The problem is that i bought the phreaking game and i should be able to install it as many times as i want, hell if i want to install, uninstall, reinstall, and do it again 80 times only because i have nothing else to do, then i should be able to do it without contacting a company...

And the other thing is that pirates get the game hacked without this annoying feature, they can do with the game anything that is not official online playing (like they do with WoW, Ragnarok, etc.)... so i, who own the game, am restricted but pirates are not??? i have to be online to play offline??? i can't change my hardware more than 3 times without contacting EA???

This will cause 2 negative effects, 1. People will turn to piracy for this types of games, 2. People will not play the game at all...

You can install it a 4th time, you will just have to authenticate the game over the phone and you get 3 more isntalls,

Again, I don't really see many real reasons for the DRM hate, mainly just people bitching because it's the popular thing to do.  You people griping on principal, do you really think you're going to install the game more than 3 times? 

Do you really think getting it authenticated is even hard?  I admit it's harder than just installing again, but they have to take some kind of security.  And despite what people, it does stop some pirates, just not the ones who get things of torrent sites.  It mainly stops the people that just install a game and then hand it to a buddy.

Again, I'm just wondering why people think it's the devil.  I installed the game last night, it works fine, and I'm sure it will work the next two times I install it without worries.  After that (if there even is an after that), a simple phone call is all it takes.  How many of you does this actually affect?

In what way... you mean pirating?.... hasn't Spore already been pirated even with DRM?

I believe it's a total of only three installs meaning that you can only install it three times total since it has to go online and keep a log of how many times you've installed. Then, I hear that EA will only allow more installs if you call them up (on a toll phone call) and give them some sort of valid reason for them to give you another install (which I don't think it's completely clear of what a valid reason is).

Apparently Twestern has an infinately large and amazingly futuristic hard drive and he's running an operating system that runs so well, it NEVER needs to be reformatted or upgraded. Unlike him, I know that I uninstall and install my games all the time based on my free space and I also reformatted twice over the past two years and I plan on doing it again if I ever need or want to.

As others have stated, this doesn't do a thing to those who pirate the game since they not only didn't pay any money for it, but they're also not restricted by the DRM. However, this DRM plans on restricting the user which I think sucks no matter how awesome the game may or may not be. I don't mind cd-key's, especially if it's for an online game, but I don't think a game should tell me how many times I can install it before it becomes a useless frisbee.

Red Alert 3 will be getting the same treatment, except that EA said that the three install limit will be increased to five.

When I buy a game, I expect to be able to resell it and/or install it as many times as I want to without having to call an expensive number.

To make it even worse, there's the fact that these stupid protections don't protect anything. The game has been cracked from day one. All it does is annoy their paying customers.

So let me put the question in another way:

What's there NOT to hate about Spore's DRM?

Spore is exactly the type of game I'd play (or imagine I'd play) for many years. In that case, just the odd re-install of Windows due to virus or simply cleaning out the clutter will cause me to hit the 3 install limit. Add new computer. Plus I'd want one copy on my laptop and one on my home PC - both are for my personal use.

Secondly, this eliminates being able to sell it used (or often even give it away). That's good for the publisher yes. But what if your car had a set limit of owners? Or your movies only allowed itself to be played in 3 dvd players over it's life? Or a book could only be read 3 times? Would that normally affect you? No. Would it if it was a favorite movie/book? Hell yes. It's a stupid pratice especially since it's not stopping piracy one bit.

Or unless you're Freespace 1 or 2 which states in the EULA that you can copy and share the game

Is re-formatting wiping the hard-drive (taking back to "factory settings") if so I am considering doing that myself as my laptop is getting really slow lately.


IllegalP said: "Or unless you're Freespace 1 or 2 which states in the EULA that you can copy and share the game"

I don't know what that means... what is freespace and what is EULA? (European Union....something?)

Yea, it's getting rid of everything to start with a clean slate to install your operating system on.... which would cost one of your precious installs of Spore.

I have already done it twice this year, I format my harddrive atleast once a year.