I can understand the desire to make it harder for pirates to get the updates for the game, after all it really isn't fair that they get the exact same level of customer service and support that the rest of us get. However, there is a distinct problem with any sytem that would blacklist serials of any kind. As keygens can create ANY valid serial, there is almost no way to prove that any given serial is legitimate customer's or a leaked/keygened serial. Yes if you have the original emails you could prove that you paid for your copy, but that would require a portion of legitimate customers to have to prove they're not pirates. After doing a bit of checking, prompted by this very thread, I discovered that 2 of my 5 serials are in fact posted on a torrent site. I've never personally given out my serials, so I can only expect that either they were keygended or were taken when my hotmail account was hacked into. Since that hack, I've made it a priority never to keep important info, like keys, passwords, ect in my email. As such, I delete any email that has such that I don't have to absolutely keep. Since I copied my keys into a file, which I backed up on multiple sources, I deleted the receipt emails. (I tend not to keep game receipts, only the keys are needed after all) Now I don't make any claim that my case is common, hell it might even be unique, but the fact remains that pretty much any form of additional DRM or changes to Arcen's DRM scheme would mean I that my copies of Fleet Command itself and Zenith Remnant would be invalidated. I would be required to either leave it in demo mode, or repurchase both the main game and one expansion. Personally, I would most likely just buy them over again, but its still an additional hassle that a pirate doesn't have to go through. All a pirate will do if their copy is invalidated is either wait for the new crack/keygen/leaked serial/ect. Or if they are the type, make the crack/keygen themselves. And thusly, like most DRM, the pirate gets it easy, and I have to deal with the hassle. At least with the current sytem the pirate suffers just as much from the DRM as I do. They have to put in 5 serials just like I did. Sure, they stole theirs while I paid for mine. But that is not Arcen's fault. People steal shit, and as long as it's an imperfect world, that is the way it is going to be. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with Arcen's DRM stance. Is it broken by keygens? Yep. So are most systems that allows serials/keys. They all get broken in the end. Are the pirates getting the same support as I get? Possibly. But I think not. I recently had an issue with my copy of AI War (the Spire City Shard Reactor image was broken) and it was keith.lamothe that helped me resolve it. Your average pirate isn't likely to post on the company's support page and ask for help. (though I could be wrong) Because I paid for my copies I feel no reserve about posting on mantis for help, or posting on these forums for questions. (though truth be told this is my first post, and I didn't know about mantis until 5.036 when the update on the wiki talked about a certain bug and gave a link to mantis.)TL DRDR, changing the current DRM will almost certainlnegativelyly affect legitimate customers (though possibly very few of them) and have, imo, little to no real impact on pirates themselves. keith.lamothe himself has already gone on record saying that any DRM that would havnegativeve affects on legitimate customers is something they are not willing to do, and that even changing their current serial system would take away from time spent improving and expanding AI War. Thusly, we can either pony that pirates are getting the same stuff we are for free, which is going to happen almost no matter what, or be grateful for the continued work and support that is given to and put into AI War by the Acren staff. And tell them to keep it up, and keep taking our money. I for one, will go with the second option, as I did when I bought and tested Ancient Shadows. Good job, love it, can't wait to see what it looks like when it's out of beta.
