So.... How do I get my CD-keys back?

[Legacy_Flezz]

               

I had them saved on the old Bioware site, does any one who has previous sucess retreiving them know how to go about doing this?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

The old BioWare site is gone, as are any CD keys stored on it.

 

If you do not have a copy of your books or your old installation's nwncdkey.ini file, your only legal option is to purchase the game from a place like gog.com and get a set of multiplayer keys from them (by filling out a form on their website, link is on the NWN Diamond page).

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Flezz]

               

Well, that's sad.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

Yeah, a few years ago the old BioWare NWN forum was hacked (after they'd already officially locked the old forum to move to the "BioWare Social Network"). In response, BioWare completely shut down the old forum and website, removing any reference to NWN except a minor blurb (with no useful links or information) on their "legacy games" page.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

Not advocating for illegal acquisition of the game here : but since the master server is now gone, there is nothing to enforce genuine cdkeys are used with your game.

If you can't find your cdkey, but you are certain you do infact own the game legally, then you could just use any cdkey.

 

This post is certainly going to get flamed, but im just saying, that legally as long as you are a genuine owner of the game, they (insert official party here), will probably not take action against you. eg: they are not going to waste time on legal action against someone who might actually be a genuine owner of the game, especially given the amount of money legal action takes, in comparison to the money they would be making by forcing someone to buy another copy.

 

Bioware also having the expectation of people buying a new copy, to get a new cdkey, just because they arbitrarily decided to retract access to cdkeys on their old site doesn't work in their favor, regardless of their reason for doing so.

(If memory serves, our personal details were stolen anyway... so turning the site off, didn't benefit us in any way? Infact, I'd be inclined to believe that the 3 dozen junk emails I get a day asking me if i want to buy aphrodisiac's from online pharmacy's is in part due to my personal details being stolen from Bioware, Sony and who knows where else. So turning off access  to their website didn't protect my data, after it had already been stolen, if anything it just prevented me from accessing the data I was storing with Bioware for safe keeping.)

 

In short- the cdkeys no longer moderate online gameplay, and are only needed to get past the install screens.

Its highly opinion based, but I would say if you can morally say that you actually do own the game (and if you were to hunt hard enough, might be able to find proof?), but just cant find your cdkeys to hand right now - do what morally feels right to you.

If it feels a little too dodgy, feel free to fork out more cash on more cdkeys.

 

I happen to belong to that group of people who have installations of nwn that just gets copied from hdd to hdd, so I never actually need my nwncdkey for install screens any more, but I'd say on a moral level, if I had to reinstall, but couldn't find my cdkeys, I'd be more inclined to use a random cdkey from the web than purchase another one for the sake of passing an install screen - this is just out of a sense of principle, that I personally believe it is wrong for bioware to force people to buy something twice due to something that they themselves were negligent to prevent. (the security breech)

 

< This is where people start telling me that it costs $9.00 on GOG, and look at me in disbelief that I would rather perform a dodgy action than purchase something twice. Really not interested in how cheap the game is, I just object out of principle to buying something twice >

 

(If you bought a cinema ticket, but lost the ticket, but had the receipt: the cinema staff will generally not expect you to buy another ticket because the proof of purchase shows that you already have a ticket....

 

Would you buy another ticket? or use the proof of purchase?)

 

 

The Bioware website had a section for storing CDKeys, (specifically for storing CDKeys), I don't think its an unreasonable expectation that the CDKeys should be assumed to be safe, and accessible, and certainly not swiped away without notice by the people storing them.

 

(Its like me offering my website for people to store data in, and then I randomly say one day "HEY...I have turned the site off, your no longer allowed to access that data". The reason behind it is meaningless, the action itself is somewhat illegal - Mediafire/RapidShare and co - they're users won court cases to get access to the data on the servers which was genuine non-copyright infringing content.

 

Bioware not allowing access to our own content/information is infringing on data protection laws. I believe legally, you can actually complete a form, and make a request to Bioware to get any personal details they hold about you... this would have to extend to CDKeys also - I may be incorrect on this, but I seem to remember hearing that you can legally demand/request to see any personal data that a company has on you, and they are only legally allowed to keep it for 2 years after you stop using their service etc)

 

http://ico.org.uk/fo...o_personal_data

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               

Flamed, no, but the idea of handing something over to someone else for "safe keeping" and then having to rely on that someone else any time you want to use / access it always seemed odd to me. Maybe I'm just old school but I keep all documentation for any game because it occurs to me that I just might need it later. I have one set of keys from my original initial Collector's Edition, SoU, and HotU and the Diamond DVD I purchased years later.

