Dear EA: I wish ill upon you

So I buy my new copy of Spore today. I had some concerns about EA's invasive Securom copyright protection, but it's in so many games that I figured I already had it. Plus I really wanted Spore.

So I start the install process and then sit down to watch some football. When I get back it looks like it's done, but EA wants me to install their download manager. My first reaction is "fat chance", but I check online and apparently you have to have it to get updates. Fine then. So I start the install and immediately get hit with a license agreement. Well isn't this a new one! A license agreement for a program that I don't want, but that I have to install to use another program I paid good money for! Let's see: I can't use the EA download manager to pirate their games - fair enough; Legal speak - blah blah; The download manager can collect information on my hardware information as well as some other somewhat vaguely defined areas of information, but if I don't want EA to collect information on me then I can simply choose not to install the program. Thanks for spelling that out for me! Here, let me bend over!

So, installation of hellware complete. Now time to play my game... or not. Instead I get a popup telling me that I need to change my IE cookie settings or I cannot purchase junk at their store. Whatever. So I x out of that and look for a Spore shortcut. Nothing. EA download manager is on my desktop. EA download manager is in my program list. Spore is in neither, it's buried in my program file directory. Prioritize much, EA?

So, to recap: Invasive copyright protection? Check. Forced customer data mining? Check. I also had a devil of a time getting the game to run, but that's mostly my own fault for clicking the wrong option on the BS cookie popup and having the audacity to control my cookies in the first place. Although if EA would have put a freaking shortcut on my desktop I would have realized the game did in fact install, instead of trying unsuccessfully to get the DVD to run for several minutes. I guess the cookie thing is part of the deal for user interactivity, but I'm still steaming over that download manager crap.

I have no respect for publishers who have no respect for their customers.

Unreal. I love it when content providers treat all users as would-be criminals. Sorry EA, no more of my money for you until you learn to treat your customers better. Oh yeah, and also that copy protection is a waste of money, savings that could have lowered the cost of your games.

Damn man. That really does suck.

But hey, at least you can always reach EA's customer support to help you out, right? Right?

Found this at a friend's site today. I guess that download manager has more features than advertised.

Damn man. That really does suck.

But hey, at least you can always reach EA's customer support to help you out, right? Right?

SteelAttack

Any company as large as EA is going to have good points and bad points about their policies and practicies.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't call them out when they do stupid stuff - we should. It's just also important to keep in mind that they don't /always/ do stupid stuff.

i saw a blog post today was saying %90 of amazon's users gave 1 star to spore just because of that securerom/drm problem...

so maybe EA wants us to get a pirated copy of the game if we dont want trouble with these annoying issues ?

Unreal. I love it when content providers treat all users as would-be criminals. Sorry EA, no more of my money for you until you learn to treat your customers better. Oh yeah, and also that copy protection is a waste of money, savings that could have lowered the cost of your games.

MarcusAntonius

[QUOTE="MarcusAntonius"]

Unreal. I love it when content providers treat all users as would-be criminals. Sorry EA, no more of my money for you until you learn to treat your customers better. Oh yeah, and also that copy protection is a waste of money, savings that could have lowered the cost of your games.

mdjhx

Looks like Genghis Kahn to me.Rekunta

Ditto, in his younger days

The irony of it all is that all this does is create more piracy. I would never buy a game that makes you do all of that crap, no matter what game it was or who made it. I don't know about other people, but the more copy protection a game has, the less likely I am to actually buy it.

Fortunately I'm not interested in Spore and I'm trying to move away from PC gaming.

I pre-ordered a copy of Warhammer Online from EA with the promotion of having access to the Beta testing. I did this order way before the event. I emailed EA to confirm that they were going to send me the beta code in time for the begining of the event, which they emailed back effectivley saying yes.

The event starts 7th, no beta key email, so I email EA to cancel my preorder. I recieve my beta key today 2 days after the event launched, still with the game on pre-order. So i've sent another email to try and cancel it again.

Maybe I'm just nitt-picking but if i'm going through them to get a promotional beta key then I wouldn't mind actually having it for the event.

P.S. EA Link or whatever its called now is shocking. Mine doesn't even work properly anymore and won't allow me to patch things properly, manual patching ftw.

[QUOTE="Rekunta"]Looks like Genghis Kahn to me.HiResDes

Ditto, in his younger days

Hm... more like some guy from Jade Empire, Dinasty Warriors or Silkroad.

