The Spore Thread: Blackstarian Boogaloo

[Swix]

[drlupinmario]

Its not exacly DRM free on steam, you need to log into steam in order to use it.


Besides, the DRM is NOT as bad as people hype it to be. First, the limit changed to 5. Seccondly, to get to that limit, you must install it on 5 DIFFRENT computers. No uninstall/reinstall or format, it MUST be on 5 diffrent computers or so I read.

[Swix]

Actually, I did watch it up to that part. First they said you have three installs on three pc's. That in itself would have been fine by me, however what they actually meant was that you had three installs, period. Turn your hard-drive it installed on off, say bye bye to one of the installs, upgrade your computer (ie add something, anything) say bye bye to another install. Even if it failed to install because something was wrong with the set-up, there's another install gone. Then you had to phone EA up and attempt to convince them you're a legitimate user.

Then they said, don't worry, we'll up it to five installs. No mention of other pc's, five installs and more than one user account (which, btw, they lied about in the instruction manuals). Which was about the time I got sick of their excuses for keeping it and just decided to forget about it.

However now I see they actually might have taken notice of peoples legitimate complaints and actually, truly made it five pcs with unlimited installs. That I have no problem with. Limited installs that required you to phone them up and go 'hey, look, I'm not a thief, let me have my game back' I have a problem with. Especially when it comes to sometime, years down the line, when EA will find keeping the servers and the employees who deal with that stuff not 'financially feasible' and shut everything down, unless we're really lucky like we were with Creatures and some wonderful fan of the game decides to run all that by themselves. I've definitely installed wonderful classic games like StarCraft and Dungeon Keeper 2 more then five times simply because I can't keep them on the pc constantly due to needing the space for other stuff, and I'm happy knowing that I can keep doing that as often as I want as I legitimately purchased the game. What that original DRM would have done is reduced the game to an expensive rental, which completely obliterates the reason for buying it at full price.

[Danikat]

The DRM is one reason I'm very, very glad I didn't get Spore right away. If I had I'd have installed it to my external hard drive (where almost all games go), meaning I'd have gotten 3 uses out of it and then had to call EA and hope they believed me, which from what I've heard is a very hit or miss operation.

The really ironic thing is that two days before it's official release Spore was avaliable for illigal download without the DRM, so it didn't even protect it up to the release date, it just gave a lot of legitimate users a lot of unessesary problems.

[Cloud]

Not to sound like a dodgy dealer in illegal merchandise or anything but isn't there some type of non-official (see I chose my words carefully there) patch that would remove the DRM protection? Of course in this instance I doubt you would be able to go online with it...


On a note about overhyping games, I always find myself constantly avoiding game ads and whatnot (seemingly not on purpose) which works well. I can enter a game shop now and purchase a game out of pure back-of-the-box entertainment.

Reminds me of the good old days when the back of the box is all we had to decide on our game purchases.

Oh but Diablo 3 is something I can really get aboard on! Diablo 2 is extremely awesome, and the first one is a classic too.

[drlupinmario]

Very yes cloud, both on the one way you can "Obtain" it and the fact that it knocks off the online feature of spore (Which IMO kills a good chunk of the games fun)


There is a penny arcade comic on "THE HISTORY OF DRM" , but I am unsure if I am allowed (or should) post it here...

[3kul]

So... I finally caved and bought Spore, as now that it's on Steam I don't really have many reasons not to. Yeah, it's a pretty disappointing game imo (it's definitely not the same game that I watched however many years ago, back when viciously mutilating tiny rat-like creatures was okay), but I imagine that it will be slightly less disappointing when I can actually go online with it and experience worlds that aren't crammed full of Maxis creatures.

I guess I also feel somewhat guilty for playing the 'unofficial' (you know what I mean ) version for so long - I usually always pay for the games that I play, and it kind of feels like stealing when I don't (that's just my opinion mind you, I won't think worse of anybody here if I learn that they're playing the 'unofficial' version ).

I plan on buying the Creepy & Cute pack even though it's a bit of a rip, purely because I like the look of some of those 'Creepy' parts (and as I'm employed I have plenty of money at the moment). I'll pretty much have to buy that other expansion too, as it looks like it expands the gameplay quite a bit!

