Single copy lan gaming supported?

[Kobra]

I have a 3 station lan setup here for me and my kids. It REALLY annoys me if a game doesn'
t support lan gaming on a single copy, as it just isn't feasible to buy more than 1 copy of each game.

So my question is, does this game support lan connectivity with a single copy and key of the game, or do I have to go out and visit a nasty site to find spare keys?

[Sokratesz]

nope you need different serials for each player

[Kobra]

nope you need different serials for each player

Lame.. Same thing with Paraworld. Honestly, I think it shows ignorance to expect legit customers to buy multiple full retail copies of the same game just to play on the lan with their kids. We're not talking a commercial exploitation of a game, just some family fun. They can't honestly think this will sell more copies, can they?

Aspyr/Sunflowers better end this practice, or I am going to stop buying their products.

[Sokratesz]

Well unfortunatly theres 90% of game developers doing it. But theres always other means to get it working.

[St-Craft]

Well if it's not 100% :cool: , the develloper know that thing and they will not change that, t*****
So if you want to play in lan with 1 buy copy, ****

[Kepas]

at the german forum there was/is a really large discussion about this. (hope this sentence is correct...)
but as i always say there: there may be games, which offer multiplayer by one copy per several clients. but 1701 A.D. has had a budget about 10 million euro. and where do you think the money comes from? :wink:

[Kobra]

Well unfortunatly theres 90% of game developers doing it. But theres always other means to get it working.

*WRONG*. Out of all of the games I have purchased in the last years, only *3* didn't support this, and 2 of them were Sunflowers products. The one other was Battle for Middle Earth 2. If anything, 99% AREN'T doing it.

****
Out of RECENT games I have purchased, the following support single-copy lan gaming;

Empire at War + Expansion
Dawn of War + Expansion
The Guild 2
Railroads!
Heroes of Might and Magic V
All Trackmanias
Stronghold Legends
Settlers 2 10th Anniversary
American Conquest Divided Nation
Company of Heroes
and more...

The following DID NOT support it:

Paraworld (Sunflowers)
Anno 1701 (Sunflowers)
Battle for Middle Earth 2


The fact of the matter is, this is a poor decision by Aspyr/Sunflowers, and the practice should be stopped.. It will *NOT* result in more games sold, it will only result in people getting frustrated and visiting cracksites, and if they do that, why shouldn't they just pirate the game in the first place to stop the hassle? Think about it, this policy pushes people to alternative, less than legal methods! You are ENCOURAGING piracy.. GalCiv2 had no copy protection whatsoever, and was one of the biggest selling PC games this year, same with Oblivion, what does that tell you? It tells you that restrictive licenses and CP hurt sales.

[Vic]

99%? I dunno about that...

I understand where you're coming from but its a slippery slope for the devs to go down. You may have a lan to play with the kids but what about Joe Blo that wants to play over the net with his kids in college or with his wife who is on a business trip? Remove all CD key functionality for them? How about those that aren't family members, like 6 college kids playing off the same key, should they be allowed to do that too?

Its impossible to set any kind of rules that allow a specific group to use a key more than once without it being exploited by those that don't fall into said rules.

Edit: OK well you posted a lot more in your edit... I'm surprised the list is that long tbh. Any group of friends only has to buy one copy of a game nowadays I suppose then. Set up a VPN and you're set.

Also, at least one of the games on that list only had that functionality added late into its patch cycle. At least another one (likely many more) require the disc to be in the drive to play. Thats not SUPPORTING single key lan gaming because you still have to nocd it :rolleyes:

[Moryarity]

Hey folks,

according to the board rules, discussions about cracks are not allowed, I had to edit some posts....please do not reactivate this discussion or consequences will be taken :go:



And to the policy of "one key per player": Thee was a large discussion in the German forums about that, too. Fact is, that this decision has been made and so it has to be accepted. a very good examples that was given:

You can have one bike, which all of your family mambers can use..but if you want to make a tour, all of you need their own bike...and so it is with the DVDs.......Anno is not that an expensive game and if you take into consideration how many hours you will enjoy the game, if you buy an additional copy, it is a good buy :go:

[Sokratesz]

A short list fo the games that cant (just from the top of my head, theres thousands of others)

homeworld 2
generals (all forms)
all need for speed games (thats about 10)
all rainbow 6 games
ghost recon advanced warfighter
battlefield 2
SOF 2
age of empires TC
Prey
conflict global storm
call of duty 2
quake 4
Any valve games (half-life, cstrike)


So its far from an industry-standard..and its a logical step. Putting millions into developing a game you'd expect to make it back off of it.

[People's Republic of China]

Age of Empires doesn't require multiple CDs. I use it all the time with one CD.

Back to the topic. I have 98 PC games. 47 of which are mulitiplayer games that I played MP at one point. 37 of which require diff. serial codes.

[Kobra]

This won't sell additional copies, and I would love to see evidence that it would. I can see limiting keys for online play, but lan play seems silly.

I certainly would never purchase more than 1 copy of a game. Due to the fact most games wear off in fun after a relatively short time, it wouldn't be financially viable to do it. With how shallow PC games are these days, that generally is 1-2 weeks. So buying 3+ copies of every game I purchase would take away funds for PC upgrades, and buying other games that come out.

I simply could never justify $120.00 per game to enjoy it with my kids. Of all of the people I know that have families and do lan gaming in their homes, I can't name a single one that would buy more than 1 copy of a game.

