Several gamers have formed together to protest the reportedly strict DRM that comes built into the long awaited game "Spore." Turning to the
Amazon.com user reviews, gamers have pummeled the title with negative comments about the DRM and dumbed down gameplay. Currently, there are 1,449 one star reviews out of 1,550, which gives the game an average of one star.
The top negative comment on Amazon, from a person calling himself Erich Remarque, contains the following:
"First of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you'll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That's not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service."
"Second, the game was dumbed down to oblivion. Evolution doesn't even matter anymore. For example, you can add as many legs to a creature as you want, but the multi-legged creature won't be any faster than a single-legged one with higher leg stats. This gameplay element makes "creating" your creatures entirely pointless (cosmetic only, because everything is based on stats), and brings you about the same amount of excitement as dressing up a plastic doll."
It will be interesting to see how Electronic Arts responds to this. Other companies, such as Stardock, have changed their DRM policies after similar backlashes.
