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Socoder -> Off Topic -> Spore: Did you see this coming? |
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| Mon, 08 Sep 2008, 15:37 | |
blanko1324
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Not only are some people calling game-play "lackluster" but the big issue is the DRM. The game must be registered via internet, and only three activations are allowed. Apparently, people are boycotting the game all over. Spore's amazon.com rating is a 1.5-ish stars; the comments section spammed with people demanding no DRM. It's gone nuts. Gamers expecting a revolutionary game are surely to be disappointed. Did you see this coming? How do you think EA will respond? Are you upset? Personally, I wasn't all too excited for Spore. Sure, it looked really, really cool, but I wasn't going to rush out and buy it. I think this is exciting; I love when people yell at big companies... 
-=-=- My Twitter 
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| Mon, 08 Sep 2008, 16:00 | |
Jayenkai
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These are the reasons nobody buys PC games, not piracy... --- 3 systems is "Nice".. In that, usually the rule is 1 pc, and that's that.. Then you format, and stick it on the new one, etc,etc.. So, to actually say "Have this on 3" is quite a big change. For example, I have pretty much all my software installed on both the PC's in the house. It makes sense, since I regularly pop up and down the stairs, doing coding/playing on either/or system. So, it's nice that they let you have 3. .. But, man, you're screwed if you have to format often! Stick to the Console version. (* assuming it's even slightly vaguely similar!.. Knowing EA, it'll be a bloody adventure game pretending to be Spore.. eg Any Sims-Console game..) And, ffs, Blanko.. Listen to music/podcasts with shorter titles!! (At the moment of typing, Blanko's been listening to "Tekzilla - Red Rings on the Xbox 360. Free PS3 Tools. Benchmarking with Crysis.".. The title of which is causing his signature to be about 17,000,000,000 pixels wide!) -=-=- ''Load, Next List!''
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| Mon, 08 Sep 2008, 16:24 | |
Spare
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I sadly bought Spore, a friend told me it was a great game including multiplayer. But after all it didnt include multiplayer which is pretty important to me in games. I didn't even know about the max. number of activations, this sucks even more as I usually reinstall my pc alot.
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| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 05:24 | |
JL235
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It's reviews might not all be universally amazing, but Will Right himself said he'd rather it received the reviews and sales of the Sims then the reviews and sales of Half-Life, which is far higher rated (but sold less). As someone who does reformat regularly, the DRM thing doesn't really put me off getting it at all. I'd expect it's similar to BioShocks 3 installs system where you can uninstall to get one back. Although to be fair I wasn't really planning to get it anyway. |
| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 06:23 | |
Stealth
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Can you deactivate a license once it is installed? On the other hand, this is quite harsh of EA: EA  The game can not start. For security reasons, only a limited number of machines can ever be licensed by a single purchase. This limit has been reached. Please purchase another registration code, reinstall, and then try again. You can't screw the people who actually buy your game. -=-=- Quit posting and try Google.
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| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 07:50 | |
HoboBen
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I think they've managed to aim for the wrong audience. Most of the people I know who are (were!) most excited by it are the ones that would appreciate an incredibly difficult and detailed strategy game... But judging by the reviews, it's something my kid sister would prefer. -=-=- blog | work | code | more code |
| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 08:14 | |
flying_cucco
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The concept is amazing, but the game is shallow and falls way short of my expectations. In hindsight, maybe I was unrealistic but the hype was incredible. DRM is a major turn-off - it is annoying to be 'rewarded' for purchasing games legitimately with such restrictions. Maybe I'll pick it up from the bargin bin.
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| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 08:52 | |
Afr0
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I have to agree - I'm mildly disappointed. It doesn't have anywhere near the depth I thought it would have. That said... When you get to the Space phase, the number of things you can do is huge - but you don't have too many choices, so you end up doing the same things over and over again. -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!
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| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 10:37 | |
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flying_cucco
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LOL at the discussion on amazon.com. A lot of people kicking up a fuss -- but the only way it will change in the industry is if people stop buying DRM'd games. Incidentally, have you seen amazon.co.uk? They are deleting the reviews as they come. |
| Tue, 09 Sep 2008, 13:30 | |
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blanko1324
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No, you cannot uninstall and get an activation back. In other news, torrents for cracked versions of Spore are going crazy. Tons of 'em. Many with over a hundred seeders; a few with some thousands of seeders. Talk about rubbing it in the publisher's face... -=-=- My Twitter
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| Wed, 10 Sep 2008, 15:45 | |
spinal
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That's always been the way, the legit users have a far harder time trying to get their legally purchased software to work than the pirates do. The moral of the story, if you buy a game with stupid protection, don't even take the cellophane off it, just download a pirate version and use that, while at the same time keeping your conscience clear.
-=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
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| Wed, 10 Sep 2008, 20:29 | |
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Stealth
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What they really should be focusing on is working with microsoft to create programs that are harder to reverse compile and come up with programming methods that are harder to "crack".
-=-=- Quit posting and try Google.
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| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 02:01 | |
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Spare
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@spinal: I think that's the most fair to do for legit users. It even bugs me more that they can still sue your ass when you buy the game and download it after (even in Holland).
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| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 04:37 | |
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spinal
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That's because you did not create the 'backup' copy yourself. In lots of countries, you can legally backup your music/software for personal use, however up/downloading those copies it illegal. The best way would be to download only the patch required to kill the protection and use it on your own copy.
-=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
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| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 07:29 | |
9572AD
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Any patch circumventing the protection would violate the DMCA and make you a felon. The solution is to give EA the big middle finger and not pay them money to harass you. -=-=- All the raw, animal magnetism of a rutabaga.
