Well, I am currently working on playing through Spore. It’s been a slow process. Although, judging from what I’ve talked to stridex about, I’m pretty sure he’s farther along than I am. At any rate, a review is coming, I promise.

In the mean time, I thought I would take a brief moment to talk a little about what’s been all over the Internet lately: how the Spore DRM is a deal-breaking experience.

Now, I may or may not have actually purchased a copy of the game yet. Typically, I play about half-way through, if it’s good enough to warrant a purchase, I shell out the cash for it. I don’t really want to debate on if that’s a good thing or not. But there are plenty of folks out there who do normally buy the game right away, and they are now stopping from doing that for Spore. The reason? The DRM system — SecuROM. SecuROM is an Internet-based activation system that requires you to activate your copy of the game every time you install it before it will operate. The rub is that you only get *three* total installs — that’s right, three — before you can no longer activate your copy of the game. How exactly is that even legal? Here’s something you just shelled out $60 for, and if you reformat your hard drive three times (which would take me about 9 months, literally), you would no longer have a working copy. It’s like a rental, and people are pissed.

The interesting part about this whole thing is that it’s so completely unnecessary. In some single-player games, DRM might be necessary (although I think SecuROM’s level of protection is unnecessary in any event). But in multiplayer games, its not for a very simple reason — the entire game is based around connecting to a server, making it easy for the game company to keep the pirates out and the paying customers in. One of the coolest features of Spore is the so-called “Sporepedia”, an online-based encyclopedia of creatures created by other players. These creatures are a part of every Spore “level” — from the cellular to the space exploration phase. If you’re a pirate, you’re not experiencing that content, you’re stuck using the creatures that Maxis came up with before they shipped the game. That, in and of itself, makes me want to shell out the cash — if it weren’t for the horrible DRM included in the package.

So, Maxis and EA, take a note: the DRM wasn’t even necessary, and the level you’ve included has literally driven people to pirate your game. Good job!