EA’s DRM spyware on the long-awaited game Spore turns out to have an added side-effect: if you live in a household with multiple players, you all have to share the same account. The game’s manual says otherwise, but after repeated queries on the EA forum, a company spokesperson confirmed this. That’s right—if you’re in a household with several potential Spore players, and you want each of them to have their own account, you will have to buy multiple copies of the game.
From page 52 of the manual:
You may have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game.
However, here’s what “EA_violet” wrote on the EA forums in response to complaints that players couldn’t set up multiple accounts:
That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time.
We’re among all those people who waited a long time for Spore to come out, and we’re facepalming at how broken it is, all thanks to EA’s misguided DRM implementation. This particular detail is notable for revealing that at some point in the past it was likely that the game allowed multiple accounts, and that this functionality was removed in order to tighten the DRM net.
forum.spore.com (Thanks to Sir Mildred Pierce!)
(Spore creature: Henjoness)
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I’ll just assume you know what that image looks like and just walk away.
@LiquidGravity: He’s part uh…. Goat.
@MercuryPDX: And uh part… se?
@MercuryPDX: i see…
It sounds like a typo, really. Setting their other DRM issues aside, isn’t this how most games with online accounts work? You have to buy each account separately. Hence ‘buddy passes’ and trial periods; you can borrow your friend’s copy of the game, but if you want to have your very own account, you buy it.
@mythago and @dianabanana: I don’t play MMOs, but I do play many other PC and console games, so I wasn’t aware that this is standard MMO policy. From my perspective as a gamer this is unusually restrictive, but maybe my context is wrong in this case considering Spore’s MMO-DNA.
@Chris Walters: I’m with you. I know that on pretty much any game from Popcap or Reflexive (eg. Diner Dash, Zuma, Bookworm) you can add different “user accounts” for each family member to the game.
@Chris Walters: It’s not just MMOs, but many games with online ability. Well not all, obviously, but just for example, this is totally the way Blizzard does it – all access to Battlenet is controlled by your CD Key, basically, so only one copy could be online once.
@mythago: That works mostly for MMOs and such. It sounds like EA won’t let you have multiple profies for the single player game, which is retarded.
Wait, I’m confused. What’s the problem with making people purchase more than one copy if they want to open more than one account? (Other than it stating differently in the manual) That’s the case with majority of MMOs (World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, etc) out there.
From what I understand, the real issue with the DRM in Spore is that you can only install /activate the game 3 times… total. Basically if you regularly reformat, and do it more than 3 times after purchasing Spore, you’re shit out of luck.
@dianabanana: If there is only one computer in the household, that is effectively like telling someone to go buy a new computer if they want more than one account. Not exactly user OR consumer friendly…
Any interactive MMO I play requires multiple licenses… nothing bizarre about this. If two people want to be ale to play together on the same server, they each have to be logging in from their own accounts.
And yes, you can play often on your own account – that’s just playing your own game in your own universe.
@Crymson_77: the key here is simultaneous access to the online universe. If they have only one computer, then only one can play at one time and they might as well share the account. If they both want to play together in realtime, that requires two computers and two licenses.
Again, I see nothing noteworthy in this policy.
@Crymson_77: What would be the purpose of more than one account though? I mean, is there that much that people do online that separate accounts make a difference?
@dianabanana: There should be nothing stopping them from allowing you to make separate accounts but restricting it so only one can be logged in at a time.
@Corporate_guy: Exactly. You can easily log into other people’s accounts from the same game as long as you have seperate usernames/passwords. This is really common these days.
Nice pic, Consumerist. You DID notice what is going on, right?
@Corporate_guy: Exactly. Especially so because these are free accounts. Looking at the Xbox, I can create two completely separate and isolated accounts for free. PC games should work the same way.
@dianabanana: If you’re gonna compare it with WOW, its more like forcing you to buy a new account to play more than one character.
@shadydentist: But you can make more than one Spore creature on your account, so it’s really the same as an MMO. You just have to play them all off the same account.
