The unofficial Nier: Automata FAR mod contains an anti-piracy check, and people aren't happy
43 replies, posted
I think part of the issue is that the mod creator also was putting malware in his mod according to some rather angry people who downloaded it only to find it had deleted files on their pc and such. Regardless of their status as pirates, a mod distributing malware is absolutely wrong in the moral and potentially legal sense.
Piracy is bad and all, but there's kinda this point where you're equally, if not worse than pirates, and that's a pretty easy place to get to when you're actively being abusive on forums and releasing malware in your mods.
[QUOTE=F.X Clampazzo;52211801]I think part of the issue is that the mod creator also was putting malware in his mod according to some rather angry people who downloaded it only to find it had deleted files on their pc and such. Regardless of their status as pirates, a mod distributing malware is absolutely wrong in the moral and potentially legal sense.
Piracy is bad and all, but there's kinda this point where you're equally, if not worse than pirates, and that's a pretty easy place to get to when you're actively being abusive on forums and releasing malware in your mods.[/QUOTE]
There's no malware in the code hosted on GitHub from a cursory skim. The mod is clean, the only files it touches are preference store files.
As per usual, pirates spread FUD about something containing a feature designed to make their lives harder. "denuvo kills ssds!!!!" type shit is wholly unfounded and obviously incorrect if you have even the tiniest understanding of how computers work.
[QUOTE=Endzeit7;52211259]Does it affect you in any way if people pirate your precious game?
Does affect the mod creator?
No, he is just throwing all of his irrational hate against people who didn't buy a videogame
And all of this for nothing, because the mod will get cracked too[/QUOTE]
Just buy the game and quit getting so uppity about this lol
[QUOTE=SuperHoboMan;52211303]Thing is, this isn't just about him putting in an anti-piracy check. He also implements a blacklist so that people he doesn't like can't use his mods and shit. He admitted this himself. Supposedly there's only 2 people on the list or something, but he talked about how he can add anyone who pisses him off to that list, essentially.[/QUOTE]
Steam doesn't give a shit about blacklists for some reason even though it's against the TOS.
Even one of the most played custom gamemodes in dota 2 has a blacklist function that no one seems to give a shit a about even though it's more newsworthy than the non-existent drama of this.
[url]https://github.com/fcalife/dota_imba/blob/4ca30b1ec994c6bb178c26671c972dbad80f7ce5/game/dota_addons/dota_imba/scripts/vscripts/internal/events.lua#L61[/url]
Baumi, a streamer, basically called the game broken and that the dude should not be accepting patron donations and the creator sperged out by writing this code that forces the game to end, tells all players to disconnect, and shames the banned user with a message if a certain player joins.
The creator later went on his subreddit and posted this kind of shit.
[quote]You call me out for being a greedy fuck and an incompetent developer, yet you have earned more money from Dota IMBA than I ever have. You call me out for not delivering on balance, yet the game has been updated for over a year, and is continuously getting better (even if it might still be considered crap by some).
I don't have the patience, or time, to deal with your shit anymore. You want to be a cunt - fine, be a cunt, but elsewhere. Go whine to your facebook followers, or make a video dissing me, or whatever. I'm not gonna have you earning money from my work while blatantly badmouthing me for no reason.
This is my game, and I don't want you playing it. It's as simple as that.
To anyone else wondering, I'm not anti-criticism. On the Dota IMBA subreddit, people call me retarded and criticize/suggest improvements to the game daily. I don't censor those comments/threads in any way. [yes he does][/quote]
[quote]He can rot in hell while being fucked by a train full of dildos, for all I care.
You can create other steam accounts to dodge the ban, Baumi. That's fine; I'll ban every single one of them. You can use them to make your videos, though.[/quote]
[QUOTE=hexpunK;52212334]There's no malware in the code hosted on GitHub from a cursory skim. The mod is clean, the only files it touches are preference store files.
