Rico_wckd_jstr

that's great that you play with friends only and I respect your perspectives on the subject

but some of us still want the chance to play for rank competitively, but currently a great many cheaters ruin this and we have been informed that in order to effectively ban these less savory individuals from recreating infinite logins, etc we must vote to have serial validation re-instated.

also you can buy first decade brand new @ amazon for less than 20$ which includes serials for a number of cnc titles, you may even be able to purchase them here @ s-t for less now.

you see the cheaters win with the current systems in place because nothing can be done to stop them.

this is my stance and will remain so until we find a better more viable solution for everyone

Yes but your way stops other from playing (rather selfish IMO) where as mine doesn't, yes it means some idiots are around but you can never stop them and you can take precautions to solve that issue, not being able to play at all is a game killer there and then.
As stated by hef above, locking out freeware is more of a disadvantage than advantage, and at the end of the day since EA gave the game out for free I don't agree that people should be forced to pay $ (any price) for a game that has been released for free with MP included.
Is it possible to have 2 servers (since TS has different server lists), one for free version that has no ladder board and one with ladder that requires a key? That'd solve the issue for both, it'd be very selfish to punish those that just wanna play a game with mates.

the game is still free? just online play would not be?

also maybe there could be a work around for only requiring serial validation to play ranked games as opposed to "for fun games"

Yer and no online play means no MP (their all over Australia, not like we can do LAN).
If its just ranked games then it's no issue for me, but I still think requiring a serial when the game is free sounds dodgy, EA released the game for free, I don't see how XWIS can lock them out and it just reduces the possible player base. Besides if someone cheats they'll quickly be known for it and avoided, post their names on the forums and avoid them. Tbh as already stated ranks don't mean anything so why people need to cheat is beyond me, but if you ruin the game for legit players then the cheaters win since their having fun at others expense.

@ parris, I don't believe I have access to the full forums, but I registered this account may of last year. Things might have changed since then.

@ rico, I understand your point, mine is that the cost of a serial is not high. I would look at as paying for use of a moderated server, alongside excellent staff support @ a one time cost.

if you don't cheat or break rules you would never need to purchase another one, as opposed to blatantly cheating 24/7/365 players will most likely play responsibly or they will literally have to pay for their actions to keep playing.

Considering my mates aren't willing to pay for a game thats available for free and thus wont get it that pretty much kills our games. Oh and btw, its $50 in Australia (last I checked) for the saga pack, so its not cheap (our games get upto $120 for new ones, we're ripped off big time).

Also I doubt there are many cheaters for a game as old as TS, idk since as already stated I just play with mates so we don't have the issue

I have 2 serials so I wouldn't be effected, however I think validation is ridicules since the free version would be locked out. I don't do tournaments, instead I play with mates who downloaded the free version, locking them out would kill our MP and make it pointless. Just leave them unlocked, your just reducing the amount of possible players for silly numbers, if someone wants to play in a tourney then they can setup extra precautions against cheaters, just don't ruin/kill the multiplayer for those that just wanna game with mates