There's probably a valid key for at least every thousand or so generated. At least one. I mean there are only a few million copies of half life floating around, and only a few hundred thousand are registered with Steam.

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okay then, the most obvious answer would be to reverse-engineer the program to disable or bypass key checking in the first place.

If there's anything that all of these uber-security systems have shown us in the past, it is that nothing is uncrackable.

[edit]

I also have a good idea: what happens if oyu lose your cd key? can you call steam and get another one? If that is the case, then you can pirate the game, call steam, and bulls*** them into giving oyu a valid cd key by telling them you lost yours.

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I have found that you can transform your character solely by the power of belief: as you believe yourself to be, so you shall become over time.



[This message has been edited by Pagewizard_YKS (edited July 24, 2004).]

And you're a perfect example of "can't comprehend a simple post".

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[This message has been edited by Wookie06 (edited July 24, 2004).]

game publishers: All your cash are belong to us.

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Prowling out of the tundra, swinging a jeweled meat hammer, cometh Outlaw Torn! And he gives a gutteral bellow:

"I'm seriously going to hump you until you scream like a banshee!"

Mind backing up your bull**** with facts?

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How about pointing you to Spiral's computer thread where you never properly read a damn thing I said to you?

I'm with the Wookie

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When guitars are outlawed, only outlaws will have guitars.

[This message has been edited by MaD CoW (edited July 24, 2004).]

Sure.

Fact 1 - I asked questions in my post. I wasn't talking in the sense of making points.

Fact 2 - You said I didn't know what the F I was TALKING about and then called me ignorant for asking questions.

Fact 3 - I did say "Odd" and I did think it abit odd until [see Fact 4]

Fact 4 - At this point you were at least nice enough to address the actual questions I asked. I just think your personal comments about me were uncalled for.

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[This message has been edited by Wookie06 (edited July 24, 2004).]

I read everything more than properly. He never specified. Like I said, back it up with facts not opinions. And stop hiding behind that frelling GBK picture for chrissakes. You look like enough of an idiot already, you don't need to post a 'STFU' picture everytime someone says something you don't like.

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Screw it, sick of arguing with people that'll never change their minds.

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[This message has been edited by Dj Yoshi (edited July 24, 2004).]

I have a hell of a hard time believing you.





Where did I say that I thought the 9600XT would be able to play U3? For ****'s sake, everyone knows the 6800 was the first card to render the game at playable framerates.





I think that perfectly states that he had already bought the computer. I don't know why you think he had only bought the processor.

And thanks for calling me an idiot. I'll remember to return the favour sometime. As for the GBK STFU pic, don't diss it. I've only shown it in cases of supreme idiocy. Consider yourself priviledged in the fact that I posted it for you.

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When guitars are outlawed, only outlaws will have guitars.

How about you change your mind and stop arguing like an idiot when someone points out that you made a mistake?

[edit] I guess it didn't take too long for me to return the favour, eh?

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When guitars are outlawed, only outlaws will have guitars.

[This message has been edited by MaD CoW (edited July 24, 2004).]

I sincerely apologize for my ignorance and will ensure that I fully read all threads and ponder each individual post before posting in any thread. I greatly appreciate your mentorship and patience in this critically important matter and once again extend my deepest apologies to you and anyone else in the community for whom I may have offended.

edit - damn, it's no fun now. He edited his other flame towards me! DJ Yoshi, you have serious problems. I took issue with how you "spoke" of me. I made no arguments. I actually infered that something you posted influenced my view. Of course this is merely an internet forum and civility is more a courtesy than anything else but flaming people, especially when they (read "I") haven't even posted an opinion is childish at best.

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[This message has been edited by Wookie06 (edited July 24, 2004).]

In all seriousness, I would like to apologize for the role I played in this thread's spiral into yet another flame war.

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But after that outburst we'll never be able to tell if you're being serious or sarcastic again.

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"Look at me! I'm Tracer! BLAHBLAHBLAH!"

-MBeggar

It would have made sense if DJ Yoshi hadn't edited his response to me. He chastised me for not reading and pondering all of the posts and then said something about wishing there was a way to set Firefox to filter people out like me. I should have quoted it. Oh well. I really am sorry for the degeneration of this thread. I should have just ignored his post all together.

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I have clonecd installed (I use it for monster rancher subcodes to get monsters) and i did not think it could do that.

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Those silly bullets have minds of their own!
Jon`C:Irony is spelling 'quality' poorly.
Spork:Well I think 'Irony is spelling grammar poorly'
Snail racing: (500 posts per line)--@%

you don't have a job I take it.

If you do, than please catch up, we are in the 21st century while you are still in the early 20th.


