Many people will be buying Spore when it comes out on September 7th. Some will shell out the extra bucks for the Galactic Edition. Most, however, will be downloading a pirated copy. This is thanks to EA’s latest stroke of genius against piracy: SecuROM. SecuROM is a marvellous program that actually limits the number of times a legitimate user can install the program to 3. Before this remarkable innovation, people who purchased a game legitimately were actually able to install install it multiple times. Obviously, the only reason someone would want to install a game more than once is to pirate it; I mean, it’s not like people have multiple computers in their households, or they might have to reinstall the game after upgrading their computer. That last sentence was obviously sarcastic, mainly because the reasoning is not sound – but tell me, what was EA thinking? Because, ironically enough, EA’s latest anti-piracy scheme will likely be motivating desperate Spore fans to resort to piracy in order to avoid all of the problems and limitations graciously provided by SecuROM DRM.
This is truly disturbing! Are innocent law-abiding citizens going to be forced to choose between kissing EA’s ass and committing acts of piracy just to play the most awesome game ever? :eek:
DRM just punishes legit consumers and does nothing to stop pirates. There will be a 0 day crack for it, I guarantee.
BioShock pulled the same stunt. They do have an official patch that lets you install it an unlimited number of times, but who knows if EA will do the same for Spore.
Unfortunately theres no real solution to the problem, and pirating is at its worst for PC games. No wonder more developers are moving to consoles and using PC’s as an afterthought.
I’m more worried about securom’s rootkit behavior. “It is not a rootkit,” but it works like one! And iirc it is made by Sony, who has gotten in trouble with this before.
That said, securom is nothing new. Been around for many years. It is the reason I never bought Bioshock for the PC… I would have bought it on Steam, but even the Steam version included securom… what is the purpose of it in that situation? Good game or not, it’s installing stuff I don’t want, and is no better than those “5000 smiley faces!” ads.
So EA is finding some good ways to ruin Wright’s latest work of genious?
They wrecked his SimCity by making it super casual and turned his The Sims idea into a cash cow that can’t get enough milking, they can wreck Spore if they wanted to.
NOOOO! You can’t talk like that. They can’t ruin spore, they won’t.
Here’s the solution. I already knew this before I posted but I wanted to give people I chance to think about it first. The solution is to email them. I don’t mean spam them to death, (although that wouldn’t be such a bad idea…) I mean if we each send them a well-written letter stating how we feel about this and what measures we will take against it (boycotting, etc.) they will surely rethink this. I mean, all they care about is profits, right? So if they think something is costing them enough profits, they will surely do something about it.
There is a nice guideline for what sort of message you should send (along with a long example) somewhere inside that discussion.
So anyone who cares about Spore should tell EA how what they are doing will affect profits (since that’s all they care about) and until they fix it, just play the cracked version. But I think it would be a shame not to pay for the game - I mean, those geniuses at Maxis deserve it, but there’s no way I’m getting secuROM on my comp.
EA is slowly going down in flames. Not only are customers getting sick of their antics, but developers as well tired of the interference. I heard many top notch developers are ditching EA because they are greedy and unfair to their employees. EA will end only on those EA sports games you see start off at 19.95. Take a look at a game made with EA and one without. Usually the one without causes a lot less grief.
They’re teaming up with Wiley publishing to make an interactive encyclopedia for dummies, things like Solitair and Sudoku. (assuming you don’t go through the tutorials or look online)
The comments are classic, being of EA dumbing down gaming and such.
simple solution, dont buy ea. dont even pirate it. boycott it. eventually they’ll change or fold. and other publishers will see them as an examle of what happens when you bite the hand that feeds you.
no seriously, I cant really figure out why they even started making piracy protection crap in the first place. Obviously, it will be cracked. The company knows this. So putting piracy protection on the game is really doing nothing at all except to harass, inconvenience and occasionally introducing dangerous, exploitable software into a customer’s system. I really don’t get it. The only people who get the piracy protection crap is the people who have paid for the game. The people who download copies don’t have to worry about that crap.
