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Loading ...Spore and Big Bad DRM
Big_Adam
After one hell of a wait Spore has finally seen fit to pull itself into a physical form and come forth onto our pitiful plain of existence. Then it craps itself inside out with very “Bioshock” style DRM policies.For the few who are currently going “WTF do mushrooms have to do with DRM?” let me explain. Spore is the latest game from the guy who made ALL the “The Sims” games (Will Wright) as well as “SimCity” and anything else “Sim”. With massive success of “The Sims” he set about a creature creation game called “Spore”. Where as “The Sims” put you in charge of a few people. Spore puts you in charge of EVERYTHING. Really, everything! You build the creature from a list of parts, evolve it and eventually piss about in the universe. I saw the videos for it a while back and was ecstatic with glee due to its size and amazing-ness.
Anyway, now that “Spore” is out it seems EA wanted to protect its investment but sticking DRM on it. What does this mean? Well EA have put a limit to activations on it. So, how many activations do you get? 10? No. 6? No. You get a grand total of 3. What happens when you hit this grand total of 3, well you have to phone EA and show proof that you bought the game and if you’re lucky you get to activate it again.
This has lead to one hell of a backlash in reviews and customer feedback from Amazon.com with many people going from ordering to just cancelling as it’s just simpler.
Here’s one from Amazon.com;
The game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you’ll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That’s not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because “it’s not financially feasible” to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.
This basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The game WILL stop to function in the future. That’s inevitable, because even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or federal laws (like most business eventually do).
Second, the game was dumbed down to oblivion. Spore was supposed to be a revolutionary experience, combining multiple genres while concentrating on evolution and genetics. Now evolution doesn’t even matter anymore. You can add as many legs to a creature as you want, but it won’t be any faster than a one legged creature with higher leg stats. It basically means that “creating” your creatures or vehicles is pointless (cosmetic only, because everything is based on stats), and brings you about the same excitement as dressing up a plastic doll.
Quoted From Amazon.com - Erich Maria Remarque
So it seems that the average consumer isn’t going to put up with the crap of DRM. This is good. If only people took to arms and spoke with their wallets like this more often, although if EA gives two sh*ts is still yet to be seen. Hopefully they will do what Bioshock did with its DRM and just drop it. Or suffer drowning in a sea of complaints.
The best part of all this? The DRM has already been hacked, cracked and torrented for the world to play with WITHOUT all this crap. So the legal way of working is a pain in the arse, the illegal way is simpler. Got to love when people brake street date and someone hacks it (Note – Don’t steal games kids, you’ll go to prison and big mean men will take you’re virginity in someway or another).
It’s going to be fun to see if EA twist in the wind and fix all this or just ignores the customer base in exchange for more money; sadly I think it will be the latter.
Edit
Whoops, thanks to these guys. Made me write this post.
Kotaku - Amazon Reviewers Do Not Take Kindly To Spore’s DRM
Fred Benenson’s Blog - Spore losing the DRM Fight
And now Amazon have taken down ALL the customer reviews… That’ll help EA’s case…
If it has naff DRM, show your feeling by not buying the game. If you don’t buy it, they make no money. You can go even further if you are feeling miltant!
“And now Amazon have taken down ALL the customer reviews… That’ll help EA’s case…”
Hit the link at the bottom of the quoted review, they are still there.
I’ve been saying the same thing about DRM for months…. I did have a good chuckle when spore was released on torrent sites before it even came out in the shops. Good move EA, you’re insane DRM really reduces piracy. Muppets.
So I pay for the game and get 3 activations if things go wrong, which being a PC enthusiast, usually do! As the game is on torrent sites already its clear that DRM isn’t doing all that good of a job. Apart from lack of updates, registration to Spore.com (+sporepedia) pirates can install and reinstall the game as much as they want. Hmmmm? I would never support pirates but exactly who is losing out here? ME! Publishers want to protect their property but DRM is obviously not doing a proper job is it? Yet me - the paying customer - is stuck with the consequences.
Thing is, the user guide makes no mention of the x3 install limit. Bit naughty not to mention it in the user guides.
Thanks for this, saves me having to rant about it. I will give it a couple of days and see what the DRM is like on Crysis Warhead before buying!
Ah, but Ken. The new Crysis is coming on Steam. Bypassing most DRM stuff.
I don’t know which is better or worse. “Ream” is bad enough when you’re trying to play an existing MP game on it when the world is downloading the latest TF2 character class and trying to play Crysis multiplayer too…we’ll have to see how it plays after the insane first weekend.