I think I recall that some computer games can’t be sold or given away after they’ve been installed once. Is that true? If so, how do I determine which games are like that? I seem to have been left with a buttload of computer games and I’d like to give them away, but I don’t want to give them away if they can’t even be used.
Games include:
World of Warcraft, SimCity4, Civilization III, Grand Theft Auto III, Tiger Woods 08, etc.
World of Warcraft you definitely can’t, the other you’re probably good on, I doubt those games have limited installs, just make sure you give the CD Key (that number you have to enter on installation) with them.
How about Spore? The Witcher? Gothic Universe? Hmm, those last two might still be sealed.
How about Wii games?
So, the WoW is just a paperweight now? Hrmph.
Can I ask why not? I’ve never played WoW, but what happens when someone upgrades their computer? They have to buy a brand new copy of WoW?
WOW requires a monthly fee and the games come with a one month subscription if I remember right.
Anything that has a online subscription won’t be playable unless you pay for a subscription.
Anything with a limited number of installs won’t work when all the installs have been used. Sometimes the first install and registration locks you into that hardware configuration with that key code.
Older games mostly are not going to be a problem.
Well, it’s an account thing, the key is only good for one account, you can install the game on as many computers as you want, but the account necessary to play is all under the original owner’s name and it’s a breach of the Terms of Service and License Agreement to give your account to someone else (and no, you can’t pay a fee to change ownership).
Technically it’s probably against all of their EULAs to give it away, but to be honest I’m not sure (if I was I would have said so) and it’s much more blatant and harder to hide if you ever need support in WoW.
Spore only gives you 3 installations, so if you’ve only installed it once you could probably get away with giving it to someone else and telling them they only have 2 installations left, I THINK (emphasis) you can register another account on the key, but don’t quote me. The other two should be good.
I’ve had no problem with any Civ game (I thru IV, plus Colonisation).
They want the disc in the drive while the game is playing, which is a way to foil piracy.
To continue this with a bit more explanation, the difference between MMO’s like WoW and other games is that with MMO’s you’re paying for a service rather than than the software. So you can download the client (what you get on the disk) from Blizzard’s site at no charge right now if you wanted to; it’s just that to establish a new account they charge a fee. When you buy the WoW box in the store they include that new account fee along with some game time as part of the purchase price, but if you gave your disk to someone else they would have to pay that set up fee again.
So in the case of a new computer or a reinstall there’s no problem because your account is already established.
Precisely – and that’s a really good explanation, one I will have to use in future.
One clever trick I learned at home: WoW doesn’t seem to require a registry entry confirming it’s been installed, so copying the WoW folder to an external hard drive and throwing it onto a second computer (your laptop, say) is a handy way to reinstall without having to wait for hours.
A spare set of discs is useful, but most used software stores will not buy it back. I know Half Price Books (generally) does not buy opened MMOs.