BF2S Forums [SPORE] The Official Game Chatter Thread

Oh, baby, did I have a column for you.

It was frothy. It was vitriolic. It was full of rage, and calls for boycott, and loathing, seething anger.

That's because nothing sets me off like a company punishing its paying customers. Case in point: Electronic Arts, and its Spore DRM. You think our tech analyst Loyd was angry? You should have seen the bitterness that was version 1.0 of this column.

But as I was writing it, an important piece of information fell into one of my RSS feeds. EA loosened up. A little. Not on Spore, but on its next major release, Red Alert 3.

For those of you who haven't wandered near the Interwebs in the past week, here's the short version: Spore came out. Some gamers loved it, some went "meh," but they all flew into a collective fit of rage when they realized that the game is infected with the worst DRM in history. Evidently it requires online activation, and one serial number can be activated three times—ever.

If you're a frequent upgrader, EA evidently hates your guts. EA claims that its customers rarely ever install their games more than once or twice. That doesn't help enthusiasts who bounce from PC to PC, or gaming freaks who like to load up their old titles to re-enjoy years later. ....

Spore Backlash
But few companies are as myopic as Electronic Arts. EA responded to the pile ons on sites like Amazon and Newegg, where countless customers gave Spore 1 out of 5 reviews, by announcing it would loosen DRM on the upcoming game Red Alert 3. It will allow more than three installations. Even after its max, if users try to authenticate they may still be given the go ahead on a case-by-case basis.

While that's enough to calm me down to the point where I no longer feel the need to call on editors and consumers to boycott everything EA ever does again forever, it still leaves too many questions unanswered. Questions like: What the hell were these idiots thinking in the first place? When will people like whoever makes the copy protection decisions at EA realize that draconian DRM only hurts paying customers? When will developers learn not to make deals with idiotic, DRM-obsessed publishers and to go Stardock or THQ (for example) instead? When will DRM dorks learn that DRM might increase piracy?

And what about Spore? Will there be a patch for it, along the lines of BioShock, that reduces the DRM stranglehold a bit? Will the developers get their due? Will Wright and his team deserve massive praise for an accomplishment on the level of Spore, not only in the form of the overall positive reviews the game has been getting, but also from the fan community. When the publisher takes a great game and uses it to beat the fan community over its collective head, it taints the product. At this rate, Spore won't be remembered as a revolutionary evolution sim as much as it will be for its crazy DRM situation, and that's wrong.

And that's entirely EA's fault.

In the column I'd originally cooked up, I was ready to announce that I would no longer make mention of any EA title in any of my editorial work—and I challenged other industry editors to do the same.

EA's reluctant backtracking on Red Alert 3's DRM changed my mind. That doesn't mean the company is off my naughty list, though. The next time something like this goes down, I'll make what our editor Loyd said about it this past Monday look like praise.

Then I'll become filthy rich, buy Electronic Arts, and fire the entire department that deals with copy protection. It's deadweight anyway.

Last edited by loubot (2008-09-18 16:57:04)

GGF0RCE wrote:

The DRM argument is pretty much a moot point now that you can torrent a <40mb crack for it

SharkyMcshark wrote:

Ty wrote:

Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw fully commits to his giving Spore a resounding "No", so much so that I thought my computer was caught in a rut or something.
Zero Puntuation reviews Spore

That review is EXACTLY what I've been saying about the game since its release (The different stages are arbitrarily segmented, each stage is shallow (especially creature stage)).

Like to the point where some of my friends asked me if I had any input into the review

Anyway, Spore is reasonably fun in that it allows me to fulfill my childhood dream of taking over the galaxy with an army of dinosaurs.

Because any game that combines galactic domination with Velociraptors in X Wings is fucking awesome.

TheAussieReaper wrote:

TimmmmaaaaH wrote:

I am trying to terraform one planet (which can be very fucking frustrating when you only bring 1 meteor shower or w/e) and like 4 of my planets are either raided by pirate faggots or attacked by the stupid cunts that want some stupid amount of money.

Terraforming becomes much easier when you unlock a few more tools. There's one to add atmosphere, or take it away. Same with temp.

As for pirates you can ignore them, they take some spice but who cares.

Just beware of the grox and enemy aliens attacking your planets.

TimmmmaaaaH wrote:

TheAussieReaper wrote:

TimmmmaaaaH wrote:

I am trying to terraform one planet (which can be very fucking frustrating when you only bring 1 meteor shower or w/e) and like 4 of my planets are either raided by pirate faggots or attacked by the stupid cunts that want some stupid amount of money.

Terraforming becomes much easier when you unlock a few more tools. There's one to add atmosphere, or take it away. Same with temp.

As for pirates you can ignore them, they take some spice but who cares.

Just beware of the grox and enemy aliens attacking your planets.

Yeh the one I was terraforming needed 2 meteors and 2 drought machines at once to get to T1. While I was doing this I got plundered on my home planet by pirates, and got attacked at 2 other planets by the enemies below me.

It could be such a good game, but everything is just half done.

Why not combine all the stages for the last bit and even give you limited RTS elements to make more ships and have them protect yourplanets and stuff. Do you ever get like orbirtal defences or anything?

Hope_is_lost117 wrote:

TimmmmaaaaH wrote:

radar =/= scanner.

bl.

Indeed, you have to select the scanner from the main tools tab .