This is How You Should NOT Support Software

This is How You Should NOT Support Software - THQ, Relic

Buyer Beware of WH40K : WA

Published on October 2, 2005 By greywar In Gaming

I got the expansion pack for Warhammer 40K : Winter Assault a few days ago and have yet to able to use the damn thing. I am not alone in this as many gamers who purchased this pack have the exact same issue. This is a great example of how copy protection schemes can backfire on a developer. THQ/Relic were so concerned that people would pirate their expansion pack (made alomst entirely from independant modders work and simply repackaged neatly BTW), that they apparently have made such large changes to Securom 7 so that the game simply will not run if you have ever installed Alchohol 120%, Daemon Tools, Virtual CD or many other 3rd party programs because some people use these programs as an aid to piracy.

The best part is that even now that this has backfired on them they can't figure out how to undo the damage and allow legitimate users to run the game we plunked down hard earned cash for.

One of the reasons for this is that THQ can't even be bothered to do their own support : they have farmed out the support to fans!!! Their customer support hotline will actually refer you to www.relicnews.com which is a fan run forum. Frankly it would be more honest of them to just hit my in the face with their collective cocks and take the $20 out of my wallet rather than pretend to develop something like this (they just packaged other poeples stuff here) and then refuse to provide tech support!

Their response to the complaints has been pathetic. One Relic guy did post something that worked for about 5% of the complaints and then he simply stopped talking. Hell the warez crowd over at www.gamecopyworld.com have been more helpful than that.

This 5 or 6 page thread is the one dealing with my problem and there is another 5 or 6 pager dealing with another issue and another one dealing with the fact that many users actually have to go and manually rename 11 directories worth of sound files to make their sound work if they manage to make the game run at all!

Don't be surprised if the links won't always work as that forum is being pounded by people looking for answers.

Comments

Bunnahabhain

on Oct 02, 2005

I'm a big believer in intellectual property rights. I don't believe in software patents though; they're a device of lawyers and greedy businessmen. Copyright protection is all that a good developer and an honest businessman truly needs.

There are some rules of business that unfortunately many do not understand. I'll only discuss one of them here, and that is - don't alienate the customer who actually bought your product in order to protect yourself from the one who did not.

It is reasonable to take steps to protect your investment, but copy protection tends to only punish the paying customer, and turn him into someone who will never return!

Lowa11

on Oct 02, 2005

Copy protection is like Nuclear Warfare of sorts... does too much hurts too many ppl angers just about everyone and its an expensive waste of money...

Mr_Frog

on Oct 03, 2005

Yeah, gamecopyworld is your friend. I go there for all of my purchased games just so I can get the NOCD cracks so I don't have to insert the friggin CDs when I play. I just don't see the point of copy protection when they DAMN WELL KNOW that the warez kiddiez have the fucking thing cracked two days before it hits the shelves.

Perhaps if they dumped that money into development, the industry wouldn't be churning out 20 crap games to every two decent ones (and one great one).

-- B

wuffles

on Oct 03, 2005

Hmm, wonder if the USA version uses a different protection system to the UK one as I have alchohol 120% installed and the game plays just fine, or is it just some people that have this problem. I have to agree about how annoying it is when copy protection ruins things. I remember a few years back when another protection system (think it was first version of securom 2, but could be wrong) just wouldnt work with my machine. Looked on westwoods site and they said it may not work with modern drives and to buy an old drive! Great build a nice new machine then slow it down with an old drive yeah right.

Zoomba

on Oct 03, 2005

The blame for this one lies squarely with THQ and not Relic. THQ, as the publisher dictates the copyprotection schemes and such placed in a game. Also, support falls to THQ mainly as that's one of the supposed benefits of having a publisher, they take care of the crap so the developer can just make the game. THQ has NEVER had anything approaching even passable support.

greywar

on Oct 03, 2005

is it just some people that have this problem.

Yes it appears that some folks can get it to run but no one has managed to figure out why.

nuvem

on Oct 04, 2005

I had the same bloody problem, and the solution was incredibly ironic:
Rename the DiskCheck exe, and download pirated first disc, renaming it to it's original name ("mir-wh40kwa.*"), and mount it in daemon-tools. It took a couple days to get, but I got tired of waiting for THQ to figure things out.

So now, the evil copyright breaking pirates have done more for me than the company that sold me the game... go figure.

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