09-03-2003 04:09									#1
	Re: Rise Of Nations Beta Has Been Pirated!!! Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Tassadar5000 (No, it wasnt me :P I dont even have the beta yet)

I suppose now you do, eh?

Seriously though, I wonder when the betas for the people who won them through fan sites will be shipped.

	09-03-2003 04:34									#2
	Got spare money?

None of the usual places have anything about it. I'm assuming you found it on a file sharing program, wouldn't be the first time something was renamed on one... But if it is, i'm hoping they can track the cds and deal with it. Especially since the tournament for RoNC is coming up soon.

	09-03-2003 07:18									#3
	Full PM-box? Change here!

its not on kazza yet

	09-03-2003 08:13									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Well, it's not on any IRC channels that are searched with one of those web clients like IRCspy or MyDownloader.

	09-03-2003 09:53									#5
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Tassadar5000 Anyway, on the legal front, I've recieved my beta!!!

I cannot believe this! I am moving to a new home tomorrow, and thus I will have to rely on the mail forwarding service. Which means I won't get my hands on the beta till the Monday after next at best. Just one day late.

	09-03-2003 10:44									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Well if it pans out for someone trying to download it - let us know. I am content to simply wait to get it when it comes out but if given the chance, I will try to make the download.

	09-03-2003 20:21									#7
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

if its comes on kazza, i download it for uh... see if its a fake(yeah that is the ticket )

	09-03-2003 20:35									#8
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: if its comes on kazza, i download it for uh... see if its a fake(yeah that is the ticket )

HAHA I'm thinking the same thing. I look over at the beta feedback page and nothing much has been posted. Even over at Ron.heaven there's not much talk about the beta. 1000 should have been 10,000. I know it's only a month away but still I wish I had a real chance to enter. As i said before the microsoft.com key they sent didn't work so I was never abale to register.

	09-03-2003 21:34									#9
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Tassadar, what are you on? And where can I get some?

I think it's great that the beta is being pirated. It will actually be good for BHG because more people will be exposed to the game. But then again, more people might just download a pirated version when it comes out. I'll try to acquire a beta version; if it's good, I will buy it.

	09-03-2003 23:31									#10
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

I'll even believe in communism if it gets me the Beta


i want a beta

	10-03-2003 00:31									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Generally...

My upset value: 100
My surprise value: 1.5

I admit I would be surprised if NO copy of RoN appeared on the Web before release.

	10-03-2003 01:56									#12
	Full PM-box? Change here!

We're going to try to take steps to insure that only people with legal copies will play in the RoNC tourney. If anyone is caught with a pirated copy they will be eliminated.

	10-03-2003 03:26									#13
	Remove this text

what is wrong with downloading a beta, it would have been cheaper just to relase to the game to everybody for download.

	10-03-2003 07:16									#14
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

I guess I don't see the major problem in pirating a beta copy of a game. They are not making a dime off the game. How does this hurt them? Unless the beta is awful and they don't fix it by release (which is not what the beta testers on our site have said) then getting the beta out to more people will help spread the word and sell more copies. There are a few games in my day where a pirated version of a beta or of the actual game led to my purchase (i.e. Civilization). I just don't see the huge problem, it isn't even costing them anything.

	10-03-2003 07:36									#15
	Inflate your Upload Space

i'm afraid we are touching on a sore subject right. Regardless i know myself that piracy is bad. But i'm sure we all have done it to an extent. I for one want to try our a gaime before I get it. That is the simple truth. I don't know how many times I've noticed a game in the store. The game Sounds interesting and all till I try the game and find out how dismal the game really is.


I'm not saying that RON will be bad. From the sounds of it seems amazing! Now All I want is a demo and from the looks of it the demo as in most cases with new game sare coming out after the initial release. (Warcraft 3 anyone.) It took blizzard several months before and adequate demo was released. And by that time people only knew from Blizzards track record how successful that game would.

I know that is comparing apples to oranges. i've seen games that are not well know or in the lime-light of the "big-Dog" Tried their demos and purchased the game because I enjoyed them.

Sounds to me like ROn beta is not the full release. There are still tweaks and bugs to fix so why not let the rest of the people get in on tweaking the game?

I know if I can at least try the game I would be happy to buy.

	11-03-2003 00:12									#16
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I think that piracy of unreleased software is generally worse, there may actually be things that the developers want to remain hidden.

Yes, most probably, the majority of Apolytoners did some or other acts or piracy. Some people use only pirated sofware, others just have some. A shame, but it's clearly a fact. Note that in most countries other than the USA, people DO NOT MORALLY consider themselves wrong when pirating software. Especially true for non-EU countries, and in Russia, you can't sometimes find a legal version of a program.

