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EA Patches Spore, Eases DRM
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:03 AM
from the slowly-but-surely dept.
from the slowly-but-surely dept.
EA has released the first patch for Spore, the purpose of which is to fix a number of bugs and tweak some gameplay settings to be more entertaining. Some of the visual effects were upgraded as well. They've also officially responded to the complaints about Spore's DRM, stating their intention to increase the number of allowed installations to five and to set up a system to "de-authorize" systems in order to reclaim the installation credit. They plan to allow multiple screen names per account, which was an issue for many families trying to play the game. This comes not long after EA made similar changes to the DRM of upcoming RTS Red Alert 3, and after Spore's DRM protest spread to in-game creature designs. Reader SoopahMan notes that users in EA's Spore tech support forum are reporting a number of new issues caused by the patch.
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<em>Spore</em> DRM Protest Makes EA Ease <em>Red Alert 3</em> Restrictions 486 comments
Crazy Taco writes "The heavy Amazon.com protest of Spore's DRM appears to have caught the attention of executives at EA. IGN reports that DRM for the upcoming C&C: Red Alert 3 will be scaled back. Unlike previous Command and Conquer games, the CD will not be required in the drive to play. The online authentication will be done just once (rather than periodic phone calls home), and up to five installations will be allowed, as opposed to three for Spore. While I still think five installations is too few (I've probably re-installed Command and Conquer: Generals 20 times over the years for various reasons), EA says they will have staff standing by to grant more installations as necessary on a case by case basis. So, while this still isn't optimal, at least we are getting a compromise. Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is low, perhaps EA will get comfortable enough to ship with even less DRM in the future."
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EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over <em>Spore</em> DRM 538 comments
The ever-growing unrest caused by the DRM involved with EA's launch of Spore came to a head on Monday. A woman named Melissa Thomas filed a class-action lawsuit against EA for their inclusion of the SecuROM copy-protection software with Spore. This comes after protests of the game's DRM ranged from a bombardment of poor Amazon reviews to in-game designs decrying EA and its policies. Some of those policies were eased, but EA has also threatened to ban players for even discussing SecuROM on their forums. The court documents (PDF) allege:
"What purchasers are not told is that, included in the purchase, installation, and operation of Spore is a second, undisclosed program. The name of the second program is SecuROM ... Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. ... Electronic Arts intentionally did not disclose to any such purchasers that the Spore game disk also possessed a second, hidden program which secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer."
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Review: <em>Crysis Warhead</em> 154 comments
When Crysis was released last year, it immediately became known for two things; excellent gameplay and ridiculously high hardware requirements. With the recent release of Crysis Warhead, a standalone expansion to the original game, Crytek's plans were to maintain or improve the quality of gameplay while simultaneously streamlining it so a broader audience would have a chance to enjoy it. As it happens, they succeeded. Fans of the original game will feel right at home in Warhead, and it provides a good chance for new players who were curious but wary of Crysis's graphical requirements to give it a shot. Read on for my thoughts.
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How gracious of them (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if they actually believe this is going to change how people feel about the DRM, or if they just don't care and are trying to curb the Amazon comments?
Re:How gracious of them (Score:5, Insightful)
Easy. You make enough people happy that the protesters can be comfortably ignored. Deactivation isn't enough for me, but it's no longer renting the same way it was. Add in a promise to completely disable all drm if/when they shut down the servers and I think you could get most people onboard.
Not me, but enough of the mainline gamers for it to matter.
Parent
Re:How gracious of them (Score:5, Insightful)
Well,the limited activation BS equals no sale for me. When I buy something I want to actually BUY,and the limited activations make this an expensive rental. I still have games from the old DOS/Win9X era that I like to break out and play by companies long gone which I couldn't do if they had this crap. Which,of course along with killing the right of first sale is the point. To turn the whole business into an expensive rental so when a company gets bought out the buyer can simply kill the activation servers and get paid all over again for new keys.
And any promise to get rid of the DRM when they shut down the servers is just a lie. Today most of the companies get bought out,which means their promise is worthless unless it is written in the EULA,which I'm willing to bet it's not. So sorry EA,but this is one customer that won't be buying your product until the limited activations are gone,period. This is a game,NOT iTunes.
