It appears that the issue was some anticheat system cert and not DRM according to some posts regarding Epic's comments.

That doesn't sound plausible, since anti-cheat systems should prevent people logging in on-line, not prevent startup of a game. That said, both anti-cheat & DRM require trusted executables, so some of the technology is shared.

Hehe... Silly MS... don't they know the world doesn't end until 2012?

I hope GalCiv 3 comes out before then...

I was thinking the same thing but I'm not a programmer so my consideration is meaningless.

Shh let use spread are propaganda for the revolution.

The end result is that the anticheat system manages the right of the user to use the digital product, therefore it is DRM.

Society would be an acceptable alternative.

For a lot of my legal game, i use crack... not very different that a fully pirated version... not that the game become better but it spare my original DVD... these game, where the original need to be in the drive are a plague... after a year of so, it become impossible to read them...

By using crack, i am allow to keep my game a very long time... i have several game who are more that 10 year old...

In case of sins, not problem at all... don't need the original in the drive...

You can do better than that, in Stardock's case no-one need have the original, at all.

This is why regarldess of faults, i will look to buy from Impulse first.

I just read on the Epic forums, that there are people whom bought the game on the day of expirations, and he can't play the game.  i am not sure if he can even return the game now that he has opened it. 

One other guy is deciding to sell it instead of going through all the fuss of clock changing business.  Because he is from South Africa and games there are not cheap.

Soo here is an ethical question..., if i or someone else want to play GOW1 on the PC and have no console, should i pirate the game, BUT I CAN AFFORD TO BUY THE GAME.  however, knowing that the game will not work at the moment, what should or anyone else do in such a circumstance????

This question boils down to:

Should I buy a product which is broken or get a working product for free?

It really depends on whether or not and how soon they plan on patching it. If it is within a couple weeks, I would say just wait til they fix it. There is nothing inherintly wrong about pirating as long as you pay for the product at some point. What I would suggest is that you get a pirated version while you wait for them to fix the real version, then buy it when it works.

You could buy the game and play apirated version. This is not legal, but ethically correct towards paying programmers for their work.

However:

Digital restrictions management is not more unethical than piracy, and buying such a game is a reward for the developer for its digital restrictions management. Therefore, buying such a game is a bad idea. Voting with your wallet is very important.

I would not blame people playing a pirated version without buying a legal version, if the DRM is their reason for pirating. Of course, the most ethical would be not to play such a game at all.

I think it's very important to take into consideration, that even the hardest protections will be cracked very fast, so it's just hurting the buying customers, not the one who crack the game to get rid of the annoying copy-protection.

So in the end copy-protection mostly harms buying customers, not the pirating.

It is not better... if tomorrow, Stardock dissappear, your online version dissappear too... i need a hard copy from what i buy...

And now, it is a pain in the a$$ for create a update package after a impulse update... each time, i need to seek what file what changed from one version to the other and create myself a little archive... backup all the directory is not a option since Stardock have a very high upgrade rate ( for our benefice ) and it will take a lot of place...

Since entrenchment will not be in boxed version until the 3 expension are released ( in 2030 maybe !!! ), my copy will be a illegal one until these boxed version appear and i can buy it in a physical form... i don't pay and will never pay for some wind... Stardock seem to be the best in the game business but it don't mean that they are perfect...

Nothing could be further from the truth, and if you haven't noticed, GPG and Stardock also limit installs. Does that make them 'greedy *******?'