Well, the tumor that is DRM is malignant now.
I've been boycotting EA games for a while now due to DRM - I would have bought Crysis Warhead and actually had a pre-order up for Red Alert 3 (I was a Beta Tester for it) but revoked the pre-order upon learning of the Securom on it.
And now, add Far Cry 2 to the list. And everything Ubisoft makes until it stops releasing computer games with DRM like this attached. The wonderful thing is, each of these games which has lost a sale has gained a sale for a company that respects me as a consumer, instead of fears me as a POTENTIAL criminal.
Red Alert 3 -> Demigod Pre-Order, Stardock Entertainment
Crysis Warhead -> Left4Dead Pre-Order, Valve
and now Far Cry 2 -> Fallout 3 Pre-Order, Bethsheda Softworks
It is good to know in a world full of EA and Ubisoft, there are still good companies that will treat me as a consumer and a customer.
I tip my hat to the companies, and more than that - I reward them now, with my business.
The problem with "buying the game then cracking it" concept is that you still get Securom or other DRM installed on your machine, and it can still interfere with the proper operation of your computer regardless of whether you have cracked the offending game or not.
As I said, Securom prevented me from making backup discs of the Last Stand mod... if anything had gone wrong with my hard drive I might have lost two months of work, and difficult to reconstruct work I might add. There is simply no excuse for such invasive software to be bundled with games, and I personally would not condone the use of such draconian DRM measures by giving the said companies my money.
A bigger drawback is you're giving money to the publishers that insist on using this DRM and basically telling them you're okay with it, so they have no incentive to stop using it.
Mistralok, from what I understand the Creature Creator also had the same SecuROM DRM on it, so it's likely that's where you first picked it up. As for removing it, here's some instructions I found (from the BioShock forums):
* Step 1: Uninstall Bioshock.* Step 2: Remove the Securom registry entries.The Securom registry entries are deliberately made non-removable by default. In order to remove them download the RegDeNull.mspx RegDelNull registry editing utility from Microsoft and install it on your C partition.Run the following two commands from a Windows command prompt: "C:\regdelnull HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SecuROM -s" and "C:\regdelnull HKEY_USERS\<Computer specific key>\Software\SecuROM -s" where "<Computer specific key>" can be determined by searching the registry for the "Securom" directory key. This "<Computer specific key>" typically has a form like "S-1-5-21-2052111302-1757341266-724545543-500". Once these two RegDelNull commands have been successfully issued the registry should be checked to confirm that these two keys have been deleted. If they are still present they will now be removeable due to the action of the RegDelNull utility.* Step 3: Removal of the Securom service and related utilities.Open a Windows command prompt and change directory to "c:\windows\system32". Type "uaservice7 /remove". This will stop the Securom user access service, and clean up its relevant registry entries. On the Windows command prompt type "regsvr32 /u cmdlineext.dll". Reboot and then manually delete the files "uaservice7.exe" and "cmdlineext.dll" from "c:\windows\system32". Note: Both of these files are Securom installed files which can be verified by checking their file properties (Right click - Properties).* Step 4: Removal of Securom files under "C:\Documents and Settings".Securom installs a hidden directory with 6 files under "C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom". The first 4 ordinary text files can simply be manually deleted once Windows explorer has been configured to show hidden files and folders. The two remaining malformed nominally unremoveable files require a special method to delete: Invoke a Windows command prompt with full Administrator privileges by typing the following into a Windows command prompt: "at <your current time + 1 minute> /interactive %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe" e.g. "at 9:02pm /interactive %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe". This will open a new Administrator command line when the time set has been attained. In this new command prompt change directory into the Securom folder e.g. "cd C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom". Issue the following command to show the two remaining hidden malformed files: "dir /A". To delete the two remaining hidden malformed files issue the following command: "del /F /AH *". Confirm "yes" for each of the two file deletions of the malformed files. Finally, the directory "C:\Documents and Settings\<Your Administrator name>\Application Data\Securom" can be deleted as per normal practice from within Windows explorer.
FYI, the SecuROM site offers a removal tool:
http://www.securom.com/support_faq.asp
Check #37. From reports, it removes absolutely everything even though it says it doesn't remove license info.
