Total War: Play.com selger piratkopier

[Cuneax]

Jeg har nylig fått bekreftet at jeg faktisk har kjøpt en piratkopiert versjon av Rome: Total War fra det "respektable" play.com. Activision sier at de ikke kan gjøre noe. Her har dere e-post-samtalene jeg hadde med supportgjengen deres:

 

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center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

 

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Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

 

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Subject

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After installing patches the game won't start. The game works fine unpatched,...

 

 

Discussion Thread

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Response (Sam Akiki) - 02/25/2005 02:34 PM

Hello,

 

This pretty much confirms that this is a pirated copy of the game. You may want

to alert your local authorities about this store that is selling these copies.

Unfortunately there is nothing more that we can do. The game will not work

because the patch reapplies the copy protection that the crack removes. If you

have any further questions feel free to contact us.

 

Customer - 02/25/2005 12:32 PM

Hi. I found a readme-file on disc 1: This is the text copied and pasted:

 

Rome: Total War © Activision

==============================

Game Type: Strategy

 

Release Notes:

--------------

Experience the power and the glory of ancient Rome in this epic game of

empire building and conquest. Look across the battlefield to behold vast

armies of thousands of men, and then seamlessly zoom in on intense combat

as individual soldiers fight to the death. With over a hundred different

unit types, players control the Legions of Caesar, Hannibals mighty War

Elephants, the successors of Alexander the Great or ruthless Barbarian

Hordes. In Rome: Total War players can choose to rule, as well as conquer,

by forging empires using the arts of trade, diplomacy and subterfuge.

 

Installation Notes:

-------------------

Copy over the cracked executable located in the /Crack directory on CD1

to your installation directory.

 

Response (Sam Akiki) - 02/25/2005 12:19 PM

Hello,

 

We have had reports of that store selling illegal copies of the game. When you

originally installed the game was there any instructions on the disc in a readme

file that asked you to copy a crack file over the game executable on the

harddrive?

 

Customer - 02/25/2005 11:33 AM

I bought the game from www.play.com. The print on the discs and cover is a

little bit cheesy, but nothing I would put a mark on in normal circumstances. I

don't know if it's a legitimate copy, but play.com is an official site with

official releases, so I would have thought that they sold legitimate copies of

games.

 

Here is what it says on the front of disc 1: (up -> down, left -> right)

 

ROME

TOTAL WAR

PC CD-ROM

COMPACT DISC

WINDOWS

98SE/ME/2000/XP

32599.101.UK (is this the number? It was certainly not on the edge, but directly

below "98SE/ME/2000/XP")

DISC

I

I OF III

ACTIVISION

activision.com

the

CREATIVE

ASSEMBLY

TOTAL

WAR

www.totalwar.com

 

Along the edge:

Total War Software 2002 - 2004 The Creative Assembly Limited. Total War. Rome:

Total war and the Total War logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the

Creative Assembly in the United Kingdom and/or other countries. Published by

Activision Publishing Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision

Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the

properties of their respective owners.

 

Response (Sam Akiki) - 02/25/2005 07:28 AM

Hello,

 

Where did you buy the game? Are you sure it is a legitimate copy? Read the front

of the disc. Give me everything written there. Also I need to find out what

version of the game you have. There should be a number on the front of the disc,

around the edge. It will be in the format of XXXXXXX.XXX.XX. Let us know what

that number is.

 

Customer - 02/24/2005 03:16 PM

Hello. I have uninstalled my cd-burning software as well as cd-rom emulators. I

have also downloaded the chipset driver from the link. I uninstalled Rome: Total

War, deleted all folders and files in connection with the game on the computer

and reinstalled it. Thereafter I installed the official patches: The game still

doesn't work. The same error message as ever before.

 

Response (Ian Kowalski) - 02/24/2005 12:47 PM

Hello,

 

Do you have any sort of CD/DVD burning software, or programs capable of

Emulating CD/DVD rom drives such as Alcohol 120% or CloneCD/DVD? If so, you will

need to disable them or uninstall them completely before playing the game. I am

going to have you update your motherboard drivers.

