Sorry, I didn't mean it to start an argument. It's just the very same type of reasoning we're seeing from EA. They're saying things to the effect that only a small fraction of a percent of customers will ever need more than 3 activations. Basically it's just brushing off a portion of their game buyers as unimportant.

No, it's not the end of the world, but it could certainly be the beginning of something very bad for PC gaming. Many of us (those with pitchforks and those without) can see this as the first step down a road that I don't think any consumer would want to travel. As to whether it's immoral or not, that remains to be seen. With each new statement by JR and EA, it seems as if there are other motives behind implementing this DRM scheme than they're telling people (the official line being it protects their IP from piracy).

I just read about mess up on EAs side about the RA3 keys ... It looks like one

digit at the end of the key is missing ... ..

Thats sucks ... Looks like I'm going to wait a few weeks before I purchase

my copy ...

Well I am waiting for my copy so if you guys can wait ill post up my review once I have a good bash at it. (In Australia so the game does not come out till Nov 7)

Games cracked. I think I'll download it and have a go.

And send EA a taunting email, obviously.

I can stand this no longer! Why do so many great games have this copy protection? I can feel Red Alert 3 calling me. "buy me! Buy ME!" I might just give in buy a copy and use a cracked version.  I just can't boycott all these great games: Bioshock, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Red Alert 3, Spore, etc.  Must not give in!

The problem with buying any of those is that you're essentially saying "yes" to securom.

I understand that there's a great team of developers that probably deserve your thumbs-up, but if push comes to shove, they'll get rid of the 'security measures' first.

I hope everyone reading this thread will help spread the word about the DRM and join us in giving the game the lowest possible rating on every such forum you belong to. Also please tell you family and friends and ask them to do the same. The Spore message was only lightly heard and it was blamed on stupid people that did not know better and of course infringers who had nothing to gain from such a thing but hey reason is not a needed requirement to be a corporate president.

So we are trying to send yet another loud and clear message to EA again but this time to its investors. With the stock at a seven year low and analysis starting to think the top management is stupid such reviews will be truly felt by the institution with a steak in EA and that will force change for the better for gamers everywhere. Change starts with YOU so step-up and man-up and let your voice be heard.

Oh yeah, also don’t forget to vote in the elections. Obama is the Man!

The 5 activation thing bothers me because it's, imo, just renting the game. I've installed games I love well over 5 times. I install, play until I'm sick of it, uninstall. Get a new laptop or desktop, install, new hardware, etc. I've installed Diablo 2 hundreds of times. Not literally, but a ridiculous amount over 5.

Even newer games like Oblivion that I want to love, but don't. I play for a bit, get sick of it, delete it to free some HDD space. Then after a few months, reinstall and un7zip my mods, update everything, then play again. I've done that more times than 5 on this desktop alone.

Why should I be calling any company to ask to install the game a few more times? What if they say no, or they go under?

I just passed up RA3 today.  Not because of DRM, but because it was $50 and no patches yet.   Based on this info about DRM, though, I'll probably pass on RA3 indefinitely.

We already have few dozen people doing the A-bombs on Amazon of course and other review sites for this title. It is my hope that everyone reading this will do the same and ask their friends as well. I also suggest doing it for Dead Space as well as any other big named title published by EA. Simply put EA must change or go out of business. It will be good for the entire industry and more importantly us gamers. Hell I think more people hate EA then Microsoft anymore. Now there is a title for the record books.

It would be nice but sadly the effort would be far too much trouble. The best course of action is to show EA for what it is to as many people as possible in as many venues as possible and just maybe some large share holders will take notice and do something about it.

DRM = Digital Rights Management.

It's a 'protection' tool whereby the publisher imposes restrictions on the end user. The current iteration only allows you a limited amount of activations, and requires on-line activation of your game as well. This means you must be connected to the internet when you first fire up the game or it will ont run. If you run out of activations, you must contect tech support and request a new one, which they grant at their discretion. And any time the game needs to activate after that, you must go through the whole process again. New activations may be required when adjusting your BIOS, adding new hardware, or reinstalling your OS. Unfortunately, there is no information on exactly how much hardware change will trigger a new activation.

In addition, the DRM software may also conflict with other programs on your machine, requiring you to either shut down those programs, or even uninstall them altogether. As well, it sometimes is finicky about different types of optical drives (your CD/DVD drives) and will sometimes refuse to even load your game if you own a drive with which it has issues. There are also reports of it destroying drives due to the DMA step-down issue (this is a technical bit, google if you want more info).

Further, the software installs onto your computer without your knowledge (in most cases there is no indication that this will occur) or permission and hides itself from view. It can be difficult to remove and does not uninstall when you uninstall the game. There are reports of possible security issues with it, as well as reports of it conflicting with older versions of the security software, thus rendering some or all of your games unplayable.

But one of the biggest complaints against it is just the principle of it. This is purportedly to protect games from piracy, but it'spatently obvious it does no such thing. Why then, many people are asking, are legitimate customers forced to face these issues and problems when it does not do anything other than inconvenience the legitimate user?

These are some, but by no means all, of the issues with DRM.

@general-JWJ - go to the following sites to educate yourself about DRM:

http://www.drm.info/

http://www.defectivebydesign.org/

On a side note: DRM should properly be named Digital Restrictions Manipulation

Regarding EA - The very short answer is: It has a time honed proclivity of taking hot, wet steamy dumps on customers and then charging them top dollar for the privilege of the experience and if you want support from it well that will cost you more - much more.

@Coelocanth - great reply - +1 karma