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I think I officially bought my last pc game last week. Content protection has become so harsh that the first thing i need to do after I buy a game is find a crack site so I can actually play it...

Most recent annoyances:

1. Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. Wouldn't even install, spent hours trying. (Yes I bought the game, straight from best buy, took it back and got another just to be sure). Kept complaining about invalid media. Finally found a way "around" that, and no, it was NOT worth it (not a very good expansion, for the most mediocre game in the C&C series, I think the copy protection was more advanced than the game was)

2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Shivering Isles. Same, DVD refused to install, from what I gather online newer disks of oblivion itself do this too, but luckily I have an older version, so copying the data files from the disk into my install then activating them in the game worked :)

3. ANYTHING from steam. My internet is not very fast, so I have to keep steam offline. Even with games set to not update, they choose to do so anyways from time to time. I love when I try to launch portal and it decides I need 500 megs of patches before I can play. Whoever had the idea to require being logged into what is basically a online service to play single player games needs to be pummeled. (note: I know steam can be put in offline mode, but I play TFC sometimes, even still, the first time you launch steam after installing it REQUIRES full updates. Initial install to play portal took over a week for me, that one was worth it though.)

On the topic of the "super secureRom" it just sounds like an awful idea. With no guarantee that the remote server will stay around, what happens if, say, next year, since sales are low, they get rid of the activation server. Now suddenly everyone who paid for the game can no longer play it! 3 activations of the game? Oh good, now on top of that, even if the activation servers stay up, my game stops working after I re-install it a few times anyways.

Oh well, with the loads if indie talent around here and other sites I hang around, there's no shortage on refreshing, fun, NEW games with NEW ideas to play, that don't require the entering of a 50 digit set of key codes to play (I'm Looking at YOU EA!)

Seriously, what are these people thinking

Edit: oh, and all these games I just complained about, who's DRM schemes caused me hell and make me think twice about buying from these companies ever again...these games are cracked and downloadable in bittorrent anyways, sans annoying DRM. A lot of good all that protection did, painful installs, lost customer base, pissed off users, and still a pirated version available anyways.
[/end pissed off ex-EA customer rant]

PS. EA can blow me if they think I'm buying C&C, red alert 3 after seeing kane's wrath, I think the DRM took up more room than the data in this expansion....