iTZKooPA

Join Date 03/2005

Save Heroes of Might & Magic AGAIN!

Starforce on Beta probably means Starforce on Retail...

Update: Another user has received the following response from the SaveHeroes.org team:

From: Admin@saveheros.org

I am only going to state this once... get it to your "team".

We at SaveHeroes.org did not create our petition to stop development or inclusion of StarForce. We do not condone the invasive procedures used by StarForce, but that was never our intent, and WILL never become our intent. Please stop sending these emails to us. They fall on ears that are not interested in hearing the same thing over and over.

This is the third letter of this kind. Any more letters and I will have no choice but to proceed with legal remedies under the anti spam acts.

So it appears that they don't understand that a) we are asking for their support and

we are going after the same goal, making sure that the newest installment sells well. By the OVERWHELMING response to this post and the post running over Ubisoft's forums you can see that Starforce will definitely have an impact on sales.

End Update.

As many of you may have heard the people over at SaveHeroes.org managed to help get the newest Heroes of Might and Magic delayed in order to assure a successful relaunch of the franchise. While I was researching some information on the story I came across a few links detailing that the Beta of the game already had a copyright system, Starforce. Upon hearing this I began to worry, not because I was afraid the title was gonna suck, instead I was afraid the retail version would also have Starforce.

I am one of those people who not only hate malware, but who loves trying to get the most from his hardware. So the idea of installing one of the draconian DRM scheme to be able to play software that I legally own is appauling to me. So appauling in fact that I have joined the effort to boycott any title that uses the technology. Until now there was no big name title that I wanted to play that was enforcing the technology so I had no worries. Things have changed, and I plan on doing something about it.

Below is an e-mail that I sent over to admin@saveheroes.org in hopes of getting that community to stand up against Ubisoft again. If you feel the sameway I do about Starforce and DRM practices in general I would advise you to copy+paste (feel free to edit it if you wish) and send over your own copy to SaveHeroes.org. If anyone would like to join me in my cause an e-mail to Ubisoft directly should also be prepared incase the folks at SaveHeroes.org aren't interested in this new cause.

To Whom it May Concern,

First off I would like to congratulate the team at SaveHeroes.org for helping Ubisoft realize that the title needed more time. I have been a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise since the beginning and am happy that the new owner is willing to give the franchise the time it deserves to be developed. But there is a different problem with Ubisoft's approach to the franchise. The company has decided to release the game with the StarForce copyright protection system.

You may have heard something about the the use of StarForce since they have had a few bouts of bad press, most recently evidenced by the company linking to torrents of pirated copies of Galactic Civilizations II, and claiming that the developer WANTED people to pirate their product.

The reason I am writing to SaveHeroes.org is in hopes that you may once again rally the troops, this time against the use of Starforce. Although Starforce has been shown to be effective in stopping or slowing piracy it has also been shown to have detrimental affects to user's PCs, both software and hardware wise. With so many other 'good,' non-invasive DRM products available, including Securom, Ubisoft has no reason to stick with Starforce.

Many security and tech blogs, including the respected Boing Boing, have labeled the product as malware due to its invasive procedures. BoingBoing also has details, including screenshots of how this system can cause havoc to CD/DVD drives, rendering them useless. The products newest iterations even can have BIOS level access, effectively giving the company ABSOLUTE control over a user's machine.

During the initial push to save Heroes your community was formed because it was afraid that a bad installment of the franchise would doom it. With the use of Starforce, and the current boycott of any games that use the technology, a sluggish performance is still possible.

I implore SaveHeroes.org to at least look into the idea of starting another rally. For the Heroes community and for gamers around the world who want to stop being hampered by this kind of draconian technology. I for one am a boycotter of Starforce and will not buy the game if it is released this kind of protection scheme, even if it is a title or franchise that I love. As I said there are many other options out there for Ubisoft to use that don't have the same detrimental effects. It is also worth noting that Starforce is being investigated as part of the Sony/BMG Rootkit class action lawsuit. If the suit is found in favor of the people then Ubisoft and other companies that use the technology could lose millions.

You can find additional information on the topic at the Wikipedia entry and various other places on the Internet. I hope to hear back from you soon either way.

Thanks for your time,

-Name

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I will NOT buy Heroes if Starforce is used

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Feel the same way man, send over your email, it'll take you 5 minutes!

EDIT: They have asked us to STOP e-mailing them. Instead I will be e-mailing the individual fansites to see if they will help.

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Neither will I.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+367

Neither will I (please note mine is a personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Stardock or its various divisions).

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HOMM5 was the only other game I planned on buying this year. I will not buy it SOLELY because it uses Starforce. It is not worth it to put my computer at risk just to play a game.

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Ofcourse, I also don't trust Securom, but there are a million other copy protection schemes that they can use.

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There's $50 I'm gonna save. Not gonna buy any game that has Starforce in it. I HATE STARFORCE.

But what can you expect from a Russian company. They couldn't build subs that don't sink, they can't build planes that can't fly right and they can't write software. Sure, they created the AK assault rifle, great work there btw, but its because its a simple machine. Anything more complicated than basic math and they mess it up.

If anyone at Starforce is reading this, its Vessel, not Wessel.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

I will not even consider it if they use Starforce.

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HOMM5 was the only other game I planned on buying this year. I will not buy it SOLELY because it uses Starforce. It is not worth it to put my computer at risk just to play a game.

