Spore, Mass Effect DRM Phone Home For Single-Player Gaming

Tridus writes "The PC version of Mass Effect is going to require Internet access to play (despite being a single-player game), as its DRM system requires that it phone home every 10 days. Sadly, Spore will use the same system. This will do nothing to stop piracy of course, but it will do a heck of a good job of stopping EA's new arch-enemy: people playing their single player games offline." Is this better or worse than requiring a CD in the drive to play? Update: 05/07 17:17 GMT by T : According to a message from Technical Producer Derek French (may require a scroll-down) on the Bioware forums, there is indeed an internet connection required, but only for activation, not for all future play. Update: 05/08 04:10 GMT by T : Mea culpa. As reader David Houk points out, the 10-day window is in fact correct as initially described, so don't count on playing this on any machine without at least some Internet connectivity.

Re:Annoying

[m.ducharme]

Never mind, if my past experience with SecuRom is any indication, replacing the executable with the cracked version is going to be SecuRom's solution to any bugs in their DRM scheme. I know when I had problems with SecuROM not authorizing my copy of NWN, and wrote to them about it, they shipped me a little reporting tool (my box was almost exclusively used for NWN at this time), analysed the data, and sent me a link to a patched .exe and told me to replace my nwn.exe with that. What a waste, I could have downloaded the crack (which was probably SecuROM's own patched .exe) and ran that.

I've never seen a more useless company than SecuROM.

watch the pirated exe skyrocket in downloads

[Satanboy]

The pirated exe will skyrocket in downloads because nobody wants the DRM, and they will blame piracy as to why their game doesn't sell . . .

Thanks.....

[pablo_max]

You just reminded me to cancel my netflix membership! I knew slashdot was good for something ;)

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Bigger Worry: A backdoor is worse than a CD.

[GospelHead821]

Clearly, you're not allowed to do that. The company went out of business because you and the rest of their traitorous customers failed to buy enough of their software to keep them afloat. Obviously, if you can't even be loyal enough to do a little thing like keep a company in business forever, then you don't deserve to play their games.

The work around...

[NullProg]

Rem SPORE.BAT
@ECHO OFF
DATE (DATE-10)
SPORE.EXE
DATE (DATE+10)


Enjoy,

Re:My worry

[somersault]

Airport Security: Someone's subtly transporting 'Spores' eh? If you'll just step this way, sir..

Re:FFS

[flitty]

Right, but Mass Effect needing the same kind of connection is useless... Unless they plan on inhabiting all those barren wasteland planets with Spore creatures! Quick, Get on it EA! I want to shoot aliens with Mouths for hands!

Re:Bigger Worry: A backdoor is worse than a CD.

[slashname3]

Hence the reason for introducing this "service".

Just imagine, you spend $20.00 on a DVD. Then you have to go on the Internet to register the DVD and provide a credit card that can be billed when you watch the DVD. Then every time you pop the DVD in the player it runs a check to verify that you have registered the DVD and have a valid credit card that is charged $5.00 every time you play it. That is brilliant! The companies selling these won't go out of business, they will have a guaranteed revenue stream from all those DVDs out there.

I wonder if they have patented this idea yet? Need to check and file one right away if they haven't.

Re:Bigger Worry: A backdoor is worse than a CD.

[geminidomino]

Oh, sorry, we were discussing DRM crapware - carry on... ;)

You forgot to tell us to "Get off your lawn."

For the record, I'm with you. One of my favorite C64 games was "Strike Fleet"

Hooray EA.

[soupforare]

We're up to, what, the fourth Battlefield game? Yet, EA/Dice have yet to successfully complete a single one!

Re:Bigger Worry: A backdoor is worse than a CD.

[iamnothere900]

<vader>

I am altering the EULA. Pray I do not alter it any further.

</vader>