Even the Creatures in Spore Aren’t Happy With the DRM
By Jonathan on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 9:34 AM PST In Computer, Electronic Arts, Game Companies, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games
Gamers certainly have no shortage of outlets to express their disdain for the DRM restrictions on Spore, whether it’s through Amazon.com reviews, EA’s forums, or torrent downloads. Well now you can add the game itself to that list, as the Sporepedia now has a small share of creatures displaying a very strong anti-EA message. Most are none-too-subtle, like the one at the right, but there are some with a decidedly wittier edge; such as the “Veroflraptor,” which is known to “spray excessive DRM and overhype.” I guess that’s just one of the dangers of giving your customers a game that allows them so much freedom. Of course, no one ever expressed their outrage through The Sims at any point.
Via GameCulture
“Of course, no one ever expressed their outrage through The Sims at any point.”
Because Sims didnt have the draconian DRM that spore has…
“Of course, no one ever expressed their outrage through The Sims at any point.”
Because Sims didnt have the draconian DRM that spore has…”
And because the sims is awesome .. for a while ….
As2342; Yes it did. You had to be connected to the internet, and you could only install it on one computer. All the new games will use this, Warhammer Online, Call of Duty World at War, all of them. But you can only blame pirates for making them do it.
@Serio .. Get of the band wagon and know that pirates aren’t idiots and they will find a way to share these games .. Make a descent game and people will pay HARD EARNED cash.
Nope. Call of Duty 4 was more than a decent game, yet it still got pirated by thousands.
Yeah, I don’t care how incredibly awesome a game is, people will pirate it because the bottom line is money. That is also the bottom line for publisher’s. They are just there to maximize the profits, and one way is to force buying the game by using DRM.
Let’s face it, if there were no pirates, there would be no DRM. Anyone who would argue against that is idiotic. Now, the better question is does DRM do more harm than good? Does it force pirates to buy the game? Probably a a decent number. After all, many pirates are no doubt “armchair pirates” (for lack of a better word) who will only download if it is easier. Once you might have to actually work to get the game to run, spending some money seems reasonable.
But yeah, again in all honesty, the DRM probably loses more customers than it gains, as many people won’t buy the game based on principle. I bought it though, I don’t have principles.
Cod4 was a horrid game. You might want to check the list of games with no recoil and no skill, you will find cod4 right on the top.
But to the issue, Ea should notice how much money their losing, it seems like their trying to play the tough guy and fight it out, but theres no fighting this. Their response to all this is editing and tweaking the DRM, but that doesnt change shit. I would say about a year from now EA will finally give up. The thought of DRM (From EA’s point of view) is great, but thats when reality hits. Its supposed to protect their games from pirating, when in reality it made more people pirate it than actually buy it.
As for the debate on good games still getting pirated (Doesnt apply to spore) theres 2 main points you have to understand. Every game will get pirated no matter the protection or quality. I once read a really intriguing article on how pirating sells more than it takes away. Although, you might not agree with it, I personally think its true. Take this for example, a gamer comes home and pirates Crysis. He loves it, and tells all his buddies in his clan or community how great it was. They will probably buy it, not wanting to get it before, then those who bought it tell others and so on. It potentially sells a load more than it takes.
The other point kind of goes hand in hand with the first. With todays over-hype on games, you really don’t know if a games good or not. Hypotheticly, If i were to pirate a game it would only be because I dont feel dropping 60 bucks on what could be the biggest epic fail of the year (sadly I bought Cod4) and I really want to see if the game is truely good or not. More and more publishing companys aren’t releasing demos anymore and it either pushes you to buy the game to see, or not buy it at all, pirating gives a middle ground. This really applies to the example of the gamers who didn’t want to buy the game cause they really didn’t know. Over my course of gaming I’ve been cheated out of more cash than I’d like to imagine, I’d say in the thousands of dollars due to buying horrid games that were said to be “great”. Its really sad and its true, pirating really gives back to the gamers who have been faithful and have gotten screwed over pretty hard.
Lol, Warhammer Online wont feature anti-pirate stuff because its a MMO like WoW and Age of Conan.
You just need an account and cash for the monthly fees.
But to the main topic, EA’s DRM suck.
A thing like that wont stop piracy at all.
Just think about all the anti-piracy stuff M$ has put into Windows Vista and Office 2007.
Who said warhammer has DRM? well, it doesn’t.
That was pretty random by Deagleson. Noone mentioned mmos then he rolls in with the glorious epiphany.
Actually Serio mentioned Warhammer.
But yeah, this DRM is pretty stupid. The only game I’ve bought with it was Bioshock. Fortunately, the limited installs was eventually made unlimited. I’m sure EA won’t do that.
