Gonna' see if I can't get an unprotected copy, but buy a protected copy as well. Use the purchased copy's ID/info to get on line, but play the unprotected copy instead. I'm not sure it's possible, but it looks as though it might be the best of both worlds.
My biggest concern is that EA (or Sony, or whomever) will one day feel the heat, and just stop developing pc games altogether. I'm a big-time Ubuntu fiend, and the only reason I can't get more converts is the lack of 'Spore' or the like in Linux. It doesn't matter how professional or powerful the OS is: sometimes, you just wanna' crank up OP2 or MOO2 (or even SE:V) and have some fun - simply impossible from the native Linux. (Thank God Fred Ford and Paul Reiche released Ur-Quan Masters to the Public Domain: I really enjoyed that game!)
The game engines exist, but nobody is producing - there's no money in it, so... ...the same thing could happen to PC games, if the margins fall far enough. In theory, boycotting the product to force the Distributor to fix DRM and Copy Protection schemes seems to be a good idea, but in reality these corporations either (a) go back to console game development - where all the games are protected the same crappy way, and can be controlled easier because nobody knows if their console is rooted or not, or (b) spins off the games development division, in the hopes that someone else can make PC games profitable again. Unless there's big money in it, you simply cannot get the same quality games for, say, Ubuntu/Debian Linux that you can get for $$$ for your winDoze pc. Unless some developers out there are secretly working on C&C Generals for the Linux world, or something.
Come to think of it - I'd buy something like that. |
