Starforce and its repercussions

[Blarg]

I'm not asking for technical help here, and this is an issue that involves anyone who uses computers(everybody here), and is in a way an issue about business and art and a social issue, so I didn't put this in the computer forum -- it's not a request for aid and is not that delimited an issue. I hope the mods agree it's fair fodder for OOT discussion.

I've been reading about Starforce, the game encryption/anti-hack software that installs with many games these days and has been noted to cause a number of problems, including system slowdowns and inability of CD/DVD writers to write after installation(the program is said to seek out and disable common writing programs like NERO), permanently disable various components, necessitate complete reformats, etc.

I play poker on this computer and do not want it to go up in smoke, so am wondering if playing games is too dicey a proposition in the future because of things like Starforce. I've been reading some threads on it this morning. Check this out, from one of them:

[ QUOTE ]
Hello,

I will keep this short and to the point. I own two two dozen Lan Game/Internet cafe type busineses in 6 major cities in Australia. Last month I purchased over 600 copies of 12 new game titles for all of my local's. This as one might guess isnt a cheap opperation as the capital upfront is rather large. That aside a few of these titles did indeed contain starforce protection, I thought the following statistics would be interesting to those within starforce:

-81 broken dvd burner drives (almost a 1 in 7 chance)
-32 broken hdds (almost a 1 in 19 chance)
-91 OS reinstalls (almost a 1 in 6 chance)
-3956 hours of payed time to fix/resolve said issues.

In total installing your games has almost crippled my whole business with a whopping cost of nearly $200,000 ($197,650 AU if you wish to get picky) lost within a single month.

I would like to thank your service, or rather lack there of, for totaly refusing to help me in any way possible and treating me like a insolent child.

You might expect to get away with single end users who only dig up a game or two of yours and have only forked out $200 dollars, however you have burned me - a small businessman who swings a lot of clout within the country I live in.

I am puzzled and perplexed as to how you forsee your business progressing in the future with such blatent problems with your product. Do you realise that you are walking the path of many failed "bubble burst" companies?

After recieving a written appology from UBI soft, followed up by a invitation to meet their regional manager to discuss compensation for the damage done by the installation of your product on their games I do suspect that you will have to change your ways else face a rather swift "death" so to speak.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's from the last page of this thread, created by the guys behind Heroes of Might and Magic V, a title I was previously considering buying but now probably won't. It's numbers have been called into question.

There's an interesting and surprisingly intelligent, for web forums and game forums in particular, discussion about Starforce and its effects on users' systems, here:

Here's the URL for the quote provided:
HOMM discussion and complaint

Here are some on-topic links:

Root kits and their surreptitious installation on your computer

The mouse that roared

response that made things worse not better

discussion between editors, etc. in response

piracy article

Me, I love paying for games. Seriously. A good PC game gives an almost unholy amount of value for the dollar, giving countless hours of entertainment that makes the real per hour cost of any game incredibly trivial. Paying for games means the designers and publishers who bring out the games you like are encouraged to keep up the product, paid well for what they already did, and encouraged to produce more. I couldn't be more all for it, especially since game companies bust apart all the time.

However, I don't want my system to explode, even the chance is small.

Does anyone worry about this like I do, or have this kind of problem with any game they bought? I almost never buy games these days, but now I'm wondering if I ever should again.

[Spaded]

For a laugh, read their tech support forums.

They have some obnoxious tech support guys. I believe that all of them are russian, so their english is not so good... but neither are their manners.

Quote: JimmiG needing help: [ QUOTE ]
Hi. I have a Samsung DVDRW drive and just installed X3 Reunion which is protected by Starforce. Now, when I press the eject button, the discs won't always stop spinning before they eject. They are still spinning, rubbing against the tray at great speed as it ejects, causing scratches on the disc. This never happened before.

[/ QUOTE ]

Reply: [ QUOTE ]
lol JimmiG
[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Its hard for me to explain you why this is not SF... may be others do?

[/ QUOTE ]

What honest tech-support guy responds to a serious problem with "LOL"??

[Blarg]

D'oh! A dodge of responsibility is typical from all tech support, but getting a laugh out of your customer's property destruction ain't the coolest way of going about things.

[asofel]

i haven't looked into this, but wtf is this program doing?? how is it affecting the hardware this badly?

[NutzyClutz]

Run the removal tool (google starfoce removal).
I wouldn't touch this thing.
TOo bad games don't tell you before you buy. Although there is a site out there that lists starfoce games.
However most of the games ones do tell you during installation and give option to stop.

[Blarg]

Check out the threads. It installs its own drivers, and that can mess up your drivers for other things, typically sound cards and DVD/CD players/writers. It installs itself like a trojan and hides itself, and apparently it can result in anything from system slowdowns to some pretty serious and damaging problems even when the software you installed it with isn't running.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Run the removal tool (google starfoce removal).
I wouldn't touch this thing.
TOo bad games don't tell you before you buy. Although there is a site out there that lists starfoce games.
However most of the games ones do tell you during installation and give option to stop.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unfortunately by that time you've already opened the box and it is non-returnable.

If you have the link of Starforce games, I'd appreciate it. I was wondering if there was a list of them.

[Spaded]

Programs that install software to your computer without your consent are supposedly illegal in the USA, but not in Europe, where starforce built up a following before heading overseas. Starforce is typically used on budget titles like edutainment (they say so on their wesite), probably because publishers know that the mainstream PC gaming public is aware of the problems that starforce creates. If starforce were relased on a major title, like The Sims, there would be a major backlash at the publisher and they might lose business.

[Blarg]

UbiSoft is using it and has put it on several mainstream games. Sony has been doing something similar, with their own version of copy protection installing malware.

[Blarg]

Here's a list of known Starforce games, as well as a sobering list of all the publishers known to have used it.

Starforced games