> This idea that those who refuse to work with DRM
> won't play it is curious. Those who refuse to buy
> Dead Space with DRM may not buy it or play it, but
> many, many others will simply pirate it. They aren't
> going to "deny" themselves, they'll simply pirate it.
> And in the end DRM, if nothing else, promotes piracy.

This is absolutely true, although some of us have enough principles that we won't pirate it either.

Just to let you guys know, a fully cracked pirated version of this game is already available online. If you don't believe me search for it and you will find it. Just proof that DRM is absolutely pointless.

Not only pointless, but counter-productive and inhibiting to paying customers: http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=451328&tstart=0

Hmm.. how much did you peeps at EA pay for SecUrom...does it come with a refund cause from what I see that fancy DRM did nothing.

How exactly does DRM help fighting piracy if Dead Space has immediately been cracked and now those who pirated the game laugh at those "suckers" who bought original game because they paid 50 bucks for DRM, online activation and limited installs, while nasty pirates got the game for free, with no DRM, no online activations and no limit on installs. So which version is better? The $50 DRM infested one, or the free no-DRM one?

How hard is it to understand that in order to fight piracy, those who paid for the original game must feel they got a BETTER deal than pirates, not worse! Or at least the same deal, but not worse, for chrissakes!

Imagine a store whose owner frisks and performs cavity searches all customers that paid for products, but at the same time there is a backdoor which shoplifters use to grab the goods for free and leave the store unfrisked and with cavities intact.
What would any sane shopowner do? Stop frisking paid customers.
What EA does? Starts frisking even harder and searches cavities even deepre in order to 'discourage stealing'. It's not hard to figure out how this 'brilliant' policy will pay off.

I am amazed how big companies like EA fail to grasp such a basic and obvious concept and are instead rambling about how DRM helps fight piracy, while it actually encourages it. Are they that detached from reality, or do they realize it, but cynically pretend they don't? It's beyond me, really.

Message was edited by: SimplexPL (EA Id)

I love your store owner analogy- it is so dead on.

My question to the Dev team and to EA is convince me in 500 words or less please why your Dead Space 50 dollar DRM, online limited activation, SecUrom loaded version is better than the other Dead Space, DRM free, no activation, no SecUrom loaded version.

I will seriously await a reply...Like any consumer who is comparing 2 different TV models that both provide the same experience I as the customer am asking you to give me your best sales pitch as to why your product is superior to the other available option.

I'm actually shocked, I just finished reading the spore thread about the guy trying to get Spore to activate after cleaning his computer, I am actually and totally shocked. If I was in his shoes I would have been saying some pretty unpolite things at the end. I mean geez, he was accused of being a pirate for pete's sake!

I want to let everyone know that I have a hard time keeping up with the technical stuff of games. I don't hear about things like DRM or at least know what they do until I've already purchased the game. So saying this, last Friday I purchased Dead Space for the PC and then this morning found this thread on this forum. After reading this I have to question whether I would have bought Dead Space if I knew this information before hand.

I've personally experience the amount of time it takes to resolve an issue using Customer Support, luckily it had nothing to do with Account Activation, but still it took days. Now I'm frantickly looking for my receipt of my purchase of Dead Space, thankfully I havn't taken out the trash yet, so I will probably have to dig through my trash can today. Oh man what if I can't find it? What if I actually threw it away in one of the campus trash cans instead of in mine? Sometimes I don't think about doing little stuff like that.

At this moment I don't know what will creep me out more, the Necromorphs in Dead Space or the DRM that comes with it.

I find it hard to believe that EA will patch this game in a couple of years as they have a poor track record for patching older games, there's simply no money in it.

EA only care about two things; profit and loss, patching old games brings no profit and is a drain on their resources. So I have no reason to trust this at all. I will be voting with my wallet and not buying your product as will many other gamers.

DRM only hurts those who pay for your product.

"I love your store owner analogy- it is so dead on. "

I might have borrowed this analogy from this blog:
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/

But it still is a great analogy and worth spreading

QUOTE "Why would you uninstall and reinstall a game five times in a month?"

That's not the issue, and it's no ones business.

