Finally, EA has listened to all of the complaints and is being reasonable now. Apparently, they are upping the amount of activations to 5 and are developing some sort of method to de-activate their games on computers you have them installed on. Woohoo!

Source

"http://www.giantbomb.com/spore/61-14139/ea-relents-changes-spore-drm-too-little-too-late/35-16159/#4"

hmm.. I might pick it up later when the price drops.. doesn't really interest me much... I already got too many games to play and not enough time :).

I WANT A REMOVAL, NOT A REVISION YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!

I have to say the DRM fiasco with Spore should of hinted to EA that no, we the customer, do not approve of their somewhat underhanded and rude choice to include DRM and assume all gamers are illegally downloading PC games.

If EA weren't so money hungry, and lets face it they are, they would realise that by promoting more of their games through Steam would perhaps help their public image amongst PC gamers aswell as decrease the amount of piracy they believe is hurting their sales.

Good, but not good enough.

I will continue to pretend that ***** doesn't exist.

DRM is a necessary evil but when it stops legit customers like myself playing a game is infuriates me.  I do not want to have to justify my install habits to a EA tech rep on the phone, especially while there charging me a fortune for the call.  It is my game, I brought it and as long as I don't distribute it to anyone then i'll do what I like with it.

The deactivation tool should have been made available from day one, commercial software has it so why not games.  They should also make a deactivate tool for their other games as well such as Mass Effect and the forthcoming Red Alert 3.

"Good, but not good enough.

I will continue to pretend that ***** doesn't exist."

"DRM is a necessary evil but when it stops legit customers like myself playing a game is infuriates me.  I do not want to have to justify my install habits to a EA tech rep on the phone, especially while there charging me a fortune for the call.  It is my game, I brought it and as long as I don't distribute it to anyone then i'll do what I like with it.

The deactivation tool should have been made available from day one, commercial software has it so why not games.  They should also make a deactivate tool for their other games as well such as Mass Effect and the forthcoming Red Alert 3."

I really don't see how the copy-protection is stopping anyone from playing the game. This sort of limit also (by the way) has also applied to music purchased on itunes, yet I've never heard any uproar about that.

"I really don't see how the copy-protection is stopping anyone from playing the game. This sort of limit also (by the way) has also applied to music purchased on itunes, yet I've never heard any uproar about that.

 I see nothing wrong with a company wanting to make gobs of money by providing something that people want and protecting their investment. EA's goal is to make money, and they just happen to do that by making games. Making phat loot is the sole goal of EA and there's nothing wrong with that (since we can't all get rich by smashing chests and killing monsters). 

I'm not saying that drm is the the right way to go, but they have to at least try something (since they have a responsibility to the shareholders of the company). If what they try doesn't work, they need a new scheme. I remember getting games on my C64 (yea..that long ago) where you were asked to go to page 4 of the manuel and read the 3rd line of the 2nd paragraph. What did we do? we photocopied the book. Then you had to put a CD in the drive...what did we do? Made mirrors. It's a neverending battle becuase of the general lack of respect for intellectual and physical property that exists in humanity.

"

I see no problem with the DRM but! its how they implimented it is the problem, the 5 activations and abbility to remove it from a computer and thus adding that activation back is a great great great thing and is how DRM should be.

This sounds like what Itunes does with its DRM'd music, at least its an improvement.

I think the thing to do here is to vote with your $. If you don't like something about a product, don't buy it. Then take it a step further, contact the company and tell them why you aren't buying it. They won't care about a single sale lost, but as those sales count up they'll pay attention. Try this: make up a petition and convince retailers (or stand outside the store) to get people to sign. Collect a bunch of signatures (like 20-40k) and send a copy of them to the company. Send them to ALL major game companies. Let them know that you don't like DRM or how it's managed.  If enough people do this, the system will change. I'm not saying that the system will change to something better for the consumer, but it will change.