So the economics of it all simply don't make sense, as it is proven it won't increase revenue. So why bother hurting paying customers with the practice? I think it just encourages people to circumvent the system, or worse, get discouraged and not even buy the game!

[Flying Dutchman]

@Kobra
I dont see that because you or anyone you know wouldnt buy extra copies proves that this way wont increase revenue?


I dont see what the point is, it is sunflowers decision, and they have a good reason to do so (atleast i understand why they did it).
There are a lot of people complaining they cant install windows xp on multiple systems, though not exactly the same situation, the outcome is the same. Buy extra copies if you need it, and if you think that is too expensive then dont do what you want. It may seem unfair to you, but thats the way things work.

[Vic]

This won't sell additional copies, and I would love to see evidence that it would.
........
So the economics of it all simply don't make sense, as it is proven it won't increase revenue.

You cannot prove that it wont increase revenue anymore than I can prove it does. I don't think that the reasoning for doing this is to "increase" sales anyway. It's to prevent "lost" sales due to friends sharing the game.

Personally, I don't buy that many games. I'm selective about which ones I do buy, and try demos before buying most of the time. If I feel that I will only get 1-2 weeks out of a game then it isn't worth buying. The "classics" that do get my money could charge me twice the cost and I'd still buy them because of the longevity I get out of them, its worth it to me. But that is my situation, yours is different.

[People's Republic of China]

I simply could never justify $120.00 per game to enjoy it with my kids. Of all of the people I know that have families and do lan gaming in their homes, I can't name a single one that would buy more than 1 copy of a game.


I buy multiples of games all the time. You just need to know the right person to talk to in order to get lower prices. I aquired 2 copies of 1602 in a bargain bin for USD$4.


Edit: fixed quote tags-Dobber

[Barend]

You can have one bike, which all of your family mambers can use..but if you want to make a tour, all of you need their own bike...and so it is with the DVDs.......Anno is not that an expensive game and if you take into consideration how many hours you will enjoy the game, if you buy an additional copy, it is a good buy :go:
I totally agree with the bike-part. But I don't think you can compare a game with a bike. I think you should be able to play a (bought) game in LAN-mode with one copy, as it's not being illegally distributed.. Oh wait.. guess I had not forseen the following (Actually, I have):

* A LAN-party that's making money with your game, while they've only bought one copy of the game. (This should not be happening either, should it?)

So, in my opinion, this is the right option.. But I still don't believe you can compare it with a bike! :amen:

[=IBF2=raziel2710]

Here's my take on this. I don't think the companies intend to hurt home lan players. There are utilities out there that allow gamers to play on a virtual lan even over the the internet. These utilities have the potential to cost companies millions in revenue if they don't implement the "once cd/serial per PC rule". As stated earlier, this game had a budget of €10m which means (€40 per game) they would need to sell 250000 copies to break even. then there are advertising costs to add to that and maintenance costs (ie patches and forums like this one). People mentioned going "that route" to get serials for games. These same people complain of the high prices of the games. Using "those" is piracy. Piracy is what cranks the prices of games up ever year. I have had to buy multiple license keys/CD for lan games for home too. It's an option. If you want it but it. If not don't. I just don't see why anybody should complain about it.

And on the 99% of games not doing it I think that number is far to high. I work in an internet shop and we have almost 100 PCs on lan. Every game we've bought for the shop needs it's own CD/valid key to work even on lan.

Just my 2cents :wink:

[XaaRn]

Comparing a car, a bike to a DVD or Game is missing the point.

When you buy a car or bike, it is yours, you can do whatever you want with it if you respect a minimun of laws & community rules: nobody will sell you a 5 seats car & force you to sign that you'll never take more than 2 people aboard (w/ family connections !) or that you'll be the only driver for ever, nobody will try to sell you a car that can be used only in europe or it's exact twin which is limited to north america only, nobody makes sure you'll have difficulty to sell it on second-hand market, nobody will try to sell bikes or cars at 150% the price then at 30% one or two year later, nobody will try to sell you a car where you can unlock ABS & Airbags if you play & win at mobile car games, nobody will try to sell you a bike that you can't ride because you got a derailment every half an hour & tell you to wait for an upcoming fix (and that maybe it's not the bike but your shoes or even your pants)

This does not apply to a DVD or a Software (Games, Applications) and supportive hardware. You buy only a license. CD, DVD content or Software never had & never be yours. Any kind of rules may be tried on software & DVD... (remember DVD Zoning? HDCP?) like being able, without second thought, to play or no with friends by lan (with a CD/DVD, or second KEY or both)

They only lent you something that will works for several month to several years (if your lucky), if you don't like it, don't buy it. It is not intended to be working or do anything save from gross profit margin generation (when it works...).

So please, when making comparisons, compare only Intellectual property with Intellectual property.

PS : please no flame, you may disagree, this is IMHO, keep only the last sentence in mind.

XaaRn

[Jeffrey]

I believe that in The Netherlands the law is that you can legally make a copy for internal use/back-up (the same as you can copy an original cd for use in the car and at home). So in my opinion making an extra copy in order to play this game in multiplayer mode isn't against the law.

[LadyH]

Jeffrey
that may be not against netherlands law
but that won't work
you need different keys to play

and now stop this kind of discussion
you better read what Moryarity wrote above
ok?