Alright, now we are getting somewhere :)  EA has heard our outcries against the 10 day validation and has removed it for offline play!  Congratulations, guys for joining in the fight.  Why we didn’t get it removed entirely, we will no longer have to worry about our games to cease working.

EA released a statement saying that Spore’s will now allow for offline play and will only requiring validation on a patch or game content update. 

Q: If the game isn’t going to require an authentication every 10 days, will it ever require re-authentication?

A: Only if the player chooses to download new game content.

BioWare Responds to Copy Protection Outcry, Removes 10-day SecuROM Check for the Troops

Just recieved this email from Caryl Shaw, producer of Spore on the SecuROM issue…

Hey Spore Fans -

We wanted to let you know that we’ve been hearing your concerns about the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn’t want to head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information about how Spore is planning on using this new system.

A few things we wanted you to know:

• We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
• We’ll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
• The new system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
• You’ll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
•  You can play offline.

We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can’t wait to see what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing their creations.

I’d love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We’ve got a game to finish.

-caryl

I emailed her back, as the You can play offline point conflicts with the issue of SecuROM having to re-activate your game ever 10 days.  My guess is that is should say You can play offline…for 9 days.  I let you know if I hear any new information.

*UPDATE*  Apparently Kotaku is stating from the letter Caryl send out that we will be getting a modified version of SecuROM without the 10 day activitation.  While that is one small step and a good one, I’d perfer it if they ditched SecuROM entirely, as it causes too many other problems with installation and trying to play the game.

MaxoidShannon posted the first picture from The Sims 2 Apartment Life in this thread at the official Sims 2 BBS.  She wrote:

My name is MaxoidShannon, I’m the Producer on The Sims 2 EP/SP products. I was playing The Sims 2 Apartment Life the other day and thought you might like to see a sneak peak at some of the cool new objects. Check out the ceiling!!! (Yes, they are real!!) You will be able to change the texture on the ceilings. I know this isn’t much of a news item, but we are a bit early in development and we will have much more in the coming months. I hope you like what you see!

You are going to hear a lot from me on the SecuROM issues for quite some time, so be perpared for many posts and topics about this subject.  This might hurt my relationship with EA/Maxis, but I believe this is the right thing to do and should be taking a stand against this.  I urge fellow website owners to do the same below.

A website called SecuROM must be Destroyed was brought to my attention thanks to one of the commentors here (in which I thank, and proves the comment system to be useful). 

I’d like to point out a post from one of there fellow members on what Securom Must be Destroyed is about, and I couldn’t put it in much better words.

I want to mention something here, at the beginning of this movement. This forum is not about piracy. Some of you may be pirates, and some of you may not be. That is irrelevant for our purposes. Our goal is to convince EA and other games companies to rescind their decision to use the “new” SecuROM on future games. The new SecuROM is invasive, Big Brotherish, and demeaning to those who purchase the game. On top of that, SecuROM, in all its forms, is well known to cause computer breakage of varying sorts. On top of that, usage of MY connection at unknown intervals, transferring unknown amounts of data of an encrypted, unknown sort, is nothing less than thievery. They’re stealing bandwidth, risking computer integrity, transferring unknown and unapproved information, and treating users who legitimately acquire their games like criminals. This is unacceptable.

 

GET THE WORD OUT, SECUROM MUST BE DESTROYED

If you own a Sims Site (yes, this will pertain to you as no doubts they will plan to use this for The Sims 3), Spore website, blog, member of a forum, anything in which you can voice your opinion, let them know how you feel and send them to either this site or the SecuROM must be Destroyed site.  I will not tolerate having SecuROM on my PC and neither should you!

Credit to Spore Illustrated for the find.

I’m joining forces with TerraSpore to try to stomp out SecuROM for making its way into Spore (and probably The Sims 3 as well) and would like to hear your voice.  We’ve setup a special email for Maxis which forwards our against to many of their staff members and would like to hear your opinions on this subject.

Originally posted by ManagerJosh

I’m pretty peeved at this mandatory requirement to check in with EA every ten days just to play Spore. It’s absurd. It is silly. It is plain stupid.

Let’s consider the potential scenarios here:

1. There are users out there who want to play Spore but simply don’t have internet access. In this day and age, I know it’s surprising, however there’s still a decent size population. Plus there was a promise that you could play Spore without being online.
2. What if you’re on holiday/vacation? Are you simply gonna play Spore for the first ten days and then have the game suddenly die out on you? Or go to a country where internet is heavily filtered and they block these data from being sent to and from the server?
3. Let’s not forget that we’re depending on EA’s servers here to validate our game. Let’s say the demand overwhelms the servers and we’ve seen this happen too with previous games. People had to validate their titles (I believe just once) but people decided to validate all at the same time that validation servers came crashing to their knees. End result: People paid $50.00 for coasters. Imagine having to renew every ten days and the sheer volume of requests it is processing to validate the games. It isn’t just Spore they are validating here too; they are also validating mass effect users.

