Spore Dev: DRM 'Necessary Part' of Our Business

Interesting internet functionality is the key to increasing sales, not DRM. All copy protection schemes punish legitimate users and serve only to delay piracy. Spore already has interesting internet functionality, so why punish legitimate users anyway?

Long explanation, skip if you are between the ages of 18-24 and enjoy text-messaging:

Copy protection of any sort can and will be cracked. USB dongles (Cubase), online authentication (BioShock), cd checks (the last decade of games), all of it has been cracked before and will be so again, leaving legitimate users of software as the only ones suffering the inconveniences that these methods create.

However, internet functionality that involves interfacing with central servers is a tough, if not impossible, nut to crack. Consider the example of Half-Life 1/2. These have both been cracked and pirated and anyone who so desires can play through all the single-player missions for free. But to play online, you need a legitimate copy. This was true even before Steam because the list server would check your cd key. It's a simple matter to use a central server to find pirated copies by blacklisting keys that have more than one concurrent connection.

Sure, there were private server cracks for many FPSs I can remember (the Battlefields come to mind) but there were only ever a handful of cracked servers out there. The bottom line is that playing these games online, which was always much more fun than offline, required a legitimate copy. Even better, such protection schemes didn't inconvenience legitimate users. If you wanted to play single-player Half-Life, you didn't have to connect to the internet. When you did go online, the DRM was totally transparent to users who entered legitimate keys at installation.

Diablo II was similar. The game was cracked and pirated, but without a legit copy you wouldn't be able to play on Battle.net. You could play with your friends through a direct TCP/IP connection, avoiding the key check, but Battle.net was cooler.

I see Spore as being the same way: the internet portion of the game makes it much cooler. Having your universe populated with the creations of other users is a great idea that I expect will make the game more enjoyable. Spore will be cracked and pirated like everything else, but those who aren't able to use the game's online component will suffer a poverty of content.

...so again, why bother to punish legitimate users with an inconvenient online authentication/limited installation scheme? It won't work: the game will be cracked, within two weeks I imagine (that's about how long BioShock lasted iirc), and then only people who bought the game will have to deal with the authentication and the limited installation bullshit. I don't know about the rest of you, but I resent being punished for buying games.

I hope they realize DRM is the entire reason I didn't buy Mass Effect and many other games with horrible DRM. I haven't pirated ME, and I don't intend to - the game could be another Deus Ex, and if I have to jump through hoops just to play it, I'll do without it. Hell, I almost gave up on Thief: Deadly Shadows because of the shitty DRM. Game would randomly check for the cd and check every time you zoned, sometimes dropping to desktop and back. It's completely unacceptable to interfere with gameplay to try and prevent piracy, especially when it doesn't prevent any significant amount of it.

Does DRM prevent or just Delay piracy?

I hear claims from both sides.

The solution to all the problems is simple... T2 did it with Bioshock but in a lame way. I understand that publishers want to protect their sales (although DRM doesn't work...), so release it WITH DRM and GUARANTEE that you will remove DRM after a year. Seriously, do you think after a year sales will be affected by your stupid DRM? It will be available on the torrent the day it is released (or few days after) and that's it.

So TO THE PUBLISHERS: satisfy your stupidity and justify the very high wages of your management or whoever comes up with this rubbish and release games with DRM, but guarantee that you'll remove it so normal people who have some clue can buy it :)

And I give you this advice completely free :) So stop paying lawyers and bureaucrats and other useless folks and focus on making games from time to time...

I guess screwing their paying customers is part of their business then.

"Spore Dev: DRM 'Necessary Part' of Our Business"

Oh! You mean the DRM that, you know, doesn't actually work?

I don't have an issue with DRM since I buy my games......As long as they remove it once the sales drop off. I don't want to try to install a 6 year old game only to find it can't authenticate or dial home.

DRM is absolutely useless and punishes the legit purchases just as much as the pirates. And it's usually pirated within hours of release anyway. An utter waste of money on the developers/publishers part.

If they truly found a way to have valid DRM that doesn't punish the consumer then that'd be great. It doesn't sound so bad yet, atleast not compared to some things, but I'd still prefer no DRM. Too bad this is EA.

I really don't see why people care unless they plan to pirate. How does this effect you if you pay for the game?

I don't understand. So if I install the game, uninstall, reinstall, go through that process a few times, I can no longer play the game?

Ho hum I'll just keep buying my games off steam (like I already preordered brothers in arms) because its the only DRM that, with an internet connection and a secure password, has never buttfucked me, ever.

why people always give a big shit about the DRM !!! i know this is probably a big taboo but you know that a crack will probably be available very shortly and EA will probably end releasing a patch that removes the counting thing, just like what happened with Bioshock (i know Bioshock is not an EA property)

If I have to crack the game in order to play my legitimate copy (which I'm guessing I'll have to do eventually, fuck calling up EA support just to install a fucking game), it really doesn't do anything but piss me off and turn me off to the idea of purchasing legitimately.

DRM only has an effect on one group of people, and that is legitimate users. DRM and copy protection does nothing to stop games from being pirated. Nothing.. not one thing.

Well crap. I was looking forward to this. I skipped Bioshock because of their DRM fiasco.

My game purchases are getting fewer and fewer these days :(

Is Spore coming to consoles?

if this ridiculous DRM is part of their business then my business will never be theirs.

They are leveraging so much pork on the back of this must buy product. Between pulling out release features for the expansions and eat a dick legitmate customer DRM, Spore is becoming so much less in my opinion.

Seriously, quit telling us we *need* the things we purchase locked up and kept safe from us. Either sell me your fucking game, or stop making PC games.

I think a better way would be to REQUIRE internet connectivity to save. have all the saves stored on the internet. they might let u do mini saves but have those expire like in 10 days or something.Then let people load up their saves from any spore client computer. Like you could go to your buddy's place and show him your spore creations or somethin by logging in your account.

Have to make it an account based system but give people something in return for having a spore account.

DRM will. Not. Stop. Pirates.

The dedicated pirates will simply never pay for a game. Those people are a lost cause. What remains is a cynical customer base. Don't piss off your customer base.

DRM = not buying

Steam is the notable exception, although I'm still not 100% comfortable with it Valve has done enough high quality work over a long time period to earn some trust.

The DRM will be absolutely fine for the overwhelming majority of people who buy it. Most people in Spore's target audience do not install new video cards every 3 months and reinstall their OS twice a year.

(because I'm a comment whore)
check it out.
http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vertdang

also, they have an RSS feed bottom left of the "my creations" window, so you can keep track of your favorite creators :)

I don't know how bad it'll be in practice, but it'll prevent me from buying it until I hear how it goes for others around here first.

I don't understand how people are excited about Spore.

I just see it as the next Sims, with all the same expansion packs and the like.

Can we just copy and past the comments from the last DRM/Piracy news post and call it a day?