This is why I hate DRM

Yes, this is why I hate DRM…

I purchased a game, Miriel the Magical Merchant via PayPal.

I got an email from Reflexive Entertainment, Inc. on May 8, 2010 that they got my money. Fulfillment was handled through Game Center Solution. They provided me a download link, an Activation Code, instructions:

In order to activate the full version of Miriel the Magical Merchant, please do the following:

1) Copy (Ctrl+C), print, or manually write down the Activation code below.
To copy, highlight the Activation Code with your mouse pointer and
then hold the ”Ctrl” key and press the ”C” key at the same time (“Ctrl+C”).
2) Launch Miriel the Magical Merchant.
3) Locate and click any “Already Paid” or “Buy Now” button in the game.
4) Locate and click the “Already Paid” tab in the game.
5) Put your cursor in the “Enter Activation Code Here” box and then enter
the Activation code. If you previously copied the code, you can hold
the ”Ctrl” key and press ”V” key (Ctrl+V).

We sincerely hope that you enjoy Miriel the Magical Merchant. Please tell everyone you know about it!

Thank you for your purchase.

Well, I still have my Activation Code, I have all emails, I even have the zip I downloaded from the link back in May 2010 when I purchased with the app inside.

I enjoyed playing the game on my PPC Mac running OS X Tiger.

Well, fast forward to less than a year since I purchased the game. Christmas time, I move from PPC Mac OS X Tiger to Intel Mac OS X Snow Leopard and successfully used the Migration Assistant to bring over all my stuff from the old Mac to the new one. I reinstalled or reactivated my purchased apps with almost no issues …

But this game went back to trial mode. I tried to reactivate the game with my Activation Code and there’s no activation server to confirm the Activation Code, because apparently Game Center Solution went out of business.

So, what am I supposed to do now with no way to reactivate this DRM crap they put on this game?

What good is there to buy a game with DRM in it?

Oh, and you still see Miriel the Magic Merchant (and it’s successor) game being sold through Game House, etc.

Think I am going to buy another Miriel game? Or re-purchase this one? Not on your life.

So who is this developer, whom you can’t even discover once the game doesn’t work anymore, or even on Wikipedia on the list of Mac games (the game is there, but no listing for any developer), and the DRM they put on their games is worthless.