Spore’s DRM woes

Nobody likes DRM.  It's annoying.  Not only is it annoying but it's ineffective - it only really hurts legitimate users because, let's be honest, pirates can always circumvent it.  That's why I was pretty disappointed when I heard about all of the DRM that's been embedded into one of the most ground-breaking games we've seen in a while: Spore.  Spore, for those who don't know, is the latest creation of Will Wright, the mastermind behind The Sims.  In the game you nurture a creature from the cell stage to the creature stage, right up through the real time strategy-inspired civilization stage and finally space travel.  Basically, Spore gives you a chance to play God, and it does so while integrating a lot of interesting user-generated content for new creatures and items in the game.

So, for instance, if I am playing my game single player I can have Spore pull in creatures from a database which houses all of the creatures that other people are making.  So I can run into your creature on my own planet or even run into their home planet when I'm traveling in space.  The same is true for objects in the game such as buildings.  As a result of its emphasis on very interesting user-generated content Spore has been dubbed a "massively-single player online game."  That is to say that you interact with a lot of people's creations all while playing by yourself.

Anyways, this post wasn't supposed to be an advertisement for Spore.  Instead I wanted to discuss some of the DRM that people have been less then happy with.  First of all, you can only install the game 3 times.  Kind of sounds like an operating system, doesn't it?  So what happens if your hard drive dies and you lose the game, or if you build a new computer...are you unable to play the game that you paid for then?  Sure it can be argued that you might be able to call up EA and plead your case, then maybe they'll give you a new CD-key (similar to how Microsoft will sometimes issue a new CD key for Windows or Apple will let you re-download iTunes songs you may have lost) but that doesn't seem entirely necessary. 

The problem is so bad that Amazon.com saw a flood of negative reviews from people rating Spore 1 out of 5 stars, saying that because of the DRM they wouldn't purchase the game.  That seems to be a bit of a coordinated attack but there's no doubt that it hurt sales of the game, at least through that particular retailer.  It should also be noted that Amazon has since deleted all of those reviews, claiming that they were lost due to a bug (not very likely), but they're back for the most part.  There a 2,300 one star reviews on Spore's product page as of this writing, you can take a look by clicking here.  Personally, I think the 3 install rule is BS.  I like to go back and play my games every now and then, and I always seem to uninstall a game after I've finished it to save hard drive space.  With Spore I would have to keep it installed all the time whether I was playing it or not, and to set such a precedent is bad news.

So what is EA doing about this?  They've definitely acknowledged that there's an issue here.  Here's just a portion of a letter responding to unhappy Spore fans:

 

We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

• We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
• We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
• The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
• You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
• You can play offline.

 

Now Playing:
Flogging Molly - Devil's Dance Floor (live on the Complete Control Sessions EP)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Clear Sky (a completely DRM-free and awesome PC game! )