 

As for storing CD Keys on the internet, some of us have been on the internet long enough to realize that nothing stays forever.

 

Now, if you want to play single player, then your approach may work for you. If, however, you want to play on any number of PW servers then a shared CD Key will certainly run into issues.

 

 

Bioware not allowing access to our own content/information is infringing on data protection laws.

This is rediculous. Bioware is not restricting you from accessing those handy hard copies they gave out to you with your purchase. If you have lost or misplaced those, it certainly isn't any obligation of Bioware's to take up your slack. Good luck pursuing them under some sense of entitlement to make up for your not holding on to them.

 

The Bioware website had a section for storing CDKeys *for your convenience*. You left that part out. They didn't say "in lieu of your hard copies". I may be wrong here but I think they specifically mention to keep your originals in a safe place and make sure to never lose them / give them out. The unreasonable expectation is expecting a third party nanny to pick up one's own slack.

 

 

(If you bought a cinema ticket, but lost the ticket, but had the receipt: the cinema staff will generally not expect you to buy another ticket because the proof of purchase shows that you already have a ticket.... Would you buy another ticket? or use the proof of purchase?)

Look at it this way: You purchased a ticket from a movie theater for a specific movie and lost your ticket. The movie is no longer available at the theater but is available a retail store, unrelated to the movie theater, carries the DVD/Blu-Ray. How far do you think you'll get showing your proof of purchase from the theater to the retail outlet in order to see the movie will get you? On that note, where do you think showing it to the theater will secure your right to obtain the film from the retail outlet? That is a far more accurate comparison than the one you've framed.

 

Your reasoning isn't even relevant to the circumstances.

 

Incidentally, human nature being what it is, it's interesting that you berate the company for not retaining your keys but not yourself.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

Flamed, no, but the idea of handing something over to someone else for "safe keeping" and then having to rely on that someone else any time you want to use / access it always seemed odd to me

 

Its hardly odd, companies around the world do it all the time. Its called an 'Escrow', where one company agrees to keep data or content for another in a vault of sorts. I myself work with one such company to provide an Escrow service, the reason its done is because companies get liquidated all the time, and the source code or information needs to be maintained.

 

 

 

 

This is rediculous. Bioware is not restricting you from accessing those handy hard copies they gave out to you with your purchase. If you have lost or misplaced those, it certainly isn't any obligation of Bioware's to take up your slack. Good luck pursuing them under some sense of entitlement to make up for your not holding on to them.

 

 

Its not open for interpretation - technically under data protection laws, you have the right to gain access to any information a company or entity has collected on you - so your opinion doesn't change that, its legally black and white.

And you call it 'our' slack, or are you specifically naming 'me' in the 'my slack' statement - but your completely going Bioware fan-boi and forgetting about Bioware's slack - they were the ones negligent in their website security, and thousands of people lost access to the digital copies of their cdkeys as result.

 

 

 

Look at it this way: You purchased a ticket from a movie theater for a specific movie and lost your ticket. The movie is no longer available at the theater but is available a retail store, unrelated to the movie theater, carries the DVD/Blu-Ray. How far do you think you'll get showing your proof of purchase from the theater to the retail outlet in order to see the movie will get you? On that note, where do you think showing it to the theater will secure your right to obtain the film from the retail outlet? That is a far more accurate comparison than the one you've framed.

 

 

Your reasoning is flawed

The receipt is for a showing of a film that has not shown yet, if you take the receipt to the cinema ushers  - they will 'likely' allow you through because you can prove that you legally purchased the ticket. Now - being devils advocate, you could argue that the ticket was given to/stolen by another person - and with my reasoning two people could potentially get access to the film.

That cinema ticket does not entitle you to to get free dvd's - as it does not extend to anything beyond a specific 'showing' of the movie - so trying to stretch my example to outrageous extremes is just pointless. I didn't even mention retail outlet - why did you even try to twist my statement into that misplaced idea to make the example given seem more extreme- I suspect it would have worked if your additions went unnoticed - they didn't.

Good thing this is not a film we are talking about, we are talking about cdkeys for a game that we legally own, which are required for nothing more than getting past an install screen - online play these days does not hinge entirely on the cdkeys anymore.

 

 

 

your reasoning isn't even relevant to the circumstances.

 

When your silly and sneakily added statements are removed, it becomes relevant to the circumstances again.

You must be the only person in the world who actually likes to buy something once, then buy it again potentially unnecessarily.

