Assetto Corsa Torrents - How Do We Stop This?

[Juris]

Ok a bit more serious than my usual threads. I was googling Assetto Corsa Headlights and up pops a vid for a torrent of my favourite sim. I checked the usual sources for these things (names & locations will not be mentioned) and yep its there and it wasn't the tech preview.

I'm seriously f-ing pissed off now. This is what I was worrying about. The one thing iRacing has over AC is its almost impossible to crack. Their system is closed and tracked. This is the kind of thing that could destroy Kunos and mean manufacturers stop licensing as revenue dries up.

So basically, what can be done to stop these scumbags as I'm in no mood to race alongside these thieves. There has to be some form of iRacing style system that can check and block them. Suggestions please.

 

[Ben Lee]

Regular software updates are the best way to protect against thieves.

 

[mesa]

If developers doesn't care about it, why you do?

 

[Juris]

If developers doesn't care about it, why you do?

Probably because we give a damn about the development of what could be the best racing sim of all time and we don't want to see it go down in flames like so many promising titles in gaming history due to piracy.

Who said that Kunos don't care. Unless you haven't realised from their other posts its been their heart and soul for years put into this.

 

[Stephen Austin]

Many people approach is that they want to try out a game before buying. And since AC isn't even released adn we are paying for a unfinished product, some are not willing to pay so lightly like us. Just look at yesterdays rage about DLC. Personally I think that sims are for a very specific customer. And these will buy game sooner or later, with or without trying the game before on torrents. It definetaly won't hurt player base. And as for the money as I said, it depends on how good the games is.

exactly this.

I hope I don't get banned for admitting this but before I bought AC I tried a torrent of it. I almost always do with PC games nowadays, and AC was no exception. After a few laps I decided I had to have AC for real and bought it.

I have a wheel and I'd consider myself a hardcore player.

I know I'm not the norm, but every torrent download does not equal a lost sale for Kunos.

Now obviously I'm being subjective and I can't really defend piracy with my personal story. But just the fact that a torrent exists of AC doesn't worry me, I believe the piracy issue will not harm Kunos.

Oh and if they required an always on connection to play offline, it'd fail in a heartbeat.

 

[Fabrizio Corona]

+1 for regular small updates, an in-game login server for MP (LAN included) would be even better to completely remove pirates from multiplayer.

Let them pirate SP, trust me a lot will buy the game to play online, AI gets boring. We must avoid giving them free MP at all costs, though. Racing with pirates would particularly annoy me.

 

[Marian Zelenka]

Well, the good thing is they made it to Steam even though lots of people are not happy with it. But the point is that with Steam sales they may attract lots of people in future which is not a bad thing. And you know what Gabe said about sales? It generates much more money than normaly. Otherwise they wouldn't do it. Now imagine how would KS do it if they were selling AC over their own website. Piracy regardless, I'm sure they'll get their money. Yeah, I know it (torrents) sucks, but I wouldn't be worrying right now.

 

[Simon Kaminski]

exactly this.

I hope I don't get banned for admitting this but before I bought AC I tried a torrent of it. I almost always do with PC games nowadays, and AC was no exception. After a few laps I decided I had to have AC for real and bought it.

I have a wheel and I'd consider myself a hardcore player.

I know I'm not the norm, but every torrent download does not equal a lost sale for Kunos.

Now obviously I'm being subjective and I can't really defend piracy with my personal story. But just the fact that a torrent exists of AC doesn't worry me, I believe the piracy issue will not harm Kunos.

Oh and if they required an always on connection to play offline, it'd fail in a heartbeat.

And when a torrented game/software is crap in your eyes you played it without paying anything. Nice logic.

 

[Fabrizio Corona]

I wish i could have torrented BF 4 MP so i could see how much of a piece of crap it is. Not the case here but i see his point.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

It was inevitable that AC, like all forms of media, would succumb to Hackers/Pirates/Bootleggers who feel challenged to beat the Copyright systems used to control the distribution of the owners product. Valve/Steam has VAC (Valve Anti Cheat) which is the undisputed king when it comes to stopping unauthorised gaming online, and if you get busted by VAC it bans your account, permanently, regardless of your other steam games. This is one positive, with Kunos using Steam/Valve to distribute their product in my opinion. Sure the people that download illegitimate copies can run there own servers to avoid VAC, but in the end they are cheating themselves, as these servers don't usually last long. And who wants to race with them anyway, Im glad they cant go legit "I can". Hopefully it will not have that much of an impact on Kunos.

