Why online DRM serves no benefits..

[yourbeliefs]

Remember Darkspore? Probably not, but if you were a fan of the game or purchased it you basically have a coaster or a dead block of data space on your HDD. The game REQUIRED an online internet connection, even for single player, and due to a number of server bugs, EA (huge surprise) has decided that rather than fix the game to just let it die. This game is barely over 2 years old and now due to the completely unnecessary online connection system, the game can't be played anymore.

So please game publishers (EA and Maxis in particular), remind us again how gaming consumers BENEFIT from online DRM?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125526-Darkspore-Gone-Forever-Due-to-Abandoned-DRM

 

[Zookster]

EA also has a nasty habit of turning off servers for any game at around the 2-year mark. I think they should put a warning label on all their games that the online portion will not be available after X date. While that doesn't usually affect the single player portion of a game, it could render the reason you bought the game in the first place obsolete, if say, for example, you bought the cute little PSN game Spare Parts to play online co-op with some friends or young family members, and then a few months later no longer could, or bought an annual sports franchise game late in its life cycle for similar reason (some people just prefer earlier versions of certain sports games due to certain changes EA makes to the game from one year to the next). And don't get me started on the affect EA's policy has on trophy/acheivements hunters.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Apparently EA has changed it's tune on this.. likely due to all the flack they've received.

UPDATE: EA has apparently changed its mind on Darkspore and updated the message leading into the forums to pledge continued support for the game. "Welcome to the Darkspore forums. Thanks for supporting the game," it says. "We recently resolved an issue that was causing some players to not be able to connect to the game. If you any encounter any other issues, please contact help.ea.com for customer support. We will continue to support Darkspore, so feel free to continue to discuss the game here."