Comments on: Spore War

By: Paul Moloney

Paul Moloney — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:12:45 +0000

“Just to chime in with an additional, this has spilled over to the recently released Crysis Warhead Amazon page now.”

Oh well, Crytek have announced they’re heading for Console Land now, so PC zealots will have no fear that they are sullied in future by impure DRM restrictions. Of course, they won’t be sullied with any games eithers, but that’s what a scorched-earth policy will get you.

By: Mungrul

Mungrul — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:01:07 +0000

Just to chime in with an additional, this has spilled over to the recently released Crysis Warhead Amazon page now. I'll be interested to see Crytek's opinions on piracy this time around considering there's already a cracked version of Warhead available on popular torrent sites.

By: Krupo

Krupo — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:38:39 +0000

It’s interesting that amazon doesn’t use the vote re-weighing formula tools that imdb.com has deployed, eh?

By: Tei

Tei — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:15:15 +0000

I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if 1600 voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced

By: ripclaw

ripclaw — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:09:10 +0000

First of all: woah, that’s one long comment thread.
Second: One thing I am missing in the discussion: the anti-one-star group is saying that not only is this behaviour unfair, but to use a “proper” way to voice your anger over DRM publicly. So far I have not seen where this public forum is supposed to be?
Gamesite forums? Nobody outside that particular community cares, neither EA nor the general public.
Newspapers? Don’t care.
Games magazines? Live off ads, are mostly read by “core” gamers who knew it all to begin with.
Quite honestly, as unfair as these reviews are to the developers, who are just pawns in the whole game, Amazon is one of the few sites that is public and general interest enough to actually have some sort of effect. I can see both points: from the developers view this is unfair. But why blame the protesting users? Blame the publisher! This is like people protesting on the street against e.g. layoffs and all you guys can see is that “those idiots are blocking a perfectly good road”.
Plus: just one account means that if I and for example my kids or wife want to play on our own account, we need to purchase a separate copy. How nice.

By: Paul Moloney

Paul Moloney — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:15:03 +0000

“My Wii uses DRM, sure, but I can play my copy of No More Heroes on more than three fucking Wii systems without having to call up Nintendo and beg them for another activation.”

Why exactly do you need to play your PC games on more than 3 systems? How many PCs do you have, exactly?

Personally, I find having to swap console game discs in and out far more annoying than any PC DRM scheme I’ve encountered so far.

As for the thought that _you want_ PC gaming to die and be left with kiddy shovelware systems like the Wii, I find that tragic. And I _own_ a Wii – which I pretty much use for Wii Fit, RE4, and not much else. Looking at a typical Wii game retail section is one of the more depressing experiences known to man – all that artistic and technical expertise devoted to mindless inoffensive pap.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:07:37 +0000

I for one stopped buying PC games a number of years ago when I learned about the corporate malware that comes bundled on most if not all of them these days. I don’t want hidden processes running on my computer in the background needlessly consuming resources and opening me up to exploits. I don’t want hidden device drivers being installed on MY computer without MY explicit permission. If they want to use CD-Keys to stop the copying of games, that’s fine with me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad EA is doing this to their customers. This is partly because I’m an evil person, but I also compare the deployment of increasingly invasive forms of shackleware like this to a rubber-band being stretched further and further. Eventually the band will snap and there will be a backlash from consumers against the shackleware. The storm of bad reviews is evidence to support my analogy. This is why I hope for more and MORE restrictions! The more these companies irritate their customers, the sooner the customers will irrupt with rage.

By: Txiasaeia

Txiasaeia — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:43:00 +0000

If anybody managed to get down this far…

I didn’t buy Bioshock because of the DRM. I’m still not going to buy the bloody game until they completely rip it out. Same with Mass Effect, and it looks like the same with Spore. If this trend towards more and more DRM becomes more commonplace, I hope that computer gaming dies a slow and hideous death. My Wii uses DRM, sure, but I can play my copy of No More Heroes on more than three fucking Wii systems without having to call up Nintendo and beg them for another activation.

By: mister k

mister k — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:58:47 +0000

Broadly speaking the issue here isn’t whether DRM is right or wrong, but whether it is correct to protest against a product you believe has something vile attached to it by reviewing it badly on amazon. My answer… well yes. If you truly believe that DRM is that awful I see no harm in leaving a one star review, because EA will keep using this set up if it thinks it is not damaging sales. I’ve been put off spore by DRM, which makes me sad, because I would really like to pick it up.

By: Tei

Tei — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:46:56 +0000

Forget the DRM word.
Only 3 installs, dude, 3 installs. Thats bad.

And about the game. It deserve 3 stars out of 5, and 2 of these stars are because the editors (Graphic editors), the other one is for the space one, … I like 4x games.

Othat than that. Is a very bad game. It can be very good for some people, maybe you, bur overall, is crap.

By: SixStringSamurai

SixStringSamurai — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:01:43 +0000

seriously, who likes this game? maybe it’s just me not being impressed with the barebones mix of different genres into one game, but i suppose it’s good for a semi-educational childs game.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:51:10 +0000

the point isnt to make DRM an issue with the general public, but to drive down sales enough so that in the future game makers wont put DRM in their games.

duh.