I love computer games, especially some of the more innovative ones which offer
a great deal of customization and are incredible electronic toys. What I hate,
however, are most of the game companies.
While other software companies saw the light years ago, the game industry still
considers its paying customers to be its worst enemy and so goes to great lengths
to copy protect its wares. Most games I buy these days require a game CD to
be in the CD drive while the game is playing.
Of course the copy protection does nothing to stop pirates — usually cracks
of the copy protection schemes appear on the Internet within a day or two of
the commerical release of a game. Moreover, not only do I have to constantly
hunt for the CD when I want to play a game, but sometimes the copy protection
renders the game unplayable. For example, I just bought Diablo II and its copy
protection scheme does not work on a wide range of recent DVD and CD players,
including mine. There is nothing like spending $50 for a game and then spending
another four or five hours trying to get the game to authenticate the CD.
Fortunately, as I said, cracks are available on the Internet at a variety of
sites. I went to GameCopyWorld.Com
to get a crack for Diablo II that let me play the game without the CD. Unfortunately,
the crack is not compatible with the online version, but it is better than staring
at a $50 set of coasters.