SecuROM and SPORE!

[actruncale]

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.

[EntropicLqd]

Dear Electronic Arts,

I have had your game on order from play.com for the PC since the 8th January 2007.

I got on-line today only to read about the copy protection that will be applied to the game. In summary the checks, assuming I have understood the criteria correctly (as taken from the Mass Effect forum here: Mass Effect Community - Mass Effect for PC System Specs, SecuROM and FAQ), are as follows:

• The game requires on-line activation. If the activation fails the game will not install/start.
• The game will require an on-line check every 10 days to re-validate my CD key. If the check fails for any reason the game will not start.
• I upgrade my PC in some unidentifiable way then I lose an activation; of which I have 3. If I run out of activations the game will not start. There is no way to reduce the number of activations (e.g. by uninstalling the game first).
• I will have no control over when the on-line check takes place.
• The game will not require me to have the DVD in the drive.

Presumably these steps are to combat piracy. While I will conceed that they may make 0-day piracy slightly less likely (after all, that's the principle STEAM uses) ultimately it will mean that I, as a paying customer, will have an inferior product to the free-loaders.

If I take my PC on holiday, or lose my Internet connection for any reason, or your servers crash, my installation of the game may stop working. Will this happen to someone with a cracked copy? No.

If I make any hardware change to my PC I may lose an activation (of which I have 3). I used the word may there because even the techy guys that should know how it works don't. To quote Derek French (Technical Producer from Bioware):

"Its a hard question to answer simply because it is so hardware and situation specific.

I have changed my video card on my computer and nothing happened. But then a different type of video card change may trigger it."

Needless to say, people with a "liberated" copy of the game will suffer no such inconvenience.

Now, I don't mind an on-line check when the game is installed.

I could live with the periodic on-line check if I could force a validation whenever I wanted to, and the check wasn't every 10 days (once every 30 would be fine). I will quite often take my PC away on holiday with me as it gives me something to do in the evenings once my family have gone to bed. While on holiday I don't have an Internet connection. Why the hell would I want to buy game that can stop working on a whim? That's just stupid.

The invisible "activations" due to "unknown hardware" changes is an absolute killer. My PC is a few years old now. It's due for an whole suite of upgrades, from processor to graphics card, to sound card. But not even your technical people can tell me which upgrades will cause an activation to trigger.

And if I have issues trying to play the game then I can always contact EA technical support. I've not checked but I bet it's a premium rate call.

If all this is just to avoid having to have the DVD in the drive, then having to dig the DVD out to play the game is far less intrusive.

As much as I was looking forward to this game, I will be canceling my pre-order, and will most likely never bother with the game. I am not a criminal, and I do not feel that it is fair that people who pirate the game actually have a better product than paying customers.

I believe that this level of "protection" is also used in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Mysteries of Westgate as well. I won't be buying them either. I will also no longer be pre-ordering any other EA game until I have found out what level of copy protection has been applied to it.

Yours sincerely,
Darren Latham

[Fishies123]

I find these security measures to tight. What happens if my Internet suddenly goes down and the game cannot re-validate my CD Key? I have to contact EA just so I can get my game that I bought with my own money just to get it to start working again?!
I realise that the security is there to stop pirating etc and I understand how big of a problem this is but isn't there any other solutions than a 10 day check? which many people may not be able to comply to (people without internet, vacations, etc).
Even though I am not one of these people, theres nothing to say that my Internet would keep running perfectly without any hitches. If these hitches do appear then, in the past, it has taken more than 10 days to fix.
I just hope there is a better way to protect this otherwise perfect game.

[actruncale]

Ok well it isn't as bad as stated.

Letter I got today:

Hey Spore Fans -

We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

-- We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
-- We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
-- The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
-- You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
-- You can play offline.

We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing their creations.

I'd love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We've got a game to finish. :-)

[EntropicLqd]

While that is very encouraging I'm not going to put the game on pre-order again because I don't actually trust EA.

I shall be waiting for the game to be released to see what "protection" the game actually ends up with and then base my purchasing decision on the final release.

[The_Doctor]

What I dont understand is why would the pirates not have to put up with the 10 day rule?

[EntropicLqd]

Originally Posted by DJSteveQ

What I dont understand is why would the pirates not have to put up with the 10 day rule?

Because they'd just take it out.

[Braidedheadman]

It's a strange twist of irony that the Lawless and the Miscreants of society should have more freedoms to do as they wish with products they patently didn't purchase than the Lawful and the Scrupulous who did. What is the world coming to when the paying customer is prosecuted before the pirating thieves, where one's guilt is assumed before proven innocent has become the norm? The efforts that the entertainment industry puts into "protecting" their intellectual properties through DRMs have become truly draconian. And just who are they protecting these IPs against? As it turns out, its us: their loyal and paying, law-abiding customers.

While I support the rights of industry to free enterprise and profits, the story of Robin Hood comes forcefully to mind when I consider the end-game that this storied conflict must inevitably have, when our rights to products - and even ideas - that used to be protected and enshrined in law as part of the commons[1][2][3] are finally usurped by the corporate bottom line and the currency of goodwill has been spent in exchange for antagonism and oppression.

