Sure, look at Valve

Yeah, I hear Europeans bitch about Valve all the time.  I try not to listen.

Sadly, I don't know how to not listen.

Basicly it means the junk DRM methods EA use are still present on the games downlaoded form impulse. Enought said for me ot not want to buy anyhting.

I too will be avoiding any product containing SecuROM. It's a shame too, I really wanted to play Red Alert 3 after I participated in the beta. A shame EA doesn't wants to treat the paying customers as potential pirates.

Lets get one thing clear. DRM does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to stop all but the most casual of piracy. Any pirate who wants to copy the game and distribute it is going to do so, and they'll also end up with a nice clean version not containing any DRM. The paying customers on the other hand have to put up with the restrictions and inconveniences of DRM.

So lets look at the end result of DRM.. Pirates, no affected.. end up with a better product. Paying customers, inconvenienced and treated with distrust.

Ignore the word "doesn't" in the first sentence. A shame the edit button doesnt work. Get an access denied error in the script below.

http://islanddog.impulsedriven.net/js/tinymce/tiny_mce.js

Ya know, i'm really tired of hearing that kind of false logic... if you don't pay for a game your are a thief, but if you're paying as a customer they (as in distributor, publisher and/or developper, etc) have every rights by Law to protect, secure, manage, track, register, validate the copy of a product someone actually gave money for.

DRM isn't an inconvenience, it's the PROOF that i was honest enough to invest in someone else's business rather than stealing from them.

You may all question whatever methods (SecuRom, Rooters, DataMining, etc) are used to prevent Pirates from stealing anything it doesn't negate the fact that games will simply STOP being made if there's nobody left around & paid to work at these.

Get some moral values in your silly idiotic heads; Piracy is anti-social behavior while criminals endup in jails for good reasons. You want the good life, earn it.

Fixed, atleast in the case of securom. I really don't care about DRM so long as it doesn't phone home, break computers, or involve install limits. Having the CD in the drive, putting in serial numbers on install, and even having to run a digital platform to play the game is fine by me (ie steam).

And this is more of an ethics argument. Yes, companies do have the right to protect their software from pirates. Some developers/publishers take it a step further and put malware on their software, punishing ligitmate consumers.

I'm not on the side of the pirate, I've never pirated anything... but that doesn't mean I agree with EA.

SecuRom hasn't caused my computer any faults, and i have Bioshock, Mass Effect, and plenty of others that have the "malicious" SecuRom. Sometimes they do refuse to acknowledge that the disk IS in the drive, but that i have always managed to solve without "third party" solutions.

Install limits aren't really a problem anymore either, since a tool for de-authorizing computers is (finally) available. And pirating a game is yet another good excuse for a publisher to stop supporting the PC platform, to prevent PC gaming from dying, don't kill it

Actually, that would be a very good argument (and one that would convince me of the necessity) if, and only if, it actually stopped pirates. It doesn't. The "we need this to protect ourselves" argument only works if "this" actually "protects".

Even the best/harshest DRM does little more than provide some brief entertainment for the more tech savvy pirates around, and it only takes one successful cracking to flood the net with pirated copies. This process tends to take anywhere from a few hours to at most a few days. The actual paying customers, however, will be lumbered with whatever new inconvenience the DRM folks invented for as long as they have the game installed/in use. (sometines longer, in case of rootkit)

Once more for emphasis:

DRM does not stop pirates.

I legally bought Mass Effect, installed in on my PC and laptop. I had an install error on my laptop, but it was solved. My PC crashed, and I was on hold for two hours with EA customer support because I had only owned the game for two weeks and had already activated it three times. The pirated version I downloaded after EA gave me grief for giving me one more activation works flawlessly, while my legit copy sits on my shelf, never to be touched again. It's not the normal response, but install limits can burn in hell for all I'm concerned. I'll never buy a game with them again.

Games are easily pirated for the consoles as well. It's just that the average joe isn't as confident about it. There are people who sell "xbox 360 game backups" that they install directly to your HD. Guess what those are? Games have been pirated since there have been games. It's still a multi-million dollar business with huge profits for responsible companies. And if the PC market ever dies (it's been on it's "death bed" since around 1985 I believe), then pirating for the consoles will just become more mainstream. Welcome to the Human Race. Go worry about Global Pollution or Starving Children if you want a real problem. Improving the pocket linings of a game company by 10% by irradicating piracy isn't possible until you give up absolute control and privacy of your PC to the watchdogs.

Companies have a right to protect their products, but not to the point of punishing the consumer. DRM doesn't, has never, and will never stop pirates, so don't confuse DRM with something that is anything but a waste of money. DRM does stop a large majority of second hand sales though, which is still a huge money loss for the console market. Unfortunately, DRM hasn't become as invasive for the console market yet, so second hand sales can't be killed as easily.

EA uses the asinine form of DRM that no one should accept. Waiting for a "horror" story to happen to you before you stop buying a product doesn't make sense to me. If I constantly hear buyer remorse stories and there is a large following of people who don't like a companies products, I tend to shy away from those products. I think people who take out short term leases to play their games are larger "silly idiot heads" than those who pirate them.

Off topic: Is there any way to convince EA and similars to offer games to places like, let's say, Europe?

The only problem I see with this post is "In Will Wright’s PC masterpiece, Spore."

Other then that, congrats on getting EA, no matter how much I hate them.  Should bring in some money.

Your logic lacks perspective.

Given your location Zyxpsilon, it is far easier to be against piracy while in Canada. Granted, it's stupid to pirate a game while wildly available in a given region, though some people maybe be driven to it by moronic DRM. Lack of legal availability is an important issue which gives way to some pragmatic decisions. In such cases, region locking only contributes to widespread piracy. If publishers do that to themselves, for whatever reasons they might have, how valid is it to put every "pirate" in that same anti-social bag that you're claiming?

I'd be locked in a regional "controversy" -- i still wouldn't try getting a FREE game through Piracy for a very simple reason;

Whovever coded & compiled that **now FREE game to me** didn't receive any of MY money for it.

Now - variable EURO currency, manufactured in the US, made available in India through bandwidths, heck even boxed up and shipped to Antarctica weather station X.... i really don't care; you play, you pay.

It's commerce, it's honest. Otherwise, it isn't.

Sure, publishers such as EA take some drastic measures to annoy... i don't care either. Go ahead and dump whatever you want on my PC, it still is a proof i paid for a product installed legitimately. There's no justification for theft and while pirates brake the international model of economics, there can be only one possible but rational consequence; *SOME* businesses would shut down and stop making games. Now that's punishment enough to the honest populations & true customers wherever they are.

And for the honest populations & true customers wherever they are, region unlocking (with/without discriminate pricing) would be a way to combat piracy. This current distribution model fails to perceive a medium that can get their products to the most remote locations, while allowing pirates to benefit from their inaction.

The fact that I have an internet connection, despite my location, denotes potential and the perfect selling mechanism for their digital merchandising. Alas, I have the will and the means but they lack the competence.