EA and MAXIS will not be going bankrupt any time soon... so chances are that you'll never see Spore on this site, ever.

You're right. Companies as big as EA and Maxis aren't going to be bankrupt any time soon. However, you're wrong in thinking that they can't be hurt. EA and Maxis are more focused on LOSSES or even lessening of profits rather than BANKRUPTCY. So, even if they begin to gain LESS profits, then they will notice the resultant market changes for DRM games.

Yeah, that's this time, but next time...

And it's been pirated over half as many times.

Meh.. point is, something/someone needs to watch over the wishlist. Obviously SPORE won't happen, too new, and certainly not consumer friendly.

How about Joseph McCarthy? We could use a man like Tailgunner Joe again.

Post in wrong thread. Thats what I get for opening too many threads. :D

Spore has had over 500,000 Torrent downloads.
Piracy or people buying the game and downloading to avoid the DRM?
You decide.

I've got an alternative that I think is really an alternative and not just one of the other two choices: People who bought the game to support the publisher, but didn't want to deal with SecuROM so just got a DRM-free torrent instead.

Online activation I could handle. Even an online check to d/l patches, etc. Lotta folks don't like it because, contrary to what some folks think, not everyone has 24/7 reliable WWW access, even among us spoiled Americans... ;)
What really gets me is limited installs. Say what you want, I will never support a publisher that uses that scheme.

the issue with that is that you support the DRM when you use your money to buy it. if you want to send a message, you send it with your wallet, not your intentions.
that's the main reason i registered here. i could have pirated the fallouts and used the MODs to get it working in vista, but i support the basic principle of this site. the idea that we own what we purchase, no strings attached.
PC gamer has made it a point to note when a game uses over intrusive DRM, and i've read a few letters where people were about to buy Mass effect, but didn't after seeing the review. that's how you send them a message.

I believe the GoG.com staff know that we all could have just downloaded the games easily, we all know how to use the internet, we sought this place out instead of having this place seek us out. We said 'Sweet, no DRM titles? stuff like Fallout and other items in that teasin image?! hell yes, this keeps me legal and it doesn't have drm! and they like us for telling our friends to use either the 10 or 6 bucks it costs to get a game instead of givin 'em out. farkin cheap bastards, that's what i'm saying.

skullcowboy, there's a better method than online activation -- online registration. stardock does this. you don't need the internet to launch the game, even for the first launch; however, if you want to receive updates, patches, new content, etc., you have to register your CD key with stardock. online registration serves the same purpose as online activation without adding an additional burden on the user.

My problem with copy protection echoes that of GOG.com. It treats the paying customer as a criminal that must prove that he is a paying customer to play the game. I'm rather disorganized, and I often delete old games from my system over time to free up space. Some times I want to play those games at a later date and install them. I have the Sims and I lost the original CD case that has the copy protection code on it. I bought the game and now I cannot install a game I payed for. So I have to behave like a theif and google the code. This is a big virus risk, and I remember one site promising a code supplied a big graphic with a middle finger and the words "FUCK YOU" underneath. They said "FUCK YOU" because I lost the original case? No, buddy - FUCK YOU!
On top of that, I once bought a used copy from the mall of Half-Life 2 for a friend and he couldn't install it because the access code was already logged into the database. That's horeshit.