I have been forced to pirate, and it makes me very angry

[spikeyjoey]

SO i purchased a legitimate, new, copy of Chaos theory from amazon.. it arrived today, but wont run on windows 7.... the easy option (right click compatibility mode) didnt work.. I was told to run the game in XP mode, but windows wont let me download that because my windows isnt fancy and needlessly expensive enough.... I researched this for about 20 minutes.. there are multiple results but no proper solutions..

So Im left with no option but to torrent a game I goddamn payed for - exposing myself to virus' and such, and I am really not happy about it.. It is ignorance of the highest order on behalf of Ubisoft

Apparantly it has something to do with the programme "Starfox", which is an anti piracy programme.......

Punishing legitimate consumers is not the way forward, and it has driven me into a Jimquisition style rage...

 

[Seishisha]

Admin mode also fixes alot of issues, this is the first time ive ever heard somone saying they have to download the xp compatability mode though, i thought that was a starndard feature of all windows 7 editions, unless im simply miss reading somthing somwhere.

 

[spikeyjoey]

Starforce. DON'T EVER BLAME STARFOX

What do you mean by not working? Does it install but not launch or what?

lol, sorry

well its installed, i go to launch it and it says it can only be launched with a version of windows 95/98/2000/xp ...

 

[spikeyjoey]

...Download compatibility mode?

What kind of weird version of Windows 7 are you running?

basic windows 7 home premium...

what compatibility mode? as i said i did some research, and apparantly there is a "run in xp" mode on windows 7, which theoretically should work, but I cant get "run in xp" mode..

(nice avatar btw )

 

[Jynthor]

You will most certainly burn in hell for all eternity now. Piracy is evil.

 

[Seishisha]

basic windows 7 home premium...

what compatibility mode? as i said i did some research, and apparantly there is a "run in xp" mode on windows 7, which theoretically should work, but I cant get "run in xp" mode..

(nice avatar btw )

Odd im also running windows 7 home premium, and i have no problem enabling compatability mode, just right click on the game icon/shortcut goto properties, then the compatability tab and its like the first tick box you come to run progam in ... with a drop down letting you select xp, 2000 etc. The fact that you can't enable it just baffles me.

 

[Tallim]

Starforce is evil . I've refused to buy games that had it despite wanting them as I've had some really bad experiences with that.

 

[mad825]

...
...
It works fine for me on Win7 pro x64. And I forgot to add compatibility mode and run as admin...Just download a crack.

 

[rob_simple]

I had this same problem many moons ago trying to run Carmageddon 2 on a new machine. I owned a copy of the game but no matter how many different ways I tried to run it it just wouldn't boot.

Eventually I found a message on the publishers site saying they were aware the game was incompatible with newer systems but they had no plans to patch it. After ten minutes of searching I found a torrent of it and it worked perfectly. Thanks a lot, dickheads.

The moral of the story is while I don't agree with piracy it saddens me that they're better at customer care than alot of publishers are.

 

[sethisjimmy]

That's unfortunate for you, but I don't really see how it's Ubisoft's fault. Sure if they had locked you out of your own game with DRM, it'd be their fault, but it's not their fault that you can't get the game running when you bought it knowing the specs. It clearly states the game can only run on XP or lower, because it is an older game, and you took the risk buying it, I don't see how they are at fault. This isn't an example of "punishing" customers, this is just an example of you not knowing how to get the game to work with your operating system, in my eyes.

 

[jklinders]

Starforce is almost the worst DRM I have ever heard of. I thought that crap was discontinued. There really aught to be a disclaimer on the box, "this product uses Starforce, only open if you want misery" as a disclaimer. I can get it to work...most of the time but it is a pain in the ass.

 

[raklin]

Starforce is almost the worst DRM I have ever heard of. I thought that crap was discontinued. There really aught to be a disclaimer on the box, "this product uses Starforce, only open if you want misery" as a disclaimer. I can get it to work...most of the time but it is a pain in the ass.

See, that is why I love PC Gamer magazine - in their reviews, they also have a separate little box to warn you of the DRM.

DRM like this and SECUROM have undoubtedly made many formally loyal customers into card carrying members of the Pirate Party. I'd state my personal views on the matter, but I understand that doing so can earn you the ever-so-soft touch of an Admin

As for the Being forced into piracy... Well, it's not your fault they're punishing paying customers. Maybe one day they'll realize that the current model is hideously flawed and doing no one, asides from Crackers, any favors.

 

[LetalisK]

I've always had the biggest issues with Ubisoft games. I still have yet to play Chaos Theory because, even though I bought the game, that bullshit DRM made it unplayable.

 

[Truehare]

I had this same problem many moons ago trying to run Carmageddon 2 on a new machine. I owned a copy of the game but no matter how many different ways I tried to run it it just wouldn't boot.

Eventually I found a message on the publishers site saying they were aware the game was incompatible with newer systems but they had no plans to patch it. After ten minutes of searching I found a torrent of it and it worked perfectly. Thanks a lot, dickheads.

The moral of the story is while I don't agree with piracy it saddens me that they're better at customer care than alot of publishers are.

Yeah, that has always baffled me. If it's so much trouble to patch a game to work on newer systems, how can pirates do it so effortlessly? I know they usually do it for the hell of it, and the developers probably have other priorities than giving support to an ancient game; but really, how hard would it be to make your customers happy and avoid having them resort to piracy to solve their problem? It's just stupid, the way I see it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

OP, are you sure it's the DRM that's doing this? Usually if you need XP mode to get something to work, it's because it's a 16 bit program. If the game or the installer is 16 bit, downloading a pirated version won't help. However, if it is the installer, you might be able to find a fanmade installer to get around the problem. What I'm asking here is, what game is it? Because it doesn't sound like a DRM problem.

Edit: Derp, you said the title in the OP. Give me a minute to look the problem up.

Edit Edit: Okay, I looked it up. It is the DRM, but you don't need to download a full blown pirated version; what you need is the patches the pirates use to get around the DRM. These are distributed separately even if you torrent the thing, and they'll work with a legit copy, so there's no need to fire up bit torrent. Just look up the appropriate cracks, download, and enjoy. Since you paid for the darned thing, I don't see why the mods would have an issue with me telling you to do that.