Same thing in the music recording industry, companies having bonkers DRM and anti-piracy protections that didn’t work. DJ Steve Aoki got in trouble many years ago when he shared a screenshot of his browser and people noticed a tab for software on The Pirate Bay. Steve posted actual receipts of his purchase and said he uses the cracked versions because they don’t make you authenticate your software every goddamn time you open it, especially when you’re playing live and don’t have internet connection. You just want a hassle-free experience. It was quite popular to buy the software and support the devs, but use the cracked version because screw having multiple authentification programs and bullshit like that. I’ve done it too.
Thanks, I really appreciate it! I played Warframe back in the day but haven’t kept up with it for quite a few years got me interested I gotta look into that haha 👀
I really liked Spore at the time, sure some stages were boring, but overall it's a fine game. And the "only 3 installations per customer" were really in the vibe of digital media discussion we had at 2007s, because there were many mmmm opinions and campaigns from the music industry and artists, which tried to shame people for sharing their music CDs with friends, stating it harms the artist and the music label (somehow), and there were many rumors circulating how they'll make music CD's "expire after certain amount of uses", and while we had technology at the time which would allow that to happen, I never actually heard of any music artists to actually resolve to try and use it. But such discussion about sharing music CDs in many ways encouraged piracy, cuz many people didn't want to use official CD to listen to the music in fear of corrupting it by accident or by design of music label, so after they bought one official CD, they listened to it once and made an unofficial copy, which they would use and share with friends instead.
There’s definitely fun to be had with Spore 😊 And yep, you got it exactly! I was definitely one of those people that was paranoid about my CDs not working anymore and always used to make copies 🤣
@@early-tv haha, yay ~ I still find this outcome so hilarious, the big man music label tried to educate unruly kids on the ethics of music sharing, but instead they taught little Timmy how to use Nero Burning Rom.
Coming from a non-English speaking country, me and my dad actually missed all of the drama surrounding the game. Thanks to our PC being a bit crap at the time, we usually had to install and deinstall games several times to get them to work. As was the case with Spore. Only we couldn't do that, thanks to the DRM blocking us after the 3rd attempt to get the game running. My dad was actually pretty pissed once he had done some digging into the matter, and Customer Service was quite speedy in helping us in that matter. I was mostly disappointed in the game because I had followed the game's official presentations and such from a very early point, so I was expecting a lot of stuff that ended up being cut. Between the DRM debacle, the game being only alright, and our PC struggling to run the game even on lowest settings, I don't have the best memories of it. Still made a bunch of dicks
I got my enjoyment out of Spore those many years ago, unaware of all of this going on behind the scenes. I was so hyped for the game, I remember watching a recorded press conference from 2006 that detailed that the game was originally going to have ten different stages as opposed to the five we got to give the game a more incremental feel. I probably spent more time in the creators than I did in the actual game though, but that's what ultimately drew me to the game. I had never played an RTS in my life, I just wanted to make creatures, buildings, and ships!
Restricting a game to 3 installs lifetime is basically promising your game will be bad. I've installed the Sims on about 10 PCs in my life time. Because the game is good. I need it on every PC I've had even 20 years later. I've only installed spore twice. Wonder why...
Yep definitely not a good move. Pirates are gonna pirate anyway all it does is punish paying customers. Sims is also consistently fun, Spore has some interesting elements but overall is a bit flat.
Spore made my childhood and made my love deeper for games where you play as a little silly creature. I really hope some good people can redeem spore by making a game based off of it (adapt is really promising atm, please let me know if there's more games like these).
This channel needs to explode. I remember this whole debacle. I was quite upset myself, but it still didn't stop me from enjoying the heck out of the game.
The other thing I found funny about this controversial DRM is that it wasn't even unique to Spore. Microsoft had used a similar system with their Microsoft Office. When you purchased Office you could only install it X number of times. That being said, I refuse to purchase a game if it has EA on the cover. I do not care who made the game, I do not care how good the game is, if EA is on the cover I refuse to buy it. By the time Spore was released I had already been boycotting EA for 4 years.
