Amazon Users are Overhyping Spore’s DRM
September 12th, 2008
 Spore Installation |
So much for the wisdom of crowds!
As of my posting this 1,962 of 2,134 reviews posted on Amazon for EA’s Spore are one-star, claiming the DRM method employed by EA to prevent pirating was so draconian that it has rendered the game worthless.
So there are 1,962 dimbulbs on the Interwebs, criticising a game they haven’t played for DRM they apparently know nothing about. Hundreds of them are even monitoring the 5-star reviews that come in so they can click “No” for Amazon’s “Was this review helpful?” query. It must be nice to live with your mom and dad and have the time to pursue such worthwhile endeavors.
I wonder… Were these kids running on a Windows XP operating system when posting these one-star reviews? If so, wouldn’t that make them hypocrites? Windows XP has even more stringent DRM running on it.
Just like Spore, you have to activate your Windows XP installation online with Microsoft. Unlike Spore, Windows XP regularly connects with Microsoft to report on you (this got even worse with Vista). Spore only connects on the initial installation and when you download expansion packs.
One of the rumors floating around online is that you only get to install Spore three times, but the reality is that you get three licenses. There’s a very big difference, which all the Boing Boing sheeple are apparently too technically illiterate to understand. Anyone who works in an office understands the concept of software licenses, maybe when all the Boing Boing kids grow up and get jobs they’ll understand.
How many of these kids play World of Warcraft? Perhaps they should aquaint themselves with Warrant, which is scanning player’s computer’s processes while they adventure in Blizzard’s world. Where’s the outrage over this? World of Warcraft had three versions in the top ten best selling PC games for April 2008. Where was the slew of one-star reviews for them?
I’m just as anti-DRM as the next rational human being; however, I also appreciate ideological consistency. The online crowd is trying to burn down Spore while there are obviously much bigger offenders out there. Imagine if all this energy was focused on a really offensive software like Vista.
What does suck about EA’s licensing strategy is that it opens users up the same victimization Microsoft’s Music store inflicted on its users, where Microsoft is dropping support for the music sold, which requires their DRM to run, and leaves users with music collections they can no longer access.
While the same thing could happen with EA and Spore, it’s important to remember that EA isn’t Microsoft. We can give EA the opportunity to make the honorable decision to free Spore of its DRM should they ever be forced to stop supporting it. Spore’s DRM is an improvement over forcing users to keep the CD in their drives, but it’s not as good as the Steam Games, which allows game owners to create an online account, which they may subsequently resell.
On the plus side, all those bad reviews didn’t prevent spore from claiming the #1 spot on Amazon’s best-selling games list. On the down side, I still had to enter that @#$%ing 20-digit product code to install the game.
I’ve copy and posted the following documents for anyone wanting to read the fine print. Lawrence Lessig once said that excessively long license agreements constituted an undue burden on users, requiring a substantial investment of time to read and understand:
(HT Clint for the lead on this story.)
I think one reason why they might not be taking issue with Windows XP is that, if you are a gamer, you don’t really have a choice of operating systems. Not in the same way that you have a choice of games.
Another small point: Multiplayer simultaneous online games need central authority to prevent cheating; so a comparison of WoW or even Quake3 to Spore is not QUITE an exact comparison. Though I do understand Spore has a shared universe, but 2 do not play on the same planet simultaneously (correct me if I’m wrong).
So, when given no choice, people might not complain as much as in situations where they have more choice — there’s plenty of games out there to buy.
However, I think the points you brought up are excellent points. Rather than being another sheep in a flock, people should wake up to the technological reality in front of them: It sux0rs.
[...] such incident is about outrage at Spore’s DRM. Ideonexus has an interesting opinion on this one, which I completely agree [...]
Also, looks like EA has already scaled back the DRM in their next game to be one-time authentication instead of every-time, and to have 5 licenses instead of 3.
I don’t think anyone can sit here and tell me that is worse. That is better.
And that is likely a direct result from the Spore backlash.
So while you and Chriggy is complaining about the complainers — they did us a favor and did a positive thing for the pro-gaming and anti-DRM community.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/14/1510217
My beef is not with complainers. It’s with complainers who don’t know what they’re talking about, or just plain try to use misinformation to get a point across. Don’t like spore’s DRM? Blog about it. Tried it and it sucks? Write a review on Amazon. But don’t write a negative review on a product that you haven’t even tried. That’s just plain old misinformation. And no, the ends do not justify the means.
Can’t say that I’m impressed with EA handing out two more licenses, and if that calms down the anti-DRM crowd, then they really really really don’t know what their talking about. I thought the issue was supposed to be that EA was setting a limit on licenses, period. That hasn’t changed.
As for the one-time authentication, it’s all ready one-time authentication. The only time it needs to authenticate after you’ve installed it is if you choose to download all the bonus stuff that will be coming out… just like Windows.
I would have preferred EA go to an one-license online-authentication method. When I sold my deathmatch business a couple of years ago, the games that required CDs to play were too scratched up for people to touch, and the free-to-copy games people didn’t care about because they had all ready bootlegged them from my lab. But I was able to sell all my Steam-authentication accounts (just a username and password each, no CD) for 80 percent of what I paid for them.
It’s a win-win strategy. The game company gets to make sure there’s only one copy out there, and the customer gets an assurance of the resale value of their game.
I didn’t know you had a deathmatch business! I want to hear that story. :)
Hmmm, interesting point on the resale!!
So the $10 I spent on a steam account that only has Audiosurf could probably get me $8 on Ebay? Sweet.
One thing that does bother me about those one-install-per-game tho, especially — is that couples need to get 2 — and 3, if you want a guest to be able to join in — copies of a game. So I rather like as many installs as possible for 1 purchase. We had to buy Quake3 3 times, and we’ve lost the 3rd key since! Sucks, but I have Jon B’s key too.
Still, it bugs me that, if you’re married, you both have to get a copy, even though financially you are one entity. Sure, you buy twice as many clothes and eat twice as much food, but to pay twice for the ability to play simultaneously (when both of us could already take turns playing the first copy) is less of a value for the dollar than the first purchase, and essentially means that we have to pay double if we both like something (not everything is like that — the tv doesn’t cost double just because we both watch it). So it ends up making the 2nd copy, and sometimes the 1st copy of something not worth it. It kind of turned me off to buying Quake 4.
vad har licen koden för nummer
This is not german, I dunno what he said.
Hmmmm…. Not German, but a related language. Something about him having the license codes.
Finnish? seems common online.
and, not really related, but — you haven’t lived until you’ve surfed for a welsh language website and tried to read it aloud in english phonetics. But I digress.
Two New Class-Action Suits Against EA Over DRM
“”The inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed constitutes a major violation of computer owners’ absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used … [SecuROM] cannot be completely uninstalled. Once installed it becomes a permanent part of the consumer’s software portfolio … EA’s EULA for Spore Creature Creator Free Trial Edition makes utterly no mention of any Technical Protection Measures, DRM technology, or SecuROM whatsoever.”
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/09/172219&from=rss