As per usual, pirates spread FUD about something containing a feature designed to make their lives harder. "denuvo kills ssds!!!!" type shit is wholly unfounded and obviously incorrect if you have even the tiniest understanding of how computers work.[/QUOTE]
On pirated copies, the mod has a button that, when clicked, deletes the crack's configuration file and renames the crack's Steam emulator DLLs. Code: [url]https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/84f75f8bb68f29974a2208f86f24c25d7f654415/src/imgui/backends/control_panel.cpp[/url]
His Tales of Berseria mod (same codebase) will also degrade the game experience, similar to what some games' official anti-piracy measures do: [url]https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/84f75f8bb68f29974a2208f86f24c25d7f654415/src/steam_api.cpp#L1104[/url]
Kaldaien's never denied this (and he'll tell you about this behaviour if you ask, but he doesn't go out of his way to make this clear to pirate users either. Obviously he objects to the "malware" characterisation (which I think is misleading, as "malware" usually implies something far more sinister).
I don't think he gets away clean with "I'm only trying to cover my ass" either though, the mod goes beyond simply refusing to work on pirated copies.
[editline]11th May 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=Matoking;52211424]As for the blacklist, it can be found [URL="https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/84f75f8bb68f29974a2208f86f24c25d7f654415/src/steam_api.cpp#L893"]here[/URL].[/QUOTE]
Don't have links to the relevant posts, but the two people on that blacklist are there for repeatedly pestering him in his support threads. Considering the amount of people who go there to insult him and [I]aren't[/I]
blacklisted, he doesn't take that decision lightly.
[editline]11th May 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=SuperHoboMan;52211347]I don't know about it not being a problem. From what I've read, people on the blacklist that try to use the mod can't play the game at all. It crashes it or gives an error. This was a mod that was pinned on the [I]steam forums[/I], and it has malicious code like that in it? Doesn't matter if it's only 2 or 3 people that it effects, it's still fucked up.[/QUOTE]
It'll pop open a box telling them they're not authorised to use the mod and quit the game on launch (which can obviously be resolved by uninstalling the mod). Merely refusing to work isn't malicious.
[QUOTE=DrTaxi;52212533]On pirated copies, the mod has a button that, when clicked, deletes the crack's configuration file and renames the crack's Steam emulator DLLs. Code: [url]https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/84f75f8bb68f29974a2208f86f24c25d7f654415/src/imgui/backends/control_panel.cpp[/url]
His Tales of Berseria mod (same codebase) will also degrade the game experience, similar to what some games' official anti-piracy measures do: [url]https://github.com/Kaldaien/SpecialK/blob/84f75f8bb68f29974a2208f86f24c25d7f654415/src/steam_api.cpp#L1104[/url]
Kaldaien's never denied this (and he'll tell you about this behaviour if you ask, but he doesn't go out of his way to make this clear to pirate users either. Obviously he objects to the "malware" characterisation (which I think is misleading, as "malware" usually implies something far more sinister).
I don't think he gets away clean with "I'm only trying to cover my ass" either though, the mod goes beyond simply refusing to work on pirated copies.[/QUOTE]
[code] if (valid)
ImGui::MenuItem ("I am not a pirate", "", &valid, false);
else
{
if (ImGui::MenuItem ("I am a filthy pirate!"))
{
if (GetFileAttributes (L"CPY.ini") != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
{
DeleteFileW (L"CPY.ini");
MoveFileW (L"steam_api64.dll", L"CPY.ini");
MoveFileW (L"steamclient64.dll", L"steam_api64.dll");
MoveFileW (L"CPY.ini", L"steamclient64.dll");
}
}
}[/code]
I'm a bit on the fence here. On one hand this code is seemingly defective, breaks something the user installed and isn't descriptively labeled. (This really should just say 'uninstall crack' and trash those files.)
On the other hand this literally says 'I am a filthy pirate!' on the menu item itself.