Many people who pirate games eventually buy them. Some people can’t wait for the release, so when (like in the case of Spore) it comes out a week early on torrents, people will download. Then, they’ll buy it when its released.
I’ve pirated games and then bought a legal copy later. I usually do it when the games a bit cheaper or I find a bundled pack.
Soon pirating will slow down a little though. The DRM will always be cracked, but theres only so much you can do for file size. Multi-DVD games are a huge download, so some people will find it easier to buy it than wait a week while 10gigs downloads at 50kbs.
There’s no point in using DRM to begin with. Anyone who wants to play it by illegally downloading it will do so, there’s always ways around these copy restrictions. Thus adding it to games only penalizes the legal customers.
This is a simple fact to understand. Why people dont comprehend it is beyond me.
I didn’t, and won’t, buy Bioshock as long as it has SecuROM…and I’m not checking anywhere to try to determine whether SecuROM has been removed. I was all set to get Spore until I heard the magic word: SecuROM. Sorry EA. No sale.
For that matter, not only am I not buying these titles, but when people ask me about them I carefully commit a sin of omission when talking about them…I just say that SecuROM is a rootkit. “What is a rootkit?” It’s a virus. Ok, in this case it’s not a sin of omission; I lie about it. Too bad Spore. Too bad Bioshock. …and too bad Sony: I also mention that you are responsible for it.
@ vulture
My bad, missed that =P
Internet piratcy will not be stopped, and no the whole DRM didn’t even slow it down at all. Let’s face it, the DRM didn’t stop pirates (heck it didn’t even make them break a sweat), SecuROM doesn’t even work at all, and they’ve even figured out to how to crack game’s you have to register through online.
(Btw the following are just some examples, chosen at for related reasons)
Spore – Crack and uploaded 2 days before the “official” US release. Mass Effect – Cracked and uploaded first day of US launch. CoD4 – Cracked and uploaded before the “official” US release launch. Crysis – Cracked and uploaded first day of US release. Alone in the Dark – 3 months till someone cracked the online game start up system and registration….now something doesn’t seem right here…
Now around where I live, there aren’t too many people who even bother with downloading anything above music and movies, compared to the number of people who know how to download and run cracked game’s, your more likely to get into a car crash.
Of course I support and buy all the game’s that I’ve enjoyed in the past, or look extremely convincing to buy, but to throw down $50 on a unproven and iffy game isn’t really best idea.
@vulture
10gig downloads stopping people, lol….if only that were true. And a week long download!?! Meh, I’ve seen people do 9gig downloads within 10 hours…so it’s not likely that will stop them either. Though I do agree that it is easier to buy the game, there are problems w/ that idea. Take into consideration that hard drives are getting bigger and cheaper, internet connects will be improved within the near future, and I suggest you search for “special” trackers, which enable high speed connections a 800kb/s-1Mb/s. Hit those hard, and then I can almost bet you money people will then begin to stop downloading anything larger then 5gigs.
http://www.amazon.com/Crysis-Warhead-Pc/dp/B001ATHKVC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221631942&sr=8-1
Express your dissatisfaction about internet based DRM. Leave Crysis: War Head your Spore like review and together we might stop this madness and show EA that consumers purchasing a game aren’t criminals.
Thank you for your support,
Frank
@aki
I see your point, but where I live its hard to get a relatively cheap, high speed connection.
But I know that some ISP’s (I think mine does this) have a limit on bandwidth. If you go over the limit, they start charging you. They also block a whole bunch of gaming ports. If you pirate alot, it may be cheaper to buy the game.
Vulture,
It is true some ISP impose a bandwidth cap such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable but the limit is somewhere in the hundreds of GB. For Comcast, I think it is 250GB per month. To me, that is more than enough for a family of four or less. If you use more than that, let me rephrase that, what are you doing on the Internet that exceeds 250GB worth of bandwidth within a month? I’m pretty sure pirating illegal software, games, music and movies plays a big part in that.
Digital distribution is the closet thing to combat piracy but nothing will ever stop it unless the ISP gives out info to the govt. on each and every individual that visits torrent and warez sites to download stuff.
Spore was cracked and uploaded days before the US release. SecuRom didn’t stop a damn thing. Now, ignoring all the nasty things that have happened to people’s computers due to DRM, let’s look at one event in particular that has changed the way I see DRM completely.
You guys ever heard of Stardock or Galactic Civilization 2? Well, Galciv 2 was made famous because Stardock refused to use DRM for the game. A total shocker. So what was Starforce’s reaction to this? They posted links on their forum to Galciv 2 torrents all over the internet. That was one of the most disrespectful things I’ve ever seen, and I will not support a business method that harms legitimate customers while remaining completely ineffective at stopping pirates.
i paid for cod4… i wish i downloaded it pirate first… i wanna refund.. steam dont give em
dam them!!