SecuROM is shit.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2008-09-09 01:38pm

I find it hilarious that even though it has received a bunch of 1-stars because of DRM, it is also currently #1 for video games on Amazon.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2008-09-09 01:55pm

It was a form email, yes. I compared it to the first and the wording is identical for the most part.

I called EA again and they said that it possibly got tied to my Gmail account somehow, which is funny because I don't have a Spore.com profile with my Gmail account. In any case they said they would manually assign the registration to my actual Spore.com profile and email address, and that it should be working sometime later today.

CaptHawkeye · Post by **CaptHawkeye** » 2008-09-09 05:14pm

Wow, I knew Spore ended up spiraling into the drain of watered down content for the sake of avoiding vapor ware status, but a lot of those customer reviews are awesome. I only wish Crysis got this kind of response a week after release!

I also find it pretty funny that lots of PC game developers who used Techno-Gestapo bullshit like SecuROM and Starforce are disabling it via patches. It turns out nobody likes it when corporations try to enforce strict usage rules on a product you own and paid for. What I get a kick out of, is that it's STILL happening. It's like EA (among other studios) locked the developers in the Furherbunker and only let them out to present the game at an E3 or two. In any case, they completely missed the mass consumer discontent to pretty much EVERY game out with this intrusive bullshit. Even some of their own titles already! It's like they just think "hey maybe repetition will make it work!"

Wait, it's EA we're talking about here! The same studio that apologizes about its invasive and tryanical business tactics, and then a month later tries to carry out a hostile takeover of Take Two! Comic book villains DO exist!

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-09 07:52pm

Thing is, having restrictive DRM for a month or so, then removing it, may actually make sense. After that, they've already had their launch spike sales; it's no longer as important that the tick the 'DRM' checkbox in board meetings. Its like how Starforce used to give presentations on all the 'lost' sales to piracy and how what they charge for their DRM is quite reasonable compared to the new sales they'll enforce.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2008-09-09 11:32pm

Even that could end up hurting sales more than it helps. If it becomes common practice, people will wait until they remove the DRM to buy the game. The price they can sell the game for might drop due to low demand and many of the people who waited might move on to other things and never buy the game, especially if it's an overhyped game that sells a lot on launch but then gets bad reviews and has no staying power. I don't think there's any scenario in which restrictive, Starforce style DRM will prevent more losses to piracy than it loses sales to bad publicity and returns.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-09 11:37pm

Oh certainly, but it makes good marketing presentations was my suggestion. Starforce scared up business by throwing around huge amounts of 'lost profit' that could be 'reclaimed', which is why it tended to be in lower-end indy games.

I'm not sure the first week or two after launch will be less important due to DRM though. Nerds are all talk; they might SAY zomg teh DRMz, but when Master Hero War Gaiden 2 comes out, they'll still buy it on launch day and gripe. Then again, the Spore backlash is pretty serious, and I'd be curious to know what kind of volume they're moving. I'm not really convinced stuff like Securom really loses that many sales; it's only when the DRM fails to work that anyone cares, just like with Starforce (which 90% of people were perfectly happy installing, so long as it actually validated their install). Securom is horrible shit, but almost nobody would care if it didn't have a flaw that caused it to fail.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2008-09-09 11:44pm

The majority probably don't vote with their dollar, but some do, and I don't think it's insignificant. I would have bought Mass Effect PC if it weren't for the DRM, and I'm not a person that normally makes philosophically motivated buying decisions. I would be surprised if the number of people who would have bought a game if they couldn't pirate exceeds the number of people who would have bought the game if it didn't have restrictive DRM. I'd be surprised if it were more than half.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2008-09-09 11:50pm

True, but in typical management fashion it's unlikely most publishers compare those numbers - they're more likely to look at TOTAL piracy, vs number of disgruntled non-purchases. I know the guys at Titan Quest did, after all.

Again, I'm not talking about the reality of the situation (which I don't pretend to know) but the though processes of the decision-makers invovled, where unless they see a major drop in launch-month sales, I doubt they'll care that people are anti-broken DRM.

I mean, shit, most people don't even KNOW what DRM is on most of their games, because it works fine. I do, because I crack everything, but most people only care about BROKEN or unusually INVASIVE DRM. I hear Mass Effect and Bioshock both used this same form of DRM, so publishers might move away from it if sales were down, but I think it's more likely Securom will try to fix it and sell it back to the publishers for later games.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-09-10 08:54am

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:The majority probably don't vote with their dollar, but some do, and I don't think it's insignificant. I would have bought Mass Effect PC if it weren't for the DRM, and I'm not a person that normally makes philosophically motivated buying decisions. I would be surprised if the number of people who would have bought a game if they couldn't pirate exceeds the number of people who would have bought the game if it didn't have restrictive DRM. I'd be surprised if it were more than half.

If thousands of people like you wrote letters (real ones, not E-mail) to the game studio and told them that you decided against purchasing their game because of the retarded DRM, that might have an effect. Otherwise, how would they know why you didn't buy?