Comic Genesis Forums

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

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...

Dreamaniaccomic wrote: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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dreamaniaccomic wrote: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.

Terotrous wrote: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?

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?

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.

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.)

Evil Jamie! wrote: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

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

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.

See, Joel! It does matter!

*cries and hugs him*

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.

must buy new gfx card before september 7th