 

 

 

incidentally, human nature being what it is, it's interesting that you berate the company for not retaining your keys but not yourself.

 

Interesting that you fail to notice that I say in the post that I myself have my cdkeys, therefore I do NOT need to purchase or demand my cdkeys from anyone.

I will put this down to oversight, or just generalisation that 'you' like to refer to the figurative third party as 'you' - but the cynical person in me just feels your completely bio-fanboi here and feel Bioware can do no wrong.

 

Lets just put it this way.

Bioware accepted our cdkeys in a digital medium, thousands of people felt that they were safe, a large portion of those people became reliant on the service being provided by Bioware, and then Bioware took it away without notice.

 

Its generally considered dishonest when a company or corporation takes money for a product, and then through their own actions, end up forcing their customers into a situation where they must buy another copy of the product. This is not even something you can blame on the hackers who necessitated the bioware lock down. We do not know if the cdkeys were compromised - it was never stated, all we know is that the cdkeys were locked away by bioware, and the public were no longer allowed to access them.

Do they still exist? Your guess is as good as mine - if they no longer exist, it would be lot simpler - as then Bioware wouldnt need to provide access.

If they do exist - then legally through the freedom of personal information laws - you can 'request' access to the information by completing a special form and sending to Bioware. 

 

Do the forms work?

I don't know - they are supposed to, that is their purpose - and that much is not open for debate or interpretation.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               

The minute I see something like "fan-boi", I don't bother reading the rest. You and I have two different approaches to the situation.

 

My approach led to me still having two sets of originally purchased keys in my possession; yours led to this.

 

One of us made out better.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

The minute I see something like "fan-boi", I don't bother reading the rest. You and I have two different approaches to the situation.

 

My approach led to me still having two sets of originally purchased keys in my possession; yours led to this.

 

One of us made out better.

Damn - should have put fan-boi further down in my post huh...

I've still got my originally purchased keys so your point is moot, not quite seeing how you made it out better? - You can buy a duplicate set if you want, you wont be able to play both at the same time, or rather a normal person wouldn't 'want' to play both at the same time.

But whatever makes you happy inside - if anything it seems with your way you are down $9 for a game that you wont be able to use concurrently.

That's $9 I could donate to a charity or eat in burger king.

 

Having two copies seems pointless, and a waste of money. A 'normal' person would buy a single set, and try to keep them secure - the problem that was pointed out time and time again is that a large amount of people had the expectation that they would be able to securely keep them on the bioware website, and have access to them at 'some time' in the future. Which isnt an outragous expectation given the services provided by rival companies, and EA itself.

You buy a game on Origin - your CDKey is stored and kept secure for future reference - no physical medium required.

Heck - you buy a physical game from EA, and many a time - it will register you automatically on origin, to digitally keep your cdkey safe.

 

Yes - NWN is old, Yes NWN predates Origin, but it isn't beyond belief that when Bioware, a company affiliated with EA and Origin, who offer a cdkey 'keep safe' programs, could at least allow access to cdkeys that it kept in its possession on behalf of the players - if they still exist.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Reading this article to refresh my memory...

 

The article indicates that information on 18,000 user accounts - user account names and passwords, email addresses, and birth dates - was stolen. It makes no reference to the CD keys. However, since those were associated with the accounts, its safe to assume 18,000 CD keys were compromised as well. When BioWare took down the old site to protect everyone else's account that also included removing access to the data files where CD keys and user account information was stored. Assuming, BioWare is like any other company, they do not delete data unless the data is no longer valid (which it isn't because the name is still marketed and BioWare is/has issued new CD keys to Gog and Impulse) or the server on which it was stored cannot be accessed/recovered. Thus, it is possible that the data still exists and that perhaps a polite request directly to BioWare might allow you to recover your CD keys.

 

My guess would be that when the hackers attacked BioWare their attack, in addition to stealing data from 18,000 accounts, probably dumped something nasty into their servers, forcing BioWare to take the server offline - as they did. Even if the data still exists, there is no guarantee that it hasn't been corrupted as part of that attack.

 

FYI, you can buy NWN from GOG for as low as $2.99 when specials are being run. I currently own 9 copies of the game - 5 for my family and I and four for guests to use when my LAN server is running. The eight additional copies cost me a total of $30 - far less than the $70 you'd pay today for a brand new game.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               

I've still got my originally purchased keys so your point is moot

 

I'm still trying to decide if you even have a point, or why this was even brought up in Technical Support when there are other threads in appropriate places that you could have resurrected here, here, here, here, here, here, and I'm certain mentioned numerous other places.

