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EA makes Red Alert 3 CD key blooper Comments by Robert Purchese

4 November, 2008

Comes up with somewhat hilarious solution.

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Comments: 1-37 of 37 in total

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chrisjm
04/11/08 @ 09:54
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So while a pirate can practise for a few hours, legit buyers spend 2 hours entering upto 40 different keys. SOLD :-|
Eraysor
04/11/08 @ 09:54
#2
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I like the fact that it's actually easier to use a keygen.
michaelius
04/11/08 @ 09:55
#3
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Pity it's another game polutted by EA anti-consumer drm.
Skire
04/11/08 @ 10:01
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haha the solution is f**k**g hilarious
Krusty
04/11/08 @ 10:02
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Genius :P

EA, just put your games on Steam and forget this DRM crap, then I'll buy it!
DFawkes
04/11/08 @ 10:03
#6
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Why not guess the last 2? Or 3? In fact, get yourself a keygen. In fact, buy a retail copy, but don't install it. Just install a pirate version.
jonsaan
04/11/08 @ 10:05
#7
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For added fun you can attempt to guess the whole thing!
hiddenranbir
04/11/08 @ 10:12
#8
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EA, put your games on IMPULSE.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 04/11/08 @ 10:12
gaselite
04/11/08 @ 10:14
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this. is. brilliant.
Fleisch
04/11/08 @ 10:15
#10
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Steam ftw!
mcmonkeyplc
04/11/08 @ 10:19
#11
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tards!
Pirotic
04/11/08 @ 10:24
#12
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What if they forgot to put the DVD in? would they make you manually type 6gb of hex until it ended up with the game :P
warlockuk
04/11/08 @ 10:25
#13
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It was the same with my Warhammer CD Key - they had IDENTICAL 2s and Zs and there were three other characters that could have been one of three things. It took about 15 attempts to register :)
JohnnyWashnGo
04/11/08 @ 10:31
#14
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God DAMN DRM rubbish.

I hope each and every person who purchases the game contacts them to waste their time getting the last character so that they can share the pain we feel wasting out time PROVING that we have purchased the game in order to play it.

Muppets
penhalion
04/11/08 @ 10:40
#15
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This is why consumers are boycotting DRM software. Now do EA finally understand!
Bleh
04/11/08 @ 10:42
#16
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whahahahaha, that's a real EA solution.
onezeonx
04/11/08 @ 10:42
#17
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ill try wiping my penis on it....will work faster
Paolo_ray
04/11/08 @ 10:46
#18
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"What if they forgot to put the DVD in? would they make you manually type 6gb of hex until it ended up with the game :P"

Hahahahaha!
BartonFink
04/11/08 @ 10:49
#19
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LOL - nice one EA hilarious stuff.
[TR]
04/11/08 @ 10:53
#20
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The problem is we're actually reasonable people and will try this "guess the letter" game instead of returning the damn game for a refund. The same can't be said about EA et al. when it comes to treating customers as actual people with, what's the word... brains?
adcworks
04/11/08 @ 11:05
#21
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what's funny about it? blooper aside, seems like perfectly valid and reasonable way to get around it. sure beats having to take it back or whatever no?
Rirekon
04/11/08 @ 11:26
#22
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Making the customer type in up to 720 characters because they screwed up is not reasonable, for a start that's nearly as long as this article!
neilka
04/11/08 @ 11:31
#23
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720 characters? What alphabet are you using?
Hypocee
04/11/08 @ 11:39
#24
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He's multiplying by the full 20 characters every time, as the Control key is against his religion.

Preorder bonus: Free 1337 crypto brute-forcing minigame included!
chrisjm
04/11/08 @ 11:41
#25
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'720 characters? What alphabet are you using? '

if Copy past doesnt work 36 * 20 chars = 720
gaselite
04/11/08 @ 11:44
#26
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what's with all the bitching? can you think of a better solution to an unfortunate accident?

The way they've put forth the answer is very funny, and it's a mild inconvenience rather than a major hassle.
chrisjm
04/11/08 @ 11:49
#27
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yes but its not a one off, they are treating their paying customers like pirates and pirates are free to be treated 1st class customers as its all striped out anyway for them.
Wyrm
04/11/08 @ 12:11
#28
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'what's with all the bitching? can you think of a better solution to an unfortunate accident?'

It's just the sheer incompetance of the situation. They make sure the DRM and copy protection is all in place and then do a half arsed job of allowing the paying public access to the software they bought. It illustrates EA's priorities perfectly.
retrend
04/11/08 @ 13:22
#29
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does all your news come from reading the archives on other gaming sites?
Freek
04/11/08 @ 15:55
#30
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So if this trend continues, will we have to hack the next EA game in order to play it? ;p
paketep
04/11/08 @ 16:10
#31
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EA itself is no more than a fucking blooper.
actionfitz
04/11/08 @ 16:39
#32
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so after swallowing the bitter SecuRom Rootkit pill and forking out for the glorified game rental that is an EA PC game purchase these days...
you get this?
lol.
just wish they would offer usb mouse and keyboard support for the inevitable console version.
faced with a choice between Piracy and the 'EA consumer experiance', i vote for the 3rd way of sticking to console games, or smearing lambs blood on my front doo rand letting the cash rest in my bank and wait till the angel of DRM passes over.
SeesThroughAll
04/11/08 @ 18:13
#33
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This really sounds like a joke.
stephen
04/11/08 @ 19:21
#34
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FAIL.
Sar
04/11/08 @ 19:32
#35
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FUCK.





ME.




/slaps forehead.

EA you suck. Seriously. This is how you tell your legit customers to fix your fuck ups?

Bloody hell. Following the whole Spore DRM debacle, then having a jumped up moderator tell your community that a forum ban equals a EA-catalogue wide game ban, then this?

Jesus H on a fucking stick.

Here's a thought EA: Just charge people for an email containing a link to a pirate copy of the game. It'd be quicker than gradually driving all your legit customers to warez, which is what the past few "hilarious" months have amounted to.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 04/11/08 @ 19:33
Shakey_Jake33
04/11/08 @ 22:20
#36
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Oh god guys. Complaining about the DRM is fair enough (such such critisism is deserved for such a hideous system). It's also fair enough to poke fun at the various forum moderator threats, and their suspicious retractions afterwards. But this was clearly a simple misprint, and they've pointed out a rather sensible way people get get around it.
dacicus
05/11/08 @ 05:06
#37
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It was a simple misprint, but EA's support should mail those keys to people who have the misprinted versions. It's not nice putting your customers to guess what key they have. I call that just not caring about your customer. And don't forget that the EA's support phone number is paid and it's not cheap at all. God forbids to phone at EA's support, you'll pay your game again trying to convince them that you have an original game and the problem is at hrie end.

Comments: 1-37 of 37 in total

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