Saturday Nerd Post: The Pirates of Spore

Saturday is Nerd Post Day

Spore is the latest video game from Will Wright, the video game Jedi master guru who created "The Sims" and all the other Sim titles you can imagine . In the game you guide life from it's inception in the primordial soup to it's end as an inter-galatic big boss of worlds. Some religious groups are up in arms over the game because it teaches evolution. However one could also say that the Gamer is just "playing God" and nothing is evolving, it's just doing what God intends. Here's the trailer for the game so you can learn more.

However, an interesting thing has happened with the game's release. Because EA, the game publisher is concerned about piracy, (rightfully so there are over 9000 people hosting the file on illegal download sites currently), they required that the game has to be authorized to be used on only one computer. This computer is hooked up to the internet and when you install the game, you authorize and in no time you are getting your Yahweh on and creating.

This process called DRM (Digital Rights Management) is nothing new, but it is driving gamers insane. They have taken to giving the game terrible reviews on Amazon, causing the massive online retailer to erase every review.

This pertains to all of us non super hard-core gamers, because these practices will become standard when media is all digital. Just like you have to authorize songs bought from itunes for different computers, you will do this for everything bought. Say goodbye to mix cds that are passed around. Letting friends borrow movies. Digital means there will be limits on who can watch what and how many times it can be watched. It's to prevent piracy, but I think it reduces community.

I'm mean we are not all Jack Sparrow pirates. Come on now.