HoTWiReZ's DoMaiN

[HoTWiReZ]

This isn't a lan party announcement, but I thought that it may be interesting to some people who care about being ran over by big companies. This is a communication from me to the Electronic Arts tech support department involving the fact that I have to reinstall Battlefield 2 any time I leave home just to play it online because I have to login to a different account if I'm away (even though my machine is with me, my domain isn't.) This kind of s**t is exactly the reason that software crackers will never be out of work, and software companies will never be able to get everyone to buy their game. Most people probably have no idea why they have to reinstall Battlefield 2 so often because of a cd key error when playing online.
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I'm going to put the messages in separate posts because they don't seem to work otherwise..

For those that haven't seen the whole thing yet (everyone as of this post) the last one sums up their position on this. Basically, they could care less that their game's faults screw with the average user's computer situation. I must say that most Americans actually have a family computer that each member uses. To ask for a single communal account is bad enough, but to require that it have ADMINISTRATIVE PRIVELEGES is just ridiculous. The ONLY time that this would be acceptable is if you're running some sort of a gaming computer that is dedicated, and let's face it, the personal computer was not designed to be used for gaming only - this is a serious waste of money. The fact that I may have personal information or settings that I don't want messed up by any joe that wants to use my computer just doesn't occur to EA, evidently.

Last edited by HoTWiReZ on Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:44 pm; edited 3 times in total

[CoLDWiReZ]

oh my f**king god are you serious please tell me he didnt tell you to "ctrl alt del" lol .........rotflmfao, he might as well have told you to make sure the computer was plugged in

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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Why can't I play the game with my computer using different accounts? In my specific case, if I go away to a Lan party I can't login to my home domain controller, so I use a separate account to login to the machine itself. Any time I do this I have to completely uninstall and reinstall the game and expansions.

In a more general case, if I had the game on a family computer, only one person would be able to play it. Whose idiotic idea was this and when do you intend to fix it?

Your answer will weigh heavily on my continued support of Electronic Arts games in general, both personally and professionally.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hi,

Thanks for writing us at Electronic Arts Technical Support. I'm sorry for the frustration this may have caused you. I understand that you are currently having issues with playing Battlefield 2 on your PC because you can't login to your computer using different accounts. I'll be glad to assist you. When you say using different accounts, do you mean Windows Login accounts, or Battlefield 2 accounts? Please clarify.

As for playing the game on a family computer, you can only play with one account (if this is for online) on one computer because the game server will only recognize one IP address from your connection.

For the meantime, make sure that you have closed any programs or tasks running in the background as sometimes one of the programs can conflict with the game. Background applications such as anti-virus programs are often the cause of conflicts.

• Hold down the "Ctrl", "Alt", and "Delete" keys at the same time
• Click the "Processes" tab
• Click on the gray bar in the middle column that says "User Name" to sort by user name
• Do NOT select anything for SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK SERVICE.
• Click on anything besides "EXPLORER" and "TASKMGR" for this User Name or other user names
• Click on "END PROCESS"
• Repeat these steps until only "explorer.exe" and "taskmgr.exe" are opened for this user profile.

Then refresh your in-game settings.

1. Open "My Documents".
2. Right-click on the "Battlefield 2" folder and choose "Delete".

Don't worry as this will not delete the entire game, just the saved settings. This will only refresh the settings/configuration after installing patches and updates recently installed in the game.

In order to further troubleshoot your issue, I'm going to need additional system information. Please send me the information from a program called "dxdiag.exe".

To do this:

• Go to "Start" then go to "Run"
• In the box, type "dxdiag"
• Click "OK"
• Click the "Save All Information" button on the first screen of the application
• Then on top of the "Save As" box that pops up, select "Desktop" (if it's not set to save there already), then click "Save"
• Finally, attach the "dxdiag.txt" to your email reply.

After we receive this file we can continue troubleshooting this issue and hopefully come to a solution.

Should you require further assistance with this game or other Electronic Arts games in the future, please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase at (http://support.ea.com/).

Thank you,

Leo V
EA Technical Support

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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Ok. For starters, there isn't anything wrong with the functionality of the game. Dxdiag won't tell you anything about this, but I'm including the .txt anyway..

Second, the problem is obviously that I'm using 2 windows user accounts, since I mentioned that I'm logging into my domain controller at home, but can't when I'm away.. If I use a different account I get a no cd key error when using the account that I didn't use to install the game, but it will work with the other one just afterwards.

Your explanation of recognizing one IP address from my connection is sort of obvious, because one IP address is all my connection consists of... Also, logging into windows using one account and then logging out and using another account does not affect my IP.

What is at issue is how BF2 handles the cd key storage. It needs to be in a central location that is not affected by the username that it was installed under. In a family scenario, I can assure you that nobody would want to give someone else access to their own account just so that they could play the game. Reinstalling the game for this sort of issue is unacceptable, especially when you've spent over 100 dollars on the software alone.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support. I am sorry to hear you are having problems with Battlefield 2.

