Sharing cdkeys for a LAN game?

[url-sephiroth]

at the end of the day...(u will notice i will say that alot)

ok you and some mates are going to have a lan party over the a ofline decited server...ok so u use 1 cd key per 6 pc's yes its wrong but whos going to now.....no one! just do it dude seems like unreal is full of politcics at the moe any why, im sure that epic (thats if they pay any notice at all) have more inportant things to deal with at the moe and wont drag u into courts for haveing a little fun

and if the case that u want to host unrela at a cyber cafe and make come dosh out of it...the game costs £6 from play if your that bothered just pop down and get it

[Techslacker]

I couldn't stomach reading all of it so if someone stated this I apologize for wasting your time on one more post.

Just consider the fact that it is Epic who is doing the policing of keys. They can look for folks not buying keys and of course those stealing keys. To leave this up to each server is ludicrous. How long before the code is hacked and then Epic would be cheated out of their money and also unable to efficiently block certain keys that they want blocked?

Other admins might want to police keys as well and utan comes to mind for certain scenarios.

If you want to make sure you're 100% legit, then it's up to you to manually or via a mutator if possible to check the keys yourself. The same goes for cheats. If you want fairness, then you've got to make sure it happens. Of course one might wonder what happened to Epic's end of the deal on dealing with cheats but that's another topic or two in itself.

[dgamble]

Originally Posted by Techslacker

I couldn't stomach reading all of it so if someone stated this I apologize for wasting your time on one more post.

Just consider the fact that it is Epic who is doing the policing of keys. They can look for folks not buying keys and of course those stealing keys. To leave this up to each server is ludicrous.

I think this was the only part of the conversation that you missed. Of course, expecting the server to police legal keys would be asinine. But, a server could trivially restrict one client per key, which is what the main question was.

To answer some earlier questions, no, it's not a commercial LAN or anything like that. It's just a bunch of us who want to have fun at our LAN at work- but since it's at work, you can understand that there a certain demand by the IT department to ensure that it's all legal. Makes sense now?

The irony of (and useless of!) "One key per hard drive" is that about half of the users play the game off of the same installation. We have people who own the game, but, they can't install the game on their IT-managed Windows workstation (those working in a similar office environment can probably relate). So instead, these users play off of Linux Live CDs, mount the game files via NFS, and have their own unique player configs and cdkey files. The setup is actually very interesting.

Anyway, no reply was ever recieved from Epic (nor even a confirmation message), so, looks like I should try to help people find copies of the game. It's quite sad, though... the game is quite old, and no one carries it anymore. Amazon is the only place online I've found that sells it online and ships outside of the US, but they sell it for $50 + shipping. I paid $40 for it the day it came out! I think the solution will be to get used copies, but, who knows where those keys have been...

Anyway, thanks again to those that took the time to help.

[url-sephiroth]

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/1290...4/Product.html

there

[buttpirate]

hehehe

[Scovndrel]

Originally Posted by dgamble

I think this was the only part of the conversation that you missed. Of course, expecting the server to police legal keys would be asinine. But, a server could trivially restrict one client per key, which is what the main question was.

To answer some earlier questions, no, it's not a commercial LAN or anything like that. It's just a bunch of us who want to have fun at our LAN at work- but since it's at work, you can understand that there a certain demand by the IT department to ensure that it's all legal. Makes sense now?

The irony of (and useless of!) "One key per hard drive" is that about half of the users play the game off of the same installation. We have people who own the game, but, they can't install the game on their IT-managed Windows workstation (those working in a similar office environment can probably relate). So instead, these users play off of Linux Live CDs, mount the game files via NFS, and have their own unique player configs and cdkey files. The setup is actually very interesting.

Anyway, no reply was ever recieved from Epic (nor even a confirmation message), so, looks like I should try to help people find copies of the game. It's quite sad, though... the game is quite old, and no one carries it anymore. Amazon is the only place online I've found that sells it online and ships outside of the US, but they sell it for $50 + shipping. I paid $40 for it the day it came out! I think the solution will be to get used copies, but, who knows where those keys have been...

Anyway, thanks again to those that took the time to help.

dgamble -

I, for one, am glad you asked this question. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the answer to a similar question before I found your thread. My question was somewhat different, concerning the actual behaviour of dedicated servers when duplicate license keys on a private LAN are accidentally used. Your experience answered my core question, and the responses of some people here answered some surrounding questions I had as well. So, thank you very much for posting this and enduring the mildly hostile responses.

I'm not sure where you are geographically, but thought I would offer this link in case you were not interested in buying in GBP from the previously offered site. Newegg gets my business over most others.

- Scovndrel

[buttpirate]

Reopen a 1 month old thread?

I don't believe you people. Can't seem to understand. Doesn't make a damn where you play the game.
To be legal.........
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer

[Scovndrel]

Originally Posted by buttpirate

Reopen a 1 month old thread?

I don't believe you people. Can't seem to understand. Doesn't make a damn where you play the game.
To be legal.........
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer
1 Copy, 1 Computer

See what I mean? Hostile.

[url-sephiroth]

some ppl!!

Do you work for Newegg and thought you would get a sales pitch

Ok....PLAY.COM
GREAT offers at PLAY.COM this month Unreal Anthology
* Includes:
* Unreal (including Return to Na Pali expansion pack)
* Unreal II: The Awakening
* Unreal Tournament (Game of the Year Edition)
* Unreal Tournament 2004 (Editors Choice Edition)

£15.99
RRP: £19.99 You save: £5.00 (25%)
availability: Due for release on 13/10/2006

PLUS FREE SHIPING TO ANY WERE IN THE WORLD THE PRICE YOU SEE IS THE PRICE YOU PAY

Thats right and pay now to get this free mr.crow key-ring great for nights out, Showing to to mates, And a great hit with the lady's.

Act now to be the next big hit at the office

terms and conditions apply

oh heres link
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/PROD/3-...y/Product.html

[ShiningSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Scovndrel

See what I mean? Hostile.

You will find some people act like they own stock in epic when it comes to sharing CD keys under any circumstances.
I have seen admin "brag" about banning people because they caught 2 of them usiong the same key! God forbid that should ever happen!
I have players on my servers all the time using the same keys, and the way I look at it, if Epic allows it, which they CLEARLY do as the master server allows them to connect, then I could care less.
It's epic's problem and it is up to them and within thier power to police, as it has nothing to do with server admins execpt the control freaks.

[buttpirate]

Originally Posted by Scovndrel

See what I mean? Hostile.

And some people can't get it through their thick heads ............

Is it legal, no.
Can you do it.... Yes.

[Scovndrel]

Originally Posted by buttpirate

And some people can't get it through their thick heads ............

Is it legal, no.
Can you do it.... Yes.

...and some people have target fixation. Did I ask about what was legal? No. In fact, I don't remember asking you about anything. I got the answer I was looking for without your interference.

[url-sephiroth]

...and some people like to eat cheese but that has nothing to do with unreal....

can this topic just get locked EVERYTHING seems to get turned into a fight in every topic

[Wormbo]

Thread necromancy is bad, mkay?