If that is what they think they are mistaken. Pirates would never buy the products anyway. So you are not loosing any money there and you never will. It's simple, a Pirate won't buy it. 99% of games get cracked so for them it's not something they would do (buying the game I mean)

Where they are loosing money is with the possible customer that would of bought the game but decided against it for a variaty of reasons. Those Are the PEOPLE that matter not the pirates. So if they want to make money they have to concentrate on the reasons that prevented the LEGITIMATE CUSTOMER from doing so. Once you find that reason you must fix it.

it seems to me that EA is concentrating on the PIRATES right now instead of the legitimate customer. Therefore IMHO they are doing it wrong.  It's a pointeless excercise to try and block pirates. It's been proven time and time again, whatever somebody thinks up a pirate can bring it down. Wether it's a bank or a computer system nothing is safe.

So I say forget the pirates they are here to stay. The possible customer however is not here to stay. You must fight to keep him interested. EA is not doing that. It's as simple as pie.

S

@Mazuo - you are making lot of blanket statements and assumptions about politically active gamers all of which are not valid. Case in point, I for one have passed on many titles due to DRM and I don't play pirated versions of them either. I want to get them but I simply will not until the DRM is removed that is why I have been an advocate of drawing attention to EA practices. Again it will not change when complaints are made directly to it. In fact doing so will more than likely get you banned from its forums and cost you a fortune in phone calls all to no avail. So the only other legal option short of buying the company is to publicly call it out and try to compel it to change by influencing the only people that matter to it - the stock holders.

You have one in this very topic.  Ask him.

Also, I'd suggest you go back and actually read my posts before attributing any more positions to me that I did not take.  I've repeatedly stated I'm against EA's DRM policy and against other companies following suit.  What I disagreed with was the gamers' response to such mechanisms being championed in this topic.

Can't be for that reason. The activations actually give you permission to do that, albeit for a limited number of friends. And seriously, anyone that can't borrow it off a friend can easily torrent it. It does not stop piracy of any form.

Mazuo: I'm aware of your stance. I'm not attributing any stance or positions to you other than what you state. But you state yourself that "Pirates defacing a review page aren't going to hold much sway with EA". I'm just pointing out that if you think it's only pirates you're mistaken. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you though, and if so my apologies. I guess what I'm trying to point out is even if that particular strategy by itself doesn't get EA's attention, if it combines with other tactics/strategies, it can only help. They'd ignore it at their peril. And the fact that JR feels the need to comment on it and try to nonchalantly brush it aside speaks volumes. It looks like whistling past the graveyard, IMO.

*edit* Mazuo, reading back through the posts, it appears you're assuming that all or most of the people that didn't buy the game, but reviewed it, are pirates. Don't make that error. Many of the reviews are by people that are saying they wanted to buy the game but passed because of the DRM. That does not in any way imply they pirated it. I've stated exactly the same thing on various game forums (Spore, RA3, Dead Space, Mass Effect). I do not pirate games. This is why I have such a beef with this whole DRM scheme. Having been burned by it on BioShock, I'll never buy another game that uses it. But the publisheres are not going to know that unless they''re told. The Amazon reviews are one way of doing that, as well as informing others of the inherent issues.

Coelocanth, let's leave the issue of piracy to the side for a moment.

The most important point I've been trying to get across is that flooding a review site with crummy reviews is nothing more than painting graffiti on a wall.  While that may seem a romantic notion to some of the little guy versus the giant, the realistic approach is that we'll get nowhere without behaving like adults and sitting down with the corporates and figuring out the best solution for both parties.  I'm sure Stardock, Ironclad and lots of other companies would stand behind that position.

If EA or anyone else don't want to play ball, they'll quickly find their sales plummeting if they continue to use harsh DRM schemes that irritate their customer base without showing that they care about finding that solution.  No tantrums required, yet they still lose.

and the debate continues. i personaly hate copyright protection because it is literly useless, and really, does not do much, besides increase the price of games (im sure part of the price would be clued in given that they have to keep on coming up with new creative ideas) or decrease how much money thay have to spend on actualy making the game better. in my honest opinions, as time goes on the quality of games and the ammount of thought put behind them is less and less, but thats me. worse comes to worse, i find a better game to play (or a game that cant be bet so easily, like WoW, EQ2, EVE Online, Warhammer Online, PlanetSide, etc.)

@Sole - The EA idiot who made the comment is the CEO, John Riccitiello.

Hehe i suddently turn into a full fledge pirate due to my protest against EAs DRM methods. I'll say it against to make it clear. I followed achiously and with great hope and anticipation the developement of spore and lived throught all of the dissapointing delays only to be told about the draconian DRM methods they would be inplimenting. On thus note i decoded to boycott the game and to get my self a pirated with is obviously DRM free in protest.

Previous to that only 2 other prirated games have ever fell into my hands. The latest was Gangters II about oen year ago after seeing that teh game was no longer available anywere legitly. Edios doesnt even mention the game in their library anymore. And according to them all prodduction of the gane has ceaceed thus it is imposible to buy it. Gettign a pirate copy wa smy only option. The otehr pirated game of my life was Total Annihilation wich was pass alog to me a short time after it had came out. I liked it and bought the game and it is still part of my collection.

And so far i would say i agree with and that my views on the matter are the same or almost the same as Coelocanth's views. And i hardly doubt i can be considered a pirate or even a part time pirate due. I for one cossider my self a legit palyer.