This game came free with my video card through a promotional offer. Anyway I installed it like I have many games. I put the disk away in a safe place with every other game and software I have. Well the first time I played it was 3 days ago. I click on the icon for this game in the all programs section of th start menu. The thing is asking me for the game disk. Why would it be asking for the game disk? I hope this is not one of those games that asks you for the disk every single time. If I wanted to swap disks all the time I would buy a Xbox 360.

quote:

I hope this is not one of those games that asks you for the disk every single time.

It is, get used to it... It is copyprotected by Securom.
You can also install Steam and register your game with your serial there (then Steam will move a big chunk of the games files into your Steam directory and auto-updates it), after that you can always play the game without the disc.

Well then that will work I have Steam installed for the half life 2 game and episodes.

By the way doesnt that kind of violate a users rights?

No, you have the users right to install it as a standalone and update it manually, or update it through Steam after which Steam will adopt it. You can even have both versions installed next to each other...

The multiplayer DM runs ONLY through Steam and once you've registered your game, Steam will download it to your PC as well.

What I mean is should I not have a choice not to use the disk every time without using steam? I have steam but still some may not want steam. Making you use the disk is defeating part of the purpose of PC gaming in the first place.

You did not buy the game, you bought your license. It is distributor's right (to which you agreed when you installed the game) to protect their software.

For the singleplayer you don't have to use Steam, you can keep the game installed/running outside Steam. Yes i put the disc in the player everytime i run the game.
How is that "defeating part of the purpose of PC gaming in the first place."?

But why does it always have to be a inconvineince for the customer. It makes no sense all the stuff on the disk is in the HD but it still asks you for the disk just because. Moving the game to steam is taking longer than the instal itself took. I really do not like doing things twice. Technically I am installing the game again a second time.

Finnally it works with steam and does not ask for the disk no more. I also found out this will help with any other Pc game that asks me for the disk. Apparently all those gamea as well can go into steam.

Also I should add for me part of Pc gaming is not being asked for a game disk every time I want to play. For me that is one of the selling points for Pc gaming. If game makers take that from me there is no point on me doing Pc gains since consoles are cheaper to have.

Having to have the disc in the drive is just part of the copy protection, but some games will work without it after a further online activation.
For example, the latest game in the Settlers series uses SecuRom, which means you need the DVD in the drive, but if you install patch 1,1, and you have, or at sometime, had, Daemon or Alco, on your system, it will verify the game via online activation, once that's done you can safely put the disc back in the case.
Some players have even installed the SPTD driver that triggers the online activation in order to play without the disc.

So why does it not ask right off the batt to activate it? I do not like how it is always somone who legitemitelly buys a game and has issues with the copy protection. The worst thing for me is CD keys I hate those things. Anyone who has ever typed in a CD ecatly correct and get a invalid cd key message would know what I am tlking about.

Also I should mention the most annoying game in my collectin it not only aks you for theb disk it makes you juggle them. It has 2 disks. You go to run it it asks for disk one you do only to be asked for disk 2 then it again asks you for disk 1.

Still as it stands I do not think secure rom products are a good thing nor do I think the company for that matter is. That company stands for protecting the manufactureres but making the customer do all the work.

Besied how do CD keys and securerom even stop pirated they simply make keygen generators. Some times I hae had to use one for games where I lost the cd key. Which to me is not dishonest since I already paid for the game. That is my other beef with Cd keys you loose it and the game is useless.

Also there is legitimate programs I can buy that will still copy the game to my hard drive even with secure rom.

I don't know why you don't install your game trough Steam.
It will do the activation for you and will control that nobody else will use your game key.
It will remember that key when you'll lost it too...
It will not give the same key or game to your "friends" though...

You mean to tell me as long as you keep you're steam ID safe it will keep a record of every cd key?

quote:

Originally posted by ghr15:
You mean to tell me as long as you keep you're steam ID safe it will keep a record of every cd key?

You're ultimate problem will be:
changing your e-mail address without notify Steam before
P.S.
My Steam installation went trough 7 motherboards, double the CPUs, at least 11 video cards and countless Windows installs...
I only take care to install it on my D drive and that's all.