I have been anticipating the release of Spore for several years now—ever since I saw Will Wright demo it on TED.
The game looks like a lot of fun, and it breaks some new ground in gaming! Sadly enough, it also breaks new ground in draconian copyright measures.
EA Games only allows the game to be installed three (now five) times, for any reason.
The game installs software similar to a rootkit which monitors your system for signs of game hacking and disables the game at will. Uninstalling Spore leaves the rootkit
Originally, the software required a "phone home" every 10 days to continue playing. That was removed before game release.
The irony of this DRM strategy is that it doesn't really prevent hard-core piracy. The game is already available on the pirate networks and that version is free of all these DRM techniques.
Once these DRM tactics became widely known, a major fan revolt began. A boycot is in the works. Amazon reviews of Spore are now flooded with 1 star ratings, and class-action law suits are shaping up.
I hope EA Games is trashed for this move, and then may the mobs move on the Valve and the Half-Life 2 DRM and ULAs.
I feel rather ambivalent about the future of EA Games, and even the long-term success of Spore. What I really care about is this evolution of DRM and the growing discontentment with demeaning and incriminating machinations of corporations on consumers, just to protect their flawed and inefficient business models.
Now I recognize the need of EA Games to recoup the expenses of game development. I applaud the creative act and will always reward it lavishly. However, DRM needs to die and a new compensation system take its place. We need creative patronage stocks. We need to share the risk of creative work and reward capable creators for their efforts. We also need a more direct interactions between creators and observers/listeners/consumers/benefactors/patrons.
Jeffrey Dunster
