But it isn't needed. If I have 3 machines in my home (and I do), what business is it of theirs if I load the game onto all three of them (which I do)? I've paid for it, so I can do what I want with it (short of violating copyright).
What the CD check was supposed to accomplish was to stop people from sharing the disc with their friends so they could play without buying a copy of the game. The reality is, if they can't share it, the friends will in all likelihood just torrent the game if they don't want to buy it. This DRM that's on Spore/MEPC doesn't stop this. It actually even allows those friends to share their game among themselves. Where the problem comes in (aside from all the issues with SecuROM itself) is with a person like me that loads their game onto more than one machine in their own home and also tends to upgrade hardware fairly regularly. Had I bought MEPC, I'd have burned through all three of my allowed activations within the first two weeks. And I don't share my games.
I'm willing to accept a CD check, even though they're still ridiculously ineffective. They've never really bothered me (I'm somewhat bewildered why people think it's a big deal to be required to have the CD/DVD in the drive). But I'm not willing to accept this new iteration of SecuROM, nor am I willing to accept the style of DRM that EA is insisting on putting on its games.

IANAL (although this is my undergrad dissertation topic), but in most countries the right to make a backup copy can't be overridden by a eula. HOWEVER in any country which has implemented WIPO's DRM provisions (the USA, all of the EU, etc.) the prohibition on cracking DRM "trumps" users' rights under copyright law, so that things that you are normally allowed to do (e.g. backup copy) become illegal if you have to crack DRM to do them.

I always believed that DRM doesn't serve to help developers. They actually hinder them. I always wondered why publishers and even some people believe that DRM helps to hinder piracy. Spore is possibly the <span class="bold">world's most pirated game</span> right now, but it features some of the most intrusive DRM. That example alone should show that piracy will never ever be eliminated via technology.
What publishers could do is simply to not drive people to piracy. The majority of pirates will never ever pay for it, so it is irrelevant to count them as "lost sales". What they should do is to not steer potential buyers to piracy. Trusting buyers, or building a close community can work wonders.
I wouldn't give a damn if someone were to pirate BioShock, Mass Effect or Spore. But after following Cliff Harris's blog (owner of Positech Games) or Jay Barnson (of Rampant Games website) or even Brad Wardell's blog (CEO of Stardock), I can empathize with developers and publishers, especially indies. Even though I may not comment on their blogs, chat or met with them, I feel connected to their work and in turn, their products. I'll definitely damn you to hell if you were to pirate any of their games!
(I downloaded a demo of Kudos a few months back and kept following the development of Kudos 2. Amazingly, I immediately bought Kudos 2 the minute Cliff Harris announced on his blog that it has been released. This is something I have never done before, as I usually take time to research a game before buying it. Being connected really helped to drive this sale.)
Maybe I'm taking the moral high ground here, but I can attest to all this, because I myself used to pirate my games. After discovering the magic of RSS and following a number of blogs, I am proud to say I am a reformed pirate! :P

Agreed.

As long as I can run it off a digital backup for my own purposes, I'm happy. I have no desire to mess with the physical media, and I would rather have the (albeit minor) performance gains.

I don't really think the disk is used too much, it's just for checking. Game files are copied to your HDD for quicker access.

If it is indeed a good game (and it most likely will be one), and if the DRM will be minimal - meaning some variation of disc check that does not connect to the internet, does not install drivers and does not conflict with any virtual drive program, then Bethesda gets my money for this game.

I don't know why people don't just go for the easy way out, console versions are easy, simple ways to get the vanilla version of a game running. thank goodness for that alternative, did anyone hang out for gears of war on pc? or halo 2 on pc?
Halo 2 on PC has some really crappy DRM, you have to have vista and DX10 for a game that looks like dx6 could run it...
Easy way out of that, was to just get it on console. Sure you go modless which sucks balls, but you don't have to deal with intrusive DRM.

Umm consoles are pretty damn expensive, feature a limited selection of games. That's hardly a solution...

pretty damn expensive? compared to what? This?
'But, but Weclock, with a PC you can do more than play games!'
Yeah, and you can do more than play games with a console.
Check this deal out...
It's cheaper than the cheapest Eee pc, it does games, plays Music, movies, T.V. shows, and has IM via MSN IM. Coming later this year, you'll be able to stream movies to it from Netflix.
I don't even think that eee pc would be able to handle Fallout 3.

Comparing netbooks to .. consoles ?
Let me see you walk around with that 360 in a starbucks or something. :D

You want me to compare it to This?
Oh wait, that's a thousand times more expensive, never mind.

Yes, well it depends on the country as well, I suppose. I wouldn't have the money to buy a PS3 (that is what I would be willing to buy) and even if I had, a big HDD capable TV would be needed, and that is even more expensive. Furthermore, console games (or PS games, at least) cost much more than PC games (in hungary).
Emulation is out of the question. PS2 games need an upper-mid class PC to run them, and even then, the graphic can be terribly messed up, you can be happy if there is normal sound and music, and random freezes occur every now and then. Also, the BIOS is something you have to get for yourself, and of course, dling it from somewhere is illegal. I could continue, as there is more, but no sense in that. (Not that this is the result of the developers being incompetent, they are doing a very good job, but PS is very different from PC.)
While against DRM, it is a godd solution, I really don't like the idea of me spending more money, because certain publishers decide to use some crap in the PC version of their game.
I really don't find this likely, but making things uncomfortable on PC actually may have a positive effect on the console market in certain cases, so that could be their goal as well. Though it think EA was one of those, who insisted that PC is not dead.

Nope, It's an HDTV is not needed, if you say you need one, then that's your own hangup.They're only about ten dollars more for console games here. There are no emulators for PS3 or Xbox 360.
hahaha.. yeah.. EA has been getting tons of Money from Madden on Consoles.. EA doesn't give a rats ass about the PC market.
I do love my PC, if you told me I had to choose between Half-Life 2 on Xbox or PC, I'd pick PC every time. It's a solution for games that come out on both PC and Console with a DRM heavy PC version.
Seems you pay a little more to go w/o DRM on console..
Also, I wanted to say most current gen consoles have the ability to connect to a PC monitor..