Mass Effect For PC Treats Legitimate Customers Like Thieves

Do you own a PC? Would you like to play MAss Effect on your PC since you've heard how great a game it is on a console? Well, according to the Mass Effect forums, if you'd like to play the PC version of Bioware/EA's hit XBOX 360 title "Mass Effect," you have to have an an internet connection.

Well, in order for the game you have already bought and paid for to order to remain "activated" the game needs to reauthorize itself via the internet every 10 days. Go 11 days without checking in and your game won't work until you do.

This has a few customers understandably upset. Says user "MysterD " :

It is good that Bioware and EA want to kill piracy -- but really, though; at what expense?

They already are losing a lot of customers b/c of employing such vicious tactics for a SP-game (Single Player). If this was a MMO or MP-based game, nobody would really care about the frequent Internet checks -- b/c the Net Connection is required to play online with people around the globe.

If somehow a copy of MEPC game gets out w/out any protection around comes out, that copy won't be hindered by any checks. Why should a legitimate buyer of MEPC have to pay money to be treated like he's a pirate when he isn't the pirate?

Thanatos405 agrees:

...if I buy the game and my internet decides to freak out for whatever reason I can't even play a game I've paid my hard-earned money for.

This isn't the only issue raised. What if you want to play the game that you paid for on the PC and EA or Bioware has simply shut down the authentication server? Think it can't happened?

Tell that to the thousands of MSN music customers thatfound out last month that Microsoft has shut down its DRM "license server" and left people who bought music -- instead of downloading it from a P2P site -- out in the cold.

If it can happen to Microsoft, you bet your bleeps and bloops it can happen to EA or Bioware.