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Forums - PC Discussion - EA Listens: PC Mass Effect and Spore will not use 10 day online DRM.

exindguy on 09 May 2008

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the initial story was merely a trial balloon by EA. Seems that the game pubs are getting very good at aping their peers in politics--a little too good based on the fact that everyone is sure that EA is "listening to us" when it's probably just a case of EA attempting to see what the general mood is on issues like this. It also let's them take the moral high road, earn some good PR (that they, essentially, generated), and say "look, we listened to you!" and when they invariably take the 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy down the line (slowly but surely tightening the screws--bit by incremental bit--until the original trial balloon would have been a boon in comparison).

Cynical? Yep. True? Probably.




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BenKenobi88 on 09 May 2008
exindguy said:
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the initial story was merely a trial balloon by EA. Seems that the game pubs are getting very good at aping their peers in politics--a little too good based on the fact that everyone is sure that EA is "listening to us" when it's probably just a case of EA attempting to see what the general mood is on issues like this. It also let's them take the moral high road, earn some good PR (that they, essentially, generated), and say "look, we listened to you!" and when they invariably take the 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy down the line (slowly but surely tightening the screws--bit by incremental bit--until the original trial balloon would have been a boon in comparison).

Cynical? Yep. True? Probably.

 It's not that cynical...I'm hardly worshipping EA.  I am praising them for changing the DRM, though, because they would have lost sales, and I think they still lost sales overall...it's possible not everyone will know they changed the plan.



LEFT4DEAD411.COM
Bet with disolitude: Left4Dead will have a higher Metacritic rating than Project Origin, 3 months after the second game's release.  (hasn't been 3 months but it looks like I won :-p )

Parokki on 09 May 2008

Sounds good. I wasn't terribly concerned over validating every ten days, but it would've been a pain for some people. The limited amount of installs sounded nasty, but apparently that was a bogus rumour then?

Definitely buying this game now.



totalwar23 on 09 May 2008
BenKenobi88 said:
shio said:
Sounds like another "praise-worthy" news piece from Kotaku: You are NOT limited on how many times you can install a game, they're unlimited. But you can only activate the game on up to 3 different computers.

Ok, what he said.

Still, even if it was limited, I don't see the huge issue. The biggest concern I heard when they announced this was "OH NO WHAT IF I'M AWAY FROM THE INTERNET!" Since that isn't an issue now, other than the initial install, I would think most people would be fine with this.

In fact activating the game on more than one PC is more than a lot of games have allowed...many only allowed one activated PC at a time.


 The bigger issue here is that they're trying to control what you bought from them. If you bought a game, wouldn't you expect to play it whenever you want without any hinderance or install and uninstall it as many times as you want at any time you want or whatever legal way you can use that game. You bought the rights to play that game yet all of a sudden someone hundreds of miles away tells you that these things need to be done on a weekly schedule or else we're going to prevent you from playing the game. It's simply an attempt at control and one that is so unnecessary. What if Microsoft instituted a measure where you needed to connect to their server every week to prove that your OS was purchased legally or else you can't use your computer? Or how about having to prove that you own your consoles legally before you can play them. This is about consumer rights and what EA did was just crappy. 



Kasz216 on 09 May 2008
BenKenobi88 said:
Kyros said:
You are still limited to how many times you can install the game


ok so they removed one of the user tortures and kept the bigger one. Is this even legal? This sounds like a direct attack on your fair use rights like selling games. EA sucks.

Can you propose a better solution?

Tell me right now. How would you solve the problem of people reselling the game while keeping their own activated? With console games if you sell it, it's gone. With PC games you can sell it and still possibly be playing it. If there isn't enough copyright protection, there will be a flood of pirated and resold games from people who can still play the game.


 Copyright protection just doesn't work, period.  Just forcing it to use the CD is about all that you really can and should do, rather then all this ridiculious stuff that really doesn't punish pirates.  Only those who use the products legally.

(Because the pirates will have an end around in days.) 



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BenKenobi88 on 09 May 2008
totalwar23 said:
BenKenobi88 said:
shio said:
Sounds like another "praise-worthy" news piece from Kotaku: You are NOT limited on how many times you can install a game, they're unlimited. But you can only activate the game on up to 3 different computers.

Ok, what he said.

Still, even if it was limited, I don't see the huge issue. The biggest concern I heard when they announced this was "OH NO WHAT IF I'M AWAY FROM THE INTERNET!" Since that isn't an issue now, other than the initial install, I would think most people would be fine with this.

In fact activating the game on more than one PC is more than a lot of games have allowed...many only allowed one activated PC at a time.


