John Tiller games and Online Activation

[Druswid]

Hello everyone, I've just recently been looking at some of the John Tiller bundles, like Civil War, Campaign Series, and Napoleonic Battles, and was wondering if any of these products use online activations in order to play. I find it a huge deterrent to buying a game if there's a limit placed on how many times I can install it, or if there's some online server that authenticates the game...

[Valkyrie]

No online activation. The products have serial number protection only which is needed for the initial installation and then again when installing any update patches. There is nothing to keep you from installing the games on multiple computers that you own or switching your installation to a new computer.

The boundaries are all moral: sharing the game with friends, for example, is a gross violation of Matrix game's trust in NOT having an online activation system.

I trust, of course, that we are all moral people here who support Matrix and realize that piracy ultimately hurts us when it cheats Matrix out of legitimate sales.

[Druswid]

Okay, that's cool. Online activation is really getting to be a problem these days, I think... If we buy the game, we should have full access to it, not limited run. What if we want to play the game years down the road, and already installed it all of three times? It's pure crap. I understand piracy is a problem, but there's ALWAYS been piracy, and I don't think the security measures stop it. Also, I abhor pirates for what they're doing to the industry.

[Valkyrie]

That's very true. The pirates always find a way to get an unlocked version while the honest folk get abused. I love the Matrix approach (though I have seen people on this board bitching about having to keep the serial number around for the patches. I have a spreadsheet with all my serial numbers and it only takes about 25 seconds to retrieve the number. I also have all the confirmation emails stored on my gmail account as a further backup PLUS I burn a backup CD with the serial number printed on it too. Keeps me thoroughly protected from disaster since I collect historical simulations and have quite a few games. I hardly play any though... I'm definitely not much of a gamer.

[1NWCG]

I don't like the activation  w/other games and have enjoyed close to 13 years of fun w/these games. [:D]

[Alex777]

I agree. I won't buy a program if it requires on-line activation, but I find myself missing out on more and more programs now. Kudos to Matrix for its no-online-activation stance.

[ETF]

It does seem to be an ugly trend I agree. Even worst the better the wargame the more likely it will be elicensed.