Games locking you out for ridiculous reasons

[moggett88]

I own Warp on Steam - I played for a while, got bored, deleted it and played other stuff. Earlier, I felt like giving it another shot, so I reinstalled, only to find out that I am locked out due to my @ key being broken. Since EA need me to create an account for some reason (even if I play offline) I cant play unless I can use my @ key. I cant use the on-screen keyboard, because it minimises the window. I cant copy paste an @ in, because reasons. I cant even start the game and turn on windowed mode without signing in...basically, the entire game has been tied to the @ key, and so is not for me.

Has anyone else been stopped from playing a game for an equally stupid reason?

 

[Bad Jim]

The Sonic Mega Collection detects the amount of RAM you have and quits if you don't have enough. Problem is, if you have more than 2GB (and most of you do) the game thinks you have no RAM and exits.

Yes, you can mess with a few Window settings and make it only use 2GB and then you're set. But then you only have 2GB of RAM, and you have to reboot to change it which is too much hassle just to play ancient games.

The really aggravating part is that these are MegaDrive/Genesis games. They should require hardly any RAM to run. Without the RAM check it would have crashed maybe twice anywhere ever. And the correct way to check RAM is to attempt to allocate it and quit if the attempt fails.

 

[DoPo]

basically, the entire game has been tied to the @ key, and so is not for me.

You can change your keyboard layout to something that has the @ symbol elsewhere - in the US layout it's in the place of " so that's Shift+2. Or you can also change the mapping of the keyboard yourself and put the key that has the at symbol in place of Pause, or something, if you think you'll need it.

Other than that, I can't say I've had a problem similar to this.

 

[njrk97]

wait...So you complaing cause EA decided to assume the @ key on peoples keyboard is working. Why not just borrow a keyboard of a friend and use that or something.

 

[Abomination]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

 

[AuronFtw]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

I just checked, I don't think there is (according to charmap).

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

This. Most games will say on the box they require keyboard and mouse input. If your input is broken, that's not the game's fault.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Got Bioshock Infinite and Crysis 3 for free when I bought my graphics card.
Does needing to Download and install origin count as ridiculous?

OT:
Most people have keyboard with functioning @ keys. Just borrow one form a friend and you'll be fine.

 

[Abomination]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

I just checked, I don't think there is (according to charmap).

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

This. Most games will say on the box they require keyboard and mouse input. If your input is broken, that's not the game's fault.

A-hah! Found it.

Alt + 576 = @

 

[Jaythulhu]

wait...So you complaing cause EA decided to assume the @ key on peoples keyboard is working. Why not just borrow a keyboard of a friend and use that or something.

o <------ The Point





O <------ Your Head.


No, the OP is not "complaining because EA did something". EA had nothing to do with the code of Warp Storm, the developer did. What the OP is saying is that it is very silly for a game not to work just because he can't create an @ symbol with his keyboard, and is asking if anyone else has found other, equally silly reasons for a game to lock you out of it.

I agree with him. For a game to lock you out because a single key on your keyboard doesn't work, while not allowing you any of the myriad means of putting an @ symbol into a text box, is flat-out pants-up-nose retarded.

 

[lacktheknack]

I couldn't play Dark Souls on my computer for the longest time... It turns out that GFWL (OF COURSE) was reducing the sign-in screen to about 0.01 FPS. I left it alone for six hours once, and then it worked. Boots up fine ever since.

 

[FoolKiller]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

I just checked, I don't think there is (according to charmap).

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

This. Most games will say on the box they require keyboard and mouse input. If your input is broken, that's not the game's fault.

A-hah! Found it.

Alt + 576 = @

Oh... and if OP doesn't understand, it means:

hold down Alt, then press 5, then press 7, then press 6, and release Alt.

And no. Because if the game seems to lock me out I forget about it because I find a work around no matter what.

 

[Coach Morrison]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

I just checked, I don't think there is (according to charmap).

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

This. Most games will say on the box they require keyboard and mouse input. If your input is broken, that's not the game's fault.

A-hah! Found it.

Alt + 576 = @

Was about to say just use ASCII commands use it and then I saw your post.

