75 replies to this topic

[IMG News]

Transgaming has announced they will be using the anti-piracy technology, SafeDsc provided by Macrovision. Transgaming's Cider will utilize SafeDisc in its upcoming games.

TransGaming's Cider engine allows publishers to extend their products to
Mac users without having to recode or recompile their windows-based
software. With the expected increase in the number of top tier video game
titles that are released for the Mac through TransGaming's Cider engine,
publishers are looking for copy protection for their content. Through this
agreement, TransGaming will be working with Macrovision's SafeDisc
technology to make it easier for game publishers to protect their PC games
on the Mac.

"More than $3 billion annually are lost worldwide to video game piracy. By
bringing Macrovision's SafeDisc to Mac, TransGaming's Cider product can not
only deploy top titles on the Mac more quickly and cost-effectively than
anyone else but we are also now able to offer protection from piracy of
content, providing a strong incentive and confidence for publishers to
target the Mac platform," commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & President of
TransGaming.

Please follow the links below to learn more information.

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[BenRoethig]

If you ever wanted to make a buy to enhance your standing with consumers, this would be it Apple.  Could you imagine with cider was given away like xcode?

[teflon]

i discovered that something called SafeDiscDVD.bundle is used on the Imperial Glory DVD (not to mention takes up around 1.5Gb on the disc). isnt this the same thing?
I must say that the Imperial Glory DVD is the most annoying I have ever encountered. It pretty much freezes my computer in time when its spinning up, and takes its sweet time to allow me to play IG in the first place.

[Frigidman]

Its nearly as bad as (but not as much) as Starforce protection. Which is horrendous. I simply do not understand this aged reason for cd/dvd copy protections. Nothing but a waste of time and effort for the developers, and headaches for the consumers (legit ones that is). People who know how, and DO, copy games, are never bothered with this stuff as they make cracks that bypass the junk. So whats the point??? To annoy buyers ?! guh. Idiots...

[guategeek]

I agree, the only people that "anti-piracy" protection hurts are the actual paying customers. The more hassles they have to go through to play a game they have paid for, is just going to leave a bitter taste in their mouth.

The hacker on the other hand will have patches and cracks that bypass all the protection and they won't have to deal with any of the pain. Unfortunately all media industries don't see this and are in fact encouraging piracy with their "anti-piracy" mechanisms. I would be interested in finding out what % of paying customers still use cracks and hacks on games they own originals of, so that they don't have to mess with all the hastles of the original "protected" version.

[Jard]

It seems in most cases that anti-piracy measures are there to placate share holders as much as stymie users pirates.

[teflon]

well... ive yet to find an Imperial Glory crack, so... maybe this release wont be cracked for a while...

i just want to be able to play my games without putting the cds in.

[Dark_Archon]

This is fine AS LONG AS THE GAME DOESN'T REQUIRE THE DISC TO PLAY.
Make it hard for people to get the installer to work without a legit copy of the disc, but it only takes one good scratch to ruin a cd, so I prefer to either be able to run a game without the CD, or be able to at least make a copy so I can store the original in case something happens to the copy I made.

[bookman]

"With the expected increase in the number of top tier video game
titles that are released for the Mac through TransGaming's Cider engine,
publishers are looking for copy protection for their content."


LOLZ!

[Frigidman]

outcast, on January 5th 2007, 01:11 PM, said:

I would be interested in finding out what % of paying customers still use cracks and hacks on games they own originals of, so that they don't have to mess with all the hastles of the original "protected" version.

I'm one of them, and I fully support those things because it allows me to keep my original CD's in a nice and cozy safe place!

Dark_Archon, on January 5th 2007, 01:41 PM, said:

This is fine AS LONG AS THE GAME DOESN'T REQUIRE THE DISC TO PLAY.
Make it hard for people to get the installer to work without a legit copy of the disc...

I agree whole heartedly in that note. Its what I continually wonder about. "Simply make the installer require a legit CD, then maybe also a ONE TIME cd requirement to 'unlock the game on the installed hard drive'". This whole keeping a cd in each time you play the game is blissfully ignorant programming.

In regards to like 'starforce' on the PC... I am now to the point where I dont care HOW GOOD the game may be... if its got starforce protection, I simply will not buy, nor play, nor recommend the game to anyone I can. I simply refuse too. There are other fun games that dont use that popsnizzle, that I would happily fork out cash for.  

[clocknova]

I'm another one of those people who won't play any game that requires a disc in the drive and which cannot be cracked to remove this feature.  I can also tell you this: if it comes down to a choice between a PC game with an anti-CD/DVD patch and a Mac version without one, I'll go with the PC version every time.  Hopefully this won't be a problem, but it's currently pretty difficult to find a lot of Mac game cracks, especially when compared to how easy it is to find them for PC games.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

bookman, on January 5th 2007, 12:17 PM, said:

"With the expected increase in the number of top tier video game
titles that are released for the Mac through TransGaming's Cider engine,
publishers are looking for copy protection for their content."
LOLZ!

