The people who are up in arms against EA's new DRM are some of EA's best customers. These customers are mostly just afraid they won't be able to play the games they paid for a few years later because the DRM servers no longer authorize the game. They are NOT the customers who buy the game and then sell it on Ebay who won't need rights to play it years later. They are also NOT the people pirating the game. Pirates have little reason to protest because they get the games without the DRM attached anyway. The people upset are just scared because they are losing the guarantee that they can still play years later. EA suggests we should blindly trust them that we will still be authorized, yet the placement of DRM feels like they are telling us that they don't trust us.
If the article is right, I can see why EA wants to block pirates though, but I don't think it should be done at the expense of the good customers, which is what I feel EA is doing now. Personally, I hate pirates because they are taking advantage of not only the game publishers, but also people like me who buy a lot of games (as the article discusses about freeloaders taking advantage of what paying customers fund). The only real advantage I have is that I can have an effect on which games are made in the future because every purchase is basically a vote for that type of game. But punishing me further by restricting my rights, in hopes to slow down pirates, is not the answer. I'm almost to the point where I'm ready to just look for a new hobby.
As a side note, I just want to point out that the number of PC gamers aren't equal to the number of hardware sold, as the article implies. I buy a new video card yearly, and a new pc every 2 years. Hardcore PC gamers like to do that in order to get the best visual experience from new games. (Although I still get out and play my older games sometimes too and need to still have rights to play them)
I agree with the article that Steam is not the answer though. My blood pressure was way up when trying to install Left 4 Dead. I uninstalled all my steam games and steam and even reinstalled my video drivers, but the game would not install. I finally found something on a forum the next day saying I need to delete a file from the Steam folder, and then it installed. Valve might make good games, but Steam obviously has some problems, and also removes rights to install games, even just by being buggy software. I will be looking for games that don't use any DRM in the future. If the day comes when all games use DRM, I will find a new hobby to spend my time and money on.