This is sheer stupidity and it’s time we speak out. I want everyone to be heard here and let’s get an emails going here to say something about this. It’s arrogant on EA’s part to think we’d put up with this. I’m not and I encourage everyone else not to as well.

I can not give out an email address of Maxis or EA employees as a respect to them, however I’ve setup an email address here at TerraSpore for you to send your complaints and to speak out about this.

The email login has been sent to Maxis and EA for them to view at their leisure.

Send your complaints to maxis <at> terraspore.com

Speak out! Be Heard!

And here are the points from me

Originally posted by Judhudson

More points:

1. I still play SimCity, SimTower, and SimCity 2000. Those games are over a decade old. Are we to expect these servers to still exist when Spore becomes this old?
2. Validating every 10 days, why so? Are those same people who purchase the game plan to suddenly switch to a pirated copy?
3. Technically, EA is now in control of our games now. We are expected to shell out $50 for a product we won’t even control ourselves. With this 10 day rule, we will be told whether we can continue playing or not.
4. I don’t want SecuROM on my PC, PERIOD….It should be a choice, not forced on us.
5. Pirates will find a way to bypass this and in the end, will have better copies than the ones who purchase the games. I don’t understand this. They say those who are mad at this issue are the ones who are going to pirate the games. You can’t be more wrong, because the ones who really decide to pirate won’t even have this problem, as it will already be hacked, leaving only us legit consumers SOL.
6. Like mentioned above, there are still those without internet connection. Some people live in Rural areas and either are connected via using a work PC, library, or relative/friend. You are hurting those people.
7. Say I go on vacation. I’m on the 9th day out of 10 and leave somewhere for 2 weeks with no connection. I take my laptop with me which has Spore installed. So the next day, I’m prompted that I cannot play. Basically, I won’t be able to access my game for those 2 weeks.

I could go on and on with more points. This whole idea is a mess. Honestly, I don’t believe you are the ones to blame, Maxis. This whole fault is probably the idea of a big-wig EA employee.

If this is true, I will NOT tolerate it. I don’t want to be told when I can play my game, and a crack is released which gets rid of SecuROM, I will be supporting it. This might hurt my chances of ever going to visit EA/Maxis headquarters but I will not be stepped on.

 Let your voice be heard, send your email to fight SecuROM to Maxis@TerraSpore.com.  Let them know we will not stand for this!  Otherwise, prepare for SecuROM to be included in other upcoming EA games.

MCV has a short article up with a statement from Nancy Smith, the boss of The Sims Division stating that The Sims 3 could make its rounds to console.

“The Sims 3 is a bit of a technology transition for us. But we have a team of 350 people in San Francisco working on it.

We are focused on launching it on the PC first and will see where it goes from there.”

I don’t even know why I am posting this…It’s a given that it will be ported to consoles…They are a part of EA, they port to just about everything!  I’ll think I’ll hold off until the day a version is released for my toaster.

Sims is the obvious example when we talk about the rise of casual gaming. Are you comfortable with that label?

I don’t think of it as casual. We were one of the first games that started to attract a broad audience. We were one of the first games that bought in women.

They were attracted by the storytelling aspect of the Sims and interested in things like fashion and interior design that were not featured in other games.

Today we have a 55% female audience worldwide and a really broad age range from 13 to 50 years old.

Personally, I don’t see what is so bad about The Sims being called a casual game.  Those are the games that do well!  Just look at the Wii’s casual games….WiiSports, WiiPlay….then the upcoming WiiFit.  Those are aimed at the casual gamers, and the sales are thru the roof!  Not to mention The Sims is one of those games where anybody can jump in and start playing right off the bat.

You can read more of this interview with Nancy Smith at the BBC newsbeat.

Thanks to Spore Illustrated for the find!

Infinite Sims has the scoop of the game description for the next expansion pack, The Sims 2 Apartment Life.

Your Sims are moving into a brand-new apartment, and their lives will never be the same! Adventure, fun, and drama await them as they move into the perfect apartment, whether it’s a spacious loft, a cozy one bedroom for couples, or a multi-bedroom flat with roommates. Meet and socialize with new neighbors to form networks, become friends with the landlord to decrease rent, and make friends that can help advance their career or lovelife. Will they mingle in coffee shops, take in a show at the local comedy club or hit the streets to learn from the breakdancers? Whatever new lifestyle they choose, your Sims will face all-new challenges, from getting along with roommates to dealing with noisy neighbors and meddlesome landlords. Take your Sims out of the serene suburbs and into apartment life with this new expansion pack!

Original source is from Centrum Simowe