Spore DRM

[Mooga]

With spore coming out very soon, I've started to take interest. However, the DRM issues really worries me. For those who don't know how the DRM works, this is how it works for the creature creator:
- Spore is "authenticated" at install
- Spore will not need a disk to play
- Only THREE installs are allowed
- Uninstalling does NOT give you back an install
- Reinstalling counts as a new install
- EA will allow extra installs on "a case-by-case basis by contacting Customer Support."

The big issues I have are:
- If I'm buying a game, I want to OWN THE GAME, not just 3 "rights".
- Shit happens, sometimes you need to reinstall games or reinstall your system.
- Since authentication is needed to install, in a few years when EA drops off support for the game, all you own is a useless disk.

I fail to see how this will stop piracy. The DRM will be cracked, it ALWAYS is. In fact, I will go as far as to say it's going to ENCOURAGE piracy.

Personal thoughts?
Will you still buy spore?

How will Digital Rights Management (DRM) work with Spore Creature Creator? (http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=19743&p_created=1211584776&p_sid=XZ97kg9j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX 3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9Nyw2MjIwJnBfY2F0cz0wJnB fcHY9Mi42MjIwJnBfY3Y9JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3Rle HQ9RFJN&p_li=&p_topview=1)

[Hawk Eye]

I'll still buy Spore. My family has been awaiting it for quite some time now, and I doubt this will stop me.

Someone will find a way around it, they always do. And hopefully they will soon, as we have 4 computers over here, and 4 people who want to play it.

[Innoc]

Nope, I won't buy. I wasn't that interested in Spore to begin with and limiting me to 3 installs treats me like a thief despite the fact that I buy what I use.

[FrenchToast]

I really hate EA.

I'm going to download it 3 times just on the principle.

[Mooga]

My issue is that I generally do NOT pirate games. I've done it for old games or games in which I have another version of it. However I can NOT buy this game. The more time companies spend trying to stop piracy, the more people will turn to it.

Effecting technical users is one thing. But when it starts to effect the average use, you're asking for problems. Does anyone else smell a Sony DRM 2.0?

[Damascus]

JUST when I thought EA did something good.

I guess their only chance is Mirror's Edge...

[Hawk Eye]

JUST when I thought EA did something good.

I guess their only chance is Mirror's Edge...
Don't count on it. They ruined UO.. :(

[Skanky Butterpuss]

i was actually planning on buying it when it came out, but since i heard about this shit... i will wait the 2 or 3 weeks until the DRM is cracked and download a copy. fuck DRM bullshit like this.

[zSilver_Fox]

whining

You don't own the game, you own the right to play the game. If you want to buy the game, contact EA with about $10,000,000. Deal with what you get and EA's customer support.

[Mooga]

You don't own the game, you own the right to play the game. If you want to buy the game, contact EA with about $10,000,000. Deal with what you get and EA's customer support.

If I want to play Spore 10 years from now but CAN'T because they pulled down there Spore servers, that's bull shit.

No, I don't think people should pirate video games. But I'm not paying for SCAMWARE. And no, I don't think that's a term yet, but I'm sticking with it.

[Innoc]

If I want to play Spore 10 years from now but CAN'T because they pulled down there Spore servers, that's bull shit.

No, I don't think people should pirate video games. But I'm not paying for SCAMWARE. And no, I don't think that's a term yet, but I'm sticking with it.
I'll go with it. Scamware fits IMO. Frankly if I want to reinstall BF2 I can do so and I don't need EA's mother may I. Same for many of the older games I like. This trend towards restricting the number of reinstalls from a single KEY is a bad trend and it's going to impact the games I'll actually play as I won't steal them....I simply won't play.

[GeoKill----->]

I'll buy it when it comes out and a patch to crack it will come out sooner or later so no worries here. Hopefully they will released it on steam as well

[Nezumi]

I've got a good idea. I was planning on doing this for Mass Effect (which you need to have an internet connection to play), but I'll probably do it for spore too.

