Grrrr..DRM....grrrr..activation limits

Before turning off my PC for the final time in its current incarnation I went through the installed software to make a list of the stuff I absolutely needed to re-install after the upgrade. I will be keeping the hard drive but I don't expect any of the programs to still work because they are installed under the old Windows XP operating system.

I wasn't going to consider games because I figured I would only re-install the games I actually wanted to play but then I remembered reading something somewhere about activation limits. Some games can only be installed a limited number of times and if I ever want to re-install I will have to use a new attempt unless I revoke the currently installed copy.

This is enormously tedious because there is no easy way of knowing what games use this scheme or not. With the help of Google I managed to successfully revoke the installation of Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Mass Effect but I was somewhat miffed to realise that I have probably lost my chance to revoke an install of Spore which I installed some time ago.

As a game collector with a large collection of titles that I hope to be able to install and play at leisure long into the future I find this particular form of DRM very annoying.

Comments

Robert said…

Dude, STEAM. STEAM!!

12:02 pm

mbp said…

Believe me Robert I am a big fan of Steam and nowadays I buy more than half of my games from them. They tend to be expensive for new releases though. I find it hard to justify spending €50 for game on Steam when I can get a boxed version for €35.

4:02 pm

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