Spore Protection Is Crippling It

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I did get Spore for a trial run. I don’t like these kind of games so it was promptly uninstalled and deleted, and quickly forgotten.

It was with amusement that I came across this article here. It talks about the bane of all games – anti-piracy protection. I have mentioned this over and over, that anti-piracy software does NOT work. Games still come out on p2p networks almost immediately on the day they are released.

Gamers actually benefit from pirated copies – no limited activations, no need to download “activation files”, and don’t even need a CD in the drive to play the game. Anti-piracy measures only serve to piss legitimate customers off.

In the article I linked, the average consumer rating for the game is 1 star out of 5. That says alot about the game eh? Most of the reviews are ranting about the protection on the game, not about the game itself. Doesn’t this say alot to the game companies? Doesn’t this tell you that:

1. Gamers are pissed off for being legitimate customers
2. Anti-piracy methods don’t work.

Look at Oblivion – minimal protection, it gets copied really fast. Look at Spore – very restrictive protection, and still gets copied as fast as Oblivion did. Look at Bioshock – same thing. Restrictive protection, but cracks appeared on the SAME DAY as release day.

Whatever can be programmed by programmers, can be un-done by crackers. It’s all just software. The more restrictive the protection, the more “challenge” you present to the crackers. You’re just painting a bulls-eye on the game and encouraging multiple groups to try to crack it. Among the groups, there probably is some sort of rivalry going on, and the one that cracks it first will get some form of glory and gratification.

The only games that doesn’t get “cracked” are MMORPGS – those you can only play online. Any sort of standalone, single-player type of games will get cracked. The question is only “how fast”.

Before anyone accuses me of being a pirate, I invite them to come to my place and look at my game cupboard chocked full of ORIGINAL boxed sets. I am just as pissed off as the next guy about the hoops I have to jump through just to play a game I paid money for, before I can even play it.