I'm going to buy the game, keep the receipt and not open the box. THEN I'm going to download a cracked version of the game without all the DRM bullshit. I'm then going to mail the unopened box and a copy of the receipt back to the publisher with a letter saying something along the lines of:

"I liked your product and wanted to support the developers making a great game, but the DRM was annoying. I downloaded a cracked version of the game which is superior in that it isn't annoying to install/use, and no longer need the retail version. You can have it back."

That's my plan.

Basically, my stance on piracy all depends on what is a better product. If the best product is the retail one, I will buy it. I like having music on CDs, and it's typically higher quality than the MP3s you download. Therefore, I buy CDs for a lot of the music I listen to. The retail version of windows comes with a lot of extra bullshit that you don't need that gets installed automatically, and, worse, sometimes rapes you with Windows Genuine Advantage. A haxed version does not. So I won't buy a copy of windows.

Basically, I agree with Mooga that this DRM crap will encourage piracy. I'd like to actively encourage developers/publishers to stop it by sending them a direct message.

[FrenchToast]

I like having music on CDs, and it's typically higher quality than the MP3s you download. Therefore, I buy CDs for a lot of the music I listen to.

Download .flac's and burn them.

:twisted:

[Mooga]

Hopefully they will released it on steam as well
It's EA. They have their own "steam clone" which is TOTALLY ASS. When they first started it, you would randomly lose your "key" and not be able to play your games anymore...

I was planning on doing this for Mass Effect (which you need to have an internet connection to play)
They were going to do that for Spore but the public out cry cause them to remove the "you must register every 10 days online to play" bull shit.

I'm sure there are people who see no problem with the DRM. Mainly, people who don't know any better until it bites them in the ass. There is at least one horror story online (http://www.simprograms.com/?p=692) about a guy who used up all his Mass Effect installs before he could get his game working!

[greenday5494]

bioshock did the same bullshit, but they removed the "X" number of installs a few months later, and, released a little tool to let up some installs instead of calling them

[SizeableSSonic]

I usualy only torrent older games, not newer ones. I was gonna buy Spore, but now I think I'm gonna be one of many people who's gonna pirate it.

[noeffeks]

I purchsed a copy of mass effect. I was unable to get it to run on my pc. At all. General Protection Fault. After 3 weeks of waiting for a patch or a fix from EA, i said fuckit, got a cracked version from usenet, worked fine with zero crashes the whole way through the game 2 times.

As of now, EA has not given a fix for the GPF error, nor patched it to fix it. There are sparatic fixes for it that work for some users, but fail for other users of the same hardware. When it comes dwon to it, all EA cares about is getting the game out "on time" regardless of bugs. In the end, we end up being the beta testers, only without the intentions of fixing the problems that arise. Just the intent to start working on the next game that has been hyped so much people will get pissed if its pushed back.

I expect the same from spore, once it released, probably full of bugs that didnt get fixed so they could release it on time ea will send their programmers over to sims 3. Completley forgetting about spore and hoping their tech support from india will do a good enough job of stone walling people with problems.

Seriously. Fuck EA games. I will NOT be buying spore. I WILL be getting a cracked version.

[Anshinritsumai]

I usualy only torrent older games I can't find my disk/key to or games that are hard as hell to find, not newer ones. I was gonna buy Spore, but now I think I'm gonna be one of many people who's gonna pirate it.

Fixt. (for me)

[SizeableSSonic]

Nope, I always keep my keys safe for future use. And even if a game is easy to find (The older Doom games for instance), if it's pretty old, I'll just find a torrent.

[Anshinritsumai]

Meant fixt as in fixt for me =/

[ekiM]

I think the Steam model is much better. Seems like this will just alienate consumers and quite probaby encourage piracy.

[Everything]

Nope, I won't buy. I wasn't that interested in Spore to begin with and limiting me to 3 installs treats me like a thief despite the fact that I buy what I use.

This.

[Mooga]

I think the Steam model is much better. Seems like this will just alienate consumers and quite probably encourage piracy.

But remember when Steam came out, people got PISSED.
There are still a lot of steam haters out there.

[Ihmhi]

Only thing that bothers me a bit is that you need to connect to the net once for Offline mode to work. Could be worse.

[Nezumi]

Steam was a shitty implementation of a really good idea. Now it's just a marginally substandard implementation of a really good idea.

