Spore to be released September 7, 2008

dynamik

Yea, and EA has fantastic support, so I don't foresee any problems with that at all

JDMurray

nicklauscombs wrote:

hopefully they will roll out a patch that removes the DRM

That's not going to happen, but there will be hacks that disable the installation limit. The DRM would need kernel-level privileges and TPM to be fairly hack-proof. A DRM developer might find that environment on Vista, but certainly not on XP.

Ahriakin

The exact same thing happened with Mass Effect and they ended up easing the DRM a bit. But the fact that they used an identical scheme that they knew the public hated and had previously repealed means this is how they want their games to go, they didn't ease the DRM because they realised they had made a mistake but they obviously plan to keep using this system until people stop complaining.
Any as for the game I'm not nuts about it (nothing to do with the protection). It's got excellent design and production values but is too simple imho. I might end up giving it to my niece.

dynamik

Everyone realizes that this game was leaked with the DRM broken days before it was released, right? Therefore, the DRM doesn't affect anyone who has pirated it, only those that bought it legitimately.

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

Everyone realizes that this game was leaked with the DRM broken days before it was released, right? Therefore, the DRM doesn't affect anyone who has pirated it, only those that bought it legitimately.

I've been reading that people have bought the game but then torrented the cracked version just to get around the DRM. It has been pointed out that the activation count is decremented if you properly uninstall the game, and that the cracked game will most likely not update properly when the updater detects the crack in place. I'm also wondering if the cracked release has had any Malware placed in its installer.

snadam

Spore Users Create Creatures to Voice Their Displeasure

I dont know why, but this made me laugh. Its amazing how creative people can be

tiersten

I played Spore on a friends PC the other day and whilst its okay, I don't see why there is so much hype associated with it. Its fun for a bit but soon becomes kinda boring.

astorrs

My wife is addicted... But keeps getting slaughtered in the tribal stage.

KGhaleon

How much to advertise in your avatar space, astorrs?

astorrs

KGhaleon wrote:

How much to advertise in your avatar space, astorrs?

for you, no charge.

tiersten

Spore DRM relaxed slightly. As per usual, EA are totally surprised that people don't like incredibly restrictive DRM. I don't see how forbidding you from creating multiple accounts would have helped prevent piracy. The game was cracked quickly anyway, all this crap DRM is just **** off legit customers.

Don't complain about this to EA. If you mention SecuROM in their forum, you can get banned and have to buy a new copy of the game...

JDMurray

The question that people are asking is how does Spore's DRM punish people who cracked the game? And the answer is, "it doesn't; it only inconveniences some people who legitimately purchased the game." In other words, the DRM is only there to keep honest people honest.

dynamik

I've always thought the companies that develop DRM technologies must have the best sales people in the world. How they are able to convince companies to implement a technology that does not prevent piracy and simultaneously inconveniences those who bought the game is completely beyond me.

Tyrant1919

Started as an herbivore. went through the cell phase without killing any other cell and got some special award or something at the end. I wish they would allow you to play on and gain more DNA points, as I feel this is actually the funest part of the game. I'd love to put all of those spikes on my dude and just run around eating green things. Or surround myself in jets so I'm like uncatchable. Fast hard to catch herbivore, good combo.

Creature stage was alright. I tried allying with everyone. Succeding most of the time. I found evolving a bit more difficult as a non aggressive creature as I had to upgrade my dancing, singing, impress, and the other one I forgot, to have any chance of allying the harder species.

Tribe stage was very meh. Didn't like much of it.

Same with Civ stage. Nice and all. I stayed strictly religion the whole way, and just bombarding them with my holographic image. Made my vehicle look like an AT-AT from SW, sweet...

Space stage is interesting although tedious bouncing from system to system terraforming planets. Had to restart a second time once I figured out how everything worked, by the time I did everyone hated my guts. Still haven't finish the space stage, about at 66% on my bar.