ALT + 64 will also give you the same results unless your number pad is broken.

The only game I've been locked out of was Star Wars: The Old Republic after I tried coming back last in may. Before they went F2P I was a subscriber and used an authenticator. Turns out thats a subscriber only thing now and I had to call their support line to get it taken off, because just deactivating it when someone un-subbed would be to easy. On the bright side they had been giving me the new paid currency for every month I had the authenticator locked to my account.

 

[Something Amyss]

Isn't there also an alt+numberpad combo that generates the @ symbol?

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

evidently, it's 64.

http://www.alt-codes.net/

@@@@@ (interspersed between Alt+64 @s and normal ones)

Or a new keyboard, borrow a keyboard, whatever. This seems like an easy fix.

No, the OP is not "complaining because EA did something". EA had nothing to do with the code of Warp Storm, the developer did. What the OP is saying is that it is very silly for a game not to work just because he can't create an @ symbol with his keyboard, and is asking if anyone else has found other, equally silly reasons for a game to lock you out of it.

I agree with him. For a game to lock you out because a single key on your keyboard doesn't work, while not allowing you any of the myriad means of putting an @ symbol into a text box, is flat-out pants-up-nose retarded.

Of course, it isn't really tied to the @ symbol, is it? Any given key could be broken, and that could potentially be an issue. I mean, imagine if the '.' key was broken.

People might even agree, except it's not unreasonable to expect people have a functioning keyboard to play a game and there are so many ways around it even though he's made it sound impossible. His inability to cope became the story because the difficulty is trivial.

It's not missing the point, it's looking at the issue for what it is.

By contrast:

I couldn't play Dark Souls on my computer for the longest time... It turns out that GFWL (OF COURSE) was reducing the sign-in screen to about 0.01 FPS. I left it alone for six hours once, and then it worked. Boots up fine ever since.

That is an unreasonable issue. And weird.

 

[The AmeriCanadian Gamer]

I can't play Far Cry 2 because they have that stupid "limited installs" DRM. I would have actually played that game but I wasn't able to recover my previous installs because of machine switches and other reasons. Really stupid stuff.

 

[thejackyl]

It's not a game, but I got locked out of my smartphone because I was showing it off, it went to sleep, and my mom was trying to guess my pattern (and was trying to actually draw something, not just connect the 3 dots for my pattern). Locked me out for 10 minutes.

I know it's in case someone steals my phone, but it was still annoying when I knew right where my phone was.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Before Cry of Fear was greenlighted on Steam, I tried installing the mod but I couldn't get it to work. Apparently, there's 2 different versions of Half-Life 1, the source edition and the original. Both are basically the fucking same except the mod doesn't work with the source version so I had to buy another version of the same game to play the mod. It was totally worth $5 but still silly

And I think OP's point, is that stupid stuff is stupid. It doesn't matter who's fault it was, he couldn't play a game he bought because an unused key was broken.

And considering how annoying and pointless the royal baby coverage is over here in the states, I can't imagine how torturous it must be in the UK right now

 

[njrk97]

wait...So you complaing cause EA decided to assume the @ key on peoples keyboard is working. Why not just borrow a keyboard of a friend and use that or something.

o <------ The Point





O <------ Your Head.


No, the OP is not "complaining because EA did something". EA had nothing to do with the code of Warp Storm, the developer did. What the OP is saying is that it is very silly for a game not to work just because he can't create an @ symbol with his keyboard, and is asking if anyone else has found other, equally silly reasons for a game to lock you out of it.

I agree with him. For a game to lock you out because a single key on your keyboard doesn't work, while not allowing you any of the myriad means of putting an @ symbol into a text box, is flat-out pants-up-nose retarded.

No but he needed to sign up using a EA thing, anyway the point still stands, developer dont need to assume that you don't have the functioning tools to play the game.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Go buy a new keyboard. You can get a cheap one for under $20.

This. Actually, just go to a second hand store and chances are one of them will have a bin full of them. Super low budget but perfectly working keyboards and mice for $5 or even $1.

 

[Tanis]

Couldn't you just use a digital keyboard, that most OSs have?