Personally I think they should jave called it STARFARCE for all the rigmarol you have to go to use one of these games.
The game in question (one of many, but used as an example) Prince of Persia The Two Thrones [PC].
Starfoce is the new 'craze' in game protection for PC games.
It uses...
1. A unique key for each disc (which is checked against)
2. Unique 'special' (bad) sectors on the 'play CD' that has to be inserted in your CD/DVD drive.
3. Contacts the Starforce server online to check for a valid key.
4. Stops the game from loading if you have an IDE CD/DVD burner in your machine (which almost everyone has)
Okay, so No. 1 and 3 are fine by me - they protect the legit users and have been used by the 'big' companies like 'i.d. software' for Quake 4, etc...
It's No. 2 & 4 that annoy people!
It's bad enough that every time you want to play the game that you have to insert a 'play disc' (despite the fact that all of the game files are on your HDD) - then somethimes if you have a 'cheap' DVD/CD reader, it will not read the 'special' sectors on the disc...
Then No. 4 - UGH...what idiot came up with this CR@P.
Most nearly everyone owns a burner now...but to play a Starforce game you have to have an EXTERNAL USB2.0 burner!!! Just to play a game! That you legitimately bought from a shop!
My opinion - STARFORCE SUCKS!