I guess I'm clean and can join the civilization lol great video, been binge watching these videos. Keep up the good work and good luck on 100k!!! Trust me you'll get there soon my friend
Damn, I loved playing Spore back in the day, cant believe they only allowed 3 installations... thats insane... thankgod I never had to worry about that because I pirated the game LMAO
There's something about your channel I can't explain. It feels so familiar I could swear you've been around for years now. In any case, great videos! Keep up the great work
I have few questions about that research EA did. Firstly: when was it made. If they did it during 2008 or 2009.. well.. who changes their pc annually? Especially in 2008 with that economy!? 2ndly: well maybe people don't install it multiple times if they only have 3-5 max installs. They will only install it on device they can play it for long enough duration so that they get max fun out of it. To me that survey might very much be meaningless as they themselves set up scenario where people might had been afraid to make installs just to not "waste an install" and save them up for next device. Thirdly: Did they have means to track amount of pirated installs? I assume no. And i assume that people who needed more than 3 (or 5) installs probably already had pirated version or after they went to max they then got pirated version after. (Also even if they bought new version.. wouldn't that appear as new customer instead of existing one with 6th+ installment?). I wasn't pc game back then, i wasn't part of this. But i thank everyone who review bombed them as that at least slowed down this "rent a game" mentiality. Yes we have/had subscription systems here and there but people still seem to want to buy games and own them. Sadly since most games we buy now are digital we can't borrow them to friend anymore to check out. I have few cds and dvds left but those are very old games. Mostly what i can give my friend to try would be some nintendo switch games i own physically (i have few digital games on switch but i try to get physical ones too to save memory so i don't have to uninstall and reinstall on rotation). We should be fighting more for the right to own again. Currently we are losing this fight :/
I remember pirating this game on my laptop when I was 11 years old and making a phallic creature with my friends. It was the funniest thing me and my friends had ever seen tbh. For free? Incredible.
It's bizarre seeing a video about this... I can't believe this was 16 years ago O_O I remember coming up to the release how friends of mine kept going on about all the amazing features that were going to be in this game and how it was going to change games forever XD I remember back then saying there's no way the game will be able to do all that. What an odd nostalgia trip this has sent me on.
Not being from the US and with bad internet, I never heard about Spore until my brother comes home from school with a cd he got from a friend maybe a decade ago. It wasn't an installer, instead, someone went to the program files and straight up copied the entire folder into that CD. I don't think it had DRM because we copied the CD onto our computer and it ran just fine. It couldn't connect to the internet though so we never saw a pens monster but it was easy to download other creatures manually. Fun times
Woah I didn't know about the drm. I only installed it once, so my physical copy should still work. I was more into Amazing Island's monster creator at the time.
At the beginning of the video I was wondering if I had contributed to the review bombing of Overwatch 2. Then I realized my review actually had criticisms of the change in gameplay design, removal of a game mode, and total scrapping of one of the major selling features (Hero Mode) for OW2. Now I can sleep a little better knowing I didn't contribute just due to the change in monetization, but actual design of the game itself. 2CP was removed and many characters reworked due to their desire to make it a faster paced game (something I disliked, 2CO was my favorite game mode in og OW). Hero Mode was just completely scrapped, despite being one of the most talked about features mentioned during development and also would have been the biggest update over the original in terms of new additions. The monetization did annoy me and was mentioned in the review but was far from my biggest problem with it. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk.
I was one of the people that got hit with the 3 install max issue, I installed it on my laptop, which then broke, then my mum's computer and my new laptop, which then had to be wiped. So I never forgave the meh game for it. I enjoyed it up to the space age, when it changed gears massively!
It was really the rootkit that ran in the hypervisor space of your machine that bothered me, fortunately it was pretty easy to find a cracked exe for it. Also that review reads like bad 40k fanfic.
