A Solution To Piracy

[Zakarath]

Games require a MASSIVE (millions of dollars) investment of capital in order to be produced. This makes it impossible to produce modern full-size games without intention of getting a return on the investment in these games. And piracy figures are even higher for high-quality games than lower-quality games, so how would making only high-quality "art" games solve piracy?

Graphics are some of the most costly aspects of a game. IF we went back to PS2 quality graphics the price of making a game would drop dramatically.

This is true, and while I agree with those that argue that far too much attention is spent on a game's graphics as opposed to things like gameplay and story, a return to poorer graphics is not a direction I want to see the industry take. I mean, I love minecraft, and I loved my old PS2 games (...until my PS2 bricked a few months back... sigh...), but I do admit that some of the best gaming experiences I've had were in games where in games where good storytelling and gameplay combined with superb graphics to create an immersive experience. And I would also say that graphics expectations have kind of became conditioned in people so that a return to PS2-level graphics would not be taken well. I mean, I never noticed them at the time, but now that I've played modern games, it was always a bit jarring making the backwards transition whenever I turned on my PS2.

 

[SniperMacFox]

Just stay away from Portal, Minecraft, Braid, all the games produced by profiteering jerks.

I know, right? I mean, who does those independent developers think they are? Giving us great games for decent prices? Bastards.

On a more serious note (seriousness from now on) I've never seen why people have been so damn annoyed about Piracy. If they're the developers or artists then fine, they have a good reason to be annoyed as it's their work which is being stolen, but nowerdays many have found ways around this. People pirating your music? No problem, in fact the return on CD's is so small that really they aren't what make the artists the most money. It's people who have listened to their music going to watch them live, that's when the coins start to clatter in. Video games being pirated? Simple, improve the security by having them connect with programs like Steam which requires registration on all products. In fact, sell through the same services for a better return on your products.

Piracy will always exist, because given the choice between two identical things, one you pay for, one that's free, you're hardly going to fork out for what's free for all? What the industries are doing is working their way around the problem and some are using it as best as they can.

The best that you, as consumers, can do is help the artists you love by supporting them, but also informing them. Keep an ear out relating to surveys or events which they're organizing and give them constructive feedback as often as possible, as by knowing what works and what doesn't developers can change their styles to get a greater audience and thus, MOAR MONIES!


...so what, I lied about being serious from now on? The Easter Bunny isn't the one who gives you chocolate eggs either (that'll be the Easter Goose who the bunny pirates from.)

 

[Wargwolf]

Piracy will never be stopped, it can't possibly be people will find a way like always.

 

[mechanixis]

In my opinion, no art in any form should be made with making money in mind, this is what leads to constant samey music artists and games dominating charts, if all art was made out of the desire to make art then we would have (mostly) consistently high products and piracy wouldn't be an issue.

To anyone who thinks that artists would be screwed over by the lack of money, artists are being screwed over by the lack of money already, because all the money in these industries are not going to artists, but to mindless crap.

For those who cannot be bothered to read, I AM NOT A PIRATE, shall I repeat that? I AM NOT A PIRATE! This thread is born out of the stagnation of the modern music industry and the lack of integrity, the fact that the problem of piracy would be solved is just an added bonus.

What are your thoughts?

You're essentially arguing that art is worthless and artists should deserve no compensation for their work.

"Ideas should be free" is an argument only raised by people who've never had their own ideas.

 

[zero_blahs]

So developers are suppose to spend money learning this skill (college courses and what not) to then take up a job a smaller job and do game development in his spare time? no just no a better solution would be to go more into digital distribution which I imagine would let game studios basicly produce their own games instead of needing publishers. Music needs to do the same itunes $0.99 is bullshit and the artist will prolly only see like .003% of it.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Long as people are free to roam the internet and decided their actions piracy can not be stopped.
True lot of the money made on music goed to publishers. and the artist usually live with Live gigs income.

 

[Atmos Duality]

You're essentially arguing that art is worthless and artists should deserve no compensation for their work.

An act of necessity will provide incentive to ensure the product/result works, but only just that much.
That's an economic decision. It's designed with efficiency in mind.

An act where there isn't such requirements means there are other incentives involved, usually deeper incentives.
That's a personal/artistic decision. The purpose can literally be anything or any combination of things.

 

[nuba km]

Sorry, you really don't understand good and bad in this context.

Good = Things that were made purely for the merit of the art itself, because it shows integrity and feeling.

