What to do? I have just recieved this issue this morning and there apparently is no patch?
I just liked the fact that SD just Tech supported a pirate...... This is why I like SD, there one classy company.
your job of tracking down thieves is entitled Loss prevention !?.. How cute
They didn't. The pirate was not the original thread starter
He/she gave a really good reason to justify what he or she did. He/she waits until a game is working until she/he buys it.
It seems to me that it is much less ethical to release a game you know is so buggy it doesn't work while knowing people are not allowed to return it to the stores they purchase it from (due to special laws that the industry itself lobbied for) than it is to pirate the game until you are sure that it works.
I'm not saying two wrongs make a right, but if you are going to get upset about a wrong then at least be upset about the more serious of the two wrongs as well! [I am also not saying that piracy IS wrong---there have been arguments that it is illegal but not morally wrong. I present no opinion about that here.]
I would also ask people to consider what other industry they would accept this kind of behavior from. If you bought a GPS driving assistant and it is leaving 1/4 of the people who use it lost and not giving directions sufficient to get them un-lost, there would be outrage. If you paid to go see a movie and several times during the show you just saw a screen that said "scene not completed yet", you wouldn't accept that either. Who in their right mind would defend a company that released a TV that needed a patch before it can tune in odd numbered channels? Yet so many people think it is just fine for software companies to release incomplete products that it staggers the mind. There are plenty of very complicated products that require testing to get right which are not released until the kinks are worked out. Software isn't special. And we aren't talking about problems with this game that only occur on one out a thousand systems---these issues are pervasive, and it is impossible that Stardock didn't know this when releasing it.
If gaming companies continue to release software that doesn't have features that were promised or which just plain don't work AND if they are being sold in places that do not allow you to return titles that don't work, then it seems the industry has to expect that piracy would increase and recognize that the problem is largely of their own making. Whether piracy is morally justifiable or not, it is at least more understandable given the fact that many pieces of software don't work upon purchase and returns are impossible or take so long as to not be worth the effort.
Popinjay
Ive had endless trouble with this game and when my post of complaint was removed from the forum while being a hot topic i took it back to the store and got my money back. I doubt ill pay for anything stardock make again and i am also now screwing around with a pirate copy hoping that maybe they can somehow redeem themselves by producing something that works. Maybe ill buy it again in six months, maybe not.
First I didn't argue that it was morally justifiable, only that software companies often engage in unethical behavior that nobody seems to comment on and that this behavior results in more piracy.
Second, piracy is not theft it is copyright infringement. In a theft if a person has a piece of property stolen from her/him then that person doesn't have it any longer. In copyright violation nobody loses the item, but additional people have it without paying the right holder. Even if there is a loss of future profits this isn't the same thing as theft since other crimes (like vandalism) cost people money but are also not theft. There is a legal distinction between the two.
Thirdly, if you do believe it is theft then it is treated far too harshly. If somebody shoplifts a copy of a game they are likely only going to get a fine of a couple hundred dollars and virtually no jail time even in the worst case scenario. If a person is prosecuted for copying a game however they could get a $250,000 fine and 5 years in prison for each count.
Fourthly there is a distinction between the moral issue an the legal issue. For example, if a starving child shoplifted bread I would not say that she/he deserved punishment in any moral sense, though it was still against the law.
Finally, I am not using a pirated version of the game. In fact, I have not played it at all. I was checking to see if it was buggy because I was thinking about buying it and an acquaintance mentioned that she just started having a corrupt patch error (and I think this person bought the game). When I looked up the error I found this thread. Also the reasoning behind my claims is independent on whether or I am pirating, never pirate, or even never play video games.
I don't believe what I'm reading!
a ) One 'very smart' thief telling on official forum that he is using a pirated copy, and daring to complain because impulse has detected that it's not the correct version!
I'm used to thieves complaining on forums about bugs that are only due to their pirated copies, but they usually ar in-game bugs, not easilly recognisable for bugs due to piracy, but in this case, the reason of the message is obvious to everybody with a single neuron!
b ) other people complaining because a modified version of main .exe is not recognized as a proper one!
I know that the author of that patch did it for the best, and I greatly appreciate Stardock allowing him to make it public on their forum, now they tell us that they would change the impulse check to take in consideration this homemade .exe (a thing that no company in the world will EVER do!) and there is still people complaining??? Unbelievable!!!