The outrage wasn't just because less than 20% installed it more than once or twice and gamers wanting to be butthurt. It was the principle of how it went against the customer in a way not many other games (if any at all) had done before. To limit the usability of the disc (and thus the game) that you bought, not even taking into account the flawed way it registered a new computer, or how it permanently installed the root, was to be viewed as an attack against the customer and the entire culture of how games were played and shared back then (at least of what I know). It can be hard to understand this perspective in 2024, with how you basically only rent the games you buy, but back then it was the disc you bought - not the game - and it was expected to work every time you used it, no matter where or how many times you did this. It was the equivalent of buying a DVD with a movie on, and you were only able to watch it ten times in total. And all of this solely because of corporate greed.
Same thing in the music recording industry, companies having bonkers DRM and anti-piracy protections that didn’t work. DJ Steve Aoki got in trouble many years ago when he shared a screenshot of his browser and people noticed a tab for software on The Pirate Bay. Steve posted actual receipts of his purchase and said he uses the cracked versions because they don’t make you authenticate your software every goddamn time you open it, especially when you’re playing live and don’t have internet connection. You just want a hassle-free experience. It was quite popular to buy the software and support the devs, but use the cracked version because screw having multiple authentification programs and bullshit like that. I’ve done it too.
I just love turbo on emulators
Skrek's power-waddle sidestep shimmy gives me life.
This channel deserves a lot more subs. Would be fun to see you cover the Warframe review bomb that happened last year
Thanks, I really appreciate it!
I played Warframe back in the day but haven’t kept up with it for quite a few years got me interested I gotta look into that haha 👀
I really liked Spore at the time, sure some stages were boring, but overall it's a fine game. And the "only 3 installations per customer" were really in the vibe of digital media discussion we had at 2007s, because there were many mmmm opinions and campaigns from the music industry and artists, which tried to shame people for sharing their music CDs with friends, stating it harms the artist and the music label (somehow), and there were many rumors circulating how they'll make music CD's "expire after certain amount of uses", and while we had technology at the time which would allow that to happen, I never actually heard of any music artists to actually resolve to try and use it. But such discussion about sharing music CDs in many ways encouraged piracy, cuz many people didn't want to use official CD to listen to the music in fear of corrupting it by accident or by design of music label, so after they bought one official CD, they listened to it once and made an unofficial copy, which they would use and share with friends instead.
There’s definitely fun to be had with Spore 😊
And yep, you got it exactly!
I was definitely one of those people that was paranoid about my CDs not working anymore and always used to make copies 🤣
@@early-tv haha, yay ~ I still find this outcome so hilarious, the big man music label tried to educate unruly kids on the ethics of music sharing, but instead they taught little Timmy how to use Nero Burning Rom.
A game that holds a very special place in my heart. How time flies. I remember making my username after the grox as a kid
Coming from a non-English speaking country, me and my dad actually missed all of the drama surrounding the game. Thanks to our PC being a bit crap at the time, we usually had to install and deinstall games several times to get them to work. As was the case with Spore. Only we couldn't do that, thanks to the DRM blocking us after the 3rd attempt to get the game running. My dad was actually pretty pissed once he had done some digging into the matter, and Customer Service was quite speedy in helping us in that matter.
I was mostly disappointed in the game because I had followed the game's official presentations and such from a very early point, so I was expecting a lot of stuff that ended up being cut.
Between the DRM debacle, the game being only alright, and our PC struggling to run the game even on lowest settings, I don't have the best memories of it. Still made a bunch of dicks
I got my enjoyment out of Spore those many years ago, unaware of all of this going on behind the scenes. I was so hyped for the game, I remember watching a recorded press conference from 2006 that detailed that the game was originally going to have ten different stages as opposed to the five we got to give the game a more incremental feel. I probably spent more time in the creators than I did in the actual game though, but that's what ultimately drew me to the game. I had never played an RTS in my life, I just wanted to make creatures, buildings, and ships!
I started watching today and I'm now binging all your videos. This cahnnel is really underrated, keep up the good work :)
Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate it!
