Re: [GD-General] Protecting our game

[Noel L. <ll...@co...>]

On Mon, 30 Dec 2002 01:13:10 +0100
Ignacio Casta=F1o <cas...@ya...> wrote:

> I just don't want people reinstalling it to play 20 games again. I
> imagine some easy ways of handling that, for example, creating a
> 'secret' file in the system folder...
> I'm just wondering if there is a better way of doing that.

Don't do that! Some people, including me, feel very strongly about
programs that leave "stuff" behind. Leaving files in system directori=
es
is a big no-no, but I'd argue that leaving stuff in the registry is a=
lso
something you should avoid.

As Brian said earlier, most people who are interested enough in playi=
ng
it over and over, will do so no matter what, so don't waste your time
and don't piss potential buyers off.

I would suggest changing how you deliver your game so it's not limite=
d
to a certain number of uses or a fixed time. Instead let them play
whatever levels/characters/whatever all they want, and buy the full g=
ame
to get the rest of the content. Problem solved.

If you can't do that, then just letting them know their period has
expired and forcing them to uninstall/reinstall should be enough of a
deterrant for most people.=20

One other possibility is to make your game time-limited for a single
session (like the RollerCoaster Tycoon demo).

Whatever you do, please, be very explicit about about what your demo =
can
and cannot do. I hate downloading something that is supposed to have
unlimited usage just to find out I can only run it for 30 days (I
usually delete it right there without running it a single time when t=
hat
happens).


--Noel
ll...@co...