Spore, the long awaited simulation game from Electronic Arts has generated a huge buzz and fury. Probably not from the type EA was expecting.
Spore is protected by SecuROM and requires online authentication of the genuine disc every ten days. Between these 10 days, you do not need to put the disc in the drive for authentication (This is extremely convenient. I hate the games where you need to have the disc in the drive. For frequent travelers it is annoying) The game cannot be installed more than three times, else you would have to phone to EA support. Some people are concerned that their copy would be dead if EA would not anymore operate the authentication server.
The fact that Spore would be protected by “DRM” was known for months (and provoked already some waves in the game community). Nevertheless, since its launch, Spore has been the target of anti-DRM aficionados. Interestingly, they use a new Denial Of Evaluation attack. The evaluation comments on Amazon.com are spoiled by voluntarily negative critics. At the time of editing, the score was less than 1 star for more than 1400 comments. Negative comments were about DRM. At the same time, the evaluation for the Nintendo DS (not affected by the DOE) was 4.75 stars!
Will this “attack” be efficient? I am doubtful. It seems that Spore is a really innovative great game. Thus, gamers who love this type of game (simulation + MMOPG) will go. Negative comments, only about DRM will not reduce the appealing of the game. Will “DRM” block some users? Of course, some people will use it as an excuse to justify the use of illegal version. The ISO file and the crack was available several days before the commercial launch of the game on main P2P tracker sites
Reading forum is instructive. My preferred one is the person who purchases an official copy but install a cracked one for convenience. He uses it with clear conscience.
It will be interesting to see if this campaign will impact the sales of Spore? If other game editors will reduce the use of “DRM”? Is DRM the right language for SecuROM and likes?
In any case, I will soon play Spore. Did someone already test it?
10-sep: An error did display only half of this ticket yesterday. Sorry for the inconvenience. During this night, about 500 additional negative comments were added on amamzon