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Forums - PC Discussion - So why do people hate the dreaded Spore DRM (or any DRM) again?

TWRoO on 10 September 2008
IllegalPaladin said:
TWRoO said:
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.

 

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.

Takes the OS off.... no I don't want to do that, I wouldn't know how to put it back on (I don't have a disc for it).

We sent another laptop in and they charged us £30 to "take back to factory settings".... if they took everything off and put the OS back on then I won't be able to do that myself.

Is there a way to wipe everything from the Hard Drive except the OS? (that I could do myself... probably with help from this websites kindly people )

 



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twesterm on 10 September 2008
Gamerace said:
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.

 

Do you really have to install Windows that often?  Maybe now I'm guilty of thinking I'm the majority, but I've had to do that once in the last 8 years and that was merely because of a bad hard drive.  I'm big believer in it's hard to get a virus that destroys your hard drive as long as you pay attention.



 

IllegalPaladin on 10 September 2008
TWRoO said:

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?)

 

The Freespace games were a space simulator game on the PC. The EULA is the software license agreement which you have to agree to when you install a game. In the case of Freespace, the EULA said it was legal to make copies of the disk and there was no CD-key when I bought Freespace 2.



IllegalPaladin on 10 September 2008
Yojimbo said:
IllegalPaladin said:
TWRoO said:
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.

 

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.

 

Then we'll be screwed if we buy Spore while the install limit is there.



IllegalPaladin on 10 September 2008
twesterm said:
Gamerace said:
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.

 

Do you really have to install Windows that often? Maybe now I'm guilty of thinking I'm the majority, but I've had to do that once in the last 8 years and that was merely because of a bad hard drive. I'm big believer in it's hard to get a virus that destroys your hard drive as long as you pay attention.

 

It doesn't have to just be viruses though. Apart from that, it's nice to clear out all the clutter from Windows and begin again, which I just did at the begining of this summer and the summer prior.



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TWRoO on 10 September 2008
IllegalPaladin said:
twesterm said:
Gamerace said:
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.

 

Do you really have to install Windows that often? Maybe now I'm guilty of thinking I'm the majority, but I've had to do that once in the last 8 years and that was merely because of a bad hard drive. I'm big believer in it's hard to get a virus that destroys your hard drive as long as you pay attention.

 

It doesn't have to just be viruses though. Apart from that, it's nice to clear out all the clutter from Windows and begin again.

Yes,de-clutter... that's what I want to do, but I can't delete the OS as I have no way to put it back on.

 



BenKenobi88 on 10 September 2008
Munkeh111 said:
Also, is sharing a game with someone illegal? (as in a console game as well)

When you let a friend borrow your Gears of War 360 game...you don't still have a Gears of Wars disc at home to play...unless you pirated it of course.

So why should people be allowed to install a game on multiple computers and be able to play them at the same time?

Sharing a game shouldn't be prohibited, but playing at the same time should, and I do think there should be protection against that.

But this 3 time install business isn't the right way to do it...I also agree I'd like to play any game I own in 10 years.

The reality of it though, is that in 10 years I won't be playing it, but if I do want to, and I've maxed out my installs, I'll just download a crack.  Nobody cares about cracking a 10 year old game you paid for.  It's not something I should have to do, but I'm not going to get all twisted up about it.

 



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Barozi on 10 September 2008

My brother has multiple PC's and a Laptop plus he also often formats his harddrives.
Enough said ?

As for me. My computer crashes so many times I need to formate my harddrive at least 4 times a year. I've installed BF1942 about 15 times now, Half-Life 2 about 6 and Counter-Strike 1.6 about 10 times.



Shinlock on 10 September 2008
twesterm said:
Gamerace said:
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.

 

Do you really have to install Windows that often?  Maybe now I'm guilty of thinking I'm the majority, but I've had to do that once in the last 8 years and that was merely because of a bad hard drive.  I'm big believer in it's hard to get a virus that destroys your hard drive as long as you pay attention.

 

Most PC gamers and techs do an install once a year at least. Windows does natively slow down over time, Registery cleaning tools aren't the silver bullet at speeding up load times and responsiveness (although they help).

Viruses/spyway/trojans are getting tricker to remove. Even good antivirus and spyway removal software isn't perfect.. the best too for removing them is formating your harddrives (if you don't care or have regular backups of your important data).

as for me, in the last 12 months I've reinstall windows once, that was mostly due to a OS switch.



 

Kyros on 10 September 2008

Oh, that's right, you can only install 3 times, but how many people actually install their game more than 3 times?


I have installed Diablo2 and Starcraft at least 5 times on 3 different PCs. Besides people like to sell their used copies which is effectively killed by this approach.
Which is also the reason EA does this bullshit. Spore was available sans DRM before it was even released commercially. The only people inconvenienced by DRM are legal customers.

EA SUCKS.