I was looking forward to Spore - one of only 2 EA branded products on my list; Crysis was the other, and what a disappointment it turned out to be - but now that light has been shone on the extent to which the DRMs will cripple the game, I'm very reluctant to pick this up at all. Things like limited installations and aggressive license authentications have really got me on edge, especially when you consider just how these can become soured when a company finally stops supporting its DRM authentication services.

I have 20-year old games that I still play today, even at this very moment. But where will EA and Spore be in another 20 years from now? When I wax nostalgic, will my only options to play these games include relying on the old cracks that the so-called pirates create today? If that's the case, these people are starting to sound increasingly like freedom fighters rather than the brigands that the entertainment industry make them out to be. (Note: I do not condone piracy!)

[lmimmfn]

I personally wouldnt touch this with a barge pole, the game itself intrigues me, but the 3 activation limit is an absolute joke as is the Mass Effect one( which ive been looking forward to since the 360 version was released and it was later announced as coming to the PC ). Ive cancelled my Mass Effect pre-order from play.com and will be getting Race Driver: Grid instead.

I went through hell with Bioshock trying to get the stupid thing working after my PC died. Eventually i just resorted to getting a pirated cracked .exe file just to run my legit copy( the irony of consumers having to rely on pirates to get their game working, when the fact that its because of pirates it isint working, lol ). How bad is that?

If i had known Bioshock would have included such draconian measures i would never have bought it, ever. 2K games eventually had to up the activation limit to 5 and provide a deactivate tool( which many couldnt get working ), they also promised to remove it via a patch once the initial sales period had passed. This hasnt happened yet and its now 7-8 months after release

Which is why i cannot support or buy ANY games with such lalalala measures that turn my fun hobby into a pain in butt. I play games to enjoy my free time and to have some fun now infuriate myself trying to get it working

Anyways im sure this will severely impact sales

[Markt75]

I'm really getting sick of all this limited activation **** that is going on with PC games at the minute. Between Mass Effect and now Spore, that is the 2 games I was most looking forward to on PC that I will not be buying.

Seriously EA, *** is going on with you guys and the use of these 'limited' activations, are all your PC games going to start using it ? because if that is the case it certainly makes my life easier because I know just to ignore any PC game with 'EA' on it.

[JoKiv]

Hi,

I have pre-ordered Spore from almost-local store. Because of SecuROM, I'm planning to cancel that order and wait for another good game.

I don't mind even if game would require activate every week, every day or at every game startup. (I know some ppl might not think that rapid activation is a good thing)

My concern is SecuROM itself. It has made more software damage to my PC than any other application, virus and/or trojan together.

When contacted, SecuROM did not have solution to my problems. I do not have money to use data restoration services.

[Naenia]

yeah..everything goes downhill sometime doesnt it...i really wanted this game as well...still do. but now not so sure. my internet doesnt lalalala out too often so im ok there...i dot go out on holiday often so im good there too....but i do go out some nights of the week. i dont want to end up going out on the wrong night and miss my game working, return home and find i have one less game to fill my free time with...

[Silth]

Let me also add my voice of concern to the list.

Spore is a game I have been looking forward to for years, and before reading up on the aggressive anti-piracy policies I would have rushed to buy it on day 1.

I do want my liberty to install and play it on all my computers (I have 4 at home and 2 at work), in the years to come, without EA's involvement. Purchasing a computer game should be identical to purchasing a tabletop game - it always needs a table (computer) to play on, but I can use any of the tables I have available, and it will work even if I decide to paint my table a different colour or polilalalalas legs.

I find the 10-day timeout period abusive (if indeed it is true). For a game with an integrated online component as Spore, validating only when loggin in should suffice. Pirates will not have unique keys and thus will only be limited to the offline functionality, while paying users will get to enjoy the online facilities greatly enhancing their experience. Still, should something happen to my internet, Spore's servers or whatever, I expect to be able to be able to enjoy spore offline *always*, even when a windows pc is a museum exhibit.

Before jumping to any conclusions on whether to abandon Spore or not, I will be eagerly waiting for official clarification on EA's part. I am sure they read the criticism, the internet is abundant with it. There are non-intrusive methods to deal with piracy, but offering a worse deal to paying customers due to draconian security measures is going too far.

[TheSpaceMan]

If this really true I'm going to think agian about buying spore. What if I get bored of the game and come back to it 2 weeks later. Will I not be able to play? What if I go on holiday? Why would the game have this? It doesn't do anything to prevent piracy, Infact I'd be more lightly to buy a pirate copy to aviod this.

EA, I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you'd do this one well. Well, you've ****ed up a perfectly good game once again. Thx

[JoKiv]

Since this does not get anywhere .. I did cancel my pre-order and plan for more userfiendly game.

SecuRom is phone-home-spyware from company that have created rootkits. That is enough reason for me. Only thing I blame EA is about selecting such protection.

[PieJesu]

This is like when EA released BF2142.

