The much-hyped game Spore, an evolutionary civilization-building space-conquering epic by the creator of The Sims series, has recently irked many gamers including some of the more rabid fans of the title.
While players contend that the game is a good one (you can read a review in the upcoming issue of HUB: The Computer Paper) there is a crucial problem with the game in that it has an ingrained problem that hinders its replay value.
That's because Spore – when purchased and registered legally – has Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions that limit the game's installation.
That means that regardless of whether you decide to install the game on your laptop, desktop PC or cottage computer, you only get three installs before the DRM restrictions kick in.
While Spore does allow users to have "three concurrently active licenses" according to the official EA support forum, the issue is still annoying gamers due to the fact that these licenses don't expire for 10 days after they are issued. So if one computer is rendered useless and the owner wants to install onto a different PC, he or she may have to wait as long as ten days to do so.
That means that if a computer is formatted, the OS is reinstalled, or the game is taken out of the registry, the counter starts and that license will be out of commission for 10 days.
On top of that, the DRM causes the game to be continuously checked every 10 days to see if the license is still "private" - that it hasn't been compromised or gone public - in perpetuity.
While this does not diminish the quality of Spore as a game, it has annoyed many customers and gamers as can be seen on numerous message boards across the Net, and simply goes to highlight the fact that DRMs are rapidly becoming a hot-button issue (if they weren't there already).
Spore is the latest game by Sims creator Will Wright, and allows players to guide a single-celled organism through evolution all the way up through tribal advancements and the advent of space travel and intergalactic conquest.
While players contend that the game is a good one (you can read a review in the upcoming issue of HUB: The Computer Paper) there is a crucial problem with the game in that it has an ingrained problem that hinders its replay value.
That's because Spore – when purchased and registered legally – has Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions that limit the game's installation.
That means that regardless of whether you decide to install the game on your laptop, desktop PC or cottage computer, you only get three installs before the DRM restrictions kick in.
While Spore does allow users to have "three concurrently active licenses" according to the official EA support forum, the issue is still annoying gamers due to the fact that these licenses don't expire for 10 days after they are issued. So if one computer is rendered useless and the owner wants to install onto a different PC, he or she may have to wait as long as ten days to do so.
That means that if a computer is formatted, the OS is reinstalled, or the game is taken out of the registry, the counter starts and that license will be out of commission for 10 days.
On top of that, the DRM causes the game to be continuously checked every 10 days to see if the license is still "private" - that it hasn't been compromised or gone public - in perpetuity.
While this does not diminish the quality of Spore as a game, it has annoyed many customers and gamers as can be seen on numerous message boards across the Net, and simply goes to highlight the fact that DRMs are rapidly becoming a hot-button issue (if they weren't there already).
Spore is the latest game by Sims creator Will Wright, and allows players to guide a single-celled organism through evolution all the way up through tribal advancements and the advent of space travel and intergalactic conquest.
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