http://www.simprograms.com/?p=692



Great! One more thing to screw the legit buyer and make the pirate laugh is ass off because he has a cracked version.

I posted a thread about this before the game was released. Definitely ruined 2 titles I was interested in(spore and mass effect) and would have bought if not for the draconian DRM.

*EDIT* I just checked torrents and Mass Effect is cracked and out there...to pirate or not to pirate that is the question...

Sounds like its as bad as Starforce...

Just about forcing people to consoles, doesn't it?

What happens if you run out of activations? Phone in or something?

EDIT: Never mind. You buy a new one. Um, nooo....

pfunk

the jury is still out, but I'm betting since this story hit slashdot that EA will ship this guy a new game if they have to for PR reasons...now what I hope happens is that all the sims fans(there are lots of them) who were going to buy spore read this and DONT buy it...then maybe EA will let us own our games instead of rent them...wishful thinking I know...

Unfortunately this is what the PC market has driven itself to. With piracy this rampant is it any wonder they're going to these extreme lengths?

I propose that game developers look at the piracy problem differently. Pirates are thieves, they steal, and don't buy the games, so nothing is really lost to them, because they were not going to buy it in the first place. Honest customers are going to buy good games and will continue to pay for them as they always have. Drive away the honest customers and you will have really lost something. I won't buy anything with DRM on it, period. That is a loss of revenue they can count on, because I would have bought Spore and Mass Effect without it.

simple, just wait till the drm is cracked then pirate it. haaah.

I own it... and am using the crack. I don't need the crack, but I refuse to be controlled by an idiotic security scheme that only harms paying customers.

A fried asked me just a few hours ago if I was going to buy spore. I guess I have my answer now. I wont support any company that uses DRM. I wont even buy a console game if they plan on using DRM with the PC version. To hell with spore and mass effect.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

With the "official product" doing so much screwy things to the computer, is it any wonder piracy is growing?

Is DRM the solution... or the problem? Or could it be legitimately considered to be BOTH at the same time?

I WAS very enthusiastic to get this game... but with that kind of crap that it'll mess up my computer with, THERE IS NO WAY I'LL BUY THIS GAME. And that doesn't mean I'll play a pirated version. Nope, it means I won't play it AT ALL.

The PC gaming industry is loosing me as a customer, the more it goes for this kind of draconian intrusion into the core workings of the computer I buy. Screw it, I've got better things to do, especially once you realize that it'll need two official patches, an unofficial patch and six user-discovered tweeks to make the thing work properly. But disabling my firewall? Are you SERIOUS?!?! WTF?!? NEVER will be installed on my computers... NEVER.

I'll wait for it to hit Steam.

Problem solved.

im running mass effect w/o any problems, although i have found a "way" that works...

@ Rick.50cal:

Come over to the dark side

Since this stuff doesn't solve piracy at all, that argument doesn't strike me. What they can do is stop Joe Blow from giving copys to all his friends - any Securom or other required DVD check can do that.

What they'll never stop are dedicated pirate hacks out there. So why do they keep annoying customers?

BTW, Oblivion had no protection - and sold very well. Stalker US version had no protection - and they are making a sequel.

So obviously if the game is good, it will survive. If it's the 150th "The Sims" addon, it won't.

Fortunatly EA has long stopped being on the list of companys that have interesting games.

And does all this elaborate copy protection also kill selling the PC games as used to be possible? Should we call the second hand sale of games and music piracy? After all, I have between 3k and 4k worth of games that I bought used years ago, never a buck went to the publishers. My second hand music could be in the same range.

I've felt that way ever since I first bought Enigma Rising Tide with "Starforce" included at no extra charge. Had a few minor problems with safedisk even before that. Copy protection has definitely cut down drastically on the number of mainstream gaming titles that I purchase. PC gaming isn't dying, it's committing suicide.

On the bright side, they can't add copy protection to games you already have, and don't usually bother adding new copy protection to shovelware editions of games (some even remove the CP). So now is a really good time to see how all the excellent old games run on new hardware

But they are really trying to force us to join the console movement. I wonder how long it will be before they implement some draconian measures to stop people lending games they don't play any more to their friends?



Very true!

I was hoping it would pop on there. I have no problem dealing with Steam's protection scheme. No CD... no limits on installs (Steam controls the multiple install problem by having it tied to your account... one login at a time). It does not disable any virtual drives. Oh, and it installs for you whenever you need it.

Is more like forcing people to pirate the games with this copyprotection!