FOF 2007 v6.3b E_license Question

[53Hipster76]

Have FOF 2007 v6.3b on Windows XP Pro. Went to License site and entered info to retrieve Order ID and License ID. Also Sent e-mail. Have Not heard back in a couple of days. When I went into control panel, There is no applet or icon for elicense there; just the usual windows applets. How do I find my licnese ID as I want to reinstall game onto a Windows 7 Pro Desktop. Finally, Is there anything I should be aware of when I install FOF 2007 v6.3b or FOF 2007 v6.4 onto the new computer? Thanks to all who answer this query.

[stevew]

Your ID should be in the email you received when you purchased the game. It starts with a VT I believe.

Via tech's customer support is less than spectacular, to say the least

[53Hipster76]

I Know. I have waited two days and yet to hear from them except I received a ticket number. What GIVES?!?!

[dubb93]

I Know. I have waited two days and yet to hear from them except I received a ticket number. What GIVES?!?!

Elicense is awful. I know it isn't going to help you or what you want to hear, but it's one of the reasons many around here were to happy to see FOF move to Steam with FOF 7 and beyond.

Jim maintains that they will get back to you when you email them. I guess just be patient. I sent them an email once and never heard back. Had to figure out a fix on my own.

[stevew]

I Know. I have waited two days and yet to hear from them except I received a ticket number. What GIVES?!?!

They never used to be so awful. My guess is that they are an extremely small operation and have reached the IDGAF state. Or maybe had always been there and now have zero left to give.

[aston217]

My last experience with eLicense was attempting to unlicense it for the FOF7 conversion. It wouldn't go through, and I never heard back from support. Do we know if they are even still operating? Has anyone performed a license/unlicense operation for FOF2k7 or FOF7 in the last several months?

[QuikSand]

I'm retiring a CPU I have FOF installed on... crossing my fingers that my unlicense process goes smoothly without having to rely on Team Dipshit for help.

[dubb93]

I'm retiring a CPU I have FOF installed on... crossing my fingers that my unlicense process goes smoothly without having to rely on Team Dipshit for help.

The old manual unlicense command worked for me last time I needed it and these jokers wouldn't respond to my emails. Unfortunately I've lost the command, but I know it's on the forums here somewhere.

[QuikSand]

I got messages that my elicenses were dropped successfully for five products...we'll see if I'm able to get them to reattach when I have the new rig set up.

[stevew]

I'm retiring a CPU I have FOF installed on... crossing my fingers that my unlicense process goes smoothly without having to rely on Team Dipshit for help.

It's great how everyone has now moved onto "Fuck Those Guys" status with eLicense

[Solecismic]

Yeah, great...

The numbers suggest a significant drop in popularity, but when I offered a free transition over to Steam, less than 2% of my customers made a request. About 80% of those who did were able to unlicense - most, presumably, not needing any intervention from ViaTech - just click the unlicense option in the installation directory and you're good to go.

I'm not saying that ViaTech is perfect. They haven't updated their product in several years, so it's not a seamless integration with Windows 7+. They're definitely slower in responding to customers than in the past, and their primary email address must get caught in a lot of spam traps - they need to make some adjustments.

Steam's customer-based solution is better from a technological perspective. But it isn't perfect, either. And I can't call up the president of Valve with concerns. Nor can I guarantee that they'll even publish any future Solecismic product. Valve also costs more than twice what ViaTech costs.

There's definitely a very vocal segment that's not happy with ViaTech. I've passed along quite a few comments, but with most of my new sales being on Steam right now, I can't push anything at the moment. It's just not good for Front Office Football to see this kind of sentiment. They're still the ones who have been signing my paychecks for almost 14 years now. There certainly wouldn't be a Solecismic any more if not for ViaTech. As bad as you feel about the electronic licensing, how would people feel if I still had the CDs with the keys and I still spent months of each year packaging and handling manufacturing issues?

[Alf]

fwiw, I haven't been able to unlicense so I repurchased : "Happy FOF7 customer here" anyway. The game and hours of gaming it provides (provided) me is worth me paying twice anyway.

[stevew]

Jim, I don't think anyone would hold you responsible for these guys. They fell off, not you.

[QuikSand]

Sorry, didn't mean to set off a tinderbox here. I'll likely be setting things up soon, and hopefully the eLicense stuff will work out smoothly.

[dubb93]

Not really sure how or why I should be happy with them. I guess they were noninvasive enough at one point, but the one time I had a real issue with them they never replied to me.

This last bit obviously has nothing to do with you and only applies to other companies, but I find it completely ridiculous that I've had to buy multiple copies of games from other companies via viatech due to licensing issues and limits.

Frankly if the option was viatech or DRM free I don't understand why the answer isn't DRM free. If I wanted to pirate your game...or any other companies game...I would pirate it. Viatech nor Steam would stop me from pirating it if I really wanted to do that.

[Solecismic]

ViaTech's technology actually is fairly hard to pirate. I don't think I can say the same for Steam.

I think the biggest issue with ViaTech, though, is that they are several years removed from development. The developer himself has long forgotten error codes and reasons for specific errors. The documentation doesn't match the behavior of the library.

When I integrated the full protection of their library, I was engaging the pieces that caused severe data errors (which lead to crashes or obvious data corruption well down the road) for customers who hadn't tried to pirate the game. That type of false positive is not good treatment of your customers. I'd much rather miss a hack attempt than punish someone unfairly.

After repeated assurances that what people were reporting was "impossible," I finally removed those full protections. This would make piracy easier - but I don't know how much easier.

I hate leaving ViaTech. The idea of supporting another small business means a lot to me. But there's no way I can justify another major release under their umbrella.

I can't fully fix what they've done or fully maintain their licenses. But I can and should take responsibility for the situation and refrain from further support of a system that isn't working as well as it should under Windows 7+.

Anyway, I figure anyone with a lot of pirated software already has dealt with so many viruses that their computer resembles a Las Vegas hotel after a sales convention.

[53Hipster76]

I am not holding any criticism toward the creator or owner of the software, only toward the licensing agency. I "think" I found the information in a Yahoo email that I saved. It begins with a "VT" prefix. I would like to know how many installs one license is valid for as well as if I can uninstall my current license and TRANSFER the license to a new computer?
Second, one should have a "Reasonable Expectation" that you should have a "decent" customer service experience. All I am saying is that you should not have to wait three to four days to get a response. ( Understanding that the licensing agency probably receives hundreds of emails daily ).

Thank you to all who have responding.

[dubb93]

ViaTech's technology actually is fairly hard to pirate. I don't think I can say the same for Steam.


I guess. I mean the only game I have pirated since the early 2000's is a Deadliest Catch game that the company who made it refuses to sell anymore. I even sent them an email and they referred me to the second hand market since it has been out of print so long. That said even I was able to find legit cracked copies of viatech only games in less than 10 seconds. I don't think any of it is secure.

My opinion of DRM is that it punishes legit customers and does little about pirates. The only reason I enjoy Steam so much is because it actually makes things more convenient for me than even having something DRM free would since I would likely have to spend time figuring out where the file needs downloaded from and hunt down patches and such in a DRM free version. Plus it adds all the social content as well.

[stevew]

Yes, 2 simultaneous installs and you need to unlicense I'd you wanna transfer. There's a command line prompt to unlicense but I can't remember it

[stevew]

Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - How to unlicense game? not what you think (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=1467384&postcount=10)