Quote Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae
I have Mass Effect on the 360, so I don't need it for the PC anyway. And as for Spore, why not? The only people who should really worry are those without legitimate copies. After all, Spore does use an internet connection anyway, so it's not like you're making an extra effort to validate.
It's not about the idea in the abstract, it's about the exact mechanics of how they implement this. If the game "phones home" every ten days, and it only does that when I boot up the game, and there's no appreciable delay in loading, and there is no other impact on the integrity of my computer or personal data, then I can live with that. As you point out, it looks like Spore will need a live 'Net connection anyway.

Here's what I can't live with, and it's all about the implementation details:

  • Does the game phone home and transfer any marketing data in the background?
  • Does the game place hidden files on my system that won't be removed when the game is un-installed, and that can't be removed in any easy way by the user, and that cause problems with other programs or leave possible back doors open for hackers? This, of course, is what CA did with the Kingdoms expansion that uses SecureROM, and why a lot of us didn't buy it.
  • If there is an arbitrary number of limited activations, is the number fewer than would be reasonable for the average gamer?


Until those questions are answered, I don't think I could consider buying these games, as much as I'm interested in them.

There is another issue too... the question of long-term replayability. A really good game is something I might finish and then come back to, a year or more down the road. Will the game company still be around then? Are they making any kind of committment to release a patch that removes the activation if, at some point, they're not able to keep their activation servers online? I don't usually keep shooters like Mass Effect on the hard drive that long, but it's a relevant question with something that has the potential to be a "classic" like Spore, if it lives up to the hype.