I'm in the WoW Beta Test!

[Dark Jaguar]

Will do, I keep forgetting about that :D.

Now then, yes, it IS copyright protection. It's very obvious that's what it's for. I think it's a great use of it though, dragging you into the real world to find solutions. Ya know, Metal Gear Solid (both versions) did the same thing. "Look on the back of the package." :D Sucks to be someone without the package...

As I've said before, KQ3 and KQ6 also used creative and actually fun copyright protection. As I said, KQ3 has translated text of the wizard's mysterious spell tome which you have to read to know how to perform spells. KQ6 has the "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" which gives you a LOT of background information about the land you visit in the game that you need to solve an assortment of puzzles. KQ4 was much less creative, that one was a standard "What is the 5th word of the 3rd paragraph of Tip #4 in the section "Tips For New Adventure Players"? Hardly fun at all...

Actually, older versions of KQ5 had an odd one. In all the KQ5 booklets, there is a legend of the alphabet for the land you visit in the game. This is only pointless trivia unless you are playing the original floppy disk version. In that version, randomly you would be assaulted by the "Sierra Copyright Protection Squad", who would order you to translate a phrase they would present to you if you wanted to continue. I never had that version, but read about it in the manuel explaining why that alphabet existed, and then saying they only included it for posterity.

Anyway, as far as copyright protection schemes go, those old ones are plainly easy to defeat thanks to GameFAQs these days. However, at least Sierra made them fun enough that the reason they were there didn't really even matter.

As far as Metal Gear Solid though, honestly I'm not sure copyright protection was even in mind for that one, just more of a literal thinking outside the box thing I guess.