Not buying anything that uses Securom. Oh well, I wasn't that interested in Spore.

I couldn't believe it until I ran through the posts. Yes, every 10 days it requires the Internet so you can continue to play your SINGLE PLAYER GAME.

I mean hell, even with Steam, after the first on-line authentication, you can put Steam in offline mode and play it without the 'net forever.

I thought the Bioshock fiasco on week of release with the servers going down was bad. This is beyond worse.

-HM

Stupid for two reasons:

1. Beat game within 10 days (it's SP after all)
2. Just make a crack that says "oh hey i communicated with the server"
3. 'Private' server ala Audiosurf

This sort of thing has been defeated so many times.

Err, that should be three

Well I *was* looking forward to Mass Effect.. now I don't know. Not that I'd have problems authenticating it every 10 days, but it's still the stupidest copy protection method.

Meh. I'll probably suck it up and get it, anyway. Maybe it'll end up on Steam.

Honestly, how often is you internet down? How about for entire days? It might be slow at times, but how often is it downright down?

Not directed at anyone except pirates: You are the reason we have to deal with this crap. Purchase the damn game and have some honor. Should we be angry at companies who take necessary action? Should we be mad at soldiers for taking necessary action in times of war? Dire circumstances require dire actions.

Next time your friend pirates software report him/her to authorities.

If people weren't a bunch of chicken s@$%@# gutless coward thieves, we could all enjoy the games we buy with hard bought money.

There could be a lawsuit coming here pretty quick.

Believe it or not, there are pc gamers out there that don't have internet. It's a dumb move.

Besides, I don't do phone home software, end of story. I tolerate steam since it gives useful functionality in return for being a nanny. It runs off-line till I check for updates as well. Until it's cracked or they give up on the latest idiocy, spore's out for anal retentive bastards that dislike nanny software.

Wow...every 10 days? I wanted to get Mass Effect, but this is a deal breaker and the exact reason why I passed on Bioshock in favor of another game. However, I'm much more interested in Mass Effect than what I was Bioshock (I thought Bioshock was another run-of-the-mill FPS game even after playing the demo). Perhaps I'll do to Mass Effect what I did to Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Wild (yes me, a grown man, plays roller coaster tycoon, or used to at least). RCT3 Wild had a really nasty version of Securom that checked for the cd so often that it slowed the game down to less than 5 FPS for the first 3 or 4 months it was released (it took them that long to fix the problem). It was so abysmal people had to run the pirated version or a working no-cd patch (a couple of early versions didn't work) and lots of people got banned or ban warnings from the official forums. Personally, I had bought the legal copy but ran the pirated version because Securom was so bad. I might end up doing the same with Mass Effect. Ironic isn't it? I didn't play the copy I legally paid for--I played a pirated version while the boxed copy sat collecting dust.

I really absolutely despise these online activation things because I have a tendency to play really old games every so often. What happens a decade or two from now when I try to go back to play a game like this? Will I still be able to activate it and play? I doubt it and that's the problem.

Btw, I'm a laptop gamer. It's common that I'm somewhere without an internet connection or that I don't want to pay to connect to that internet connection. I also could be out in the woods, up an office tower, on vacation on a remote beach, or some other random location where internet is not available.

This sucks hard core. I was really psyched about Mass Effect. Now... not so much. And yes, I know my internet connection is rarely down, but it's the principle of the thing.

Phone home every ten days? Reactivate after 3 installs (and it's possible that some hardware changes could eat up one of your three free installs)? Bite me, is what I say to that. Bloody hell.

Honestly, this made me laugh. Did you even read the SD/IC policy on DRM? Do you really think it's necessary for them to put idiotic bullcrap like this on their games? Here, do yourself a favor, read this: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/post.aspx?postid=303512.

DRM isn't necessary for anything, everything gets cracked eventually, this might slow it down, but it won't help a game sell legal copies any more, infact, as this thread shows, games would probably do better without DRM, because, taking this instance for example, the gamers who don't have an internet connection would be able to play it. By putting this on the game, they have, in effect, discriminated against those without an internet connection, the very people who CAN'T get an illegal copy (not on their own at least). Do you see the irony here?

When will these companies learn that they are just punishing their customers. Adding ridiculous copy protection keeps the game from getting pirated for what, 10 days? Is the benefit of that really enough to justify alienating your market?

In my opinion, the correct course of action is the one Stardock is taking. I'd expect 90% of the people who pirate games aren't resulting in lost sales for companies. It's more likely they're downloading the game just to check it out. If it's not available online they simply wont download it, and they definably won't buy it.

There's also the argument to be made that pirated games might increase sales. If someone downloads a game thinking he/she wont like it much, but it turns out they love it, there might be a chance of them deciding to buy the game.

They have a right to protect their software. I'm personally more pissed at those who pirate software than the companies who try to implement measures to defend against it.



Huh? What grounds could there possibly be for a lawsuit?



Shenanigans. There are very few people in the world who will pay for something they've already got for free.

No need to pirate the game, there will be cracks out.

At least support the people who made the game. If you don't like something they did, crack it.

Was actually thinking about spore even though my stance against EA has been strong

I guess lets think of the bright side of this.

Its not StarForce lol

This sounds as bad as the activation scheme for Earth 2160. Think I'll be passing on the above mentioned titles.