Spore / DRM / EA / PC Game Industry

[wanderer27]

Wow.

I've been browsing a few of the Spore Forums to get a feel on how this whole thing with the game and DRM etc. has been going.

First off, it really sounds like Spore is a fair to okay game - not stellar and not horrible.

Next let me say I'm really pissed at EA implementing this DRM scheme they've decided to go with.
I don't care if it's good or bad, but I do know I'm not the only one that's really ticked off about it.

I read on one Forum where a guy checked one of the Torrent sites and he said there were like 50,000 downloads in progress :shocked: (That's $2,500,000 just there folks)

That's just totally insane - and that's only one site . . . .

A lot of people said they're Torrenting it so they don't have to put up with the DRM crap, and they have legitimate copies on hand.

A lot more are DL'ing just because of the DRM, and aren't buying it because of the DRM.

And of course there are many others just plain Pirating it because they can and that's what they do.

Yeah, there are people that said they're getting the Torrent because they just can't afford it (Poor, poor country, etc.).

On another board I found a link telling how to remove SecuROM from your System (not sure about posting it).


I guess my point here is that I really think this whole thing is going to send EA (and the gaming Industry) a message.
Of course the message EA is going to say is that Piracy killed their sales, and DRM had nothing to do with it (and the fact it was cracked even before it was in most stores).

Spore is (somewhat) a new type/innovative game, which is what a lot of us have been asking for.
With what's happening now, I really have to question if anyone is going to take that step again in the future.

I don't have the game, and I haven't played it (or many others) due to the DRM.
Even as average as Spore sounds, I'd probably pick it up if it weren't for this one issue.
If this SecuROM removal thing really works, I may still pick it up (used?).

I understand how pissed people are about the DRM (doesn't matter if it's "harmless"), but all this Pirating is not the answer - it sends the wrong message.
Just don't buy the game, or get it used - that's about the best way a message can be sent with what few options we have.

/Rant off

Sorry the magnitude of this Piracy is really bothering me.

 

[TallBill]

This is why I wouldn't even bother developing a game that doesn't have significant online content. There are a lot more options if an account is required.

 

[videogames101]

Steam FTW!

 

[Maleficus]

that IS NOT IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM $2,500,000. 98% of those people wouldn't buy the game. a percentage I won't even guess at won't buy the game without trying it, thus increasing sales if they decide they like the game and go and buy it.

Piracy isn't a problem, it's a tool used to evaluate the worth of a game to help you spend your resources wisely on a frivolous and out of control market that has drastically decreased in quality and is showing no signs of reversing that trend.

 

[wanderer27]

Everyone knew this game was going to be pirated.

What surprised me was that it was cracked and on the net before it was even out in stores.
And the quantity of piracy is just mind numbing . . . .


I don't know if Steam is the answer, I've heard that gets cracked just as easily, and I prefer to have a "hardcopy" myself.


It would be interesting to see how much of the piracy is do to the DRM - whether it's to have a DRM free copy (already an owner) or just because of the DRM.
There's no way to tell though, so it's all going to get marked as just piracy.

I think Stardock is on the right track. It's not perfect but I think they're getting close.
I doubt there ever will be a perfect solution that suits all parties.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Maleficus
that IS NOT IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM $2,500,000. 98% of those people wouldn't buy the game. a percentage I won't even guess at won't buy the game without trying it, thus increasing sales if they decide they like the game and go and buy it.

Piracy isn't a problem, it's a tool used to evaluate the worth of a game to help you spend your resources wisely on a frivolous and out of control market that has drastically decreased in quality and is showing no signs of reversing that trend.

To EA, 50,000 copys at $50 is $2,500,000.

That's all they care about, and that's how they'll spin it.

I agree and said so above that many were DL'ing and already had a copy, and that other's would do irregardless.

I'm just pointing out how EA and probably the Gaming Industry as a whole is going to look at this.

 

[MikeyLSU]

first off, don't believe anyone who says they are pirating it because of the DRM. They are pirating it becuase they don't want to pay for the game and want it free. Nothing more nothing less.

 

[Maleficus]

Originally posted by: MikeyLSU
first off, don't believe anyone who says they are pirating it because of the DRM. They are pirating it becuase they don't want to pay for the game and want it free. Nothing more nothing less.

Wrong, everyone has different priorities.

 

[coloumb]

I always like to go back to the example that Oblivion set - no copy protection, yet sold a hellavu lot of copies. Stardock seems to be doing pretty well too.

As for DRM - it'd be interesting to see an experiment done regarding sales of the same game with and without DRM. Games without DRM would still require you to register/activate it with a remote database.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: MikeyLSU
first off, don't believe anyone who says they are pirating it because of the DRM. They are pirating it becuase they don't want to pay for the game and want it free. Nothing more nothing less.