Please try resetting the game to defaults when you go to a LAN party instead of reinstalling the game, since this can also be caused by corrupted configuration files. You can do this by following the steps below:

NOTE: All of the user stats are held on the server side. So you should not lose any stats by doing this.


1. Click on the Start button.
2. Click on the My Documents icon.
3. Right-click on the Battlefield2 folder.
4. Select delete.
5. Try the game again.

Also Be sure that the other windows account has full administrator rights before playing Battlefield 2

Please let me know how this goes.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://support.ea.com)


Marc C.
EA Tech Support

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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Sorry, I forgot to mention in the last message that I tried that one, and it didn't work. While it did reset everything to defaults, it would not let the other windows logon play online.

Also, any account that I use to play the game as full administrative access. The game will work on either account if it was installed using that account. I want it to work for either account without reinstalling the game every time.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support. First of all I would like to apologize for the inconveniences you are going through, believe me I know how you feel I'm a gamer myself. Have you patched to the v.1.3 already? One of the patch fixes, is that it allowed another Administrator account to login into the game, even if the game was not installed on that account. As for the other issue when you try to login into the game on a Remote Network Connection, using a different computer into your Domain contoller at home will not work. This is because the game will try to detect if the your particular game (With your CD Key) is installed in the current PC you are using, since it is not you will be getting a cd key error or Network error. Please correct me if I'm wrong in this matter, that is if I didn't understand nor got the gist of the issue at hand. Again I apologize for any inconvenience.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase http://support.ea.com/

Jessie U.
Electronics Arts Technical Support

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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Ignore the fact that I even mentioned the domain controller as I see that it is a source of confusion here. I was merely trying to point out the valid reason for using more than one account when playing the game: Not being able to use the same account if you are at a location where you can't login to the domain - and hence your normal account. I don't have a problem with logging into a domain remotely, and I'm not trying to play the game from a remote computer (the computer is merely being moved from one home to another to allow playing of games at a party), although I am surprised that you would even mention this as I was unaware that directx would even function via remote desktop..

That being said, yes, I have installed patch 1.3. I downloaded the full version installer the day that it came out and it is the version I currently have installed. I can verify that this patch did not fix the issue with me. Currently, my hotwirez.net\hotwirez login (which I did not install the game from this time) will not allow online play, citing a cd key error. My local computer\Administrator account will allow online play, since I used this account to install the game from at the last lan party I attended after it would not let me play online.

I'm really seeing a bit of a difficulty in communicating here that seems to stem from a lack of common computer technical knowledge. If you are able, please ask a supervisor or technician about the terms I'm using so that you don't give answers that demonstrate this lack of knowledge (not trying to tell you how to do your job, but this is an issue that really needs work, judging from the responses I've been receiving..)
Thanks.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support. I'm sorry that you’re having difficulties with Battlefield 2. Did this issue started to occur after patching to 1.3?

When you try to join a LAN party you're unable to connect to your account. An invalid CD-key error will come up when trying to connect to a server correct? But when you're back home you can connect to your account without any issues. To recap the following suggestion were given to you:

Delete Battlefield 2 folder inside My Documents

Have you tried any troubleshooting steps of your own? This is issue is quite new and I'll be helping you in anyway I can to find a working resolution with the issue. Have you tried manually re-installing the CD-key of the game?

To manually re-install the CD-key please follow the steps below:

Open My Computer
Open Local Disk C:
Open Program Files folder
Open EA Games folder
Open Battlefield 2 folder
Open Support folder
Double Click on the Icon that says "Battlefield 2_code.exe"
Try and connect to a server and see how it goes

Let us know if the onesuggested did not resolve the issue.

Should you require further assistance about this or any Electronic Arts games in the future please visit our website and review our extensive Self Help knowledgebase (http://support.ea.com)

Thanks!
Mark A.
EA Technical Support

Last edited by HoTWiReZ on Fri Jun 02, 2006 5:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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I tried to delete the Battlefield 2 folder from My Documents. That didn't work..
I just tried the Battlefield 2_code, and that didn't work.

I have tried making sure the permissions for the game folder include each user account that I'm trying to use, but it made no difference.

I also just tried adding the second user to the permissions for the registry entry tree that has the key in it, but that also did not work.

What is it that ties a single user account to this game?? This is the only one that I've ever had such problems with.

Again, the issue is:

Only ONE WINDOWS ACCOUNT is able to play BF2 online. The only account able to play without getting a CD-Key error is the one from which I installed the game. (Regardless of my computer's physical location)

This problem has been happening since the game was released, as far as I know, and was not fixed with the 1.3 patch as someone in this thread had suggested. Again, it is NOT NEW. The only reason that I'm even trying to get help for this is because my current configuration requires that I use a different account if I'm away from home to login since I can't get onto my domain, and the knowledge base article says to reinstall the game, which is hardly a fix!