Same here, LOL, thanks for today's dose of nostalgia @early-tv
Restricting a game to 3 installs lifetime is basically promising your game will be bad. I've installed the Sims on about 10 PCs in my life time. Because the game is good. I need it on every PC I've had even 20 years later. I've only installed spore twice. Wonder why...
Yep definitely not a good move. Pirates are gonna pirate anyway all it does is punish paying customers.
Sims is also consistently fun, Spore has some interesting elements but overall is a bit flat.
"maybe one day I will get there in real life" My coffee left through my nose. Thanks for that.
Spore made my childhood and made my love deeper for games where you play as a little silly creature. I really hope some good people can redeem spore by making a game based off of it (adapt is really promising atm, please let me know if there's more games like these).
This channel needs to explode.
I remember this whole debacle. I was quite upset myself, but it still didn't stop me from enjoying the heck out of the game.
Thanks so much!
Spore is definitely still a fun game :D
The other thing I found funny about this controversial DRM is that it wasn't even unique to Spore. Microsoft had used a similar system with their Microsoft Office. When you purchased Office you could only install it X number of times.
That being said, I refuse to purchase a game if it has EA on the cover. I do not care who made the game, I do not care how good the game is, if EA is on the cover I refuse to buy it. By the time Spore was released I had already been boycotting EA for 4 years.
I guess I'm clean and can join the civilization lol great video, been binge watching these videos. Keep up the good work and good luck on 100k!!! Trust me you'll get there soon my friend
Thank you kind of you to say! Appreciate ya
Damn, I loved playing Spore back in the day, cant believe they only allowed 3 installations... thats insane... thankgod I never had to worry about that because I pirated the game LMAO
There's something about your channel I can't explain. It feels so familiar I could swear you've been around for years now.
In any case, great videos! Keep up the great work
Haha thanks! I kinda wanna go for the vibe of telling your friend about somethin cool about a video game so that’s neat to hear c:
14:00 DANG this human has me concerned. Dude. Go outside, pet a cat, please for the love of god
I have few questions about that research EA did. Firstly: when was it made. If they did it during 2008 or 2009.. well.. who changes their pc annually? Especially in 2008 with that economy!? 2ndly: well maybe people don't install it multiple times if they only have 3-5 max installs. They will only install it on device they can play it for long enough duration so that they get max fun out of it. To me that survey might very much be meaningless as they themselves set up scenario where people might had been afraid to make installs just to not "waste an install" and save them up for next device. Thirdly: Did they have means to track amount of pirated installs? I assume no. And i assume that people who needed more than 3 (or 5) installs probably already had pirated version or after they went to max they then got pirated version after. (Also even if they bought new version.. wouldn't that appear as new customer instead of existing one with 6th+ installment?). I wasn't pc game back then, i wasn't part of this. But i thank everyone who review bombed them as that at least slowed down this "rent a game" mentiality. Yes we have/had subscription systems here and there but people still seem to want to buy games and own them. Sadly since most games we buy now are digital we can't borrow them to friend anymore to check out. I have few cds and dvds left but those are very old games. Mostly what i can give my friend to try would be some nintendo switch games i own physically (i have few digital games on switch but i try to get physical ones too to save memory so i don't have to uninstall and reinstall on rotation). We should be fighting more for the right to own again. Currently we are losing this fight :/
I remember pirating this game on my laptop when I was 11 years old and making a phallic creature with my friends. It was the funniest thing me and my friends had ever seen tbh. For free? Incredible.
It's bizarre seeing a video about this... I can't believe this was 16 years ago O_O
I remember coming up to the release how friends of mine kept going on about all the amazing features that were going to be in this game and how it was going to change games forever XD
I remember back then saying there's no way the game will be able to do all that.
What an odd nostalgia trip this has sent me on.
I enjoy your content; it is well crafted and I will share it with the bodies of my enemies as I build my empire upon their bones.
Your empire is pure, may your enemies tremble in fear.
