Thief.

You pretty much just admitted that you're now a full-fledged pirate, and no longer merely a customer angry about inconvenience.  So are your 4 friends. 

You and your Impulse account ought to be perma-banned.   You're already pirating anyway, so it's no loss.

Just to let u guys (and possibly stardoc) know that ,while u think ur protecting the game and providing patches to only people that have purchased the game, there are milions of people downloading ur game + all the patches and expansions on warez forums. After reading this whole topic i checked a few warez search engines and forums and almost all of them had full working downloads for Sins, its expansion and all patches therefore the whole impulse/security/protection thing u tried to do is pointless. As one member already explained it is very easy to make a .rar with patched files and upload them anywhere. Aside from this game i think the only protection system that has any value was StarForce not because it worked (IT DIDNT) but because it gave a real pain in the arse to al who have tried to play pirated games (i belive they had to unplug their dvd/cd rom and/or use a program that has the same effect like star force nightmare).

I think that noone can make any software (and never has) that couldnt be cracked or what ever thats why we can see all those new ubisoft games (HAWX,EndWar,PoP etc etc) have no protection what-so-ever and are completly free to install and patch on as many computers as u wish (hell they dont even need a serial number just install and play).

While the game devs must understand that there is no security and protection against piracy so must the users understand that game devs will always do everything they can to try to secure they product (even if they know it wont work).

Now stardoc is (no offence) a small game dev company (compared to ubisoft/EA etc..) so while ubisoft for example can forget about security and just count on the cash from people that buy the game anyway and not worrie about going out of buissnis the smaller companies have to think of any possible way of protecting their games.

All in all there is no reason for all that fustration and argument U pay for the game IF u want to SUPPORT the game devs for making a good game (as i think u all should in this case) on the other hand if u dont think the game is good u pirate it kill some time and delete.

That is the truth that certain companies need hammered into their thick skulls. 

    I think there needs to be a study to compare how much DRM costs a company to implement compared to the number of people that would have bought the game but didn't due to the DRM.  The problem would be traking down people who only have the DRM as the reason they didn't buy, regardless of if they decided to pirate the game as a result of the DRM, and would really have bought the game if it wasn't for DRM.  I suspect that the results would force companies to open their eyes.  Mostly because it would involve money, which is the only thing upper management at certain companies seems to care about.

However, it is easier to start up Impulse and click the update button for legitimate users than it is to track down a pirated version of SINS and torrent it.  Thus Impulse is a success as most people will take the easy way over a harder way every time.

The problem with Starforce was that it was a pain for legitimate users as well as pirates, which sets its value to around zero.  Heck, there was even a small article in PC Gamer about how Starforce and it is on the front page of boycot Starforce site, right under the video of Starforce rebooting a computer during a disk check.

Here is the article by the editor-in-chief of PC Gamer:

I don't believe that's the way they're looking it at it. It's not so much that they're saying only legitimate customers can update. It's that only legitimate customers can update from Stardock. I think they're well aware that pirates will eventually get it anyway. But Stardock's servers are open only to legitimate customers. Impulse does that.

The only thing extra you get when you buy the game legitimately is access to Ironclad Online, which is an online multiplayer lobby within the game itself. It is used mostly by people with no friends that have SoaSE or people with no friends period. You also get to download a convenient program that updates the game with one click.

I have a question though, why would I do this when the online player base for this game is a joke? I can log on during any time of the day and there's like 50 people online on average. Then I have to wait an hour for someone to host a game or if I host for someone to join. When I first bought the game there were even less people online with ICO.

The only time I ever play this game is when I have a friend or 2 come over and set up a LAN at my apartment. Then I can just install my SoaSE disc on as many computers as I want, update to 1.05 and play

The game is good but no one plays it online, so what is the point in even paying $50 for it like I did when it came out.

Instead of pirating the game because of the DRM, how about not pirating the game at all?!  Why is it that some people who feel slighted by a company feel it is acceptable to steal from them?

every time you pirate a game you are voting with your wallet for no patches to be made, for no sequels to be made, and for no similar games to be made.  Pirates are drowning the games they apparently prefer.

And pirating SOASE is so obviously self defeating for anti-DRM zealots that the notion that they are doing anything out of principle is laughable.  If Stardock fails the no-DRM model gets set back years at best, utterly discredited at worst.  Throwing out the baby with the bathwater only begins to describe it.

 P.S.

The original post makes no sense in a SOASE/Stardock 'Piracy does not matter' context. You paid your money, your friend paid his money, the method is irrelevant.  Just don't seed.

Irrelevent.  Pointing out the game industries bad behavoir to justify pirates bad behavior is childish.  Yes, vote with your wallet.  Yes, refuse to buy from companies who peddle in sub-standard games.  Just don't sink to their level to prove your point!  Otherwise, you're just like them!

Microsoft Points and similar schemes are actually a reasonable solution to problems of international currency exchange and international pricing and how that interacts with publishing. Customers shouldn't be so limited in the quantities they can purchase though, that part's silly.

i agree, i was VERY surprised to get an expansion for less than lunch, especially considering how much work they put into it.

i also have to say thats why i dont have Xbox live. ive never tried it, but i think its just another way for bill gates to line his pockets some more. also very upset with Bungie for selling out and screwing around playing with Halo 3 and especially 2 until 2 months before release and going, oh crap, we're making a game, we should start working...

ive said it many times before, really dont think Impulse is bad DRM. one of the worse cases ive had to deal with is installing and EA game off a disk and having to wait 2 months until i got internet to verify the game and THEN i could play it. for the last time, YOU DO NOT NEED IMPULSE TO PLAY SINS! only upgrade, but then you need the internet to upgrade anyway, and possibly a WinZip style program to unpack the upgrade or whatever, so id much rather Impulse, with all its other things like forums and auto-updating and news and game installs, than a stupid bloody website with file downloads

whats this horse armour stuff though?

I'd just like to (belatedly) toss in a comment here.  Impulse is pretty darn nice - IF IT WORKS.  For me, it does not and has not.  I've removed/uninstalled/erased/younameit more times than I care to mention in the past 4 months... I can NOT upgrade.  I've written to support - no response.  I've read the forums and tried everything i've seen there...

Something on my system - and I have no idea what - is messing with the upgrade process.  If I used windoze more, or even played SOSE more, I'd probably dig into it more..

On the other hand.. there's somethine inherently flawed with the software when an *automatic* upgrade fails.

You do have .net framework installed right?