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[Leafsnail]

Why can't we have games for free and then work on an honour policy of paying for them?  Because we live in a capitalist society.  The makers of a game can't send it back for a refund if they don't like the way it's turned out.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say.  Ok, buying a game is expensive.  But so is buying a car or almost anything else.  Almost all games have free demos, Spore included.  You have reviews.  You have other people telling you how it was.  You can try it round a friend's house, and most video games stores run demo versions of the newest games.

Video games are a new medium, yes.  But they still cost money to develop, and a lot of it (interestingly, unlike with movies or music, the costs are fairly evenly spread out between people - with movies and music, big stars take a large proportion of the money) and therefore they need to make money.  To be honest, I've always found games a lot better value than most films and music - after all, a game costs about twice or three times as much as a music album with maybe 3 songs you want on it, but can keep you entertained for a hell of a lot longer.

[Chutney]

Why can't we have games for free and then work on an honour policy of paying for them?  Because we live in a capitalist society.  The makers of a game can't send it back for a refund if they don't like the way it's turned out.

That's right . It'd be okay for indie games to work on that sort of system but not so much commercial games.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say.

Because I messed it up horribly and wish I remembered where I got these notions from

Ok, buying a game is expensive.  But so is buying a car or almost anything else.

But really, with buying a car you know it's going to provide you with what you want. A) does it drive B) does it have the bonus features I want. With video games you're looking for something completely subjective: Fun.

Almost all games have free demos, Spore included.  You have reviews.  You have other people telling you how it was.  You can try it round a friend's house, and most video games stores run demo versions of the newest games.

Demos are not an accurate representation of the entire game. In a demo you might not notice that the game play is horribly repetitive. (Not that it matters much...) You won't know if the story is good. Demos might take place at a later point in the game when you have all the fun abilities unlocked and when you go buy the game you realize it takes 10 hours of grinding to get to the fun parts.
Reviews are not really reliable either. There are hundreds of people who will review a game like "Tales of Vesperia" and say it's "10/10 best game ever!", but the game is really terrible (imho, although I'd have to say it is objectively bad too).
Trying it at a friends house is really the same business as a demo, and you get the review, too! As you play the funnest part in the game, your friend details exactly why he thinks it is fun. You go out and buy, and realize the only fun part is 10 minutes before the end, and your friend has sucky taste in video games!
The only stores I know of that demo games are Walmart and sometimes the Gamestop in the town my college is in, and then they only demo Guitar Hero and sometimes a DS game or two.

Video games are a new medium, yes.  But they still cost money to develop, and a lot of it (interestingly, unlike with movies or music, the costs are fairly evenly spread out between people - with movies and music, big stars take a large proportion of the money) and therefore they need to make money.  To be honest, I've always found games a lot better value than most films and music - after all, a game costs about twice or three times as much as a music album with maybe 3 songs you want on it, but can keep you entertained for a hell of a lot longer.

The more I think about it, the more I believe my ideas are in regards to indie games (hence why it's the worst post ever).
Also those 3 songs you want cost 3 dollars on itunes, what are you paying 20 dollars for the entire album for!  (I listen to songs all day, whereas I hardly play video games (because really, I find them loathsome creations in their current state. Why, oh why am I going to college to make these things...), so they are for better of an investment for me

[Leafsnail]

Demos are not an accurate representation of the entire game. In a demo you might not notice that the game play is horribly repetitive. (Not that it matters much...) You won't know if the story is good. Demos might take place at a later point in the game when you have all the fun abilities unlocked and when you go buy the game you realize it takes 10 hours of grinding to get to the fun parts.

Well, no, they're not representative of the whole game, but they should give you a good feel of whether you like it in general or not.  No advert is an accurate depiction of a movie - you know they take the best bits.  You can usually make a fairly accurate judgement in this knowledge.

Reviews are not really reliable either. There are hundreds of people who will review a game like "Tales of Vesperia" and say it's "10/10 best game ever!", but the game is really terrible (imho, although I'd have to say it is objectively bad too).

You could try finding people who share the same tastes as you, or read reviews which address both the good and bad points, which can help you weigh it up yourself.

Trying it at a friends house is really the same business as a demo, and you get the review, too! As you play the funnest part in the game, your friend details exactly why he thinks it is fun. You go out and buy, and realize the only fun part is 10 minutes before the end, and your friend has sucky taste in video games!

I dunno, I usually trust my friends in terms of taste.  And, if I don't, I ignore their advice  .

The only stores I know of that demo games are Walmart and sometimes the Gamestop in the town my college is in, and then they only demo Guitar Hero and sometimes a DS game or two.

I guess I was over generalising - although here I can usually demo most new games that come out between the Game, Gamestation, Gamestop, HMV, Apple Store (the computers there often have games on them) and occasionally some others.

[LegoLord]

I can't believe people are still complaining about the limited installs.  EA released a de-authorization tool that basically eliminates that problem ages ago now.  And I believe this is the third time I've mentioned this.  To the same people.  Who still don't seem to have caught on and are still complaining about limited installs.  No, it's not perfect, but the alternative would be a recall of all the old Spore discs that had SecurRom.  Which is less perfect.

[umiman]

I still don't really get the appeal behind this game and though I've played it, probably will never touch it again. However, I agree that you detractors are broken records, saying the same thing over and over again for what? A year now? Geez, get over it. Everyone understands your points by now and the people who play it seem to be able to enjoy it over and above those factors.

