PC Games: SecuROM, DSM, and Limited Activations

So, there's been a slew of new releases I've been looking forward to. Unfortunately, about half of them are getting bundled with the latest in draconian features to supposedly prevent piracy. The two big ones, that I'd been really looking forward to and include these features, are Far Cry 2 and Spore.

Apparently games are getting bundled with SecuROM and require registration with a limited number of activations. Something like, you can install the game 5 times, and no more. SecuROM sounds like insidious malware that latches onto your system and monitors and controls more than you want it to. Even if I order Far Cry 2 through Steam, I will only be allowed to install the game 5 times.

The additionally goofy thing is, that this doesn't prevent any piracy, because people are still cracking these games just as easily as any other game. And the cracked game has no limit on installs, and won't install additional unwanted software.

So I'm avoiding buying these games because I am too nervous about being treated with innate distrust by companies whose product I would otherwise like to buy.

Has anyone had experience with these latest "security" features? What do you think of them? I'm going to vote with my wallet and spend my money on other games:

Fallout 3 will be released tomorrow, without this BS, and I'm going to rock that E36 M3!

my only experience is with steam, and i found it to be a buggy resource hog, just as expected.

Strizzo, I agree with you. While every game I've played on Steam (Half-Life 1 & 2, a bunch of derivatives, and Counterstrike) has been an addicting bunch of fun, they're all buggy as hell.

I vote with my wallet on these too - I haven't bought any of them. I was looking forward to getting HL2 and Portal, but I won't put up with Steam. In fact I often end up pirating games like these. Way to stop piracy.

confuZion3 wrote: Strizzo, I agree with you. While every game I've played on Steam (Half-Life 1 & 2, a bunch of derivatives, and Counterstrike) has been an addicting bunch of fun, they're all buggy as hell.

Really? I had one persistent crash with with HL2:Episode 2, but Valve support fixed it for me within 24 hours of having reported it. Great customer support.

Everything else I've had no bug problems with. I generally don't notice Steam, unless it's downloading a game update. But I don't mind that since I can tell it to pause an update, or just shut the program down, at any time.

I actually love Steam. I enjoy the flexibility of being able to download games at any time. Once I own a game, if I misplace a disk, I can just download it again. It tracks when my friends are online, and I can jump into a game of TF2 when I see one of them is in.

I also love how it's brought back demos and independent games. There are tons of little independent games on Steam. Almost all of them have a free demo version. I bought Peggle for that reason, and will probably buy "World of Goo".

I switched from PC gaming to consoles a few years ago. Aside from missing wasd and mouse aiming, I couldn't be happier.

No more hardware issues, messing about with drivers, draconian DRM/activation schemes, etc...

I'd like to see anyone build a gaming rig with the graphics capabilities of an Xbox 360 for $199.

/360 fanboy

skruffy wrote: I'd like to see anyone build a gaming rig with the graphics capabilities of an Xbox 360 for $199.

I did. My new machine with an Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gigs RAM, and an 8600GT graphics card cost me $200. Although, I ended up spending an additional $40 on a fancy new power supply to protect my nice hardware; I didn't have to buy additional controllers, and PC games are cheaper than console games anyway.

My older machines have superior graphics capabilities to an XBox 360. Each of them cost me $30 for a used graphics card from a friend.

And if you don't have an HDTV, your console will never match the display capabilities of a PC. I don't have the money for an HDTV.

Oh! And a third party recently came out with a solid co-op mod for Half-Life 2! That has me jazzed to rock that storyline all over again with a friend.

Don't waste your money on Spore.

There, I said it. It sucked. Screw you for getting my hopes up, Will Wright.

im tired of gaming on the pc. The only reasons I get updated systems are to run things like GTR and so on.

I'm not saying I don't like Steam. The software is just generally buggy. But I cannot complain. When I bought my video card, it was supposed to come with a free version of HL2 (this is before it came out). When it ended up coming out a year late, Valve did something I never thought they would: they gave everyone who bought the video card a whole host of free games: Counterstrike, HL1, Source, and a whole bunch of other games. Then, when HL2 came out - you guessed it - it was free as well.

Of course, after a week of playing it, when I got really REALLY far in the game, all the saved data corrupted and I lost everything. I never played HL2 again.

I love steam...

As far as DRM... I find half the time the people who are complaining about it have never had any actual problems...

i did have one problem with an EA game where it linked the CD key to your online account, and my brand new game had some how already been activated... but that wouldn't have been a big deal had EA not been worthless. (They basically accused me of lying to them, and stealing the game when I called customer service.)

This particular case its a good example though.... Your all up at arms over it and the fact that you can only install it 5 times... but your just over reacting to something you read somewhere, with out actually trying it, and haven't actually had any problems with it.

Its 5 installs at once, any time you uninstall you get an install back. I admit its weak that you have to be online to uninstall and install it.... but its most likely that you will be anyways. Do you even own more then 5 computers capable of playing the game?

I would prefer if these games didn't have the annoying DRM, but its not THAT big of a deal.

As far as the DRM not doing anything? Ehh, its like a bike lock. Easy as hell to get past, but not everyone is out there is gonna go that far out of their way to break the law. Not every one is downloading cracks and hacks for games... If you could just throw the disk in, install and never need it again there would be A LOT more people out there bumming games off friends instead of buying,

RedS13Coupe wrote: This particular case its a good example though.... Your all up at arms over it and the fact that you can only install it 5 times... but your just over reacting to something you read somewhere, with out actually trying it, and haven't actually had any problems with it. Its 5 installs at once, any time you uninstall you get an install back. I admit its weak that you have to be online to uninstall and install it.... but its most likely that you will be anyways. Do you even own more then 5 computers capable of playing the game? I would prefer if these games didn't have the annoying DRM, but its not THAT big of a deal. As far as the DRM not doing anything? Ehh, its like a bike lock. Easy as hell to get past, but not everyone is out there is gonna go that far out of their way to break the law. Not every one is downloading cracks and hacks for games... If you could just throw the disk in, install and never need it again there would be A LOT more people out there bumming games off friends instead of buying,

That's why I'm on here asking people if they've tried software with these latest security features and what their experiences have been.

I'm not trying it yet because there are too many red flags, and not enough has been done to make me more comfortable. I'd like to play these games now, but I'm willing to wait several months to see if either people decide it's not a problem, or EA (since I'm pretty sure these are all EA games) bows to popular pressure and removes the features people don't like.

I'm not comfortable with the "if you uninstall it, you get an activation back". Every now and then I decide to build a new machine or wipe my system clean. I don't want to have to go back through and uninstall everything.

I'd also be a lot more comfortable if EA would actually release an FAQ on their activation systems. I don't want to buy something or install something on my computer and guess what it's going to do.

I think they have crossed the line on what is appropriate to protect their intellectual property. They're making it more difficult for people to use what they have legitimately purchased.

I do think that there is going to be a backlash from this generation of DRM and that we won't see software companies doing limited activations anymore.

I know what you're saying about it being a bike lock, but I don't think this stops too much piracy. Requiring a CD key and a disk to play stops people from installing the game on a bunch of computers. The only game I've seen recently that didn't require the disk to play was STALKER (because it's from some Eastern European developer).