Description of Problem with DRM infestation.

When starting DEFCON it do call home.
If I let it trough my firewall the following is written at the bottom of the screen:

Authentication status
Key Revoked

Now If I try to start a toturial The following is displayed:
Authentication Error
Key authentication failed
key: [SOME KEY THAT IS PRELOADED BY GOG HERE]

Now when starting the game and block it with my firewall the game hangs a long time.

Using "ipconfig /displaydns" one can figure out that the game is calling metaserver.introversion.co.uk
consequently adding
127.0.0.1 metaserver.introversion.co.uk
to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
One can get the game to start while being unable to call home.

The following is now written at the bottom of the screen.

Authentication status
unknown

Now restarting and letting the thing call home and...
Using the game menus: option->Authentication->Paste and change to the provided multi player key.
The status do change to

Authentication status
accepted.

Now using host again to block it from calling home and the message go back to

Authentication status
unknown

Even with the provided multi player key.

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

Now assuming that the game works fine while the Authentication status is unknown. so that one can start new game with Ai's and a other local LAN players. It is almost acceptable for me.

The problem here is the Revoked status of the default key.

Also I find it offensive that the game is calling home upon startup, before one is trying to make a INTERNET game.
i.e The game should only validate keys on-line for Internet play.

My Conclusion: This game has DRM of some sort (authentication server called on every game-start).

This just happened to me as well. I just downloaded DEFCON, and the game stopped me, saying my key had been revoked. I cannot play my game. I'm going to be honest, I feel a little betrayed. This looks like DRM, and now I cannot play the game I purchased.

This is a trivial problem to resolve.

Once you are logged into Gog.com, do the following:

My Account -> My Games -> Defcon
Highlight the code underneath My Serial Number and press ctrl+c
Start Defcon
Click Options
Click Authentication
Click Paste
Watch the game say your code is authorised and play

PF.

PF I think you're missing the point where OP says the game needs to call home all the time. This is totally against GOG's no DRM name and should be addressed.

The game doesn't prevent you from playing single player (against CPU) when you are not connected to the internet. It is unfortunate that the game doesn't give you an option to turn off the "phone home "completely, but OTOH it is designed to be a multiplayer experience.

It would be nice to see a blue give us their take on their decision to include this game in their catalog. Maybe some insight can be gathered here?

to clarify the game reverts you to the demo version and only allows you to play against 1(one) CPU

Yes that is true (if you start the game while online so the game can check against the servers), but I wonder how much is that a result that the game comes preconfigured with an invalid GOG key? Don't know how it works, but GOG provides a working key anyway. Now, this is just me, but I don't see the big deal in this being that this game is intended to be an online multiplayer game (FIRST). The game assumes when you start it that you want to play online with a human opponent. It isn't like e.g. Unreal Tournament that has a single player campaign where an offline mode makes sense. DEFCON is more like a board game.

From what I can gather from the release announcement (linked in previous post) it sounded like there wasn't much of a single player option available before coming to GOG. DRM yes, but it is pretty damn lite, and GOG has done what they could to make it as hassle free as they can.

GOG is normally fine with games that use Multiplayer keys. Why? Well for one reason, during the removal of DRM this measure can't just be removed outright. Especially in one specific case where the removal of this was actually attempted:

Take a good look at Unreal Tournament 2004 and how it handled keys. Everyone has one CD-Key, everyone's happy right? Wrong, because certain servers that have protection against people with same keys completely barred all GOG users. It got to the point where support needed to give people different keys through support.

DEFCON wasn't the first to do this, and it won't be the last. Unfortunately it's just how some games roll, doesn't stop the game from being fun or really deviating from GOG much. Don't get me wrong, I wish we didn't need to deal with DRM for multiplayer... but it's a necessary evil in this case.