Spore DRM
So it seems EA decided to raise the number of installs allowed for Spore from 3 to 5. While one could consider it good that EA is in some capacity listening to customers, it seems pretty clear to me that they're just throwing a bone.
The issue wasn't never seriously that "I want to install the game five times, not three!" The issue was that they've transitioned from a model where everybody has the right to play a game they paid for, anywhere, forever, regardless of whether or not the company operating the activation servers is still supporting them or the customers have convenient internet access, to a model where you can only play the game you rented at the will of the company that made it. It is a privilege which they reserve the right to revoke at any time.
There is precident to believe that they WILL revoke that privilege as soon as it becomes unprofitable to support whatever they're selling it. Microsoft did it, after all, and I trust EA even less than I trust Microsoft.
I've heard a lot of EA-defenders arguing that "no paying customer has actually had any problems." This completely misses the point, because the problem doesn't arise until EA decides they no longer need to support the game. A few months ago, I installed SimCity, for DOS, of of a copy of the original install media. It worked, almost 20 years after the game came out. Will Spore still run off the original install media in 20 years? I think at this point the answer is "obviously not". At best they'll expect me to pay for it a second time, on the 2028 equivalent of Steam, which only proves that I was only renting it the first time.
And when EA claims that the vast majority of customers only install games once, they're immediately ruling out any chance that the game will be a timeless classic. I only install most games once, but I've probably installed a handful of games like Starcraft 20-30 times. If Starcraft had to phone home to Blizzard every time it was installed, I can't imagine that anybody would still play it ten years after it came out.
The issue wasn't never seriously that "I want to install the game five times, not three!" The issue was that they've transitioned from a model where everybody has the right to play a game they paid for, anywhere, forever, regardless of whether or not the company operating the activation servers is still supporting them or the customers have convenient internet access, to a model where you can only play the game you rented at the will of the company that made it. It is a privilege which they reserve the right to revoke at any time.
There is precident to believe that they WILL revoke that privilege as soon as it becomes unprofitable to support whatever they're selling it. Microsoft did it, after all, and I trust EA even less than I trust Microsoft.
I've heard a lot of EA-defenders arguing that "no paying customer has actually had any problems." This completely misses the point, because the problem doesn't arise until EA decides they no longer need to support the game. A few months ago, I installed SimCity, for DOS, of of a copy of the original install media. It worked, almost 20 years after the game came out. Will Spore still run off the original install media in 20 years? I think at this point the answer is "obviously not". At best they'll expect me to pay for it a second time, on the 2028 equivalent of Steam, which only proves that I was only renting it the first time.
And when EA claims that the vast majority of customers only install games once, they're immediately ruling out any chance that the game will be a timeless classic. I only install most games once, but I've probably installed a handful of games like Starcraft 20-30 times. If Starcraft had to phone home to Blizzard every time it was installed, I can't imagine that anybody would still play it ten years after it came out.