@dianabanana: Spore is hardly an MMO, but if we’re treating it as such (or at least as an MSO) it still is a ridiculous policy. In most MMOs you have one account, but can make multiple distinct avatars/characters, allowing a family to share an account and still have their individual experiences, just not simultaneously. In Spore, that’s not really possible, there is only one “universe” active per copy. You can start on another planet, but that’s it.
@dianabanana:
Blizzard gives away WOW for free download as many times as you want (if you have an active account) and you can install on as many computers as you want. The only restriction is you cant be logged onto more than 1 computer at a time using the same account.
You can’t really compare WOW with Spore. It’s an apples oranges comparison.
I was getting my pitchfork ready until I got to this justification:
I can see that side of the story, in light of dianabanana’s comment.
However, MercuryPDX’s question: still remains: Can you install more than one copy on a single machine? If not, then that’s retarded.
Why not just charge a nominal fee to register another profile if they’re concerned about the money?
@Michael Belisle: Makes sense. Though, what exactly is so costly about supporting multiple accounts? The real account-based resource hog would be the database of all players’ creations, and this one account technique doesn’t resolve creation rates, creation volume, or bandwidth issues since it’s been said that multiple people can play simultaneously on one account.
Just signing up two people for two accounts shouldn’t cost them much. That’s not a good argument, but here’s a better way to put that: offsetting the possible cost of a second Spore account with the price of a new Spore game is way imbalanced.
Maybe they just couldn’t shoehorn it in at the last minute, and that comment about free subscriptions is grossly overestimating people’s purchasing power (or I’m underestimating it, will people really go buy second or third copies?).
@dianabanana: BTW, that’s not true. I’ve walked up to WoW installed on show floors, typed in my account/password, and jumped into my game. The point is that only one version of the installed software can be logged in at one time. But even Battle.net lets you log in on any machine that has the darn game installed…you just can’t log in from more than one location at a time.
Because, the converse of that rule is that after 3 installs…you have to create a new account with EA, right? If anything is saved outside of your machine, it’s lost when that copy becomes invalid. Wouldn’t that be what happens? If not, how do you untie your account from one install and tie it to another? Because it would seem that the server would have to know. The installs are stupid. They can’t possibly know the state of every account without checking in first.
@dianabanana: The reason why people want multiple accounts is families. Battlefield 2 would allow you to create as many accounts you want. So let’s say there are 2 gamers in a family: dad and son, then they both create their own accounts and their achievements, history, unlocks, etc etc would kept separate. In BF2142, you only get 1 account but you can create separate soldiers. The pain is if you ever go play at LAN gaming center then you can NEVER play your own account. 2142 killed the BF franchise for me and stuff like this makes me say, I will NOT buy a game brand new, I will wait until the prices goes significantly down before I buy anything like this if I buy at all. Plus EA is so fricking vain that you can’t skip past the company logo movies. You must wait 35 seconds to watch the EA logo, Dice logo, the legalese, etc etc. EA you are my frenemy.
They missed the word “not” probably. I’m an editor and I have to look very carefully for this particularly mistake in conclusions of reports. It’s pretty easy to skim your eye over.
@LoriLynn: I think “You may not have multiple Spore accounts for each installation of the game” is a pretty awkward sentence. The “not” makes the “each” really out of place. You think they’d say something along the lines of “Spore does not allow multiple accounts to be opened using a single installation”, or something.
I think they’ve got it right in the post: the “misprint” is that it did exist at some point, and they forgot to take it out of the manual.
@LoriLynn:@PipeRifle:
Without telling people what they cannot do, as in this case, EA should have written the sentence in the affirmative to prevent any misunderstanding:
“Spore allows for one online account per purchase. Additional online accounts require the purchase of additional licenses.”
The “this is a misprint” argument tells me that the the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. The manual authors clearly had the idea that multiple accounts would be allowed, while sales and marketing had an altogether different idea.
Particular, dammit. Note to self: no mistakes in posts where you tell people that you’re an editor.
It’s been a long time sense my last MMO game Ultima Online, but that game allowed for 5 characters on one monthly subscription account, per server and there were many diff servers.