[FrenchToast]

...works fine for me.

[mervaka]

I think the Steam model is much better. Seems like this will just alienate consumers and quite probaby encourage piracy.
QFT, although i'm just going to wait for them to go "oh shit, this isnt actually a good idea.."

i like to buy games and support the trade, but i'm not paying out my ass for three fucking installs.

[Nezumi]

Oh, and I moved the thread.

[Mooga]

:-\ I put it in Chat for a reason...

[ekiM]

Well I mean the Steam model of having an account with the company and having games registered to that account and the right to download that game to whatever computer but only being able to use it when logged in.

The only problem with that model, from my point of view as a consumer, is that I need internet access at some point to play games. Not really a huge issue though.

It also works well for the games companies if playing online means you need to have a legit account and a legit copy. Sure, you can pirate counter-strike but I'm pretty sure you can't play on most servers without a legit copy. So people have to buy if they want to play online properly.

The Steam implementation was initially pretty shitty. However last time I used it it worked fine, and I guess it's probably not got worse since then.

[mervaka]

dont forget what happened to circ. thats the one big thing that puts me off steam.

[greenday5494]

what happened to circ?

[Gwarsbane]

Steam is ok, there are still problems with it. A few things I do not like are...

You can't combine accounts. If you have 2 or 3 accounts, you can't move the games over to the account you want without having to pay valve to do it. I created 2 different accounts because I had seen lots of people saying that when they logged into steam with HL2 for the first time, it said that their CD key was already taken and then the whole account was locked out.


You can't remove games from an account without talking to steam to do it and even then its only to move it from one account to another. If I am done with a game, I want to be able to remove it it and sell it off. I don't want to have to sell off my account if I sell the game, and I don't want to have to go though steam/valve to get it shifted over.

Valve said they were going to allow people to remove games themselves but then changed their mind on it. I would like to remove all my old games from my old account and move it to this one, where I used actual


Valve also said that you would be able to change your account name, they still haven't allowed you to do that. My first account I had to use an e-mail address for the account name, I wanted to change that, but couldn't.


Forced updates. I hate forced updates. I usually like to give a new patch a few days to see whats going on. I have seen a few times when a forced steam update or a forced HL2 update has broken things to the point that you couldn't play at all. yes I can wait on an update for a game but for steam itself you can't.

[Circuitous]

what happened to circ?

My hotmail address was re-registered, and the guy used it to claim my Steam account.

Pretty cool shit.

[Mooga]

Did you get your account back?

[Owoc]

Dunno whether this was the case back then, but nowadays you can retrieve your steam account by proving you own a credit card used to purchase a game on it. Sounds pretty solid to me.

[Innoc]

Dunno whether this was the case back then, but nowadays you can retrieve your steam account by proving you own a credit card used to purchase a game on it. Sounds pretty solid to me.
That's fine unless you've never purchased a single game via steam. I have HL2, HL1 and all the mods on my steam account courtesy of the hard copy versions of the games that I purchased. Honestly, I have no intention of buying games in an electronic format.

[Credge]

I've been debating whether or not I was going to buy Spore. On the one hand, I really, really want to support Maxis. On the other, I don't want to support DRM since it does not work, never has worked, and never will work. Steam is crackable and it's one of the more secure and viable solutions. It's just a bad, bad system overall.

Bad.

Terrible.

I don't think I'll be buying it. I will be playing it though.

[mervaka]

Dunno whether this was the case back then, but nowadays you can retrieve your steam account by proving you own a credit card used to purchase a game on it. Sounds pretty solid to me.
circ's been down that path, but aparently a hotmail account overrules that.

[Circuitous]

Yeah, I've given proof of purchase information for every game on there except for the Half-Life Platinum Pack (the CD-Key of which might not even be in this country anymore). Until I magically provide that key, everything I've purchased on Steam now belongs to That Guy.

Meanwhile he hasn't had to give proof of anything. It's aggravating to say the least.

[greenday5494]

wait, he hacked into your hotmail account, or what?

[Circuitous]

I figure it expired and he re-registered it. I haven't used it in about five years.

