No, my problem isn't really with Maxis, but that beyond-a-joke publisher, EA. The last TS2 expansion pack, Freetime, is released soon here in the UK, and EA have seen fit to bundle that SecuROM malware with that too, despite the thousands of complaints they've received on the matter. What a joke.
Why can't EA get it into their heads that they can stick all the Securoms they want onto their discs, it will do absolutely feck all to stop people pirating the game? EA, you fools, by bundling malware with your games all you are going to do is alienate your genuine customers, and push them towards real piracy, because why should your customers hand over £17 so you can screw up their PCs? My computer was previously infected with SecuROM, after someone installed NeverWinter Nights (no warning on that game either). My CD-RW consequently lost the ability to burn CDs, and we had no idea why. It was only after we reinstalled Windows because of a soundcard problem that the CD-RW drive started working again. Why do games publishers feel they have the right to mess up our computers - and deny us the right to burn perfectly legal CDs - to 'protect' a game most people have no intention of copying and bandying around anyway?
Copy-protection does nothing to stop pirates - why does EA think they will succeed where everyone else has failed? Pirates will always find ways to get round copy-protection, downloading an illegal copy of Bon Voyage is as easy as easy!
In other words, you morons, you've shot yourselves in the foot.
Pescado, you've taken the words right out of my mouth:
Not only is it [copying/sharing CDs] unpopular as a method, but it is also the method most likely to actually generate sales! The "casual" disc sharer is most likely to buy his own at some point. The veteran e-pirate is not only unlikely to do so, but strongly discouraged from doing so by the superiority of the counterfeit product that he clearly knows how to acquire. A short-sighted move like this forces customers that run into problems to learn the ways of the pirate, and pretty soon they join the Dark Side in frustration. By taking that sale now, the company costs itself future sales, an incredibly short-sighted move. Better to lose a sale in the present for sales in the future than to permanently alienate customers while simultaneously teaching them to be pirates to make what they have bought work!
Consider: A user who borrows a disk from a friend, with no CD check, probably won't buy the game NOW...but he might in the future, when he has to reinstall it, or buy the expansion pack now that he has the game, and is no better equipped to be a pirate later than he was before. A customer p***ed off by the game NOT WORKING that has to go find a crack has now learned some dangerous knowledge and has a hostile disposition. It is not a customer that is pleased with your product and likely to buy future products.
- Pescado, Booty King, from MATY
Complaining to EA about the crap they bundle with their software doesn't work. The only - ONLY - way to get the message across is to vote with our wallets. If sales go down enough, EA will finally wake up to their customers' demands. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, as many Sims players — especially the younger ones with their 'pester-power' — simply don't care what rubbish EA fobs us off with, because they just have to have the latest EP. It's quite a sad state of affairs, really. But EA have definitely lost me as a customer.
