Yeah, but suppose it's the fifth auth when the disk crashes?
And what about people that rebuild their machine regularly? I do, on a couple of test machines and one of those is where I tend to play games. I'll either do an image restore or, if hardware has changed, a ful build. Frequently.
But with this DRM, the inference is that I now have to remember to de-auth first.
And it's the thin end of the wedge. If EA get away with this, what happens when everyone else starts using it? You could well end up having to de-auth every application you have, just to do a rebuild.
And as for having to go cap in hand on bended knee to try to get CS to issue new activations, I am like hell doing that.
It's simple - I buy a game, I expect to be able to use it without having to jump through this type of hoop while the manufacturer tries to combat people that haven't bought it ..... and I suspect, pretty unsuccessfully. I am NOT prepared to have to go to CS to get past this type of DRM restriction. If you are, then fair enough, it's your choice. But I'm simply not guying games that do this, and right now, that means I'm not buying any EA games, period. If they ever radically change their stance to something I find acceptable, and if I get to find out about it, I'll reconsider that. But meantime, not a single penny of my money goes to EA.
Over the years, I've spent a lot of money on games. I shudder to think how much, but I've got a pile of boxes here now that certainly stretches into many dozens, and I'd imagine well into three figures. But I now haven't bought a PC game for a couple of years, and as things are, I rather doubt I ever will again. Why, I hear people ask, when not everyone does this? Because I can't be bothered to try to work out for every individual game whether it's got obnoxious DRM or not, and if so, just how obnoxious. I simply can't be bothered, so I don't even bother looking in game shops any more, or not at the PC market anyway.
So EA, and a few others, have pretty much managed to turn me from an enthusiastic gamer into a non-gamer.
So I suppose I really ought to thank the executives at EA. They've managed to save me a fortune on game purchases ..... and video card upgrades.