Exactly...

Just because you don't like the DRM on it doesn't mean you should get it free. You can always just not play it until the DRM is removed.

I think DRM or not a digital release like Steam (EA Download Manager maybe? But I dunno who uses that) could have made at least some of the torrents be sales instead. Should have released worldwide online before you end up with a situation like now where you have a bazillion people just torrenting it rather than waiting to drive to a store and paying. Sort of like how when HL2 was about to be released so many had it pre-downloaded and it just had to decrypt and play at the exact moment the game officially launched.

 

[Zenoth]

Pirating a game because it has DRM as an excuse is... well I don't need to say it. If people don't want to "deal with the DRM crap" they should simply not buy AND not pirate it. I haven't bought Spore yet, but I will next week, but I've never had any major issues with DRM in BioShock or Mass Effect, two games I am proud to own legitimately.

I buy those games with DRM exactly because DRM as I said and I will repeat it never gave me any major problems to the point where I would have had to just return it for a refund, never. Pirating a game with DRM is NOT a meaningful way to fight against DRM implementations in gaming, it still makes you a criminal, end of story.

 

[Bateluer]

I just won't bother getting the game, either through piracy or purchasing it. Perhaps when the DRM is removed, I'll consider buying it. Until then, I have enough draws on my time. There's no need to fork over 50 dollars for a game that will likely get 2 hours of gameplay.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Pirating a game because it has DRM as an excuse is... well I don't need to say it. If people don't want to "deal with the DRM crap" they should simply not buy AND not pirate it. I haven't bought Spore yet, but I will next week, but I've never had any major issues with DRM in BioShock or Mass Effect, two games I am proud to own legitimately.

I buy those games with DRM exactly because DRM as I said and I will repeat it never gave me any major problems to the point where I would have had to just return it for a refund, never. Pirating a game with DRM is NOT a meaningful way to fight against DRM implementations in gaming, it still makes you a criminal, end of story.

Maybe it is harmless for the most part.

Odd's are I could probably run it and not have any issues (though I've had issues before).

One time registration, CD-Keys, Word lookup - these are trival and I don't really mind them.

This bothers me though, and that plus past issue are what really puts me off to DRM of this level.

 

[mindcycle]

Pirates are going to pirate games no matter what. A pirated copy does not, nor will it ever, mean a sale would have been made if the game couldn't have been pirated. It's not 1 to 1 by any means. This is what publishers like EA need to get through their thick skulls. All DRM does is piss off the people who are willing to buy your game. Look at the sale of console games. They're making publishers like EA millions upon millions of dollars. They have no online activation, no serial numbers, etc.. Sure they are on a closed system and pirating isn't as easy as it is on a PC, but what I don't get is why they aren't looking at the reasons why console sales are so good and then trying to adopt those strengths for the PC market. Instead they just blame piracy. Well, as if it even needs to be said.. piracy is here to stay. There has always been piracy and there always will be. Just like the big record labels, these big game publishers will keep throwing more and more roadblocks at their legitimate customers until they drive the majority of them away.

I will continue to support companies like Stardock and not give any of my money to EA. Until they publish games with the customer in mind, and not just profit margins, they can continue to lie in the bed they created.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: wanderer27


I don't know if Steam is the answer, I've heard that gets cracked just as easily

well, my point was that it's a DRM solution that has just about 0 hassle for consumers.


theres no way to stop pirating, but steam does a fairly good job without hassling paying customers.

 

[Maximilian]

You know what gives publishers (mainly EA) the wrong message??? Giving them your money anyway even though you know you will get fucked by DRM or get a sub standard game EA wants a profit, it dosent want/need/listen to your opinions and this is proven time and again with many other franchises they just dont put effort into or just screw over completely, the company just works that way, they would package cow shit and sell it as a game if people would buy it, they just dont care.

If you dont buy the game at all and dont pirate it... fine... miss out! Thats your choice. I was going to pirate mass effect since the PC version had DRM until i learned it was on the 360, so i bought it for the 360 instead. Im glad i did, its an amazing game, a little off topic but everyone who likes a good story should buy it because its that good. Bioware definately deserved my money for that. Since there is no console version of spore, and its been hyped for 3 years well... i will try it out but like i said above im not handing a penny over to EA because that is what gives them the wrong message and that is what gives them the green light to keep putting DRM in their games and churning out crap in general, making a profit.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: wanderer27
A lot more are DL'ing just because of the DRM, and aren't buying it because of the DRM.

A product that tampers with my PC is a product I avoid.

 

[Cabages]

Originally posted by: videogames101
Steam FTW!