@full.tang.halo: World Of Warcraft allows 10 per server, up to a total of 50, per account. But in the case of WoW, which is a true MMO, you actively interact with other players, and each player needs an account; the only way to get an account is to buy the software with the account code included. While it is a violation of their Terms of Service to share the account with others, there is an exception for household members; you can, for a fee, transfer characters between accounts with the same family name.
OMG, somebody really made a Spore Goatse?
@Princess Sparkle Pony:
By now there is probably a spore EVERYTHING. Try searching Youtube.
So, can you play multiple games? I haven’t kept completely up to date with what you “do” in Spore, but I thought it was supposed to be something along the lines of “create a creature, then create a society and guide it and evolve it”. That sounds like something that could be replayed tons of different ways. I might want to make 100 different creatures and societies just on my own. Is that possible?
To the once-independent company known as Maxis: You will be terribly missed. EA sucks.
Spore is not quite an MMO. You don’t actively interact with other players, but through their online account, you periodically download creatures created by other players (and upload your own) but the game’s AI controls the actions of those creatures once in your ‘world’.
I’m glad that their current DRM doesn’t require that the CD be present to play the game, unlike every other game EA has released since the original SimCity. But the requirement for each person using the same PC to buy a copy of what is effectively a single-player game absurd. They should allow a certain number of accounts per install.
so when is somebody going to jailbreak spore?
@bsalamon:
If the game dint have such grate DRM, the game wouldn’t have been uploaded to torrents and cracked days before release.
Oh… wait…
@Suttin:
grate = great
@bsalamon: It was broken before the game came out.
I’ve been playing Spore’s space-stage for a little while now. Each time I land on a new planet, I’m afraid it’s gonna be Planet of the Goatse…
I think the term “Broken” isn’t a fair judgment. The game itself has bugs, but is playable and enjoyable. Ultimately its the licensing/user account issues along with the DRM protection that people take issues with. Personally I’m able to play the game once I’ve installed it.
I do feel that the publisher didn’t add any value to the game by adding DRM and the user restrictions, but I do have to say that all publishing companies are going to address what they feel is profits slipping due to people stealing their products. Also as consoles take up more gaming market share PC game publishers are going to want to do more to mimic that model. Console gaming requires more users to purchase a copy to play the game, PC gaming is easier by far to avoid having to purchase the game to play it due to piracy, particularly for single player games.
Ultimately I would just advise people not to buy the game or better yet go to a friends house and play it. If you like RTS or RPG its very poor. If you like a Sim it doesn’t really get good until the galaxy phase.
I don’t care about the game one way or the other, but that article picture is comment-worthy.
One of the most LOL pics I’ve seen on this site! Kudos!
Just more crap from the big Evil Empire known as EA. Havent purchased any of their products since they lied to their MMO community in Earth and Beyond and every time I read about them screwing someone else over I am happy I walked away from them years ago.
WTG EA – keep pissing off your customers – sooner or later you will reach that tipping point.
For everybody comparing this to an MMO…this is not an online game. Sure, it downloads content from the internet, but in no way are you interacting directly with other players during gameplay. Your account is tied to a Spore.com page, where you can upload your creations and comment on other people’s creations. That’s it.
It’s more or less a single-player game that interacts with Spore.com, not an MMO with the same restrictions as an MMO.
@Macroy: the point is that they’re attempting to make each person playing Spore buy a copy of the game, instead of one person buying a copy and everybody else mooching it. Tying purchase of the game to an online account is a way to limit that.
@Macroy: “or everybody comparing this to an MMO…this is not an online game.”
What are you guys blabbering about? MMOs even let a single player have multiple characters (“accounts”).
@strathmeyer: Characters and accounts aren’t the same thing.
I play WoW, but only have one account. My boyfriend has his own account.
We each have several characters on our own accounts.
@strathmeyer: Online, at the same time?
Spore lets you have multiple creatures – in essence multiple characters. Still only one account, and it’s tied to the game’s install IIRC (at least for WoW
Just imagine if a game like Rock Band did something like this.
