Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Oh geeze...Bithy said nibble..

*melt*

What I love best is pulling out an older game to play. I install it on my machine, go to play, and it wants to register or activate online. So I try to do so. Oops, the registration server is gone. No play for me, even though I bought the game and have it sitting on my shelf. Sadly, the only solution for that is to crack the game.

Coyote,
I bought this game the day of the release through the preload option on the spore and EA websites. I was never asked to verify anything at all, and to make things even more amazing, the game is friggin AWESOME. I won't put in a spoiler, but I will vouch for EA's success ont his release. They did a good job and the so call SecuROM software that everyone is up in arms about is extremely transparent.

"Because the Copyright Protection was more Effed up than a kissing booth at a family reunion."

Not if your from Kentucky . . .

Badion,

The transparency or ease of the SecuRom isn't the issue - Just because you don't see or realize that something is there, doesn't make it suddenly "right".

Wait until you hit that 4th activation and see exactly how wonderful the security measures are. I realize that some people will never have a problem with this, and that three activations are more than enough for some. For a LOT of people this doesn't seem like a big deal, but for me and many others it is not only big - but a deal breaker.

I can't buy Spore now - not with the activation in the state that it is in. This sucks because I was really looking forward to it, and I know how good the game truly is.

Just because they made your bindings comfy and pretty doesn't make them any less a binding.

Black listed?

Omg you racist!

*giggle*

Seriously, you seem angry about something. Want to talk about it? How big is Uranus??

Anyone here had to format their PC more than 3 times in the last 12 months btw?

Cheer up ffs! Its almost friday!

Oh can you get me a Warhammer beta key ya studmuffin?? You got me email! /wink

I bought the game even knowing about the 3 times thing. Call me stupid. The hype of the game got the better of me. I wanted to pirate it, but I just can't do that at this stage in my life....I always feel bad for the programmer. I also was one of the people to give it a 1 star on amazon (oddly enough potentially hurting the programmer). Not for the gameplay, but for EA's draconian DRM.

I love the game itself so far. It's not the best thing since free porn like I expected it to be, but it is fun.

Coy - you can use my pc at gaming and create your own planet if you want. Just DON'T mess up my computer so that I have to reinstall.

I could swear I read that they were relaxing the restrictions on both Spore and Mass Effect a while back. Hmm. I installed Spore Monday evening (and have the sleep deprivation to prove it, hehe). Other than some random crashing to desktop which actually started Sunday with my Warhammer Beta oddly enough, it runs great. It logs onto Spore.com at launch so you don't have to launch a browser to download components on the fly. Pretty spiffy actually, but I don't know if it causes a problem if you are offline or just lets you in anyway.

Grr, you're gonna make me do research and try to find the article I'm thinking of about relaxing the DRM.

DRM was relaxed for both Spore and Mass Effect as they no longer automagically connect to the reactivation server every 10 days as they were initially intended for continous reassurance that you haven't pirated software.

Mass Effect still had the "register online", but that's more than acceptable. I prove I bought it, my product works. Easy-Peasy.

Three installs on Spore and the new revamped DRM?

Not so easy, not so peasy.

I too got Spore on Day one. I too dislike the DRM issues, I just need to pray I do not have to reload my PC any time soon. The look on my son's face as he creates his own space ship or Creature is money well spent for this game.

I bought it direct download and am up past the tribal stage, the DRM isn't going to be a problem; no one is going to want to play it enough to get through three installs. I closed the game without saving and had to do the Tribal stage twice and it was simple enough to do it exactly the same way again; so it doesn't seem like it's going to have much replay value. I'm half way through the stages and while it's been ok, after I'm done and my wife has a shot it's headed to the junk bin. I think it’s a good game for kids though (E+ duh, right) and they will have found something else by the time you need to reformat their computer for the third round.

Seriously Coy I need a Warhammer beta key! Cmon man, I've supported you, I've read yer crappy EQ2 columns, read that comic, voted for it, its time to give some back!

Oh, happy World Not Blowing Up day everyone!

I remember that now... yeah the 10 day thingy. That was a bad notion. Hmm, ok I looked up the DRM explanation on the Spore K-Base. It says that you can reinstall on the same PC as much as you want and install on up to 3 different PCs. Basically as long as it still recognizes your computer as one that was registered it won't argue. After you exceed the 3 pc limit you have to play mother-may-I. So if you wipe the HD you'll use up a strike. If you uninstall/reinstall you won't. I usually wipe each of my pc's about every 6-9 months. Luckily the only PC running anything newer than 2006 is brand new and shouldn't need anything that drastic for quite a while. It is a shame they went with such a tight restriction.

I am weak though... I waited so very long for Spore to finally release that I preordered it months ago. DRM or not, I wanted to jump in. Now I'm up to my eyeballs in building/vehicle components with apparently no talent for design. I made a neat little boat-thingy in the vehicle editor last night... only to have my husband walk in, look over my shoulder and immediately ask me why my boat was going backwards. /sigh That's what I get for trying to deliberately avoid the modern looking components. I haven't beaten the civilization stage yet so I won't decide if it's going to be a long term thing for me until I tinker with the space part. DRM issues aside I'm definitely glad I got it.