The bigger issue here is that they're trying to control what you bought from them. If you bought a game, wouldn't you expect to play it whenever you want without any hinderance or install and uninstall it as many times as you want at any time you want or whatever legal way you can use that game. You bought the rights to play that game yet all of a sudden someone hundreds of miles away tells you that these things need to be done on a weekly schedule or else we're going to prevent you from playing the game. It's simply an attempt at control and one that is so unnecessary. What if Microsoft instituted a measure where you needed to connect to their server every week to prove that your OS was purchased legally or else you can't use your computer? Or how about having to prove that you own your consoles legally before you can play them. This is about consumer rights and what EA did was just crappy.


 Depends.  I would worry for the market if everyone was able to install and uninstall as they please, no hinderances.  I don't support piracy.  There needs to be some sort of DRM when it comes to PC games.  Steam does it better.



LEFT4DEAD411.COM
Bet with disolitude: Left4Dead will have a higher Metacritic rating than Project Origin, 3 months after the second game's release.  (hasn't been 3 months but it looks like I won :-p )

Ail on 09 May 2008
totalwar23 said:
BenKenobi88 said:
shio said:
Sounds like another "praise-worthy" news piece from Kotaku: You are NOT limited on how many times you can install a game, they're unlimited. But you can only activate the game on up to 3 different computers.

Ok, what he said.

Still, even if it was limited, I don't see the huge issue. The biggest concern I heard when they announced this was "OH NO WHAT IF I'M AWAY FROM THE INTERNET!" Since that isn't an issue now, other than the initial install, I would think most people would be fine with this.

In fact activating the game on more than one PC is more than a lot of games have allowed...many only allowed one activated PC at a time.


 The bigger issue here is that they're trying to control what you bought from them. If you bought a game, wouldn't you expect to play it whenever you want without any hinderance or install and uninstall it as many times as you want at any time you want or whatever legal way you can use that game. You bought the rights to play that game yet all of a sudden someone hundreds of miles away tells you that these things need to be done on a weekly schedule or else we're going to prevent you from playing the game. It's simply an attempt at control and one that is so unnecessary. What if Microsoft instituted a measure where you needed to connect to their server every week to prove that your OS was purchased legally or else you can't use your computer? Or how about having to prove that you own your consoles legally before you can play them. This is about consumer rights and what EA did was just crappy. 


I don't think there is anything illegal with was they were trying to do.

Welcome to the world of professional software...

A lot of the  professional software used by business checks for a licence on a network server when it starts and refuses to do so if the licence isn't found... 

Some of the companies selling professional software reserves themselves the right to audit their customers too, basically coming at the customer office and checking that the number of copies they are using corresponds to what they are paying for....

 



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

O-D-C on 09 May 2008

good Mass Effect back on wishlist, don't like games that baecome hassles.



totalwar23 on 09 May 2008
Ail said:
totalwar23 said:
BenKenobi88 said:
shio said:
Sounds like another "praise-worthy" news piece from Kotaku: You are NOT limited on how many times you can install a game, they're unlimited. But you can only activate the game on up to 3 different computers.

Ok, what he said.

Still, even if it was limited, I don't see the huge issue. The biggest concern I heard when they announced this was "OH NO WHAT IF I'M AWAY FROM THE INTERNET!" Since that isn't an issue now, other than the initial install, I would think most people would be fine with this.

In fact activating the game on more than one PC is more than a lot of games have allowed...many only allowed one activated PC at a time.


The bigger issue here is that they're trying to control what you bought from them. If you bought a game, wouldn't you expect to play it whenever you want without any hinderance or install and uninstall it as many times as you want at any time you want or whatever legal way you can use that game. You bought the rights to play that game yet all of a sudden someone hundreds of miles away tells you that these things need to be done on a weekly schedule or else we're going to prevent you from playing the game. It's simply an attempt at control and one that is so unnecessary. What if Microsoft instituted a measure where you needed to connect to their server every week to prove that your OS was purchased legally or else you can't use your computer? Or how about having to prove that you own your consoles legally before you can play them. This is about consumer rights and what EA did was just crappy.


I don't think there is anything illegal with was they were trying to do.

Welcome to the world of professional software...

A lot of the professional software used by business checks for a licence on a network server when it starts and refuses to do so if the licence isn't found...

 


1)This isn't about legality.

2)This isn't professional software but for home use.

 Both points irrelevant.



Gnizmo on 09 May 2008

Well then I guess I am back to waiting for Spore.



Starcraft 2 ID: Gnizmo 229