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Those silly bullets have minds of their own!
Jon`C:Irony is spelling 'quality' poorly.
Spork:Well I think 'Irony is spelling grammar poorly'
Snail racing: (500 posts per line)--@%

Congrats on admin Tracer

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People steal games because they don't want to pay for them, that's the simple logic. There's no key codes involved. It's just a lack of respect to the company. I think pirating games is the worst thing imaginable, for stealing. Most other things don't take half as much work as most software does. It's sad how much designer clothes make on their products, and how inexpensive, and easy it is for them to make. They literally spend a couple 1000 dollars and an entire factory of asians spit out a billion shirts that they sell each for 60 dollars and make 60 billion off of it. Game producers actually work for their paychecks. Long hours coding, modeling, animating. It's not like they push a few buttons and out pops a game.

JediKirby

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jEDIkIRBY - Putting the Romance back into Necromancer.
Proud Leader of the Minnessassian Council

Live on, Adam.

Well, the one thing I've recently learned (from other's experiences, not mine) is apparently many of these games employ tactics such as not functioning if you have certain software, software apparently used mostly for copying other software, installed. Although I understand the software developers need to try to counter piracy it is obvious that the only ones affected by anti-piracy measures are the few people that don't pirate games yet have certain programs installed.

Still, those who steal games and then justify it because they're "unplayable" are still just as guilty as anyone else. They just feel justified for some reason. At least it seems that way.

See, I'm no saint. I download certain things. However I don't try to justify it. If you buy a game and it doesn't work, it's easier to download a crack than to download the entire ripped contents. To carry it further you could download an entire game as well as pay for it and be just as legit. There really is no valid argument to be made for stealing a game. If you do it, fine. If you feel the need to justify in your own mind, fine. Just don't expect your reasons to carry any weight in the "real" world.

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Wookie--we have this wonderful thing called an OPINION. Please, read up on it.

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We also have this wonderful thing called CONVERSATION. If you have a point to make go ahead and make it.

I would like to say that I totally understand that many people feel that copy protection does more harm to legit users than those who are going to steal the games anyway. However, even if you feel that way using that as an excuse to steal the games doesn't make it any less of a theft. It just gives people the justification they feel they need.

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Technically it's not theft but copyright infringement since you're not actually removing the game from the original owner.

Downloading games is wrong, yes. However, there are more and more reasons that people do download games. One, which has already been mentioned is the stupidly annoying copy protection systems (e.g. Starforce which is essentially spyware). I installed X2 and it scanned the cd for thirty seconds before letting you play! The thing even had a progress bar. Talk about unnecessary. I got a crack for that simply because of the annoyance factor of it.

Secondly, more and more buggy, half-assed games are getting onto the shelves. 6 years ago you could by a game and 99.9% of the time you could install it then play it. Now, it seems, More often than not you need some kind of patch to fix a problem you're having and are resigned to spending time downloading huge files from the net anyway.

Thirdly, Games are very expensive, most arent worth the release price (About £40 here). There are some games which I have bought and thought to myself "That's a well spent £40". Such as UT2k4 or GTA Vice City. Then there are others.. like CoD which was a waste of money IMO, well maybe it'd have been worth it if i diddnt already own Moh:AA. Then there are games which are so similar to other games (I mean look at how many RTS games are almost identical to one another, also FPS' there are some really similar ones.)

I'd add more but it's 2AM and i've ranted enough.

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WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF PEANUT!
----@%

While copyright infringement and stealing may be technically different, they are essentially the same.

Like I said in the past, I'm not making any judgement. It's just clear that some people are attempting to justify their copyright infringement. If that's what you want to do, fine. Just don't think there is any justification.

For example, I download (or attempt to) films from a certain director. I then freely distribute them in the file sharing program of my choice. I do so because I believe that director is an *** and anything that I can do to help seperate him from any profits he might get from his material I gladly partake in. I could cite reasons that he should not profit but the fact is that I am assisting in "stealing" whatever I can from him by (hopefully) depriving him of profits. At the same time I'm spreading his work so I could be harming my own cause but, pfft. Whatever. I can't justify my crimes and neither can anyone here that "steals" games.

We commit crimes because we choose to. There is NO other reason.

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personally I think that if you buy a game, you should be able to install and play LAN MP on as many machines as you want with no CD, online and SP however, should use at least some kinda check just to prevent the actual person that bought the game from being blocked from online play.

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"Ahhhh!! I'm Burnin'! I'm Burnin!!!" - Cleaner from Max Payne 2

Blizzard used to allow MP similar to how you suggest. I don't think I agree that you should be able to LAN play on as many machines as you want for free. I think it's feasible to offer a substantially reduced license for such purpose though.

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