1. Yes

2. No

You need Impulse to update, but you don't need it to play. If you want, you can update, then uninstall Impulse and never worry about it again until there is a new update.

there was a statement by frogboy that they will be releasing dvd's with the current version when the update reate slows down, that you  will have to subscribe(i think) to get, but impulse IS the only updater for all of the current range for stardock supplied games/software.

harpo

I don't think so seeing getting updates are one of the many benefits of having paid Stardock for their fine game, and since Impulse is the only way Stardock has of knowing if a copy is registered or not.... It's a fact of life that if you buy a Stardock game and want to stay current on updates Impulse is a neccesary but rather harmless evil.....

one question:  does anyone who isn't a pirate ever ask the OP's two questions?

It's a crap with slow download rate and every time I reinstall the game I need to wait at least 2-3 hours of download time instead of just installing it from .exe within 5 minutes. If I ever won't have an internet connection when reinstalling the game I'm screwed because I cannot update the game. 

And it's another useless program running in background which uses my computer's power.

So yeah, I wish EWoM was free of this shit, unfortunately I have no choice but to use it since I really like the game.

how do you see slow for downloading? I get the download speed AT the bandwidth limit of my connection PER computer, and I can have several downloading at the SAME time and ALL are reporting that they are downloading AT the maximum speed regarding my connection speed eg 153kb/s PER COMPUTER on a 1.5mbit connection, and as osirisdawn states impulse is ONLY needed to install/update and you can ARCHIVE an installation so you do not have to download it again on the computer if you need to re-install it for some reason like damaging/deleting game files.

harpo

You can play the game without installing Impulse but you will not get any patches/updates from the origional boxed version. So, basically if you want to play the most recent version of Elemental you'll HAVE to install Impulse and USE IT to get your patches/updates.

It's really a no brainer as it isn't intrusive like a Steam client. It's just a protection service from piracy nothing more really, but, you can use it as a storage device for all your games you buy from Stardock. Once you've gotten your update you can even DELETE it from your hard drive but you'll have to REINSTALL it if you want another patch/update for your game(s).

Also THIS ^ is WRONG/INCORRECT as you can go into your MSconfig and uncheck the box that allows Impulse to start on bootup (as well as many more things in that Msconfig window) and it will not startup until you USE it for a PATCH/UPDATE. Then all you need to do after the patch update is bring up your TASK MANAGER and click on IMPULSE.exe and END PROCESS....wow that's soooooooo frickin hard to stop a program from running and gain power/memory back.

I have Impulse, Steam, Gamersgate, GoG and Digital River and NONE of these startup when I boot my computer because it's so simple to shut them off. So just because you're an igmo and don't know how to use your precious computer features then having all that power is pretty useless to you anyway.

Myself I let Impulse start up when I boot but normally shut it if I'm not going to use it or play a Stardock game. It's pretty light so I see no harm in leaving it running while playing those games.

On the other hand I do shut it down if I'm going to play a non-stardock game or do something else on the computer. I like it in the boot up group to remind me to check for updates regularly and you can just right click and then click exit to shut it down.

Really making a fuss about getting updates from impulse is silly.

Sometimes right when an update comes out, it will slow down, though never as bad as Steam does where it just refuses to function.

It doesn't seem to cause me any problems.

Last time they've talked about it, it was like 5$ for a years of patch(the last years of course)

you can uninstall impulse when you are done updating if impulse offends you so much. 

Just reinstall every major patch, update, and then uninstall.  Heck, I swear most update programs go through basically the same number movements to patch a game. 

Nah, you can sell your copy or transfer it or give it. The only thing you can't do is playing in a multiplayer game with the same serial number. If you plan on playing only in single player, you wont have any problem.For impulse, it's really just a download manager, not a disguise DRM software. It help to manage the patch and the download of your game. Personnaly, I have steam and Impulse on my machine and I dont have any problem with both of them, but what I like is Impulse is not required to play your game once it's installed. So you dont like impulse, like other have said, you just delete it or turn it off. For more information about transfering your license, I think you should ask the sales departement at stardock.

EDIT: I reread your post and want to add something else for your "used" copy at amazon: if both of you try to be online at the same time for this game, you wont be able to but if only one of you is connected to the Elemental server, you wont have any problem.