Steam is currently downloading Spore at a very slow rate, so I'll probably be uploading creatures later on during the weekend

[drlupinmario]

Yeah, Well the reason I didnt want to post it was because incase it just oh-so-happend to have an improper word, I uh... Dont wanna get yelled at.

Looking at the comic though now, I suppose I can (AND WILL!) post it... Along with a few coments by me. Do note however that while the comics I am posting are about rated PG, A bunch of others are not. To be honest, the occasionall profanity on penny arcade is actually kind of funny... buuttt...



^ It should be noted that I belive this was before P2P services were used to copy software. So you really had to trade your games, or create a "Backup" floppy disk of your copy of Doom II to give to your freinds who will give to their freinds...





^One thing that Old adventure games (such as Kings Quest and Escape from Monkey Island) had was a "Entertaining" thing for copy protection. Unlike CD keys, the Code or whatever you had to enter was pre-set (I think) and didnt change copy from copy. By entertaining, I mean like... Heres some examples. For Space Quest 5, you had to enter in the coordanents that you wanted your ship to go to. Theese "Coordanents" were Hidden in the manual (Can YOU find them?) (which was designed to look like a magazine... and is also a very funny read) and (As seen in panel 1) Monkey Island had a codewheel and... But now its just boring CD keys...


^As if the PC platform wasnt harmed enough by the fact that you have to upgrade your hardware in order to run the newest hits ( And even then it still might not run ) and stuff.

In reality, Blaming Piracy for your new PC game not selling well is not good. There are plenty of reasons why PC games are probobly not doing so good. Theres Hardware (see above), THE ECONOMY and ... other stuff I am sure. Look, If you really want a good view of this stuff, Go to theese Penny Arcade links

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/9/24/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/9/26/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2008/9/29/

Besides, I think the best way to help kill off piracy is to include fun useless goodies in the box. Like Seirra used to before it was bought by Vendili who was then bought by Activision who then merged with blizzard who now form a redicoulsly large corperatoin... Hell will break loose should Activisionblizzard, Microsoft, EA, Valve and uh, others merge.

andnowbak2spawrtalkplzkthnxbi
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[3kul]

[Cloud]

Speaking of games through the ages - I tried to play some of my really old games recently and my computer wouldn't even recognise the cd. I was very annoyed.

[drlupinmario]

There is something that is really awsome IMO about the technical bits of spore. YOUR CREATURES ARE SAVED AS IMAGE FILES!

Ah crap, I just relised that I dont have spore installed... Will reinstall when an expansionpack or awsome update like the one that added thoose bug parts is released. Copying stuff from hard drive... I sure am glad I have this old harddrive dock!

...Ok then, I am uploading some of theese old creations of mine. Theroreticly, They should work for YOU TOO if you copy them into (Assuming Windows XP directorys) F:\Documents and Settings\*YOU!*\My Documents\My Spore Creations\ then in creatures, UFOs, Buildings, Vehicles etc. depending on what it is. Also, replace *YOU!* with your username on that pc...

Lets rock! (I HOPE DIS WERKS, DOC!)

Aint he cute. This fella I created orignally to test out the spacephase creature creator. You know, just as a test. Later, I decided to edit him to make him appear through other phases... But I didnt upload him or something I dunno...


FYUROCK! Designed so I could get an achivment of where you put 3 mouths on a creature... I didnt get the achivment, Nobody told me that putting in a cheat just so I could repair my ship would deactivate spores rip on Xbox's achivments and stuff...


I dont know where this dude came from, But wow I love the effect on his skin... Dont know what I did. I made all theese guys a year ago...

So yes. And if you want my username, Its somewhere on the page you are on. If you STILL cant find it, your dumber then a sack of bricks.

Its Drlupinmario, Stupid. Also, only a upload quota of 256kb? Thats excessivly tiny!

[3kul]

I recently bought the Creepy & Cute parts pack through Steam. It adds a few more cool parts and patterns to your creatures, but honestly, I don't think it's worth the US$20 price tag.

Disappointingly the new mouths do not come with new sounds (they just use the old sounds) which is something that I was kind of hoping for, and some of the new additions just don't seem very original or necessary.

Personally I reckon $12-$15 would be a fairer price, but I doubt that it'll come down anytime soon.

Also, it really bugs me how Spore keeps automatically uploading every single generation I make as I play through the main game. Is there any way to switch this off?