The newest via chipset drivers can be found here-

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2

 

Are you using any No-CD Patches, or Fixed-exe patches? If so, you will need to

uninstall the game, delete the game folder, then reinstall the game.

 

Customer - 02/24/2005 02:44 AM

Here is the DxDiag file you requested.

 

Response (Matt Ryan) - 02/23/2005 03:38 PM

Hi again!

 

Please send a copy of your Dxdiag report so I can further diagnose your problem.

1) Click on the Start button > Run.

2) In the box type: dxdiag

3) Click the OK button.

4) DirectX Diagnostic Tool will open, click the Save All Information button at

the bottom.

5) Save the dxdiag.txt file to your desktop. NOTE: Skip to step 10 if you are

already logged in to your Activision account

 

6) Login to your account at http://activision.custhelp.com.

7) Click My Stuff and then click Questions.

8) Find your current incident and click on it under the Subject column.

9) Click Update Question.

 

10) Under "Attach Additional Documents to Question" you will see a Browse

button. Click that and browse your computer for the Dxdiag on your desktop. When

you locate the file, double click on it.

11) Once the file appears as attached, you can now enter any additional

information about your Incident in the "Results and/or Additional Information"

field.

12) Click "Submit Update to Question" to send the Dxdiag

 

Thanks again!

 

Matt Ryan

Activision Customer Support

 

Customer - 02/23/2005 02:39 PM

Thanks for answering. I have done exactly as you explained, but I still get the

same message: "Please insert the correct CD-ROM, select OK and restart

application".

 

Response (William Penn) - 02/23/2005 01:17 PM

Hi again,

 

Do you have disc one in the drive?  You will need to uninstall the game

re-install the game and install the patches.  Avoid modifying any of the games

executeables.

 

Customer - 02/23/2005 12:17 PM

Can't I play with the official patches? Then I won't be able to play online,

which is a major disgrace.

 

Response (William Penn) - 02/23/2005 12:02 PM

Hi,

 

Thank you for expressing an interest in Activision products.  I'm sorry you're

having problems with Rome: Total War.  You will need to need to uninstall the

game, delete the game folder, and then re-install the game.  You'll need to

avoid installing any 3rd party maps, mods, skins, cheat codes and other

unofficial releases as well as not modifying any of the content in the game

folder especially in the base folder as we can not guarantee the game will

function normally with these running.

 

Auto-Response - 02/23/2005 03:02 AM

Title: After uninstalling the game I am not able to reinstall the patch. I have

installed 1.0 but receive an error message stating that 1.2 is already

installed.

Link:

http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/act...ated=1107447998

 

Title: Problems installing the patch

Link:

http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/act...ated=1097778489

 

Title: CD/DVD Emulation Software has been detected.

Link:

http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/act...ated=1095969790

 

Title: Crash/freeze during install

Link:

http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/act...ated=1095983307

 

Title: 1305 error message during install

Link:

http://activision.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/act...ated=1095962241

 

 

 

 

Customer - 02/23/2005 03:02 AM

After installing patches the game won't start. The game works fine unpatched,

but as soon as a patch is installed, the following error message appears:

"Please insert the correct CD-ROM, select OK and restart application".

 

 

Question Reference #050223-000005

---------------------------------------------------------------

  Product Level 1: PC

  Product Level 2: Rome: Total War

    Date Created: 02/23/2005 03:02 AM

    Last Updated: 02/25/2005 02:34 PM

          Status: Waiting

 

Explanation

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

[---001:007448:64204---]

 

Sam Akiki

Activision Senior Support Representative

 

Jeg skal nå sende en e-post til play.com og kreve en ny kopi. EKTE varer denne gangen. Hvis ikke skal jeg politianmelde dem, hva nå enn det hjelper...

[kim]

Trodde ikkje det var mulig, installasjonsinstruksene er jo hentet direkte fra NFO filen til piratversjonen også.

 

Foresten, kunne ikke du laget den quoten litt mer oversiktelig?

[Chasseur]

Jeg ville gått til onkel blå med en gang jeg. Hørt hva de hadde sakt og alt mulig, og så sendt mail og bla bla bla.. Krev penga!

