According to
Spore, Mass Effect PC to Require Online Validation Every Ten Days to Function - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads Spore will be using the SecuROM protection scheme. This means among other things that the internet will be REQUIRED to play Spore. SecuROM will disable your game if you don't have the internet to check to see if your cd key is valid after 10 days.
This will be a nightmare to people who legally buy games and not a deterent to pirates at all. It is a shame that they would ruin such an awesome game with a product that causes more harm then good. I don't have a problem with copy protection but there is an easier way to do it:
"Unique CD keys that are checked every time the game goes online that is linked to a user name and password. That way only the online features are locked out and the stand alone game is available to people without the internet." <-- they way it should be done, but isn't
This development is going to cause me not to buy the game until I find out what kind of nightmares the SecuROM is going to cause on my system.
Check out these forums for peoples concerns:
Total Spore Forums / Spore & SecuROM...I WAS going to buy it
Evil Avatar - Spore to Use SecuROM Technology, Require Re-Check After 10 Days Inactivity
Mass Effect Community - Mass Effect for PC System Specs, SecuROM and FAQ
Stupidest Anti Piracy yet or PC Mass Effect
OK if this is a trend for games and software to come, I am going to go insane. Do you really want every program you own to check at random times to see if you are a pirate or not? Imagine all the programs you have, I have probably 100 including games, taking up bandwidth and your programs stop working because of errors or what ever. Do you really want your laptop to be useless in ten days without internet? Because if companies see this as acceptable and a good things to do, that is what computer are going to be like. My internet is slow enough... NO THANK YOU! This needs to stop soon IMO.