Maxoid Sam

[calalily]

I'm almost tempted to post in that stupid thread.  I have an MCSE, and work in the technology field fixing other people's fuck ups.  Not to mention doing networking and cabling.  Does he think that we are all "just armchair techs"?  Hell, Pez patches their games better than they do.

I have actually pointed this out (under the cunning username of CalalilyPlayer).  Someone told me to follow StupidMaster Burpie's instructions and uninstall - to which I replied (in a far nicer and more long winded way) that MATY had noticed a character file problem that EA didn't, and they didn't know shit - so I would believe MATY over EA anyday.

*wanders off to squish lollies onto her game disk in the hopes that helps something.

[Apsalar]

Another thing that really pisses me off about EA's conduct is that they added something to the game that clearly isn't compatible with Vista, even though they state that BV is compatible. Sony certainly never said anywhere that it is compatible with Vista. But since EA added something that they didn't want us to know about (hence the secrecy), they couldn't very well say it wasn't compatible since that would give away the secret.  :roll:  Apparently it's pure luck if you vista machine don't rocket off earth and spiral into outer space. Installing something incompatible on vista is like willingly injecting cancer on it and hope it has good fighting spirit. And then EA has the gall to say that they tested and researched the thing?   :shock:  

Gah, just wanted that off my chest.  :x

[Requip]

I'm so friggin' pissed off, I could scream. I would never allow Sony to have access to my computer. No way. I followed the FTC settlement with Sony BMG and remember thinking, "wow.....that sucks....how can they install something without the computer owners consent?"

And now it's happened to my simmies.  :?

[Micavaga]

Why would we incorporate technology into our games that could possibly do such damage to our business?

SecuROM is not only used to protect The Sims 2 products, but it's in use in every PC title we produce. Madden '08, Command & Conquer 3, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Tiger Woods '08, FIFA '08, Harry Potter, among many others. These products are all core to our success as a company, and they all use SecuROM. Why would we risk messing all that up with something that would cause such an uproar?

Ummm... for the same reason that Sony BMG thought it was a good idea until there was an uproar?  Besides, EA's big money comes from console game sales vs PC sales (See Chart).  It was a gamble that they could afford to make, as it would not upset their core base, the console player.

Software installed without knowledge of consumer = bad
Software that messes with the functionality of other software = bad
Software that is not easy to uninstall off of computer = bad
EA = bad

[Requip]

I already contacted the FTC this morning about it, filed complaint against both EA games and Sony DACD (just Sony period) for installing a program on my computer without my consent or knowledge.
Spoke with the woman for about an hour and she's very familiar with the settlement against Sony. She's forwarding my complaint to the correct people (whatever the hell that means) and also said they've received alot of complaints regarding this in the last week.   :?

So I hope those of you with problems are calling!!!
1-877-382-4357 FTC consumer line

[Anouk]

Sims 2 Bon Voyage does phone home during gameplay. The story about the Launcher being the only thing trying to acces the net is not true.
However, I do not know why it phones home. Sims 2 does have the option to download from the exchange, but is it supposed to connect without the users knowledge or without there being the need?

Pic:
http://i23.tinypic.com/209g7df.png

[Requip]

:shock:

I hope you've posted that at other forums and places. That's unreal.  :evil:

[Apsalar]

Sims 2 Bon Voyage does phone home during gameplay. The story about the Launcher being the only thing trying to acces the net is not true.
However, I do not know why it phones home. Sims 2 does have the option to download from the exchange, but is it supposed to connect without the users knowledge or without there being the need?

Pic:
http://i23.tinypic.com/209g7df.png

Can you check the logs for what ports it is using? It would be interesting to see what kind of packets it's sending.

[Anouk]

Ok, I'll restart the game and see if it tries to connect again. Log will be up soon.

[LilyLocksley]

Wow, I just read up on some of the other Ea game forums, and all their new games are having these same problems. So far in my search, which has only been about five games so far, the only ones that have pin pointed SecuROM as the issue are the Sims and Command and Conquer 3. Most of the other forums everyone is going around in circles trying to trouble shoot their problems. The tech support thread for Medal of Honor: Air Born are 14 pages of the exact same issues that I see all over the Sims BBS, the only difference is Securom is mentioned at the most twice.

[Petunia]

My hubby just tried to install Scrabble complete from a different vendor and it borked his system.

Game won't even come up. After going to their forum trying to find an answer...what do I find?

