Crono1973 said:
Whatever, basing your opinion almost solely on your hatred for piracy blinds you. Here are some things that you have to accept before you can be more objective:
- Piracy isn't as bad as you have been led to believe. It's been here all along while the gaming industry has grown so big.
And now it's the thing that chokes the life out of it. Before when companies pulled stupid shit people gave them the finger and sought out other companies willing to make them a product to buy. Now people just download the games they normally would pass over, followed up with a good old pissing and moaning about how Activision isn't thanking them for doing so. Is it hurting the large companies, no, it is slowing down the path of change for the industry.
What this does is harm the marketplace, making big name companies sell more copies, while lesser known sources get lip service.
Take anime for example, how many people who watch it bother to check crunchy roll or funimation, two groups streaming full subtitled anime for free, before ripping it off? This is the problem. It;s not the industry leaders going broke. It's the fact it made people lazy. Rather then being willing to sacrifice a little to push the industry towards change, they are content siphoning off the work of the fat. Which does nothing to help anyone. Except themselves, which if they admitted you would find less people telling them to screw off.
- Piracy isn't going anywhere. You can't stop it and abusive bills will only hurt the law abiding citizens and eventually game companies. The more abusive DRM gets, the more attractive pirated games become.
DRM is nowhere near as bad as most people will try and get you to believe. I here it exaggerated just as much as the illegal downloading is a massive loss to companies. Oddly enough despite legally owning dozens of games i have never had to deal with bad drm.
As well the idea that "Well you can't stop it!" is silly. You can't stop shoplifting, but you don't actively encourage people to not care. More importantly downloading the games instead of outright saying fuck you to the problem only makes it worse. It's an escalating slap fight between two greedy entities. Nobody wins in the end.
Which is something you can't just hand wave away, ripping games is entirely out of greed. You never HAVE to play a game. You are never forced or given no options. Games are a want, not a need. They NEVER will be a need. I am sure many people will have plenty of similar insults for me saying this but you don't have to play Halo. Don't have to watch Transformers. Don't have to listen to Rihanna. You don't need any of that crap to be happy, healthy or safe. It's all out of personal greed and meaningless self-entitlement. This isn't the homeless stealing bread or trespassing to get out of the rain. This isn't someone stealing medication for their dying love.
This is people being greedy demanding a luxury then pissing and moaning it wasn't handed to them with a golden thank you.
Once again, if people just admitted they did it for personal gain, so many of your peers would not be able to give a single fuck.
- You may not admit it but DRM has directly affected you more than piracy. Your enemy should not be the pirates. Don't blame pirates for DRM, that decision lies solely with publishers and so does the blame.
Actually, it hasn't effected me because if I find a game with bad drm I do this crazy thing called NOT BUYING IT. Then it doesn't effect me. I take my money elsewhere and have nothing to do with the poor quality product. Like a responsible consumer.
It's not, amazingly enough, just the publishers fault. It's a reaction to people violating their rights. If you disagree with how they do business you walk away, tell them why, and find someone else to entertain you and form a consumer/service relationship with.
The consumer that ripped the company off in the first place deserves their share of the blame. Companies tried to ask politely for people to not rob them and the response was steal harder they won't fight back. People always forget that companies didn't one day start throwing drm because fuck you that's why. It's their reaction to people taking there product without permission. It's their reaction to having their rights as a company violated.
Downloading perpetuates this crap. It's snowballed as both groups continue this slap fight bullshit. Are their greedy publishers, i wouldn't bat an eyelash at the thought. However those that are ripping the product off torrent sites are just as greedy. You can live without video games, nobody forces you to rip them off. You make that decision, you make the choice to perpetuate this crap rather then just being willing to go without and support someone willing to work with you.
Fact is, piracy exists, it always has and it always will. Wasting time, money and the good will of your customers fighting it is detrimental.
Fact is, there are many companies waiting, salivating at the thought of all you disgruntled customers actually looking at them instead of pointing at them and telling Activision to be more like that. If people would actually go support all those companies they love to reference maybe the industry would grow and change, but as long as people insist on screaming how they have a right to play Modern Warfare for free instead of supporting indie publishers trying TO DO JUST THAT were going to have to wait decades for changes that should have taken a couple years.
There are more players in this mess then just million dollar publishers and You. You have to remember the thousands of indie artist, musicians, film makers, writers, developers. Not to mention companies like the mentioned Crunchy Roll and Funimation. The people who are ripping people are off are just making the problem worse, and slowing down change.
So no. He has no reason to blindly accept what you consider to be truths, because they are only true if you ignore everything that's actually important.
