GOO - first results before even released

I don't think GOO is implemented in Demigod. Only the Impulse reactor.

It's not , what hurt the StarDock here is the talk about GOO , not the GOO itself.

Demigod does not have GOO implemented in it. 

Does anyone READ before posting ?

Look the topic "first results before even released", my reply one post above ...

Again, what hurted StarDock here is not GOO itself , and no, it's not in Demigod , but TALK about it , the fact that StarDock turned towards DRM, ok , less invaisive DRM , much more convinient DRM but still DRM.

And you do not have to convince me , I just ordered Demigod because of this situation , even that I hate multiplayer games, you have now to convince all world out there that does not read the details but "just heard/read somewhere" that StarDock moved to DRM.

AshBrewster , may be you right but read the link attached to original post - suddenly only every 5th Demigod player is legit, all others are pirates.

Wander why ?

It's a multiplayer game, it's new.  That's a common occurance.  The torrents first hit, the floods come.  A mass of people start playing a game they don't own, some of them buy it, some of them don't.  A month from now they'll be a minuscule factor, probably a week from now.

There are lots of pirates because Stardock stuck to thier guns and did not put DRM in Demigod. Its as simple as that. So what if there are lots of pirates playing Demigod! There are probably a hundred times more pirates playing Spore. This comes as no suprise because we expected it all along.

The reason the number of "real" customers listed is so small is because only a fraction of the whole is bothering to play multiplayer. Hard bots are more than adequat for a fun play experience and with singleplayer you don't spend 10 minutes trying to get into a game.

Multiplayer is still choppy as pesto but I WAS able to win a match with Island Dog this morning. Things are improving.

Tamren, So why than there not that much pirates with GalCiv ?

As for Spore - you contradict yourself, Spore was under strong DRM and pirated all over.

Galciv is a boring single player game.

It's not very attractive to most pirates.  You're looking at a crowd that's very comfortable on the net, they have much higher preference towards multiplayer than the general populace does.  It's why a locked out multiplayer feature has proven vastly more effective than even the toughest encryption methods for getting pirates to buy their games.  A minor release from an indie developer of a single player only turn based strategy game is probably at the bottom of the list, right above barbie and my little pony games for toddlers.

...Which is why it's still played and quite fun.

GOO isn't really any different then the DRM they have been using for years. So they really didn't switch to GOO, they just made it avaible for everyone else.

Sarcasm detection isn't your strong point...

Eh? Whats your point? The fact that Spore had DRM demonstrates that extra effort was made to keep the game "pirate proof". Effort that was obviously wasted and pissed off an incredible amount of people.

oh gee, nice to know the threat of a very simple activation process is enough to drive the masses to piracy.

I don't remember reading that Stardock will use GOO. Just that it is offering GOO as an alternative to SECUROM.

Hasn't Stardock being using "DRM" like... since the very beginning? In any case, someone who want to pirate a game, will find any reason to justify his actions. DRM is the most cliché one.

Stardock have never claimed to be DRM free 100%. What they do is have no DRM on the retail boxes but if you want to play online  you need the newest patches. The patches are only avaiable to legit registered users who bought the game.

Pirates may have grabbed the game but i thought they couldnt play on official servers, get updates and or extra content. So does that mean stardock or GPG dropped the ball on serial/login checks and such or is it strictly for activation so you can execute the game?

While i dont understand GOO i remember the ole secur rom really messing with one of my older systems. As long as the DRM stardock chooses doesnt foul up other programs (legimate programs eg non pirated) then i dont see a problem.

Nothing really will stop piracy though, well i mean nothing sofware wise. You build the ultimate drm, and someone somewhere with tons of time will figure out a way to bypass it. Its not only for the PC market anymore. Playstation, xbox etc all have pirates. Granted people have to modify the hardware or something but it happens.  Even the old school rom based games have emulators you fire up and such..of course they are decades old now and prob not on the "radar". 

another thing to remember is the way things are going, people "choose" piracy as an alternative due to it being way to easy. What needs to happen to stop piracy, which would reduce the need for drm, is to stomp on the release groups. If its not cracked, ya cant use it no matter how many times its downloaded. Its like stealing a car with no engine, your going nowhere,

just my view though.

It is simplier and scarier than that: the retail version (and the warez one) checks for update when game is launched, before any authentication has been done and even if you want to play single player. see here http://forums.demigodthegame.com/347467 for more explanation

BTW, Demigod doesn't use GOO.

If I understand this aprt correctly with a simple patch that only legit customers can have they can fix the pirate problem? Seems pretty user friendly to me.

I would like to compare Spore and Demigod for a second. EA put a very big DRM on spore and it was pirated and pissed off lots of customers.

Stardock did not put any offensive DRM and aside from server instability which is expected on any new games did not piss off any customer and was pirated like all the games are now days.

If you had to choose one or the other which one would you choose?

Bte: this "simple patch" with crack already on trackers