Re: [GD-General] serial numbers

[Brian H. <ho...@py...>]

>The only way I see it being an issue, is if he changes email
>accounts and contacts you for a new key (re-install or=
 whatever).
>In that case you'd require that he give you sufficient proof=
 that he
>is who he says he is, then you just give him the key (or=
 generate a
>new one off of his new address).

Support hassles are far more prevalent than you'd expect.  People=
 
often can't remember who purchased a game (dad, mom, wife,=
 husband) 
and what e-mail was used.  Relying on e-mail addresses,=
 especially in 
this day of ISP (comcast.net, bellsouth.net, rr.com, cox.net,=
 etc.) 
and Web mail (Hotmail, Yahoo mail, etc.), seems to be a bad=
 idea.

>Is there another issue I'm missing?  Assuming Candy Cruncher=
 uses a
>key to unlock, you would probably have a fair bit of experience=
 with
>this by now.

Anyone could trivially backwards engineer our key generator,=
 because 
frankly, this isn't an area that is worth pursuing.  

No matter how good your generator, someone will crack it if they=
 want 
to.  But in all honesty, they'll just look for a crack at any of=
 the 
numerous crack/codes sites.  Google will get you serial #s for=
 just 
about any game you can imagine.  Or CD-keys.

So the only reason to do this is to stop the casual users who are=
 
scared or not knowledgeable enough to do this, and thankfully=
 (for 
us) that's the vast, vast majority of our audience.

All we do is generate a value from a combination of custom=
 product 
code and the user's name that they enter on the order form.  We=
 take 
that and generate a 16 (?) alphanum code, replacing often 
misinterpreted characters (e.g. no 'I' or 'O').

That's it.  Simple and easy.

Brian