This is precisely what I was about to write. I have Civ IV, GalCiv II and I planned on adding HoMM to my gaming diet. No way now. The first two games are enough to keep me busy anyway, buts its a shame since I loved HoMM3.

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I personally don't buy any starforce games either -- anthing that installs 0th ring drivers and increases privelages of other processes is a rootkit in my opinion, pure and simple.

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I'm not buying it, either. Someone needs to get the word out to the HOMM fans so that none of them wind up having to buy a new computer just because they wanted to play their new game.

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they can't build planes that can't fly right

Those damn Ruskies!

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Well if you feel that strongly about it. Why not just download it AND buy it. You get the game, they get their money, and you don't have to deal with starforce...
It's win win.

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My note is on the way now. Will also try to contact Ubisoft. What a shame, since I loved the original HOMM series, especially HOMM3

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sorry guys but they dont care.

Here is the response I got from them.

From: Admin@saveheros.org

I am only going to state this once... get it to your "team".

We at SaveHeroes.org did not create our petition to stop development or inclusion of StarForce. We do not condone the invasive procedures used by StarForce, but that was never our intent, and WILL never become our intent. Please stop sending these emails to us. They fall on ears that are not interested in hearing the same thing over and over.

This is the third letter of this kind. Any more letters and I will have no choice but to proceed with legal remedies under the anti spam acts.

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This is the third letter of this kind. Any more letters and I will have no choice but to proceed with legal remedies under the anti spam acts.

LOL some people
I'm tempted to send this letter as well to him just to laugh at his lack of available recourse

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I don't understand that response. What's the point of "saving" a game only to have it trashed through the back door. Better to have in-your-face bugs than malware.

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Good luck getting Ubisoft to stop using Starforce. Seems like all their PC games use Starforce. Why oh why doesn't anyone follow the Stardock model? It's a win-win situation. We get lots of updates and ease of use, and Stardock gets a lot of people buying the game because of all the updates (and the game's pretty good to).

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I sent SaveHeroes.org a follow-up e-mail, lets see what they say. For the moment stop e-mailing them.

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Some stupid demo put starforce in my machine and I wasn't even aware of it until checking for the damn thing in the Device Manager due to my computer crashing and freezing. As I removed the s*#% today I had no problems anymore.

It was not something I read on the net or someone told me. It happened with me and my PC. Starcrap will cripple your machine if installed.

At least we all here and the readers of good technical sites know about it. What about people who will have their PCs raped by this malware, will have freezes and crashes and will never know what are happening because they don't know about StarForce?

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quote by phbbt107

I agree. Kudos to all the people who've been posting about this. I didn't realise HOMM was going to use Starforce. I've bought every Might and Magic title that's come out so far as well as all HOMM titles and all of their expansions and I loved them all. After finding out that this latest installment is being done by Ubisoft and that they apparently use Starforce on all their games I will be boycotting all Ubisoft products including the next HOMM. That makes me sad because I had really been looking forward to it. Oh well.

Ubisoft can take it's place next to Sony on my list of companies who's products I'm boycotting due to malware. In Sony's case, not only will I not buy music from them, I won't buy hardware from them either. Maybe eventually companies that do this sort of thing will realise that the negative impact to sales is greater than whatever they might get from former pirates that decide to buy legit copies.

Copy protection software has always been pretty pointless. It's a minor inconvenience to pirates. It just takes awhile for them to find a way to disable it and then it's no longer a nuisance to them. The real inconvenience goes to the legitimate customer.

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It's a win-win situation. We get lots of updates and ease of use, and Stardock gets a lot of people buying the game because of all the updates (and the game's pretty good to).

Unless you're the game developer, of course. And, after working to make your game, to make your little piece of videogaming art, you want to move on to something else. You know, like film makers, musicians and other artists.

You didn't see Da Vinci constantly revising the Mona Lisa long after it was "shipped", did you?

SaveHeroes.org has the right to ignore your request to use their power to change something that they don't see as terribly important in the grand scheme of things. They did what they did for the art of the game, to make sure that it would be a better game. Whether it has StarForce protection or not doesn't improve or unimprove the quality of the game itself.

If you want to organize people to get Ubi to remove StarForce protection from HMM, that's fine. But SaveHeroes.org and their powers (and the people they represent) are under no obligation to help you. And continuing to harass them on the subject isn't helping anyone.

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I know they have the reason to ignore me, I never pretended they didn't. Seeing as they had already organized the HoMM community I figured that they would be able to help me and all the other people who don't want the game to have Starforce get together. I was simply asking for their support, not demanding it, I am also entitled to do that.

We are not 'continuing to harass them' in any way. I have asked people to stop e-mailing them and after I e-mailed them again myself they actual gave me some useful information.

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Join Date 03/2001

+23

they can't build planes that can't fly right

They can build planes that can fly? Double negatives can be fun.

Anyway, starforce seem to be really crappy. I'm glad I don't buy much games nowdays.

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The theory behind most major copy protection is flawed. It is like selling nails that tell your hammer not to work if what you are nailing isn't deemed fit. We paid for our hammers, thanks, and we can do whatever we want with them. If we break the law, that is a problem for the police, not script kiddies pretending to be businessmen. I'm not interested in donating cash to people willing to zombify my computer to protect their IP.

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