I would STRONGLY suggest everyone spread the word and keep as many folks from buying the game as possible,because in case you haven't heard other games are going to end up with this crap. The next one to have the limited Activation stench is Crysis:Warhead. So please spread the word and keep EA and the other major players from stealing your right of first sale!!! And as always this is one old gamers 02c,YMMV
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The only company I could believe shutting down the DRM when they die is Valve's Steam, and I'm still fairly skeptical of that.
Luckily I'm not a big fan of the crud being churned out by Big Content these days, and quite happy with independent publishers who dare to stray from clickity-click click FPS type games. Though I do enjoy a good run of Halo from time to time:-)
So yeah, I hoard my old Microprose DOS games, and some really old EA titles for the Commodore 64, and share them with others when I can.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The only company I could believe shutting down the DRM when they die is Valve's Steam, and I'm still fairly skeptical of that.
LGP [linuxgamepublishing.com] has stated that everyone in the company is authorized to release patches disabling DRM if the company goes under...
Re:How gracious of you (Score:5, Informative)
Copyright infringement, at best. I am getting tired of having to point this out to those who ether refuse to acknowledge the difference, or are simply too brainwashed to tell.
Parent
Re:How gracious of you (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh did my rental expire? My dad bought the games decades ago and gave them to me. Or was the right of first sale retroactively abolished too.
Parent
Re:How gracious of you (Score:4, Insightful)
More importantly, calling things which aren't stealing stealing is slowly but surely making the concept meaningless, or at least not carrying the negative overtones it once did. That can and probably will have nasty consequences, when someone does the obvious conclusion that since downloading abandonware is OK, so is looting a store, since they are both stealing.
It's a bit like how the word "sex offender" is losing its meaning due to being used in every conceivable and inconceivable context: guy who pees in the bushes, guy who walks in the street naked, guy who rapes little girls... These are all "sex offenders" if caught, so the last nasty critter gets to hide behind the first two harmless ones. Not to mention the guy who was proven innocent in a court of law but is still kept in the registry...
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The next one to have the limited Activation stench is Crysis:Warhead.
I wouldn't worry, since no one is going to be able to run the game anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Add in a promise to completely disable all drm if/when they shut down the servers and I think you could get most people onboard.
Maybe, but EA's rep is shot with me. The last two games I've bought with their name on them crash often enough to make them unwinnable and what's the point in playing a game like that? I already have a family subscription to World of Warcraft ...
EA - you suck! Or you just have no clue how to program a PSP, or maybe both. At least Blizzard doesn't kill me and make me restart every time I reach a new level after doing something hard.
Obligatory Star Wars quote: (Score:3, Funny)
C3PO: Surrender is a perfectly acceptable alternative in extreme circumstances! The Empire may be gracious enough to...
(Han nods at Leia who promptly turns him off)
Are they really that naive? (Score:5, Insightful)
We're willing to evolve our policy to accommodate our consumers. But we're hoping that everyone understands that DRM policy is essential to the economic structure we use to fund our games and as well as to the rights of people who create them. Without the ability to protect our work from piracy, developers across the entire game industry will eventually stop investing time and money in PC titles.
Not only does this sound hilarious ("essential to the economic structure...") but not once in the history of software piracy, as far as I know, has DRM -ever- stopped piracy.
I have to wonder if the CEOs and the decision-makers are out-of-touch and naive. Who do they think is actually going to believe this shit? Do they? Frankly, I don't think any actual malice is going on, just complete stupidity by non-techies easily wowed by the DRM snake oil.
People like to go "ugh EA is fucking us!" and also complain "But the DRM actually hurts sales!" (probably true) and yet they STILL bang their head against the wall. If DRM worked, then the EA fucking us thing might be true. But given how worthless DRM is and how hackers break it the day it comes out (and often, before, as was partly the case with Spore) I frankly have to wonder if someone is simply just out of touch.
Actually, I have a better idea. DRM is being used not because it works, but because someone (or some group, the people responsible for fighting piracy or such?) in the corporate structure ants the people up top to think they're doing their (impossible, and they likely know it) job so they don't get sacked. DRM stinks of a product of bureaucracy.
Re:Are they really that naive? (Score:5, Insightful)
To stop piracy they crack down on BT through various means. The purpose of this DRM is to destroy resale value and make people need expensive reactivations/buy new copies if anything goes wrong/so they can shut down the servers and switch to a new model any time they want.
