EA has responded to the furore surrounding the DRM (digital rights management) measures placed in Spore, rationalising the decision to restrict users to three installations.
The internet launched into a fit of rage then the restrictions emerged, giving the game over 2000 one-Star reviews on Amazon, and flaming it in forums across the web. But EA insists that the three-install restriction only affects one percent of gamers.
According to Mariam Sughayer, a representative from EA's corporate communications, only one percent of gamers tried to install the game on more than three PCs. Just 23 percent of buyers even tried more than one install, while 77 percent only ever installing the game once.
Sughayer said: "EA has not changed our basic DRM copy protection system.
"We simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication," she told Gamasutra, comparing the DRM system to iTunes, which only allows you to play your purchases tracks on a limited number of PCs.
"You can install the game on three computers - at your office, at home or for your family. What you can't do is make and distribute a thousand copies online," added Sughayer.
Meanwhile internet reports suggest that Spore is headed for becoming the most downloaded game of all time on Torrent sites, having apparently already soared past 500,000 downloads. Ouch.
I still play older games like Monkey Island on my PC. I must have installed it hundreds of times over the years. So in 20 years if I were to play Spore like that, will they still have somebody waiting on the phone to allow me to play my own game? This whole exercise is a massive failure.
What's interesting is that they're still claiming it stops the gamer from making "thousands" of copies, when thousands of copies are being made each day. If anything more people are downloading to make a statement against DRM.
They claim only 1% install the game more than 3 times, and that's ok. But that's still potentially thousands of people that are s**t out of luck because of this lame restriction.
There needs to be an answer to game piracy, but clearly, this is not it.
According to Mariam Sughayer, a representative from EA's corporate communications, only one percent of gamers tried to install the game on more than three PCs. Just 23 percent of buyers even tried more than one install, while 77 percent only ever installing the game once.
...Meanwhile those who knew it would prove a problem never bothered buying it in the first place and turned to "other" methods.
I bought it, but having already installed it on two PCs am actually putting off putting it on my laptop because I know sooner or later my PC, and my brothers are going to be upgraded.
I shouldn't have to deal with that kind of bulls**t having quite happily paid for it.
According to Mariam Sughayer, a representative from EA's corporate communications, only one percent of gamers tried to install the game on more than three PCs. Just 23 percent of buyers even tried more than one install, while 77 percent only ever installing the game once.
...Meanwhile those who knew it would prove a problem never bothered buying it in the first place and turned to "other" methods.
I bought it, but having already installed it on two PCs am actually putting off putting it on my laptop because I know sooner or later my PC, and my brothers are going to be upgraded.
I shouldn't have to deal with that kind of bulls**t having quite happily paid for it.
If I were you, I'd now download the torrent... You've bought it, so you can do it guilt free, and it gets round their stupid anti piracy measures.
True, I'll probably end up having to go around the DRM in some other way eventually. The problem is, the main draw for Spore for me is the online functionality - which downloading does apparently mess with. It's a catch 22 for the paying customer :/
Shameful business conduct to be honest at the end of the day.
I don't get EA. If 500,000 copies have already been torrented, surely that shows the DRM is ineffective...so why use it? It p**ses normal people off, and doesn't even work.
I'd much rather pay for it than miss out on the user created content, thats what makes it so good.
I'm beginning to think the only solution to DRM is no DRM at all. No matter what measures publishers go to to lock down their games, they're always going to be hacked and copied. Always. There is no definitive method to stop people from pirating games.
The answer is not to punish those who legally bought it, and that's the only thing DRM is succeeding in doing right now. Do you think the pirates who downloaded Spore have to worry about an install limit? Of course not. Only the people who went out and paid money for the game are being inconvenienced with DRM.
The way I see it, people who steal games are always going to find a way to steal games, but at the same time, people who buy games are always going to buy games. So I think every game should be released with no DRM, no Securom, no anti-piracy measures at all. The buyers will still buy, and the pirates will still steal. Nothing will change, except buyer satisfaction.
It's an unfortunate prospect, having to simply account for piracy when you ship your game and cut your sales estimates, but at least honest buyers aren't punished.
EA still clearly don't realise that such draconion methods to protect software only encourages people to hack and distrabute it for others to enjoy without having to worry abour remembering how many times it's been installed.
The Mouth of EA claims this only affects 1% of gamers? That's 1% too many, Mr. EA. You'd do well to remember that.
So what happens in 6 years or so when the game is no longer being made, everyone has new computers and the only way to play Spore is to get a second hand copy which has probably used it's 3 activatons?
I bought it, but having already installed it on two PCs am actually putting off putting it on my laptop because I know sooner or later my PC, and my brothers are going to be upgraded.
I shouldn't have to deal with that kind of bulls**t having quite happily paid for it.
Yeah so what you're saying is that you've already installed it on your pc, your brothers pc, so you've already effectively made it usable for 2 people, which is what they want to prevent. I dunno, the whole thing is bizarre. Myself I upgrade my PC about once every 6 years so it's not a concern to me.
So what happens in 6 years or so when the game is no longer being made, everyone has new computers and the only way to play Spore is to get a second hand copy which has probably used it's 3 activatons?