After seeing what your Battlefield 2_code.exe file does (rewrites the registry entry that holds the cd key), I decided to try to play again using the windows account that I installed the game from, and now it won't work, because the key is in the registry in plain text now.

So, I must ask, have you EVER seen a case where using Battlefield 2_code.exe helps someone's problem? Because, from what I've seen here, the only thing that it could possibly do is break the online play ability.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26725
That tells you what's wrong with mine. So, it's been around since patch 1.03.

http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/battlefield2/us/editorial.jsp?src=bf2_1_3
That says what was supposedly updated in patch 1.3, and I see no mention of this problem being fixed in these release notes.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting EA technical support.

I am sorry for the confusion but this is the way that the game is by design. For security and licensing reasons the game needs to be played on a local client on an administrative account.

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Please respond back if you have anymore technical issues concerning this matter.
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts!

Tak
EA Global Tech Support

Electronic Arts
EA Customer Support
Battlefield 2 Homepage

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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No, it isn't by design. Both accounts are local, on the machine, and both have administrative access. Only one works when the game is installed. What is it that you don't understand about this?

There can be more than one account on your machine with administrative access. In fact, the family machine mentioned in my first post has 8 administrative accounts because game designers make games that require this for some idiotic reason.

I only want to play the game on the same machine that it was installed on, just like it was designed to do. The machine is physically in front of me, and I am not trying to play it remotely. You people just don't seem to understand simple english, it seems.

Only one person can be logged on to any Windows XP machine at any given time, so why can't any user play the game online, since nobody else could possibly be doing it at the same time.

Here's something that seems to show promise for the base Battlefield 2..

Before playing the game on either account, reinstall the full version of the latest patch. The patch encrypts the key on install. I'm not sure if this will work if the key was already encrypted from a prior patch install, however, as I tried this only after the game was installed and I tried the Battlefield 2_code.exe that the other tech mentioned. The point is that limiting the game to one windows account is just stupid. The idea behind encrypting the key was supposed to be to protect us from having a key stolen by some malicious server, not to restrict us to having to uninstall and reinstall the game for each user that wants to play it at a given time.

If the key has to be encrypted on a per user basis, then put it in a user's portion of the registry instead of the freaking machine portion. If it has to be put in the local machine area, then make it based on the machine's information instead of a specific account's information. The whole problem here is that you're tying this to a certain login and not the machine. Stop dodging the problem and fix it.

[HoTWiReZ]

From them:
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Hello,

Thank you for contacting EA technical support.

As mentioned, this is the way the game was designed. I totally agree with you and your logic and will report this as it *is* valued input. What is commonly suggested is that the game is installed on ONE community-administrative account and the password is given to all players necessary. When retrieving BF2 accounts, be sure that the “Remember Password” is not checked. This will keep BF2 accounts secure.

Please respond back if you have anymore technical issues concerning this matter.
Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts!

Tak
EA Global Tech Support

Electronic Arts
EA Customer Support
Battlefield 2 Homepage

[HoTWiReZ]

From me:
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Your suggestion is not a solution. From the way you said it, I believe that you know this. I have offered some simple solutions to the problem. In case I missed anything earlier..

1. Put the keys for the games in the HKEY_LOCAL_USERS\Software\... Registry tree. This way, someone that installs the game when it's already installed won't destroy one user's installed and already encrypted key. This would require someone to install it for each user, but would be an acceptable temporary solution.

2. (The preferred solution) Leave the keys where they are, and use an encryption scheme that doesn't use the account's information. It could use some information about the machine, or better yet, the registered to information that shows up in the system information window under the control panel. (How often would this information be changed compared to Battlefield 2 being installed? - Answer is less often, which makes it a perfect solution)

These solutions now having been presented, I just want to reiterate that the game was not designed this way. If you will, install BF2 using the disk. Do not patch the game, and then (if you can find a server) try to connect with one account, and then try another windows account. You will find that you are able to do this without any problems. The fact is, EA broke a part of this game when they modified this, and it inconveniences a great many people. (Just look at the stats on the No CD Key help page for the game - I'm sure that you'll find it is one of the most 'popular' pages on your site.) If you don't hear about this so often, it's because most people probably don't know what it is that's going on when they find that their perfectly good cd key is "invalid" according to some internet server.

This is what I would like to hear:
EA is aware of this problem and is taking steps to repair this bug in the future.

That's all I needed. What I don't want is for someone to say that it is intentionally made that way, because if that is the case, then whoever designed it (I am a software engineer) should be fired. Registry keys that involve information from specific user accounts do not need to be placed in the local_machine tree.