Oh, sorry, you wanted to create a rocker who plays guitar? Hmmm…too bad, you already created an account for a drummer. If you want to play guitar that’ll be another $50…thankyouverymuch.
Horrible decisions all around on EA’s part.
I had to install the game 3 times last night in order to get the game to work because it kept crashing when loading.
It’s one thing to require you purchase a seperate account in order to play. But requiring you buy the 50 dollar game a second (or third!) time just to open that account is what’s rediculous.
You’re essentially buying a disk that you won’t even install. You just want a scrap of paper with a serial number on it. It’s something I’d compare to the used car industry, but even they seem to have some scruples lately.
Well.
Shit.
I purchased the game yesterday. This morning my boyfriend installed it on his PC (we live together, and his desktop is the newer, more powerful of the two) and got started playing.
Now I guess I have to be him when I get home.
Isn’t Spore a single-player game?
One player = One user
One user = One license
Are people asking for different profiles within Spore (e.g., Tommy, Billy and Susie can all have “profiles” with their individual games)? Or are people asking to have the ability to create multiple instances of the game (e.g., Jimmy is the sole user, but wants to have multiple games running at different stages, sort of like having multiple saved games)?
The “profiles” argument to me sounds business foolish; what’s to stop someone from installing the single license on separate machines?
An idea would to allow for a “family pack” license (e.g., Apple OSX), with up to X “seats” available for a single license. That way Tommy, Billy, Susie, Jimmy and Rudiger can all have their own version while paying less than full retail for all five.
So wait though…. how exactly WOULD you install two copies of the game on one machine w/o overwriting one with another?
@MercuryPDX: Different HDs?
@coren: Wow… it’s getting pricey for Tommy, Billy and Susie to play.
@MercuryPDX: I maintain that there isn’t anything online that you’d need a separate account for to do that. Everyone can share, it shouldn’t negatively impact things.
@coren: No, I agree with you there. I’m just saying that it’s a second CD, and (if you’re correct) an additional HD if someone else wants to play their own game on the same machine.
Ah well, just like Bioshock, I won’t be buying/playing spore either. I’m an avid computer gamer, but yeah…people are right. Computer gaming is dying and DRM is killing it.
So much for Spore… the DRM scared me away, and now this has scared some of my friends away as well.
Whoops!
the restriction model i have seen with WOW and AoC has been separate keys for each PC installed; separate accounts for each person;multiple characters per account. so 1 person can buy the game for the household, but each person would need to pay for their online account. this allows someone to come over to my place and play with their account. the spore model does not allow this. bring your whole pc with you if you want to play at another location.
Ok, from my experience -
Both my wife and I have a Mac (1 each), and we bought one copy of spore. She installed it on her machine, set up her EA account, and started playing. I took the disk, installed it on my machine, had to use her EA account to log in, but it set me up with my own universe, and let me create my own creatures. It’s hardly ideal, but it’s not that big of a deal. The 3 install restriction is more of a pain in the ass.
But you can have multiple copies running, and logged in to EA at the same time – which, oddly enough.. seems to be what they’d want to prevent, and maybe they will down the road.
@shockwaver: I thought SecuROM was only a PC issue?
Essentially EA is attempting to make a liscense for a single individual rather than a single device and whomever has access to that system.
EA is rather well known in the gaming community for its practice squeezing every red cent out of a title.
And to address the multiple character things with MMOs, you can create a bunch of different creatures and what not, you may have a limit based on the number of “planets” it lets you choose, but there are probably 8 or 9 of them.. and maybe a way to get new ones.
Also, this is NOT an MMO. There is no online multiplayer component. hell, there is no multiplayer component at all.
This sucks, but ultimately it matters not. I wont be buying it anyway. I refuse to support anything with SecuROM on it. That Sony shill company needs to die.
I smell a class action.
@WiglyWorm:
I mean, I certainly wouldn’t have bought it if I knew my fiance and I couldn’t both play our own seperate games and import each others species across accounts.
sorry for double post.
It’s like buying pac man and then saying only one person in the house can play the game. If your brother wants to sit down and play pac man he has to buy his own version of the game.
