Who will be publishing Storm of War mainly - 1C Publishing? I hope so.
It is not true that people ONLY pirate things they would never buy. People have various motives and values. Some think it's always ok to not give and only take because it is possible. Some think that which is illegal is always immoral no matter the actual ethics (after all, many evil things are legal). Some people would like to pay for all the things they copied and played through and enjoyed, but don't believe they can afford to do that in every case. I used to copy most things I played in the past. Then (long ago) my favourite gaming studios ever, Looking Glass, went bankrupt, and I had not paid for my favourite games ever. A wake up call. I even bought it later, even though it was already too late. Mmm the Thief Collection...
Since then, I end up buying most of the games I really enjoy playing (the rest I just abandon after trying for a short time). But one thing that I find very discouraging from buying is retarded copy protection systems. I only bought SH3 after they patched it out, and SH4 I bought to show my support but the copy protection really pissed me off, and I barely played it. I'm much happier and likely to hand over my money to the companies that won't try to make my enjoyment of the product I paid for worse.
I think online activation is something I can accept very willingly - it's so easy to find time to get online just for a moment to activate it. If they want, they can require an activation once every month even, with the IMPORTANT distinction that it does not just stop you from using it if not activated past the date, but instead will cease functioning after 2 weeks if not activated. Most people would get online that frequently at least, so it's not intrusive. Any more than that and I rapidly start getting a strongly negative opinion of the product as a whole, and don't want to encourage that sort of behaviour for any publisher doing that.
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