As a person who was excited about playing this game that I committed $60 dollars to pre-order it, it saddens me to say that after a day of trying to get Game Guard to work under Windows 7 including serverely compromising the security of my system, I am ready to cancel my pre-order and skip playing Aion until they get rid of Game Guard.

Before those of you who have no problems with playing the game or who will denounce this message with "it's a beta product" or "oh, he is just trolling", take a moment and think about what you are defend.ing. A end user of a game should NEVER have to compromise the security or stability of his or her machine in order to play a game.

As a mmo player for a couple of years now,  I applaud NCSoft for the proactive desire to control "botting" or other forms of cheating that does not involve there code. But to choose a third party solution which amounts to being nothing more than a  piece of malware. From the information I can gather, it exploit problems with the underline Windows APIs to perform some of  it's tasks. Bad design, since it will only break when Microsoft fixes up the code. This only leads to an end user being frustrated and annoyed with NCSoft.

If NCSoft can't write client code to accomplish the game integrity goals they desire, then they should sit down with the Microsoft engineers and work some kind of game mode or environment for Windows that provides them with a safe and stable way to achieve the integrity they desire. As much as I hate DRM, atleast Microsoft's code doesn't cause my system to crash or me to compromise my systems security.

I will try running the game in XP mode on my Win7 systems but I hold out no hope that this will be optimum or work at all. Hopefully, NCSoft will put out a fix for this ( which the said the 1.5.0.3 update would do) sometime this week. But since they have known about this issues since the CBTs, I doubt with in the next 15 days when Aion is to officially launch. People like me who choose to run a security OS will be able to play this game.

Let me end this post. Game Guard  in the end will hamper Aion more than it will help. For those who can play Aion without experiencing GG problems, I say congratulations. Aion is a great game from what I can tell from may play during the last CBT ( on a Vista machine without GG problems) but be wary of the fact that one future patch of the Windows OS will bring your enjoyment to an end.

GG is  deal-breaker for me. Otherwise, I would probably try it out.

I had same experience using Vista 64, I was following the help guide to get it running, but in the end I realised it involved turning all security measures off, I had to pause and have a serious WTF moment, dont care if the game is going to be stellar or not, but it got deleted off system purely because of Game Guard.

Which by the way works great on Net Cafe systems but is pretty bloody useless on home PC,s anyhow.

Gameguard is definitely going to be a huge source of concern, it doesn't so what it is supposed to do (stop cheating & bots - go see Lineage I & II for proof of it's efficacy) & god knows what it actually does, seeing as it is to all intents and purposes a "root-kit" the kind of insidious program virus prevention tools are designed to prevent being installed on your pc.

I won't touch any game with it with a ten-foot barge pole, I tried one game "Shaiya" i think it was, & it corrupted my system & meant I had to wipe my hd & start again, losing valuable personal info in the process, even a casual search about game-guard will reveal tons of info on just how bad it is & how many problems it can cause.

Currently I'm having issues with GG having false alarms and shutting down the game.

Having said that, I don't see how GameGuard, or Steam's VAC, or Blizzard's Warden compromise the security of my system or its stability. I believe we're a bit too paranoid over the issue. 

have 1 partition for gaming, 1 for working.

/thread

Originally posted by Xasapis

Currently I'm having issues with GG having false alarms and shutting down the game.

Having said that, I don't see how GameGuard, or Steam's VAC, or Blizzard's Warden compromise the security of my system or its stability. I believe we're a bit too paranoid over the issue. 

First, in order for me to get it to run in Vista, I had to run it with an account that has admin rights. Second, all the purposed fixes suggested by NCSoft, like turn off UAC or AnitVirus-Firewall. Compromises the security of the system.

Originally posted by Kenaoshi

have 1 partition for gaming, 1 for working.

/thread

Having seperate partition does eliminate the threat if you are booting into the same  OS  for both gaming and working.

ncsoft know of 3 issue witout  going in game 

issue with game guard with various kink to correct

second and none the least the block at or around level3 when you tracert 

third the block by another area of another company.

those 2 last problem are big issue for gamer.only know solution as of yet ,buy a software called gamepath

if this isnt hacker scam it sure looks like it.

just those 2 last problem being caused by level 3 or gate keeper att and time warner name doesnt mather

what matter is 90% of all aion issue can be tracert back to those two name

dont believe me go on aion forum theres lot of post on this and how to test if you got issue you ll probably be 1 of the 90%

and this isnt news back in the good old days of wow they had same issue same company .no fine for flow blockage no fine for any wrong doing

hell there was an article made in a new-york news paper its even avail online lol 

the 2 company or all other company linking there at that bridge are THE culprit

true if aion moved their server it would probably fix the issue

the thing is some aion fanboy are trying to say oh excuse ncsoft its not their fault ok 