Thanks but no thanks, and I live alone.
My argument is, there’s such a lack of stuff to do online that I’m surprised they tie you to one account for each copy of the game. Since you can have it download content directly from your “buddies,” why wouldn’t you want to separate your buddies from your kid’s/wife’s/husband’s/boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s/etc buddies? And why is the only option “hey guys pls buy another copy of our game kthx”?
@harvey_birdman_attorney_at_law: It’s more like saying that everyone that gets a high score in Pac-man has to use the same initials on the leaderboard.
I wanted to buy Spore, but as I reinstall my systems so often I’d deplete those three installs in less than a year (two machines, 6 month or less reinstall schedule for various reasons.) So, EA isn’t getting my money for this one. I would like it, but EA, get your head out of your bum and quit treating your prospective customers like criminals or you’ll start losing them!
The DRM on this game is a real shame. It’s supposedly in place to prevent people from stealing the game, but it fails at doing it. It punishes the people who buy the game and force them to purchase more than one copy if they want to play by the rules.
It seems as though it’s more about control than it is about protecting the content.
I actually wrote about the DRM a few days ago. I hope some of you find this interesting.
[www.intellectualdetritus.com]
Yes, I discovered this “feature” the day after we got the game. I am sad to report that I have to share the same galaxy with my son, who has overrun almost half of its planets already! I’d worry that I’m doomed to extinction if it wasn’t my own son…
This really isn’t all that shocking. With World of Warcraft you can have multiple ‘accounts’ all use the same installation on the same computer, but in order to create an account you need to have an unused registration code, which you can only obtain by buying a new copy of the game.
So, technically, multiple people _can_ use the same installation of the game, but they need their own licenses to create individual accounts. I believe every single MMO operates this way.
-Chris
Every MMO I have ever played allows you to make more than one character, even to the degree of using a totally different server. This allows multiple people in the same house to play the game independently on the same computer using the same account. So yeah, Spore not allowing more than one person to play sucks.
@Gmork: Spore does actually allow more than one player. That is, different players can develop creatures on different planets. It is just that they all will be part of the same online account.
Maybe PC gaming DRM is a secret push to sell more consoles — I’d think that PS3/X360 owners would balk at the notion of having to buy a wholly separate disc just so another family member could play it on the same console.
This game doesn’t seem so much like a MMO, it really seems to me to be a single player game with some (maybe lots of) online features. So, forcing someone to buy 2 copies to have 2 accounts which basically are single player accounts is dumb. Unless I haven’t read enough about the game and you actually interact with other players online and can attack other players or be attacked by other players or rule cities that other players can come and visit or something along those lines.
@Gokuhouse: Its more along the lines of you are creating custom content that you can associate to your account. Other peoples custom content can be downloaded onto your account and from there you create your own unique collection of content. The further you get into the game the more expansive it becomes.
DRM only punished the good guys, the bad guys can download the game, stripped of DRM, for free from hundreds of places. I won’t buy any game with DRM on it, but neither will I download a stripped version.
The ironic part of all of this is that the Game Companies think they are losing sales due to Pirates, so they ratchet up the DRM to try to stop pirates, but in reality, they are losing sales BECAUSE of the DRM implementations.
Voting with my voice and with my dollars. Is EA listening? /cue picture of the three monkeys …
@david.c:
But the DRM is only there because of the pirates, so any losses to DRM are actually losses due to piracy!
@TechnoDestructo: But the DRM didn’t stop the pirates, and currently is only punishing the real consumers who actually PURCHASED the game.
Where’s the logic for that?
Okay, so it’s not an mmo. If you buy one copy of the game and want to let other people play it, they have to share your account. If they want to make their own account, they have to buy their own copy of the game… still not seeing the evil in this.
Stop crying about this, Consumerist. This is the same with many other video games. The way Spore works, it’s not an issue. If you want to have a separate account, pay for it. Not everything is free in this world and this game cost an assload of money to produce.
It’s like saying “Why can’t you have multiple accounts in World of Warcraft?” and only purchasing one copy of the game. Duh.
