Question about SecuROM

Well, what I meant was, if I don't revoke the activation, what happens when I hit the limit?

It's an extremely retarded system and I don't see why anyone in their right mind would willingly buy a game that has SecuROM if they're aware of it.

I bought Borderlands because I didn't know. I probably burned through 2 activations because I didn't know about the revoke tool either.

Yes, it matters which makes is all the more stupid. Even though the game is tied to your Steam account, you can still lose access to it because of SecuROM.

Yes it matters and Yes you need, the Batman Arkham City (non-Goty) is an example, if consume all the five activations you can't play and you need to contact the publishers so they unauthorized your activation, and that can take time and not all publishers are willing to do it.

sighs -.-"
Edit: Well, shit. I need to install the game first. -.-"

that depends, some games activate on installation others on the first time play.
if it's an EA game try to run the DeAuthManagementTool.exe any other try to run the exe with /revoke parameter

EA Game Authorization Management
If none of the tools work you may try to pass the /revoke parameter to the executable, like crysis.exe /revoke