Spore DRM
Let's just say that I've had a sneak peak at Spore... Allegedly, a store in Australia broke the street date and a few people were able to buy it early, so I've been able to "check a few things out". I heard about Electronic Arts' nasty digital rights management scheme that was planned to be included with Spore... But then I heard they'd decided to get rid of the DRM, so I wasn't too concerned. People who actually kept tabs on Spore's DRM would have been quick to tell me that EA didn't get rid of the DRM, they only made it less evil... If you can call it that. I guess it would be like learning that you weren't actually going to experience a world-wide nuclear winter, just one nuclear blast set off on your city. Not as bad as before, but still pretty bad!
Thing is... EA wanted the Spore installation to authenticate itself online every few days even after you've purchased and installed it. Absolutely ludicrous. People were rabidly upset (with good reason) and EA decided to get rid of the whole weekly authentication scheme. No, instead, they backed down to the fabled BioShock DRM where you'd install the game and it'd use an "install slot". With Spore, you have 3 slots... You install it and it uses one slot. Hard drive crashes, or (rumor has it) you can even uninstall it and it will STILL use 1 slot, so when you reinstall it, it uses the second slot... Uninstall, reinstall; Third slot. Uninstall, reinstall... Outta luck. You're locked out. You now have to call EA to have them reset your slots so you can install the game you paid 50 bucks for.
I don't know about you, but I'm all the time installing, erasing, clearning, reinstalling... I rarely keep a program on for longer than a few months at a time. I get tired of playing and don't have enough drive space to keep it and install something new, so I remove the old stuff. I could easily use up all three slots for Spore in a single year and be forced to call EA to have it reset. Now, naturally, pirates have already cracked the game... (Can you believe it? Before it's even supposed to be sold! Already cracked!) People can install the game right now and bypass the DRM and have a fun ol' time. Unfortunately, using the crack prevents people from getting online with Spore, which is kind of the entire point of the game. You know, that little feature where your game constantly downloads new creatures from other players to populate your universe with? Yeah! That doesn't work with the cracked DRM, so people still have to buy the game to take full advantage of what it has to offer... But with that horrible DRM, I'm wondering if it's worth it.
So I'm really torn... I got a taste of the game and I really enjoy it. It's chock full of ridiculous evolutionism, but I really don't mind it in a fantasy setting like this. It's a great thing to play with, and I find it really fun. I will especially enjoy reaching the final stages of the Space Phase and traveling to other planets to destroy them just because I'm bored... It's a neat game and I want it, but that DRM... Ouch. I really don't see myself going out to buy the game JUST because the DRM is so insane. I would, in a heartbeat, buy the game and crack it, but... That prevents the game from getting online. Bah! EA is crushing a brilliant, original idea with their typical anti-piracy madness and the only people it discourages are the people who are willing to buy the game in the first place. I really don't want to have to worry about losing my installation in a hardware failure, and I definitely don't want to pay a retail price for that worry.
I really haven't decided, yet... But, if I had to make a decision now? I'd say "forget it".
September 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
And the DRM obviously works because the game's been cracked and torrented thousands of times over. *rolls eyes*
DRM doesn't do anything, and it can cripple games...
The same DRM was bundled with Mass Effect PC edition, one of my friends had a bug with the galaxy map where the only solution was to reinstall, and used up another of his slots because of A BUG. To say the least, he was very irate.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Exactly... EA isn't exactly known for putting out the most stable games, either. During my, shall we say, "glimpse" of Spore, it crashed during the transition from Tribal to Civilization. I mean, things crash... Sometimes they crash hard and corrupt and need reinstalled. It's happened before... It'll happen again. If the game breaks in such as fashion that it requires a reinstall, and the game won't unlock a slot when you uninstall it, you've just lost a slot and are one step closer to being forced to call EA because of a bug they essentially let slip through. To be perfectly honestly, I know that Windows XP and Vista has a feature similar to this. (Well, the OEM copies, to be exact.) It's annoying, but an OS isn't something to go around reinstalling all the time... It seems (a little) more acceptable for something that you install once for years and only a critical error makes you restart... Games ain't like that... And... I'm preaching to the choir, so they say.
Maybe they'll wake up after a bit and remove DRM like 2K did with BioShock... I doubt it, because it's EA, but there's always the chance. Maybe we need to organize a day where all the Spore players call EA to have their slots reset and they'll realize just how insane an idea that was and release a patch to get rid of it. I would much rather have the CD in the drive than to worry about not being able to install it one day... Ugh.
September 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I just got an interesting idea... Where does the game keep track of the installer slots? I know part of it is online, but would it be possible to install the game, authenticate it, and then ARCHIVE AND COPY the entire game folder to DVD for further use? So if I ever have to get rid of it, I just restore the game folder from archive, which would technically NOT be an installation... Hmm.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, I completely agree. I'll still likely get it just because the size and scope of the game is incredible. But the DRM thing is a major turn-off. The additional thing is that, apparently, the number you contact EA with is not a toll-free number. Blah. We'll see...
September 5th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
As if to underscore the severity of this DRM scheme, it seems that Europe is having trouble getting online... Legally. They bought the game, installed it... And they're getting something that tells them they can't link their account from Spore.com to get online. (Once again, the entire point of Spore!) I just want to say... I noticed this happening while I was (AHEM!) observing my "sneak peak", but I thought it had to do with the DRM being broken entirely. Turns out that EA's servers are apparently incapable of registering even uncracked copies. Looks like even more reasons not to buy this thing on release day.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:54 am
[...] would EA put such invasive DRM on Spore? This will only limit sales, and result in mass [...]
September 12th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I was one of the people who got warned by the Amazon customers and since then I´ve being supportive of their movement. Now I´m spreading the word and saying that, after seing Spore going from 1# to 4# in top ten of the site, Amazon just decided to erase ALL of the reviews, good or bad, without acknowlegde that this will hurt their image so bad that it will be a Phyrric victory, they will win the batle but loose their custumers. The funny thing is : to review in Amzon will have to have bought a product in their site, so all of the 2000 people are proved customers. There´s also the readers reviews in metacritics, so people stil have a place to complain about the game. In this site, most of the reviews are NOT about the DRM, but about the game itself. So spread the word and don´t trust Amzon reviews anymore, they tempered with
September 14th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I think it's completely stupid the way this has been done, I paid for my copy the day it came out and went home to find my internet canceled and I cant get online to install it, it's been weeks with having a new game and not playing it...
Stupid EA
September 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Also just a question, where can i find a crack to help with my Situation???
September 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Weeeeeell... I wasn't going to provide a crack, but I might just go ahead. Here's the .torrent file for a crack built by RELOADED. I've used it myself, and it's virus free, so don't worry about any problems. (But, as a rule, you shouldn't take anyone's word that files are clean... You should scan it yourself!) Once you get the archive, there'll be a file called SporeApp.exe inside? Extract that to the Sporebin folder. Of course, be sure to rename the old SporeApp.exe... Even if you don't use it, if they release a patch later on, it'll most likely scan for the old files and you'll want it there to rename back.
September 14th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Sweet, thanks... I'll get on that ASAP...