I'm not registered at the Aerosoft website/forum, but I have good experience with them as publisher. Has there been a word what the initial download will use for DRM methods?

Aerosoft comment on DRM

from their
forum
Cheers,
Keith

Thanks Keith, sounds promising. Aerosoft has been decent in the past when it came to DRM solutions, even for FS addons costing more than 20EUR.

as long as it ain't starfarce, they'll have my money.

The new Starforce (no longer by name) in use with the DCS stuff is technically sound, I just dislike the idea of "limited activations". For Jet Thunder, it would be nice to have something that guarantees safe, easy activation and long-term ability to reinstall.

i don't care what method it utilizes, i am against the mentality, period. i simply won't pay just to be treated as a potential hacker, thief etc.

The best methods are by far:

- Constant update with an account associated to a personal email address: Even if pirates can get the original game, the fact that this game is quickly updated on a regular basis will kill it in the egg for all the guys which downloaded it illegally.

- a BIGGER download: multi-DVDs size downloads are more difficult and long to download, a lot of "pirates" will give up the idea especially for a niche market like PC simulators.

I liked ROF, Condor soaring simulator, Steel Beast pro, methods, you don't see them pirated a lot on the Peer to peer networks. so IT's WORKING!

The best "anti-piracy" method is:

- Sell/distribute the game by Online only without any copy protection (could sell it on DVD only monthes later the inicial online release). The vast majority of games that are pirated are the ones sold by DVD. Selling/distributing the game by Online without any copy protection would have the following advantages:
- No pirated copies around (pirates only seem to care about DVD thru a publisher distributed games)
- Much larger margin of profit (no costs with discs and shippings)
- No problems for the legit customer which are associated with many copy-protection (since no copy protection is needed)

My 2 cents, of course...

I personally am only satisfied if I have a tangible DVD in my hands. This way - if something goes wrong and I have to bypass the copy protection scheme and I get charged under some new law (which isn't passed yet), I have a nice, tangible proof-of-purchase to submit to the court. I'm glad a dvd option is planned.

The multiple patching approach has issues for a couple of reasons: First it requires easy access to high-speed internet (not possible in many parts of my country), the second issue is that patches which upgrade graphics (like in RoF) can gradually increase the minimum system requirements (which can be problematic if it happens too quickly). Limited activations can also pose a problem for people who tend to use a series of cheaper old computers which tend to have hardware failures (my cheapness means that I'm already 30% through my DCS:BS activations).

What I really care about is:
1) Clear recognition that I permanently own the rights to use the game indefinitely, installing it on new computers as I get them.
2) The ability to run the simulator off-line (eg. if I move up north where I can't get faster than dial-up - something which is very possible with my career).

Completly agree! The only reason why I haven't bought DCS:BS is because of those limited activations! IMO, there's also a bigger problem with limited activations, which is that companies "disapear", bankrupt, "go out of business", whatever... and flight sim companies surelly aren't the exception. Imagine if Falcon 4.0 or EECH had limited activations?? Nobody would be able to play those (VERY POPULAR) sims nowadays and this would make our hobby poorer than already is. So and therefore I'm against limited activations and I won't support it, no matter what!

I also agree that the best (and my favourite) distribution method is by DVD disc but if a small company like Thunderworks wants to protect their work (and rightly so) the best, less expensive and more effective way is to sell it online thru download WITHOUT any protection. Like I said the only pirated games seem to be the DVD ones and a digital download without any protection can easily be copied (backup) to DVD discs and installed from those discs many times as the owner wants - This would IMO, give us the advantages to digital download (have the game as soon as possible without shipping or other fees) and the advantages of DVD (give the player the ability to install/uninstall the game as many times and as many hardware configurations as the player wants).

At last, some sense.

wait, what?

The only pirated games are DVD based? Care to cite that information? Also, check your facts, DVDs don't allow unlimited installs either. FSX being a prime example (only three activations).