Bad = Things that were made purely for profit and to feed negative habits.

so you are ignoring a perfectly valid argument because of a tiny reason and you are saying what you like is good and what you don't like is bad. because last I checked good is something positive while bad is something negative. e.g. a bad game is a game of poor quality and a good meal is a meal that taste nice (not a meal that is art for the sake of being art). also what about games that are made for ENTERTAINMENT and games are for ENTERTAINMENT same with movies. I have rephrased my previous argument so you may understand it.

I believe if there were no money in the industry the only games that would be made would be ones purely for the purpose of art.

a artistic game does not equal a high quality game, also I would hate movies if there was no money in them and they were only made for artistic purpose but you know what EVEN ARTISTIC MOVIES NEED MONEY BEHIND THEM. At least the better quality ones, same with games even though there are a lot more high quality artistic games that cost close to nothing (compared to movies) to make but still the number 1 thing I wan't in my games is that they are FUN.

if all art was made out of the desire to make art then we would have (mostly) consistently high products and piracy wouldn't be an issue.

Bull carp for several reasons:
1.) just because someone doesn't have any money to make a game doesn't mean that the game will be of good quality to show this just randomly browse newgrounds for about a day. finished? ok all those games were made with a production cost of 0 and most of them are of extremly low quality.
2.) just because someone isn't looking to make money doesn't mean they will make art. You want an example you an just to what you did before or minecraft originally made as a small project with little money to no money behind it and is it art NO is it of high quality YES.
3.) I have seen thousands of movies that were just made to be art and they are 99.9% of the time they are of s***quality the other 0.1% are so low quality they are enjoyable.
4.) this doesn't solve piracy it just makes it pointless if all games are free.

 

[Wintermoot]

if that where to happen all the games would become artsy and boring (like those artsy movies only people with goaties and barrets can enjoy) in other words I like it this way although I,m pro piracy I generaly buy games (planning to buy FO NV next year when I get a new rig)

 

[eljawa]

If we cut out the middle man more (record companies) and charged less, music piracy would go down..

 

[Wintermoot]

In my opinion, no art in any form should be made with making money in mind, this is what leads to constant samey music artists and games dominating charts, if all art was made out of the desire to make art then we would have (mostly) consistently high products and piracy wouldn't be an issue.

To anyone who thinks that artists would be screwed over by the lack of money, artists are being screwed over by the lack of money already, because all the money in these industries are not going to artists, but to mindless crap.


For those who cannot be bothered to read, I AM NOT A PIRATE, shall I repeat that? I AM NOT A PIRATE! This thread is born out of the stagnation of the modern music industry and the lack of integrity, the fact that the problem of piracy would be solved is just an added bonus.

What are your thoughts?

it wont work it would make the whole industry desolate and pointless like the regualr art industry the quality in games would drop because there is no money to be made in it it might work in a communistic country where they get government funding but here its a terrible idea

 

[Catalyst6]

I suddenly have an image of a thousand ships, sails unfurled, sailing against the Spanish coast. Of course, seeing that they'd be manned by pasty and severely over/under-weight nerds, the Spanish would probably decimate them in a matter of minutes... win/win!

meh, we did that already..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8ZQsBRK-OE

Haha, nice.

I must say, the spanish voice for Anon sounds rather sexy...

 

[mechanixis]

You're essentially arguing that art is worthless and artists should deserve no compensation for their work.

An act of necessity will provide incentive to ensure the product/result works, but only just that much.
That's an economic decision. It's designed with efficiency in mind.

An act where there isn't such requirements means there are other incentives involved, usually deeper incentives.
That's a personal/artistic decision. The purpose can literally be anything or any combination of things.

Unfortunately, short of a socialist revolution, this means all we'll have left are indie games. And in case you haven't poked around the XBLA marketplace lately, that roughly translates "I hope you like bare-bones isometric zombie survival games."

If you applied the same reasoning to the film industry - "only art for art's sake" - film as we know it would completely collapse, because the reality is that quality products are ridiculously large investments in this day and age. And as of the past few years, game budgets are about the same.

If only the correlation were more cut-and-dry. But a no-budget games industry isn't going to produce better art - just cheaper junk.

 

[Dastardly]

In my opinion, no art in any form should be made with making money in mind, this is what leads to constant samey music artists and games dominating charts, if all art was made out of the desire to make art then we would have (mostly) consistently high products and piracy wouldn't be an issue.

