Spore DRM allows only one account
Spore has proven controversial on account of the DRM used to protect it.
It does appear however that there are certain nuances to the DRM software which haven't been made entirely public; some of them good, some of them bad.
First up, according to The Consumerist is the fact that users can't apparently have more than one account per game. Although the manual states that players can set up multiple accounts on the one PC, for different family members say, that doesn't turn out to be true.
Instead, The Consumerist reports that multiple players either have to have multiple copies, or they have to share an account. Pretty disappointing stuff for those who want to share a copy of the game for a family or household.
The second change, this one coming in from RockPaperShotgun is that EA has silently increased the number of activations that players can use on the game. RPS readers have reported that after installing the game three times they rung EA to arrange more activations and were told that they still had two activations remaining and that the Support Page for the site, which claimed three activations, was soon to be updated.
If you want to know more about Spore then you can check out our full review and graphical analysis of Spore in the gaming section.
So, you'll have to share the game about a little bit more, but you only get one account per copy. Do the two balance out? Did you buy Spore or torrent it? Let us know in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyPeople don't want to be punted in the pills for taking the legal route and buying the software.
what really bothers me, is that my copy has been in the post now for *counts*......10 days
10 freaking days
*sigh*, tis becoming harder and harder to resist the temptation of just downloading it in 2 hours.
IMO - some games should be re-released year or two later without DRM. I still hope for DRMfree Bioshock(=2K sales - 1) and Crysis(=EA sales - 1)...
It had the standard DVD check.
But it requires internet connection. And that's a problem for me. I live in a village and decent internet connection here is a bit of problem(inet providers are using this as an excuse for terrible prices even for the slowest random working wifi connection. It sucks...)
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=1822472#post1822472
Will be formatting and re-installing OS when the VR 150GB arrives. Will try again to install Crysis with the router off.
It's Crysis Warhead that uses this new SecuROM. EA, after going the 'listen to our customers' route, seems to be adamantly trying to annoy everyone with this new SecuROM. :(
Crap like this will either turn people off playing on the PC or into unwitting pirates. There are several games I'd love to play on my PC but they have (or wil have) SecuROM. Bioshock, Mass Effect, the forth coming Mirror's Edge. Had thought about Spore until I saw how dumbed down it was. Honestly, I'm an adovcate of PC gaming but more and more I'm feeling the urge to buy a Xbox 360. At least I can play Skate then too (wot no PC port, EA?).
Power to the people!
No that's not right, you can only log into "one" account to EA i.e. when you load the game up, it asks if you want to log into your account. You can use all the free game slots on one account, I think there is 7.
It totally puts me off buying it because small changes to your pc, such as a change of gfx card, amount of ram, or a new user account counts towards your activation limit, then pow! you need to buy another copy or ring EA support and literally beg (nothankspls!) for a new key. Personally I get a lot of replay value from my old games, just recently completing my copies of Beneath a Steal Sky and Space Quest 6 for the *nth time. What happens if I want to play this game again in 5,7 or 10 years time and I can't because of this crap EA are shovelling onto their DVDs? All this technology hurts is the paying customer, a pirated version will have this stripped out, yet if you have a legit version, make minor adjustments to your pc spec, or buy a new setup you're going to burn through those activations pretty quickly, what a slap in the face.
Q.) How is it legal for them to ask you to buy a new cd key (i.e. another copy of the game) once you have already bought an original copy?
And on the 'no official clarification for Warhead' thing... would what looks like the final boxart be something worth having a gander at?
http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/WarheadBack/647387_lback.jpg
A blowup of the relevant part:
http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/241/warheadiq6.jpg
Taken from this thread:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14488
Online authentication.
EA lost another sale.
I got it tho steam (£20! Woot) so it wont have the SecuROM right? Cos steam is the protection system? I hope, I format my PC all the time and can see me using the 5 activations pretty fast.
Not certain (only when it's released will be know for sure) but if it's like Bioshock, it'll still have the activation limit on it. :( And £20? Play.com pre-order was £14.99...
...
Apologies for the OT about CW, all. Will stop now. ;)
Bioshock had Steam and Securom DRM.
PS: Just hit me that the online authentication could be only for access to the multiplayer.
Often developers walk a tightrope with the tradeoff between protection strength and the degree of impact on legitimate users but this was a failure on both dimensions! Is this really what the publisher wants to 'accomplish'? Why not use a solution which is friendly to honest users, has no impact on development time and the strongest available protection against crackers - see the whitepaper "Is Anti-Piracy/DRM the Cure or the Disease for PC Games?" which can be downloaded here <a href="http://www.byteshield.net/byteshield_whitepaper_0005.pdf">www.byteshield.net/byteshield_whitepaper_0005.pdf</a>.
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