Overall it's a decent game, It might last me about a month, but, I don't think it has much replay value myself. Decent, but not amazing. The Cell stage is by far my favorite, I wish there was a game that was nothing but being a cell and evolving. It's simple, fast, and fun.

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

I've always thought the companies that develop DRM technologies must have the best sales people in the world. How they are able to convince companies to implement a technology that does not prevent piracy and simultaneously inconveniences those who bought the game is completely beyond me.

It's actually the investors of the gaming companies that insist on the use of anti-piracy measures, like online-only distribution, activation keys, and DRM. The lack of technical understanding of business people of the ineffectiveness of DRM technology is what drives the DRM industry, not the DRM industry selling itself.

As a software engineer once employed in the computer gaming industry, I have both integrated 3rd-party software protection packages and participated in the design and implementation of media-centric DRM schemes. The only reasons I was requested to do so was to give investors assurance that their investment was being prudently protected, and to fulfill contractual obligations for securing the licensing to specific media packages. At no time were we asked to present proof of the effectiveness of our DRM scheme or how much loss it prevented, and we never found a way to keep the DRM from inconveniencing/disappointing at least some of our customers.

dynamik

Interesting. Thanks for the insight.

undomiel

You know what I enjoyed? Those keycode wheels on ye olde gold box D&D games. Now that was making copy protection fun!

Mind you, I know how easy that is to bypass, but still I actually enjoyed twirling the wheel and lining up the dwarven text.

KGhaleon

Go on youtube and search for the banned spore creatures.

tiersten

undomiel wrote:

You know what I enjoyed? Those keycode wheels on ye olde gold box D&D games. Now that was making copy protection fun!

Mind you, I know how easy that is to bypass, but still I actually enjoyed twirling the wheel and lining up the dwarven text.

I've still got the wheels for all my old DOS games! The Monkey Island 1 wheel was pirates faces and Monkey Island 2 was voodoo ingredients. Worst ones were the codebooks which were intentionally hard to photocopy. It was pretty hard to read and it didn't stop pirates anyway because they'd just type it in.

snadam

tiersten wrote:

undomiel wrote:

You know what I enjoyed? Those keycode wheels on ye olde gold box D&D games. Now that was making copy protection fun!

Mind you, I know how easy that is to bypass, but still I actually enjoyed twirling the wheel and lining up the dwarven text.

I've still got the wheels for all my old DOS games! The Monkey Island 1 wheel was pirates faces and Monkey Island 2 was voodoo ingredients. Worst ones were the codebooks which were intentionally hard to photocopy. It was pretty hard to read and it didn't stop pirates anyway because they'd just type it in.

case in point, Joe Montanna Football. Im sure the original manual was in color, but we had the B&W version. To play the game, you had to answer a question based on a mugshot of a football player (ie how may pass yards did this player have?). Needless to day some looked EXACTLY the same and couldnt get in the game half the time without re-loading it!

dynamik

It looks like there's a class action lawsuit in the works: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/24/ea-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-spore-drm

It looks like DRM is part of a new series at PA as well: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/9/24/

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

It looks like there's a class action lawsuit in the works: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/24/ea-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-spore-drm

This is clearly an attempt by the anti-DRM forces to scare other software publishers away from using DRM technology to protect their digital content. There is no basis for a class-action lawsuit because if you don't like the DRM you can simply uninstall and return the game and get your money back. No harm is done to persons or property. Where is the real injustice requiring any form of court action?

Mishra

JDMurray wrote:

dynamik wrote:

It looks like there's a class action lawsuit in the works: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/24/ea-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-spore-drm

This is clearly an attempt by the anti-DRM forces to scare other software publishers away from using DRM technology to protect their digital content. There is no basis for a class-action lawsuit because if you don't like the DRM you can simply uninstall and return the game and get your money back. No harm is done to persons or property. Where is the real injustice requiring any form of court action?

You can't return software after it has been opened. Stores wouldn't even do store credit for me. They were only willing to exchange the game for a different copy of the same game when the game wouldn't work in my cdrom at all.