To anyone who thinks that artists would be screwed over by the lack of money, artists are being screwed over by the lack of money already, because all the money in these industries are not going to artists, but to mindless crap.


For those who cannot be bothered to read, I AM NOT A PIRATE, shall I repeat that? I AM NOT A PIRATE! This thread is born out of the stagnation of the modern music industry and the lack of integrity, the fact that the problem of piracy would be solved is just an added bonus.

What are your thoughts?

I just think you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater here.

It's one thing to denounce commercialism in art, or "art as product." There's plenty of good reason for that.

It's another thing, though, to insist that no artist should be compensated for his or her work. Some art incurs a pretty heavy cost (money and time), and the artist should be able to recover some of that--with some bonus money for the time spent. And if someone is willing to pay for someone else's art, that should be just fine.

Just because we're currently at the extreme of the "commercialism in art" doesn't mean we should go to the OTHER extreme. Either is the death of art.

Furthermore, touting this as a solution to piracy is like saying we could solve "crime" by just making all crimes legal.

 

[clipse15]

In my opinion, no art in any form should be made with making money in mind, this is what leads to constant samey music artists and games dominating charts, if all art was made out of the desire to make art then we would have (mostly) consistently high products and piracy wouldn't be an issue.

To anyone who thinks that artists would be screwed over by the lack of money, artists are being screwed over by the lack of money already, because all the money in these industries are not going to artists, but to mindless crap.


For those who cannot be bothered to read, I AM NOT A PIRATE, shall I repeat that? I AM NOT A PIRATE! This thread is born out of the stagnation of the modern music industry and the lack of integrity, the fact that the problem of piracy would be solved is just an added bonus.

What are your thoughts?

So from reading this I can glean that the TC is probably under the age of 20, comes from an upper or middle class family and if he or she does have a job it is purely to finance his own personal material collection instead of paying for things such as bills. Otherwise the TC would realize that hey without artists getting paid for their work then you would never hear or see there so called "art" in the first place.

 

[viranimus]

A: Doing it for the love is not going to work.
B: Game development literally is a full time, skilled and specialized job that requires vast amounts of time and extensive training.
C: The biggest part of development of any game IS........ MANHOURS. fresh bodies and paid wages. What else is there? Discs in bulk cost 1.50$ per unit or less, A prefabbed engine license would typically cost less than 1 million. The rest of the multi million $ budget comes from paying the wages of the people involved in the project. If you employ people who have to work 8-16 hours a day 5-6 days per week How else are they going to have time to work a job to support themselves, in order to "Do it for the love.

 

[mechanixis]

So developers are suppose to spend money learning this skill (college courses and what not) to then take up a job a smaller job and do game development in his spare time? no just no a better solution would be to go more into digital distribution which I imagine would let game studios basicly produce their own games instead of needing publishers. Music needs to do the same itunes $0.99 is bullshit and the artist will prolly only see like .003% of it.

This is definitely an excellent point. Designing video games isn't a talent. It requires years and years of specialized training that can't really be applied to anything else. You can be a self-taught writer or painter at the professional level, but self-taught games designer is much less plausible.

 

[Treefingers]

snip

That's silly. Everyone has to make a living.

 

[ImprovizoR]

How would these hypothetical artists live? Presumably they would require some sort of income.

Well, they along with everyone else, would require a job,

Game design is their job. Are you saying that Paul Gauguin wasn't an artist because he sold his paintings, or Leonardo da Vinci for that matter? What if wrong with you?

 

[gl1koz3]

Worker 1 to 32 makes food and likes games. Worker 33 to 64 makes games and likes food. Exchange.

Worker 33 to 64 must share in order for the food to come and worker 1 to 32 must share in order for the games to come.

Problem solved.

That's communism, and that'll never work because you assume that:

1) Group 1 Cares about Group 2
2) Group 1 Likes what Group 2 produces
3) Group 2's stuff is good enough for exchange
4) No one in either Group has ambitions to do Both or something different

OT: As a Cartoonist, I wanna be paid for my gosh darn work. If I have to work another job just to live, then there is no point to Cartooning. Your idea doesn't work, because I'd rather be making money on something I love then doing something I love and making money elsewhere.

But didn't I say they do? I didn't assume anything. I stated that the group likes that stuff for a fact. Such groups technically can be assembled to match and help each other out.

The problem is that you assume it's random people, when I clearly stated they're not.