I just wanted to give thanks to these two companies for allowing me to install Sins of a Solar Empire and letting me play it.

Hold on, I know, you're probably thinking, "Uh, what's your point in this?" My point is that game companies all too often are putting top-notch DRM on their games.

In the early days, you had to have a copy of the manual to make sure you had the real thing.  Then it evolved into forcing the CD into the drive.  Now it's gotten stupid.  Limited installations and online checks?  Uh, no.  I draw the line there.  No.  Not happening.  That is a direct insult to us, treating buyers like criminals, and any gamer out there who has played Bioshock or Mass Effect on PC knows what I'm talking about.

I live out in the Boondocks, where we're lucky to have 24 hour Internet access.  Bioshock as some of you know will not install unless you do an online check.  That's just ridiculous.  Multiple online checks for Mass Effect?  How about you can shove that online check sideways?  The thing that boils my blood is that these DRM methods are coming from the most successful companies, who are going to sell millions of copies anyway, so what does it matter if a few copies are going to get shared?  The heavier the DRM, the more likely it will conflict with someone's PC during Install or Play.  The kicker to all this is that hours of work and testing with their copy-protection could have been used in further refining their game that more times than not requires a patch to play without crashing!

We've all heard the recent Spore news, 3 time installation limit, right?  I really doubt that I would install the game three times, but you never know over the course of several years, HDD wipes, new OS'es, etc.  Furthermore, I'm a huge C&C fan, and I read that Red Alert 3 is releasing coupled with a nice steaming bowl of, um, I mean DRM that just doesn't work and frustrates everybody.  Guess this is my first C&C game that I'm just not going to buy, to avoid the headache that is DRM.

The message that I want to say to huge companies that insist on ruining their games with broke-@$$ copy protection is simply this:  If you are going to treat your paying customers like criminals, than that is what you are going to get in return.  I can't stress that enough.  I have a friend who bought Mass Effect and was so angry at the multiple online CD check that he downloaded a pirated copy of the game that actually worked better than the original.  I think I can safely say that is legendarily sad.  On the contrary, I know another person who pirated Sins, and was so impressed by the companies' stand on DRM and copy-protection that he went to Target and bought the box!

So, thank you IronClad, thank you Stardock, for not ruining Sins for us.  We really do appreciate it.