Spore
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I don't think anyone is saying that you should not try to stop piracy, but that you should not OVERLY punish innocent people in order to prevent piracy.
I think a more accurate analogy would be something like "would you support the banning of all knives and guns because some people choose to murder with them"?
I will not be buying mass effect because of this bullshit.
I think a more accurate analogy would be something like "would you support the banning of all knives and guns because some people choose to murder with them"?
I will not be buying mass effect because of this bullshit.
I think pc gamers are much more cruel when reviewing games because they have had the luxuries of online play, many many games in the same genre of any new release and all the other luxuries.
I'll wait for a pc review of mass effect etc. and if they still stand up to pc review punishment I'll probably buy the games.
If constant validation becomes a problem/gets annoying I'll just crack it. It's true that i shouldn't have to go to the bother of cracking a game I bought legit, but as far as I'm aware the game developers don't decide what copy protection gets put on their titles. I'd like to support them (if they made a good game) more than I'd like to "stick it to the anti-piracy man." (I realise though that there's no incentive outisde my own feelings to support the developers as I have to take the risk of cracking it either way for convenience or need, so I might as well just pirate the game outright. Stupid.) If these games make poor sales on the PC it will be blamed on piracy straight away anyway, not on the different expectations of PC gamers with regards to game quality, annoyance at constant online validation etc.
From my perspective, there's only one thing that can combat piracy and that's resonable prices paired with convenience. Steam hits it on the head in my opinion because the content servers can get you the game at high speeds and you can buy instantly (convenience) and a lot of titles are reduced in price (reasonable prices). The Orange Box was a steal at the price and I'd rather be lazy, buy it, and be assured of customer support, online play on official servers, no risk of my ip/account being banned and constant instantly available updates.
I can still play the games in offline mode if my connection dies, or I have to take a laptop somewhere.
I still think the major problem of pc gaming isn't piracy though, it's stale gameplay. I'm waiting for some bright spark to make a fps game that has the cooperative and social aspects of halo (2 or more people in 1 room having a laugh together while playing) mixed with the fun of online play for the PC. I don't want to have to drag a friends pc over from his house to both play the same game in the same room and start working with networking etc. The only games i've played like that are the Pro Evo series and i'm not too interested in football games.
I'll wait for a pc review of mass effect etc. and if they still stand up to pc review punishment I'll probably buy the games.
If constant validation becomes a problem/gets annoying I'll just crack it. It's true that i shouldn't have to go to the bother of cracking a game I bought legit, but as far as I'm aware the game developers don't decide what copy protection gets put on their titles. I'd like to support them (if they made a good game) more than I'd like to "stick it to the anti-piracy man." (I realise though that there's no incentive outisde my own feelings to support the developers as I have to take the risk of cracking it either way for convenience or need, so I might as well just pirate the game outright. Stupid.) If these games make poor sales on the PC it will be blamed on piracy straight away anyway, not on the different expectations of PC gamers with regards to game quality, annoyance at constant online validation etc.
From my perspective, there's only one thing that can combat piracy and that's resonable prices paired with convenience. Steam hits it on the head in my opinion because the content servers can get you the game at high speeds and you can buy instantly (convenience) and a lot of titles are reduced in price (reasonable prices). The Orange Box was a steal at the price and I'd rather be lazy, buy it, and be assured of customer support, online play on official servers, no risk of my ip/account being banned and constant instantly available updates.
I can still play the games in offline mode if my connection dies, or I have to take a laptop somewhere.
I still think the major problem of pc gaming isn't piracy though, it's stale gameplay. I'm waiting for some bright spark to make a fps game that has the cooperative and social aspects of halo (2 or more people in 1 room having a laugh together while playing) mixed with the fun of online play for the PC. I don't want to have to drag a friends pc over from his house to both play the same game in the same room and start working with networking etc. The only games i've played like that are the Pro Evo series and i'm not too interested in football games.
Yeah got the creature creator myself. lots of fun making up creatures.. also if you upload them they will be used in the initial population of the Spore galaxy when people buy they're game.
I also found out I can get £5 off spore when it comes out if i take my reciept for the creature creator back to the game shop
Hope everyone is well
Tef
I also found out I can get £5 off spore when it comes out if i take my reciept for the creature creator back to the game shop
Hope everyone is well
Tef
- princess
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Someone out there doesn't want me to play Spore
It came out just as I went on holiday. When I came back from my holiday I managed to break yet another piece of hardware (the psu this time) so couldn't play it. With a spare psu in my box, I installed Spore and the damn thing crashes before it even loads a startup screen. Woe is me 
Apparently there's an issue with the EA download manager causing it to crash so I'll try uninstalling that tonight.
Also, to those of you who have managed to get playing... is it true that the Space age is incredibly buggy?