It's not something I personally would do (to quite this extent), but I can't say I have a serious problem with it either.
this seems like something yoko taro himself would find amusing
I don't like this even though I pre-ordered and paid full price for Nier.
Once again. This is not preventing pirating, this is just annoying people. Stop doing it.
Anyone who would pay for Nier in the first place, would have done so by now, or does so at some point.
I still pirate some games, just because i want to try them before deciding to give my money for it.
I stopped using the FAR mod long ago myself.
[editline]11th May 2017[/editline]
Don't try to act as "official drm solution" with "unofficial mod". In the first place it's not his right to decide if Nier needs DRM check or not.
EDIT:
Just to clear one thing: I only pirate games to try them out to decide if i buy it. I pay for the games i decide to own.
(Blame this for the trend where barely anyone makes demo's of games or lets you try in some way)
[QUOTE=creec;52214380][...], this is just annoying people. [...][/QUOTE]
That's the intention :v:
If someone pirates something, they definitely aren't entitled to get the same smooth experience as everyone else. It doesn't matter if that's with mods or without.
(Note that I'm not saying everyone [I]should[/I] add DRM and/or crack checks to their mods, even though I absolutely wouldn't mind it as long as it doesn't impact legitimate users.)
I can kinda maybe understand having this from a technical standpoint, just not supporting pirated versions and getting bad bug reports thatay not be valid.
But if I owned Nier: Automata, I wouldn't support this mod because I do not support DRM in modding. I wouldn't download it ever, legit or no.
[editline]11th May 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52214612]I can kinda maybe understand having this from a technical standpoint, just not supporting pirated versions to avoid getting bad bug reports that may not be valid.
But if I owned Nier: Automata, I wouldn't support this mod because I do not support DRM in modding. I wouldn't download it ever, legit or no.[/QUOTE]
[editline]11th May 2017[/editline]
Oops I thought that was edit... Can we not edit posts anymore or am I bugging out over here?
[QUOTE=Tamschi;52214183][code] if (valid)
ImGui::MenuItem ("I am not a pirate", "", &valid, false);
else
{
if (ImGui::MenuItem ("I am a filthy pirate!"))
{
if (GetFileAttributes (L"CPY.ini") != INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES)
{
DeleteFileW (L"CPY.ini");
MoveFileW (L"steam_api64.dll", L"CPY.ini");
MoveFileW (L"steamclient64.dll", L"steam_api64.dll");
MoveFileW (L"CPY.ini", L"steamclient64.dll");
}
}
}[/code]
I'm a bit on the fence here. On one hand this code is seemingly defective, breaks something the user installed and isn't descriptively labeled. (This really should just say 'uninstall crack' and trash those files.)
On the other hand this literally says 'I am a filthy pirate!' on the menu item itself.
It's not something I personally would do (to quite this extent), but I can't say I have a serious problem with it either.[/QUOTE]
IMO he's overstepping with this function in particular, as it [I]is[/I] malicious (though I find the term "malware" misleading, it implies the program does much worse)... but I don't particularly care either.
[QUOTE=creec;52214380]In the first place it's not his right to decide if Nier needs DRM check or not.[/QUOTE]
Why isn't it his right to add whatever checks he wants to [I]his[/I] code?
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52214612]I can kinda maybe understand having this from a technical standpoint, just not supporting pirated versions and getting bad bug reports thatay not be valid.
But if I owned Nier: Automata, I wouldn't support this mod because I do not support DRM in modding. I wouldn't download it ever, legit or no.[/QUOTE]
Fair enough, though I'd like to note it's not [I]effective[/I] DRM. It's an easily disabled check and everyone's [I]legally allowed[/I] to remove it from the publicly available source code and distribute such "cracked" versions.
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52214612]I wouldn't download it ever, legit or no.
[/QUOTE]
Okay. You do you. Why would we care what you choose to download? It's not as if you're paying for it.
My stance of piracy has always been pretty neutral, but you have no rightbto complain about anything if you didn't pay for the game
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