SecuROM in Spore?
May 10th, 2008 by mind
There is a game I have been waiting for a very long time. Spore.
The game is about starting out as a single cell amoeba-like creature, slowly sort of evolving and eventually becoming a creature. After that you get to a tribe phase followed by a civilization phase. Finally you get to explore the galaxy. Quite epic wouldn´t you say? And quite unique for a game nowadays, it is a fresh idea.
Now, I heard a rumor. They are going to use SecuROM with Spore. What is SecuROM? It is a copy protection scheme. In theory it prevents illegal copying of the game and it requires you to activate on the internet and keep on activating it at least every 10:th day. In theory.
But in reality it does not always work, so some people will not be able to play this game they have spent 4 years waiting for. There are a lot of hardcore fans who will have a lot of trouble with SecuROM. In reality these kinds of copy protection schemes are always more trouble than they are worth, for the consumer at least. There is a probability they will physically break you hardware. Some CD players and DVD players are permanently broken by them. There is no way to know this in advance. They almost always introduce bugs and glitches into the game, slow the game down etc. The standard of quality they currently have is that if the copy protection scheme makes the game crasch more than once an hour they do something about it, but else they don´t bother. This seems to be the magic limit for when people experience the game is too buggy to play. How do I know this? Well, every single original game I have with a copy protection scheme randomly closes down in average about once an hour. All games I have that does not have a copy protection scheme do not have this problem. They run absolutely fine, and in the rare event of a crasch at least there is a real crasch and probably some error message, not this silently way of just shutting the game down, exiting to windows.
And yes, here is the funny part. Pirates do not have these problems, there games run on average better and with less bugs than original ones. Well, are they loosing customers on this? Yes, I can say so for sure because the only people who are punished by these schemes are the people who actually buy them, such as me. And I am getting sick of it. Therefor I have decided to never buy games ever again that has a copy protection scheme, and they certainly lost a customer in me. They also lost good advertisement. I will not play it and tell my friends how good it is.
So, they have a worthless protection that only make the honest ones suffer. Why don´t they just remove it? I have asked myself the same question. One game that actually used to have a copy protection but it got removed (because of above mentioned problems) is Supreme Commander. So they gained a customer in me. Another game that does not use a copy protection scheme is Sins of a solar empire.
EA, please take a hint, do not spoil this game for countless of hardcore fans by ruining it with a worthless protection.
henka Says
They have taken on the criticism (SP?) and have now changed their stance with the activation. SecuRom will still be there but not require activation every 10 days, only when new downloaded content is added.
Read this on slashdot or some other place i think, google it.
Copy protection will be a problem for some valid users, as with all other games that comes with em (with the exception of Sins of a solar empire wich has NO copy protection, just a CD-key).
Wish they just could ad a Cd-key check at install and then not allow the game to use the online part unless using a unique/valid cd-key, this i believe is sufficient to prevent “neighbor copying”. No SecuRom stuff which just cause problem for valid users.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
isecore Says
Henka: That’s just bollocks. What you’re saying is essentially “yes, the Nazis listened to the criticism of their handling of the jews and decided to instead of running the concentration camps all the time only run them when new jews arrive for the slaughter”.
Copy-protection is going to be the undoing of the gaming industry. The harder they try to “protect” their games, the more tired legitime customers will become. Securom is still essentially a glorified rootkit. Not running it all the time won’t change that.
May 11th, 2008 at 3:09 am
Vidde Says
Well, Henka DID say he wished they wouldn’t use copyprotection, didn’t he? I think the problem could not be summarized better than this: “Copy protection will be a problem for some valid users, as with all other games that comes with em (with the exception of Sins of a solar empire wich has NO copy protection, just a CD-key).”
Stop bugging your customers with your problems! Especially when the customer is not any part of that problem!
May 11th, 2008 at 6:30 am
henka Says
Isecore, what has nazis got to do with anything?
I said they have changed it somewhat to the better but they will not remove it due to old stagnant view on the problem.
PC gaming has problems, especially singelplayer games like this, something is needed but agree securom has issues. Stick with a old fashion Cd check and cd-key and most of the copying will be dealt with.