A thread about Securom on the games and trouble people are having.

Who would of thunk it?   :roll:

[deathtotsr]

As I just finished writing this to a friend about this very subject, I decided to post it here. Because if any of you have consumer protection agencies in your respective countries, you might be wise to use them especially if after what Sony did was deemed illegal in your country. Anyhow here's what I just wrote to a friend about this and what I intend to do if my DVD writer doesn't work on account of BV & H&M recently being installed:

I read parts of the thread that I found at the URL you gave me and from what I know, here in Canada it's illegal. I don't know if Securom is on my copy of the game or not, because I haven't tried to burn anything on my new DVD writer yet. But the other burner that I had and got rid of burned things just that they weren't readable on anything afterwards. And I'm not sure if it started acting like that before or after I installed BV on here. I am pretty sure it was before I got BV but I could be mistaken. Anyhow I know for sure this drive that's in the machine now is brand new and so if it doesn't burn anything that's readable on it, I'll know why and I have a bill to prove that it's brand new to Maxis too (which is after the date of the bill I have for Bon Voyage). Sony (which I guess is the maker of Securom)
tried this shit before here in Canada and got sued and all their products that had things (because they also had implanted noise signals in things) that disable or damage a persons hardware or sound/entertainment/tv system removed off the Canadian market and it's illegal to sell anything like that here now. So if Maxis embedded this Securom thing and it prevents me from using my writer which I bought and paid for (and since I have other uses for it like to save data and my digital camera pictures for safekeeping and NOT for pirating their f'ing lousey crappy software that I probably couldn't sell pirated copies of even for less than the cost of
the f'ing CD it's written on) I can go to a Canadian gov't consumer protection agency (I don't even need a lawyer) and have them ban all of Maxis' products and have them removed off the shelves and sent back to them, in Canada if I want to. And if I can't use my new burner when I go to burn my next DVD that's precisely what I'm going to do. Let the Cdn gov't fix their wagons at least here in Canada. That'll be 30 million less potential people they'll be able to screw over and annoy and aggravate the f out of. And if other people use the same recourse or equivalent thereof in their countries, pretty soon the only market that they'll be able to sell to
will be the US market (because there they don't have consumer protection agencies and if you want to go after a company you have to do it out of your own pocket and hire a lawyer yourself). So that'd be one way to show Maxis enough is enough. Maybe I'll post my intentions on their BBS and see what happens and how many other people want to do the same thing.

Believe me after all of the problems I've had with the Sims 2 crap and all their addons, I will NOT ever buy ANOTHER Maxis EA product again. NEVER. Sims 9,999 could come out and it could be completely ew aw holographic and you could interact with it like the STNG hollodeck and I still wouldn't buy it, because I know with my luck I'd find a bug where I'd get stuck in it and never be able to get back to reality again.  I definitely won't be buying Sims 3 either, whether I have a computer that handles it or not. After all the problems and BS I've had with TS2, I've had wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more than my fill of it and am not going to spend more money for yet more aggravation. I can get anyone I want to aggravate me and it'll be free, all I have to do is antagonize them a little bit and whoopie cayou away we go, they'll be all too happy to aggravate and annoy me all I want and it won't have cost me anything at all. Or better yet, I can send flaming emails to Thomass and Atwat and they'll be happy to aggravate and annoy me right back. Well at least I'll some scapegoats to vent my anger on anyhow.

[Feverish]

I am getting so annoyed by people constantly saying " I don't think EA did it on purpose". No one is claiming that ea purposely caused problems to anyone's computer, but doing something accidentally doesn't excuse them from being responsible. Also, they didn't accidentally neglect to tell people that they were installing SecuRom. They purposely omitted that information.

[Requip]

I am getting so annoyed by people constantly saying " I don't think EA did it on purpose". No one is claiming that ea purposely caused problems to anyone's computer, but doing something accidentally doesn't excuse them from being responsible. Also, they didn't accidentally neglect to tell people that they were installing SecuRom. They purposely omitted that information.

Which is exactly why BOTH EA and Sony DACD are named in my complaint with the FTC, the BBB, and the AG in my state. I've been checking around on other forums too. It appears to me (and maybe not) that when I entered SecuROM into google a couple days ago, alot came up but now it's pages and pages long!  :shock:

[Markus]

This isn't the first time EA have pissed people off. From what I have read on Wiki and elsewhere, they already have a pretty bad reputation among hardcore gamers.