Is that supposed to come without SecuROM?

I ask because I know Bioshock steam release had SecuROM.

 

[SunnyD]

Funny thing, you mention the people that supposedly have a legitimate copy on hand yet are still downloading it "because of the DRM". You realize that those people are pulling the wool over your head if you're buying that argument right? If they have a legitimate copy, they don't need to download it - all most downloads are these days is the full install ISO + a patch to bypass the DRM - the latter of which can be had without downloading the full game (and a lot faster mind you). So I would say a good 99% of people claiming this are lying and pirating the game.

 

[Frodolives]

I won't get much sympathy over how tough it is to be still on dialup with Steam, but where I live it's either been that or $70+ mediocre satellite up until now. Only now have they improved the infrastructure to local nodes to the point where some DSL is available to me, and I should have it within a few days.

The thing is, after dealing with it for so very long, I think I will always empathize with underserved communities and countries, and if their experience with Steam is like mine has been, I'm fine with them hacking to their hearts delight! You buy a single player game. You install the client. You go through hours of updates and other processes as a prerequisite to getting permission to play the game for the first time. You can't use your download manager or any other reasonable method to get patches or other content.

Meanwhile Steam decides that your client needs to be updated to support Hungarian and Czechoslovakian language, so that update takes precedence over any other updates you need, and without any prompting you find that Steam has preempted what you thought you had logged in for and you let Steam hog your tiny bandwidth for as long as you can stand it, then give up and exit Steam, only to find out that it will continue the update until you go into task manager and kill Steam.exe. I guess that amounts to a single player shooter, since I've scored many kills that way!

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Frodolives
I won't get much sympathy over how tough it is to be still on dialup with Steam, but where I live it's either been that or $70+ mediocre satellite up until now. Only now have they improved the infrastructure to local nodes to the point where some DSL is available to me, and I should have it within a few days.

The thing is, after dealing with it for so very long, I think I will always empathize with underserved communities and countries, and if their experience with Steam is like mine has been, I'm fine with them hacking to their hearts delight! You buy a single player game. You install the client. You go through hours of updates and other processes as a prerequisite to getting permission to play the game for the first time. You can't use your download manager or any other reasonable method to get patches or other content.

Meanwhile Steam decides that your client needs to be updated to support Hungarian and Czechoslovakian language, so that update takes precedence over any other updates you need, and without any prompting you find that Steam has preempted what you thought you had logged in for and you let Steam hog your tiny bandwidth for as long as you can stand it, then give up and exit Steam, only to find out that it will continue the update until you go into task manager and kill Steam.exe. I guess that amounts to a single player shooter, since I've scored many kills that way!

You left out that after you kill steam.exe in the middle of an update, it can potentially fuck up your game and require a reinstall/re-download of the entire game.

University internet is awesomely fast, but at home I get a measly 50 KB/s DSL. I could literally go to to BB 10 minutes away, but the game, crack the DRM and still have a couple of days to spare on the download.

 

[imported_Flimflam]

I'm really getting tired of these lame drms they only punish legitimate buyers. The pirates get the game no matter what anyway. I had no desire to get spore even if it didnt have it. Maybe if the games didnt suck and were worth the 50 dollars more people would buy them.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: Frodolives
I won't get much sympathy over how tough it is to be still on dialup with Steam, but where I live it's either been that or $70+ mediocre satellite up until now. Only now have they improved the infrastructure to local nodes to the point where some DSL is available to me, and I should have it within a few days.

The thing is, after dealing with it for so very long, I think I will always empathize with underserved communities and countries, and if their experience with Steam is like mine has been, I'm fine with them hacking to their hearts delight! You buy a single player game. You install the client. You go through hours of updates and other processes as a prerequisite to getting permission to play the game for the first time. You can't use your download manager or any other reasonable method to get patches or other content.

Meanwhile Steam decides that your client needs to be updated to support Hungarian and Czechoslovakian language, so that update takes precedence over any other updates you need, and without any prompting you find that Steam has preempted what you thought you had logged in for and you let Steam hog your tiny bandwidth for as long as you can stand it, then give up and exit Steam, only to find out that it will continue the update until you go into task manager and kill Steam.exe. I guess that amounts to a single player shooter, since I've scored many kills that way!

...what?

Get good internet. Win.

 

[BoberFett]

I was going to get two copies, one for me and one for the wife but the more I read about SecuROM the more I think I'm going to pass on this game. I don't need spyware taking over my PC and the three install rule is bullshit as well. Change my video card too many times and they won't let me play my game anymore? F that.

 

[Eeezee]

I think their sales are going great right now

In any case, EA is either oblivious or doesn't give a shit