Not being from the US and with bad internet, I never heard about Spore until my brother comes home from school with a cd he got from a friend maybe a decade ago. It wasn't an installer, instead, someone went to the program files and straight up copied the entire folder into that CD. I don't think it had DRM because we copied the CD onto our computer and it ran just fine. It couldn't connect to the internet though so we never saw a pens monster but it was easy to download other creatures manually.
Fun times
Woah I didn't know about the drm. I only installed it once, so my physical copy should still work. I was more into Amazing Island's monster creator at the time.
It's sad that after a half decade development, a game is remembered more for its drm than the gameplay
And here I thought Spore was just a funny little game about strange little blobs :'D
How do you not have more subs? You literally have a voice made for TH-cam video essays to sleep to
Ahh thanks, very kind of you to say haha!
At the beginning of the video I was wondering if I had contributed to the review bombing of Overwatch 2. Then I realized my review actually had criticisms of the change in gameplay design, removal of a game mode, and total scrapping of one of the major selling features (Hero Mode) for OW2. Now I can sleep a little better knowing I didn't contribute just due to the change in monetization, but actual design of the game itself.
2CP was removed and many characters reworked due to their desire to make it a faster paced game (something I disliked, 2CO was my favorite game mode in og OW). Hero Mode was just completely scrapped, despite being one of the most talked about features mentioned during development and also would have been the biggest update over the original in terms of new additions. The monetization did annoy me and was mentioned in the review but was far from my biggest problem with it.
Thank you for listening to my Ted talk.
OW2 absolutely deserves its reviews. I agree monetization aside they made the game worse haha.
@@early-tv so, SO much worse. And thanks for the reply. We don't get them much on the Yutuubz these days, especially on 2 months old videos, lol.
I was one of the people that got hit with the 3 install max issue, I installed it on my laptop, which then broke, then my mum's computer and my new laptop, which then had to be wiped. So I never forgave the meh game for it. I enjoyed it up to the space age, when it changed gears massively!
One of the reasons why I'm afraid to wear my EA merch in public.
im still waiting for customer service 😢😭😭
I'm sure they'll get back to you any day now 😫
I always love heating about history behind piracy, it's always interesting to me
I played Spore Heroes on the wii instead of the og spore, and no one even remembers that game existed 😭
I haven’t heard of Spore Heroes, but I do vaguely remember Dark Spore 🤔
@early-tv spore heros was an action rpg, no bases or society aspect like the original. I remember it being really fun, you should check it out!!
@@sagegotlost I will, sounds interesting!!
Spore is a game worth pirating.
Ea gives it for free, even with Xbox gamepass 😂
@@Souls4Roca I can't hear you over the sound of this Bittorrent! It's torrenting bits that I didn't pay for!
💀☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️☠️💀
Amen to that
great vid
Thanks!! Appreciate it 💕
It was really the rootkit that ran in the hypervisor space of your machine that bothered me, fortunately it was pretty easy to find a cracked exe for it. Also that review reads like bad 40k fanfic.
If by bad you mean glorious 😌
Spore is so good lol 😂 I was addicted to Space Stage!
I’m just addicted to making weird little nightmare creatures haha 🤣
The outrage wasn't just because less than 20% installed it more than once or twice and gamers wanting to be butthurt. It was the principle of how it went against the customer in a way not many other games (if any at all) had done before. To limit the usability of the disc (and thus the game) that you bought, not even taking into account the flawed way it registered a new computer, or how it permanently installed the root, was to be viewed as an attack against the customer and the entire culture of how games were played and shared back then (at least of what I know).
It can be hard to understand this perspective in 2024, with how you basically only rent the games you buy, but back then it was the disc you bought - not the game - and it was expected to work every time you used it, no matter where or how many times you did this. It was the equivalent of buying a DVD with a movie on, and you were only able to watch it ten times in total.
And all of this solely because of corporate greed.
Spore is definitely worth the price of a 5 roll on any stupid gatcha game, including the ones i waste money on.
EarlyBird!!
🦉