I think it's more a matter of people hoping EA will see that draconian DRM schemes encourage piracy rather than discourage it. If Spore reaches record numbers of illegal downloads, some hope that it will make EA sit up and take notice that their approach is having the opposite of the intended effect.

That pretty much the situation to a lot of people. EA has been crappy to us with all the issues with the DRM and such. I wouldn't mind if EA falls under because of piracy. That won't happen though, so the disgrace to the Sims/Spore label can continue. :shrug:

It's not just EA anymore. Rockstar Games has jumped on the DRM bandwagon. To install the newly released Grand Theft Auto IV for pc(which includes securom), you have to install something called "The Rockstar Social Club" before you can install the game, then install the game, then activate it online, and to save your game you have to have or create a "Windows Live" account. My PC gaming days are quickly coming to an end, TS3 may actually be the last game I buy

T.T my friend that got the pirated version[like... 1 week before it came to romania?] before i got the real one coudn't even log in the game so was stuck with the maxis creatures and the charles darwin he downloaded for the C. Creator... mebbe they updated it in all this time because i saw noone mentioned that

and when will game makers finnaly realise that there are a lot of people out there right now with the knowledge to crack the 8th next version of securom... this also encourages piracy like many other ppl said
and if what the above poster said it's true then i will stick to the 360 version... nothing worse then spyware on your laptop(rockstar social club and windows live sound soo spyware to me)

Pirated versions of Spore cannot log in to an online account, because a genuine CD Key is required. So well, unless there is something I don't know of, those who pirated it missed one of the best feature of the game.

Now the feature presentation:

Whatever companies do to circumvent piracy, someone will disable it one way or another, often in a matter of days. Windows XP was a good example (it was available for download -- protection-free -- one week before the release), and Spore is just another one. If people aren't willing to pay, they won't, and nothing will change that. Why do they try to change that?

Years ago, when at was in college, I couldn't pay for games. Want it or not, I didn't have the money. Either I pirated them, or I didn't play them. Did pirating them toke money from the makers? No. But I did know it was wrong. As an author myself, I do know it hurts to realize people aren't paying. Now that I work full time, I find it's simply easier and quicker to pay for my games rather than d/l them. Now I can spend the little free time available to play the game rather then wait for the d/l to complete. But then, I know of people who have never stopped downloading. I'm not judging anyone, but at this point they *are* hurting the companies, as they would have the money available to pay for the games.

Piracy protection in games always been a problem for me. For years, we had to insert a CD in the drive every time we wanted to play. Well, that was too complicated for me. You know, my valuable seconds. So I always used no-cd patches to solve the problem, even though I had the original CD. I believe that I have the right to modify the things I buy anyway that suits me, as long as I don't attempt to distribute modified versions.

Spore doesn't require that the CD is in to play, that was good news to me. So for me, DRM is good news.

I bought Spore and installed it without any knowledge of that DRM thing. I heard about it a couple weeks later. The game have been installed on this computer for the last 3 months. I use my computer for stuff like software programming, writing, etc. To this day, I have not noticed any side effect of having Spore's DRM installed. So well, I don't quite understand what people are talking about.

Actually that problem has been "cracked", so they're not missing anything

For me, it wasn't so much that Sucurom was included, as I already got the damn thing from Sims2. It was the limited activations, the "one player/one game", and the impossibility of re-sale that got me. If I purchase your product, it is MINE. I'm not renting it, I'm buying it. The cracked version dosen't have any of those issues.

most of the time i dont have any money. at all. as in, the government pays for my food, HEAP pays for most of the electricity bill, and i work hard for the money to pay for rent and the internet, and pet care.
now with those things in mind, if a pirated version of a game i thought looked like fun came out, i WOULD download it. or at least, if it wasnt impregnated with viruses [ as most of them are...which is why i usually just, sit and stare at it instead ], i would. and i would play it, and depending on if i liked it that much, the next time i come upon any spare cash, thats what it would go toward.
[ and basically i dont think piracy for that reason is wrong because, hey. there are a lot more fucked up things i could be doing than playing a video game in my spare time. i could go out and distribute drugs. i could go out and focus my energies on scamming major businesses. i could devote my energy to learning the ever malicious forms of hacking... so things could always be worse than pinching a few pennies from companies that are already rich. ]
piracy isnt always about playing for free just because you can. sometimes people dont have money to play, but still want to play it. that and about SPORE, id never get it anyway, since the whole RDM thing compromises my computers stability and security.
sorry but im not going to unhook my computer from the internet just to play a game. because id have to, if i wanted to be totally secure about not getting infected while all my defenses [ anti viruses, firewalls, etc ] are down. its like having to remove your ship from the galaxy while you sleep so a freakin comet wont come out of nowhere and screw you over or something.
but then i also download a lot of music rather than pay for it because IM NOT MADE OF MONEY and i cant go out and buy a $15-20 CD every time i hear a song i like. seriously.

and there will ALWAYS be people who do harmful things for the sake of doing harm to someone or something. what can we do about that? [ rhetorical. ]

anyway, good topic. good arguments on both sides.

I would like to add that EA may have boasted that, but it did create a hassle for buyers. I bought a legitimate copy from a Circuit City that was having a going out of business sale. When I came home and installed ot, I discovered that the registration code had already been used. My registration code, in an unopened package, had been used. I then had to make use of my Bro's digital camera to take pictures after having quite the product support explanation going on. I didn't manage to get it registered till the day after I bought it! And then I discovered that the things I was looking forward to in the game, hadn't been included. Oh and did I mention I got the Galactic Edition? Yeah. So I was pretty ticked off when I had to go through all that hassle to get the game registered.

Oh and for the talk on reasons behind piracy... Don't forget the people who want a game very badly but cannot, at that point in time, afford it. I've been in that boat before, but when I could finally afford them, I bought them legitimately. Sorry for resurrecting this whole thing.