Wow... I'm kinda impressedy by your activism on this Coyote. I think you should become an Community Organizer and in four years we can elect you President of the United States.

Think about it... forget socialized health care... we need socialized computer games! Free games for everyone, paid for by our tax dollars! Yay socialism! Woot!

And forget Democrats and Republicans, forget the Green Party and the Libertarians... we need a gamer platform... we can call it the LAN Party (hehe)

I am not sure I can get behind your, "The pirates are too smart and have already cracked the game so don't waste your time trying to stop piracy." argument. You're saying the criminals are too smart, the game developers can't win ... so they should just give up. That's not cool. As for the online registration thing. Most everyone's online these days ... if your PC is fast enough, strong enough, modern enough to run today's newest games, chances are good that you have a high-speed connection that's always on. I know that you're a comedy writer, so maybe this is all just in jest ... but you've been on this particular soap box before, so I figure you believe in what you're saying. Personally, I can't see boycotting a game, or posting 100's of one star reviews on Amazon in protest, just because a developer is trying to protect their property. I think the true fear is that one day the game developers will succeed. That one day all games will be distributed in such a way that they cannot be stolen, and then people will have to actually purchase their games. That's the fear. That's what people are protesting. That leaves such protests sounding hollow and selfish to me. Ah, well ... sorry to get all serious and stuff

Erus

I was going to buy the game, but the more reviews I read, the less I was interested (even though the reviews were positive). I read that it consists of four main "phases", the fourth being space travel. I thought, ok cool, but then I also read that the first 3 phases only take like an hour to complete. That kinda sucks.

I also read that you can die as many times as you want and change your creature as many times as you want without any consequences. I'm not completely hard-core, but that kinda sounds odd to me.

uh-uh!
Four years time America is NOT voting Coy in as pres.

There will be only two candidates, John McCain's hot daughter and Chelsea Clinton.

In a bath of custard.

/beaviss
Hadron lol hadron!

My argument is far from "Don't bother because they are too smart". I stated above, and I state now, you should be required to activate a game. I LIKE product activation, and STEAM has really grown on me.

But to be forced to *continously* prove that you bought a game past that initial "Hey, it's me" is ridiculous. I tried to keep this as light as I could, but you are right - I do believe in this. And while I didn't get into root kits, information gleaning and system reporting, the DRM in current use is NOT something I can get behind or even agree with a little bit.

The reason piracy was brought up WAS because in this case, the pirates were too smart. Before the game was even officially released it was cracked and the DRM and rootkit in tow were hacked out, leaving the only people who have to dance through the hoops - the ones not doing anything wrong.

Yeah, but it could be worse ... remember the days when your game started with a quiz to verify that you bought it?

"In your game manual, on page 4 paragraph 3 what is the fourth word on line one?"

And you had to dig through your manual and find the answer to the question before you could play and you had to do that every damn time you started the game... now that was annoying.

Erus

See, the people who really suffer with the security measures are people like me. I probably will burn through my 3 activations - but probably over the course of a few years, well after new activation keys and new retail copies are long gone. So, I do not have a permanent product that I've bought. I have a consumable item.

And it's that shift from permanent item to consumable item, all in the name of "security" that has the buyers like me up in arms. And to add insult to injury, that "security" is already visibly failed. It took the hackers two days. TWO DAYS. If the security on this puppy was really that good, it should have taken at least two weeks!

Erus, what game was that? I have games sitting on my shelf that don't even require a registration key to install. Granted, they're a bit aged, but I've never had to take a pop quiz to launch a game.

Ah yes.. looking for word 4 on line 6 of page 12... or skmming through to find out in which month the silver train left Panama... or the code wheel that came with some of the early sports games... and IIRC, Wayne Gretzhy Hockey 2's black print on brown paper code page.

Damn I feel old now.

Madhog Says:

September 10th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I need a Warhammer beta key!
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Yes, yes you do! Warhammer is fantastic! I usually despise PvP but I love it in War. Waaagh!!

Mezzy Says:

September 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Erus, what game was that? I have games sitting on my shelf that don’t even require a registration key to install. Granted, they’re a bit aged, but I’ve never had to take a pop quiz to launch a game.

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Tie Figher was like that back in day, Also the first hockey game i had was like that. Whats funny that hockey game fit on a single 3.5 and yet you could so much in it then you can in the last verison of NHL. sure the graphic sucked by todays standards but for the time they were right on par

I made the mistake of buying Microsoft Money 2008 online earlier this year. They gave me an activation key and everything.

Wellllll I upgraded to Vista (yes legal, geesh) and re-installed MY software to my new OS on the same old computer. Well you guessed it. I got no re-install.

I e-mailed their help line explaining about my issue and they offered to help me, when they are at work. I have just the right hours (8 to 5) that I could not get through to them for a couple weeks during the week, and of course they are closed on the weekends.