Aye, I heard about this as well, Annatar, but reports I've seen indicated it didn't get rid of everything. I guess the best way to go about it is to use the tool and see if anything's left. If not, you're golden. If so, then you'll have to do it the hard way.
Lets see.
SecuRom installs: without a warning or agreement with the user.
It hides itself from the user.
It makes itself exceedingly difficult to remove.
It gains control over parts of a user's system.
It disables the user's hardware and software.
It has highly adverse implications for performance and security of a user's system.
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and tastes like a duck, it is a duck.
SecuRom is a virus.
So from what I can tell, anything by EA, Ubisoft or Epic is no longer kosher. Is there any other companies I need to avoid, I only ask because the last game purchase I made was Sins, and have since been too poor to afford anything else.
Now that I have money again, what is safe to put on my computer?
Until then, its Sins and STALKER (with the awesome /v/ modpack).
Stalker? Please tell me you don't have Clear Sky.
Clear Sky has Starforce, the only DRM worse than SecuRom, on it.
"Everyone should know that any hardware changes prompt the game to re-activate and there is a limit per key for activations. Uninstalling does not revoke the key. OS changes will also trigger the need for a re-activation. So basically if you change hardware or reinstall ~5 times you will now need to get the key unlocked or a new one issued - to which GSC and Valve keep referring you to the other with neither company doing anything to resolve it. " - Regarding StarForce on Stalker: Clear Sky
For my two cents, I recommend you see if either Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Gal Civ II (if you dont have it and it's expansions), DemiGod - strike you as interesting.
As far as I know, STALKER actually uses SecuROM, but I don't think it has installation limits.
Edit: Or I was wrong!
Keep in mind that DRM isn't to completely stop hardcore pirates - there's no stopping them short of creating a great online experience tied to cd-keys.
The reason for all the DRM is to
1) stop casual piracy
2) stop second hand sales
3) try to stave off the inevitable hardcore pirates as long as possible (ideally for the first week after release)
Most games fail the third point - especially big name titles. With the new type of securom (the one with the online activation), it basically fulfills #2. #1 can honestly be stopped by even just a CD-key.
The Customers that gravitate to stardock are not mainstream consumers. YOU are NOT the type of people these big companies are targetting. Yes, I agree it's short sighted of them - and by constantly slapping on hard DRM, they have no idea how their sales would be if they embrace the consumer instead. I wish they'd release a AAA game as an experiment with very minimal DRM. That way, (hopefully) a lot of gamers would buy that game to show their support of the potential policy change.
But realistically, you know that's not going to happen. In terms of mainstream games, if you let people easily pirate it, they probably will.
For stardock, their minimal-drm policy works because they essentially have a grassroots movement with you guys. They have a lot of loving fans who are tech-savvy enough to know what drm is, why it's bad, and why they should support the company. However, I don't believe their philosphy will scale well into the mainstream.
Yep. The insidious part of this is the fact that the *free* version did not have it. Since the free version didn't have it, I assumed the full $10 version would not also. Silly me.
@Annatar11: Thanks for pointing this out to me. I'll try it when I get home tonight. Though given the blatant lies on that site, I have my doubts.
@Coelocanth: Thanks to you also. I have gotten rid of most of it manually. There a couple of hidden files which I can see but can't access. This looks like just the thing. BTW, I agree with you wholeheartedly, the only way to get through to these companies is to cut off the flow of money.
Anyone have any dealings with Bethesda? Fallout 3 looks interesting, and I would like to know if you consider them one of the good guys.
Fallout 3 only requires the disk - it's one of the games I moved my preorder money to.
Should have made it clear, I have STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, and its a pirate. I have only really bought games from Stardock, Valve, and Creative Assembly.
Fallout 3 isn't shipping with mod tools, and may never have them, which is reason enough to ignore it in my opinion.
It runs on the same system as TESIV, a file system the modding community understands. Worst case, Bethsoft doesn't release mod tools (I'm pretty sure they will, as it promotes a second sale when a console gamer gets it for his pc for mods, and further sales for those only interested in mods) and we build a community mod tool off the TES Construction Set.
Sweet. I'm down with the disk. Combine this with Stardock's one time registration, and updates through Impulse, and we may have something that could work.
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