This is similar to how child porn is used to justify measures that do nothing to prevent the people who make it, but seem to have an awful lot to do with curtailing protest against the gvmt.
Parent
Re:Are they really that naive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Your first paragraph sure nails this thing. That is precisely what DRM is about. Not pirating software but to make it harder to resell games. Games companies have already mentioned that places like Gamestop that sell used games hurt the developers.
Sony and Microsoft are combating it in a similar way with the PS3 and XBOX360. They are trying to push for more games being sold through PSN or XBox Live. Your reselling of games at that point is pretty much toast. What they don't seem to realize is that in the long run this hurts them too because by not being able to trade in the online purchased games they users are not able to afford purchasing as many new games.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I've heard that point before and forgot to consider it. Yeah, the whole "EA is fucking us!" thing might be true then.
But now I wonder, if DRM hurts sales all-around, then it even prevent the initial sales that may have ended up a reseller like GameSis still stronger, and EA should know this. So maybe my "appeal to the pointy-haired boss" is still stronger--or another version of it that I forgot to mention, "make the shareholders think we're trying to maximize sales," which may be an even better
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Are they really that naive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only does this sound hilarious ("essential to the economic structure...") but not once in the history of software piracy, as far as I know, has DRM -ever- stopped piracy.
(1) The goal isn't to completely stop all piracy of the product, just curb it. Some people would prefer to just buy the game rather than waiting for a crack or having to hassle with it. While it varries, this is the case sufficiently for companies to consider it worth the downsides. Of course this isn't the case when the DRM more trouble than just waiting a bit more for a clean crack, or if the crack is out before the game actually launches (as happened with Spore).
(2) BD+ is still pretty locked down.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I already considered your point and I thought the implications of my post addressed that. When has DRM even -curbed- piracy? Again, Spore's DRM was cracked before the game was even released in America (iirc it was released early in Australia or something for some reason, maybe accident?). The DRM gets cracked pretty much the same day, and the cracked versions are easier to deal with, to boot. So how, exactly, is piracy being curbed in any way, shape, or form? Nobody "waits" on the crack, except usually
Re: (Score:2)
And it would be a lot more broken if folks actually used it. Not trying to flame,but for 99.999% of the public DVD is just fine. There are millions of players out there,they are dirt cheap,and most of your average users can't really tell the difference between BD and an upscaled DVD anyway.
And as other posters have pointed out but I think bears repeating so folks don't lose sight of the big picture,this is NOT about piracy. I repeat: This has NOTHING to do with piracy,and they are simply using piracy as an
Re: (Score:2)
FFS, if somebody buys your product, they are a "customer".
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually DRM is working.
I don't buy, or download the game.
So, even tho they are losing a sale, they aren't being hurt by me pirating.
Now, if I could just put the game on the hard drive of my non internet pc and play, I'd buy the game - but even I know that's just silly talk.
YAY DRM!
Nah, they actually believe it (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, from the very limited sample I've seen (two people, for two different products, to be exact) they actually do believe that it'll help. That somehow _this_ time, surely people won't find a crack for their hare-brained protection scheme, at least until the first weeks have passed and the sales went past their peak.
Re:Are they really that naive? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder what they have to say about the fact that the game was already cracked before the release date, and more than half a million people pirated it in the first week alone? How do they still justify that it prevents piracy?
In many cases the crack lets you get the game running faster than trying to mess around with driver and firmware upgrades to get the DRM functioning.
Parent
Too little, Too late. (Score:2, Insightful)
They could have acted sooner. alot sooner. now it's too late. they put me off, and I wont be swayed with this pathetic "fix"
To borrow a phrase... (Score:5, Insightful)
"They could not have missed the point further if they had fired in a completely different direction and the point was in another country altogether."
The point is, EA, I WILL NOT be treated like a criminal. 5 activations is more than 3, yes, but it's still less than infinity, the number I should have. The number every other game (BioShock and Mass Effect aside) gives me. And I will not buy a single-player game that you can turn off at any time for any or no reason. Period. So back off the insane DRM or you will never get another penny out of me ever again. And I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment.
Re:To borrow a phrase... (Score:4, Informative)
They say "let us manage your rights, you can trust us." I say "let me manage my rights, you can trust me."
The difference is, I've never helped someone pirate a game I bought, and I don't buy games with DRM (aside from dumb shit like cd keys/anything that is replay vulnerable)
They screw over honest players time and time again.
