Stupid Microsoft

My Rise of Nations game won't run. And it is all Microsoft's fault.

You see, they put this copyright protection thing on it where if the cd drive can't identify certain "bad" spots on the cd, then it won't play. Well, apparently my cd drive skips over bad spots. And I am not the only one who has this problem. There are several forum conversations devoted to this problem and its possible solutions.

It turns out that there is no solution. Some people who bought this game just can't play it. And Microsoft doesn't care. They have done nothing to fix it - no patch, no support, no interest in the issue what-so-ever.

Actually, there is one solution. You can go to a pirate site and get a crack. You can download an illegal hack that will circumvent the problem. That is the only way to get the game to run.

So, in an attempt to stop people from illegally copying their game, they have set up a situation where honest people who have spent good money on the game, are forced to get help from the same illegal hackers they were trying to avoid in the first place. Good thinking guys. I hate pirates. They steal other people's hard work because they can. They are no different from a shoplifter. And if I want to play Rise of Nations, I have to interact with them. Bleh.

I have downloaded the crack. Actually, Mikey has. Now I just have to figure out how to get it onto my internet-less game computer. If Rise of Nations weren't so much fun, I would have given up long ago.