The majority of this thread is a confirmation of what I, and certainly others, have been seeing over the past few years. Totalitarian DRM and unaccomidating support with games that could have been great, but turned out, "meh..."

EA has lost my business until I hear differently...

I was reading reviews on Amazon.com for Spore, and came upon this post:

This DRM isn't going to stop game piracy and EA knows it. The SecuROM DRM contained in Spore is for implementing EA's new stand alone pc game subscription business model. You pay for the game but don't own it in any way shape or form. You relinquish your right to make a back-up copy, install it as many times as you wish on your pc, and re-sell it. If you do some research online you will see that this is all part of EA's new business model, along with "micro-transactions" and in-game advertising. As bad as this may sound for the future of pc gaming, all hope is not lost. As consumers we have the power to flex our muscle and tighten our grip on our wallets.

I have never resorted to piracy before, but EA has just pushed me over the edge. Any game that interests me made by EA I will obtain through illegal means. Thanks EA!

I was reading reviews on Amazon.com for Spore, and came upon this post:

This DRM isn't going to stop game piracy and EA knows it. The SecuROM DRM contained in Spore is for implementing EA's new stand alone pc game subscription business model. You pay for the game but don't own it in any way shape or form. You relinquish your right to make a back-up copy, install it as many times as you wish on your pc, and re-sell it. If you do some research online you will see that this is all part of EA's new business model, along with "micro-transactions" and in-game advertising. As bad as this may sound for the future of pc gaming, all hope is not lost. As consumers we have the power to flex our muscle and tighten our grip on our wallets.

I have never resorted to piracy before, but EA has just pushed me over the edge. Any game that interests me made by EA I will obtain through illegal means. Thanks EA!

Rekunta

And technically, most game companies won't claim that you actually own the game, but merely a license to use it on your computer, so part of what is being said there isn't something that I really find terribly outrageous, though any sort of DRM is really annoying in multiple ways.

[QUOTE="Rekunta"]

I was reading reviews on Amazon.com for Spore, and came upon this post:

This DRM isn't going to stop game piracy and EA knows it. The SecuROM DRM contained in Spore is for implementing EA's new stand alone pc game subscription business model. You pay for the game but don't own it in any way shape or form. You relinquish your right to make a back-up copy, install it as many times as you wish on your pc, and re-sell it. If you do some research online you will see that this is all part of EA's new business model, along with "micro-transactions" and in-game advertising. As bad as this may sound for the future of pc gaming, all hope is not lost. As consumers we have the power to flex our muscle and tighten our grip on our wallets.

I have never resorted to piracy before, but EA has just pushed me over the edge. Any game that interests me made by EA I will obtain through illegal means. Thanks EA!

Skylock00

And technically, most game companies won't claim that you actually own the game, but merely a license to use it on your computer, so part of what is being said there isn't something that I really find terribly outrageous, though any sort of DRM is really annoying in multiple ways.

My bad, I meant a user review. DRM is horrible, but aside from that, when I buy a game I should be able to install it however many times I wish. Sure it's purchasing the license and not the software, but it is not a rental.

My bad, I meant a user review. DRM is horrible, but aside from that, when I buy a game I should be able to install it however many times I wish. Sure it's purchasing the license and not the software, but it is not a rental.

Rekunta

Why do they insist on installing so much other stuff to invade your PC just to be able to play the game you bought properly?

I don't want DRM, installation limits, restrictions on usage, forced to use particular software to get updates or game content. As others have said, most of these problems only affect people who buy the game. For those that get it by other means get a better version with all this stuff removed or disabled.

Most of this copy-protection is like building a wall on quicksand. The bigger you build your defenses the faster they sink.

[QUOTE="Rekunta"]

My bad, I meant a user review. DRM is horrible, but aside from that, when I buy a game I should be able to install it however many times I wish. Sure it's purchasing the license and not the software, but it is not a rental.

Skylock00

EA isn't evil, just absurdly stupid. Yelling about how terrible piracy is, then actively turning whats left of your honest customers towards piracy by making it more of a hassle to be an honest customer than it is to pirate, is laughably idiotic and self defeating.

[QUOTE="Skylock00"][QUOTE="Rekunta"]

My bad, I meant a user review. DRM is horrible, but aside from that, when I buy a game I should be able to install it however many times I wish. Sure it's purchasing the license and not the software, but it is not a rental.

