Ea Defends Drm And Offers A Bone

[Dale]

In an MTV exclusive, EA representatives have defended their new version of the SecureROM DRM restrictions, whilst at the same time offering a small bone to gamers.

Whilst the other 'more stringent' affects of the DRM will remain in place, EA will allow via a patch to Spore in the "near future" the ability to de-activate an installation similar to that seen in the music software iTunes. The number of installations for Spore will not be changed to the same 5 installations that was recently announced for Red Alert 3.

EA is also quoted defending other aspects of the SecureROM DRM restrictions and address the ultimate question of what will happen at the end of the software's life cycle.

“If we were to ever turn off the servers on the game, we would put through a patch before that to basically make the DRM null and void. We’re never walking away from the game and making it into a situation where people aren’t going to be able to play it.”

The full MTV article can be found here.

[Dale]

It's my personal opinion that they got what they wanted. If you want to make a big controversial change, you put into affect a HUGE change and retract a little bit later to the level you actually want.

EA screws gamers is the bottom line. How long till other publishers follow suit?

[Dale]

This would have to be one of the most intelligent articles I've read on the SecureROM / DRM issue since it surfaced months ago:

http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008304.php

[Colon™]

Re: Ea Defends Drm And Offers A Bone

Originally posted by Dale
“If we were to ever turn off the servers on the game, we would put through a patch before that to basically make the DRM null and void. We’re never walking away from the game and making it into a situation where people aren’t going to be able to play it.”

Would be nice if it were legally enforceable.

[DarkCloud]

Basically after you purchase the game... The license agreement basically "owns" you

Still, I would hope that EA would "do the right thing"...

But it's probably a moot point.

What's more likely to happen is that EA doesn't turn off the DRM, but sells the company to another game company--- Blizzard/Activision, perhaps? Which maintains the same scheme.

[vovan]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
What's more likely to happen is that EA doesn't turn off the DRM, but sells the company to another game company--- Blizzard/Activision, perhaps? Which maintains the same scheme.

I doubt anybody would willingly part with Maxis -- Will Wright has made too much money.

Or... if you mean the whole EA... I'm pretty sure its too big at the moment for anybody to gobble up.

[dannubis]

Spore, I would have liked to buy and play it...

However, I am not going to bend over...

[Adagio]

Was just going to post this thread... stupid work getting in my way of posting news


At least they're making some changes, but not enough IMHO



Also on a related note:

Link

Of 453,048 activations of the Spore Creature Creator alone, Sughayer says, 77 percent activated on only one machine, 23 percent activated more than one, and only 1 percent of users tried to activate on more than three machines.

This was posted about a week after release of Spore, where someone from EA say that ONLY 1/4 of all online users has activated on more than one machine... I'm not sure what candy world he lives in, but I'd call 25% a quite large percentage, specially at this point (a week after release). If this was one year after release 25% would be ok, but at this point 25% is proof that it's a disaster

[snoopy369]

To be fair, he's talking about creature creator, a month or so after release, not the game itself. You also don't know how many of those installs are technically pirated installs (either actually so, or given-to-a-friend 'piracy').

I personally think limited activations is the most logical method of DRM. The limitation, however, should be high (10 or so), a number nobody reasonably hits. That high of a number still 'prevents' piracy, in that any given key can't be shared massively, but doesn't inconvenience users too much.

Allowing deactivations of course is another way to fix it, and if it's easy enough to do, i think that's one of the better solutions.

[Adagio]

I'd say the only reasonable way this "limited activations" scheme could be implemented would be buy having an auto-reset activations in their system, so that each 3 months it'll get reset to 3 activations left. Or that an activation automatically goes back to the account 1 month after use
Everything else is kinda brain dead... just look at the fact that Spore is getting close becoming the most pirated game ever. So obviously it doesn't work

Also 25% for a month is still a high number

[Dale]

I think protection should go a completely other direction. Instead of limiting the real version for paying customers by adding dodgy SecureROM and its privacy breaking methods, and DRM policies enforcing draconiun measures, paying customers should be rewarded for purchasing the game.

Like the article I posted above offers, I believe that if a serial is registered online that the person gains heaps of extras, be it more levels, custom shared content, etc.

For instance in Spore, it would be logical that if you register online you get access to the online Sporepedia (like now) AND Space stage unlocks. That REWARDS the player for registering.

Added bonuses of zero SecureROM and very limited DRM policies. The customer comes to you for legitimacy, not you hit the customer. Therefore, customer's choice and they are happy.

Just my two cents.