Allow me to remind everyone that the thread starter is NOT the one who said he was playing a pirate copy, it was a follow up poster. I myself am having this same issue, because I used the fan-made .exe patch to correct the out-of-memory errors, and everything was great. I am not playing a pirate copy, I purchased directly from impulse, and I don't see the point of letting this thread degenerate into another piracy flame war. I'm not complaining about balance errors, or fps slowdowns, or lousy magic damage (there's a great fanmod that fixes the whole magic damage calc, I love it) I'm having a simple problem of NOT BEING ABLE TO COMPLETE A GAME. I understand DRM and profits and that's all good, but the simple fact is that this game was released with game-killing bugs, and the working fix has been disabled, without a countervailing fix. That really irritates me, personally. I just want to be able to play the game that I paid for. I'll wait happily for all the balance fixes and whatnot that people are complaining about, but bugs that crash the game should be hotfixed ASAP. Just my opinion, maybe other people like to pay for things they can't use, people do all kinds of wierd stuff.....
Considering whole 'we have no DRM!!' thing Brad was running here, this is totally believable. This IS yet another DRM.
Moreover, I see no reason why would not it let users use custom patches. What the hell? Players should have the right to do whatever they want with their copy. Esp. when game is advertised as modder's heaven.
LOL. This is priceless.
The game doing a self check to make sure it's correctly patched is now DRM? Oh the drama.
What's next? Car warning lights telling you there's something wrong with the car is a form of anti theft? Christ, I love this forum.
Indeed. Stardock has an unfortunate habit of attracting those who have been "touched by the Gods", as they say.
Maybe you missed the point, but it doesn't 'warn' you, it locks you out, refusing to start up. You cannot run modified exe anymore. And that totally qualifies as DRM.
It is/will be a multi player game. Obviously a hacked executable could be a serious problem in that context.
Do what I did and ask for a refund. I don't intend to wait for another couple of weeks for an update eliminating the performance bug. I bought the game to enjoy it right from the start and not in some foreseeable future. The product I bought is bascially not usable right now. When then fix, if they fix it, I'll consider buying it again.
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Your a loser, who the hell comes on the official forums and says he pirated their game? Complete moron.
If you would care to actually read the thread before going fanboy-rage again, you would notice that people complain that it suddenly stopped working with user-created OOM fix. You know, its the thing that lets people, who STILL get constant crashes, actually play the game they bought.
Hate to agree with Nenjin, but fanboism here definitely is insane.
a) I sincerely HOPE you aren't calling ME a thief, but since you've quoted my post I've reasons to assume you are. But I'll stick to my hopes.
We are complaining that a modified version of main .exe IS NECESSARY TO PLAY THE GAME WITHOUT CRASHING EVERY SINGLE MINUTE.
c) If you wanna call someone a thief, don't call the one that gave a multimilionary company a $ 45,00 loss. Instead call it the multimilionary company that made a profit of millions by luring thousands of fans into a really bad unfinished product.
If your actually capable of reading a whole paragraph before hurting your small brain you would know why im using a pirate copy at the moment and i feel quite justified doing it and as for posting on the forum i honestly couldnt give a rats ass what stardock do, go ahead and ban me at this point i dont care. They as a company have no respect from me anymore.
If Elemental is checking itself for cracks, pirated patches, or whatever, how can you call that anything other than Digital Rights Management?
Before you ban me, check my purchase history. I bought the damn game!!
I was *BANNED* yesterday for posting this exact same thing. As a legitimate *PAYING* customer I thought nothing of posting of my issue on the support forum. My post was summarily nuked and my account banned.
Worse, my mail to support@stardock.com got me the following non-response response:
"Bans are set by forum moderators based on their discretion. Bans will not be lifted, nor can they be disputed."
As a result, be *VERY* cautious if you have this error and are a legitimate user of Elemental. You will potentially be SQUASHED for doing nothing more dastardly than trying to fix the broken bill of sale we've received. What a wonderful topper to the crap I've had to deal with just to get this game to run and all the time I've spent on the forums, primarily on "what's wrong" and "how to fix".
Thanks for the flying kick to the nuts, Stardock.
Oh, and to be clear, I *WAS* a very loyal Stardock supporter for about the past 10 years (my forum account alone was nearly 10 years old) and have probably driven quite a few of my friends nuts with my frequent talking up of Elemental.
That day has passed.
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