Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
I've skimmed through that thread yesterday, and that was what I was hoping was the case although I didn't see the explicit part that said that.

The direct quotes were:

Quote:
This will affect my purchase. Let's take a hypothetical situation. Say I brought the game. I install it and activate it on my computer. I then give my legally purchased game to my bro to play on his PC. Will he be able to play it? I believed you said the limit was 3 at one time correct?

Quote:
Yes, he would be able to play.

Quote: To how many friends am i allowed to borrow my legally purchased copy, before you ban me from playing it?

Quote:
I believe that the SecuROM settings are for up to 3 activations. There is no banning or such if you go beyond the 3 activations, it just won't activate. If you run into any issues with this, you will be able to contact EA tech support and they will help you resolve any problems you have getting your game to run, including issues with SecuROM.

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Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
I'm hoping the rep was meaning that if the system crashes and burns they'd be seriously evaluating relaxing that requirement.

He did say that if they ever shut down the servers they would release a patch to remove the copy protection

Quote:
That's ridiculous. To have it require activation every 10 days, what happens in the future if the servers go offline for some reason? (out of business, decide not to support it or whatever)

Quote:
Then we would release an update that removes this.

The one added bonus of all this though is that you don't need the cd in the drive to play.

Man, what I find funny is that we've done a 180 with piracy.

Back in the late 90's, downloading games from the 'net was a risky business. There was a good chance that there would be Malware included with the game, they were often hard to install (If they installed at all!) and it was often INCREDIBLY hard to find the game that you were after. It was normally far easier and less heartbreaking to just go to a retail store and buy it.

Now, the whole thing is reversed. Retail games often include invasive (And in some cases, destructive) software, that's if you can even get the damn thing to install because of the DRM. Even then, finding PC games is becoming increasingly difficult at a lot of stores. Meanwhile, pirates have access to a giant, immediately available library (Often earlier than the retail stores), and they don't have to worry about the DRM screwing their chances of playing the game.

Now, I don't agree with piracy except in the cases of destitution (It really is a victimless crime if the person can't afford the games at all, and hey if they want to have fun regardless of their financial situation then let them). However the approach taken with DRM is broken, stupid and completely counter-intuitive.

Yes, I'd love for developers to protect their investment. However, right now I'm in a firm belief that they're doing way more harm than good to their sales. They really need to step the fuck back from SecuROM and friends and try taking another approach, because it JUST. ISN'T. WORKING.

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
The unfortunate thing is that the vast majority of the gaming populace doesn't really care enough about these issues to *vote with their dollars and not buy from EA anymore*.

After reading this I've decided to not purchase Spore, a game I had actually preordered something like 2-3 years ago when first announced. I'm incredibly excited for the game, but there is no way I'm going to support this. I've already started mailing this around and urging my friends to not buy it (none of them will buy Mass Effect for PC anyway since they have Xbox 360s).

I'm on the fence over Spore. If it were any other game I'd ignore it, but I've been wanting to check out Spore for years now. It's one of those games I'd buy more for the purposes too see how it ticks than one purely to enjoy.

I'm now not going to pre-order it though, as I might wait until after the initial wave of early buyers has tried the system out. Although I'm not certain that Spore will be going ahead with this level of protection - this announcement comes from a member of the Mass Effect team after all, and I've heard that Spore is meant to work on computers without an internet connection. I need more info first.

Quote:Original post by Jesper T
This is mine:

0101000101010100100101010100010101010010010101010111110101010101010
1111010101010101010101111110101010101000101010100100101010101111101
0101010101011110101010101010101011111101010101010001010101001001010
1010111110101010101010111101010101010101010111111010101010101111101
0101010101011110101010101010101011111101010010100010101010010010101
0101111101010101010101111010101010101010101111110101010101000101010
1001001010101011111010101010101011110101010101010101011111101010101
0100010101010010010101010111110101010101010111101010101010101010111
1110101010101000101010100100101010101111101010101010101111010101010
1010101011111101010101010001010101001001010101011111010101010101011
1101010101010101010111111010101010100010101010010010101010111110101
0101010101111010101010101010101111110101011010100010101010010010101
0101111101010101010101111010101010101010101111110101010101000101010
1001001010101011111010101010101011110101010101010101011111101010101
0100010101010010010101010111110101010101010111101010101010101010111


If you copy that to your computer without paying me you have stolen my property. Dirty criminal.

Your reductive comment actually undermines other positions I'm sure you espouse. For instance, if all games are is sequences of zeroes and ones and the idea of pirating them is laughable, then games are neither art nor intellectual property. They are, in effect, worthless.

It is important when discussing issues of this magnitude not to overreact.

Quote:Original post by Trapper Zoid
Spore is meant to work on computers without an internet connection. I need more info first.

This is a good point. I have had Spore pre-ordered since 2006, and i think it has the potential to be absolutely massive. So i totally agree with you, if it were any other game i wouldn't buy it.

I believe one think Will Wright was pitching was the fact that because all of the creatures are procedurally generated you can fin thousands and thousands on the DVD for player without an internet connection. If you can't install it without one it kind of makes that a moot point.

Quote:The thing is, it makes perfect business sense. Businesses are corperate entities who value their property, be it physical or intellectual, extremely tightly.

So? People are going to pirate anyway, and their draconian measures are driving more people to pirate, and less people to buy their game. Just read the replies in this thread!

How, exactly, does it make business sense to alienate customers and lower profits just to be able to say "well, at least we tried?" Business are about making money. Being overprotective of their Imaginary Property in this way directly conflicts with this goal.

Quote:The thing about the pirates is that they typically belong to organizations, be it crime syndicates or even state sponsered, and the police are after them on multiple counts, not just for video games.

Not in the west, no.

Quote:At least companies are just putting up DRM measures, and not taking a more drastic approach of sueing anyone who downloads a game for thousands of dollars, yet.

The day that happens is the day when copyright law gets revised and non-commercial piracy legalized, due to companies really putting the absurdity of the situation on the table.

Quote:And DRM will improve, and evolve to a point where it's transparent to us. And while pirates might be able to still crack it, it will get to a point where it's too much effort to distribute it to people as we currently know it.

Then develop the damn DRM until that point. You don't deploy an unfinished application, so why should you use unfinished DRM?
Hire the crackers to do penetration testing for it. If someone were to develop a DRM scheme that actually works and is non-intrusive, they'd have their hands on a cow that shits gold. Actually, they'd have that if they could come up with a DRM scheme that works, no matter how intrusive. So why don't they do it? Simple. Because it's not doable.