Petition: EA and Maxis need to remove the limition on the number of "Total" installations.

Oh Maxis...EA really because the EA corporation is responsible for the contracting of the DRM/SecuROM companies...
Why won't you see that I will never give up on this thread. Not until SecuROM is taken off of your products, the company dies, or the world ends. Whichever happens first...
I'm partial to the last one...just waiting for a ship to fly in and Planet Bust our SPORE to smithereens.

Dairuka wrote:Remember that this is not about concurrent installations on multiple computers all being actively usable at the same time, but Total installations. Meaning that if you upgrade your hardware, or reinstall the game four years later, you're using up one of those installations, and you can't get it back without jumping through potentially expensive or time consuming hoops with no real guarantee of success, at EA's discretion.

Chances are, a lot of you are probably on your second installation and you don't even know it yet. All it takes is a firmware upgrade, or a change in hardware.

For more information, refer to my other thread here: http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/6800.page

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Dear Maxis, and Electronic Arts

It is painfully apparent to all of us that you have not learned your lesson from the fiasco regarding Bioware's release of Mass Effect on the Personal Computer; there are countless personal accounts of people who have reached their final installation and are receiving an error message, such as the following:

EA wrote:The game can not start.

For security reasons, only a limited number of machines can ever be licensed by a single purchase. This limit has been reached. Please purchase another registration code, reinstall and then try again.

We may, or may not be at this point of no-return, but we understand that with only three guaranteed installations, this is a looming problem that needs to be addressed for all of us.

Take into consideration the massive oversight that your company has neglected to fix, despite promises of both, two extra installations on top of our current three, and a de-activation tool, leaving us: The legitimate consumer of your fine products, out in the dark. Why are the pirates - who stole your game, allowed to play your game, but we - who paid $60-$80 USD for your game are not? The very people you attempt to prevent from playing your game have more freedoms than we do.

This has to stop. To force your consumer to re-buy a game license we've already paid for merely because of common, simple, every-day computer procedures is ludicrous. Simple procedures such as:

- Hardware upgrades.
- Reformatting a hard-drive for whatever reason we decide upon.
- Firmware upgrades.

Understand that your experiment with SecuROM has failed. We're tired of being treated like criminals, and being forced to jump through potentially expensive (long distance phone calls to a customer support line in texas) and time consuming (Unresponsive and often automated online customer support) hoops for the sake of remaining legitimate customers to your company.

Do the right thing - remove SecuROM, or at the very least the limitation on the Total Installations by giving us an easy to use de-activation tool that requires no jumping through hoops on the part of the consumer. Allow us to install at our discretion at our whim. It's what we paid for. It's what we deserve as customers.

Stop making it hard to be a loyal customer to Electronic Arts, and Maxis.

Sincerely,

- Your loyal customers.

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If you agree with this petition, you need to do nothing more than reply with "Signed". If you know other Spore fans who feel this way, send them to this thread so they can sign it too.

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This part is a compilation of every SecuROM related problem to prove to the naysayers that this is a problem for the majority of users:

jkall wrote:Ever since I downloaded this game and have SecuROM on my PC ( I do not own many games and none have had SECUROM) Now my PC just freezes up completely when I am not even playing the stupid game. Never did that before downloading spore.

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/7031.page

Cinna wrote:Apparently I can't escape SecuROM. It's in the friggin remake of Colonization that I just bought. The worst part of this error message you wonder? I have the REAL CD in my drive. It has been there since I bought it several days ago. I love being treated like a pirate when I paid for something.

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/7082.page

You are allowed to install Spore on three computers at one time and if you go beyond that third computer and want to install it on a fourth computer than EA has a right to charge you for a additional license being it is their program. Personally, I find Spore boring and nolonger have it on my computer. Now if you are talking about installing on one computer more than 3 times and then asking you to pay for a additional fee thae you have something.

And a one and a two and a three four BUMP!

BWAHAHA!!
You really Bumped up an inserv!

Dairuka wrote:Remember that this is not about concurrent installations on multiple computers all being actively usable at the same time, but Total installations. Meaning that if you upgrade your hardware, or reinstall the game four years later, you're using up one of those installations, and you can't get it back without jumping through potentially expensive or time consuming hoops with no real guarantee of success, at EA's discretion.

goldmoldar wrote:You are allowed to install Spore on three computers at one time and if you go beyond that third computer and want to install it on a fourth computer than EA has a right to charge you for a additional license being it is their program.

Reading is fundamental, while apathy makes for apathetic people.

Count me in.

Again...Maxis...Sticky this...I'm sure some of you on the staff agree with this petition.

+1

Seriously, this three installation problem is rediculous. My computer, being the POS that it is, is making me very nervous because I don't want to lose an installation due to computer issues. Also, what happens to people if they buy a used copy from someone who didn't like it and returned/sold it. They are forced to play with the account of someone else, or if the 3 installs are up, Oh well, you just wasted money.

EA needs to stop being National Socialist (take that filter) Germany, and suck it up and get rid of this DRM crap. Seriously, legitimate gaming companies are laughing at this crap. It has been said that no real gaming company would restrict their game so badly, and that to say that the buyer does not own the game is rediculous.

Hell, I'm sure that the old company called Electronic Arts would have saw this as stupid.

And also, EA, you need to go back to how you used to be. Maxis made this game along with the Sims. Stop taking the credit by plastering your logo on everything that you release, but not make.

I'm listening to you EA Games. You were the company that subliminaly wispered to me to "Challenge Everything." Well I am challenging you to fix your game by getting rid of this fascist BS once and for all.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 10/20/2008 08:22:38

If a bump is what you bump for but the bump you bump for is not bumping, perhaps you should try bumping another bump that bumps to bump you...Savvy?

-signed =)

Already down 2 installs and was going to put it on the desktop but now I dunno

Signed, Im afraid to install it on a second computer I own, what if I run out of installs!

Madmarkx wrote:Signed, Im afraid to install it on a second computer I own, what if I run out of installs!

Welcome to the Sporums...I'm glad your first post was to sign a very important petition!!!

Activation limits are anathema to gamers like myself, who play games 5, 10, even 15 years after their original production date. Do you have any idea how many installs of Baldur's Gate I've had since it was released? Does EA have any notion of how many of my computers a game like Dungeon Keeper has been installed upon?

It's a lot more than 3. It's a lot more than 5... but those games allow me to play off the CD, no activations, no server-side verification on servers that would long since have been shuttered. I still play my "best games" long after the developer's "activation servers" will have been logged off for good, and all a decision like this is accomplishing is forcing me to pirate your software to get my money's worth.

Signed with the force of my two-plus decades of computer gaming that EA and Maxis are not even considering in their hunt for "Moar Profits".

Signed, stamped, posted, and agreed