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You mean just by virtue of a quickie-BW version? Applegeeks-Lite hasn't done a Spore comic that I can remember.

IIRC, he started around the time Lilah had a miscarriage.

Damn "artists" trying to do "serious" work, end up having to come up with a way to "placate" the "masses" who, well, just want a "gamer comic."

Bat wrote:

UT Reunion?

Ooooo I like. Gonna steal, K.

When mild-mannered old Loyd Case writes this, it's pretty strong stuff.

Through all these various protection machinations, I continued playing. None of them really affected me. Even StarForce protected titles ran just fine on my systems. Steam can be a bit annoying at times, but that annoyance is strongly mitigated by the fact that I can play my game on any system on which Steam is installed, since I have a valid account.

Now along comes EA, with the latest version of SecuROM, which they're using for Mass Effect (PC), Spore, and Red Alert 3. It's likely to be used in other upcoming titles.

With Spore, you get three installs (and hence, activations). That's it. You apparently get no credit for uninstalling. The same is likely to be true for Red Alert, though there's some evidence that uninstalling Mass Effect will get you back an install "credit."

Given that many PC gamers are also hardware enthusiasts, this is a pretty onerous problem. Upgrade your system, install Windows, install your game… oops, you've already used your installs. You get to call EA to try to convince them you need another.

So it's a pretty serious issue for end users. So much so, that Spore has inspired a user backlash. At one point, hundreds of users posted one star reviews of Spore at Amazon.com. Curiously, those user reviews have disappeared from the standard edition Spore page, probably because Amazon and EA feared what might happen to sales. But you can still see the effect on the Spore Galactic Edition page, for the moment.
...

So thanks, EA. Thanks for trying to put a stake in PC games—something I've loved for years and wrote about for over a decade. Thanks for nothing.

Electronic Arts Tries to Kill PC Gaming

Those who track these things say Spore's been pirated over 500,000 times already, and will soon be the most-pirated game ever. Such is the backlash against DRM.

For comparison Crysis, one of the best selling PC games of this year has only been downloaded 420,000 times since it was released in November 2007. Although the record breaking piracy of Spore cannot be attributed solely to consumers rejecting the DRM implemented within it, it most likely helped.

When will they learn?

Spore DRM Post of the Day [September 17, 2008, 09:32 am ET]
MTV Multiplayer contacted Electronic Arts to follow up on four major complaints about the SecuROM digital rights management in Spore; that it is limited to installation on three computers, that the DRM has some sort of spyware functionality, that only one Spore account can be created in spite of the manual saying otherwise, and the need for authentication every time online features are used leaves users vulnerable if those services are ever shut down. EA once again categorically states that Spore contains no spyware or malware (though they've found virus-infected copies on torrents) and repeats the explanation that manual was in error about being able to create multiple accounts (story). They also promise to patch the game to eliminate online authentication if they ever take the authentication servers offline and state they plan to release a patch in the "near future" to allow a game installations to be de-authorized so authorizations can be freed up to install the game on other machines. Perhaps most interesting are the questions that went unanswered, as EA declined to comment on their view of the legitimacy of these complaints about the DRM and if the DRM being handled differently for Red Alert 3 (story) signals their policies are shifting on this issue.

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board. … adid=91451

Everyone will be playing Lich King or GoW2 by then.

Will Wright on Spore DRM [October 16, 2008, 10:02 pm ET] - Share

Kotaku has a piece up quoting Will Wright answering a question about the controversial Digital Rights Management in Spore, his life simulation. Specifically regarding Spore he touches on the issues user's may have with its DRM, and he comments: "It was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore." He also discusses copy protection in general, opining that the current state of affairs is "an interim solution to an interim problem," going on to say: "You have games like Battlefield Heroes coming out where the idea is you give away the game and sell upgrades, which works more in the Asian markets where you need to monetize it over the Internet. I think we’re in this uncomfortable spot in going from what’s primarily a brick and mortar shrink-wrapped product to what eventually will become more of an online monetization model."

Also

Spore PC Patch, Mac Patch Workaround [October 16, 2008, 10:02 pm ET] - Share

The Spore Website now offers downloads of a second patch for Spore, updating the life-sim to version 1.02. Word is: "The focus of this patch is to fix bugs that have been reported via our customer service department and directly from the Spore Community. In addition, we've modified some gameplay tuning, added a way for you to select multiple items for deleting or banning while in Sporepedia and included a cool new planet style." The patch can be acquired from EA using their Download Manager, and a manual patch is also available on AtomicGamer and FileFront.com. There's no Macintosh patch yet, Mac users are told to check back soon. On a related note, Loot Ninja has instructions from EA on how Mac users having trouble with the version 1.01 patch can get things sorted out.

Last edited by Bat (2008-10-17 1:22 am)