Btw, consoles has no issues with copy protection. And i believe EA and Sierra knows this. Watch the lineup of new games and you will see that less and less games comes to PC. they want return on their investment, with over 100 million dollar invested in a singel title they need over 5 million sold games to even turn a profit.
And they are essentialy ignoring china because of the wide spread copying going on there, read somewhere that over 80% of all software is “illegal” in china.
Something is changing…. I can feel it
May 11th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Rick F Says
Ok, that does it. Sorry, Will Wright — you will not get my money. I’d rather not play the game (which I’ve been looking forward to greatly) at all, than accept being treated like this.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Mind Says
I assume it is EA thats pushing for it, but I think Will Wright ought to have enough balls to just say no to it. So I agree.
May 11th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
isecore Says
Henka: I just like rattling your cage, and I just felt like invoking Godwins law for no apparent reason
I find the gaming industry to be incredibly naive as far as DRM on their products go. They have yet to invent a copy-protection scheme that isn’t cracked within days, yet they insist on pursuing this with great interest. The only people who get annoyed by it are the legitimate users - pirating won’t be stopped at all.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Tigger Says
isecore: Sure, they are naive, but let me ask you this, how many would copy the game -wtihout- the DRM? And how many would copy the game -with- the DRM? It isn’t about completely stop piracy, that they know they can’t, it is however about limiting the losses and the rest is taken care of in court, that is the way they think, after all they are americans…
Don’t think they are that naive, I think when it comes to earning money, they know more then you seem to give them credit for. Hence the reasoning on releasing titles to consols much earlier then the releases to PC, if the title at all hits the PC market, because they know that they earn more money per sold game on consols then on PC due to the piracy being able to crack their DRM.
Now we can talk about how bad the DRM is, and you are right, both Mind and you are right, DRM will be the industry’s undoing and it is a horrible way of treating paying costumers, I agree fully on that and no I’m not agreeing with the industries action in this, just pointing out how they think and that they aren’t as naive as you might think…
May 14th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Markus Says
“Quite epic wouldn´t you say?”
Guh, I thought you know better than that. Please, please don’t use accents as apostrophes.
Now, EA has decided to remove the ten dey online check. However, there is still the three computer limit and the online activation at installation. At least, that’s the case with Mass Effect.
The thing that comes to my mind with this is that EA probably had this all planned. Give us something terrible, wait for the complaints and then being “kind” and removing part of it, thus increasing the acceptance of the other part. Now it “only” as bad as the latest DRM failure that caused some commotion, Bioshock.
So why? Why are they doing this? I have some possible explanations:
1. They are naive and actually believe they can stop the piracy. However it is unlikley they are that stupid.
2. They are going for the extra sales of the desparate pirates who can’t wait for someone to crack it. But the problem here is assuming the protaction will last for at least a week or so, and assuming the game doesn’t leak. And if this is the case, couldn’t they patch the game after it’s been cracked?
3. They are purposely trying to kill of the PC market to be able to move to the much more controlled console market.
4. They want more and more avalible control over people’s computers. Kids growing up five years from now will not have known anything else and will grow up in a world where intrusive DRM schemes are the norm. And after this is standard they can use it to install things of their liking on people’s computers on a massive scale and use it to gather information, to sabbotage or to spy on us.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Vidde Says
4: this really worries me. Allready we see kids who accept things that they should be screaming against. We have a big responsibility towards new generations to teach them history! And stupid DRM is definetly a part of the history that must be taught, even if we win the fight and they remove it.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:21 am
henka Says
Well, they already do that (monitor us). google has extremely much information on us. As has MS (live search is default on XP and VISTA and i bet not many change it unless they accidentally install google searchbar with comes as default install with a lot of free apps) and our ISP’s has control over the DNS servers.
We can demand much in this world, but demand that something people earn money on to change is not one of them. If I make a product i choose what to do with it. You choose to buy it (or not). DRM is as effective monitoring people and prevent crime as cameras in england is.. they still don’t know who is sitting at the computer at a given time, not until they force everyone to log on to the net with personal information (dna, eyestuff, fingerprints). the “net” is changing and wont stay in this era for long, same goes with games and all kind software.
