fartheststar: Spore by EA was the game and resulting bad experience that turned me into a different kind of shopper (and turned me against EA). I paid full price at midnight the day it became available. Never again. I joined Steam a few years after that, then Gog, and now a few other sites. Sim City was one of my favorite games growing up, but I won't even consider the new one just because it's EA now.
Bingo! I followed the development of Spore for 2 years and thought it was very unique and amazing in scope and would be a lot of fun. It was one of the last high end games I anticipated buying on day 1 for full price. After hearing about the super insane draconian DRM my eyes popped out of my head like really? I couldn't for the life of me imagine how any gamer would find that acceptable at that price or any price, and EA went on the "dead to me" list immediately. The funny thing is, 9 out of 9 close friends were drooling over the game and also planning on buying it when it came out and we talked about it often, but when word got out about the DRM and everyone found out, nobody was willing to accept that.
We stopped talking about the game and it was released and zero of us bought it. A couple years later it came up in conversation online and I asked if anyone ever actually bought it and of all 9 people not one person bought it, and only one friend was curious enough to play it to pirate a copy. He played it once for a few hours and said it sucked. To date I don't know a single friend at all that's ever even played the game who actually bought it, and only that one person who pirated it.
I've never bought any EA games since. Dunno if the all other guys have or not but the ones I am the closest friends with haven't bought any EA titles. I guess it must be profitable for them though or they'd stop doing it. Either that or they're going out of business in the coming years from nobody buying their crap DRM anymore.
If they go out of business it's no loss though. There will always be a market for games and thus for developers and publishers and if one can't figure out how to make products that respect the customer and actually get people to buy it, someone else will with a different business model. Maybe... just maybe... someone like CD Projekt and GOG. :)
Yeah, the new Sim City can choke on a ______'_ _____ as far as I'm concerned. ;o) I bought Cities in Motion instead, it's a much better value for the dollar.