Living With a Nerd

It seemed that for a while, EA had been reclaiming their former position as a once respectable company.  Unfortunately, this has been completely undone.

As many of you are aware, EA received massive backlash for their insane DRM included with Spore and the PC version of Mass Effect.   After this, EA began including looser and less draconian forms of DRM with their software.  Late last week, however, EA dropped a bombshell: Command and Conquer 4 is in production and is going to be released…oh, and in order to play any version of the game (i.e. single or multiplayer), you must be connected to the Internet.

Come again?

I am aware that while this form of DRM will not affect most people, it still seems to be a bit excessive.  What if the servers are down?  What if they are permanently taken down?  What if you are in an area where there IS no Internet access?  I understand the need for software companies to protect their investments, but things like this will only drive people to piracy.  After all, what’s the point of paying for a product when the illegal version provides a better experience?

There are one of two futures ahead of us.  In one future, software manufactureres wise up, realize that people are going to “steal” their product no matter what they do, and they may as well not piss off their actual customers.  In fact, they will come to find out that by treating their customers as customers and not thieves, their customer base may grow and their customer satisfaction will skyrocket.  In the other future, software companies will reach the point where you must be logged into an encrypted authentication server for their software to function…leaving most people to simply pirate the software and use it as they see fit.

One future ensures the survival of the software industry; the other ensures it’s death.  Making it easier to obtain and use their products illegally rather than legally does not help their cause in any way, shape, or form.  Remove all DRM, remove all copy protection, use nothing more than a simple CD key, and treat your customers like customers again.  People are going to circumvent security measures on software anyways…don’t give them more excuses to do so than they already have.