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EA Won't Use DRM For The Sims 3

Posted by Soulskill on from the learning-from-their-mistakes dept.

After taking heavy criticism for the use of SecuROM in Spore and other games, EA has made the decision to go back to simple serial code authentication for The Sims 3. EA's Rod Humble said simply, "We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future."

14 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by iYk6 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Serial keys are an improvement over more draconian DRM, but it is still DRM. And it is just as effective as other forms of DRM. In other words, the pirates' copies will have been already cracked to not require a serial key, or will come with a serial key generator.

    1. Re:It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by Dryesias · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think serial keys are necessary. They stop casual copying from being prevalent. Many people are not willing or knowledgeable enough to go through the time/effort to download a torrent, mess with keygenerators and/or no-cd cracks, and then possibly still be blocked from online pay. Without serial keys, anyone could just buy say, an RTS like AoE3 and install it on all your friends computers real quick so you can play together online. There has to be a balance, and I feel serial keys are a nice compromise, since it really doesn't require additional effort on my part, and I can even resell my software, because it is truly mine.

    2. Re:It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Their best strategy is to discourage loaning, which has been a side-effect of hand-held console cartridges for some time. Carts have a finite amount of space for save game slots, and as a result you don't want to loan your cartridge to someone careless who will overwrite your "hard work" with their own progress.

      So let me get this straight -- you want to discourage, not copying, but loaning?

      Since these are so often compared to physical objects, let's compare. With a console game, no one really minds loaning them -- the biggest concern is that you won't have it while they're borrowing it, and it might get scratched.

      But if anything, this opens up new markets -- game rentals, and used games. And it does drive up the value of a game, if you know it can be re-sold.

      It's only very recently that content providers have even toyed with the idea of "selling" a book, or a movie, which couldn't be transferred.

      The supposed purpose of DRM is to "keep honest people honest", by preventing things like actual copyright infringement. But your comment does tend to indicate the true purpose of DRM -- to prevent people from doing perfectly honest things (like lending) that you'd rather be able to charge for.

      This could be implemented in a similar fashion by moving storing saves online, and limiting the amount of slots available.

      If you're already forcing them to be online, why do you need to limit the number of saves? Just don't allow more than one person to be online at once.

      The customer loses some flexibility by being unable to save locally,

      and by having a limited number of saves,

      but benefits by not losing progress when reinstalling, or transitioning between different computers.

      That is a benefit. I should point out that it is one of the benefits of Steam.

      And hey, I can lend games on Steam. I just have to lend the whole account at a time, and if I lend my account credentials, I risk losing the account. That's really all the incentive I need -- to limit the number of saves on top of that really serves no purpose, other than to save you disk space. And with all the data Steam gathers about me, disk space clearly isn't an issue.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    3. Re:It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by phoenix321 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously, a serial code is the most simplistic and effective means of copy protection.

      One key = one install

      If you implement measures, that online / LAN multiplay is restricted to valid and unique CD-keys and executables cannot be cracked easily is one of the most reasonable methods to balance between players and publishers available.

      It serves the following purposes:
      - prevent non-paying customers from using unpaid-for online servers
      - (inofficially) let people (via keygens) rather freely test-drive the full software, offline on their own machine with the option to buy a key and make your installation legit and online-enabled in seconds.
      - ban detected cheaters from online play and introduce a financial risk to cheating (you have to buy a new key when you're caught) which deters non-hardcore cheaters from trying
      - prevent mass copying of your software: if the same key is encountered online in the thousands, disable the key
      - all this encourages defined and responsible ownership of the software: if you give out your key, you possibly cannot play online anymore

      - and inofficially: limit the resale-value of a used key: as a buyer, you cannot be sure if the key is not banned for cheating or shared with the entire school/workplace of the reseller.

      I don't know of people who been hindered from doing legit things with their paid-for software because of a cd-key. But I know several people who "test-drove" dozens of pirated games with a keygen who found out the game was so crappy that even downloading it was a waste of money and time.

    4. Re:It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by phoenix321 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Dongle checks present pretty much the same downsides as optical-media based copy protection and is probably worked-around as easily.

      Unfortunately, companies complain about these dongles to be too expensive. But I like the idea of these, simply because USB-sticks are pretty tough.

      You could also contain the entire game AND the copy protection ready-to-boot on a write-protected USB stick, making the game easy to re-sale, play, legitimately loan out etc. - if you have the USB stick, you have the game, the serial key and the means to run it in an instant.

      Losing a USB-stick attached with a keychain is much harder than accidentally scratching the surface of a delicate optical disk, where every bad sector is an important input to the copy-protection mechanism. I personally bought two or three copies of Starcraft-Brood War because the copy-protection used there is non-standard and incredibly vulnerable to even the tiniest scratches.

      Now that 4GB USB sticks cost less than 10USD retail, I'd thought we finally get ready-to-play sticks which include all and everything.

    5. Re:It's great that they lightened the DRM load. by Rich0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Used game sales aren't good for the original developer. If a game is bought for $50, then resold four times for $10-30 each time, how much does the original developer make? $50. Epic Games has voiced their opinion on the issue, and has taken measures to discourage the practice (unlocks/DLC).

      Yes, but people are more likely to pay more for it if they know they can turn around and sell it and get some of that money back when they get tired of it.

      My concern isn't that killing the used market is better for devs. My concern is that it shouldn't be legal whether it is better or not. There needs to be a balance between consumers and publishers. TPB probably isn't it, but neither is Spore...

  2. Woo! by somanyrobots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could it be that EA's actually listening to their customers? This isn't a cheap publicity stunt like Ubisoft pulled with Prince of Persia; this is (arguably) EA's flagship product.

  3. Re:Well, I hate to say it... by Dryesias · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't feel you can really consider serial keys to be DRM. It doesn't limit your number of installs, no matter how many computers you install it on, you can resell your software, it'll never cease to function, it is yours. I really only consider DRM to be anything that makes so that something I purchase isn't really mine, as if I rented it, when I was led to believe I was purchasing it.

  4. Re:Manual DRM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The island of Dr.Brain... I never owned the manual, and the at the beginning it asked you for the coordinates to the island, which are given in the manual. Eventually you just figured it out.

    People will continue to figure out workarounds. It doesn't matter what form the hurdle is in, someone will jump it, and teach others to.

  5. its a way to decrease pirating by Blue+Shifted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they probably recognized that the DRM actually encouraged us to seek out and download cracked versions....

  6. Seeing is believing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I will believe it when I see it. Until then, Fuck EA. Just a money grubbing corporation. They don't care about their customer.

  7. Re:ohhh come on! by oberondarksoul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    BUT WHY THE SIMS?!?!?!?

    Because it's one of their biggest-selling franchises. If it sells poorly than hoped, they can play the piracy card and ramp up DRM on all future titles with a smug "We told you so". If it sells well, it may encourage them to relax DRM on other games in the future. It's a game that's likely to sell well even with piracy, so relatively low-risk.

    --
    And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
  8. Re:Well, I hate to say it... by phoenix321 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And then they're whining about losing a serial key which can be written on the CD itself, dead-tree notebooks and in dozens of textfiles dispersed in backup drives and USB sticks.

    How these people manage their lives without losing AND forgetting the phone number of their parents, friends and kids, the phone itself, their workstation passwords and their social security number is beyond my imagination.

  9. Imagine if they'd port it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I have a little interest in it too, and if they released a linux version i know a huge number of other people would become very interested, there are a surprising number of geeks with girlfriends, this is just the kind of area where mainstream game publishers could make some money supporting linux at the time of release.