[tu!]

i just learned about how to use torrent recently from bro. all i gotta say...

if game = sp ----> torrent

but spore looks too stupid anyways, so it's drm crap dont bother me.

[greenday5494]

you dirty pirate.... seriously

[Nezumi]

i just learned about how to use torrent recently

wtf...

[Mooga]

Everyone I know who "just learned about how to use torrent recently" have loaded their computer up with viruses and malware... Piracy is easy, yet people are so good and f*cking things up :-P

So tell me tu!, what client are you using?

[noeffeks]

Public trackers FTL.

[Credge]

Everyone I know who "just learned about how to use torrent recently" have loaded their computer up with viruses and malware... Piracy is easy, yet people are so good and f*cking things up :-P

So tell me tu!, what client are you using?

Haha, it's so true. I've got a friend who, a few months ago, was shown the ways of the torrent. His computer was such a shit storm it was like walking into a shit shower.

[mirvin_monkey]

I bet that it'll probably be removed after a few weeks/months (like the previously mentioned bioshock one). I guess if you put in as many measures as possible to try to slow down the appearance of the first completely working cracked copies then you may be able to catch more sales. Even if it does inconvenience your paying customers.

No wonder console development is so much more attractive!

[Mooga]

Even if it takes them an extra day to crack, it will still be out there very quickly. Worse case, they release the game with a NASTY way of getting around it and then releasing a more "clean" patch/hack later.

The main thing I hate is that they limit my installs. That makes the game a blank CD after 3 uses. I refuse to pay for something that crippled. Plus, in a few years when the game is old (or Spore 2 comes out) they will shut down the server making it impossible to install the game anymore.

It's bullshit. And I'm not going to buy it under the pretext that EA might wake up some day and smell and bullshit and fix it. Because they won't.

[SmellyCat]

And EAs popularity plummets further. Didn't think that was actually possible, but, well... wow.

Sounds complete bullshit to me, I will - not - purchase if it comes with this DRM shit.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

http://data.tumblr.com/5434768_500.jpg

[Everything]

Enough with the shitty images with shitty captions.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Enough with the shitty images with shitty captions.

It's true you know.

[Everything]

Well, yeah.

I just said the first thing that came into my mind.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Well, yeah.

I just said the first thing that came into my mind.

BATTLESHIPS!

There so did I.

[Doctor Zyo]

Back in my days with the Royal Navy, We didn't tolerate Piracy. And I'll be damned if we do 'now'.

[richard nixon]

I'll buy it but do what I do with every other game I own:

download an (illegal) crack. solves that annoying DRM issues (mass effect, bioshock would never 'validate' for me) and frees me from having the dvd in the drive, which is annoying. The only negative part is waiting for the crack, as sometimes it's not always available on release date especially for new DRM schemes.

Some people say crack's are buggy and could ruin the game and of the 2 years I've used cracks, with legit copies, only one crack broke my game. The first available crack for Mass Effect wouldn't let me use the galaxy map and it would crash. But once a newer crack came out it fixed that issue and let me even play from my old save games. So in the end, only bad things about cracks: can't play online.

[Credge]

So in the end, only bad things about cracks: can't play online.

What? No they don't. Keep your old .exe around, replace the crack, update, download the new crack. I do it with every one of my games that requires a disk to play. Works just fine,

[Mooga]

Spore is out...

[greenday5494]

oh shit!

im not getting it though, but damn it do i want a job. i dont wanna pirate it, im afraid of viruses. only game i will pirate is episode 2 is because im dirt poor, and i REALLY wana support valve, but i cant. Hell, i didnt even DL it all the way, i think im gonna stop it

[noeffeks]

usenet is all over it. I couldbe playing it .6 hours from now.

I'll wait tho, who knows what nasty things are bundled in with that.

[Demasu]

oh shit!

im not getting it though, but damn it do i want a job. i dont wanna pirate it, im afraid of viruses. only game i will pirate is episode 2 is because im dirt poor, and i REALLY wana support valve, but i cant. Hell, i didnt even DL it all the way, i think im gonna stop it
Wait a few weeks, and you'll probably be able to find a version that's clean. I've never gotten a virus by any crack I've had. Just make sure you have some good anti-virus/anti-spyware software and you should be fine.