I guess if I had to vote for a system it would be steam, or a similar "portal" market. I've never been harassed about installs, and Valve isn't going anywhere for a long time. Steam even lets you backup to either a hard drive or disks (even has a handy way to split your BU over CD's or DVDs). Hell, I've never even been asked to put in a serial number!

Here comes the "Steam fanboy" again
Really, you work for Steam, right?

Anyway, the case you mentioned about FSX (being on DVD and with limited activations) is a rare case and the exception and not the rule!

Regarding the "only pirated games are DVD based" part, you just need to check a well known site (called nforce) which shows what pirated games are available in the Internet and you can see for yourself that all games there are DVD based.

And really, Steam must pay you well, right??

Steam is the best DRM we can have. What would you rather have, disc check?

For my part, yes.

This seems pretty reasonable as far as 'limited' goes.

Q: Does DCS: A-10C use copy protection?
A: Yes, it uses the new user-friendly ProActive AAA Technology.
You will no longer have a fixed number of activations, but in an effort to prevent piracy the system does limit the number of activations per month. Your DCS A-10C serial number is initially set to 8 activations and when they all are spent, 1 activation is added automatically once per 31 days (effectively "refilling" your serial number).

Never tried it, but apparently if you blow through them all in one month due to misadventure you can email ED for a reset.

Yes, I prefer disc check!
And I even prefer NO DRM at all even more since anyone with more than 2 brain cells can easily realise that ANY and ALL DRMs can and are always cracked, therefore ANY DRM system no matter what, one serves to make the "live harder" for legit consumers ONLY - The true (and saddest) reality is that only "pirates" can play games without any DRM problems (or legit customers that decide to download DRM cracks)!

Third Wire has no DRM. You can re-download at any time. The files are easily be copied to DVD for a hard-copy backup. The only people unhappy with this system are those who insist on having a factory burned hard disc mailed to them with box art. I personally see no advantage to having a retail disc compared to burning my own. In fact, I have all of my Third Wire installs on one disc with all of the latest patches, though I never need to use it since the same files are always on one or more of my home PCs. In the rare case that I was on a remote PC and wanted to play, I have re-downloaded the files at will.

If a game is going to use DRM, Steam has been by far the most convenient. Where ever I have a decent high speed internet connection, I have my entire Steam library. I have the entire ArmA2 series this way as well as Star Wars Battlefront on 3 separate accounts to guarantee the ability to have friends over and play with me. The price on Wings of Prey plus the Luftwaffe addon was so cheap last Christmas that I bought 2 installs of that in case my son wants to play. I still prefer Third Wire's approach, but Steam has worked almost as well to date. The risk is on whether Valve will still be around in 10-20 years and whether I will even care about these games by that time.

Right now, I can have friends over and play OFP/Resistance and/or ArmA2, but 10 years from now, if Valve goes away, we will be stuck with only OFP or the latest equivalent. Will I still want to play ArmA2 10 years from now? Well, I just had a game night with a couple of friends and we played OFP most of the night. That game is 10 years old and it runs really well on most modern PCs with a few tweaks to the ethernet configuration to get rid of lag problems caused by Win 7 optimizations. My Third Wire SFP1/WoX collection is essentially obsolete, but SF2 doesn't support multiplayer. So, I still have the SFP1/WoX games installed on multiple PCs so my son and I can fly together. I get my money's worth out of games that I buy.

Of course, as a fan of flight sims, I have collected the other games that I don't play much if at all and they sit on my shelf and/or hard drive largely untouched. This brings back another advantage of Steam while it is around and working well: I can keep a huge library of games but only clutter my hard drive with the ones I am currently playing the most.

For their FSX Addons Aerosoft now uses activation software that will generate a hardware key of your computer, which is sent to the Aerosoft server; a new key is than sent back. These keys have to match or the software will not run. From the looks of it it can also be used for standalone sims - so it probably will be used for Jet Thunder.

It takes an extra minute during setup; after that there's no problem until you change your hardware in which case you have to go through the activation process again.

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/41414-aerosoft-new-installer-and-launcher/

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/44192-about-launcher-and-protection/