Some people here know me from these and other forums although i have not been very active in any of those forums due to work. Now sit back because this is problably going to be long... About Starforce First thing i want to say is: I WILL NOT BUY Aftershock until an official patch is released to disable STARFORCE, and to enable us to play the game without the fear of getting our PC all messed up (Software AND Hardware). This goes for any other games that even mentions Starforce. I have too many legal software and hardware installed on my machine that i use for my work, to even consider the possibility of some damage. Damage i have witnessed on others. Even if it only caused me to install windows again, it's a pain in the ass spending almost 2 days installing all the drivers for my hardware and installing all the software i need again. I don't own any game with Starforce v.3xx, i do have some with Starforce v.2. But my neighbour recently bought Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory (it uses Starforce version 3.4.71.19), installed it and played it for a few hours... all good... until the next reboot. His DVD burner was F*****, and it was now only recording and reading CD's at really slow speeds, EVEN after a total HDD format and installing XP again (with my borrowed DVD-RW drive) his drive still didn't work properly. I was able to "save" his DVD-RW drive only by searching the net for a possible solution... had to download the firmware of his DVD-RW drive, and flash the bios of his DVD-RW drive with the downloaded firmware. After all this... guess what, he tried the Aftermath demo because i said it was good. Same thing all over again! I guess Starforce doesn't like his DVD drive... WRONG!My friend's PC(very similar to mine) runs everything fine. Doom3, Far Cry or HL2 on max details at 1280x1024 (LCD) average 90 FPS means anything to you? I run anti-spyware programs, anti-virus and system registry cleaners(and backup registry) at least once a week. I will not have software i don't want on my PC thanks. So unless i am sure that Starforce will not F*** up my system(software and hardware) i will NOT buy any Starforce game... sorry. Really... READ THIS: The War on Game Pirates and this Joystiq This is a quote from one of these links.. can't remember wich one... I've read so much about this these past few weeks that i'm going insane. I own UT, UT2003 and UT2004. And i was a happy puppy when i could finally play UT2004 not needing to have the DVD on the drive with a official patch. My UT2004 DVD is now inside it's case on a shelf WHERE IT BELONGS! Not getting ruined from the constant switching of media from the drive each time i want to play a game. I LOVE EPIC Games! I've seen people on other forums compare Steam from Valve (HL2) with Starforce. Nothing could be further from the thruth. HL2 CLEARLY states you need an internet connection to unlock/validate the game(only once) even if you buy it on a store. EDIT: I forgot to add, you HAVE to install Steam and have an account to even begin installing HL2 or any other Steam game. I paid for a Silver Package(i don't need all the extra crap that comes with the Gold package) through Steam with my credit card, one month before HL2 was released. I had the entire game downloaded to my HD weeks before the game was unlocked to play. The final version of HL2 was only pirated weeks after the game was out, NOT before. I do not need any CD or DVD on my drive, and Steam includes a BACKUP feature so i can burn it on CD's or DVD's. Starforce and other so-called copy protection software prevents this on the games that is "protecting". Remember those crappy audio CD's that wouldn't play on a PC drive? I'm having flashbacks... As long as i don't forget my Steam username and password, i'm safe. I can even install HL2 on several PC's, but only one can be logged on Steam at a time. I get at least 1 update / bug fix or whatever a week, new maps for HL2 DM, CS: Source, DOD: Source and new levels for HL2 like The Lost Coast 2 weeks ago. All this without the need to look for a website to download a patch or a map, and most require you to subsbcribe... screw that! I have also recently bought the game Rag Doll Kung Fu through Steam, couldn't be happier. It is patched when needed and more features will be added soon... all through Steam. Remember a cool FPS called SiN? SiN Episodes is going to be released through Steam. I will buy it. Steam is the way to go. I LOVE Valve! It is MY RIGHT to make backups of my legal audio/video/games CD's or DVD's. (At least in most of the EU) We already pay a tax for each recordable media we buy (CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW), FOR WHAT? For me, ANY software that prevents itself or any other software from running on a perfectly legal copy of Windows and with a perfectly legal copy of the software in question, and has even the slightest possibillity to disable/damage Hardware (even if only on a software/bios level) should be ILLEGAL. This is a crime, just like if someone came into my home, robbed my legal CD's or DVD's or destroyed my Hardware. Same difference. =============================================================================== To finish my post (or rant if you will) read this quote from a post of the user Soulcommander on the UBISOFT forums: Oh, and if you run into a problem you think is caused by Starforce, don't bother to post on the Starforce forums because your thread will be locked and/or your post will be erased a few minutes later.[/b] Ok, i think i let it all out of my chest... now flame me if you want, i know i'm right.