Spore Copy Protection Q&A

[Shireknight]

Originally Posted by YuMiCymru

How many times are we able to install Spore with this new system?

only 3 times so use them wisely.

Below are some guidelines which if followed properly will mean you should never run out of installations.

Never download any viruses that may require you to reformat your PC to clear them.
Have a heart to heart chat with your hard drive and instruct it that from now on it can't afford the luxury of dying on you as to replace it would mean using up one of your precious installations.
Similarly do not upgrade your hard drive because again that would also eat up one of your installations.
Do not download any player mods for Spore because if you do and you ruin your installed copy it will cost you a precious re-installation to put the error that you caused right.
If you own more than one PC say an additional laptop to your desktop PC do not install the game onto that as well -EA have generously given you the opportunity to play their game but there's no need to take the mickey out of them by trying to play it all the time no matter where you are -anyone would think you owned the thing.
Do not buy a new PC. It is EA's belief that you must already own a PC capable of playing Spore if you brought it so if you already own a PC that can play the game you don't need to ever buy a new one right?
Do not eat/drink, allow your pets near to, accidentally knock over, or in any way damage your PC because if it needs to be replaced that's a Spore installation right there. If your an accident prone person then you would be advised to insure your copy of Spore in addition to your PC so that if you break your PC and you have already used up your three Spore installations you can claim a new copy of Spore from your insurer at the same time and not have to buy a new game even though you already legally own the disks.

[wildneb]

just to let you all know, the petition has passed 250 sigs.

I wanna know your thoughts (constructive if possible please ) as to what you guys want me to do with it and when?

[tangfastic91]

um im not sure how that kind of thing works. maybe more people will start to sign it if they're pc gets screwed over my spore. If after a couple of weeks there isnt much change, i reckon you best submit it then. i doubt EA will take much notice though

[flatfroggerx]

Originally Posted by tangfastic91

um im not sure how that kind of thing works. maybe more people will start to sign it if they're pc gets screwed over my spore. If after a couple of weeks there isnt much change, i reckon you best submit it then. i doubt EA will take much notice though

Better to try than suffer and not try at all.

[tangfastic91]

absolutely my best hope right now is that Spore and secuROM turn out to be benine and there are no reported issues

[Anto103]

Originally Posted by akridine

I wonder if EA know that if they refuse UK customer new activations they'd be breaking UK trading standerd laws?

Oh I'm sure they know but they don't care, It would take a court case to fix this problem though, just like that time with Sony.

Originally Posted by Remora Wraith

No the EULA doesn't mean anything against the law, but in terms of software there is no laws protecting customers beyond the standard trading standards laws which basically means the only right you have is to get a refund. But all the parts of EULA that don't concern the law represent a legally binding contractual agreement between you and EA when you agree to it on installation.

I think in my country if your insane or drunk at the time the contract is null and void, so lets get wasted and install Spore my fellow countrymen

[flatfroggerx]

Originally Posted by tangfastic91

absolutely my best hope right now is that Spore and secuROM turn out to be benine and there are no reported issues

The game has been cracked and pirated and available for 2 days. Securom/activation issues won't happen immediately, you should start seeing some in the following weeks though. Not to mention the long term irritation and annoyance the activations are going to cause in the long run. Its pointless punishment of the consumer, abusing them.

[AnthraxNightbane]

Wait a sec, what is the deal with only allowing 3 installations per disk? What does that stop? Apart from freely using the disk again if you get a new pc or if you happen to sell the disk (although personally the game itself would be worth keeping). The idea of BUYING a disk is so that that copy is yours. I'm pretty sure thats pretty basic stuff there. Buy=property. It is literally selling a product thats designed to break. I cant really see how this is even legal, and what makes it worse is that I can't see the POINT. Any copied versions made will be cracked so that it doesnt matter about the amount of uses. There are some pretty smart hackers out there, and making something as stupid as this is just provoking them.

Rant over. For now at least.

[flatfroggerx]

Originally Posted by AnthraxNightbane

...Any copied versions made will be cracked so that it doesnt matter about the amount of uses. There are some pretty smart hackers out there, and making something as stupid as this is just provoking them.

Rant over. For now at least.

Lol you speak too late, its done, its out there and circulating.

[AnthraxNightbane]

Originally Posted by flatfroggerx

Lol you speak too late, its done, its out there and circulating.

lol i know, just got into rant mode really

[flatfroggerx]

Originally Posted by AnthraxNightbane

lol i know, just got into rant mode really

It may sound evil but i'm glad it happened, it teaches EA an important lesson that their activation rubbish doesn't stop pirates, just consumers as we will see over the following weeks.

[Dankidus]

lol EA doesn't care it's been cracked... they just care about how gullible sheeple are to go rebuy another copy when they're too annoyed by EAs lalalala tech support to bother with continuously asking for more copies.

And believe me, fanboys that are reading this post, you are in their cards and calling you foolish worshiperes as they laugh deeply at you. Everytime somebody pops up and says "OMG how dare you badmouth the all holy EA for trying to dupe you!" they rofl.

[Watashiii]

Originally Posted by AnthraxNightbane

Wait a sec, what is the deal with only allowing 3 installations per disk? What does that stop?

That wouldn't stop anything. But three instalations per "computer" where "computer" means "any hardware you have installed", from CPU to sound card...

[Darksci]

The way I figure, by the time my 3 activations run out, I won't care about copy protection nor downloadable content.

