Yep.

I'll just wait till the backlash forces EA to make the DRM less restrictive.

Yes. I only buy maybe two or three games a year. The ones I like I may play over and over again for years at a time (for example, I still fire up Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for a game now and then and that came out in 1999).

Three installs is not enough. Four installs is not enough. To use SMAC as an example, since buying that game, I've bought 4 completely new computers, upgraded my desktops several times, reinstalled and/or upgraded Windows probably at least 10 times.

If SMAC had had this DRM virus on it, it would have become an expensive coaster a long time ago.

There's no way I'm buying Spore, even though it was on my shortlist of games I wanted to buy.

I refuse to buy it. As cool as it looks, I ain't messing up my machine with that crap of a DRM scheme.

I skipped it because of the DRM. As a software developer, my dev tools and SecureROM can not exist on the same machine.

The only DRM I tolerate anyway is Steam. It plays well with everything else I run and is not all "up in my grill."

SecureROM needs to close up shop. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution to piracy.

Actually, college convinced me to skip this one, but the DRM would have been a good reason to hold out too.

Wow, I hope that gets EA's attention. Installing a TSR on to someones computer is just evil. Imagine if every program you had, had another program that runs in the back ground to see if you are pirating it. Think of the computing resources you would lose.

I'm going to wait it out. Either they will become less restrictive, or the game will drop enough in price that I'll consider it a worthy risk.

I like to keep games indefinitely and brush them off every few years. This model of 'renting' new games - with no option to buy - just doesn't work for me. Further, I doubt that EA will keep up their end indefinitely and unlock activation at 'end of life'. They'll just say, "you got your money's worth, if you want to keep playing, buy EA Classic Games Vol 1 with Spore, Mass Effect, and Bioshock for $9.95".

Yep. I was going to pick it up yesterday after work, but fortunately decided to check the amazon price first...where I was greeted with huge warnings about the DRM. Kudos to amazon for keeping the reviews up and to the people who wrote them.

No thanks to the game journalists who neglect to mention this in every single review.

I was going to buy spore, but after reading these review there is no way that I'll buy it. I've had my current laptop for about 1.5 years and I've already had to reinstall windows three times on it. Before that, I had a desktop and I've had even more reinstalls on that. I would have run out Spore installs a long time ago.

And people wonder why people download games. If I get the downloaded game, I can install it as many times as I want.

This was going to be the first PC game I bought since C&C the first decade was released.
Won't be getting now, mainly because of the reviews even without the secure rom. With that I won't get it even after expansion that make the game worth a damn.

Do gamers expect software companies to 'trust' them to not buy one copy and equipment themselves, their friends and anyone they choose via file sharing?

What do these angry gamers propose? Their beef is legitimate, but how does a company permit a buyer to perform unlimited downloads on his personal computer, but prevent file sharing and illegal uses on other computers.

I was worried about the piracy protection screwing up my system, so I just pirated it.

Works like a charm!

It was sold out where I went to go buy it. I went through this with bioshock, once they put it on steam I got it, plus they made it much more easy to get another activation.

@m4ximusprim3: That was a joke, by the way. I don't condone software piracy, nor do I play computer games anymore.

What sums up the stupidity of the DRM is that you could download a cracked version of Spore two days before it was released.

As far as I could tell all the online stuff still worked (assuming you use a real CD key during install), it just removed the activation crap somehow.

/second-hand info

My experience with EA is that they rarely if ever listen to consumers. They have released many software titles (e.g. Battlefield 2142) that are borderline unplayable due to serious defects and customer complaints are forwarded to /dev/null.

Unfortunately for EA, customers didn't discover the bugs in BF2142 until EA already had their money. Not so with Spore.

This was the one(1) PC game I was going to buy this year. However, I most definitely shan't be until they take the DRM off, or at least return it to the standard level of stupidity that I can add a No-Disk patch to. I think there really is a principal at stake here.

@axiomatic:
Steam is almost the opposite of DRM, especially if you buy online. I don't even need any sort of proof other than my Steam account id/password. I upgrade/reinstall/buy a new PC, get the Steam client, and I can re-get all my games without so much as putting in a single CD. Maybe it's copy protection, but it's also awesome for the consumer.

Wow.. I was looking forward to buying that after an NPR story on it last week. I guess I'll skip it now.

@theirishscion: Principle even, godsdamnit!

I was planning to but Spore, but not now.

And like terminalboredom, I am upset with the loosely-labeled industry journalists who neglected to mention this in their reviews. That just shows how out of touch they are with their readership.

One more point: EA's killing the resale market (probably deliberately) with this DRM virus. Who's going to buy a second-hand game if there's no guarantee that it can be installed?

No doubt EA expects that this will result in more retail sales at the expense of the secondhand market.

Just more proof that Digital Rights Management has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with legitimate consumer rights.

I had been excited by Spore, by lost interest a few months back when I heard they were implementing the DRM. I waited on purchasing it because of the threat of DRM, and now I'm glad I didn't. I play the old games I've purchased years after their shelf life has expired, but with the way EAs DRM system works, you can't do that, so I'll wait until Spore is $9.99 in the bargain bin.

I was pretty excited about this game when it was first announced, but I'll sit this one out unless they eliminate the DRM.

I'm waiting for Diablo III.

@SkokieGuy: Gamers expect to get what they pay for, simple as that. I don't think you read the reviews because the gamers make it clear that they do not want Securcom on their computer and they want the ability to re-install the game repeatedly. Hackers have already busted the DRM so they are alienating their customers while the game is being pirated anyways. The worst of both worlds.