@Vincent Voltaire: It’s like saying “Why can’t you have multiple accounts in World of Warcraft?” and only purchasing one copy of the game.
No, I think it’s more “Why can’t you have multiple characters in World of Warcraft?”
@Vincent Voltaire: “This is the same with many other video games.”
Which is one of the major reasons why PC gaming is a dying industry.
@davebg5:
PC gaming has been “dying” for over a decade. (Just like society has been going to hell in a handbasket since at LEAST the ancient Greeks.)
@Michael Belisle:
And considering the hype, and the numbers of people who were genuinely waiting for it, it SHOULD be number 1.
@TechnoDestructo: And considering the hype, and the numbers of people who were genuinely waiting for it, it SHOULD be number 1.
C’mon, it’s competing with the Wii and Wii Fit (and some other MMORPG).
That machine is unstoppable, even when it’s still out-of stock.
@Vincent Voltaire: The difference between spore and WoW is that you can borrow someone elses disk and just pay for an account – and it DOESN’T cost $50.
@Oranges w/ Cheese: Actually, “paying for an account” for WoW is paying for a new license, which is in fact paying for a new copy of the game, exactly the same as Spore. For both games, you can log your account in from anywhere, but each account requires a license to back it up. Not evil, just basic business, c’mon.
@Vincent Voltaire: No, it is not how other video games work.
I’ve mostly been a console gamer lately, because of this PC SecuRom bullshit type stuff, but in general, I go buy a disk. I put it in my PS3. I install it in one account. I can then go log into another account and very happily play the same game. This is also true of downloadable content. Hell, I can even go install it on other PS3s if I want.
The last PC game I bought is Civ IV, and it happily lets you install on as many machines as you want. (Which is fortunate, because I’ve repeatedly installed/deinstalled it on my work laptop for space reasons.)
I was really looking forward to Spore, but there’s lots of other good games out. I’m going to spend my money on the games without the draconian bullshit.
i havent played wow in a long time, but im almost positive that i was able to make more than one character. just couldnt play more than one at the same time. im sure thats what this issue is pertaining too. lots of games let you make multiple characters per account so you can get a feel on what class you prefer.
Spore is the biggest failure this century.
This game is not an MMO, a good apology would be only allowed to have one unfinished game of Civilization going at one time. If you wanted to start a new game you would have to delete your old game.
Should each member of your household be forced to buy their own version of a single player game to play their own game?
@Weewolf: Should each member of your household be forced to buy their own version of a single player game to play their own game?
There’s some sort of offline mode, but nobody seems to be interested in playing it offline.
@mattarse: If the DRM is supposed to protect profits, but is draconion enough to discourage legitimate buyers – is the DRM worth it?
A problem is that I think some high percentage of the population bends over. Over at Amazon, it’s #3 in games right now despite the 1-star rating.
@Weewolf: Yes, but that’s nto the case here – you can have multiple saves or games running.
Ooooooh, looks like one guy got EA to offer to make an exception after threatening “them with trading standards”.
(However, he lost patience after “waiting over 24 hours for a reply”….)
Sounds like EA might have a hint that they fucked this one up.
If the DRM is supposed to protect profits, but is draconion enough to discourage legitimate buyers – is the DRM worth it?
Is it especially worth it considering the less than 24 hours it took for cracked, working copies to start being distributed?
With the cracked copies you do lose the online play, but atleast it’s not a misnamed rental.
While the pirated version doesnt allow online access, it does work perfectly and you can install it all over the house.
Thanks again EA for making the torrent nice and crisp on seeders and download speeds… I, for one, appreciate your pirate-encouraging DRM
This is completely insane, I’ll be sure to keep my purchases away from EA products.
Well I’m sure Trading’s and Standards would be interested in this little tidbit.
did consumerist just goatse me??
@Michael Belisle – your completely right about that, despite all the complaints I think this one will break records for the number of people who buy it.
I do need to look up what the benefits of the online play is, I’ve never been one to really care about that.
EA FTL. When will they learn that people want to actually own a game and not just stare at the shiny surface of the CD?