[andnaess]

Øh... Activision kan ikke gjøre noe? Activision burde fråde rundt munnen og være i total harnisk hvis det stemmer at Play.com selger piratkopier, ikke bare avfeie saken som om det dreier seg om en liten forhandler på hjørnet. Jeg synes det virker som om supportfyren du har vært i kontakt med er litt surrete. Han jeg var i kontakt med sa jo umiddelbart at "This is an issue with certain discs", og min utgave som nå funker ser helt lik ut som din ut fra den beskrivelsen du gir.

 

 

Nummeret på min disc er dog 32599.102.UK, noe som kan tyde på at det er en nyere print, hvilket i så fall forklarer hvorfor det funker.

 

Hvis en fyr på supportavdelingen til Activision beskylder en såpass stor aktør som play.com for piratkopiering, så er et en svært grov påstand, og det bør backes opp betraktelig mye bedre enn jeg synes det er gjort så langt.

[TSP]

Bare lurte på hva som har skjedd noe mer,

sendt inn en klage eller noe sånt?

 

Uantsett er utrolig skuffet at play.com virkelig selger piratkopier,

det andnaess skriver er jeg helt enig i

 

TSP

[Cuneax]

For det første: Det var ingen beskyldning fra Activision Supports side. Jeg fant en readme-fil på cd'en hvor det stod at man skulle kopiere over cracken.

 

Jeg måtte bruke over 100,- på sende tilbake piratkopien med så mye postdokumentasjon som mulig (aner faktisk ikke hva faen alt det var godt for), og så sende skanna inn kopier i jpg-format til Play som aldri svarte. Så en dag svarte de med at de hadde noen oppdateringer på systemet og at jeg måtte sende kvitteringskopien på nytt, hvilket jeg gjorde. For noen dager siden fikk jeg svar: Play.com har sagt at de sender en ny cd og betaler postsendinga. Får håpe at det er ekte varer denne gangen.

[Chasseur]

HVis ikke den er god og fin, så ville ejg gåt til polti og hørt hva de ville anbefale og gjøre.

[Cuneax]

Da er det på tide å blande inn le flique, ja.

[Chasseur]

Jepp!

uansett lykke til, å må play.com brenne for å besudle et slik nydelig spill!

[Rookie_NO]

Sorry for å rippe opp i en gammel tråd...

Men lukta du ikke lunta da du måtte kopiere en .exe fil fra en katalog som het CRACK?

 

Alle originale spill skal "stort sett" funke uten å måtte gå inn på disken og hente filer manuelt...

 

Jeg sier ikke at han gjort noe galt her, men det burde vært unødvendig å koble inn Activision i denne saken. Og tro meg, de har helt sikkert hørt om dette problemet og tatt skritt for å få stopp på det. Det er bare ikke nødvendig å informere deg som kunde om at de gjør det.

 

Dessuten så la jeg merke til at de ble veldig korte i svaret etter at de fant ut du hadde en piratkopi, da er du jo faktisk ikke kunde av de, selv om du kjøpte spillet i beste mening. Morsomt å se at de da gir totalt f43n med det svaret "vennligst ikke svar på denne mailen"

 

Play.com har ett lite forklaringsproblem her ja.

[Cuneax]

Det spesielle var at jeg ble aldri bedt om å kopiere noen exe-fil fra crack-mappa på disk 1. Spillet ble installert på vanlig vis. Problemene dukka ikke opp før jeg skulle installere patchene. På sett og vis var det kanskje ikke nødvendig med readme-fila, hvis cracken installerte seg automatisk, men den var vel der for sikkerhets skyld.

 

Play.com var vel uheldige i innkjøpet sitt av spill, tenker jeg.

Endret 7. april 2005 av cun

[nxo]

si det til purken

[Snorre]

Sier jeg og! Neida. Hvis plat.com var klar over at det var piratkopier så burde de ikke selge slikt.

[Cuneax]

Jeg har fått tilbake penga fra dem og da er jeg forholdsvis fornøyd. De selger jo fremdeles mange gode dvd-filmer til en lav pris, da.