If you paid for the game, you should be able to install it as many times as you like, and without asking anyone's permission.

I don't tell EA what to do with my money, why should they be able to tell me what to do?

If anyone wants to return their game, don't accept the rubbish that you can't because it's open.

If you don't agree with the EULA, or if the game doesn't run, you have every right to a refund, regardless of whether it's opened or not.


QUOTE "By examining previous EA PC game data, we have found that 75 percent of our consumers install and play any particular game on only one machine and less than 1 percent ever try to play on more than three different machines"

TRANSLATION We gathered this information using spyware known as SecuROM.

Surely you can install/uninstall the game on the same computer as many times as you like, and the 5 install limit applies only to different computers, yes?

it should. however, they'll probably classify a "different computer" as one with hardware significantly different from your own. so, upgrading the motherboard will probably qualify as a "different computer".

Well that would constitute a different computer, since by changing the motherboard you've altered the computers specification to something other than what it was.

But what I'm wondering is, can you install/uninstall the game as many times as you like on the same hardware? I don't see why you can't, or why they wouldn't see fit to let you do that.

Allow me to give you a little example with Star Wars Battlefront 2 (a much older game that I'm not sure even HAS DRM, but is a classic case between me and my friends)

I go to a LAN party and someone starts playing SWBF2. I say HOW COOL IS THAT?! and I buy myself a copy. Enter the DRM.

I install my copy on my PC (install 1) and play BF2 with my friends at our NEXT LAN party. There's a new guy there, so I figure "hey, I've got 5 installs, let me hook you up so you can play with the rest of us" (install 2)

about 6 months later a new game comes out and I need a New motherboard for the graphics card I need to play the game because I have an older PC (about $700 and install 3 to keep playing SWBF2). That last time there was no actual reinstall 'cause the hard drive was completely unchanged but I get dinged for different hardware.

about a year later I get sick of SWBF2 and I loan the game to my brother in the next city at thanksgiving because he has an older PC, which he later upgrades. (installs 4 and 5) so about a year later I ask for my game back (3 years overall) and reinstall it on my unchanged PC....

...and it tells me to buy a new copy or call California and complain. (I live in Canada, that costs as much as a sex hotline per minute)

now I KNOW that most people (Including myself) lose interest in a game within about 3-6 months, and the case above stretches over about 2 years, but that's my point. These "generous" 5 installs are single use, not 5 PCs at one time, 5 PCs EVER.

I freely admit I only EVER use Cracked Copies of games at LAN parties because of just that reason. Spore only has 3 installs. It's inherently single player, but using the above example, I get an angry long-distance phone call from my own brother saying my $^#(@#&^ game is &^$$#^% up and won't work.

Of course, since most games are release with "undiscovered balance issues" Cracked copies are inherently imbalanced at LANs, but its a damn sight better than buying a game twice because of a keygen fluke or not being able to play a game I like because local stores stopped selling the title altogether.

^^ that example is another prime reason why DRM was introduced; you mention lending the game out to your friends so they can install it, and then you complain about how this uses up your installs.

ideally each of those people would have to buy their own copy of the game - and by lending the disc out so others can play it, you've denied the developers the money they've earned by making the game. remember, when you purchase software, you're not buying the code, you're buying the right to use that code under certain conditions.

limited installs are put in place so that the scenario you describe of lending and borrowing doesn't keep going forever. and it's different from lending or borrowing a console game, where when someone else is using it, you can't play the game. with most PC games, you can lend the disc or even break the disc and still enjoy the software. what's to prevent that initial purchased copy of the game from eventually being installed on hundreds or even thousands of different machines? (of course, this is the piracy problem we currently have.)

like all "experienced" entertainment, it's important that each experience make money for the creators. authors make money off of the repeated sales of their books, actors make money off of the repeated sales of tickets or DVDs of their movies or plays, and developers make money off of the repeated sales of their games. remove the sales, the money dries up, and so does the entertainment.

keep doing what you're doing. PC gaming will wither, the pirates still won't want to pay for games, so console piracy will become much more entrenched, draining the sales there too. go ahead and kill your favorite entertainment medium. just don't cry after you've done it.