Some faintly disturbing news!

[WNivek]

The things you find on the internet...
(snip)

Quite humerous, that is.

[the_redstar_swl]

*Holds up a sign that says "This is a joke"*
Why not just host a bunch of "FULL INSTALL OF DEFCON NUCLEAR WAR GAME" torrents with a virus on them that takes over the system, searches for any credit/debit card numbers and sends a large amount of money to a gas station in Yemen?

Because nothing says "Don't steal our game!" like a Department of Homeland Security/STASI(Or whatever they call it now)/FSB/MI5 tactical team busting your door down and smashing you in the face with a club.

They might even do some time seeing as DEFCON is a [Talking Head voice]"Highly Advanced Nuclear War Training Simulation"[/Talking Head voice], IV might even have to start doing background checks on buyers.

[TheHappyFriar]

Gamers are an impatient lot. If you throw a game up on a site somewhere that they have been waiting to play for awhile, chances are they will break down and get it, regardless if they have intentions of buying it when it's released or not.

I know that in the past I have operated as such. It's just too hard to resist.

it's called "self control." If you can resist pissing & crapping your pants while in EB games when you see a game 1/2 off & can resists screaming "I'M GOING TO ILL YOU ALL!" while in the boarding line for an airplane, you can resists stealing software because you aren't smart enough to budget your money for both toilet paper and software. (this isn't a dig at you directly, but to anyone who pirates software).

If people always whine about price, wait until it drops. I got FEAR for $15. I didn't want ot pay full price. I got Darwinia for free from moddb.com. I pre-ordered Quake 4 & Defcon because i didn't want to wait for them.

Because nothing says "Don't steal our game!" like a Department of Homeland Security/STASI(Or whatever they call it now)/FSB/MI5 tactical team busting your door down and smashing you in the face with a club.

funny you should mention that. A game made by Sierra (i belive by sierra, & i forget which game) asked for some proof of ownership. If you didn't enter it properly, it made modem noise & said something along the lines of "We're sorry you decided to steal this game. Please sit still as the FBI is contacted and is sent to arrest you." Very cool. The 2nd time.

[simmostrikes]

What I am proud to say it that IV have a huge following at the gaming community is australia I am part of.... thousands of gamers. A fair portion of us admins have pre-ordered

[kawsper]

To all the americans out there who thinks that the EULA is a binding thing everywhere and for everyone. In Denmark our laws protect us against a lot of bad stuff an EULA contains and that pretty much cancels a lot of them.

I am very sorry that the game got leaked. But i dont find i morally disturbing or wrong to download the leak if you have bought the game. I dont have a problem with it.

[Gunrun]

To all the americans out there who thinks that the EULA is a binding thing everywhere and for everyone. In Denmark our laws protect us against a lot of bad stuff an EULA contains and that pretty much cancels a lot of them.

I am very sorry that the game got leaked. But i dont find i morally disturbing or wrong to download the leak if you have bought the game. I dont have a problem with it.

The thing is, you agree to the contract, but if you argue against some of the terms, the contract is null and void on both ends, so you lose your right to use the software.

[daddygoestowork]

I can see the intrest people will have in a pre-release.

But these games and these developers are far and few between, I go through a lot of games trying them out for a few days, Those i like I purcahse and stick with, recent games like Morrowind and Oblivion i bought and still play, i've played games before and after since, some hold up to scrutiny and i buy them too, like half life 2 and so forth, I view piratedcopies as a demo of a game, I want to try the whole thing, If i really like it I usually purchase it because i like it.

anyways, Defcon.. mmmmM!!!! I'm not sure weather to pre order or not, but I probably will come monday. Very hard to resist, Yes i've played the demo, so kill me (behind firewall so no ip sent to servers), but it has convinced me 100% to purchase and play this game legit.
I do not see anything wrong in that. Sorry for my actions tho!

[alphager]

To all the americans out there who thinks that the EULA is a binding thing everywhere and for everyone. In Denmark our laws protect us against a lot of bad stuff an EULA contains and that pretty much cancels a lot of them.

I am very sorry that the game got leaked. But i dont find i morally disturbing or wrong to download the leak if you have bought the game. I dont have a problem with it.

The thing is, you agree to the contract, but if you argue against some of the terms, the contract is null and void on both ends, so you lose your right to use the software.

