Some info on the sims 3
 

http://xrl.us/bfn82

Don't know if you've heard it already, I jut felt like posting it.

Thanks, David! I hadn't seen that before!

It sounds like The Sims 3 will go a long way to fixing some of my major complaints about the behavior of sims in The Sims 2 and The Sims. I won't get my hopes up, though. I expect that anything coming from Electronic Arts will continue to portray their characters as self-centered, hedonistic, sociopathic atheists with no moral code or understanding of integrity or personal responsibility, portrayed with extreme hostility toward the culture of the vast majority of their customers in the United States and Europe.

Since it looks like the Sims will sort of learn, and the developer worked on Black and White, where you could teach your familiar good and evil behaviors, you can probably attempt to teach your Sims what you think is acceptable behavior, such as washing hands after the potty.

Of course, it will have SecuROM or something worse, so I'm not buying it.

Then you probably won't be buying Spore either, it will most likely have the same thing.

Yeah, probably. Anyone know which operating system SecuROM was actually written for?

Seemed to originally be for Windows, but they do have support for Mac's though . :(

I meant which version of Windows, 9x, XP, or Vista?

Earlier versions work all the way back into 95/98 according to wikipedia, so it's safe to assume it works with all version of windows.

Never thought SecuROM was designed to work with any known operation system.

I just thought it existed to make Sony money & many gamers frustrated. (It's also doing wonders for the no-cd crack sites!)

As to the Sims 3, I plan on sticking with Sims 2 for a nice long while, unless Maxis meets & exceeds all my demands in the "Sims 3 Manifesto" I wrote around here...

I also plan to stick to the Sims 2 for a long time, the game rocks as it is now. Hell, I am not even playing the last expansion.

Also, what's the problem with SecuROM? I read something about it before I installed BV and all I know is that it ruined some games or something.

Lol, didn't ruin the games -- ruined the burners!

As in the physical device used to burn CDs?

Scary.

Even scarier: It modifies the core operating system software. Electronic Arts software is far too buggy to trust them to go mucking about with the operating system.

Especially with a "one size fits all" piece originally developed for Win95!

Egad! I'm having adventures enough with Windows Vista without having to go mangling the operating system! :lol:

After snooping around, it's becoming clear that Microsoft was trying to copy MacOS with Vista. I can't begin to guess why in Heaven's name they'd want to do that when they already had better than 90% market share with XP.

Yes, that's exactly right.

Once you get SecuROM on your computer you will be unable to use any reader/writer (burner) drives at all.

The really "fun" part is that when you remove the game that had SecuROM with it you will remove the game but not SecuROM!!!!!! (Funny; I always thought that was the basic definition of a computer virus...)

Getting SecuROM of your computer is a pain in the rear, but it can be done. The easiest thing to do- of course- is to keep the bloody thing of your PC in the first place, which is why anyone interested in BV & latter packs should get to know the FarLight no-cd exe site real well. They work wonders! (SecuROM is only installed the first time you actually play the infected game from the original exe file.)

My sister was blind sided by a game she recently purchased & asked me for help as she new about the whole Sims/BV thing. I sent her the removal link & one to the (FarLight) no-cd exe for her game. She's happily SecuROM free now!

As for me, I am still in the process of getting ready for BV (RL is interfering right now) but when I do make the leap I have the FarLight site bookmarked already...

That may be true for some, but not all. I have BV installed and have no trouble using my burner, and I'm not using cracked exe's either (don't like em).

Cracked exe's may not be "the best" things, but a program that I never wanted in the first place that can't be removed without delving DEEP into the secret bowels of my PC is- to me- far scarier.

Since SecuROM does nothing to stop the "warez" crowd- but does effect tons of us legitimate players- I'm still waiting for an official explanation from Maxis/EA as to why the heck they won't remove the darn thing from their products!

(Again, SecuROM is not removed simply by uninstalling the game it came with. That's the best definition of a computer virus that there is!)

Can you simply uninstall SecuROM after installing the game?

Added: I found a note from one fellow who thinks he has successfully installed it:
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showpos...5&postcount=29

The uninstall procedure is incredible. I see a class-action suit coming when this thing annoys someone who is wealthy enough to take on Sony.


Also added: This seems to be raising the ire of fans of just about every computer game on the planet. Here's another one:
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...9&postcount=19

In that thread, they also quote a response from Sony that adds up to an outright lie. Having to lie about the software you publish is probably as close to a confession of wrongdoing that we will ever see, at least until criminal charges are filed against them.

Amusement: In my search for "Uninstall SecuROM" I ran across a SecuROM uninstall untility on the EA Site:

http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=341

That might be a desperate attempt by EA to avoid being included in the inevitable class-action lawsuit.