EA responds to Spore banning threats

After forum moderators on EA's Spore forums said that Spore accounts would be banned if people discussed DRM, EA has released an official statement, saying that the original statement was out of line.

"SecuROM has been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads. If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fan site forum," said a community moderator on the official Spore forums.

"Please do not continue to post these threads or you account may be at risk of banning, which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore."

The comments came in response to the heated controversy of EA's copy-protection system which at release allowed only three installs and one account to be created per sold copy of the game, though EA is now loosening the restrictions in response to customer pressure. Many Spore players have taken to creating anti-DRM creatures in the game world, as well as spamming the Amazon review system with negative scores of the game and petitioning EA to change the system.

It seems the original announcement on the Spore forums however, which claimed even discussing these topics could result in a ban of the players Spore account (effectively making the game useless), was completely unofficial.

"These comments are absolutely not true or in-line with EA’s moderation policy," an EA spokesperson told Kotaku. "They were made by an over-zealous community volunteer who does not work for EA."

"Anyone who looks at the boards will clearly see that DRM and other issues are freely discussed on the Spore forums, alongside other topics about the game."

What experiences have you had with the Spore copy-protection system? Let us know in the forums.

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