DRM sucks.

Just downloaded Crysis from steam and couldnt run it due to this bullshit, then after spending too much time trying to remember my EA account details from way back when I played Farcry I contacted Steam support which will take at least 15 hours so thought fuck it get a crack from gamecopyworld.com

BINGO.

I shouldnt have to do that if I am a legitimate consumer.

Ya thats BS. Just gives people a reason to pirate games next time. Kinda surprised you got that if you got it on steam, I got crysis warhead via steam and saw no such code entry.

Thats just plain weird from a game on Steam.

Its uncalled for.
And of course it pisses you off.
You should be able to play that game immediately.

EA should try harder. There has to be a balance between protecting folks investments and livliehood and this shit.
Really, you COULD blame it on thieves.

I thinkits because I didnt uninstall the game when I formatted in the past so it thinks its still installed on other computers.
It doesnt matter whos fault it is it is only inconveniencing the people that buy these games not the pirates

I think they do this with all of the downloadables that arent a true steam game (ie Valve). They just want to make sure you have a legitimate copy that you paid for. Yea its a pain in the ass to have to save the emails for all the games you buy over the download service. Honestly I cant blame them for wanting a key typed in for a new install. Not sure how easy it is give them a fake CD key code and get away with it. I never personally tried.

If all mp games used accounts, that u create using ur key, then there wont be any neeed for that crap, they cant stop ppl from playing/cracking single player anyway.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Keefy.

In CoD-WaW you MUST BE ONLINE to play any style MP game. Even when trying to host a lan game. The game requires you to be online to to verify your copy is legit. Me and a friend have been trying to LAN nazi zombies forever, where we play there is no internet access.

Whats worse about it, is it lets you host the LAN lobby, the friend can join, but he never loads through getting a 'Servery synchronization Error". I was in contact with Activison support for 2 weeks with this issue and they couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Tried all sorts of stuff to no avail.

The last email Tarik Obama Bin Laden sent me said roughly "You must be online to host co-op LAN games to verify your account with the master server". I responded with a couple more questions and they never got back to me on it. Then 48hours later I got an email stating my case had been resolved. Great support!!

then they released patch 1.6 and I thought 'oh shit, maybe....just maybe' drove 23 miles to my friends house to test it out --- nope.

We have played together, when he comes to my house so we can use the internet. Regardless of hosting 'Online' or hosting 'LAN' - we've never had an issue getting the game to synch/play when interweb is connected.

Why they even give you a LAN option I have no idea, since you need to be online - you just click 'host online' instead of 'host lan'.
Even more stupid is the fact when hosting LAN, people can still join the friggin Lobby, regardless of where they are.
DRM = consumer headaches.

Also, I had a similar issue with crysis, not uninstalling it first before a re-format. When I went to reinstall it denied me. So I said F-it. Single player was boring and MP has no players (vanilla crysis) and didn't pursue the issue. However, have x amount of time it did allow me to reinstall it for whatever reason.

so, if anyone knows how to LAN
CoD-WaW in offline mode please share your info. The first 10 pages of Google search are pretty useless, especially since 3/4 of the shit pertains to xbox/ps3.

oh yeah, the only thing you can do in OFFLINE mode that I found, was creating a Listen Server through the MP.exe
He can join those games fine, but you cannot switch it to nazi_zombie games through console or in-game voting options.

Whee. lets 1v1 on a 36 person map!!! fun fun.

[-]September 29, 2009 - Steam client update released

Steam Client

Improved support for displaying third-party DLC CD keys

Does this fix/change it maybe?

I will check it out, I have since found out the CD key is tored in the registry so I have since entred it and now use the proper exe, steam support was absolutely no help what so ever soemoneon the steam forums suggested looking in the registry.
I received an infraction from steam mods for "promoting warez" by saying i used a no cd fix.