I feel a week of rants coming on. Today it's about digital rights management, otherwise known as DRM.
When most people think of DRM, they think of music downloads bought from places like iTunes, which come with built-in restrictions on where and how you can use the songs. They allow the music to only be played in certain software or on certain portable devices, or limit how many times you can burn a song to CD. Many people feel that DRM violates consumers' rights, because fair use laws say if we buy music, we have a right to listen to it in any way we want. They also argue that when paying customers are treated like criminals while people who steal music are free to use it however they choose, it doesn't make a very strong case against piracy.
But DRM isn't just for music. A DRM technology called SecuROM surfaced a few years ago which is used to control use of software bought on CD or DVD - usually games. Among other things, one of its jobs is to check to make sure the original disc, not a copy, is in the drive before allowing the software to run. The problem with that is that there are many things - some of them beyond a user's control - that can make SecuROM think that the wrong disc is inserted, when in fact it is the correct one. People have also reported SecuROM causing other problems, such as interfering with the functioning of anti-virus software.
As you may know, my PC gaming passion lies in one game: The Sims (currently in its second incarnation with a third due out early next year). This is a game which has expansion packs released every six months or so which expand the complexity and content of the game. The last two or three expansions for The Sims 2 have come with SecuROM protection. I'd heard all of the horror stories about SecuROM, but had managed to avoid being bitten by it... until now. I bought the final expansion, Apartment Life, a couple of months ago but had been too busy to play it. After my computer nightmare, I started to get the itch. So I finally installed it. When I tried to run the game, I received the dreaded error message. SecuROM was unable to locate the disc.
Oh, the disc was right there in the drive where it belonged. But not according to SecuROM. One of the most common causes of this malfunction is CD/DVD emulation software. I have run into that in the past (with other copyright technology, not SecuROM), but this time around I did not have any such software installed. The next solution to try according to my web search was to uninstall and reinstall the expansion pack. And this is where the thing happened that really pissed me off.
With this game, when you install a new expansion pack, your personal game files are upgraded to be compatible. If you then uninstall that expansion, your game files are then incompatible with older versions of the game... so, the uninstall process takes it upon itself to delete them. Never mind that you might reinstall that expansion before attempting to play again; it doesn't give you a choice. This is something of which I was aware, but simply did not think of before I clicked. But it's worse; it doesn't just delete your game files. It also deletes your downloaded content, custom music you've added to the game... everything, even though there are no compatibility issues with these files. Of this I was not aware.
I had a backup from January, which allowed me to restore my music and most of my downloads. I imagine I haven't downloaded too much since then, at least nothing I would miss. But to restore my game files from then would mean months of play lost, and I would rather start fresh with all new Sims than go that far back in time with the characters I had become so attached to in the past four years. So, I let Pleasantview (the neighborhood I played in) die, and started fresh in Belladonna Cove, the new neighborhood added by Apartment Life.
The worst part of this is that the reinstall did not fix the original problem. I ended up contacting SecuROM support, and they had to send me a modified executable file that would convince their software that I did indeed have the right disc. This took them over twenty-four hours, so I didn't even get to play that night after all the work I'd done to install and reinstall and selectively restore my January backup.
Yes, it was stupid of me not to backup my files before even attempting the installation. In my defense, I had backed up before installing every expansion pack before, and had never run into a problem requiring me to use those backups, which I guess made me over-confident that this too would be a smooth upgrade. But the fact remains that if it weren't for SecuROM, I would not have had to uninstall Apartment Life and my files would not have been deleted.
I have literally spent hundreds of dollars on this game and the one before it. If Electronic Arts were to check my online account, they would see that I have registered valid serial numbers for The Sims 2 and every expansion they have released (I think we're up to eight now?). That's around $300, and if you assume about the same for the first edition, that's $600 I have spent on this franchise. I resent being treated like a thief and being made to jump through hoops to play a game I rightfully bought and paid for - hoops which ultimately caused me to lose four years of gameplay and a whole neighborhood of characters who, though only a bunch of ones and zeros in reality, were like my children. You may think that's silly unless you've played the game, but each of them had a personality and hopes and dreams I was helping them achieve. I had witnessed most of their births, and had even seen their parents and even their grandparents through their entire lives. This is what EA hopes players of their game will experience; I am their model Sims player. How dare they put customers through this after we have spent so much money and been such loyal fans?
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