Not true in Germany. And if you read the Eulas, you will almost always find a slomonic clause saying that if one of the rules in the contract are not enforcable/legal in your country, the other rules still apply.
The MS-Eula is practicaly void in germany.

[coolcoder]

I was tempted by the possibilty of playing DEFCON now....more than tempted, I downloaded it.

However, it didnt work and after reading some of the posts on here I am now now worried I wont be able to play at all when its released.. by the way, I have purchased 3 copies of it... (2 boxed and 1 steam). Is there any official word from the boys at Introversion?

[kikinchaz]

The thing is - every game is going to get pirated. Its just the way it is. Personally theres no worry needed from a singleplayer "test" version of the game. The game is after all meant to be like 90% multiplayer based, all this is going to do is give poeple a taster of the game so they know that they should purchase it. I already have my copy of the game preordered on Steam and have had so for a week now.

Also can i just say - if you have noticed the torrents ARE very popular...thats a v.good sign for the game. Noone is going to continue to play a singleplayer only early version of the game when the real game is released unless they dont like it. Which is fair enough to that person.

I personally think if IV just released the OFFICIAL demo all of these torrent/illegal downloaded versions will stop... if the real demo was released it would be pointless to have an illegal version. Its a silly idea releasing the demo after the game is released because it just spurs on these kind of "before release downloads". If IV was to release the demo within the next few days (maybe an only sp botmatch demo to give poeple a taster) then the piracy would stop.

Hundreds of poeple will have already ordered this game and will just be wondering what the hell it plays like. Its one of those games that because it is so unique noone can truly tell how it plays until you play it for yourself (which is brilliant btw, its not often you get original games on the market nowerdays).

EDIT: I can bet £10 on this that IV has had an increased amount of sales since these torrents have been put out on the net.

[estel]

Do you think it's not possible that the demo isn't out yet because it isn't finished yet?
You can argue all that you want that pirating the software will boost game sales because people will find they enjoy the game. Conversely, you can argue that it will really put people off, because they've pirated an older, buggier build with which you can't play online. This is, for all intents and purposes, an online game. Pirating it to play it offline could well make people see it as a lot more boring than it is.
All of that is still pretty irrelvent though - ultimately, software privacy is a crime. It is illegal - you are not entitled to download this game (yet).

However, it didnt work and after reading some of the posts on here I am now now worried I wont be able to play at all when its released

It's a threat - and a valid one. Just be patient ^^

I do not see anything wrong in that. Sorry for my actions tho!

Obviously you aren't that sorry - I don't doubt you'll still pirate the next title that you think might take your fancy...

[KingAl]

I'm not sure weather to pre order or not,

The farmer wasn't sure whether the weather would weather the wether or whether the weather would not.

Or alternatively: whether the wether would weather the weather or whether the wether would not.

[SEiGE]

Looks like a review copy, so one of the reviewers just couldn't help it I guess.
There are also hints about a already cracked steam version of the game....

You cant crack steam preloading.

Steam uses something along the lines of 32-bit encryption for all of its preload stuff.

[ander75it]

I hope Steam uses something stronger, as cracking 32-bit encryption is pretty easy. It's just 4 billion or so keys, easily done by computers. RSA, which is now being obsoleted, used 64-bit keys, and the current US standard, AES (or Rijndael, as the original name goes) uses at least 128-bit keys, which have some 340 billion billion billion billion combinations

[alphager]

Looks like a review copy, so one of the reviewers just couldn't help it I guess.
There are also hints about a already cracked steam version of the game....

You cant crack steam preloading.

Steam uses something along the lines of 32-bit encryption for all of its preload stuff.

Of course you can crack steam-preloading. Happened about two weeks before the official release of HL².

I hope Steam uses something stronger, as cracking 32-bit encryption is pretty easy. It's just 4 billion or so keys, easily done by computers. RSA, which is now being obsoleted, used 64-bit keys, and the current US standard, AES (or Rijndael, as the original name goes) uses at least 128-bit keys, which have some 340 billion billion billion billion combinations

The key-length does not really say anything about the strength of encryption. Of course, a bigger key is always better, but while a 128-bit AES-encryption can be cosidered fairly secure, a 128-bit asymetric system would be worthless.