On a plane to Finland I’m getting bored after organizing my folders and finding things to archive. A job that someone’s gotto do and there never seems to be time for it.

Hmm. Does this machine do anything else than serious stuff? It does indeed. I can play few rounds of WingNuts 2: Raina’s Revenge, a great arcade style game I had bought about a year ago.

Launch WingNuts 2, go.

What!?! Register? Aah, ok, I haven’t typed the registration code in after rebuilding my machine. No problem though, got everything I need in my email!

MK Tapaninaho

and

click – click – click – click – click – click – click – click – click – click – click – click

And ‘Register’

Dialog box appears:

“The code entered was purchased too long ago and has expired. Go To Site [sic] your registration through the Support section of theCancelrse web site.”

No, in a matter of fact I wont. I can’t. I’m on an airplane!

This really sucks. It’s not saying it’s an invalid code or that it requires Internet access at the point of registering. It’s just too fricking long. And old.

I’ll suggest something but I first want to say that I’m all for serial numbers and web authentication for apps. It’s important for the developer to make money out of what they love doing and we love using.

But, and this is my suggestion. Don’t let it get in the way of the experience. As far as I see, there is no reason to expire a serial code*.

Many indie Mac apps come with a generous 30 day trial period, in Wingnuts’ case I think you can launch it 9 times and play only few selected scenarios. Fair enough. I’m not sure why it didn’t give me that option this time. I haven’t played it since ‘the great rebuild of 08′.

Idea I had for the web authentication when you don’t have access to the Internet is to let the user semi-activate it and use it for a week. Then each time the app is launched try if connection to the server is possible and towards end of the week, warn the user that it’s time to find that open network.

I don’t know if this would be hard to implement, don’t think so. Yeah, it is more work but then again, so is making rest of the app and making sure it’s accessible and trouble free to use.

I’ll post an update once I find time to go through the registration and find that newer, younger and shorter password!

Any similar experiences? Please share below.

–kristian

ps. I do have another license for the game, too. One I got with the MacHeist bundle. It also requires you to go on their website to get the serial.

*Of course, there are serial number farms where these sometimes end up but I guess that is what devs have to cope with, just like musicians have to cope with piratism.