Until the free (pirated) version is harder to make work than the expensive broken version, I'm not buying.
Or rather I'm buying from competitors and skipping Spore because it is, as noted below, a shallow, tedious clickfest.
I hate half baked games nerfed to appeal to the IQ of 60
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
but it's still less than infinity, the number I should have. The number every other game (BioShock and Mass Effect aside) gives me.
That's not entirely accurate... [2kgames.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought Spore. The DRM is irritating. But you don't need the cocking disc in the drive to play.
Re:To borrow a phrase... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm on death row. The death is irritating, but at least they're not using the electric chair.
Somewhere along the line, you've missed the point; This DRM cripples your rights to resell a game (if it stinks, you can sell it on and recoup some of your losses, if it's not one you want to hold on to and play again and again, you can resell it). It cripples your ability to do anything with it that you'd normally expect to do with something you buy (you can lend a book to your mate; CD in the drive protection allows you to do this with a game, DRM doesn't).
There is a whole historic section of law that guarantees the purchasor's rights to do what they want with items they have bought. Software companies, and DRM in particular have been trying VERY hard these last few years to work their way around the law, so that technically, you do still have the right to sell on the game (you can put the install DVD on Ebay or whatever), but it will be useless to the person who purchases it, making your legal rights useless.
In other words, yes, these companies are effectively stealing from you (yes, exactly what they're saying pirates do to them).
They are deliberately killing the resale market, ensuring you have no ability to recoup any of the money you spent on the item (or donating it to charity in the way of charity bookshops etc.), in any way the law says you should be able to do with such an item (as it was fair to be able to do such a thing).
Yes, I know the first sale doctrine is confused because the software companies say that software is 'licensed'. The day they turn round and say that they'll replace all media once it's broken, and allow perpetual updates, and not tie it to any particular machine, and vastly reduce the cost, then I may think twice (actually, I use Steam, as it lets me do most of that).
As it stands, the companies are way too greedy and grasping, feeling quite at home screwing over their customers in the attempt to create larger sales. The sooner this ends, and a 'fair' market resumes (in the same way it happened with books and such) the better.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I'm usually against all activations and restrictions, but I actually love steam.
I have bought games, played them, stopped playing them, lost the packaging, reinstalled machine and eventually repurchased the game.
With steam, I don't even have to thik where my installation media is when I total my hard disk.
Re: (Score:2)
And before someone says that "but what if Steam goes down?", Valve has claimed that in the event that they close up shop they will release a patch activating the games without needing to be online.
Frankly, I think Steam is the case where they do things right, because it provides both a service with the DRM--the service to download and play your games on any computer, tied to an account.
I fixed it a week ago already (Score:5, Interesting)
Who chose this title? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Meh (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm honestly not entirely sure what I've been let down by. Perhaps it's something to do with the DRM or maybe it's just a random bug in the game. Whatever it is, I haven't been able to actually play the game for over a week now. I've Google searched the problem endlessly, but haven't been able to come up with a solution and I've even resulted to dealing with EA support (albeit comically*) to try and figure out what's wrong.
I purchased the game the day it came out, installed it without a hitch and had a generally okay time playing the game. It wasn't everything I had dreamed it would be, but I found it fairly entertaining in its own right. For whatever reason, on the third day the game stopped working. I hadn't updated my system, changed any settings, or done anything that should suddenly stop the game from working; but for whatever reason, it just stopped working.
I've pretty much stopped caring and even if I were to get it working again I'm not entirely sure how much more I would play the game after having to deal with as much crap as I have. I looked over the patch notes and it seems as though there might be a potential fix, but of course I'm running the Mac version of the game so who knows when they'll actually patch that. After dealing with EA, it hasn't even been the DRM that's turned me off so much as the customer support in general. I've finally become a casualty to this monster that people have been decrying for so long. I guess I'll take my number and join the group.
* In case you were wonder I've been undergoing support through EA's online support system. This entails me submitting my problem and them getting back to me sometime within the next three days with generally unhelpful advice. The last piece of advice I got was from a guy (every time someone has got back to me, it's been a different person) who instructed me to follow steps which started with "Go to Start -> Run ..." despite the fact that I'm on a mac. I got a pretty good laugh out of it, but at this point I really have to question how much EA has their shit together. From my end the answer seems to be, "Not very."