Every game box and disc contained a note warning you that the program installs adware and that if you didn't want the adware on your computer, then you shouldn't intall the game. I think it was their in-game advertising system. The only thing they succesfully advertised however was an Intel Pentium processor, after that the adverts stopped.

Just all thank the lord that EA haven't hired Media Defender to protect their game though, I'm sure you've all heard of the Revision3 takedown.

[EntropicLqd]

Originally Posted by Silth

...I find the 10-day timeout period abusive (if indeed it is true)....

They've had something of a change of heart here I believe. The game only validates on-line when it is first installed, when it needs to be "activated" (ie new installation or change of hardware), and when on-line content is used.

As far as I know there is no automatic phone home anymore.

I'm still not buying it until they fix the limited-activations thing though.

[Eroneouse]

I will have to check this type of copy protection out and if it is as bad as being made out to be on this forum then heres another customer who will be rethinking. I do move location a fair bit with my comp and I do upgrade every four or five months at least one part of my machine. I find the most worrying part the limited activations, what happens when they are all used up ? no game ?

[JohnConnor101]

The Sims2 forums are full of these concerns too. I haven't had any problems so far but hear others have had horrendous ones. Even if I never have problems, I still don't like the day that I have to go back to the game every 10 days *forever* just to get it to work properly. Sure, I'll play a game pretty intensively when I first get it, but then when a new one comes out (even if less brilliant), that'll get the same treatment and it's a pain having the extra memory of an unused game clogging up my hard drive.

I don't get this bit about 'limited loads' - does that mean that if I uninstall and then re-install later on the same computer after making way for another game that I can only do this, say, three times before I have to go out and buy another version of the same game with a different authentication key? I can see how this appeals to manufacturers, but looks like robbery to me, esp. as I never asked them to develop that 'catch-penny' feature.

The good news is that the Sims2 forum also included links on how to remove SecuROM from your machine (look it up, as I don't trust myself to give the right link). I'd like to think this means its possible to get a SecuROM-free game, as that will leave EA looking deservedly silly.

[EntropicLqd]

Originally Posted by JohnConnor101

...I don't get this bit about 'limited loads' - does that mean that if I uninstall and then re-install later on the same computer after making way for another game that I can only do this, say, three times before I have to go out and buy another version of the same game with a different authentication key?

That's exactly what it means. With Bioshock if you uninstalled the game it was supposed to reduce the number of activations you had. It didn't work terribly well.

With Mass Effect, and presumably all other EA games to be released after that you have three activations and that's it. If you want more then you have to phone EA support (presumably at cost to you) and grovel to them.

I've yet to see any statement of what you need to do and the information you need to provide in order to get another activation (or two) for the game that you paid hard cash for. Which is actually pretty terrible.

Originally Posted by JohnConnor101

...The good news is that the Sims2 forum also included links on how to remove SecuROM from your machine (look it up, as I don't trust myself to give the right link). I'd like to think this means its possible to get a SecuROM-free game, as that will leave EA looking deservedly silly.

There are two ways companies can use SecuROM. They can either install it as a service on your PC or embed it within the game executable (or as a DLL loaded when the game starts). Thankfully the latter is becoming more popular as the "service version" can interfere with the normally running of your CD/DVD RW drives.

[Marcolon]

Originally Posted by actruncale

Ok well it isn't as bad as stated.

Letter I got today:

Hey Spore Fans -

We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

-- We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
-- We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
-- The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
-- You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
-- You can play offline.

We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing their creations.

I'd love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We've got a game to finish. :-)

Does this mean that we do not have to re-authenticate every 10 days and just when we share stuff online (use the online features)? Please answer soon :0)

[BenVdd]

Originally Posted by Marcolon

Does this mean that we do not have to re-authenticate every 10 days and just when we share stuff online (use the online features)? Please answer soon :0)

yes ,thats what it means....

[Marcolon]

Originally Posted by BenVdd

yes ,thats what it means....

Awesome. I feel better now

[PieJesu]

Isn't this the age of information? Shouldn't we all be sitting on a basic internet connection? It is very cheap these days.

Steam also requires authentication every week for offline play. The system works well and no one is complaining, but I guess that is because they all have internet connection.

[Eroneouse]

The online authenticate I do not mind be it every 10 days or every time online content is accessed. Its the 3 strikes and your out policy of the limited loads thing that gets me. If the game ships with that feature then this player will probably be looking elsewhere for software fun n games as there is no way in hell I will buy a game twice because the first copy I bought auto shut down because of a built in feature designed to do just that. Nor do I see why I should have to petition any games company to give me another 3 or 5 or 9 or whatever activation points again to get said shut down game running again.

EA do you really have to use this type of disc protection. I play different online and offline games from many different companys and this is the first time I have come across this Securom item. Apart from seeing some blurb on the news < TV > yonks ago about sony useing it on their music discs. Come on EA rethink your options. This system had bad press to start with at its release and from what I can see of the wiki posts on it has had quite a bit of bad press since. Why associate bad press with what looks like will be a good game surely the two should not mix ?