Gamers fight back against lackluster Spore gameplay, bad DRM

**nemowolf** · September 8th, 2008, 12:45 PM

From Ars Technica:

Spore, after more than 10 years of development time, is finally available for the PC and Mac. The game comes from the mind of the talented Will Wright, the man who gave us The Sims and the original SimCity titles. No matter what people think about the actual game play the story now centers around the DRM scheme EA built into the title, and a grassroots movement has begun to tell gamers just how bad the DRM sucks. The method? Bombing the comments on Amazon.com.

**nemowolf** · September 12th, 2008, 06:57 PM

UPDATE:

From Ars Technica:

Spore may have been a long-awaited title, but publisher EA surely didn't expect the most talked-about aspect of the game to be its DRM. Alas, now it seems that all the protest from angry gamers over the restrictive nature of the game has reached the boiling point: following hundreds of scathing, DRM-focused reviews on the official product page, Amazon accidentally deleted customer reviews of the game sometime Friday afternoon (they have since been restored).

As of 4:25pm CDT, all 2,216 reviews were back online, and the average rating is one star.

**tony_j15** · September 14th, 2008, 04:10 PM

Its up to one and a half stars now. Hasn't hurt the metacritic score, a solid 86.
Well, I won't be getting it for two reasons now. It's EA and it has DRM that makes microsoft products look absolutely wonderful.

**nemowolf** · September 14th, 2008, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by tony_j15

Its up to one and a half stars now. Hasn't hurt the metacritic score, a solid 86.
Well, I won't be getting it for two reasons now. It's EA and it has DRM that makes microsoft products look absolutely wonderful.

Have you read reviews on the game yet? It's not exactly what 10 years in development could have amounted too. Frankly, the first four parts are shallow and underdeveloped; lots of repetition. The last part, in space, is nothing different but much more developed to add additional game time. Based on the reviews, you can be in space in about 10-12 hours and then start wrestling with space for i would gander maybe another 10-12 hours. Frankly, something that i can sit down and try to beat in a week isnt much of a game, especially with the price tag of 60 bucks.

I would rather put my money on something a bit more worthy of my time.

**#43 fan** · September 14th, 2008, 06:12 PM

For 10 years of development, it is somewhat a lackluster game.
While I have not played it, from what I've seen, it had good potential.
For $60, I'm not buying it.
Maybe when the price comes down.

**nemowolf** · September 16th, 2008, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by #43 fan

For 10 years of development, it is somewhat a lackluster game.
While I have not played it, from what I've seen, it had good potential.
For $60, I'm not buying it.
Maybe when the price comes down.

One of the arguements made is that it was leaked days before release and the crack to remove the DRM was already ready. Kinda makes you wonder why bother with DRM at all with spore?

**Wizzard~Of~Ozz** · September 17th, 2008, 06:42 PM

In all honesty, I see no performance problems, or "wait" screens.

Safedisc on the other hand, that was a horrible problem, bad performance, long wait times.

Even some of the new disc protection causes problems with certain drives, GRID for example wouldn't install on my wifes system using her DVD drive, instead I had to copy the contents on my PC, install from a network share, then it would run (with the DVD in her drive). Kept giving CRC errors on her system.

I think we have bigger problems on PC's then people trying to protect their product. This method seems the least invasive of the games I've installed.

**KarmaKiller** · September 17th, 2008, 07:12 PM

While I agree with you OZ, at the same time I'm one to reformat over and over again. At least 1-2 month it seems. (always getting new hardware and what not) But I find it much easier just to do a fresh install.
Now with Spore's 3 install limit, that is gonna catch up with me quick. IMO, with the DRM in place, your really just renting the game.
I mean, you can file a ticket with EA, but I've heard some real nightmare stories on just the amount of time it takes for them to respond back with a working fix..

I also read that the new Crysis game Warhammer has the install limit also.
But many people are saying if you order that game though steam then you won't have the install limit.
So why should another company fix EA's horrible horrible policies??

Just IMO of course...

**Wizzard~Of~Ozz** · September 17th, 2008, 09:09 PM

I agree in concept, being allowed to install software you purchased only 3 times is just as good as buying a game, then having to pay to play (WoW and certain other MMORPGs). It is a different variant of an old concept.

I got around re-activating OS' all the time (not that it was that hard), by Ghosting my machine. If I re-install, I'll do the same, then I don't really care, I'd only ever use 2 installs for the life of the game. Chances are, if I change my hardware enough to warrant a completely new install twice and the game won't work anymore, I'll toss it out because the replay ability of games is just that.

**Wizzard~Of~Ozz** · September 17th, 2008, 09:35 PM

Ars puts Spore DRM to the test—with a surprising result

Interesting read, tho they didn't specify if they uninstalled/re-installed the game, or if they completely re-installed the OS, then the game.