 

Bringing in a fresh dead horse doesn't change the fact that it's a dead horse.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

Bringing in a fresh dead horse doesn't change the fact that it's a dead horse.

 

Your the one who raised the point after it being 'dead' for half a month, Irony?

Quoting threads that 'I' could have resurrected is pointless since I was not the Original Poster. See how the big scary forum shows the original poster at the top of the forum, and not in the middle. That's how a forum works.

Maybe the Original Poster just didn't want to necro post, as it stands only one person so far has complained about the topic (CDKeys) revival in a new Thread - and that person voiced his distaste by reviving the thread - its a circular sense of Irony.

 

 

However, since those were associated with the accounts, its safe to assume 18,000 CD keys were compromised as well.

 

That's a large assumption.

Its not clear where those CDKeys were stored, we know they were stored in a database somewhere, but whether that database was compromised is unclear

(They could have been on a different database? Or a different database server? - Large companies like Bioware would likely have a distributed infrastructure)

- which is an understandable omission on Biowares part - they don't want to reveal much about their server architecture to the public. All we know is that the only means of the public accessing those CDKeys was taken away. (The Legacy Bioware website)

If you think about it though - alright, the hackers may have got the CDKeys - but why disallow the legitimate owners of the cdkeys access to them after the fact? The damage is done, the Reanimated Horse has left the Barn, shutting the Door after the fact only further impacts the people who were using the service provided by Bioware. 

As mentioned in the posts above - if you want your original cdkey back - you can make a request to Bioware -

They will either acknowledge that the CDKey is gone (Deleted) - which is a perfectly fine response, after over 2 years of inactivity in the 'cd key' vault, they have a legal right to delete that data as it could be classed as 'not in use' -although it would be disappointing, or they will hand it over - legally they have to, in order to comply with Data Protection laws.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Malagant]

               

You're right, of course. Two weeks is so long and not being and not being the original poster means one can't add to existing threads at all, only their own - which would make for some fairly interesting one-sided conversations, but I get the impression that's what you're going for anyway. I should have taken a queue from everyone else that ignored you two weeks ago and not encouraged someone that just wants to be combative.

 

It did, however, lead to Pstemarie giving you some good relevant information that you can happily be dismissive of and continue raging on a years old subject, which seems to be more acceptable and pertinent commenting on than one that is merely weeks old. I'm just not up on posting etiquette.

 

There comes a time in every debate where one sees that it will simply become circular, redundant, of chock full of attempted rejoinders by the other in an effort to look cool to anyone that may stumble across the conversation and pat themselves on the back. It is those times one sees that it's pointless to continue.

 

You have information, contact avenues, and are of the opinion that you are backed up by legal doctrine; go forth and institute change. Good luck to you.

               
               

               
            

[Baaleos]

               

It did, however, lead to Pstemarie giving you some good relevant information that you can happily be dismissive of and continue raging on a years old subject, which seems to be more acceptable and pertinent commenting on than one that is merely weeks old. I'm just not up on posting etiquette.

Pstemarie did indeed post some interesting information he also cited sources, and backed it up with solid reasoning- I then replied with a 'not necessarily' reply- with is a large difference from the dismissal that your trying to insinuate. It is a fact that the usernames, emails and so on of users were compromised, but I do not believe it was ever publicised that cd keys were stolen. Until we are told that officially - any assumption that they were would be an assumption and not fact.

I should have taken a queue from everyone else that ignored you two weeks ago and not encouraged someone that just wants to be combative.

There is two things to note here:

1. The lack of replies was probably due to the fact that the original question had been answered- relevant information conveyed, why would anyone reply (besides you of course). It's generally not required that people post regularly to a topic to keep it alive after they have got all they want from it. Unless you want to be combative?

2. I'm still trying to figure out what constructive information you bought to the topic besides 'OMG that's a silly ideal you have' - doesn't seem combative at all.... As well as the attempt of twisting my example of cinema tickets to getting you dvd's. You spent more time refuting my 2 week old post than answering or even acknowledging the original poster.


Look- I have no idea what my dad did to your dad or why your in such a hump with me for a post that is half a month old-

You came here reopened the topic with a combative post, criticised me for necro posting, when my post was within a day or two of the original post, and so on... Maybe the original poster posted because he just couldn't find those nice threads cited above: that's hardly my fault or problem, maybe the search functionality needs a check up.

I've cited my sources, if you don't agree fine- but it doesn't change fact.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_BioWareMod03]

               

As the OP's question seems to have been answered, and the thread has degraded to trolling, it is now locked.