ArsGeek

Spore patch released – DRM unchanged

EA released the first Spore patch today (PC only, Mac users will have to check back).  You can grab it here. Here's what it does (details in the full post), and the official site.

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How EA and Spore are causing piracy, the DasmX86Dll issues, removing SecuRom and some great DRM free alternatives

Speaking of SecuRom - I'm not quite sure why software companies continue to insist that DRM of this type (or any type) is worth it.  I wonder how much money EA stuck into this?  The game was available on the torrents before it's official launch and yet here's EA and far to many other companies shoveling money down the DRM hole. And it's doubly a problem because of their refusal to see this as an issue.  If the game sells well, EA says "See! DRM isn't that big a deal, people don't care and we're still selling games."  If the game's sales are hurt by DRM they fall back on "Pirates are killing our bottom line!"  Seriously?  Games will get pirated, sure.  But you're much more likely to sell copies if they're not crippled in the first place by software that does nothing to stop the pirates and everything to annoy legitimate users.

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My Spore creations – let me show you them

Yes, everyone and their brother's sisters's uncle are playing, reviewing and yawping about the DRM (which does suck) in Spore. I've been busy making things though.  You can check them out to the right ----> down there somewhere or look in this post for a flash widget which sometimes crashes my browser in Ubuntu (sigh).

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Spore.com is down in preperation for the launch on September 7

Looks like a whole lot of updating going on at EA's spore.com!  They're currently down, most likely adding the promised updates to the site for the Spore launch, coming this Sunday.

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Hooked on Spore – creature creator

For purely research purposes, I downloaded and installed the Spore Creature creator today.  What a hoot!  I'm plunging into this game and very much enjoying myself.  I spent some time getting familiar with everything tonight and designed a few additions to the Sporepedia. Feel free to check them out here.

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Spore – finally a game to get excited about

With the launch of Spore coming soon, I'm finally starting to get excited about a video game again!  It's been a while since there's been a video game release that truly sparked a lot of interest in my gaming life.  There's been the occasional left field surprise like Sins of a Solar Empire which I've enjoyed playing very much but most of the recent big gaming releases have been more of the same.  Prettier sure, graphically some have been amazing - but it's still first person shooter or real time strategy.  Will Spore be different?

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