Hell by then I'm pretty sure there will be a repository of creatures on an unofficial server.

Soon as EA give me trash lala about being made to call a tolled number, that's when I'll careless about their rights to this game.

[trippynet]

Another potential customer here who has been forced to choose by EA between a cracked version that doesn't have nasty SecuROM, doesn't have limited activations (or even activations at all for that matter) and which will just install and work, and one with all the nasty SecuROM, limited activations and other such lalalala.

Can someone at EA honestly ask themselves why I should buy this game just to be treated like a pirate, whereas if I actually do become a pirate for it, there's no trouble at all?

Can anyone at EA honestly ask themselves why they are so ridiculously stupid to keep on banging useless protection with their games even though it's been proven hundreds of times that it does NOT prevent piracy at all (search The Pirate Bay for example) and DOES drive away potential customers like myself?

EA are quick to blame piracy for falling sales and utterly incapable of looking at WHY people are turning to piracy in the first place. The answer to a fair bit of that question is something that EA actively control. Yet despite all the proof around about DRM encouraging piracy rather than preventing it, they keep on making it more draconian, bunging it into yet more games, then whinging on about piracy (an admission themselves that DRM is useless).

I would have bought Spore, but I'll get a better gaming experience if I pirate it. Utter madness EA and bye-bye to another customer. And if SecuROM and other DRM continues in future games, well I'll just be driven to pirate those instead of buying them. Want me to buy games? Try treating me as a valued customer instead of as a pirate once I've shelled out the cash for a game.

As things currently stand: Buy the game and get treated as a pirate, or pirate the game and get treated as a proper customer. Why can't you see the utter lack of logic in that?

Idiots.

[randommonicl]

*stands up, walks to podium and adjusts tie* *clears throat* lalalala YOU EA


thats is all.....

[jacogan]

Lol Wild I killed myself laughing at that EA FAQ comic in your signature... Very well done and very apt...

[Eroneouse]

Just for curiosity I went to a torrent site found a certain torrent and looked at its stats, currently for spore 3000+ seeds / 39000+ peers on a single P2P network. So about this anti piracy stuff ?

[Watashiii]

Originally Posted by jacogan

Lol Wild I killed myself laughing at that EA FAQ comic in your signature... Very well done and very apt...

That's Penny arcade, an excellent webcomic. If you like video games, try reading some

[Umbraco]

Thoughout my years with dealing with these bandits at EA games, I have reached the conclusion that none of them play video games.
I remember back when companies made games themselves, and published them themselves. These days, EA has their greasy, dirty, funky, sticky fingers in everything but they don't seem to care much for the responsibility that accompanies publishing a video game - customer support being one of those responsibilities. Not analprobing your customers being the second one..

oh, and a side note: thanks a lot for stapling punkbuster onto everything you publish. How come there's not a 64-bit version available? I bought Crysis, but I had to return it to the game store because it was not compatible with my windows version. Everything else runs on my system, except Crysis.
I had to watch my old friend who works at the gameshop get his heart broken when I told him I had to get my money back.
(oki, maybe his heart didn't break, but there was visual disappointment in his face).

[Leonick]

seriously guys... EA bother us with this activation... so lets learn them a lesson shall we? just use you activations as you may wish... After all if you contact support they will give you a new activation, they did with me for Mass effect and also... EA has this nice policy so if you happen to somehow lose you key, you just need to give them a photo of you box and CD and they give you a new key, ive gotten new keys for both RA2 and BF2...

this basically means that spend you activations, lose you key or whatever they have to give you new activations and/or keys, now i dont know the exact user agreement for spore... but if they have to bother with this to much they wont use this DRM again... and if they wont give users new activations, well there wont be many users left to buy and use the expansion will it?

EDIT: really hope they will give out activations, i am a serious gamer, and i get upgrades for my computer at least once a year

[Watashiii]

Originally Posted by Leonick

you just need to give them a photo of you box and CD

I've heard about this... Hmm, there could be a lot of fun with it

[trippynet]

Originally Posted by Leonick

seriously guys... EA bother us with this activation... so lets learn them a lesson shall we?

I intend to do that by voting with my wallet. I would have bought Spore, but I haven't because of the copy protection. I did the same with Mass Effect and will continue to do it for all future EA games that include such invasive/annoying "protection".

Protection being loosely used of course seeing as it doesn't actually protect.

[Anto103]

Originally Posted by Eroneouse

Just for curiosity I went to a torrent site found a certain torrent and looked at its stats, currently for spore 3000+ seeds / 39000+ peers on a single P2P network. So about this anti piracy stuff ?

It seems SecurRom is broken Quick EA! get your money back from Sony you got ripped off.

[Dankidus]

Yeah, you can take a picture of ur box with a cd, and you also have to give them 5 bux too. I experienced that policy when I lost the manual to one of my NFS games.

Screw EA, they have made games (which are supposed to be all fun and no work) become too much of a hassle. They implement this useless DRM lalalala, just to try to scam another buck or 2 from their loyal fanboys or from clueless customers that will not find cracks, or addicts like me who HAVE TO PLAY NOW DAMMIT! Seriously EA .... screw you, you wont get another penny from me after Spore. I didn't buy MEPC because of this DRM garbage, I wont buy any of ur EA sports games that I usually get annually, and you can kiss my money goodbye on any other seemingly fun games.