@YamiNoSenshi: Have no fear, Steam is DRM. But its how DRM SHOULD be done. SecureROM.... not so much.

BTW all, a little Google searching shows that this version of SecureROM kills the ability to burn Blu-Ray disc's is you were silly enough to buy a Blu-Ray burner.

The game showed up on the torrent sites as a top five search on friday, and I finished downloading it Sunday morning, the same day it was released in North America. Probably would have purchased it except for the DRM. Thanks, EA!

@Corydon: You couldn't be more correct. This DRM method has no chance of stopping pirates, but rather casual copying, and more importantly the secondhand market. It's already been reported that you need to fax over receipts, IDs, etc to get more than 3 activations. Good luck doing that with a used copy. This is yet another example of DRM screwing over the paying customer.

I refuse to buy a game with DRM.

Betcha Amazon deletes all those ratings very soon.

Jeff Bezos bending over for EA in 3... 2... 1...

I was going to buy Spore since I already bought SCC. But not now.

Good lord, I hate EA. You think this is bad, what about when you do buy something through there EA Download Manager, you have to pay an $6.00 to keep that registration on file more than 2 years.

Man, when Steam came out. I was not happy. But boy, I have been a convert. Nothing to worry about just need my SteamID and password. All games I own tied to me, not my particular hardware. Plus nifty sales of favorites (old and new) all time. I bought BioShock for $14.99 about a month ago!

EA is always an also-ran when it comes to these issues.

EA just copy what Steam does.

I hope all of you that aren't buying the game are emailing EA and stating why you're avoiding it. iirc the same issue happened with BioShock on the PeeCee, and the devs there eventually pulled SecureROM after public outcry.

Try and lock down customers and violate first sale doctrine and you'll get no dollars from me. If I buy a disk, I should be able to move the media/program as often as I wish and then sell it to whomever I please.

Curious, what would be a better way for companies to protect their product while still making things easy for the customer?

I've never really ask any gamers this because I rarely play computer games.

@SkokieGuy:
"Do gamers expect software companies to 'trust' them to not buy one copy and equipment themselves, their friends and anyone they choose via file sharing?"

Bnet. Doesn't matter how many copies you pass to your friends the #1 application of that software restricts you to one user at a time per major gateway. Using positive controls versus negatives. Legit copies are enabled to play online on Bnet. Illegitimate copies will have to cope with Lan and Single Player. It seems to work well for blizzard (War 3, SC, WoW, D2).

They even removed the CD check recently. So long as the CD key is unique and not banned they allow you to use the game. Pirate copy or not. Not invasive programs. No limited installs. This scheme has been around for ages but only works if you provide enough of an incentive (Bnet) to buy it legitimately. EA has problems producing games with that sort of value.

So if I'm a shop owner, and my store is going to be broken into anyhow, I'll should leave the front door unlocked, so I don't piss off the robbers?

@Carso: If you want to stop DRM simply don't buy DRM'ed games. don't play, don't pirate, don't buy. If you pirate it then it says to EA "people would have bought this if they didn't pirate", if you don't buy or play it, it says "DRM hurts sales". So do the following:

1- Don't buy DRM'ed games
2- Buy DRM-lite or DRM-free games

That will convey the message a lot better then just pirating shit.

@howie_in_az:

I guess these are still good, anyone is free to try and guess other ones.

Partnerships and Biz Dev: onstage_bizdev@ea.com
Media Inquiries: onstage_pr@ea.com
Copyright Inquiry: onstage_copyrightagent@ea.com

Of course they are to another game, but it does get you inside EA.

/shrugs

What do these angry gamers propose?
@SkokieGuy: The onus is on the company to come up with a reasonable solution to this, not the gamers.

@SkokieGuy: False equivalence. A better analogy is you sell cars but people resell your cars used and share cars between friends. So you make a car that only work for one person for 5 years so in effect your are limiting people to renting your cars but charging full price. Then you are legitimately surprised when no one buys your shitty cars.

I don't really understand why people are getting pissy about this. Sure, I hate DRM, but this type of DRM is hardly new in the video game world. Observe Half-Life 2 or any other games distributed on the Steam platform:

Steam requires you to activate online, only lets you activate ONCE (not three times), and you can't transfer the games you bought to a friend or another account. You also can't even play the game without an internet connection, unless you go "offline", but you need to have an internet connection in order to activate "offline mode". So if you've got your laptop somewhere with no internet and you want to play some Half Life, you can't without first going online.

I was going to get this too, but after reading all the reviews I'm going to give it a wide berth.

I have been looking forward for years now to buy this game. It is a shame, but I just can't support more DRM.

also: @Skokieguy, if your were EA, your solution would be to install monitoring devices on everyone that came into your store and if they (over time) changed their outfits or did their hair a different way (they could be disguising themselves to rob the store!), you'd have the police drag them in for interrogation. Silly, I know. As was the original analogy.

@skokieGuy:

No say you are a dance club owner.
Now you charge a membership to get into the club.

But that membership only lasts until you change your hair cut/clothes 3 times. Then you have to buy the membership again.

Meanwhile there's a guy in the back alley letting everyone in through the back door and giving everyone a free membership.

The people wanting to steal the game, are still stealinging. The DRM was busted before the game was even released. So the DRM is not stopping piracy.
It is simply annoying people who actually pay for the game.

@Josh_G: Please don't organize any campaign to contact the company in comments. If people want to do that, it's fine, but we don't need to organize that in a comment thread. Thank you.