Potential Spore buyers spam Amazon

CB Droege 9 Sep, 2008 at 6:31pm ET Article published in Tech

Spore has been highly anticipated since its announcement several years ago. The ability to design and evolve a creature from amoeba to sentience to space flight is attractive to simulation game fans everywhere. Since its release however, the game has received about 1800 customer reviews on Amazon, giving a rounded average of one out of five stars.

The poor reviews are mostly focused on the DRM that ships with the game, called SecuROM. SecuROM has been described as ‘legal spyware’ by its critics, and was widely derided when it was attached to another recent EA release, Mass Effect. In addition to SecuROM, EA has places a three install limit on the product key, another choice that is unpopular with tech savvy end-users.

Most of the single star ratings were seemingly written by users who would have bought the game, but chose not to, due to the DRM involved. Some of them even expresses a desire to pirate the game, rather than purchase it, due to the annoyance of the DRM.

Most popular video games receive only 300-500 customer reviews on Amazon over the life of the title, and very few have an average score lower than four stars.

Comments

10 Sep 2008 ~ 12:08am TiberiusLazarus The specific DRM on this really is annoying. Max of 3 installs???? Wtf is the point of that? The cracking groups have already shown how easy it is to break. The game was released to the world in a matter of hours after release. Now that brings about the ever-present point, why punish those who actually do go spend their hard earned money.
10 Sep 2008 ~ 8:14am lemonlime

TiberiusLazarus wrote:

..Now that brings about the ever-present point, why punish those who actually do go spend their hard earned money.

My thoughts exactly. I think EA should take a hint from other developers who have actually spoken to software pirates regarding DRM. DRM (and especially the type included with Spores) is not going to help. In fact, I think it will seriously limit the success of the product.
10 Sep 2008 ~ 8:41am Gate28

TiberiusLazarus wrote:

The game was released to the world in a matter of hours after release.

lol, hours? It was on pirate bay days before release.
10 Sep 2008 ~ 8:44am MAGIC Yah, an Australian retailer put it on shelves a week before it was due out i read. But, yah i downloaded it then and now ill buy it just out of support for how fun of a game it is. Probley wont install the retail version due to the DRM unless i get bored of single player and want to try it online.
10 Sep 2008 ~ 9:37am Thrax

' wrote:

[v][AGIC']Yah, an Australian retailer put it on shelves a week before it was due out i read. But, yah i downloaded it then and now ill buy it just out of support for how fun of a game it is. Probley wont install the retail version due to the DRM unless i get bored of single player and want to try it online.

This is probably what I will end up doing, but I don't want to support DRM, so I'm torn.
10 Sep 2008 ~ 1:05pm Gate28 Ive got the torrent on my computer fully downloaded, but im hesitant to unzip and mount because I might just go buy it. The pirated version dosent support sporepedia, i dont think. I dont mind drm, really, but ive had problems with securom before, but it probably wont stop me from buying.
12 Sep 2008 ~ 5:23pm Garg Earlier this week, about 2000 negative reviews disappeared from Spore's page on Amazon. They're back now, with Amazon claiming they only disappeared due to a glitch in the system, and that they do not censor customer feedback. Even if that's the case, the damage has been done. Amazon is now associated with EA's draconian methods in the minds of many gamers.
12 Sep 2008 ~ 8:22pm PurplezArctic I'm still gonna get it.

Whether that means if it's from TPB or retail.

Time vs. Money
15 Sep 2008 ~ 11:26am UPSLynx Gah, I'm dying over this.

I was thinking about buying Spore today. But I don't know if I want to! I know I'll love playing the game, haven't played a Wright game yet that I haven't. But I don't want to support EA and it's DRM shenannigans. The Devs, on the other hand, deserve my money. They worked on this game for a looooong time. And they're just normal people working a job and trying to put food on the table.

The artists, programmers, designer, content creators, they all deserve my money.

EA doesn't deserve a cent.

I'm thinking I might buy it and download it. So I future proof it, yet have online functionality.

Meh, I can't make up my mind.
15 Sep 2008 ~ 12:13pm Linc Spore becomes "most pirated game" (second half of article)

DRM shenanigans are working well, it seems.
15 Sep 2008 ~ 1:02pm Thrax In an interview with Gamasutra, a representative from EA defended their decision to use DRM by saying:

We simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication.

Which is to say they entirely missed the point. People don't care that EA changed the DRM methodology, they care that the DRM exists. EA's flaccid argument is akin to saying "we moved the baby from the highway to a low-traffic bridge, so there's less chance he'll be injured." It ignores the actual concern at hand by interjecting an enormous red herring.

Dur de dur, EA. Wake the hell up.
15 Sep 2008 ~ 1:07pm UPSLynx Very interesting couple of posts, Keebler and Thrax. The point it proven again, DRM increased the amount of piracy, rather than lessen it. This is pathetic.

EA's 'disk in tray' argument is preposterous. With the classic 'disk must be in to play' methodology, that never changed how many times you could come back and play, reinstalling either on multiple machines or years down the road. That argument is bunk.

Anyone know what kind of functionality you miss out on with the downloaded copy? I know there isn't any asynchronous data transfer of other player's stuff, is that it? Can you still share creations?
15 Sep 2008 ~ 1:10pm Cyclonite EA can't really be that oblivious, can they? Jeez.
15 Sep 2008 ~ 1:17pm Linc Contrast with: Valve not concerned with piracy in PC market
15 Sep 2008 ~ 2:26pm TiberiusLazarus I would never think of pirating one of valve's games, not because its impossible to do (a quick search on tpb brings up a torrent for the orange box) but because I respect the company for the products they have produced and the way they have provided them. Keeb's link shows that they understand a good fact about gamers: treat them well and they will be loyal.