It’s in these times that EA should have had a way to speed up their distribution process. Their new blockbuster, The Sims 3 – is already leaked by pirates – 14 days before the official launch date. In such times it would have been good for them to have a way to quickly do a pre-launch to attempt to make the damages done by pirates as small as possible. Though with 14 days to go, I am quite certain we will see this title be heading up on the download rankings quick, and be spread all over the world before customers can even get to buy it. Since EA in the past has used SecuRom to protect their titles, I guess there is no difference there. I can’t quite see why they keep on putting so much energy and money into SecuRom when the pirates keep on breaking it; the only effect it has, is to actually piss of the legit customers that gets frustrated over the limitations, limitations pirates doesn’t even notice.

EA should adapt a new distribution method, make the game downloadable, make it affordable and easy; then I am almost inclined to say that they would probably get far more customers. Why? Quite a few of the copies that ends up on various P2P networks are often infected by trojans/viruses – not from the pirate groups themselves, but from other peoples wanting to take an advantage in it, and spread amongst downloaders. And what other title would be a better choice for any hacker than this one? One of the main blockbusters of the year. One could most certainly build a rather big bot network by spreading infected copies of it on P2P networks. People are aware of the risks, and thus – they would most likely pay the few dollars it takes to have a -good- download, a copy that they can be certain works, and that are not infected with trojans, viruses and what not.

But I guess I am talking to deaf ears here; they will most likely just go at their customers once more with even more limitations. And they wonder why people turn to pirated copies?

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After my previous post regarding FreeCol – a Colonization type of game, I recieved a few upset emails from people asking why I didn’t mention FreeCiv. I honestly didn’t know about FreeCiv until people told me about it, though after testing it a bit, I must say it keeps true to the old Civilization spirit. Civilization is yet another old game from Sid Meier. This is at least a nice free alternative to the old game; still under development though I can’t say I experienced much bugs while I tested it.

I like the idea that it can also be scripted (using LUA) and the port itself is written in C. Of course as with all open-source software, this too comes with complete source code if you want to break your neck trying to get a grip on C – I tried countless times, but so far given up getting the pointers in it. Other features (in general) are as follows:

• Generally comparable with Civilization I & II.
• Up to 30 players!
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer-controlled players.
• Internet & LAN multiplayer (TCP/IP).
• Support for a great number of platforms see Requirements.
• Premade maps & scenarios!
• More than 50 playable units and far beyond 100 nations.
• Modpack support!
• Internationalization (i18n): Translations for 29 languages available.

Links:

• FreeCiv – Download it today
• Sid Meier – the mastermind himself

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If you’re like me, then you probably played the old game “Colonization” by Sid Meier. In my eyes Colonization was the better one compared to Civilization, though I am quite aware that I am most likely putting gasoline on fire by stating that. Now, I continued to play Colonization until a few years ago, since then it started to get harder and harder to work on new computers, and finally I just gave up. It was with great joy that I stumbled over “FreeCol” the other day, a open-source contribution and appreaciation of Colonization.

The first thing that caught my eye is that this version is coded in Java, and I instantly started to drool – so I actually went forth downloading the source before I actually downloaded the game and started to test it out. I must say that I am quite impressed with what they have achieved so far; sure – there are still a few bugs here and there present, but overall, quite a great effort.

Links

• FreeCol.org – the open-source game
• Sid Meier on Wikipedia
• Firaxis Games

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