Pattern recognition is one of the easiest ways to track hacking since as soon as a crack is released, it s widely used and easily seen. We re cross platform and the config is a cvar. So far the CD key system has been a big success, the idea is to make this painless for legal users and a hassle for pirates. We ve seen issues with protecting the actual CD-ROM through methods that stop it working in DVD drives, and each of these methods has been easily broken. In future products we will probably continue to use a CD key system, but perhaps multi-tier it so that there are levels of users that play the game.
Authentication is probably here to stay.