Apparently there's an issue with the EA download manager causing it to crash so I'll try uninstalling that tonight.
Also, to those of you who have managed to get playing... is it true that the Space age is incredibly buggy?
- Fluffy Kitten
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For me anyway, it worked fine but not as I was expecting. I was sold on the space stage being a big sandbox toy where I'd be free to fly about doing what I wanted, but sadly all of your and your ally's planets' just bitch and whine for attention every couple of minutes like a spoilt child. Boring levels of pointless micromanagement ahoy. The stages (in my opinion) get less fun the further you progress, with space being the least fun of the lot.
Also it doesn't autosave, so if it crashes you lose everything since you last remembered to click through the menu and save by yourself.
And be careful trying to fix your install, prin, you've only got 3 shots with that before it turns into a coaster.
</bitch>
Also it doesn't autosave, so if it crashes you lose everything since you last remembered to click through the menu and save by yourself.
And be careful trying to fix your install, prin, you've only got 3 shots with that before it turns into a coaster.
</bitch>
- princess
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I've read some really different reviews so I'm quite looking forward to seeing if I like it. I'll be disappointed if it's pap but as a fan of The Sims and other such games I have a feeling I'll find it fun...I hope 
As for the 3 installs, how pants is that? Are there any other games that don't allow more than 3 install attempts?

As for the 3 installs, how pants is that? Are there any other games that don't allow more than 3 install attempts?
- Fluffy Kitten
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I like The Sims too, but Spore doesn't give the same fun... making your own creatures is entertaining but it's a bit of a downer to get to the tribal stage and find that nothing that's happened before is relevant anymore. It's all the same regardless of whether you have 8 legs or none.
Similarly with the building editor it doesn't matter what you build and how you build it, it'll all do the same thing...
...Until it gets destroyed by aliens in the space stage while you're off somewhere else trying to have fun, and you're forced to return home, remove the rubble and place down a new building in one of the 10-or-so allotted building spaces in the colony. Of course, while you're doing this some pirates will attack the colony you were just happily building in a different solar system, or you'll get called by an ally asking you to laser 5 sick animals on their homeworld.
And I think Bioshock had something similar with the 3 installs malarky... that's why I didn't buy it. Ditto for Mass Effect. I think this "fuck the legitimate customers" style copy protection is EA's standard for all their PC games from now on.

...Until it gets destroyed by aliens in the space stage while you're off somewhere else trying to have fun, and you're forced to return home, remove the rubble and place down a new building in one of the 10-or-so allotted building spaces in the colony. Of course, while you're doing this some pirates will attack the colony you were just happily building in a different solar system, or you'll get called by an ally asking you to laser 5 sick animals on their homeworld.
And I think Bioshock had something similar with the 3 installs malarky... that's why I didn't buy it. Ditto for Mass Effect. I think this "fuck the legitimate customers" style copy protection is EA's standard for all their PC games from now on.
- princess
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I'm hoping that because my copy is crashing before it loads (and thus can authenticate online) I should be okay.... maybe...
"Games are authorized to your machine when you first install and launch the game." - EA Support Site
Who knows....
"Games are authorized to your machine when you first install and launch the game." - EA Support Site
Who knows....
- Fluffy Kitten
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well i'm nearly up to the last badge on the space stage..
TIP : if you want to stop having to look after your planets.. get the uber protection turret .. one per planet.. after getting civ 4 or warmonger 3 they are unlocked.. i shopped around and found them for 350k instead of 750k (homeworld)
Am looking forward to facing the Grox now (already whooped their ass once)
TIP : if you want to stop having to look after your planets.. get the uber protection turret .. one per planet.. after getting civ 4 or warmonger 3 they are unlocked.. i shopped around and found them for 350k instead of 750k (homeworld)
Am looking forward to facing the Grox now (already whooped their ass once)
- Fluffy Kitten
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Yeah, but you still get attacked, and stuff still gets broken.
When I unlocked the uber turret I tried to spam them all over the place, thinking I was finally free of the retarded part of the space stage, only to be told "no you're only allowed 1 per planet for no reason, lol" and then watch them slowly oh-so-very-slowly take out enemy invasions while they bombed my cities.
Someone on the design team needs to be shot.
When I unlocked the uber turret I tried to spam them all over the place, thinking I was finally free of the retarded part of the space stage, only to be told "no you're only allowed 1 per planet for no reason, lol" and then watch them slowly oh-so-very-slowly take out enemy invasions while they bombed my cities.
Someone on the design team needs to be shot.
In future be skeptical of a good idea with a game built around it. We've seen it before in B&W where the pet training was interesting, but the RTS game that demanded your attention in order to build a context for your pet was absolutely horrifically boring. I can't help but think that Spore has a similar problem. Everyone seems to love a couple of aspects of the game but have major issues with the rest of it. Still, at least the game is doing well in terms of sales, PC gaming needs a few non-subscription hits a few times a year to survive.