So, yeah, I hate this crap, and it's nothing new...

No wonder people are pirates...

Mezzy, there was a game called Harley Davidson something or other that had that exact activation in order to play EVERY time, and a dragon game, and Leisure Suit Larry #1 had an age quiz

The register has a story that basically covers the same stuff Coy said. It also touches on the horrible ratings the game has on Amazon due to the DRM issues. "http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/10/spore_drm_amazon_effect/"

I 'acquired' a copy of the DRM free game, and after playing a few hours, I can really say I'm not that impressed.

It's a great concept, and the graphics are good, but I feel it doesn't deliver what it promised. My creature doesn't evolve based on the choices I make. I grind up points to buy gear. I'd rather have it give me a tought beak if I use it all the time in combat, or sharper or longer claws, better kicking ability, etc... all based on how I use the tools I have against the critters in the world.

I don't think it will be taking up space on my hard drive much longer.

Bith, you suck.

Mad leave Bithy alone!

*glares at Mad*

My internet connection often randomly borks out, it's been happening for years and the ISP and I have no clue what causes it or how to fix it, it will just randomly come back on the next morning at some point. Just saying, despite being in the middle of a somewhat large town and paying for my net I do NOT have continuous high speed net. Now with the new activation on Spore that shouldn't be a problem but I do know people with no net even these days, and their computers played the spore creature creator just fine.

I don't agree with all the activation stuff coming out these days either. I understand why they do it, but to be honest I've not seen a game that the pirates haven't managed to crack (barring fully online MMOs and 3/4 of those have personal/private servers that you could gain access to if so inclined). What they need to do, if they want to stop pirates, is not continue with the same old protections, but come up with something new and innovative. The rootkits, always-on security processes (even when not playing said game), etc just clutter up your comp and make it run slower, and in most cases if you try to get rid of them for performance's sake it will cause said product not to run. I'm a performance whore on my comp and I *hate* sloppy installers, uninstallers, updaters, and protection that leaves excess junk on your comp.

I most certainly do not suck . . . I only nibble . . .

And Mad this means Waagh!! Come to the TTH Warhammer forums to see some of the goodness that is Waaagh! Lots of screen shots and videos.

I think my favorite "activation" was the code wheel that monkey island had... You had to use it every time you started the game. Of course when I played it there wasn't any place that sold it for at least 400km... So we photocopied the wheel.

That said-I don't mind a game asking something from the manual every time I started. What I mind is having to register-with the company, online. Even once! I've always been able to play my favorite games without going online (Starcraft, Civ, etc.). Ok, so I've installed the cracks to allow me to play them without putting my CD in the drive. But still, they never required online activation. And these were good games, that STILL sell well.

If the companies put as much effort into producing quality games as they did fussing with DRM they would make more money, even if they sold the games with no DRM at all. Take a look at Starcraft (as one of many possible examples). No DRM at all (authentication for online play is a totally separate issue), and it still sells well. Just make quality products-it's actually better for their bottom line. (but then they'd have to know what they were doing...)

The game has four stage, cell, Tribal, Civ, and space. The first three COULD be blown through in an hour, OR you can try the more challenging stuff and try and economically over power your enemy instead of just throwing a ton of tanks at the enemy.

Bithnar Says:
September 10th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Yes, yes you do! Warhammer is fantastic! I usually despise PvP but I love it in War. Waaagh!!
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I second this!!! WAAAGH!!!!

# cyberblade Says:
September 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

If the companies put as much effort into producing quality games as they did fussing with DRM they would make more money, even if they sold the games with no DRM at all. Take a look at Starcraft (as one of many possible examples). No DRM at all (authentication for online play is a totally separate issue), and it still sells well. Just make quality products-it’s actually better for their bottom line. (but then they’d have to know what they were doing…)
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The CEO of Stardock said EXACTLY this in an interview prior to releasing Sins of a Solar Empire with NO protection of any kind; you don't even need the disc in the drive to play. Other company's cried doom and gloom, predicting it would be pirated to Kingdom Come; instead it became a sleeper hit. If you make a good game, people will buy it.

I would like to point out to all the naysayers out there that I upgrade my comp once every three years when it becomes obsolete (JUST got out of AGP 2 weeks ago). However, a while back, I went through 4 hard drives in a year, 3 within 4 mos. TOTAL accident. Had the system checked out by 3 specialists and no one could find anything wrong.

Based on that situation, I should have to call up and beg and plead with Mythic to get permission to play a product that I purchased with money I probably don't even have to spend, and now own? I should have to WAIT for the approval process in order to enjoy a game that I shelled out $50 that could've gone towards food or gas or an oil change or something responsible? Sorry, but EFF that. I paid for it, I should be able to play at will, regardless of the odd situations that may occur to my computer life.

I stand by Coyote, and not because he has toned and rippling abs either... because he doesn't

So Coy...any clue why I just got like 9 spam emails telling me there were replies to this article? I didn't sign up for anything, is Wordpress going nuts or something?!?!?