Mass Effect making (geek) headlines

Ok so anyone knows if they tried contacting EA support and got rejected and told to buy new game ?
 
Didn't EA say that there were 10 installs allowed? False advertising if you really only get 3.
 
This is outrageous! You buy a game for $59.99 and can only install it 3 times? Fuck that shit and fuck EA! I am forthwith boycotting the buying of all of their products on all systems that I own and not just the ones with this asinine CP. That's the straw that just broke the camels back.
 
Instead of combating piracy they are going to push people that normally by games to pirate them
 
This crap pushes people towards console versions... and then publishers come out a month later and say that PC gaming is dying because of piracy and they're going to focus on consoles.

I think this DRM crap is done on purpose to drive the industry towards console gaming.
 
Rurik said:
This crap pushes people towards console versions... and then publishers come out a month later and say that PC gaming is dying because of piracy and they're going to focus on consoles.

I think this DRM crap is done on purpose to drive the industry towards console gaming.
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conspiracy!!.......you done?
 
leezard said:
Instead of combating piracy they are going to push people that normally by games to pirate them
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Yup. I don't condone a pirated a game in any situation, but if more people start only allowing X number of installs.....once I hit my max and I can't install the game, I'm finding it through bit torrent. I already purchased the game. Screw this crap.
 
aeonrevolution said:
Yup. I don't condone a pirated a game in any situation, but if more people start only allowing X number of installs.....once I hit my max and I can't install the game, I'm finding it through bit torrent. I already purchased the game. Screw this crap.
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there are no "buts" when you say something so strict as "I don't condone a pirated a game in any situation" ...
 
BioSergeant said:
PC gaming piraters are screwing themselves. This is a perfect example.
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If I purchase a game I feel no moral obligation to buy it a second time. Computer users reformat and install different operating systems. 3 installs would maaaybe last me a year.
 
I bought Mass Effect and I have really enjoyed it so far. I too re-install my OS and upgrade my PC regularly and will no doubt run into the 3 activation limit wall. It does suck that EA decided to take this approach an "attempting" to protect their game from piracy because it has essentially been ineffective as the game has already been cracked, albeit it took a bit longer than the norm.

Eventually, when I do run into this 3 activation limit, all I really need to do is use a crack. The sad fact is, people who bought the game will have to resort to using "pirate tactics" to get the game they PURCHASED to work! Unless EA step up and admit they made a mistake, which is about as likely as me getting a date with Kari Byron.
 
They better not fucking do this with Spore, otherwise I'm really going to be pissed.
 
I find it hard to believe that Microsoft allows a program by the name of
SecuRom to not be considered malicious software. That damn program is capable of disabling your dvd rom drives and your firewall....If this is correct, that's a fucking virus! Period.
 
Do they make it quite obvious on the outside of the box that you only get 3 installs and that's it? If not, I smell a class action lawsuit. I have a few games that I downloaded off the internet that come with limited installs but they say in the readme that if you run out of installs then to email them and they will give you more installs. LFS comes with 2 installs but renews the 2 installs every Friday to a max of 2 so you always have at least one install left. EA is not even offering that, bloody bastards. I am seriously boycotting all of their products from now on. And the person with the conspiracy theory about trying to force us to consoles may be right and not out to lunch at all. I emailed EA today just to let them know how pissed I am at them. I suggest you all do the same. Sitting here and discussing it is fine but action needs to be taken to stop these dicks from doing this BS. We put a stop to Starforce and we can put a stop to this too.
 
milkweg said:
Do they make it quite obvious on the outside of the box that you only get 3 installs and that's it? If not, I smell a class action lawsuit. I have a few games that I downloaded off the internet that come with limited installs but they say in the readme that if you run out of installs then to email them and they will give you more installs. LFS comes with 2 installs but renews the 2 installs every Friday to a max of 2 so you always have at least one install left. EA is not even offering that, bloody bastards. I am seriously boycotting all of their products from now on. And the person with the conspiracy theory about trying to force us to consoles may be right and not out to lunch at all. I emailed EA today just to let them know how pissed I am at them. I suggest you all do the same. Sitting here and discussing it is fine but action needs to be taken to stop these dicks from doing this BS. We put a stop to Starforce and we can put a stop to this too.
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EA have stated that once you run out of activations you can contact them for more also. I have heard that a lot of people are having difficulties in communicating with EA though. Either they get a convoluted response or no response at all (by email). EA have really shot themselves in the foot with this one.
 
Once the 3 installs is up can you call customer support for additional installs? Kind of like how it works when you've re-installed Windows.
 
RangerSVT said:
I find it hard to believe that Microsoft allows a program by the name of
SecuRom to not be considered malicious software. That damn program is capable of disabling your dvd rom drives and your firewall....If this is correct, that's a fucking virus! Period.
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Wait what?! Does it really? :confused: I was actually thinking of buying this game but if this is what it does on top of the activation limit then forget it. I'm not interested in renting software for $50! :mad:
 
I feel you milkweg. I guess you could have these SecuROM games installed on a seperate harddisk with a seperate instance of your OS, dedicating that OS for SecuROM gaming - while doing everything else on your PC using your regular OS, you'll minimize the risk of reformatting breaking your registrations.... but you're still fucked if you upgrade your PC.... nevermind... that's probably too inconvenient to be worth the bother... FUCK this seriously, I too am going to boycot EA from now on.

