I personally never steal games online, but only being able to install the game 3 times REALLY puts me off the idea of buying it. I have a habit of uninstalling games if I dont use them for a while and reinstalling later on.

What happens if the game breaks while installed and needs a reinstall? It does happen with most games I have owned. What happens if you buy a new PC because the old one breaks or needs updating? You may have alread used your previous 3 installs and it now useless.

This kind of restriction is just too extreme and is punishing those who have no intention of stealing a game. It makes people feel like a criminal who has the intention of doing something wrong, despite not intending to.

This would be like telling someone they can only watch a DVD they buy 10 times, before it stops playing because they dont want you copying it.

Its like saying you can only play an MP3 song 100 times before it expires and you have to buy it again.

Its an unrealistic and non-thought out mechanism and I hope they either release a patch to remove it or dont put the same mechanism into ME2. I’m just greatful this game is VERY cheap online to buy, otherwise I wouldn’t be touching it.

I mean, we all know that DRM doesn’t work, yet they use. I’m starting to think some companies want to do this with PC gamers to push us to consoles they own (cough cough Sony cough cough cough)

I will be buying this one, though, and if they don’t fix this thing by the time I uninstall it three times, well that’s too bad: we’ve got the HaX0Rz to help us… I always buy a game. The only reason to pirate one is if you can’t find it in your country, or if you’ve got big effing idiots such as EA thinking that they can coax us into being treated like animals, while we’re the people supporting them.

Well, **** that!

I think the limit of three times is absolutely ridiculous. First of all I like to periodically reset my computer back to the factory original programing so that I can get rid of all the stuff accumulated that my anti-malware programs can’t seem to find. And I may be getting another computer sometime while I’m still into playing this game. Not to mention I have a laptop that I may want to put the game on so I can bring it with me to places I go.

In short had I not had a brain fart and forgot that online authentication usually means installation limits, then I wouldn’t have bought it. I would have called ea first to make sure there was a way around the 3 installation limits as long as I could prove I bought it. And if they told me no, I wouldn’t have bought it, and I would simply have waited for a friend to buy it and asked if I could use one of his installations after he was done playing it.

I spent $50 for this game, and when I spend that much, I expect to be able to get my money’s worth.

They only use these stupid limitations because they are getting money, and they believe they’ll get more money by using them because it will force some of us to buy the game again, and they get a notion that it will hinder pirating.

As for the piraters of these games, all programs can be manipulated if someone knows programing enough to know what they are reading and how to change it.
So for the people that are actually making money off pirating these types of games, no limitation or copyright is going to prevent them. Just good ole fashioned investigative police work is the only thing that’s going to find and stop them. I mean the only thing that it has any hope of hindering is the non profit “friend letting the other friend borrow thier game for a while” thing.

Maybe they think these limitations will stop friends from letting other friends try the game and cause the other friend to buy a copy of the game, when in reality, limitations like this discourage people from buying games, and actually friends letting other friends try the game only inspires the friend to go and get his own copy so he doesn’t have to keep borrowing his friend’s copy. I’ve done the whole borrow thing, and it’s not fun because often my friends like to play at the same time I do.

So in reality WE, the law abiding citizens, that pay an arm and a leg for these games, are the only ones really being given a hard time. And that’s why I hate, and believe there is no point in buying games with ridiculous copyright limitations.

I agree though, the 3 activation limit AND the lack of an unactivation tool is just plain retarded. I mean, at least Bioshock had an unactivation tool.

It’s a shame that somebody such as yourself with an obvious intellect would throw out the “If you disagree with this tactic you must be a pirate/thief/bad person”..that is usually reserved for people who have run out of sensible arguments.

Spiral, i’ve been a video game consumer for well over 20 years, back in the day’s of the TI-994A and i’ve seen tons of copy protection, anti-piracy programs, you get the jist…and for all my time as a consumer i’ve never seen something this intrusive.

Only being able to install this game a certain number of times before you need to call EA support isn’t was has people upset, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back though…this is a program that has to ‘phone home’ every 15 days and keep a check on your game…humans generally dislike being checked on in this manner especially when they’ve done nothing to deserve it.

Imagine for one moment Spiral if you decided to go shopping, an employee of the store begins to follow you around as you shop, every ten minutes he/she asks if you need anything but continues to follow you around…when you finally confront them they respond “Oh, well you might be a thief sir…so we have to follow you around the store, oh but don’t worry sir because we do it to everybody”…now can you tell me with complete and utter honesty that you would shop there again??

And cheque writing, ha . Those security measures are rightfully in place to safeguard your identity, your account and the savings within, all very important and persistent details of life which as everyone should know, need constant verification; copy protection is supposed to protect a product’s sales. Mass Effect for the PC isn’t an online game either.

There are no multiplayer profiles, rankings and/or stats to protect and if you wanted to protect those, you would simply have people register accounts to play, not turn the retail disc into a lamp genie. This is a single-player adventure, not an online grindfest. Steam for example, doesn’t give this bull as you need only verify your code once, after which you can use that game anywhere you want, so long as you remember YOUR account details and have Steam and an internet connection readily available. No need to constantly report in just to verify who you are every few days and best of all, no need to ration your installs.

You also seem to have skimmed over valid points: for all the reinstalls, reformats, bugs, patches and/or uninstalls to save disc space, three times is a very strict quota.

/longpostisloooong.

Most of you are using this as an excuse to get a pirated copy. “If they’re going to protect themselves I’ll just pirate it then.” Like you would have bought a copy in the first place. What a load of rationalization there.

And all I see here is a bunch of complaining. I haven’t seen anyone post a suggestion as to what they should do to try to protect themselves from pirates while not encumber the honest purchasers. The fact is that we all pay for the bad apples. If you try to write a check, you have to show ID. Wow, they’re treating all the honest check-writers like criminals… how dare they!?

Ah, well – there’s plenty other games then.

Yeah sure you go buy games that you steal, I steal cars to try them out then go buy them.. Sure you delete them, what ever excuse helps you sleep better at night. Also what the hell is a puter? Some sort of weird golf computer thing? Didn’t know doing the right thing was consider to be riding the high horse… good logic there.

Yes I do hate stuff like the DRM and other things like it. That new bill the idiotic House passed, the pro IP bill pisses me off to no end. Do they need things like that? Sure they do because of idiots like “Bonerinmyass” feel the need to steal crap. Unlike you I either buy the game or I don’t, I don’t take the cheap way out.

My spelling my be horrible but compared to Zaruka..

PS sorry for the text wall of doom.

At best you’ll have played this for 6 months, and unless you buy a completely new pc every couple months, its not a issue.

Its abit of a stretch to say “you can only install it 3 times”

Even taking into account you have a second computer in the house for a brother or sister, that makes 2.

3rd if you had a replacement pc.

Only real reason you’d go over that is if you give it to a friend, and they should just buy their own.

ps thanks BonerTime lol for calling them out