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| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 09:02 | |
Phoenix
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What they really should be focusing on is working with microsoft to create programs that are harder to reverse compile and come up with programming methods that are harder to "crack". No. If there is a way to crack software - no matter how difficult - it will be exploited. |
| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 20:51 | |
Orion Pax
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Maybe they should hook up with the maker of milkshape 3d. To this day its still uncrackable. To be honest I have tried all the cracks for it. they work for like 3 months then it stops still. And only way to get it working again is for a complete reinstall. Now to clear my name. I do own a legal copy now.
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| Thu, 11 Sep 2008, 21:06 | |
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blanko1324
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Maybe companies should just accept that they can't stop piracy. Maybe they should focus more on building up a loyal customer base. My theory is that many gamers would be more than willing to purchase a personal copy of a product (and to be responsible with that copy) if the publisher could just get down on their level...understand their wants and needs and such. I would, honest. -=-=- My Twitter
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| Fri, 12 Sep 2008, 17:37 | |
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Orion Pax
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Game companies should offer a better solution to their customers for replacing their copy if it got stolen/broken/deleted/formatted. I have had several ideas about this before and I think I just came up with my best solution yet! This would work for people like me that keep reciepts to any and all electronics that you purchase for years! If you damage or break your disc. Just mail them the receipt with a small payment like lets say $5, (cost of disc and the work, heck maybe even $10) and they would send you a new disc, while returning the receipt back to you. Well that would work for honest people. Some one could take some ones elses receipt and mail it in and get a cheap copy that would be legal as far as any body else knew. Well its an idea. And they need to implement something like this. Its a great idea and I believe it would slow down piracy a good bit. Not stop it but slow it down. Just think, most people download games because of 3 reasons. 1. They just dont care! 2. Cant afford them. 3. Cant afford to replace them if they get broken. I am one of these people if the game breaks before I beat it then I need to get another one unless its one that I havent played in like ages! But number 3 there would be almost completely wiped out. The few games I have downloaded was because my originals got ruined. So I kept the bad disc, box and manual and put it in a nice spot just in case if someone asks! Now I have purposely made backups of several of my games and used the backups to play with instead to save my originals. Some countries allow this. Some depends on what the software company says. I personally believe that you should have the right to backup ANY AND ALL software that you own.
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| Fri, 12 Sep 2008, 20:17 | |
lyons
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If you damage or break your disc. Just mail them the receipt with a small payment like lets say $5, (cost of disc and the work, heck maybe even $10) and they would send you a new disc, while returning the receipt back to you. Microsoft have something like this for certain 360 games. But it only apply s to circle style scratches caused by early Toshiba drives. Can't remember how much they were looking for the replacement disks , and i believe it is only for the 60 day guarantee. -=-=-  |
| Fri, 12 Sep 2008, 20:21 | |
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Orion Pax
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Yeah I knew they were doing that for the scratched games caused by the dvd drive. But they need something more broad for all their games and not just because the console scratched it. But tell me something does anyone agree about my general statement. They offer some kind of replacement plan and it will slow down piracy? |edit| Wow! I stole the topic! Im sorry. I will give it back after I get 1 answer from any body....hehe |edit|
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| Sat, 13 Sep 2008, 04:16 | |
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Afr0
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No. If there is a way to crack software - no matter how difficult - it will be exploited. Instead of spending lots of money on DRM protection, EA should have done with the game copies sold in stores what they did with the download copies; Encrypted them. I couldn't unlock my downloaded copy before September 3 at 00:00, because it was encrypted. The decryption key had to be downloaded from their servers. It wouldn't stop piracy, but at least it would make sure pirates would have to wait as long as everyone else. -=-=- Afr0 Games Project Dollhouse on Github - Please fork!
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| Sat, 13 Sep 2008, 04:49 | |
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JL235
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I read that you can deativate BioShock licenses when you uninstall the game. Hopefully it's true and also true with Spore. Also the problem is that if people can get away with piracy then they will. Loyalty means very little. I don't believe piracy is a problem now but potentially it can be, so it's important to fight it. The Amiga was killed almost completely by piracy. One of the problems isn't so much the piracy though, but the ease of piracy. I can download and play a game in the same or less time then it takes for me to go to town and buy it or order it online. It's also usually a lot easier too as well as being free. Exploits will always be found and abused but the amount of effort required has a large bearing on how popular it will be. Many games can be easily downloaded with a working license key so no effort is required. Online registration adds to the effort required to crack the game so it's potentially a good thing. However I think the only truly successful scheme is Steam, which I love. I know it's not perfect and is regularly abused but because it requires more effort it's also less abused. |
| Sat, 13 Sep 2008, 08:27 | |
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spinal
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"The Amiga was killed almost completely by piracy." - Not true, the Amiga did well until Commodore got its hands on it, then completely f*cked it up. Poor marketing and useless company big-wigs is what all but killed the Amiga.
-=-=- Check out my excellent homepage!
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| Sat, 13 Sep 2008, 10:29 | |
Mog
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Fuck the DMCA. -=-=- I am Busy Mongoose - My Website Dev PC: AMD 8150-FX, 16gb Ram, GeForce GTX 680 2gb Current Project: Pyroxene
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| Sat, 13 Sep 2008, 11:26 | |
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Stealth
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Fuck the DMCA. As much as I hate copyright protection methods, I do not hate the DMCA. This is very important to people who create electronic media. -=-=- Quit posting and try Google.
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