¸will it enable us to play the game smoother with those 2 problematic block hell no it wont play smoother

it will only get worst ! why because gaming season is here ,and say 10 million player add say 2 million player from aion

only the one linked with the national service will be going trough as aion forum has shown 

90% has connection problem with level 3 and the other lol

nope its aions job to provide the game and make sure it works where they release it its not our job to make sure their game work here lol

now it doesnt work smoothly o they try to say its a stress test blablabla  almost all problem are outside the game lol

nha i ll wait a long bit before hoping on aion bandwagon

when ncsoft send a post saying they fixed those 3 issue then player can truelly see the potential of the game ,right now the way it is most would just begin hating ncsoft lol

better to wait till they found fix or workaround

The worst thing about Gameguard is that it dosen't work at all.

As Templars above said already, just take a look at Lineage II.

I remember when NC Soft announced they were going to bring Gameguard to L2 and there was an outcry on the official forums.

We got all sorts of assurances that it wouldn't be intrusive or mess with our systems and it all turned out to be BS.

I know of 2 top rated firewalls that just wouldn't allow you to play the game unless you disabled parts of their systems.

And for what?

My wife still plays Lineage II and it's still infested with bots.

NCsoft support suggested you remove your security software? Interesting. 

I'm still waiting on an answer for my own query.

Originally posted by Xasapis

NCsoft support suggested you remove your security software? Interesting. 

I'm still waiting on an answer for my own query.

im not surprised at all lol !yep good idea remove your security we ll send korean hackers then can screw your system  at gaming season!

ya right!nha guys steer clear of aion if you got issue for various reason wait 

and if ncsoft korea doesnt wake up at least player will have posted the info and the problem

You need to work on your English skills a bit. As a non-native English speaking person, I'm having real difficulty understanding you. 

GG's concept is good in theory. In practice...it can be somewhat lacking. It does curb some of the casual botters/hackers but overall it causes a lot of problems.

On the subject of Vista (64 bit) though, I have no issues and my machine is locked down fairly tight. I haven't yet tried Aion on WIN 7 simply because of a lack of time. (And WIN 7 is on my work laptop which I need for...work)

I tried this game out. Looks like it could be fun...but Gameguard was the dealbreaker for me. As soon as I saw it load up I knew there would be problems with my PC. Spellborn was another game I missed out on because of GG crashes. 

I've never worried much about not being able to run a new MMO. Why would a company like NCSoft be willing to risk loosing so many costomers. They are aware of the issues that GG causes for so many people. And it's not just  a simple fix, like running as admin on Vista. Many problems happen with XP as well, and from what I hear Win7 has issues with GG too.

And the other simple fix...turn off all your security for your PC. Ya...get right on that one. I am sure this game will be a success, but there will be also many who will pass this game by just because of Gameguard.

Uhh....neither? I don't even notice the damn thing other than the little box that pops up for 1.5 seconds when I start the game.

I can't believe how many people are crying over GG.

If THAT is the reason you don't play this game then lol @ you.

God people get worked up over the dumbest things. "OMG THIS GAME HAS GAMEGUARD?!?! I'M NEVER PLAYING IT NOW!"

Good, you don't seem like someone I would want to play with anyway.

Your loss.

Game guard has nothing to do with NCSoft; it is found in most Asian MMO's and was already integrated into Aion by its developers before NCSoft picked it up. Others with windows 7 have had no problems with it, so would suggest you try the gameguard support website for help, www.gameguard.co.kr/gameguard/faq/eng/index.htm .

As for the comment on never having to compromise a system, that’s just nonsense and being overly dramatic, you are not compromising anything if you refer to disabling ms protection like defender, windows firewall and user account control. They are there for the Muppets who have no clue about computer security, and are the first things disabled by anyone who is even remotely tech savvy. They cause far more problems than they are ever likely to prevent and should never be relied upon to protect a pc.

Originally posted by talismen351  and from what I hear Win7 has issues with GG too.

Worked fine for me from the start. Haven't had a single problem. If people weren't crying about it and if it wasn't for the tiny box that pops up for 1.5 seconds when I start the game I wouldn't even know they were using it.

Unless Ncsoft fixes this or takes it out of the game there gonna lose alot of folks bottom line. Hope they are listening it will cost them sales and sooner or later jobs there.

Jihad works both ways

Originally posted by Xasapis

NCsoft support suggested you remove your security software? Interesting. 

I'm still waiting on an answer for my own query.

You must be new to PC gaming.

Game of all kinds have been asking this for years, it's extremely common and nothing new.

Anti-virus programs and firewalls can sometimes interfere with installation of programs as well as the operations of certain online games and programs.

If this is "interesting" to you, then you really need to get a clue.