They are referring to all hypothetical two of them! Hooray!  

On a serious note if they are going to resort to draconian copy protection schemes legit customers are going to want to turn to cracks so they can at least play the games with not as much hassle and or they won't buy them. At worst they will just turn to consoles because at least there they don't have to deal with this kind of sh.....tuff.

[Mister Mumbles]

Smoke_Tetsu, on January 5th 2007, 01:46 PM, said:

At worst they will just turn to consoles because at least there they don't have to deal with this kind of sh.....tuff.

This argument is not a very good one. After all, you'll always be required to enter the game CDs on consoles.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

Pegasus, on January 5th 2007, 02:51 PM, said:

This argument is not a very good one. After all, you'll always be required to enter the game CDs on consoles.

On consoles typically the games run off the disc or other media (like a cartridge) so how is it more inconvenient  to continue that tradition than before? A lot of people who argue for consoles say one reason why they like them more than computers is you just pop the disc in and press power. That's who I'm thinking of. It's no more inconvenient for them to put the disc in to play the game as for them to put a movie disc in to watch a movie.

On the Computer games typically install so it's an inconvenience to have to insert a disc each time you play. Especially after you put aside the time and hard drive space to install the game and it takes a nice chunk of your total hard drive space. This has been the complaint for as long as games required both installation and the disc in the drive on a computer.

[Frigidman]

Smoke_Tetsu, on January 5th 2007, 05:06 PM, said:

On the Computer games typically install so it's an inconvenience to have to insert a disc each time you play. Especially after you put aside the time and hard drive space to install the game and it takes a nice chunk of your total hard drive space. This has been the complaint for as long as games required both installation and the disc in the drive on a computer.

Right... it's like "why bother installing when you still have to use the cd/dvd?!?!!??" Heh.

Maybe they should go back to the "look up word X on page Y in paragraph Z..." lol... just as pathetic as what they do now.

[kingarthur_kom]

Pegasus, on January 5th 2007, 03:51 PM, said:

This argument is not a very good one. After all, you'll always be required to enter the game CDs on consoles.

Yep those console CDs always get scratched up from wear. That's one of the reasons I don't own any consoles.

[Rev-O]

Red Guard, on January 5th 2007, 01:58 PM, said:

It always makes me chuckle when I see software companies cry about how much money they "lost" because of piracy.

To lose something, you must have had possession of it first. How can one lose someone that he never had?

Debating semantics is fine and is typically the realm of the individual with a weak arguement. So quibble away but the bottom line remains the same: piracy reduces profits and a substantial enough reduction in profits can make a specific market no longer viable. Do the software companies actually lose profits? Strictly speaking, no. But ligit & legal gamers end up paying the price by fewer games being released and by copyprotection being included on the game that are released.

Quote

But more on topic...

I'm not a hardcore gamer as I buy and play at most 5 games per year. But when I do buy games, I get annoyed by the new "anti-piracy" schemes. About two years ago, I started making a "play copy" on CD or DVD of my games so I can keep the original disc in a safe place while use the copied version so that in case it gets scratched or damage, I am not out of luck. About a month ago, someone I know had their game disc so scratched up that he can't even play it anymore! Does he get another copy from the publisher? No, it was essentially $50 down the drain after only having it for two months... Although I feel sorry for him, I was extremely glad I have been more cautious...

Yep, your friend should have been more careful. Maybe your friend should contact the software company in question and see if they can get a replacement disc for a typically nominal fee instead of $50 down the drain.

I very much dislike requiring discs to play a game. Making a physical disc mandatory kills playing time on a lappy, which drives me up a wall. I'm not a big fan of copy protection either. I remember back to the old days on Atari STs where all the various (and nefarious ) copy protection schemes often rendered games unplayable on some computers. It was horrible! I also despise Bioware's internet connect way of foiling piracy on their premium Nwn modules. I bought one module and suffered through this but it has stopped me from buying any further modules. Fact of matter kiddies is that copyprotection will become more prevalent and more aggresive as development costs increase. I must admit, if I was fronting the costs for developing a top flight title, I'd include copyprotection on it as well.

[Tesseract]

Pegasus, on January 6th 2007, 08:51 AM, said:

This argument is not a very good one. After all, you'll always be required to enter the game CDs on consoles.

I don't have to insert a disc to play Super Mario 64 on my Wii.

Rev-O, on January 6th 2007, 12:18 PM, said:

Debating semantics is fine and is typically the realm of the individual with a weak arguement. So quibble away but the bottom line remains the same

I disagree. If there is no agreement on the meaning of the words being used, how can a reasoned argument ever take place?