Linux can try and challenge commercial interest all they want, but companies like Apple and MS is making the rules. If people get to choose between a world with DRM or public health care they will pick the 2′nd (i would, I rather live in a world with DRM then die from some disease without it).
But from now on, just be careful what you buy if you don’t want DRM. All securom games has a little icon on the backside telling you that it has protection. Pirate games all you like and be prepared to go to jail over it.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Vidde Says
I choose to buy and pay for what I feel is things I want. DRM, rootkits and other bullcrap is not part of what I pay for. I vote with my wallet. But that is not how it’s being seen by the companies.
-Did you not buy our product? Then you are a bad pirate!
-But I didn’t download it either!
-If you would have bought it unless we put crappy DRM on it, then you are a baad pirate.
Something like that. See there actually is people that download games instead of buying them BECAUSE they put rootkit on the retails, and people don’t want that. But it is only seen as part of the problem that is fought with the rootkit.
It’s all backwards, and it is giving me a headache. I haven’t even had my coffee yet!
May 15th, 2008 at 8:27 am
mind Says
Markus: I do know better than that, if I were to be entirely correct I am not allowed to use it at all in written language. But I have heard that ‘ is incorrect as well and I only know how to type ‘ ´ and ` on this keyboard. If you can tell me the correct way of typing apostrophe on my keyboard I would be very happy. It is something that has been annoying me for quite some time.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Vidde Says
‘`´…
May 15th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Markus Says
Even if you don’t want to use contractions in written alnguage, you still have to use it to mark genetive.
Tried changing your keyboard language settings?
May 15th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Mind Says
Nope. I doubt it will make much difference though. I use standard Swedish keyboard settings, and I do not find this peculiarity important enough to change for =). I could probably use some ALT+whatever code but I am too lazy for that.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Markus Says
Oh well, you have a reason at least, now I don’t have to hate you. XD
I’d go with ‘ if I was you though, takes less horizontal space and thus looks less bad.
May 16th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Vidde Says
Markus: wich key do you press to write that sign? Because the one I usually press obvously is not the right one… (I press that one next to enter with a star also on it)
May 18th, 2008 at 8:47 am
henka Says
press shift+ button left on backspace (ie <-) then you get ` and without shift you get ´ don`t don´t don’t .
unispaced fonts, we, you don`t gain spacing anyway..
May 18th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Mind Says
Henka, that key does not work for me. tes´t, tes`t tes’t. tes>t, test?t, tes^t tes¨t, tesÅt. Hmm, not anyone else either. Well, details. Maybe I will try to fix it one day.
May 18th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Mind Says
Woah, one of those worked…. I wonder which one. tes’t.
May 18th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Mind Says
Apparently Viddes way works.
May 18th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Markus Says
“Markus: wich key do you press to write that sign? Because the one I usually press obvously is not the right one… (I press that one next to enter with a star also on it)”
Well that is the one I use, the right one. ` and ´are only, and only for characters like ā and é.
May 18th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Mind Says
I believed it did not work because it looks totally wrong before the comment is posted. After posting it looks more correct.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
henka Says
well ´ and ` is special in that way if you just press them you will not get a character, they are like the ¨ button ¨ plus o is ö or ī. So just pressing them wont yield a character but combination of them, ´ + t ´t and so on.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Mind Says
Henka: Who was your latest comment aimed at? I know about that you just said. What I was saying is that the ‘ sign looks different before and after posting.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:29 am
henka Says
Mind: not sure. Anyway, you got diffrent fonts in the post then in the “enter text” thingy. you can change the font in Firefox.
So.. never mind me.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:52 am
Vaptor of monster madness Says
this is bad i changed my mind and tried to reinstall the trial it gets messed up by securom thinking i got 2 copys when i uninstalled then reinstalled the same app
also i found that the ea downloader almost melted my dual core cpus cause it goes haywire eating all cpu and ram as a result of securom shuting spore down.
what the hell do i need this defective ea downloader for any way i have noticed its doing absolutly nothing as far as content goes for spore so id think the makers of spore should remove dependancy on that app.
Jun 21st, 2008 at 2:26 am