Guest $iLk Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Slashdot Discussion Posted by simoniker on Sat Jun 12, '04 02:05 AM from the ire-and-brimstone dept. Encryption PC Games (Games) Games Ant writes "According to a thread on the Rage3D boards, and another on The Adventure Company's site, the copy protection system StarForce, as used in PC videogames including Toca Race Driver 2, Traitor's Gate 2 and Broken Sword 3, is installed on a user's PC without proper explanation, and doesn't get removed on many uninstalls - some users report difficulty in keeping their systems stable due to conflicts, and think they've tracked it down to the StarForce protection." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 It is complete nonsense. StarForce - all versions - have drivers. Just like any other program that you can install and which has drivers. So, no notification is required. Apart from that, there are Starforce removal tools on their website as well as ALL OVER the Net. These are just alarmists (probably pirates) who are just pissed that SF actually works. In fact, has ANYONE here had ANY problem on their system related to to UCAWA using SF ProActive (which also uses drivers?). Nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Prezioso Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 Well, for what it is worth, a tool was made by the people who make Starforce to remove drivers that might be left on after an uninstall. Link: http://www.onlinesecurity-on.com/protect.phtml?c=55 Hopefully this will put peoples' minds to rest. Edit: Consequently, if you run it with a Starforce enabled game installed on your machine, any drivers removed are re-installed the next time you run the program, so you can't hurt anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamotto Posted September 26, 2005 Report Share Posted September 26, 2005 I don't have a major problem with game publishersdevelopers including copy protection in their software, however I do expect when I run the uninstall program that it does exactly that, uninstall everything that it installed including the copy protection. In my own opionion I should not have to search the internet for a program to remove the program that should have already been removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest $iLk Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 Cuts both ways. I know more than one person who swears off any game using it. I'm undecided myself. It hasn't caused me any problems so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkling Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 One of my companies does tech support, and I don't think I've ever had someone call about copy protection ruining their rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Cmdr Posted September 27, 2005 Report Share Posted September 27, 2005 quote:Originally posted by jamotto: I don't have a major problem with game publishersdevelopers including copy protection in their software, however I do expect when I run the uninstall program that it does exactly that, uninstall everything that it installed including the copy protection. In my own opionion I should not have to search the internet for a program to remove the program that should have already been removed. The problem is that even though Starforce advises the devs to include the driver removal in their game uninstall program, most NEVER do it. For whatever reason. The result is that when you uninstall the game, the SF drivers remain on the system and can only be removed using the SAME tool (linked to above) that SF provides to the devs. I don't include the SF driver uninstall in the UCAWA uninstall program either. Why? Because I have no way of knowing if another game requires them or not. So, I leave it up to the user to remove it themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamotto Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: The problem is that even though Starforce advises the devs to include the driver removal in their game uninstall program, most NEVER do it.Which is why if people are angry about it they should be contacting the developer, not the makers of the copy protection software. quote: I don't include the SF driver uninstall in the UCAWA uninstall program either. Why? Because I have no way of knowing if another game requires them or not. So, I leave it up to the user to remove it themselves.To my knowledge if you use the tool to remove the SF driver, when you go and run a different StarForce protected game, the game automatically reinstalls the SF driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrivener Posted September 30, 2005 Report Share Posted September 30, 2005 When Starforce was first used (I forget which game. But it was before Soldiers: HoWW2) it physically damaged my dvd-rom as a result of their stealth drivers dictating optical drive functionality. At first I replaced the drive with the same model from Frys, oblivious to the cause, but right after I did so I couldn't play my games. The tech line said I had to reinstall said games and - wham - the new drive died too. Armed with this new information I bought a different brand drive and havn't had any problems since. Still, I wanted to send the bill to the jerks at Starforce for putting me through that crap. Since then, I've had more problems with the latest version of SecuROM, which has been causing some of my games to crash. At least Starforce *works.* On that note, I'm still vehemently opposed to any and all copy protection PERIOD - at least until Steam gets more stable (I rather like the concepts behind Steam). Ultimately it only hurts the legitimate users and there's no two-ways about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostInSpace Posted January 13, 2006 Report Share Posted January 13, 2006 quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: In fact, has ANYONE here had ANY problem on their system related to to UCAWA using SF ProActive (which also uses drivers?). Nope. In fact Starforce is saying the same thing. They even have a contest worth $5000 to anyone that can prove it was Starforce that broke their hardware. "Prove it!" and receive $5000 from StarForce! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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