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[Kogan Loloklam]

It was posted In Spore's Forums, But I feel it deserves reposting, since it really grabs my goat. Poor Goat...

If only I had given that money to Toadyone, instead of Will Wright...
I should have supported Piracy and Toady over EA... Live and learn, and LONG LIVE THE AWESOMENESS THAT IS TOADYONE!

I will never make this mistake again, and vow now that the next time I will buy any electronic item for pleasure, I will have donated at least 5$ to toady for showing that greatness doesn't have to rob the poor.

In fact, I have a few extra dollars in my budget this month, and a few extra stamps...
Kogan Loloklam has been ecstatic Lately, He had a Wonderful thought lately...

For the second time in my life, I have run into an offline game that requires an Internet connection. The first one was Half Life 2. A story similar to the one below occurred then, but to me. This encouraged me to check the system requirements of every game I buy from that point on. Now I must read every line on the box to be sure that this situation doesn't happen. Now, on to the story...

June 18th was my brother's Birthday. He lives with my sister and her three sons. He makes about 800$ a month. 90% of every paycheck he gets goes to help support my sister. He is a much nicer person then me, I wouldn't bat an eye if my sister got kicked out on the street, with her kids. I feel it was her own fault for opening her legs. I am not nice to my sister. But this isn't a story about me or my dislike for her. It's about my too-kind-hearted brother...

Between my sister's paycheck and my brother's paycheck, my sister manages to keep the electric bill no more then a month behind, make the mortgage on her house, and occasionally pay another bill that has gone to collections. She is the classical example of a woman who would be on welfare... except she is too lazy to go down to human services and get welfare. She also doesn't go after the deadbeats that knocked her up for child support... Again this story isn't about her. This is all just establishing the environment.

My brother works over 20 miles from where he lives, and that 90% doesn't go to gas. Anyone with a simple calculator can find out how much money he has left over at the end of the month. He doesn't complain much, he has most of his basic needs met. He has clothes and a house, which is more then some can say.

My brother is the nicest person you can imagine. He sacrifices his free time, and all his free money, to support my sister. He doesn't ask for much, though he does look forward to things that to all appearances he should be able to pull off, given time. He's looking forward to spore, but I believe my action has just shattered the one thing he's been looking forward to for years.

My Brother's computer is a little better then mine, the last major purchase made by my mom before she left my sister to sink or swim on her own. My mom cashed out her 401k to be able to get away. Her retirement's gone, but some of it went to give my brother something to entertain himself in these horrid times.

I make 2000 a month, and support a wife and Kid on my income. I manage to scrape by without going into debt, as long as no disasters come. I sometimes can afford to take my nephews to the dollar movie, or go out on a date with my wife. It's tough, but I've had it tougher. At four months old I was living in a tent up in the nearby national forest. I am not as resolute as my brother though, I don't mind complaining when I don't get what I worked for, but this story isn't about me...

I bought Spore Creature Creator for myself. I have been looking forward to spore as long as my brother. I intended to buy a second copy and transport it on my flash drive to my brother, so he might play a part of a game he has been waiting for for years. The EA Download Manager kind of put a stop to that, fortunately before I blew my entire budget for his birthday. During my 30 minute Lunch break, I decided to look into buying it from a store, because I didn't believe it would only be downloads. I was right to look, but now I wish I hadn't.

My brother makes almost nothing, and it pours out into support of others. He can't get luxuries like Cable TV or whatnot. Internet is definitely a luxury, as anyone who has had the choice between eating or power can attest to. I had thought a game designed for single player would be safe, something he could play even though he doesn't have Internet. During my once bi-monthly visit down there, we could use my flash drive to exchange creations until spore came out. We even thought of a neat game, where we "Evolve" a creature from a base, making only minor changes, watching the different lines of them becoming steadily more complex.

There is this large snag in the plan though... The offline only game requires online verification.

My brother, whom pours his income into basic survival and only gets the rare treat of stuff sent to him, is unable at this time to play the game I bought for him from gamespot.

Why? To reduce piracy. The game HAS ALREADY BEEN PIRATED!, but a single player game in the store has been sold hiding the Internet requirement in small print outside of the smart place to put it, is unplayable by those who cannot afford an Internet connection... to reduce piracy.

Now, I face a dillima. I know for a fact that I can download a pirated copy and take it to my brother, and he would be able to play it, but a legitimate purchase made in a store... No play for my brother.

My solution is one that not everyone can face. I plan on spending 20$ over my monthly budget, putting my family on ramen for a week, so that I can spend the extra gas to get his computer, Log it in into my internet connection, and then return his computer.

If the game requires further validation besides initial activation, then I am out 31.30$ for nothing, which will be larger then my $11.30(tax). Why? Because EA is so afraid of piracy that they will do these kinds of actions.

When spore comes out, I will look for the Pirated Copy for my brother first, because it is better to risk viruses and lawsuits then spend money that I really shouldn't be spending anyway for a fancy bookcase weight.

If I hadn't been drooling over everything spore for years, maxis would have joined Everything Valve on my permanent "Not going to buy" list. As it is, I doubt that I will be buying maxis products very much anymore, since I won't bother to research the games... rather then face similar disappointment.

