EA Loosens Spore, Mass Effect DRM

An anonymous reader writes "In response to recent criticism, EA has decided to eliminate the periodic validation of Mass Effect and Spore. 'Specifically, EA's plan to dial in to game owner's computers every ten days to check whether they were running a legitimate version of their software has been scrapped, ShackNews reports. EA had planned to use the validation method for upcoming titles Mass Effect and Spore. EA now says that validation will now only occur when a user attempts to download new content for either game. Chief among the voices in opposition to this measure were members of the armed forces, who pointed out that they could not rely on having an internet connection every ten days.'"

Sudden outbreak...

[thealsir]

of common sense?

Pictured?

[WK2]

> EA had planned to use the validation method for upcoming titles Mass Effect and Spore (pictured).

Those games look a lot like a joystick.

Phew!

[kaos07]

I was worried I'd have to actually buy Spore.

Re:Sudden outbreak...

[DittoBox]

Something like that, sure.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/9/ [penny-arcade.com]

Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Armed pirates are always more effective

Re:Screw them...

[Grave]

So it could be said that our military is not only protecting us from terrorists and imaginary weapons of mass destruction, but from evil corporations as well now?

*salute*

I DID IT! IT'S ALL ME!

[Aphoxema]

In a drunk fit last night I actually sent a rant to them about it, I don't remember what I said exactly but I pointed out that DRM has actually driven me to download games instead of pay for them and if I couldn't expect to defeat the copy protection bullshit then I just wouldn't play the game.

Nothing no one's thought or said before, but I'm sure if enough gaming curmudgeons drank enough smirnoff ice at the same time while listening to EBM then there would surely be a rival to the mass mailing botnets that don't actually have anything useful to tell anyone.

It's freaking hot in here and Qwerty pisses me off. I'm going to drink some vinegar and go to bed.

The real question is

[Zerth]

Who in the DOD with a few stars on his shoulder called up EA and said

"I like this game very much and I'd really hate it if a B-52 was to accidently drop "training ordnance" [noquarterusa.net] whilst over your HQ because I was angsting over a save lost because the game failed to contact the mothership after some terrorists took out a sat-dish."

Re:Sudden outbreak...

[ppanon]

They said that one of the primary objections were from soldiers. I think looking unpatriotic/unAmerican/unSupportTheTroops would be very bad for business.
Maybe another factor was the realization that a large number of soldiers are coming home from Iraq with PTSD and good weapons handling skills and that it could be bad for more than business.

Re:Sudden outbreak...

[chris_mahan]

(Apologies in advance to those this may offend.)

A new psychological condition is predicted to appear among service men and women serving in combat in Iraq: PEASD (Post-Electronic-Arts-Stress-Disorder).

Re:Next up...

[night_flyer]

At least the "slaves" at EA have a choice as to whether they work there or not... Im more concerned about the real slaves, and children building all the gizmos and other crap we get from China...

Re:Off Topic: military in Iraq

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF is 'hir'?

It's a gender-neutral pronoun. How can you be unaware of such things in this day and age? You might think anyone who uses them is a wanker (I do) but you should at least be aware that they exist. I mean, what year is this? How long have you been living under a rock? How long have you had internet access?

It's certainly the first time I've ever seen it. Must not be too common around hir.