EA threatens Spore ban for DRM talk

EA has told users on its forum that they face having their Spore account banned for discussing DRM, a move which could force them to buy new copies of the game in order to continue playing - but subsequently back-tracked on those threats, as long as discussions were kept "civil".

Since the launch of the Sim-everything title, consumers have been expressing frustration at the use of SecuROM DRM to limit the maximum number of game installs to three.

"SecuROM has been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads," commented a moderator on the forum. "If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum. If there is any change you will be able to read it on the official Spore site."

"Please do not continue to post theses thread 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."

However, further down the page a producer at EA Maxis, going by the forum name 'Maxislucky', welcomed the discussion over DRM and pointed readers to another section of the forum.

"We are happy to support healthy exchanges on the forums. And people will only get banned for breaking the rules," read the post. "Discussing DRM is not breaking the rules - and as long as it is a civil conversation, it's cool with us."