That being said, I admit that I have sometimes tried games before buying. An example is Civ:CtP, after hearing so much controversy on it, I first acquired, and then bought it.

	11-03-2003 05:40									#17
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

I don't think pirating is MORALLY WRONG unless you are selling it. If you are simply copying a game for your friends, or leeching, it's fine.

Smart developers include online play that requires a unique ID in order to play. These CD-keys are usually checked by an online source (like WON.net for Half-Life and its mods) and can't be duplicated or generated by a key-gen. And throughout my warez career (dating back to BBS's in the early 90's) I've always bought a game that was good.

	11-03-2003 07:13									#18
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Ah, I just discoverd it too while doing my nightly rounds. It doesn't have many sources (I don't see any with the complete file) but the queue is geting real big.


That there are only a few sources does not make it less likely it's real, fakes are often re-names or fake files with nothing in them and thus have alot of sources.

	11-03-2003 14:12									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Sava... I've not seen a thing that can't be cracked, with all those IDs.

For instance, the cracked Age of Mythology doesn't work on multiplayer. If you apply any CD crack or something, it won't work. Still, some smart guys found a way around this.

And, mind you, AoM is NOT available in ANY shop in my city, and never WAS. If you ask the shopkeepers why, they'll tell you because noone buys legal stuff in our country anyway.

	11-03-2003 17:24									#20
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

its still not on Kazza yet

	11-03-2003 19:10									#21
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Just my opinion on piracy.
I think its a valid alternative to (often non-existant) demo's ie.. you likeit, you buy it.
Although most game boxes/books say "may be returned to shop for refund" NO shops here in the Netherlands accept that..

and i aint gonna pay €50 (around the same in $$) for a game which then turns out to be crap and/or has issues with my hardware...

	11-03-2003 19:53									#22
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

It depends - sometimes I'll download something to check it out. In this case I just wanted to see if Tass was right. I didn't see, but even if I did I don't think I'd DL it. I have too many exams and I'd rather wait for the full version.

	11-03-2003 20:29									#23
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

And generally, buying full boxed versions, it works better than the ones you pirate. Pirated versions give a good general impression of what the game is though.

	11-03-2003 21:55									#24
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Solver And generally, buying full boxed versions, it works better than the ones you pirate. Pirated versions give a good general impression of what the game is though.

That isn't true, unless you are talking about rips (but who uses those these days?)


Infact, Master of Orion 3 didn't work out of the box for me because of the over-zealous copy protection they have, I had to download a no-cd crack to get it to run. If I pirated the game I'd of gotten it sooner, and it would of worked straight off the bat. (Not to mention that the game was a let-down anyways)

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

	11-03-2003 22:13									#25
	Tired of ads?

quote: Infact, Master of Orion 3 didn't work out of the box for me because of the over-zealous copy protection they have, I had to download a no-cd crack to get it to run. If I pirated the game I'd of gotten it sooner, and it would of worked straight off the bat. (Not to mention that the game was a let-down anyways)

That's another thing! the copy protection is just ridiculous. I don't have a really ols machine. And there are 2 games I've just recently bought (AOM and C&C generals) that that never started. It installs just fine but then when you start the game, the cd rom drive runs then glitches and it asks you to put the cd in the cd-rom drive. So I have to look for a no-cd crack to make it work. Jsut rediculous. And most companies hound you for even implying on getting a no-cd crack. I've contacted their repsctive tech oersonal and they had no idea oin how to fix the situation. They tols me to get another cd-rom drive. HMMM I'm don;t have a lot of moeny to spend. What? do they think money grows on trees. (I always loved that ezxpression)

	12-03-2003 02:55									#26
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by Osweld Ah, I just discoverd it too while doing my nightly rounds. It doesn't have many sources (I don't see any with the complete file) but the queue is geting real big. That there are only a few sources does not make it less likely it's real, fakes are often re-names or fake files with nothing in them and thus have alot of sources.

What program you guys using? I need a new good program, i havn't gotten any mp3z since....napster lol.

	12-03-2003 05:09									#27
	Put an end to popups!

kazaa

	12-03-2003 06:10									#28
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I'm not telling you what program I'm using. I don't think the mods would appretiate that, since doing so in this thread would be essentially telling you where to get the pirated Beta. But I'd never use Kazza, I can tell you that.

I don't see anymore sources today, still only about 10mb of the file floating around. Looks like whoever put it up had second thoughts. (or is not on very often...)

	12-03-2003 06:39									#29
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Well, you could make a more or less educated guess from the looks of Tass' screenshot that the he is using eDonkey...

	12-03-2003 12:20									#30
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Yeah, anyone with serious computing (or is it warez?) experience can make guesses from screens. I have recently taken a digicam photo of myself near the comp... and I can just finely see that I'm running Windows XP and making some downloads in a download manager on that photo .