Ea Announced Their Worst Idea Ever Install a game 3 times and then you have to buy another copy

[i_speel_good 0]

I can't believe how stupid EA can be. So if you buy a game and install it over 3 times, it locks up and you have to buy another copy.
This is STUPID. I've read in a forum a post by someone who formats his hard drive every 3 months. He's never going to buy any EA game with that kind of protection.

I think it's pretty dumb too. Imagine buying the game, installing it and having it corrupted after a month or so. You get to fix it, re-install the game then it breaks down completely. Then you buy a new HD and you install it.

What happens if you for some reason (for example, not having much space on the HD) have to uninstall it? Or what if someone else uninstalls it telling you to install it later? EA was bad. But they just became even worse.

(I typed this out by myself; the link below is where I read the news from)

source

Edited June 25, 2008 by i_speel_good (see edit history)

[bishoujo 0]

I think they are trying too hard to encourage everybody to get their own individual copy. But now, as the original source says, they are just going to encourage more illegal cracking, sharing and downloads, be it for convenience or out of vengeance.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well at least us platfromers don't have to worry about 3 install and thus a reason why I don't buy to many PC games because of stupid like that. So all us platformers we have to worry about EA producing bad video games and I think they don't care anymore since they know we will buy the game, play it, go to every gaming forum and complain about it. Of course, if people have been paying attention EA has been spending money to get Take-Two Interactive and so far they haven't.

[minimcmonkey 0]

I think that will really decrease sales.But i dont see how it could work - surely you can still use the games without connecting to the internet to activate.and it couldnt save the mount of activations on the CD or game disk either.I know that DVD drives save the amount of times you change their regeion, but this is performed by the hardware itself, so the hard drive does not effect it.I dont think there is eally a way in which you could not remove the registry files saying how many times it was installed.They would not make it so people without internet access cannot play ot.because that would loose a considerable amount of sales.Presumably, they are trying to stop piracy, and lending around games.But without being able to write to the game CD, I dont see how any other PC could detect the amount of times the game had been installed elswere.

[i_speel_good 0]

The thing that's even worse is that Spore will have this protection... and I think Mass Effect already has it, as the source says.Spore will not have good sales if this system's existence gets more known.

[AbdurahmanL 0]

Well we all know why they do this stuff, it's because of the underground gaming community. The more people stop buying games and just downloading cracked copies, the more all these companies (Microsoft, etc) Will try to stop it, but we all know the more the big companies try to stop it the more the underground cracking scene will find ways of getting around the protection. It's just a cat and mousw game really.

[rayzoredge 2]

I was just talking to a buddy of mine about this.

 

I understand that the guys down at EA (or any company, really) spend a lot of time, spill some blood and tears, and do a lot to churn out games that we all enjoy. I understand that they want to keep people from making unauthorized copies of the game, which would mean less actual sales of the game, which means less cash in the pocket and less profitability. It makes sense. How would you feel if you spent a few years developing a game, only to sell a dozen copies and having the rest of the world share your game with each other without you earning an additional dime for your hard work?

 

You could feel pretty good about it, actually.

 

There's a reason why people create free MMORPGs for everyone else to play. There's a reason why people join the open source community, release free programs, and give up their time, money, and efforts to produce that everyone else can enjoy. Some of it is out of good will. But there's a catch to all this. How many non-geeks know of Linux? of OpenOffice? of Maple Story? (just to name a few) Think of the free software that's on your computer right now that you benefit from.

 

It's all about spreading the good name. If you put out a product that everyone can appreciate for free, people will know you and your work. Consequently, a lot of people (and companies) will notice you. A developer then has choices to exploit this sort of fanbase. Does he utilize viral techniques to further up hype about his game? Does he take the opportunity to utilize advertisement as a form of revenue through a free game that thousands of people play and will be exposed to? Does he start an online store with game-related collectibles that people are going to want? (Look at what Portal did for the sales of the well-loved Companion Cube, or what Wall-E did for sales of Wall-E figurines, robots, and toys. Or anything, really.)

 

I say that companies EMBRACE piracy and let their stuff out for free, then utilize advertisement or whatnot to earn their revenue. (It would have worked for Battlefield 2142 if people didn't label EA's attempts for advertisement as spyware, which, really, it was. Paying for spyware to be willingly installed on your machine... hrm. ) But I guess that's not how it works in the commercial end of things...

[adriantc 0]

Yes! This is one of the worst ideas the gaming industry had in it's quest to fight piracy... I sure wouldn't have expected it from EA! I remember some years ago another bright idea surfaced about self destructing CDs (DVDs where not so popular those days). It was the movie industries idea to combat piracy... Haha.... It was a special CD that once exposed to air would begin to degrade to the point where the information written on it would not be readable. That stupid idea ended up just as this one will probably do... to the garbage . Unfortunately some of this ideas are applied and not only they don't fight piracy, but even deter those who want to buy the product. One such example would be the activation process that Microsoft requires for some of it's products. Not to mention Windows Genuine Advantage. They should take in consideration the advantage/disadvantage ratio before releasing such dumb ideas to the public!

[xebay 0]

I wonder what would happen if other companies like Microsoft or Adobe would do the same... (install Windows, Office or Photoshop max 3 times)I think that this would generate a decrease in the IT business, because companies who use this programs should have to pay more for licenses... and so would pay less for their employees...I really do not want this to happen, and I thing nobody does

[Sica-GURU 0]

hahaha, I can't stop laughing .....It's not stupid it's childish and patethic, really and nobody will trick their system? I daub about that :fart: