... protecting the children is always the blanket excuse given by right wing polititians as they erode our rights... You talk about how we must adjust our right to ease based on the existance of criminals... however this goes against the founding philosohy of the US. I beleive it was Ben Franklin that said "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"

now back on topic... please I don't want to get banned today... hehe

133:

The type of copy protection used in FEAR, for example... requires your actual CDrom to be disabled, for it to be fooled by the image mount, thus making it easier to just insert the CD.

The other games I have don't have quite the draconian copy protection... and FEAR was my only game that needed the CD, so I just left it in...

However, now I have several programs that require the CD to be in the drive... and just the constant changing of discs, handling, storage, ect... is putting minor scratches on them... and with DVDs especially... a tiny scratch can corrupt alot more data then with a standard CD... if HD-DVD becomes a standard... even the smallest of scratches could render large swaths of the data useless.

 

[Yashu]

k1pp3r:

I would never have room to store every game box/disk box on my desk. I dopn't just toss the damn things around... I keep them on a spindle. I wish I could just keep the discs stored safely in their boxes in my cabinet, but the publishing companies refuse to allow that simple liberty...

not only that... but each game requires just one of a whole set of discs to be in the drive... if that one disk becomes damaged, then you lose the whole software package.

It has nothing to do with how I handle the disks anyhow... statistically, the chances of a disc becoming damaged increases extremely any time the disk is not safely stored in the original box and put in a safe storage location...

 

[Yashu]

After this I was just thinking that I should travel to a store and get some generic dvd container boxes and use them... they would stack nicely and at least work better then keeping the original packaging out for each program.

 

[Source]

Putting the cd/dvd into a drive to play a game isn't a big deal to me....

I don't know if it's because I'm some divine individual with a special power when it comes to keeping optical media in workable condition, or simply that the game companies know when I am going to buy a game through some kind of psychic intuition and provide me with a special unbreakable cd/dvd.....

It couldn't possibly be anything to do with the fact I don't leave my disks lying around anywhere, unprotected and in places that they are liable to be damaged. That would just be incomprehensible



EDIT: Go with the generic DVD cases, or even better.... buy some generic CD cases - they take up alot less space

 

[Skipper007]

I've never actually scratched a stamped disc to the point where it was unreadable, although I have occassionally had to clean them.

On the other hand, I did destroy one CD-R by accidentally not seating it properly in my DVD-ROM drive... the edge was resting on the raised part in front of the drive bezel and I hit the close button. Let's just say that the ensuing jam took a fair bit of finish off the disc. You know, the reflective finish on top that the disc requires to read properly? Since then I've been a bit paranoid about doing the same to a game disc, even though I'm pretty sure the finish on those is probably a lot sturdier (the finish on this CD-R looked cheap).

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

protecting the children is always the blanket excuse given by right wing polititians as they erode our rights...

Self-centered assholes who believe they deserve the right to do whatever the fuck they want regardless of the risk and/or harm to others (for example, driving as fast as they feel like through a residential zone) are doing a far better job of fucking the world up than right-wing politicians (except, of course, when the polticians and the self-centered assholes are one and the same...).

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"

The key word here is essential. Driving fast is not essential. And neither is the convenience of not having to change CDs.

And BTW,
- Prey and FEAR are nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to copy protection. HL2 is the only game I can think of which doesn't ask for your CD.
- I could play FEAR just fine with the disk out, without disabling any drives.
- Short of face-down on your desk, spindles are about the worst place you could be keeping your frequently-used CDs. Just keep them in the jewel cases they came in.
- Why do you need to buy DVD cases to house games which come in CD cases in the first place?

 

[lesman]

This is rediculous. The simple fact is that you have to have the game disc to play. Creating threads whining like this won't help you.