And that is assuming that the activation servers are still running too!
I bought it, but having already installed it on two PCs am actually putting off putting it on my laptop because I know sooner or later my PC, and my brothers are going to be upgraded.
I shouldn't have to deal with that kind of bulls**t having quite happily paid for it.
Yeah so what you're saying is that you've already installed it on your pc, your brothers pc, so you've already effectively made it usable for 2 people, which is what they want to prevent. I dunno, the whole thing is bizarre. Myself I upgrade my PC about once every 6 years so it's not a concern to me.
"You can install the game on three computers - at your office, at home or for your family. What you can't do is make and distribute a thousand copies online," added Sughayer.
He says for your family, so actually they are fine with people having one copy per household. Maybe they don't expect people to play the game after they've upgraded as it isn't much of a long term game?
I would loved to have purchased and played Spore as it does appeal but like others I like to replay games at a later date along with cycling through different games I have currently.
I am not opposed to protection however, I should be able to install and uninstal as many times as I see fit. After all I have purcahased the game. Having purchased a car I am not restricted to three journeys!
As a result of EA's questionable DRM they have lost my sale. Not to say I will download it either. I will simply walk away and not encourage further developement along these lines and spend my hard earned cash on games that don't impose such restrictions.
I'll also not be buying Spore. Its not a question of defending their profits, it's a question of defending their licenses- and it shows the sort of backward thinking that they (Based on their reforms this year alone......) have tried to get away from in their execution of games themselves for the last year.
In making this game answer to DRM they make very clear that there is a 'use by date' on this product- a finite license you pay full whack for under the premise of copyright protection. Just last year, Microsoft closed their MS Music download service- a pioneer of DRM, and unfortunately killed every customer's tracks because the authentication server that handled license data was taken down with this closure. What if EA do this in 3 years time? It's certainly concievable.
The sooner EA learn that DRM p**ses people off, and the world kills DRM as the horrible infringement on personal freedom that it is the better as far as I'm concerned.....
EA as a company have the right to protect their product, that's a fact, however, when they SELL that product to you, it's widely accepted that that product should be YOURS. EA's DRM usually is the security equivalent of asking your mum can you go out and play, but this is like rubbing a genie lamp- you get three shots and then it's useless to you. That just smacks of arrogance and also of a lack of faith that their products are timeless.
Spore especially is being hailed as a modern classic- what happens if I want to play it ten years down the line in the same way I fired up Fallout a few weeks back? EA tell me to shut up, and buy it again (Probably on an EA server based Steam Ripoff.) and both sides wind up unhappy.
Meanwhile, some cracker has a copy burned to disc and maybe his community has some sort of modfix to run a server to keep the game running- do EA want me to break the law in order to keep playing a game that I bought in that instance? Just a theory, but it is concievable.
Punishing the paying public at large because they MIGHT be copying the game is a shameful state of affairs and as a result I don't see how I could ever buy another EA PC game if I'm honest.
3 installs is a joke; even if spore itself doesn't require the upgrade other games will. I'm one of 7 in my family; thats potential 7 home computers or 14 if we all had laptops as well.
I own 3 pc's myself and if one died that would be it.
Simple fact is I won't buy or download spore i'll get a different game instead.
some in the industry say that consoles will die out but their proctection is far beyond pc's and doesn't harm the consumer. It's things like DMR that will eventually turn developers away from PC's.
While EA is indeed claiming that just 1% would install a game more than 3 times, I think it is safe to say that is utter nonsense. I still play StarCraft (a game, that I might add is 10! years old) and have as such reinstalled it countless times on numerous different computers. If they really believed in the quality of their product, they wouldn't even have considered this. But this is EA, king of recycling the games of last year and releasing them with an upgraded front-image.
As for the guise of piracy protection: Yeah, right... that was hacked before most consumers could even get their hands on the game.
You are probably trying to reduce second hand sales, not piracy, since those are actual sales you don't benefit from. Pirates (the proper ones) don't intend to buy your game in the first place.
All in all, I find EA to be a disgusting excuse for a company, raping their honest consumers just so that their stockholders can think they're doing the right thing.
What they forget is that the consumer pays their dividents, that the consumer pays the fat paychecks these parasitic madmen live from, stealing the money from those who deserve it most (the developers who's visions make the games).
I've bought it, it's bugged to hell and back but this isn't the issue.
I am a PC enthusiast and if my PC isn't upgraded twice a year I'm probably unemployed. As such, in 18 months I won't be able to play the game anymore.
This is complete bulls**t, which is why I've downloaded the torrent already. I did the same for Bioshock and any other DRM filled software.
Honestly though it needs patching really badly, so I'll have to download cracked patches as well, cracked expansion packs probably too. It's not being pirated, it's being insured.
Keep it up PC gamers... pretty soon, consoles will be the only way you can game.
small hint "console boy", if any console publisher decided that you could only reinstall a game on your console's rather tiny HDD 3 times because console piracy was getting out of hand (because it's quite common), then what would you do?
Essentially we're just saving you the trouble, so I suggest you go fanboy somewhere else.
