Just FYI,

A friend emailed telling me about a web site with a forum with people asking for keys/cracks for Flip Words (apparently, it showed up on a Google search). I looked around more and found a lot of games from Dexterity forum developers mentioned as people asked for keys, etc. I saw some links that led to other download sites with cracks and I did actually see one post of a reg name and code for Gold Miner Joe at:

http://worldoffreegames.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=10370&t=10370

The main site is at:
http://worldoffreegames.com
(click on "message board")

Not sure how much can be done about this one, but just thought I'd mention it.

-Scorpio

There is always something that can be done? Have you emailed them. I just did...
Just make it harder for people to get a free code than it is to actually buy the damned games!

I actually emailed about a half-dozen people who were asking for Flip Words codes to see if they ever got one. Two responded and they both said anything they ever got was bogus and didn't work...one guy said he had given up and was going to "break down" and buy the game--so I offered him a discount. They didn't seem to notice that I was the developer of the game (although I'm sure they did in my reply).

Let me know if you hear anything back.
-Scorpio

I don't have any sympathy with website owners who let their forums get like this. They have a responsibiltiy for whats posted on their server.
Ill give it 48 hours then report it to FAST, you can't let things like this go. How much extra cash would all of us made if these codes were not available?
I suggest everyone reasding this fires off a quick email.

Author: Tattletale (---.nas2.eko.nv.frontiernet.net)
Date: 04-15-04 19:01

To all who visit this site and enjoy the benefits...BEWARE...there is a supposed game developer watching us. Just a suggestion, but sending mail might be a safer way to go. Just so ya know, he/she was watching last night. So be careful. k

...

Author: Tattletale (---.nas2.eko.nv.frontiernet.net)
Date: 04-15-04 22:29

hey, no problem. I actually had quite a conversation with "Game Developer" last night. It's still in the forum if you want a good laugh. c-ya :)
I think they're taunting you. If the forum operators are in on this, there's no reason to talk to them; a better approach would be to report them. According to a WHOIS, they run off of ev1servers.net, who I believe are pretty strict about not hosting illegal content.

You can report this site to headsurfer@ev1.net -- if enough people report it, hopefully the site will be taken down.

I'm in the process of closing a couple of sites with full versions. Sometimes it's a tedious process, a web site leads you to another web site which lists an email... and finally you get an answer from a human being.

Why don't we start a sticky thread listing the most direct complain addresses for each place? I mean ISPs, free hosting sites (GeoCities) and so on.

Originally posted by ggambett
I'm in the process of closing a couple of sites with full versions. Sometimes it's a tedious process, a web site leads you to another web site which lists an email... and finally you get an answer from a human being.

Why don't we start a sticky thread listing the most direct complain addresses for each place? I mean ISPs, free hosting sites (GeoCities) and so on.

I think this is an excellent suggestion - it would also allow us to check back on sites from time to time to see if they have re-appeared under a different hosting service.

Perhaps even a forum subcategory, with one subject per illegal site - or is that too much?

These sites are like hydras though - chop down one, two more appear. Anyone know e.g. how to deal with a site such as fullgames.sk?

BTW, I have started the habit of informing larger game developers (from Blizzard to Popcap, etc) about such sites... if they decide to act I'm sure they have a lot more "impact". Something else to consider.

I agree with the idea of starting a sub forum for this, since these threads are starting to clutter the business forum, and it would be easier to actually make a difference if this were more organized. It should be a registered-users-only forum as well, to avoid it appearing in search engines and such.

Personally I don't know if it is worth the time to attempt to shut these sites down, but if it is, then definitely a sub forum is the way to go.

Originally posted by Dexterity
You can report this site to headsurfer@ev1.net -- if enough people report it, hopefully the site will be taken down.
Thanks for posting this Steve, I sent off an email.

Also, just a side note that I wasn't the one posting as "Game Developer" with the web-master guy. Was that someone from around here? (just curious)

I did see another big post with keys for about 100 games (including a couple of ours). However, the key I saw for our game was not even in the proper format (the first sequence was 5 characters, not 4).
-Scorpio

As well as posting email addresses to send the complaints to could you guys create a standard form email that we could modify and send. I'm very busy and I don't have time to write individual emails. If you did this I could log in go to the specific forum. Send the emails and then get back to what I should be doing which is coding. :)

Midnight, what's wrong with fullgames.sk? It's a just freeware site, I don't see anything illegal.

better still, maybe we could flood these forums and emails with codes that dont work ;)

The attitude of these pirates does drive me mental. Some of them really think its ok to steal peoples hard work.
I'm 100% behind a dedicated forum.

actually, if we compiled a big list of our games with realistic sounding (but wrong) codes, then we can post them on any board we come accross?
I've stopped using regcodes now (switched to full versions) because of this problem, but I still have some games out there with codes.

actually, if we compiled a big list of our games with realistic sounding (but wrong) codes, then we can post them on any board we come accross?

Not to be rude, but that just sounds like a waste of time. Your energies are better spent elsewhere. Just get in touch with someone at the ISP or hosting company and get the site shutdown. Don't try to play games with those losers.

We have a guy who searches for cracks of our games and games of our partners. Then we ban the codes that are published online and update the games. Plus, if pirites' sites publish links to games' .exe that lead to our site, we do everything so that people who come from such sites can't download games. Moreover, we haven't seen a single cracked game that would work fine (our programmers make sure of that).
Our support team deals with people who have problems with cracked versions, and sometimes people do buy games afterwards.
Writting e-mails sometime helps, but we also try to fight it ourselves.

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mission accomplished team ;)

Originally posted by cliffski
I've stopped using regcodes now (switched to full versions) because of this problem, but I still have some games out there with codes.

I am rather new to this so please excuse my ignorance.

Are you saying that you no longer lock your games with a reg code :confused: ? Do you just simply have people download a full version and hope the file does not get out?

As I said, I am a new Indy and am about to release my first game. I have been having a very big problem with trying to secure my game with reg codes and such, so I am wondering if a full version download is better. Do you think this is enough to stop pirating? It would certainly be easier for me:D . BTW, I am going to be selling through BMT micro, so I am confident that the full version download would be secure.

if you hve a provider like RegNow, they will host the full version and give out temporary urls to registered customers tht expire after 3 uses.
even if someone does get a full version of the game, without a serial, they need to host the full version on their warez site. anything over 1-2meg, they just can't do it ;)
Don't use serials, use separate full versions.

Of course, they can host it easily via fileshare. :) But everything ELSE is out there too, including all the hot retail releases, so I suppose once someone turns to that avenue you may as well just give up on them?

(Still, it's a lot easier for a casual browser to flip through a website and download stuff/serials than to try to find something on fileshare, wait days to acquire it, and hope it's not virus-riddled.)