Constant Games for Windows Live connection or demo mode (or cracked game). They think that it somehow keeps piracy at bay. If the connection breaks, the game figures that you're a pirate and proceeds to call you one while adding some uncalled for descriptions about how your feet stink etc.

In the end, it means that only pirates and cracked version users can play it in the train, plane, outside (in a WLANless area), or when there's no internet access for any reason. The point of the arcade version is to add features to SFIV, so if it's less of a game than SFIV when offline, it's basically not the arcade version at all.

I just crack it then or use a gfwl bypass on it.

If I buy a game I feel I can use it as I wish, barring sharing it of course.

Cracking it is a viable option for offline play, and if it's a cracked exe, you can use the original one for online play. It's just that I don't think the paying customers should need to do stuff like that, and some of the cracks are kinda shady and not necessarily all that safe. Nothing I can do to change the opinions of the great Merchants Afraid of Online Pirates, though.

1. Still it's a solution for those who want to play a game of their favorite series and don't worry about supporting the devs in the process but still want to be legal and not pirate it.

2. Cracks for the most part aren't shady, that's mostly just propaganda & people spreading falsities. Yes, some people take the cracker's original uploads and reupload them with viruses to cause chaos or discredit their rivals, but most crack/torrents sites have ratings in place to show which ones can be trusted, plus everyone should use virus scanners before running any unknown file to be safe.

First BCR2, now this? Oh well.

Capcom thinks it's a competition as to who can screw over the customer the most.

Attitudes like this are why CDProjekt was forced to slap DRM on the retail version of TW2.

Not so they could prevent piracy, because not even public shaming is enough to do that, but so that they could prosecute pirates for cracking.

What attitude? Cracking is pretty fair if you pay for a game.

And it's also true many cracks aren't virus laden. I've tested several of them(after buying legally mind you) with multiple scanners and nothing was amiss.

Illegal = fair only if you're Gandhi or MLK and are called to show up tyranny or bigotry for what it is. Not when all you're doing is trying to make playing a game more convenient.

You may think cracking is fair, but it is illegal everywhere. Every country that is a signatory to the WIPO Copyright Treaty is required by the treaty to have a law that makes it illegal to remove or bypass access protection.

The point of that is to give aggrieved IP owners another means of coming down hard on the crackers: if you can't stop 'em, at least make what they're doing illegal, so you can prosecute them for it.

The only reason Matthew Crippen (who was caught cracking Xbox 360s) isn't doing prison time is that the Feds botched their case by using illegal evidence.

When you bought a game, you bought only what you bought, not some derivative work that is not what the owner allowed you to have. You can never obtain a cracked game legally, not without the copyright holder's consent.

You said "be legal and not pirate it". That's impossible: you can't possess a crack and be legal. Not anywhere or for any reason. That's what I'm saying.

I see a game as property I can do what I want with, as long as it's for my own use.

I could care less about what they tell me I can do with something I legally purchased.

And btw many judges will overturn a ruling on someone who does such things if that's all they've done...at least in the US this is the norm.

Again, how does this relate to me saying that cracks being virus laden is propaganda and false for the most part?

I'm not taking issue with your comment about cracks not actually being virus laden; I believe you're right on that point.

I'm taking issue with your comment that you can legally acquire and use a crack if you own a different copy of the game.

You don't own a game. You own the media it came on, and you own a license to use it under the conditions established by the copyright holders. This license doesn't include the right to acquire an illegally produced copy of the game for your mere convenience.

Nobody really much cares what you do for your own use. But advocating that others do the same illegal thing is bad form.

Actually the obtaining of cracks is against the EULA...not U.S. law, or at least not criminal law. Maybe civil law at most. And again, you won't go to jail over cracking your games. When I said it's not illegal I meant it's not criminally illegal. They can try suing you but that's about it, and most time the judge will dismiss the case.

And yes, I own a copy of the game.......which I will modify how I like with cracks/etc. It's against EULA but that doesn't make it criminally illegal or right.

Actually many here also state they crack games they've bought to remove the drm, and recommend it sometimes as well.

None of that makes it right; and members really should educate themselves on what the DMCA and similar laws actually say about cracks (specifically, bypassing a technological mechanism of access protection) before recommending their use.