That may be how they think (if it is that would make perfect sense) but it is inherently retarded logic. They only get paid if the game sells. This means the customers have to actually buy the game. So far they so only manage this by buying out the souls of talented people while they shoot themselves in the foot with all this DRM crap.
But rdo3, how could you boycott Spore??? I’d buy a copy from the devil if that was the only option (but only if he takes cash - I wouldn’t sell my soul or anything like that). Actually the only current option is kinda close to that - so far my plan is to get the cracked game and unless EA does something not incredibly stupid then that will remain my plan.
Think if you were a company and have 40 employers and the medium salary is 3000 euros per month… how do you pay that people if everybody pirated your Software ???
Same for music ? Look at the artist you think they get the money ? Hell no , they get from a 1 million selling album only 10% and with the piracy only 00.01 %
Think what were Blender without community support and donations ? Think about the version 2.0 … and the version you have now and you will see money make the difference cause developers need money to live a good life.
Same it is for any product.
So start buying and think about other peoples job and stop being greed.
Doesn’t it also use a system that goes on the internet automatically every 2 days, getting a new serial number? If so, that means I can’t get the game. My gaming computer doesn’t have internet, and even then I only have dial up.
If they wanted security, Steam is simpler, and it doesn’t involve EA.
I might stop buying games from EA.
Actually, i remember reading in a newspaper,
that music sales have increased due to piracy.
I think the reason was, that the people who downloaded the pirated music,
found some thing they liked, and then bought the CD, or another CD by the same
author.
Of course, if nobody ever buys anything, you would be right,
but im quite sure thats not the case.
On a side note, its a little like when some store says
“We’ll give ya’ a towel for FREE”, and then you find yourself walking
out of the shop having also bought an exspensive soap and a purple lunchbox…
I’d imagine someone with your same sentiment came up with the idiocy that is secureRom in the first place. Good heart. Bad idea.
I had no idea what spore was. I Saw a rave about it being good. I almost thought, maybe I should get it. Then I read secureRom and was like, fuck that. Forgive me for being blunt. But EA is insane for this, and shady in its XBOX live download ethic. I will not buy anything with a limited number of installs. I’ve reinstalled many programs on my PC several times in the last month. Not to mention, I live in a place with frequent thunder storms, so data loss is not all too uncommon. This is a sick level of control.
Don’t get me wrong. Overall EA produces many enjoyable games. It’s just that when it comes to squeezing out a buck, they make me wonder.
When someone steals from your store you don’t punish paying customers. That gives the notion that the customers need you and not the other way around.
I could go on about the insanity of it all, but I can’t go on about the insanity of it all, because the insanity of it all has worn me out.
PS Perhaps they should invest more time in making it more worth while to get a legal copy.
Actually, i remember reading in a newspaper,
that music sales have increased due to piracy.
I think the reason was, that the people who downloaded the pirated music,
found some thing they liked, and then bought the CD, or another CD by the same
author.
I think celebrity’s ave milked way to much out of us. What exactly does EA do anyway? I mean Maxis made the Sims. Why don’t they just sell the game themselves without all the legal interference. And as everyone knows, anti-piracy programs only delay the inevitable, so chill out and just make the game good enough that people will want to buy it. I could’ve easily gotten FEAR for free form one of my friends, but i thought it was such a good that game I wanted to have the real version. Also, The companies aren’t loosing money, the stores are. these Companies get their money when they sell their product to stores, so prated or not, they’re still making money. They will only loose money if the stores stop buying restocks of the game, and the percentage of people who download games is a lot less than those who buy legit…where’s the login in that? sorry, I’m rambling, but if i ever start my own company, I’ll definitely remember to think of the honest ones first, not the thieves.
I had planned to pre-order Spore, but with this nonsense now I’m not even sure if I’m going to buy it at all. EA should be ashamed of themselves. I wish it was the Olden Days and Maxis could ship their own games, as they did back in the Sim City 2000 days.
EA should be ashamed of themselves. I wish it was the Olden Days and Maxis could ship their own games, as they did back in the Sim City 2000 days.