DRM and the other anti piracy measures are hugely frustrating for the paying customer while not troubling the pirate one iota.
I do understand why companies try to minimise the effects of piracy, but feel they'd be better served either persuing litigation against those who host cracked versions or, and this is what I'd do if I owned a publisher, launch horrid attacks on sites that deal in ilicit software, either crippling their functionality or infesting them with the worst malware possible. People would soon be less keen to log on to their local torrent if they kept massively corrupting their PC
After the shining force that was 2007. 2008 has turned out to be a year of gaming disappointment for me. Warhammer Online, Spore and Force Unleashed being the latest in an increasing "Well they f**ked up there" list.
Honestly the game isn't even worth the hassle. It is a shadow of what we were shown 2 years ago and in my opinion, this smells all to familiar. Namely, EA wanting to hold back all the good content for future expansions.
All other stages aside, the Space stage is the biggest pile of turd I have come across. Why do you only get one UFO when all other races get several? (Don't get me started on the useless ally ships that you can enlist) Why are your races incapable of defending themselves so that you can actually enjoy using some of the tools you get with your ship? Why once you ally with another race do their problems suddenly become yours...and by you I mean your one lonely UFO. You can't delegate tasks so you spend the majority of the time running around doing other peoples repetitive tasks, rather than doing what you want to do.
I have real life to satisfy me in that area.
I know that this was meant to be a casual game, but with the time invested to get a creation to the space stage. A bit of substance would not go amis.
I'm gutted. I'm angry, and I want to find whoever is responsible for ruining what could have been the game of the decade, and impose swift justice upon them. Unfortunately I'm finding more and more these days that I am in the minority, with most people seemingly happy to play mediocre games, which of course means that there are going to be far more disappointments on the way.
...or, and this is what I'd do if I owned a publisher, launch horrid attacks on sites that deal in ilicit software, either crippling their functionality or infesting them with the worst malware possible. People would soon be less keen to log on to their local torrent if they kept massively corrupting their PC
By doing that you become worse than the pirates you are trying to stop. Not to mention the fact that they'd sue you and win.
Still, do it. Strike them down and your journey towards the darkside will be complete.
I happen to believe if you operate outside the law, you shouldn't benefit from its protection
In terms of suing, I'm not sure how you'd get on as you'd have to explain "well I was attempting to break the law by downloading from a torrent a legally available game......."
Their is a latin term which escapes my memory that translates as "one cannot profit from a criminal act", ie damages sustained while engages in illegal activity such as piracy cannot benefit eg through a law suit
Surely the fact that the game is looking like breaking Torrent records proves that DRM just does not prevent piracy. All it does is annoy legitimate purchases while people with pirated copies play hassle free.
I happen to believe if you operate outside the law, you shouldn't benefit from its protection
In terms of suing, I'm not sure how you'd get on as you'd have to explain "well I was attempting to break the law by downloading from a torrent a legally available game......."
Their is a latin term which escapes my memory that translates as "one cannot profit from a criminal act", ie damages sustained while engages in illegal activity such as piracy cannot benefit eg through a law suit
Ah but on the other side of the coin you would also have to explain why you yourself deserve protection for breaking the law.
It's a sorry state of affairs that in order to beat something you have to become like it yourself, but that is how our current law system works.
As an example of how it is possible for a criminal to sue, take a look at this from 2003:
Don't know what happened in regards to the case, but the very fact he was allowed to sue. Proves that you can get away with pretty much anything these days.
Personally I think Benedict in Last Action Hero said it best. He said: "Here, in this world, the bad guys can win."
Can I just re-iterate what someone above has already said. The DRM does NOT affect just 1% of people who buy sPOOR ... it will affect 100%.
I mean ... am I missing something here because if so in 15 years time 99% of the consumers will be able to install this crap on there 5th new computer ... for the 3rd time? Really?
Rolling in money ofcourse, how else? The fact that that pile of money is slinking fast because consumers hate the company is a different matter, but until that money is gone they won't even notice.
So when my new mobo/CPU/RAM arrive on monday - does that mean it's classed as a new install?
I'm always making changes to my PC, upgrading HDD's, swapping RAM and GFX cards to check them when building new systems from old/spare/new parts etc...
Surely with Spore, one online activation is enough as to really enjoy the game, you need to connect to the Spore server.
Anyway, I play MMO's most of the time where DRM isn't an issue (The WAR CE is stunning) or old games like UFO which hammers most modern games for playability.
This is Fuc*ed up. I payed for it and I can do with it as I wish. Y'know... I should call EA and demand a refund since I bought the game before this DRM became public. We should all Boycott EA, and say Fu*k you! I saw this coming ever since the Madden exclusivity agreement. GOD DA*MIT! MORTE AL TIRANNO!!!!
Ok now that i'm thinking straight again. Actually since I bought the game doesn't that give me the right to backup the game, which is contradictory to the DRM. So isn't EA breaking the law with this DRM?
Actually doesn't that mean I can pick up a pirated version? XD I kid I kid... but yeah I say people stop buying EA products. (I doubt people will have that kinda self control though.)
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