Hey Maxis! I saw your letter from Caryl Shaw on Gaming Steve, http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2008/05/maxis-responds-to-the-spore-drm-controversy.php, and figured I'd try to make as direct a response as possible. Figured naming my blog Hey Maxis would help.
About your letter. I noticed you didn't address any of the worries about the SecuROM DRM, which is one of the concerns that has been brought up many, many, many times on the Spore page at Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000FKBCX4/ref=dp_...TF8&showViewpoints=1, or anything else for that matter. So I wanted to try to make a few things as clear as possible.
1) SecuROM's means of installation, removal, and activity all around would have it listed as Malware. It installs without telling you that it's installing, or what it will do. It disables software and other functionalities on your PC without telling you, and you cannot uninstall it directly, and it does not uninstall with Spore. To uninstall SecuROM, you have to download a seperate utility. Again, all fitting the definition of Malware perfectly. It would be extremely easy to see why so many people don't want that on their PC.
2) It's not the online activation that's bothering anyone, it's the 3 activation limit that's so offensive. Here's a perfect example of why it doesn't work. Let's say I buy and install the game, that's one activation burnt. Then I have to reformat my hard drive. When I re-install Spore, I'm burning a second activation. Now let's say I decide to upgrade most of my PC, but keep the same hard drive with Windows and Spore installed, when I try to play again, it's going to look for a third activation. Poof, on one PC, just one PC, I've lost all three activiations. Now I have to call EA and convince them, not just ask them but CONVINCE them that I should be allowed another activation. I can't go onto a website, fill out a quick form, and get another activation. I have to get on the phone, wait on hold, then give out the entire life story of my copy of Spore just to install it a fourth time.
3) DRM is in no way, shape, or form a bonus to anyone, it's a punishment for the random possibility that somebody, somewhere just might think about trying to pirate the game. The two points I just made are prefect proof that it's no gift to the buyer. I did some research personally and found that Spore, in it's entirety, was easily available to pirate from a number of different sites and services. The DRM did absolutely nothing to prevent that. What it has done is put Malware on the PC of everyone who's installed it and completely crippled their ability to use the game as they wish legally.
4) The "missprint" in the instruction booklet about one account per game, to be frank, has really pissed people off. And why one account per game? What benefit does that bring to the buyer?
The DRM on Spore has probably cost you a sizeable chunk of sales not because of piracy, but because of people refusing to buy the game because of the DRM. The online activation has NOTHING to do with the outpouring of gamers refusing to buy Spore, the unecessary, burdensom malware called SecuROM and the cripling activation limit is a major turn-off for just about any PC gamer who's aware of it.
I REALLY WANTED TO BUY SPORE. I put that in caps so it would hopefully get your attention. I really did want to buy Spore, I've been putting money aside to pick up a copy from my local BestBuy, but seeing exactly what kind of restrictions and penalites would come with it, I've decided not to buy it. I'm just one in a large list of sales you've lost because of the DRM on your game. If it wasn't your decision to put the DRM on it, if it was EA's call, then just come out and say it, if anything it'd take the sights off of you and put it towards the real culpirt. Just know that no matter who put the DRM on there, it WILL cost you sales, it WILL drive gamers and consumers away, and it WILL cost you to lose some faith from the gaming community. And if it was EA, then you know who's really hurting you.