[Sh4x]

No need to wait... there are already 30,000 people dnloading on tpb alone.

[Owoc]

Don't those 30k people expose themselves to malware by downloading such an early "release"?

[Sh4x]

Nah cause it's from Reloaded, it's clean.

[Crazycarl]

2.9. We do not support piracy in any way, shape, or form. Discussing or promoting piracy, war3z, etc… may result in an instant ban.

Let's back away from this subject. I don't care if it's a hypothetical discussion, but talking about how a new game can be downloaded already, and where, is certainly breaking the rules.

[SmellyCat]

Indeed, the internet police have been contacted already.

[FrenchToast]

WOOP WOOP

[Demasu]

Shall I call a waaambulance too?

(Note: it's a joke)

[Sh4x]

So did anyone try the game yet? Is it good?

[FrenchToast]

Dunno, my order is taking a loooooong time.

[Mooga]

So did anyone try the game yet? Is it good?
If I did play Spore... which of course I have not... I would say that it's fun, but nothing amazing so far. That is if I played it... which I wont until it comes out Sunday.

[Sh4x]

Oh I didn't even realized it wasn't out yet.... my bad.

[richard nixon]

What? No they don't. Keep your old .exe around, replace the crack, update, download the new crack. I do it with every one of my games that requires a disk to play. Works just fine,

I didn't mean patching I meant playing online (multiplayer). When I played COD4and BF2 with a "crack" exe I always get booted by punkbuster, so I had to reinstall the game and/or use the original cd/dvd or use a "mini-disc" which is a small image on your computer that makes the game think its the real dvd/cd.

There's other non-punkbuster games where I've had the problem of being booted for using a cracked exes. Learnt my lesson now though.

[Sh4x]

Anyone else got bored at the civilization stage? I mean, I was already starting to get bored at the stage before that, but the civilization one got me out of the game for good. Then I replayed the first stage once and now I dunno if I'll ever launch the game again...

Also, being an herbivore really sucks lol.

[greenday5494]

i think ill just stick to simcity perosnally

[richard nixon]

Anyone else got bored at the civilization stage? I mean, I was already starting to get bored at the stage before that, but the civilization one got me out of the game for good. Then I replayed the first stage once and now I dunno if I'll ever launch the game again...

Also, being an herbivore really sucks lol.

I started out as a carnivore. I thought the civilization stage was incredibly fun. I like RTS' but I always suck at them and usually lose so in this game it felt rewarding (I'm on normal difficulty btw) The space stage is fun too but a little complex compared to the other stages.

When you did the CIV phase did you do mostly military or diplomatic? Me I just killed as many cities as possible and moved to the next, rinse and repeat..lose some battles retreat build bigger army. I'm loving every second of it.

Definitely worth a purchase to use the online content. It's cool going to planets and seeing an army of Big Daddys (bioshock) and AntLions (HL2). Ive seen both of those already from user created content.

[tN|Orange]

Spore was to be my first videogame this year that I didn't buy off of Steam. So much for that plan :D

HOPEFULLY, like Bioshock they will take it off. But until then if they keep an install limit then I'm not buying.

You know what's the best thing about Spore DRM? It was pirated and torrented 4 days before it was even released.

[greenday5494]

i thought the same thing. DRM has been proven that it is, and always will be, useless. Just put in some basic things like CD Key, no copying of the CD allowed, and need disc in drive. Although it is VERY basic, it wont piss anyone off

[Ramones]

It's not worth the download imo.

The first minigame, the 2d arcade thing, was pretty fun. the 2nd minigame was ok, but then...

The 2001 homage was cool, i really laughed my ass off, but the sims slapstick humor with the bone killed it.

[Sh4x]

I wonder what went through their heads when they looked up torrent sites and saw thousands of people downloading their game 3 days before the release date.

"Oh yeah, all this money we put in the anti-piracy development was sooo worth it."

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

I wonder what went through their heads when they looked up torrent sites and saw thousands of people downloading their game 3 days before the release date.

"Oh yeah, all this money we put in the anti-piracy development was sooo worth it."