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I looked over the patch notes and it seems as though there might be a potential fix, but of course I'm running the Mac version of the game so who knows when they'll actually patch that.
It just uses a Windows binary within a 'compatibility layer' from Transgaming (known for Cedega). So you don't have to wait for a Mac-specific patch.
People are complaining but (Score:2)
I seriously don't think the DRM has hurt Spore's sales. There are too many people out there who are in the "I have to have this game" mindset. The proof of this is all of the bittorrent people who don't have the self control to hold off on buying the game even if the DRM bugs them.
The time when DRM will truely negatively start effecting sales is when the game loses it's hype. I think the negative press right now is actually the kind that will make the hype last longer. You know, the harder something is
Nope. Still going to pirate it (Score:2, Insightful)
For god's sake! I could see a limit to the number of installs in a certain time making some sort of sense, but they've still removed any resale value.
Unfortunate (Score:3, Interesting)
Though this has already been hinted at... (Score:3, Insightful)
Stardock saw it, why can't EA (et al.)?
Overwhelming Gall (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't believe the gall of EA to speak about the PC game industry like this. Here is the largest third-party game publisher in the world (unless Ubi Soft has them now), holding exclusivity contracts with multiple major sports franchises so their yearly Madden installments have no competition - who routinely releases malfunctioning games to the end consumer - who has been called out for overworking and underpaying its employees - who would rather charge you a buck to unlock a cheat code, or put ads in your game, than respect you as a customer - and this guy has the nerve to speak about what is good for the industry?
No, EA. Not buying it. Not buying your game, not buying your bullshit. Cry me a fuckin' river about software piracy -- no way I'm feeling sorry for you being hoisted by your own SecuROM petard.
Fortunately for anti-DRM, it's not a great game. (Score:3, Insightful)
Spore has two problems. First of all it has rather annoying DRM that probably actually has negative effects on about 1% of its players. But more importantly it's just not that great of a game. It's style of play and features will probably appeal strongly to about 10% of players.
So the game is not going to do anywhere near as well as they hoped. But the gameplay problems are probably at *least* 10x more the cause of this than the DRM issues.
But who are the developers going to blame? Which do you think is more likely:
A) Developers admit "The game wasn't that good really. Next time we'll try harder. Sorry about the $50M we spent over four years."
B) Developers blame DRM protests saying "This game is a failure only because of the DRM related issues. We are saddened by the fact that so many people were pushed into bootlegging the game which prevented its being a commercial success."
Anyone else think "B" is slightly more likely?
The net result is that everyone blames the DRM stuff so that they don't have to take any personal blame for the failure. And so the anti-DRM crowd gain a huge win that will dramatically reduce DRM use in the future, even though DRM probably had little to do with the relative success of the game.
G.
P.S. After wandering through a computer store and seeing hundreds of copies of the game in both regular and collector's edition versions this weekend, I have a new tag-line for it:
Spore: It's what's in stock.
EA/Maxis threatening to ban Spore accounts (Score:3, Interesting)
Over on the official Spore forums all threads about SecureROM, DRM, or questions about these threads are now being instantly LOCKED by EA/Maxis moderators. Also, this was edited into one of the threads by a moderator:
http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/3869.page
quote:
SecuROM as been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum. If there is any change you will be able to read it on the official Spore site.
Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore. /quote:
So it would appear EA/Maxis's OFFICIAL stance is that if you question them, they will lock your account and force you to purchase another copy.
Re: (Score:2)
So the DRM is gone
Read the summary again. Or at least the full title.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
So the DRM is gone
Read the summary again. Or at least the full title.
Hey it WAS "ERASES DRM" but they eased the the "R"!
Re:Installation limits (Score:5, Insightful)
What ever happened to The First Sale Doctrine? You have a right to resell that game when you've finished playing it.
They're just trying to kill the second hand market.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There's one flaw with your argument.
They don't sell used PC games, only used console games.
Re: (Score:2)
Or you could just EA pulled their heads out of their asses lol.
Impossible to believe based on what they sell. I used to think the crap Konami sells in the domestic Japanese sports market was the lowest of the low, but thankfully, Tiger Woods 2008 for the PSP has proved me wrong. And how they can find a way for a Sims game to crash, like The Castaways is beyond me.
Way to go EA! Whatever it is your QA guys are smoking, please send some my way in lieu of a refund. Thanks!