Playing v1.1 on a PC without an internet connection?

Might not, give it a few minutes.

PS they never asked me once in the Two Times I had to do this were I bought the game. (but since I bought it directly from them I guess they wouldn't lol)

wow, that was a very nasty read. learn how to type in english and maybe somebody will help you

A nasty read? Hardly.

This fellow, like myself, bought Galactic Civilizations II. That means he owns it. I also own it. Yet we cannot play because of a ridiculous copy protection scheme. Look, I appreciate that Stardock is patching GalCiv II and making it better. As a software developer myself, I would expect no less. I even recognize that they have gone well beyond just fixing bugs and improving (admittedly poor UI in some places) and I appreciate that too. What's more, at the end of the user manual it does say that to install updates I need to have an internet connection. I understand that in many ways Stardock has performed most admirably, and those of you who have been unaffected by their copy protection have little or nothing to complain about.

However, for me to not be able to play a game that I bought, is completely unaccepable. I don't care if the issue is that my CD broke, or that I lost my Serial #, or that a patch breaks compatibility with my hardware. Whatever the reason is, it is completely unacceptable.

If Stardock were just about any other company, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but they are the ones yelling loudly "We're the good guys! See how convenient our copy protection scheme is!" Listen up Stardock. Your copy protection scheme sucks. It may not install a rootkit on my computer, but it is inconvenient and punishes paying customers like myself and this thread's creator.

My first instinct after installing 1.1 and not being able to play the game that I own was not to email activate my update. It was to go to thepiratebay or whatever warez site I could find so I could get a patch to play the game that I own. Those who experience the same pain as me will do just that next time, except they will skip the step where they purchase the game. Because guess what? It's more convenient to play your game when it is stolen then when we have our own copy. This should never be the case. Until your copy protection scheme changes, you lost a customer in me.

-Charles

My first instinct after installing 1.1 and not being able to play the game that I own was not to email activate my update. It was to go to thepiratebay or whatever warez site I could find so I could get a patch to play the game that I own.

Oh really? Well, you may wish to consider that people who don't pirate games really don't know much about "thepiratebay" or warez sites and so forth. So maybe the correct answer from Starduck is this:

STFU.

True. Sounds like a rant.

However, for me to not be able to play a game that I bought, is completely unaccepable. I don't care if the issue is that my CD broke, or that I lost my Serial #, or that a patch breaks compatibility with my hardware. Whatever the reason is, it is completely unacceptable.

No it isn't. Name ONE copy protection scheme that allows you to play without a disc. If you lose the serial, it's your own fault. Piracy is illegal, and this is probably the best way of beating piracy, an incentive to buy the game. I'm extremely glad that you don't plan to return if that's your attitude. It's a laughable one.

And unkownuser, that was the entire point of Stardocks system. Free updates. The code is optional ONLY for 1.0, nothing more. It states you need the net to update. Not once did they lie, if you misunderstood then they can't help that. You honestly can't expect them to offer free updates to anyone without a serial number.

Although I do agree it was a well written post, and so much nicer to hear than"wtf? stard0ck is teh ghei, net connection wtf?" or "I'm going to pirate it now" which are the same thing basically.

Ah, more posts decrying the one time activation. And pumping up the CD DRM schemes. I wonder about the source.

SD's activation process is great. No bother to the majority of the users - only the vocal few here seem to decry it. Of coarse some have had issues - and if you read the majority of the posts, those issues were fixed. By Stardock support. And if one bothers to read those threads, solutions are given too. From the lead developer himself most times.

But rant on if you like - it's entertaining if nothing else.

How are you even posting if you don't have internet? heh.

just complaining isn't going to get you anywhere. why don't you try offering an alternative, or asking for some kind of special help? jeez, where in the fine print does it say making this purchase gives you the right to treat others like personal slaves?

try something like this. "Hello good people at StarDock; I hope you're doing well. I'm having some trouble playing the new version of GalCiv because the computer I'd like to play it on doesn't have internet access. I know your manuel says internet access is neccessary, and obviously since I'm posting here, I have some kind of internet access. Do you think there might be some way I could just download the files I need here, and install them on my other computer from a disk? Or something, I'm flexible and willing to do what I can myself. I really appriciate any help or consideration you can offer. Thank you in advance, and best regards."

But being nice would just be pointless, huh?

It does not say ON THE BOX before you buy the game that at some point in the future you will no longer be able to play the game because a future patch will disable the game for those who legally bought it! We saw no such warning telling us that. So we went through the frustrating process of getting the game to work the optional way but someone at StarDock clearly was not thinking when they designed this system. When it asks where the game was purchased it says OPTIONAL. Not everyone keeps receipts for every game that they buy for extended periods of time. We then get a response telling us that we did not mention the store where the game was purchased. How is that relevant? They didn't ask what Country, what city and what EB Games store. What does it matter if we bought it at Future Shop or EB Games. If it said mandatory we would have provided the information in the first place and been able to use the game today. We however can not because we had to do the whole process over again to fill in an optional field that is not optional it is mandatory.

StarDock could have been friendly and said that field is optional, the customer has done as requested and bought the game so we send them what they need to activate it. They were not friendly in their response so why should we be overly friendly in ours? Our complaint is legitimate.


Maybe StarDock should try something like this.

"Hello good customers. Yes you have the code, receipt and purchased the game and provided us with the information we requested so here is your activation code.

No instead you get a response. You did not say where you bought the game so no code for you. Well ins't that conveniant. It said OPTIONAL. If we had known in the first place we would have sent that information yesterday and had what we needed today but now we must wait through the weekend. Perhaps on Monday we will get a response your subject of the message contains a typo therefor we can not possibly process the reqeust to give you the file needed to play your PURCHASED game. Try again and we will see if we can be of further help to you. Once again we apologise for any inconveniance. Yeah right

"How are you even posting if you don't have internet? heh."

As said by someone else on here some families have more than one computer. Not all computers have dedicated internet access. Pssst! Come here! Let you in on a lil secret. Guess what not even all communities have internet access in this day and age. If you live in a rural area you might not have internet access at all or at best a slow and unreliable dial-up. Costs Internet Service providers money to slap down infrastructure everywhere so they are quite slow in doing so in many areas especially when they weigh that against their profit margins. So as suprised as you might be not all computers are hooked up to the internet. Shocking as it may be it is true.

Here is an even better question. How can you send in the email for an activation code. If you read what is said above you will see you have to find a means of doing so. Not very conveniant which is why some people will experience this problem. Who cares though? If it does not affect everyone why worry about such things? Is that the logic that should be used?

Happy to say StarDock acted quicker than expected and got the required file out today even though we were pretty sure it would not come till Monday at the earliest. So we would like to thank StarDock for getting it out sooner than expected. One suggestion is if they do release a similar patch in the future is that they do away with optional fields if they are not optional to save the customer time and frustration.

As for the game, it is great and anyone who owns the game has been eagerly waiting for this patch. StarDock added a lot more then it had to for a patch. Quite a while ago we gave StarDock very high praise on another board for how they kept the customers informed about what they were doing with the game and all the effor they put into it. If anyone asked if we recommend the game we would definately tell them to buy it but with a warning that they should have internet access or know someone that has. If the game was sold out everywhere and they asked if they could buy my copy of Galactic Civilizations 2 I would say "Sure, when you can pry it from my cold dead hands."

We are currently working on fixing the activation for non-internet connected PCs.  If you have a internet connection, then activation is pretty painless.  We structured the system for internet connected computers (as is stated as a requirement in the documentation) so we are working on retro-fitting a solution for non-connected computers.  It just takes time.