Article by Rob Wright
 
After an uproar from PC gamers, BioWare has changed its DRM for the upcoming PC version of Mass Effect, ridding the game of its 10-day re-authentication requirement. But SecuROM still lingers.
 
http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2008/05/12/bioware_drm/

Yep, and it is still unacceptable.  I didn't buy Bioshock for the PC due to it's DRM and I won't buy any other game that uses it.
 
Activation limits are not the answer.

Copy + pasting from the other thread..
 

And for the people who dual boot in windows xp/vista, 3 activations won't even cover 1 formatted disc.

 
Battling piracy is not the answer unless you get it absolutely right: 0% annoyance and no limitations to legit customers, 100% fail for pirated copies. If there is one succesful pirating attempt, it will be all over the net before you can say the word "cracked" and business sense will tell you it is simply impossible to do at a cost that is acceptable to the publisher (will earn back the illusions of lost sales).  
 
Btw, this fact of gaming life does not mean that I condone piracy or think it is a good thing. In fact the world would be a better place without any of that but sadly it is the other way around: the world is as it is, and it allows for piracy to exist and so it exists. In fact piracy exists in a virtual borderless world, where most publishers are still trying to think of the marketplace as a diverse regional one, segmented in zones (with different pricing). They seriously have to consider updating their business models.

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+10 Sarcasm, +999 Jackload, +1 Inevitable reference , +3 original bonus, +1 amateur thief, + Pedantry, +5 Bunny, +2 Kicking while down, +3 Puking, +5 Messianic Approval, +10 OQ

I must admit I don't mind how 'Steam' have done things when it comes to buying games. It allows you to download it on your computer whenever and means you always have a backup of a game in case you overuse a disc i.e BF2 in my case.
 
I know it's not perfect, but it beats having to delve into the masses of games to find the one disc you need to run the game. If your like me and buy and complete 10-20+ games a year for the past 11 years it builds up.  
 
Also just a purely digital market doesn't appeal to many, but for the many of use with faster internet connections it doesn't make sense when you can buy the game for cheaper through digital release.
 
I do like to have a nice shiney metal DVD case to store my games in, with a thick manual to spend the installation time reading . But, thats just the icing on the cake of a good game it's not really required.
 
DRM is a waste when it's on CD/DVD form. All it becomes is a 1 maybe 2 day fiddle for crackers!

Greetings!
 
Limited installs continue.
 
Not buying it.

Well, it is official.  Mass Effect for the PC has gone gold and Securom is still in it.
 
Furthermore Bioware has taken to sweeping all comments about it under the rug and redirecting them to the off topic forum which is not easily accessible from the Mass Effect page and will probably not be seen by new customers.
 
The battle for Mass Effect is over, all thats left is the body count and tallying the losses.  Let us hope we can win the battle for Spore.  If that battle too is lost, then we might as well concede the war and leave EA for dead.

Greetings!
 
A Bioware employee posting in the Amazon forum:
http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect- [...] videogames
 
Last comics from DrMatta:
http://img187.imageshack.us/my.php [...] rt1kl9.jpg
http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php [...] rt2gi4.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php [...] rt3fy6.jpg

Wow, the Amazon forums are pretty unanimous about this with the exception of the poor Bioware community rep.  I don't envy his job right now.

well i was gonna pre-order mass effect and spore but now i've decided not too. i didn't get bioshock and i'm not regretting it. though i may get it off steam now i've seen it on there. i've grown to like steam here in Australia because their prices are cheaper than the local EB store and its quite painless. this is how i got UT3. it cost me half the price of UT3 from the store and i got the pack with all the UT games in it.
 
 
gotta say not happy about the DRM as i was rather looking forward to mass effect. i just hope theres no tinned edition coming out here because i love my tins but they aren't worth the DRM.

Gotta love the tags they've given the game for the Amazon listing..
 
securom
drm
defectivebydesi gn
malware
activation system
pc game
rpg
bioware
fps
rootkit
activation
bioshock drm
cool game
copy protection
digital restriction management
internet authentication
internet connection required
limited resale
sci-fi
spyware
 
BioWare's forums are just a whole lot of questions and nobody listening.
I guess BioWare can blame piracy for nobody buying this one too.

I wouldn't even buy this game for $29.95 , i can't stand lame DRM limiting how many times we can install a product we paid for.
When will developers learn DRM isn't the answer, its only driving more people to download it instead of paying for it.
 
Bioware forums they have worthless moderators who cry about people making new posts about DRM, beerfish will flame the person before locking it.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the decision to incorporate DRM solutions like this mostly a publisher issue, not a developer one? We can all be pissed at BioWare, but EA is the one really causing the problem. I suppose the easy idealistic argument could be made that Bioware should "stand up" against this crippling DRM, but if all of us "stood up" to our companies' bosses when they made lousy decisions, there would be only 1 word needed to describe us - unemployed...

irrelevant, the game is being distributed with unacceptable DRM.  Regardless of which company is requiring it to be there, it is there.  Therefore I will not buy it.