I don't pretend to understand why they choose their choices, but you should be perfectly capable of respecting their decisions.

[Micro102]

I can't believe people are still complaining about the limited installs.  EA released a de-authorization tool that basically eliminates that problem ages ago now.  And I believe this is the third time I've mentioned this.  To the same people.  Who still don't seem to have caught on and are still complaining about limited installs.  No, it's not perfect, but the alternative would be a recall of all the old Spore discs that had SecurRom.  Which is less perfect.

The point is they screwed it up in the first place, in my opinion, another money grabbing scheme. There really wasn't any reason to put the deathuroization tool in in the first place.

And the tool doesnt work if if the computer breaks or you change hardware without knowing it adds an install.

[kholhaus]

I can't believe people are still complaining about the limited installs.  EA released a de-authorization tool that basically eliminates that problem ages ago now.  And I believe this is the third time I've mentioned this.  To the same people.  Who still don't seem to have caught on and are still complaining about limited installs.  No, it's not perfect, but the alternative would be a recall of all the old Spore discs that had SecurRom.  Which is less perfect.

The point is they screwed it up in the first place, in my opinion, another money grabbing scheme. There really wasn't any reason to put the deathuroization tool in in the first place.

And the tool doesnt work if if the computer breaks or you change hardware without knowing it adds an install.

Well here's the thing: If SecuRom was all just a ploy to get our money, why bother making something that removes that? It's basically going against their own plan, if you think of it as a money-grabber. Besides, instead of talking about it's flaws, how about it's GOOD side?

[Micro102]

I can't think of it's good side. It was suppose to stop pirating but it has failed at that.

And since it has failed and cause it to be the most pirated game EVER they changed it to lessen the amount of people who would remember this the next time they buy an EA game.

[kholhaus]

I wasn't talking the good side of DRM, I was talking SPORE. You know, the game this thread is named after?

MANY people, (not that many) decided to pirate SPORE because of the rumors about DRM and fear of what would happen thereafter buying the game.

Unrelated to current rant: Me and my buddy made a few adventures on Galactic Adventures, involving strip mining of a planet, forced slaves (one named Alfred), and mysterious distress signals and massive explosions.

Seriously, if there aren't explosions in the least, it's not badass.

[Micro102]

Not sure what your trying to say but Spore was declared the most pirated game in recorded history. And there were no rumors of DRM....3 installs and thats it (at the time).

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You can make slaves mine in galactic adventures? like they stand near a wall and use a pickaxe....caves with actual ore?

[Okenido]

And all this SecuRom crap.. SecuRom allowed you to play the game without the disc. Many people raeged about SecuRom, without thinking. Many others joined in, not even knowing what SecuRom did. Then, when Galactic Adventures came out, Many other people RAGED about how you couldn't play without the disc. Even though it was SECUROM THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE! It shows that we as a human race are fickle.

How exactly does having SecuROM allow a person to play a game without a disk?

Either you need to rephrase this, or go back to Copy Protection 101 before you get back into a debate about DRM.

[Micro102]

Well if you dont play with the disk, to aviod it being played on several games at once, you need to monitor which computers it's being played on. The problem being that the thing stays on your computer with > administrator access even after you uninstall the game......

[kholhaus]

Not sure what your trying to say but Spore was declared the most pirated game in recorded history. And there were no rumors of DRM....3 installs and thats it (at the time).

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You can make slaves mine in galactic adventures? like they stand near a wall and use a pickaxe....caves with actual ore?

Well there were OTHER rumors about DRM, not the facts. Some people thought they would be robbed of many things and such, and got into such a panic, and that they wanted the game so badly that they went to piracy to play it.

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Oh no. It was more a mission where you had to investigate the planet, while riding your space-ship around it, and you found traces of a blown up camp. You find a radio transmitter that had a pre-set recording with some strange after-notes like the radio cutting off. You then investigate further and find a staff pointed in the direction of the enemy base, the Ryleptians. You find Alfread, the leader of the camp trapped in one of the cages. You talk to him about how they found their camp and how the Ryleptians were strip-mining the planet, 2241. You are tasked with wiping out the guards of the cages. Once you're done that, the commander of the operation comes out and you must defeat him. When the commander is cold and hard on the barren rock, you destroy the cargo trucks before they get away with the pirated spice. You are then tasked with blowing up the spice derrick, and when you do, a countdown occurs. You blow up the cages holding Alfred and company, and run to the Rendezvous point, just in time to see the whole base go up in a HUGE MUSHROOM CLOUD. Que Epilogue.

[LegoLord]

Man, that sounds epic.  I had been working on a mission where a city is under siege from all sides except below.  You have to guide the commanding officer through the city to a tower that controls the power for all the city's anti-air structures.  Then you have to fight your way to the top, where the city's most powerful defensive turret is kept.  Beat badguys, switch it on, and watch as all the enemy ships that were patrolling the walls of the city are blown up either by turrets or the ships of the defender's air force.  But it's not done yet.

[Leafsnail]

I should probably get Galactic Adventures at some point.

And while it was The Most Pirated Game Ever it was also one of the most sold games ever.  Even with pirating it still stayed way up in the chart for months.  The DRM allows you to play without a disk as it means they know you aren't just gonna share it around.  If there's no DRM on a game which doesn't require a disk to play, you could just share it around with all your friends, hell, everyone in your whole neighbourhood.