JDMurray

Mishra wrote:

You can't return software after it has been opened. Stores wouldn't even do store credit for me. They were only willing to exchange the game for a different copy of the same game when the game wouldn't work in my cdrom at all.

The game's publisher will refund your money. With all this bad publicity, I would say they're very responsive to their customers right now.

dynamik

Did you read the complaint? They're claiming that SecuROM is not uninstalled when you uninstall the game, and it seems like it's basically a root kit. I don't know about you, but I don't want crap like that on my system. If that can be compromised, you're done. Sony's root kit plans blew up when people found out how to exploit it. And all of this is done without any notice given to the user. I don't think this is as unjustified as you claim. They're not complaining about having to call EA for the fourth+ installation.

snadam

JDMurray wrote:

dynamik wrote:

It looks like there's a class action lawsuit in the works: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/24/ea-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-spore-drm

This is clearly an attempt by the anti-DRM forces to scare other software publishers away from using DRM technology to protect their digital content. There is no basis for a class-action lawsuit because if you don't like the DRM you can simply uninstall and return the game and get your money back. No harm is done to persons or property. Where is the real injustice requiring any form of court action?

I think their angle is the "silent installation" of SecuROM and not being able to uninstall it/notice it; at least from what I read. So while I tend to agree with your statement, I think these guys are taking a different approach.

EDIT: seems dynamik beat me to the punch :P

dynamik

Also, this isn't related to Spore, since I don't own it, but I HAVE had stuff like this interfere with my ISO applications. I'm sure a huge majority of people who use those types of things are doing so for unethical reasons, but I have a massive amount of Technet and various other ISOs that I use legitimately. Also, sometimes I just want to convert a game I own to an ISO for convenience and performance. I get really irritated when something interferes with legitimate use, even more so when it isn't even related to their product (i.e. not allowing me to create additional virtual cd/dvd drives).

tiersten

Doesn't SecuROM do this for everything? Most of these stupid DRM systems work in a similar way. Nearly all the audio CD ones do the same thing as well.

The only people that win in a class action are the lawyers. Everybody else just gets a couple of bucks thrown their way and years back in the case of Nintendo, its not even as cash but Nintendo vouchers.

[edit]Oops. Wasn't SecuROM that linked the torrent to a Stardock game but StarForce instead. Sorry to SecuROM in this case.[/edit]

dynamik

tiersten wrote:

Doesn't SecuROM do this for everything? Most of these stupid DRM systems work in a similar way. Nearly all the audio CD ones do the same thing as well.

Probably. I haven't bought anything from any place other than Steam for quite awhile, so I don't have to deal with it. As noted, it's definitely a turn-off when considering a title from somewhere else though.

I did think it was odd that they went after EA and not SecuROM directly.

tiersten wrote:

The authors of SecuROM are a tad dubious. Stardock make a fairly popular civilisation style game and pride themselves on not having any DRM or copy protection on it. One of the SecuROM guys posted a link to a torrent to prove how Stardock should put DRM on it.

I remember that! That was crazy. Stardock, in turn, could have just as easily provided a torrent to any SecuROM title as well.

tiersten wrote:

The only people that win in a class action are the lawyers. Everybody else just gets a couple of bucks thrown their way and years back in the case of Nintendo, its not even as cash but Nintendo vouchers.

Agreed. If nothing else, I think this is more of a lawyer trying to make some quick money than a huge push from any anti-DRM movement.

tiersten

dynamik wrote:

tiersten wrote:

Doesn't SecuROM do this for everything? Most of these stupid DRM systems work in a similar way. Nearly all the audio CD ones do the same thing as well.

Probably. I haven't bought anything from any place other than Steam for quite awhile, so I don't have to deal with it. As noted, it's definitely a turn-off when considering a title from somewhere else though.

Steam games can come with DRM. Bioshock had SecuROM in the retail and Steam versions.