CronoSquall

EA isn't evil, just absurdly stupid. Yelling about how terrible piracy is, then actively turning whats left of your honest customers towards piracy by making it more of a hassle to be an honest customer than it is to pirate, is laughably idiotic and self defeating.

Agreed EA makes some great games and does a lot for the industry when they can but who the hell wants to put up with this nonsense in their PC games? I should be rewarded for being a cash paying consumer with some free downloadable content or something not annoyed so much that I dont want to bother with the game in the first place. Well, at least legally I wont.GodModeEnabled

Sorry had to reply to this. While I wouldn't go as far as to call EA the bane of the industry and I don't hate them to any extent. EA has a history of doing things in the wrong way, whether it's the industry eye opener EA spouse, their acquisition and management practices and now their invasive DRM & online practices.

While EA are making an ACTIVE attempt to change their image both for the consumer and the industry, by supporting fresh IP's and nurturing close relationships with developers, their DRM is just one of many in a long line of misteps and more importantly and I think this is an important issue it's not doing anything to stem piracy.

I think it's an important consideration, would NO security mean less in the way of piracy than something along the lines of what EA is doing (with mass effect the game had to check online every 10 days to allow the player to continue playing). The fact is this is driving people to rebel simply out of frustration. PAYING consumers are being treated like potential criminals and milked for all their worth, while the pirates continue to play their hassle free versions. Nobody is advocating piracy HOWEVER EA is just making the prospect of hassle free gaming MUCH more appealing the more they hassle legit players...

I think piracy is much more an attempt to simple show 'I can' (bypass the security) rather than an active attack to not pay. DRM, especially not in the way EA is doing it, is not going to slow or even stem piracy.

DRM, especially not in the way EA is doing it, is not going to slow or even stem piracy.

Arath_1

Indeed, it will actively grow it. I just had a friend return his unopened copy the other day, and he plainly told me he WILL in fact, pirate this game. He's NEVER done that before. I don't blame him, invasive programs like that are absolutely unacceptable.

I have no respect for publishers who have no respect for their customers.Archon_basic

Theres ony 1 PC publisher/developer left that respects his customers. Blizzard entertainment. The rest makes games for money and money only. Getting the scene hyped up with some awesome graphics and deliver nothing but empty boxes. EA is a very bad company, trying to get a monopoly position on the market that way is always bad. They used to make very fun games back in the day but nowadays they don't even make/publish 1 out of 10 decent games, and if theres 1 good one, or good hyped one, they sell it with all this crap arround it to make you suffer. But seenfrom a commercial perspective, it's probably one of the best.... go figure...

gz

[QUOTE="GodModeEnabled"]Agreed EA makes some great games and does a lot for the industry when they can but who the hell wants to put up with this nonsense in their PC games? I should be rewarded for being a cash paying consumer with some free downloadable content or something not annoyed so much that I dont want to bother with the game in the first place. Well, at least legally I wont.Arath_1

Sorry had to reply to this. While I wouldn't go as far as to call EA the bane of the industry and I don't hate them to any extent. EA has a history of doing things in the wrong way, whether it's the industry eye opener EA spouse, their acquisition and management practices and now their invasive DRM & online practices.

While EA are making an ACTIVE attempt to change their image both for the consumer and the industry, by supporting fresh IP's and nurturing close relationships with developers, their DRM is just one of many in a long line of misteps and more importantly and I think this is an important issue it's not doing anything to stem piracy.

I think it's an important consideration, would NO security mean less in the way of piracy than something along the lines of what EA is doing (with mass effect the game had to check online every 10 days to allow the player to continue playing). The fact is this is driving people to rebel simply out of frustration. PAYING consumers are being treated like potential criminals and milked for all their worth, while the pirates continue to play their hassle free versions. Nobody is advocating piracy HOWEVER EA is just making the prospect of hassle free gaming MUCH more appealing the more they hassle legit players...

I think piracy is much more an attempt to simple show 'I can' (bypass the security) rather than an active attack to not pay. DRM, especially not in the way EA is doing it, is not going to slow or even stem piracy.

The approach Stardock took with Sins of a Solar Empire has made me respect them as a publisher, and I'll take a hard look at anything they publish from now on. I'm more likely to buy their games now, and I can't wait for Demigod. Now contrast that with my experience with EA. They got $50 from me and installed their precious little spyware on my system, but now that I've been burned I'll now be passing up EA published games I would have otherwise bought. Companies can use dubious business practices to cash in short term, but it's going to hurt their reputation and it's going to hurt their bottom line in the long term.