They felt like they were being fucked with a hod steel rod.

Bitches.

[Ihmhi]

It's not Will Wright that wanted the DRM, it's EA.

Corporations tend to get dumber as they get bigger.

[Demasu]

So I'm loving this game. Started out as a carnivore, and tried to go omnivore, but the mouth wasn't worth it for some reason I don't remember, and got stuck. Creature stage was awesome. My only problem was my allies sucked so I didn't do too well socially. Tribal was pretty cool too, being able to control little armies. Civilization, was awesome. Get to build some awesome vehicles and buildings, and I even got a nuke which was awesome. Space, is awesome, although crazy complex. The only thing I hate about space is that my colonies keep getting attacked all the time.

[FrenchToast]

AWESOME

[GeoKill----->]

The only thing I hate about space is that my colonies keep getting attacked all the time.

Thats the only part I dont like

[Pon]

Yeah, space stage gets annoying.

However, people seem to be modding the game already, and making space stage less annoying seems to be the first goal :)

Some info about it here on GameFAQ's. (http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=926714&topic=45393817) I haven't tried it yet myself, but seems to work well enough.

[Tally]

I find it funny how they put all that effort into the DRM, only for it to already be torrented en masse, not even that long after release.

Well, they just lost a huge profit possibility.

(EA can suck a fat one, anyway. They deserve it)

[SmellyCat]

The cracked torrent was actually up three days prior to Spores release in US/Europe.

:P

[Mooga]

It was a LOT more then three days....

[Credge]

When you did the CIV phase did you do mostly military or diplomatic? Me I just killed as many cities as possible and moved to the next, rinse and repeat..lose some battles retreat build bigger army. I'm loving every second of it.

There is no such thing as a diplomatic victory in the civ phase. No matter what, you hostily take over the other civs either by shooting them with rockets or shooting them with influence beams and large versions of you speaking. It's exactly the same.

I have not tried an economic win, but I imagine that's just a waiting game as you can buy all other cities with money while playing as a 'peaceful' city.

I found that the 'depth' in the space age doesn't really exist, the difficulty in running around preventing your planets from being attacked by pirates and enemy civs is just frustrating. It has you running around doing a lot, but that's about it. All you need are 3 sets of large plants, medium plants, small plants, 6 herbivores, and 3 carnivores to get a planet up to full working order. This is especially easy as you have this on your home planet >already< and nothing else is needed. Increasing the T-score of whatever planet you are on is a tedious chore until you get the rays.

Buying systems from your allies is a redundant waste of time. You can have the absolute best possible rating with them and they won't cut you any deals. Anything lower than more-than-a-crap-load means they'll get angry at you and your trade bar will have to start over. There is not a passive conversion option, which really means the only two ways you can take something over is through money or bombs.

The reliance on money in the space-age is a huge letdown as the only way to make money is to sell spice and run missions (which give very bad amounts of money). It's very easy to min-max cash income by taking one color of spice and shipping it to a part of your empire, or your allies empire, that does not have that color of spice near it. A lack of establishing trade routes for this means that in order to generate cash you'll be doing an ungodly amount of mouse-wheel scrolling until you figure out the zoom in and out command.

The game is too casual and I feel they missed to mark here a bit. There's no real depth to the game - nothing else to learn after you've played through the game once, no real techniques to master... nothing of substance to draw you back in. The creature creator is great, but it's really just a neat way of giving your creature stats. The only phase where making your creature a certain way effects him is in the cell phase and very limitedly in the creature phase. Making him taller allows him to eat from trees and positioning spit weapons are all that matters... you can put horns on his head and you'll get the same effect as if you put them on his head.

To put it simply, they made the game too casual in all phases but the space age but they made the space age more grindy than any of the others, resulting in a very bad jolt. The reliance on money in the space age, coupled with the incredibly crude and tedious way to make it, really makes the game miss. Here are some seemingly simple ways to add depth to the game while putting more emphasis on the whole creation aspect of the game.

