Just updating this:

Today, it seems my network is now being flooded by Pirates. Every time I logged in to get a game going, I've had people with bootleg copies trying to setup games and asking me to host. Really, I'm not a morale cop and I can give a crap less if you bootleg or not. I've done my share of bootlegging games in my time; so I'm really not a clean nosed upstanding individual.

I will say, however, I blow my cash on companies like Stardock and others who have tried to prove that new games and software don't need DRM. I usually end up buying any game I'm going to play long term, especially multiplayer games. I even bought a copy of World of Goo, which is singleplayer and has no DRM, because it's freaking cool.

Demigod, I took a chance on. After playing many MMO's at launch and other games like Starcraft and others, I knew better than to hop in expecting perfect multiplayer. But still, I bought it (albeit early......didn't know the Gamestop fiasco), because it had Stardock and Gas Powered on it. Sins was a hoot in my book, I'd be willing to risk it on this.

What pisses me off the most isn't that people are pirating the game; that's expected and if anything is often a sign of a good game -- what pisses me off is the sheer signs of utmost disrespect I'm getting from pirated players who feel like they're entitled to something for nothing.

Nothing has angered me more than having people join my Hamachi nets and fucking argue with me when I tell them to leave. I've had people playing coy, trying to tell me bullshit stories like they needed to play the "cracked" copy of the game because they scratched their CD and can't play the Impulse version without their disk. Anyone who has installed or registered their games with Impulse should already fucking know what a crock that is.

I've had one person even argue that I was being unfair; that not being allowed to play pirated games over Hamachi defeated the purpose of using it to begin with. In all honesty, looking back, the last several game titles I've played over Hamachi -- C&C3, Company of Heroes, and some others -- I own legit copies of, and played against other legit players, because we had trouble seeing eachother over internet services. Go figure! Stardock isn't the first company to have some quirks at launch!

Yeah, I'm kinda ranting now, but I'm just trying to get my point across: I'm ceasing bothering with the public Hamachi Networks, and anyone who enjoyed them can thank the pirates for it.

To be fair, there were enough who respected my requests and logged off. They know who they are; if you guys get the game, I'll gladly play with ya. There were some cool peeps I met over the network, and I would LOVE to get some private networks going. But as far as taking the time to try to help out, I'm affraid Stardock is right.......Pirate to Legit ratio is apparently astronomical.

Currently there is little motivation aside from the ethical to actually purchase the game.  There is no added features or capabilities to be had by playing over Stardock's online service.  In fact, the hamachi servers have been a step ahead thus far.  Once stardock gets things rolling, and moreso when they release content patches with heroes/maps/balance/fixes I figure most of the piraters will either buy the game or quit playing.  You'll have the hardcore hamachi pirates who get the new patches and continue to hamachi, but it wont be as good as the full game at that point.  Until then, we can only wave goodbye and smile.

How can you tell they're bootleg copies?

I could give two flying fucks less whether there's motivation to purchase the game or not. It doesn't make the piracy seem justified in flooding networks for the legit players. This wasn't a debate of ethics, nor a debate of whether Demigod is worth the price.

It's the simple fact that the only rule I had for my networks were fucking be legit (ya know, cuz I'm a legit player and not wanting to spend hours telling h4xxor script kiddies how to get their cracked copies to work just to hear "OMG IT SAYS EXECUTABLE NOT COMPATIBLE! YOU PATCHED!"

My nets, my rules, and the only real rule I had was legit players. I tried being polite, but after the 15th or so person tried to cry like I took their lolly because I wanted particular users in my nets, I just decided that's what I get for trying to do something good for the community.

I'm not going to babysit people playing a different version of the game I want to play and have them cry when they can't connect to the other half of the community because they refuse to buy the game legally. I'm also not going to let them take up more slots on my networks that could've gone to legit players, and I sure as fuck am not going to grin and be a good suzie matchmaker for these people when they straight up lie to me to stay on a network full of peeps they can't even play with anyways.

Pretty sad, but this is exactly why I have avoided even trying Hamachi despite the good things I've heard about it.  A good service, capable of letting you play when you have issues with a companies matchmaking system, but its infested with pirates. 

Why avoid it? Myself and friends use it often when games have poor servers online etc. It just runs alot smoother when all we want to do is CPU matches on RTS games for example.