Like I said, nuff said. Groove, you, or anybody else in this thread are more than welcome to have a difference of opinion.

As to your question in your last post:



You are kidding, right?

We ALL know you have a anti SF/DCSBS agenda Gisen. Why? Other than SF...

Could any of you that HAVE bought BS answer my honest question: Would you still have bought it if it didn't have starforce? Even if you could in theory get it "free"?

What I'm doing in this forum: discussing Black Shark and it's copy protection. That's what it's for. If there is any chance of increasing the amount of pressure put on ED to change their misguided ways, I'll be happy, but I doubt they'll listen to their potential customers this time.

As to your question, I have said many times - apparently not enough - I will buy black shark the instant they get rid of the insidious, customer raping DRM infesting it.
I'm sure it is a great sim. I really want to play it.

Oh believe me, you've said it quite enough. Trouble is, you expect people to listen to only you. Guess what, the majority, isn't. And yes, it is quite fun to play.

That is my opinion. That their decision is retarded i.e. stupid i.e. wrong i.e. a bad business decision.
This is not the same thing as saying something like

Which is clearly a personal insult, albeit in another forum. I think some people are getting a little (deliberately) over-sensitive here; maybe its a difference of culture but after a few years in the military I may seem harsh in the words I use to criticise.

To put it another way: I just really disagree with their business "plan" - that is a way of saying so. I didn't just call an individual names for the sake of it.


No, I'm serious. I honestly don't think any of the users here would not have bought black shark even if it was available free* so I don't see what purpose starforce has.


I do NOT have an anti-black shark agenda. I have an anti-malware agenda. I'd love to see black shark drop starforce and double its customer base or more.

*which it is, anyway

I said this where?

Oh, and believe me, after 31 years in and around the USMC, my skin's pretty thick.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2661351/G.html#Post2661351

The point is, I don't think anyone would complain about that post, yet somehow they complain about a nonspecific comment on my opinion of a company's policy.

OMG! You've GOT to be kidding! Did you actually WATCH that video? I did laugh, as I'm SURE many others have too. I was NOT attacking ANYBODY at SimHQ. Whereas, you, quite often, have. Either a member, or a company.

Nice copout. So it's OK to insult people as long as they aren't members of SimHQ? That's good, since Eagle Dynamics - the corporate entity - is not a member of SimHQ.

Can we please just get a grip and acknowledge that the whiny "that's insulting because I disagree" brigade are wrong?

Copout? No, I asked where I said what I said as quoted by you. Thank you for that. So you think I insulted him, the non member of SimHQ? Seriously? I thought I was being kind. Afterall I could have called him a moron or some other applicable term. You are correct ED (Corporate) isn't a member but, ED Corporate members are.

Now, please back to the topic of Copy Protection, NOT *free versions of BS or slinging insults.

Yeah i bought it because i wanted to. Been a long time since i've flown a Great helo sim.



Moot point since i wouldn't get it 'free' I'm not a thief.

Last post on this; That's not what I meant by copout, but never mind.

I was just saying that those whining about "offensive" opinions should bear in mind that even respected admins use "offensive" terms now and then - and there's no question that you insulted him, but justifiably. And that's the point too.

Leaving aside the insulting language can you then agree that starforce serves no good to anyone? (not even ED?)

It does not stop piracy. It causes less people to buy it than would have without it (we only disagree on the numbers that go without). It restricts legitimate customers use of their own property - say if ED gets bought out or goes under or some other unforseeable event takes down the authentication server in the future: You cannot install a game you own.

Even if you still cling to the idea that starforce in some way hinders piracy when a game is first released, that period is over; there's no need for it now.

Okay, let's try this again:

Discussing anything other than Copy Ptotection in this thread = not good and WILL be deleted, (logged someplace else to be used later, if needed) by me, or another Admin. Okay?

It's that simple.

OH in a heartbeat!

You know i have sat back and watched this thread go on and on and on and on........ think you get the point, and watch this thing continue this vicious circle around and around and for what? Honestly? Ok we get it you guys dont like starforce. Got ya, no problem every one is intitled to their opinion. But honestly do you guys have to keep throwing it in our faces? To me it seems like all you are trying to do is get people to hop on your wagon and crusade against what you feel isnt right. Do i totally agree with how they are doing Black Shark? Nope but thats how it is. You guys really need to get off your soap boxes. You have voiced your opinion on the matter we got it! PLEASE! Move along and stop beating a dead horse.

Oh and Gisen let me tell ya you make yourself appear to be mad because you cant download it and that quote i quoted just makes it look so much worse.

Lots of people today try before they buy. I've been guilty of that at one time or another. I buy the game if I'm going to play it though. What I've seen with SF protected games is that the backlash from the copy protection tends to turn people who ride the line between torrent/purchase into pirates. From what I've seen the new SF is much less intrusive than current versions. You can't get away from the stigma as SF was really a bad bit of malware in the past. People aren't willing to trust that easily. I fly in every major LOMAC/FC/BS server and with BS I see more people admitting to a pirated copy than I've seen with other games in the past. I can understand why the devs went with SF but it was just plain stupid to release a separate copy to the CIS when some of the most "affluent" pirates in the world are from there.

The sim is a really good sim. I'm glad I bought the english d/l version and didn't wait for the disc version. I can understand the potential customers' problem with limited activations though. I emailed Eagle for another serial number for Flaming Cliffs. I got it in two days as I'd run out of activations. I also saw others who had to wait close to a month to get another serial number. Customer service at Eagle is spotty at times. I don't think they have a dedicated crew who handles that. IMHO ED needs to do something different because between the activations and the copy protection they're missing out on customers. I honestly believe that it's more than just the few that are represented here on these boards.

The simple fact is that MOST have used the new version without issue and thus a boycott of tech means is wrongheaded. If you still feel that they need to be "punished" go ahead and not buy the game. However, Valve Software is not going to let malware infested software on their service. They will screen starforce carefully before allowing DCS to sell BS on there.

As for me. I am not silly enough to think there are more people than ever playing sims. This is not the 90s where sims were a dime a dozen.

Black Shark will have my money when it comes out on Steam.

A friend and colleague from work bought Black Shark this week. The game installed and activated fine on the work computer, but on his home one, he gets an activation error every time he tries and he loses an activation.

Apparently the issue is known:
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=36095&highlight=activation

When contacting Tech Support and detailing the problem he was directed to Starforce support. And their answer is:



So far, no idea when it will be solved.

For my part, I'm not buying this game until this is solved.

Thank you for the heads up, elanaiba. I'm sure that this tidbit of information is important enough to help someone make a decision on a purchase. If Eagle told me to contact a third party that I didn't contract with to purchase software, I'd be getting my money back. That's extremely poor customer support.

Actually I think they forwarded the problem to the ones better suited to solve it, but that doesn't make the end result any more useful.

I'm waiting and really willing to support ED, after all, I want them to be able to produce the Apache add-on :):)

But on the other hand, I see no reasons to invest in something that may or may not work on my computer, based on ... don't know what?!

I agree. I would rather starforce have to drag resources to it and spend money to fix their own damn crap than ED.

BTW this is all the better reason for me to get the Steam Version! You get to play it everywhere!