1. In the creature phase, make where your creatures weapons are effect how you attack. Spitting is like this, but the rest are not. Adding multiple spit weapons should increase the potency of your spit, or, allow you to spit more often... as an example

2. In the Civ and Space age, make the buildings you make have different modifiers like the creature, cell, and civ phase have. Make each object you put on your building increase or decrease the cost and give certain bonuses. An example would be to make the fan increase production of the factory by 2 while increasing the cost by $200.

3. In the Civ phase, the vehicles you make should attack and respond according to where and how you placed your weapons and have them have increased costs for things like multiple rockets/loud speakers for increased damage/rate of fire.

4. In the space age, replace trade routes with diplomacy. Same effect, different name.

4a. Make trade routes something you can put between two planets (as simple as clicking between two planets). This will automatically sell the spice of whatever type to whatever planet you have at certain intervals depending on how far away the planets are.

4b. Allow for manually flying the stuff from planet to planet to net you more cash.

5. Allow for peaceful ways to take over planets, such as a culture bomb which drops things from your species culture on to their planet. Alternatively, allow your diplomacy to allow you to build 'culture shops' on your allies planets. These allow for both agressive and non-agressive conversion.

6. Make it so the longer you have been allied with somebody, the more they like you. This babysitting of your allies is terrible and just makes it so it's better to not have any allies once you've expanded your empire past tiny. Make it so it's an option to help your allies from attackers/pirates, not a requirement.

That's about it. If things like this were added, it would eliminate the tedium of the space age while making the other phases something that isn't completely dull. Mainly in the creature and civ phases.

[tN|Orange]

Ha, in addition to DRM and other crazy stuff (1 account per copy of spore) when I went to wal-mart all the copies of spore had electronic anti-steal devices on them. Wow.

[FrenchToast]

Ha, in addition to DRM and other crazy stuff (1 account per copy of spore) when I went to wal-mart all the copies of spore had electronic anti-steal devices on them. Wow.

Stopping theft is wrong.

[mervaka]

it lasted all of two days for me. the fact that i had this super awesome 6 legged carnivorous flying ass raping mule made little difference further on in my game, in even the tribal stage. surely a creature that's naturally equipped to fucking dominate other species will? hell, i didnt even get a headstart in the weapons department. the stages all seem like totally isolated games.

[Segundo]

I didnt know there was DRM with the same until this thread, fyi i didnt buy the game, but I have the game. Take a guess how? haha.

[Mooga]

I read somewhere that there will be a patch which will let you get installs back when you uninstall.

[GeoKill----->]

I knew that was going to happen, that's why I bought it

[Credge]

I read somewhere that there will be a patch which will let you get installs back when you uninstall.

The problem with this is that the entire reason for the complaints about this deals entirely with the fact that hard drives crash and you will not be able to uninstall it because your hard drive no longer works.

:|

[GeoKill----->]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/19/spore-will-allow-more-than-one-user-per-account/

[SomeOldGuy]

EA is backing down... sort of:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080919-ea-relents-changes-spore-drm-too-little-too-late.html

[Credge]

"Without the ability to protect our work from piracy, developers across the entire game industry will eventually stop investing time and money in PC titles."

This is the biggest load of crap on the planet. The assumption that everyone who pirates a game is a lost sale is absolute bullshit. No, I never ever would have bought Bioshock on any platform. Did I play it? Yes. Was I ever going to buy it even if I couldn't play it? Nope, not at all. Why? Your game isn't good enough and only interests me enough to play it for four hours. If, by chance, your game strikes my interest, guess what, I'll buy it. I've done it with World in Conflict, Age of Empires 3, Company of Heroes, you get the idea. Mostly RTS because most FPS are very poorly done and not worth the money, especially on console.

This is such a cop out for the industry. "We can get away with making poor games because people have the ability to pirate them and then blame them for how poor our games are!" This is exactly what they are screaming and it's poor. Guess what guys, the ones killing the industry are the ones making the games. The worse your game is, the fewer sales you get. If you want to stop piracy, do what valve does.

One company which I buy every game from is Stardock. There are two reasons for this:

1. The stance they hold on DRM.

2. They make quality games.

Do these companies really think that everyone that pirates the game is a lost sale? Do they not see that they probably gain just as many sales from piracy that they lose? They should really stop making excuses and make games that are worth buying.