Re: [GD-General] Protecting our game

[mike w. <mi...@ub...>]

i know of more than a few programs that use the 'random' registry key for
their lock/unlock code, and it is very successful (i've tried to defeat a
few - albeit unsuccessfully ;)...

Personally, i find this very annoying - leaving garbage all over my
registry - the registry is a bloated nightmare at the best of times without
every stupid little shareware program i install leaving their own custom
garbage along with the 'normal' stuff...but again, only the technically
savvy will even realize what you are doing - in particular with the
registry - and you won't trigger antivirus programs by writing a registry
key...and it WILL work as an option.

probably the best way 'technically' to do it - that or having a global 'key'
like the wonid system most big games use these days, but i guess that
depends on how much money/effort you feel like putting into securing your
game - and how many customers you feel like aggravating & turning off of
your game before they even start...but this is really only an option for
games that are online-specific - you can find wonid's galore for games that
will work for the singleplayer - you just can't play online, that type of
thing...

i'm fairly interested in the new garagegames setup - sounds like an
interesting option - and one that seems targetted towards gamers, as opposed
to some big publisher that doesn't care about annoying half of their game
community (ie tribes 2) - the gg guys have 'been there, done that' as far as
horror releases goes - i'm hoping they have the savvy to avoid duplicating
that ;}

cheers

mike w
www.uber-geek.ca


>Subject: Re: [GD-General] Protecting our game
>

> > > I imagine some easy ways of
> > > handling that, for example, creating a 'secret' file in the system
> > > folder...
> >
> > Do not do that.  You'll only aggravate people that hate programs that
> > litter crap all over their system directories, and there's a good
> > chance that on tightly locked systems you'll trigger a warning/error
> > requiring admin privs.
>
> That is a really good point there. The tech unsavvy potential customer
will
> interpret such a message as meaning that your game is a virus if an
> anti-virus program catches it. That is sure to lose a buyer.