EA have gone on record saying they dislike the second hand market/reselling market. They want it to stop, they get zero money from it (ie you selling it or a store like gamestop selling it second hand). I see this as a testing ground of what could pop up in console generations to come.

ie each copy of a  game has its own serial number (stored on disk), and your console has one.. every time you run a game it'll check against their records, if it matches then you can play, if not you'll be denied (first time play acts as auto registering).. in the next generation or 2 of consoles, everyone's console will be connected online making this crappy stuff all possible.

1. I heard from the comments at Amazon that it installs a program that constantly runs in your background, and takes up CPU usage. SecureROM.

2. I also hear that EA would drop the authentication servers when they come up with a new way to do anti-piracy, and you wouldn't be able to install your game anymore.

3. I also hear that EA can counter your claim and not give you a 4th install because they think you're a pirate.

4. I hear the pirated version doesn't install securerom and thus is the better version, which also runs smoother, because of no securerom.

5. As I understand, if EA goes out of business somehow(as all companies do) your disc will be unable to install.

6. Sometimes I have to reformat my computer. Sometimes games don't work right on my computer, and I have to reinstall them. Sometimes I want to play on my laptop, or at my brothers house. With 3 installs, I'm basically renting the game.

7. Some computers I have aren't hooked up to the internet.

8. The form of piracy securerom prevents is local. It's so you can't go around and install the game on friends computers, and let them download a 100kb no-cd hack, and share the game with everyone for free. It's assuming that people who pirate anyway, won't go to the extent of downloading 8gb? It's like saying, "Well, if your morals won't prevent you from doing it, maybe a longer download will."

9. The hacked version is superior, due to secure-rom(or whatever it's called) and people are playing the game for free that I'd have to pay a large sum for.

10. The game isn't as good as we hoped anyway, or so I hear, so it's hard to want to install securerom(which is basically a virus) have your computer run slower forever, and jump through hoops for customer service. Especially when you get a much better version for free, no strings attached.

11. This is an inherant flaw with PC gaming market, imo. The ability to pirate games easily isn't something that should exist. When it does, bad things happen. This game will probably be pirated more than any other game. It's like I'd be buying a gimped version of a free game, and installing an unremovable virus on my computer at the same time. Then again, all this stuff might be rumor.

Thus, I choose to simply not buy it. If it comes to a console, I'd rent it.

@ twesterm )

- they use SecuROM, which means, if you change your PC in any way (new graphics card, more ram, etc. etc.) the game won't start anymore and you have to reinstall it (and use another licence)

- people like to have the feeling to really own something instead of being a temporary licensee, and as a matter of fact the game has no resell value at all, for the potential buyers can't be sure you really have a licence left they can use to play the game

- if in the future the servers which verify the licences are put offline you won't be able to install the game anymore

- to a person it doesn't matter at all whether or not he/she is with the majority or at least with a greater group with this complain/problem, all that matters is the personal inconvenience and I feel a lot of personal inconvinience from DRM infested games, which is why I won't buy them

Winner. However, DRM is annoying.

Is that fourth installation guaranteed? Or do they reserve the right of not allowing you to install a fourth time?

Not that this would change my opinion much, but it is an interesting question nonetheless.

I don't think it is, but rather they mention it to have people feel better about it. I don't trust them when they say it's for 'special circumstances'. Not only that, I hear that the phone call requires a toll so that you'll be wasting money trying to get them to let you play the game you paid for again.

Two things:

1. You never "own" a game. Or a movie, song, or even book for that matter. You cannot expect to do what you please with any media. You purchase certain rights of use. If those rights are not broad enough for you, don't purchase. For most, those rights are enough to enjoy the game.

2. Those of you who worry about 10 years in the future might not need to. First, Spore 4 might be out by then (porting all your current creations with every release) and second, that limitation might be eliminated by then. A few years from now they might determine the risk that someone may copy an old game is not worth the overhead of running the over-the-phone verification. Similar things have happened with PC games for me.

Not 'that' often but yes, to declutter and/or get rid of viruses (last one from this very site...grrr) I'll occasional just reinstall the OS.  Maybe 2-3 times over the life of a PC (say 5-6 years).  Add home PC and Laptop and obviously 3 installs is not enough.   I might get this for the Wii, but if I do buy it for PC I will buy it but actually use a downloaded copy instead so I don't have to deal with the DRM.

 See the problem is not everyone is going to wait on that (myself included) nor should we have to. This helps promote piracy by giving attention and seeders to the piracy options. It isn't worth the internet crusade against it, but we should work to a different solution.

1- Isn't that the point of hating the DRM and therefore not buying the game?

2- Maybe, but that's all hypothetical and doesn't change the wrong principle this DRM is based on.

I'm sure some EA-defenders (not saying you are one) will continue to say that DRM-haters are just whining for the sake of whining, but that doesn't change the fact that this DRM is bad, both in principle and in practice.