Spore, DRM and You

[markderail]

First read this.
Fred Benenson’s Blog Blog Archive Spore losing the DRM Fight

It seems that the highly anticipated Spore game is full of DRM - but the nasty kind that will (edit: perhaps rootkit? -no- your computer) limit your use.

This was a game that I was actually planning on buying and paying more than one account, even my non-Gamer wife liked to play with the Freeware Creature Creator.

Why do game publishers even *go there* with an Internet enabled game?

[qbee42]

Man, that's really crappy. I hate it when publishers pull that sort of nonsense.

Do you remember the rootkit that automatically installed from some of the music CDs? I think it was from Sony. When you played a CD on your computer, it first installed their damnable copy protecting rootkit. It wasn't so much the copy protection, but the very fact that they messed with the internals of your machine without so much as by-your-leave or thank-you-very-much.

The rootkit cause stability problems for many users. Eventually the publisher agreed to stop doing it, and provide a removal tool.

Tom

[TheForce]

I stopped buying games that had DRM a long time ago. The only thing I will put up with is a CD key at most. If I have to have the CD in the CD rom drive to play or have to install DRM crap on my PC I will not buy the game. If it looks like a cool game but has DRM I usually wait until I can download a pirated clean copy.

The last game I bought was Track Mania United. It had DRM but from what I read it was nothing too bad. You have something like 3 installations before you have to "phone home" or something. The pirated copy gets around that but I wanted to play online so I bought it.

The way I see it a pirate is not going to buy the product anyway so why bother making your real customers put up with the DRM crap. CD keys work great to control online play when implemented correctly.

[Zythryn]

Originally Posted by markderail

First read this.
Fred Benenson’s Blog Blog Archive Spore losing the DRM Fight

It seems that the highly anticipated Spore game is full of DRM - but the nasty kind that will rootkit your computer.

I saw no mention of rootkits.
I also saw lots of assumtions made in the article and the following comments.
3 times is plenty if you ask me, and I doubt contacting EA will be as much of a pain as they state (sure, a pain but not THAT bad).
And, the DVD is not needed in the drive to play (bonus in my eyes).

As for the game itself, I have played the game for 14 hours in the last 2 days. Until now, games have fallen out of favor with me, I haven't spent more than a half hour playing anything on the PC or MAC for a year or so.

Yes, you build your creatures to fit your environment, it doesn't automatically grow legs if you struggle to move faster. You do gain traits (aggresive/passive, economic/industrial, etc) depending upon your actions and each trait gives you certain abilities.

So in my mind, it is well worth it and the most enjoyment I have had playing a PC or MAC game in years.
If possible, and you have questions about liking it, try a demo (is there one yet?).