As has been said 1000x times before on this subject; you don't fix piracy with this approach, you only spawn more hate upon you from legit customers and turn them into pirates. This is the first steps to shutting yourself down.

Remember not to purchase EA console games either! that's probably their lifesource.
 
I bought ME and will buy Spore. The minute the DRM causes me a problem, ill find an "alternative".
 
Can someone post the readme where it says you can email them for more installs? Everywhere else I have read about this 3 install limitation hasn't mentioned that and they one link up above where the guy used up his 3 installs in one week says when he tried to install it a fourth time he was notified by the installer that he had to purchase a new license. If you can email them for more installs then if is a different matter and not as bad as I initially thought.
 
And this is why people were raising hell about the activation limits and about it requiring activation at all. In short, you didn't buy a game; you bought a plastic disc that will only work as a game as long as EA allows. Why are you surprised when it stops working?

On a different note... I wonder how many of the people that said we were exagerating and that noone would be bothered by the DRM, are the ones getting hit with the problems?
 
I didn't read this whole thread, so maybe someone mentioned this, but you get 3 concurrent installs. Not 3 ever. You can install it on three computers at one time. Uninstall it from one, you can put it on another. This is outlined on tweakguides if you want to read about it.
 
if you uninstall. if your PC dies, or your OS gets corrupted or just you wipe it, lose one "install"
 
Ah, everyone is saying it is 3 installs and that is it. Sounds like maybe they are wrong, including me. Might have to lift my boycott. ;)
 
J3RK said:
I didn't read this whole thread, so maybe someone mentioned this, but you get 3 concurrent installs. Not 3 ever. You can install it on three computers at one time. Uninstall it from one, you can put it on another. This is outlined on tweakguides if you want to read about it.
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Quoting a comment from the Bioware website "Just to note, it has been officially confirmed that uninstalling the game DOES NOT revoke/grant another activation." further "I'm just passing on the statement that uninstalling does not affect activation limits from official EA sources. The reference was also removed from the FAQ source which started the un-install rumor at tweakguides."

Original thread

You can however re-install the game an infinite amount of times on the same PC with the same OS as long as you dont reformat. As soon as you do a significant upgrade like a motherboard upgrade or change / re-install your OS the game will need to re-authenticate and use another 1 of the 3 activations.

The Cisco Kid said:
Once the 3 installs is up can you call customer support for additional installs? Kind of like how it works when you've re-installed Windows.
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Yup, there is a thread regarding this here

and here is a link to the support page
 
Interesting. Well, I upgrade quite a bit, so I guess they'll be spending a lot of money on support/activation calls from me. :D
 
Who cares? I paid my money. It's a single player game. It's less trouble to pirate a fresh copy than it is to dial call them.

I don't understand how this is supposed to work. this doesn't even stop the "I'm going to install this game on my friends PC piracy."
 
This does help eliminate piracy because it makes everyone hate EA and not want to try their games haha.
 
milkweg said:
Ah, everyone is saying it is 3 installs and that is it. Sounds like maybe they are wrong, including me. Might have to lift my boycott. ;)
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The opening article said it also required activation when dude changed his GPU.
 
RangerSVT said:
I find it hard to believe that Microsoft allows a program by the name of
SecuRom to not be considered malicious software. That damn program is capable of disabling your dvd rom drives and your firewall....If this is correct, that's a fucking virus! Period.
Click to expand...

That was Starforce, not SecuROM. Starforce used rootkits and its own kernel-level drivers to really dig deep, and it ended up causing a lot of problems. Thankfully, publishers got smart and stopped using it, so it's not really an issue any more.

SecuROM, although a pain in the ass with the whole activation business, is not malicious like Starforce was. As bad as this is, it's still preferable to Starforce.
 
milkweg said:
This is outrageous! You buy a game for $59.99 and can only install it 3 times? Fuck that shit and fuck EA! I am forthwith boycotting the buying of all of their products on all systems that I own and not just the ones with this asinine CP. That's the straw that just broke the camels back.
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I strongly agree with this, we need a kneejerk reaction to this bullshit to show it's not acceptable, they'll never learn otherwise and eventually we'll only have 1 install which we can only do after a trained EA representative takes a urine sample from us.
 
That's different than Bioshock. You were able to uninstall Bioshock and reinstall it as many times as you wanted, and me and my brother personally had no problems with it VIA steam. EA is notorious for ridiclious stuff. Remember their rule via their online downloader that if you haven't downloaded a game within 6 months you'd have to pay a fee to download it again? Yeah, a game you've already paid for and "own".

Is this limited to buying a retail copy/buying through EA? We got MA through Direct2Drive, I try to avoid purchasing anything directly from EA whenever possible.
 
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