This is quite a negative thread, and I don't wish to fuel the fire, but my experience of Starforce is that it prevents me from installing a legitimate copy of SHIII on my system. It talks of missing cab files on installation, which in turn suggests that my DVD drive is no good.
But that's nonsense as the drive is 4 months old and works fine for everything else.. All very frustrating.

I concur. I don't like the fact of pirated software either, but a downloaded program does not constitute a lost sale. The vast majority of individuals that download pirated versions would probably not buy it otherwise anyway.

My BIG problem with SF is the unpredictability. It seems some folks have no problems, other have to reformat to fix things.

I have enough unpredictability with Windows and IE.

Nothing with Starforce on it will ever be installed on my computer again. I didn't spend countless hours and hard earned cash for a good, fast system, just to have some cheap/bad programing trash it all. Senseless.

Never....and if EVERY decent Flight SIM has it, I'll give up gaming.

The addition of Starforce to PC gaming will eventually result in the death of Flight SIMs.

Sad, we could have beat it....but it would have taken everyone doing his part.

hmm,from what i ve read sf,won t be going on my computer either,cheers.

Just wanted to add another side to this though I'll likely be jumped on by those who despise Starforce but I've had no issues with Starforce either with the version that just checks the CD such as Lock On - cd version, GTR or SHIII, I've not had any issues while I also used the download version of Lock On which required activation online. I use Windows own CD/DVD burner as well as Nero and Alcohol 120%. Someone in another online forum did an extensive search through Ubisoft's forums as well as a few well populated flight sim related forums and his figures showed that 1% of users had problems, if those figures are correct that's a very small percentage. Those who's been around a while will also remember the uproar surrounding Safedisc where a lot of CD readers could not read the disks, I was a victim of this copy protection.

While that has been true in the past the GAME store chain here in the UK has taken back games in the past, my son took one back three weeks after buying it.

I recall reading an article where Oleg claimed that 65% of all users of the IL-2 series were using a pirated copy, I think that kinda put this copy protection into perspective. It doesn't matter if you make games, cars or bake pies, would you be happy to let 65% of your wares be stolen without trying to do something about it?

The trouble with estimates of 65% of all IL2 users being pirated is always going to be open to question. I can understand how you can measure ACTUAL sales....but how do you measure pirates?

I know there were figures put out when PF was released, that seemed to indicate disappointing sales...but was that piracy, or just a luke-warm reception to the game initially?

On the game return thing...it seems I am going to be giving some of my local retailers a bit of a hard time next time I buy a poor quality game

Revvin:

Good post mate, you stated your case well and politely. I respect your opinion. But I don't agree fully....

By that logic, there should be around 99 people posting that they don't have problems with Starforce for every 1 post with a problem. Just reading this thread, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Absolutely not. He's well within his right to protect his property. The problem seems to be, where is he getting this "65%" figure from? If I recall correctly, it had something to do with the fact that the number of d/l's of patches was higher than the number of sales by about 65%. The flaw in this logic is simple. If you want to re-patch, do you hunt around your hard drive looking for past patches or do you just download it again? I know I just go to the website and download another patch; easy. I don't think that there are that many Pirated copies of PF out there. Most players are die-hard flight sim nuts. We (and I count myself as one...) tend to pay for our games because we want to support the games and further additions to the series. I was disapointed with PF, I admit it (The reason's aren't relavent to this post, a topic for another thread perhaps.... nah... done to death already.) But I bought it anyway. I want to support this great series of games. But as a consumer that HAS had problems with Starforce (buggered up my DVD rom, some legally purchased software will not run properly with SH3 installed, Autorun disabled once SH3 was installed, cannot seem to uninstall Starforce fully...ect.) , I will say this....

If BoB has Starforce, it won't be going on my system either...

But that's just reading this thread, the person in question has searched a few forums but you're logic that those who don't have any problems will post is also flawed. You're more likely to post if you have problems so if you take the forum population as a whole and ratio that down a little to account for those who don't have the game and you're getting closer to some figures, the same goes for Oleg's comment on the 65% figure. 1C Maddox have access to sales numbers and how many people are downloading the patch (if they are working it out that way). Ratio that down to account for those who are redownloading a the same patch and you're getting close to some real figures.

Yes there are people with problems with Starforce but there were with Securerom and Safedisc when those became the copy protection of choice. Starforce is still relatively new and it is unfortunate that people like yourself have had problems as I did with Safedisc but it's better than nothing at all. These copy protection systems won't deter the crack teams out there that release hacked and cracked titles but it will cut down on the number of causal pirates i.e people lending games to friends or colleagues. The alternative is to leave games without protection and watch the PC gaming format die.