The best we can do as a community is give Kunos all the support they need, by telling everyone we know about AC, and continue to post AC vids on utube, so more people get to see how awesome it is. If you wanted, there are things you can do to assist in the breaking down of these sites, if you are that pissed off with the thought of your fav game being on a torrent site, alert the game dev or your local authorities, maybe they can do something about it, but in reality I think we need to accept that, as long as hackers exist, so will illegal copies of all forms of digital media, and hackers do it for the notoriety, not for money.

Cheers

 

[Paul McCluskey]

wot is weird they all say if you like this support the developer n buy it

 

[Paul McCluskey]

iracin got pirated 1st time it got released, latest ac torrent hasnt the latest update

 

[Travis]

I had a conversation with a developer from the now defunct Bizarre Creations about their James Bond game appearing online for illegal download 2 weeks prior to its launch date and what could be done to stop the pirates; the answer was a resounding nothing.

We've all done our bit to support Kunos in buying AC. All we can do is hope the people who pirate AC view their illegal copy as a rental and buy the sim if they like what they play. Incremental updates won't do a lot - I hope something is implemented to stop these people playing online.

When I play CARS, it requires a username and password to be entered (it saves it automatically) in order to access the sim, probably more for the multiplayer; I'd like something similar for AC as the last thing anyone wants is another situation like the public lobbies for Race '07/Race On/GTR Evo.

 

[Bryan O'Connor]

Some people probably download the torrent in order to see how well the game runs on their particular system. Then if all is ok buy the real version.

 

[Mapu]

waiting for the demo...

 

[Dinca Andrei]

Some people probably download the torrent in order to see how well the game runs on their particular system. Then if all is ok buy the real version.

That might be right but we are talking about the ones that dont buy it even if they like it...because they have it free

 

[LazyBug]

Consider nowaday many games are actually still very much beta version with lot of bugs (BF4 & COD Ghost is the latest example) so i guess it make sense to do so. Test first buy later. Its like review the game by themselve.

 

[Guus]

Piracy might not be such a bad thing for a game like this. With racing games its really important that it feels good to you, and many people wont just buy a game only to find out it doesnt feel right to them or doesnt work well with their wheel etc. Im very sure people can not play multiplayer properly with a pirated version. And since most people like to play their sims online, they will have to buy it. I see the piracy as a way for people to try out a game before they decide to buy it, and I believe that because this game is so awesome, many pirates will end up buying it for the multiplayer, resulting in more sales.

 

[Senad Subasic]

Valve/Steam has VAC (Valve Anti Cheat) which is the undisputed king when it comes to stopping unauthorised gaming online, and if you get busted by VAC it bans your account, permanently, regardless of your other steam games.

VAC is an anti-cheat tool, as you said yourself, it doesn't handle illegal copies of games.

As far as the permanent ban goes, you are only permanently banned from playing VAC enabled games on VAC secure servers. You can continue playing any other games you have, or even playing the same one you cheated in, but only on insecure servers.

 

[Mark Quigley]

I purchased AC because I wanted to support the devs, a small team at that.
I know I was not buying a finished product or a product I would even like at the time.
In this case, to download an illegal copy to see of you like it is selfish and tbh quite a feeble excuse.
They are not a big developer, the product is not that expensive, they have a proven track (excuse the pun) record, I do not need to try an early access product illegally to find out if I like it or not.

 

[Juris]

Just a little tweet from Kunos today. Wonder how many support forum members are actually just pirates complaining their stolen copies have bugs.

AssettoCorsa@AC_assettocorsa
#AssettoCorsa official support forum now requires #Steam profile integration. Little countermeasure against pirates! bit.ly/1hGB7Bl