Spore...

[Joel Fagin]

Okay, so the majorly anticipated sim-game Spore is now due on the seventh of September and will be laced with a rather draconian DRM which only allows you to install Spore on three computers over it's entire life or until they shut down the DRM servers - whichever comes first.

Who's buying it in spite of this?

It's a deal breaker for me. Effectively, I'd be renting the game for the life of three computers. I come back to good games for years so that's unacceptable. Not to mention that DRM always causes problems (WGA had a few outages, for example, and I personally have to reactivate Windows about once a month).

I will not have something I've purchased arbitrarily snatched away on the whim (or the mistake) of the company who sold it to me.

- Joel Fagin

[Dreamaniaccomic]

Just putting this out there, but I think Spore looks awesome enough to be worth a relatively short life as far as computers go. Although, if you want to play it, why can't you keep your old computer? It's not like you could sell it for a decent price...

[Joel Fagin]

Just putting this out there, but I think Spore looks awesome enough to be worth a relatively short life as far as computers go. Although, if you want to play it, why can't you keep your old computer? It's not like you could sell it for a decent price...

Actually, I could. Apple computers have very good resell value. But, in practical terms: no room, inconvenient to get out and put away and jumping through hoops to use something I bought legally does not especially impress me.

- Joel Fagin

[Carlin]

For me, it's a discouragement. I'll probably never run into the issue, or I'll completely forget about Spore long before it does become an issue. (I occasionally develop minor ADD or something, because I hop between games faster than a hooker can go down)



If I'm bored and Spore is looking like the only thing worth my cash at that moment, I might still pick it up. But only if I'm bored!



...meaning I'll be picking it up...

[Rkolter]

I'd rather play the game, enjoy it, and see what happens, then deny myself the game for the sole reason that I dislike DRMs.

And who knows, they may change their tune.

It might stop me from buying a game I was only looking at because I was in the mood to play something different. But I've been eagerly awaiting Spore, and am pretty sure I can get my money's worth of entertainment out of it within the timeframe of three potential installs.

[Killbert-Robby]

I go through PCs and laptops like the dickens. I'm going to have an issue with this. Even if I dont actually replace my PCs that often, there's a high HDD turnover rate : I'm always uninstalling stuff when I'm not interested, then reinstalling it, uninstalling it again. Here they're pretty much holding your drive space hostage.

[Dreamaniaccomic]

I'm not that much of a computer geek anyway, and I don't have the money for spore (and when I get the money its going toward other stuff), so meh, I guess.

[SergeXIII]

I'm probably not going to get around to Spore for sometime with the upcoming releases this year...
Disgaea 3- Aug 26
Silent Hill 5- Sept 30
Star Ocean I- Oct 21
...For instance. Its not that I'm not interested, its just that these franchises are amongst my favorites, though I'm pretty sure the new team behind Silent Hill 5 will cock it all up by copying Silent Hill 2 so badly that the only way we'll be able to tell the difference is by waiting for SH2 to demand that we shoot them both to be safe.

[Terotrous]

It's a deal breaker for me, too.

Ironically, I'm gonna end up pirating this game so it doesn't have the DRM, whereas I would have bought it if it hadn't been there.

Alternatively I might buy it for Wii if the Wii version is any good.

[McDuffies]

Just putting this out there, but I think Spore looks awesome enough to be worth a relatively short life as far as computers go. Although, if you want to play it, why can't you keep your old computer? It's not like you could sell it for a decent price...

And keep one computer around just so you could play one game?

This idea looks pretty ridiculous to me. When I buy something, I expect to actually own it. I'm not a gamer though, so I won't vote.

[Killbert-Robby]

It's a deal breaker for me, too.

Ironically, I'm gonna end up pirating this game so it doesn't have the DRM, whereas I would have bought it if it hadn't been there.

Alternatively I might buy it for Wii if the Wii version is any good.

What I'm wondering is how good are pirate copies going to be anyway? I mean, are they going to be able to have the whole "Yeeeeah these are billions of animals from other planets!" thing?

[Evil Jamie!]

Wait, I thought EA dropped the DRM? Like ages ago? When they were about to release Mass Effect with it and everyone kicked up a hissy fit? A hissy fit of change?

Edit: A change that became this?

[Metruis]

Once in a while I reformat my computer and have to reinstall things.

Dealbreaker. You know, I buy a game and expect to be able to use it. Not have it taken away because I get a virus or something funky happens.

[Evil Jamie!]

rargamflargem whatdidijustsay?!

Honestly, Joel, can you link me to the article that says spore will be using the BioShock style DRM? This is honestly the first I have heard of it.
(for the record the bioshock DRM servers lasted maybe about six months? Less, I think.)

[Joel Fagin]

Honestly, Joel, can you link me to the article that says spore will be using the BioShock style DRM? This is honestly the first I have heard of it.

Alas, it was on a blog or something. I've no idea where. Here is a website I found which mentions it, though...

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/13881.cfm

- Joel Fagin

[Evil Jamie!]

Okay, yeah. Don't worry about it, they scrapped that plan due to public outcry and are using a diffrent system now.

[Grabmygoblin]

oh, happy day!

although I'm like Carlin, if I do buy it, I don't know if I'll actually end up playing it that much.

[McDuffies]

See, Joel! It does matter!

*cries and hugs him*

[Dr Neo Lao]

Definitely a major dealbreaker.

Not so much the DRM itself (no matter what style it is) but the fact that it has to be registered online at all.

I'm paranoid, and I run two networks. One has internet access and is a single computer that has bare bones installed for using on the internet. Picks up a virus? Just re-install. The other is the home network that has no outside links. It has all our sensitive information, personal stuff, games, photos, random junk - whatever. It's all there.

I refuse to buy games (or any software) that has to be taken on-line in order to use it. Which means that I'm buying less and less software lately. It's been a few months since I've bought something.

[Pimpette]

must buy new gfx card before september 7th