@Crassmaster

You are right, other devs and publishers have done the same thing as EA, but at least they don't show such an indifferent attitutude as EA does to their customers.  Their attitude is that their customers are simpy cash cows to them and nothing more.  Yes..I admit, I can pirate EA games because i can, and so can anyone else for that matter, and no..it is not because i can't afford their games, but it is the simple fact that their security blanket they have used is not a blanket for them any longer.  But that is not the worse thing, when the fact that they have conintually use DRM while their customers have to beg and implore for them not to.  I don't think that is a very effective way to run your business.  And by the way, making money is not the sole reason for why one runs a business.

There are many types of businesses, but we're not talking about charity organizations here so that was a really pointless clarification.

my point is that for ohter developers, i support and care about them because they deserve my business, but for EA, i don't, and so if my friend lends me a game that is EA, or if i have an EA game, i will lend out to a friend.  Other devs, i actually go and buy their games.  Whereas EA, they ahve a reputation of having more than just indifferent attitudes toward their customer base.   The people at Bethesda loves what they do and they show that they care and honest about copyright protection policy.  THey even made a public post on their forum stating that how the DRM is used, etc, etc.   Same with a lot of other developers.  But EA, don't.  Have i pirated EA games, no.  I am buying Dragon Age origins because it is coming from Bioware, because i know they make a quality product and they are passionate about what they do.  But would i care if someone comes along and give me a torrented copy of NHL 2010, the Sims to tried.  I would try it and i would not have care one way because i would not expect too much from EA given their track record. 

Of course. However, most Devs/publishers -as opposed to EA- actually try to give people who have probs with their products support the best way they can... Biggest exception being Atari which tends to rather abandon their products when support gets too ressource consuming.

Still, I don't pirate. I simply don't buy their stuff as long as it's DDRM infested.

For what it is worth, as far as I'm concerned all the big dogs can simply vanish. They have manipulated the industry to the detriment of customers and fucked over gamers countless times. I don’t really see a need for giant publishers anymore to be frank. Especially those that compel developers to use bullshit on their products and severely limit the support and community interaction options and try to take away rights from gamers.

Small developers and publishers like SD and PI will do very well in my not so humble opinion with them out of the picture. The day of the "store box is king" is rapidly coming to an end. The multinational publishers in this industry are just like the ones in the music industry - dinosaurs in their last death flail.

If EA had the kind of problems at release that Demigod had, first they would have blamed the pirates. Then they would have told anyone who actually went through the torture that is known as EA customer support that it ws their fault and to wipe their harddrive and try again, oh and remove all presence of firewalls and antivirus software. When that didn't work, they'd quietly work on a patch, banning and removing anyone who complained form their official froums, release the patch months later which fix some bugs but introduce new ones. They'd rinse and repeat that process several times and by then, the limited activation problems woudl start to creep up (remember, EA support is tellign everyone to wipe their drives and probably buy hardware they don't need). And when it was all said and done, there would be no fix and they would claim that game didn't sell because it was too much of a niche game and pirates stole their thunder.

If it was Atari, and they even bothered to support the game at all, they release a new patch that would not only fix few bugs, introduce several new ones but actually strengthen the DRM and cause even more problems.

My point is, there are several companies that exist to make money, but that doesn't mean they operate the same at all. It doesn't mean they have the same missions, philosophy, financial backing, leadership or marketing skills either. This kind of DRM, for me, is a complete pass. I don't care if they are trying to make more money by using this tactic, they arenot going to make more money off of me doing it.

And if it was Ubisoft, they'd release games with crap DRM, then try a game with no copy protection and not release the DLC to guarantee that fans of the game get pissed off, release the next games with worse copy protection than they'd been using before that, and wonder why nobody is buying their PC games.

I hate Ubisoft.  EA may have poor support, but their games work and get patched, their DRM is about average, and they make good games.  Certainly they've had problems, but they actually offer a good overall experience.  It's not my favorite company by any means, but lately they've gone up several tiers in my eyes.

Atari is hardly even worth mentioning.  I'm surprised they haven't just given up and liquidated the fricking company already.

I am going to change the tppic a little bit, it is still related to C&C though.  First, any of you folks play through all the games in the C&C series, i am excluding Red Alert.  And when i mean play through them all i mean both sides of GDI and NOD sides for each game.  If you have done so, and i am sure you guy know the story of the series already, is it finanically justifiable for EA to get westwood to make another iteration of a game that in all honesty, its basic formula have nto changed much over the years.  And will the new story be justified for fans to continue to invest their time and money into the series.  Or has this franchise an excuse to be another of EA's cash cow.   I mean...if you look at Starcraft 2, people will still buy it regardless if it does not meet all their expectations.  But the pedigree of C&C is not the same as Starcraft 1 in the sense that people did not have to wait for ten years for another game to come out, and have somewhat of an expectation of what to expect for what the next game will be like in the series. 

I've only played GDI, except in Kanes Wrath of course.

I think the ex Westwood guys will make what games they want to make, just like any developers.  As long as they feel C&C is worth their time, they'll make more.