News EA responds to Spore banning threats

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09/25/ea-responds-to-spore-banning-threats/1

After forum moderators on EA's Spore website said that Spore accounts would be banned if people discussed DRM, EA has released an official statement.

 

Anti DRM creatures? I am guessing that is done purely through the names

 

Nope - shaped creatures.

 

Does any one have an image of such a thing?

 

Spore was cracked like 1 or 2 days after its retease. So, anyone who wants to play it could just torrent it.

Then i ask: Whats the point of so much protection care about those games? No game is uncrackable - if there is such word.
I think this kind of attitude will just lead more ppl to grab the torrent. But still the game is great fun and it worth its price. Surely!

 

It stops second hand sales. You can't sell a game at Game or Gamestation if it has once only activation keys, as Mercs 2, Hellgate and Spore all do.

 

some of them anti drm creatures are actually quite funny

i personally dont see the point in the drm tbh, surely EA can see that the game was cracked and is available to torrent? and i cant see second hand sales massively affecting there profits,

 

Yep absolutely right. I'm convinced that this is just EA's attempt to stamp out the second-hand games market (of which they don't see one red cent) and they are just using the 'anti-piracy' stance as a smokescreen since it's a lot easier to get away with that than say 'We just don't want you selling this on.' - I seem to remember hearing/reading that this might not be entirely legal... (ie that you have a right to re-sell any item you've bought) of course I stress that I'm in no way sure about that - does anyone out there have any actual knowledge about that or not?

 

Shaped like?
Are we refering to the creatures that users created that resemble goatse or other such gestures? Or are these so called anti-drm creatures of some other form?

 

You're probably right about the second hand market, Tyrmot. I can't speak about the licensing of Spore, but I know that with some programs, you don't actually buy a coy per se, but insted are merely buying the right to use the software. Thus you are bound by the licensing, and if the licence says non - transferrable, then that's the end of it

 

Yeah in fact here is an interview where some EA VP makes it clear that they are not happy with the situation http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ea-second-hand-sales-are-a-critical-situation - funny that they don't mention it when they are talking about secuROM isn't it? Then it's all about the 'piracy' (and this despite the fact it is now available for torrenting).

If it was really an anti-piracy measure, wouldn't it make sense to remove it once the cracked version is available? No of course not, because that's not why they stuck it in there in the first place....

 

Fixed

 

That may be the case, but SecuROM doesn't affect the activation system. And if your stores are anything like ours, that's not likely to stop the retailer from selling a used, already-activated game.

I don't care anymore. I wrote my letter to EA, and I'm done purchasing their products. I honestly become less satisfied by Spore each time I think about it, and that's typically true of other EA games as well. Their company seems to the embodiment of mediocrity that tries to find medicine for the symptoms rather than fixing the actual problem. I've already told a number of people to avoid Spore and other EA games, partly from the copy protection, partly from the mediocrity, and partly because the games simply aren't worth what they charge - and I'll continue to do the same. Their long streak of over-promising, under-delivering, and treating their legitimate customers like criminals has gone far enough and I'll be doing my bit to ensure it doesn't continue. I'm not going out on crusades against them as I don't have that much time to waste, but they certainly won't be getting any word-of-mouth referrals from me.

 

It's annoying, in a way - EA went through a period (shortly after C&C3) where they seemed like they wanted to listen to their customers and 'do stuff right'... instead, all they seem to be doing now is 'stuff wrong' and 'OMG, damage control!'...

I'm totally uninterested by Spore now. Remain slightly tempted by Crysis Warhead, but in the end, all I have to do is look at a fair-sized pile of games I've got (multiplatform) that I've still barely touched, and it reminds me I should play them first.

 

A couple Anti DRM creatures - http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/15/spore-creatures-join-anti-drm-protest/

 

For ****'s sake...

I was actually beginning to regain some respect for EA before this whole debacle...

 

You also can't sell a game at Game if it's for the PC...

 

The simple solution for me was to stop buying EA products.

It's a nice change to buy games that don't need patching on release, actually...

 

I agree, stop whining and just don't buy the game, that's one of the reasons EA started loosening their DRM, when people went to get the game via other means instead.

 

Heh, good point..

Bought Mercs 2 on release day for the 360.. first thing that comes up when I put the disc in is the message saying you need to update in order to play online..