Is the piracy protection worth it? Ask the hackers that had cracked the game before it had even been released.

"Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power."

In 15 years, will EA still support the registration system used in it's piracy protection? Thank goodness we've got such great crackers, so that the art that is video games remain capable of being spread, long after the fools and censors who cobbled them to horrid anti-piracy systems are long dead.

[Sappho]

At first they were going to make it so you had to verify every ten days, or you couldn't play.  This is actually a step up.

But it's still a load of crap.  I was going to buy the game (a rare thing for me) before I heard about this.  EA has gone steadily downhill from the day they were founded (and especially since they swallowed the once-great Maxis) and they aren't getting any more of my money.  They're only encouraging piracy, not discouraging it.

In addition to the great and powerful Toady One, I know enough musicians who live off of donations and give away their work for free to know that you don't need to force people to pay for something if it's worth the money.  When you force people to go to ridiculous measures to prove that they paid for something, you just push them towards piracy, because it's less of a hassle to steal.

Arrr, dammit.

[Cthulhu]

You could always buy the game, and then download a cracked version and play that.  You've bought the game, so it should be legal.

[Helmaroc]

Aw, that sucks. EA sucks. Will Wright even sucks. Just get the pirate versions of every EA game you want. Oh yeah, God bless you and your brother.

[Kogan Loloklam]

I got Internet, I can play it fine. I'm getting around the problem for my brother, but what about all the saps out there that don't have Internet or a friend/family whom has it?

My Brother loves Dwarf Fortress, by the way One of the best games he's played since my mom left for Washington.

[Kagus]

Damn...   That's horrible.  But I thought that Spore would always need an internet connection so that it can constantly update your planet's wildlife.  Shame about your brother though, wish I could think of a neat singleplayer game that's coming up... 


And...  Don't you mean "lamentations"?

[Kogan Loloklam]

*A Well-Laminated Kogan Loloklam. All Preservation is of the highest quality.*

For those who are curious about what he's talking about, the previous title before I corrected it was "Laminations of Kogan, or, I wish I had spent it supporting Bay 12..."

[Torak]

Odd how you bought it then went to piracy, I go pirate a game, and if it's actually worth the money, I buy it.


Ding that for seven years hasn't gotten me a thing except for a high quality selection of games, and a encyclopedia-like knowledge of piracy, cracking, etc.

[Wiles]

I've never liked the direction copy-protection has been headed. It has always hurt legitimate users more than it hindered any software piracy. 

[MaxVance]

What really gets me are the responses there.

all i got from that story is that your an a$$hole.

How could anyone think this? I guess he saw your story as whining. Perhaps he takes for granted his Internet connection or something.

I read most of your post, to be honest it was too long to catch all the details.

How hard is it to read an entire post? Did anyone here have trouble reading it? I didn't.

[Puzzlemaker]

Honestly, I like Valve as a company.  I really do.  A lot of people complain about them, but they really support Indie developers that do really cool things, like Introversion for example.

As for the whole internet-to-play-games thing, I can see how that would be annoying.  I personally don't have much trouble with it, though.  And you can play off-line after you activate it; at least for Steam games.

And, honestly... it's better than the alternatives for anti-piracy stuff.  People will -always- bitch about them, no matter what form they are in.  But I would rather have to have an internet connection then to have some software installed on my machine that breaks the disk drive.  It's akin to complaining about the tags they put on clothes at clothing stores.

[BurnedToast]

Oh come on this is a bullshit sob story, you can get free dialup and you don't need a fast connection to verify the game online.

Don't blame EA, blame the pirates who steal games.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

Do what you want, cause a pirate is free. You are a pirate.

Avoiding piracy is really hard in my country, they sell it on every bigger street on those cardboard stalls for like 5 bucks. It would be so awesome for me if I didn't have any morals(damn morals, always putting me down).

[a1s]

Oh come on this is a bullshit sob story, you can get free dialup <...>.

that kinda depends on where you live (and something tells me, it's not downtown New York. More like downtown Warsaw). plus you have to buy a modem (or rent one).

[umiman]

The mistake of assuming because it is true in your case, therefore it is true for everyone else. I can't imagine a lot of countries with such a thing as "free dial-up". Then again, a lot of the places I've been to don't even have toilet seats or clean air.

I'm curious though, and this might be a bit harsh but I'm being quite sincere since I really don't understand it, if your situation is bordering poverty already, why would you go out of your way to pay more for a service or good that you can get for cheaper at minimum risk? We are talking about your own, personal wellbeing as well as those of your close family in dire need of cash in contrast with filling the pockets of someone who is doing well enough on his own. Even Toady One is doing well enough on his own and I'm honestly puzzled that you'd rather give him $5 of money that could go towards feeding your own family. I can only see economical self-deception in such an action. It is not an act of grace when an action is done deliberately in the knowledge that it will inflict much more harm than good.

Honestly speaking, if I were in that position, I'd do everything in my power to bring my family to upper middle class at the very least. But then, even my lecturers accuse me of being "frighteningly able to reason away human life". So, perhaps someone could enlighten me? I understand that I don't quite get it, so I might be too critical, but still.