Yeah, I'm not a big fan of putting spyware on my pc. I'm thinking my anti-virus would detect it as such and delete it after the first scan too. And I'm not making an exception for it because you know someone is going to model a real virus or spyware after this activation and once I make the exception, my anti-virus won't detect either as being malicious.

Yes, the question (how much hardware change is too much) was asked directly and the answer was "We don't really know" (Kudos at least to BioWare for admitting that). With only 3 activations allowed, that's far too vague for my taste. (Well, that's a moot point anyway, as limited activations are BS in the first place).

Give the man a coconut - you got it in One.



I agree totally. I now avoid draconian DRM schemes, and refuse to buy any games product that uses them. It flags up the wrong message. Its clear these schemes use shows a Focus on Profit alone, not their Customer. You only build a long lasting "Great" Company by focusing efforts on providing Value to your Customers.

Strategy built on the latter provides long lasting loyal customers who end up helping you succeed even more - eg Stardock's way of doing business. I cannot and will not trust those using these draconian systems. I'll tolerate a disc in the drive, but thats about as far as I'll go.

There's a great quote from Henry Ford that sums this up:

"Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by product of providing a useful service"

Those who delude themselves they got it right after sales of (say) 2million DRM'd games, need to wake up. The statistics morons they are employing will always give them what they want to hear (after all they want to get paid for the Stats!) They will ignore the millions who would have bought the game, but now will not, due to the stupid heavy handed DRM system.

ggrrrrr .....

phew .... feel lots better now .... senior moment ...
I'll get back in me box .....

Regards
Zy

They yanked the "phone home" every 10 days:

http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=629059&forum=125&sp=0

-HM

Official word about Spore:



This should at least put Spore fans minds at ease

Obtained from:
http://www.gamingsteve.com/

I'm still not entirely happy about the DRM, but the incarnation just posted there I could probably live with. Authenticate once, and then only authenticate again when accessing online content or patches. I'm not entirely happy about the "3 installs" thing, as it means a long trek through customer support (EA's customer support... bleh) if something goes wrong, if they'll even listen to you. But it's a step in the right direction. If anything, it moved me from "no way in hell" to "maybe, depending on what other customers have experienced with it".

I dont remember where I read it, but I dont think it's limited to 3 installs anymore. If it is, I may mean only 3 active installs total. So you would deactivate one when you get a new machine or configuration and reactivate it on a the new one.

I dont think you have to worry about limited installs. I remember reading somewhere, but I cant quote where off hand. It was probably on "gamingsteve" site. I'd check there for verification.

Oh, right, from the quote above:
'You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.'

(Mass Effect is 3 according to the link, but I was responding to Spore)

The statment from Caryl that's quoted above sounds pretty sensible, although he didn't give us any specifics about a limited number of installs. "Being able to install and play on multiple computers" could mean anything in that regard.

The new statement from Bioware specifically states that the "3 installs on differing hardware and you need to call support" policy will stay in effect for Mass Effect. For me as a collector, who enjoys to play old games every couple of years (and naturally on hardware that has undergone changes in the meantime), it is not acceptable to be at the mercy of any game publisher if I just want to relive my enjoyment of a product I bought.

At least they tried to listen, although their new "solution" still won't work for me. I guess that a substantial number of pre-orders must have been cancelled in the past few days.

oh... i thought bioshock implements an uninstall type that reverse the count so you can install it again without diminishing your install count(i have my scenario about this because my rig is almost at it's life expectancy and i don't want to diminish my install number because of this(i'm a single user anyway so WTF))(second scenario is hardware changes people always upgrade graphics card(not always but surely it is))...



as for tech supp... i maybe whinning about this... but i don't really like talking to a tech supp like this(they are nice but they ask too many frakkin' question(techsuppphobia))... lol

Yes, Bioshock has a revoke tool so you can remove one of your licenses from their license server.

-HM

There is a difference between the limited activations of Mass Effect and BioShock. BioShock's is/was tied to computer accounts. (so if you had multiple accounts on one computer, it would eat up your activations).

Mass Effect's is tied to the HWID, so you can uninstall and reinstall as much as you like on the same system and have multiple user accounts without issue. The hazy area here is what it considers a big enough change in the hardware profile to trigger a new activation. I feel three is too few. A half dozen would be more palatable. No limit would be ideal.

wonder if a system restore would use up active install since I run system restore once every 4-6 months

Sorry, I meant *Bioware* official. I was talking about Mass Effect. I keep mistyping "Bioware" as "Bioshock", sorry.

Bioware have removed the 10 day re-activation Official BioWare/EA Response to DRM Discussion



edit:

HM beat me to it

well its because Microsoft was successful at killing peoples xbox 360 and online accounts with pirate chips and games.