My feelings towards gamers with "Better" conditions AND opinion on piracy

[gamezgoddess]

I should really get a job. I dunno how i keep on affording my games tbh. I guess its cos i really dont buy much else, like clothes or makeup or much of anything really. Although when i was younger i got games a lot less often and i use to fully appreciate them back then. I kinda miss those days as now my greed has overcome me, as a collector I cant stop buying new titles, yet i dont complete them, play or even appreciate them half as much as i use to. A new game use to be a really exciting time for me, but now its anotehr case of, play it once or twice, then toss it onto the shelf with the rest. The problem is, I do wanna play it, but i got waaaay too many games and not enough time now to get through em all. Admitedly I do own a lot of pre-owned, I dont really have any other option, but on more important games i prefer to get em new in top nick condition.

"I should also mention im a complete game addict and it's MY LIFE. So if i took it away it would leave me completly empty."

I do feel for you on that, but there are otehr ways. Im not gonna deny im a total addict, games are my passion and ive dedicated a lot of my time towards em, and i do get jelous of those that can afford more than me...

Pirating games in my honest opinion is wrong. I wanna be a developer though so I guess thats partly to do with my feelings towards it, but as a gamer i also care about the industry and the only way more good games are gonna come out is by putting money back in. Of course ive also heard the argument that most that download wouldn;t hav bought the game in the 1st place anyway, but personally i see it as an excuse to justify it, cos int he end u cud just work and save liek everybody else does until u can afford it. I understand that buyign pre-owned games doesn;t hav the best effect ont he industry either, but its most certainly a better option. Best advice, get a job, save, only get pre-owned, be patient ( wait for new titles to drop in price before buying em), rent or borrow games off m8's and if worse comes to the worse consider trading the old ones in as well. Eitehr way when you finally get that title you;'ve been waiting for, u'll appreciate it so much more than someone who can buy almost every game on realease. Being spoilt and gettin everything on a whim doesn;t always make you a happier person.

 

[B4D 9R4MM3R]

In regards to the topic title I don't see why you can't save up the money. I'm not going to talk about the justification of piracy. If I've pirated I've broken the law, I'm not going to make up arguments to support my case. I know I've done the wrong thing, but that doesn't mean I won't do it. In some cases I'm worse than those who pirate with "justification", in some ways I'm better. Meh.

As for your addiction... either your lying or you require urgent help. For the last 5 years I've played games at least 5 hours a day and I have never, ever suffered withdrawal symptoms. I get annoyed that I have to come off of them, but that's the same with anything I'm asked not to do that I enjoy. I won't judge you, but if you're telling the truth work this problem out, please.

As for your gaming rigs... I would very much like a useful PC, but I have accepted that I will not be buying one anytime soon until at least after university. Not only do I not have the time, I do not have the money.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Better education = better paying job = more games

 

[GeeDave]

And when you get home from your job, sit down with the new full priced game you've bought and find out you've spent your hard earned cash on a piece of shit, you see justice in that?

I've come to the conclusion, that you're pants-on-head retarded. I base this off of the majority of your replies in this thread.

You can take the game back and get your money refunded. This also lets publishers know that their games are being taken back and therefore... something is wrong. Or is that "too much effort" for you? Much easier to just pirate eh? You all run around and talk about "shit game" this, and "shit game" that... but most of you do fuck all to actually send a message to the right people.

If you've bought a shit game... you have every right to take it back, and let someone know how shit it was by getting your money back, it then goes down 'statistically' which publishers (and Devs) can see. By pirating a game and thinking "omg diz iz nuffin' like halo I h8 it lol" and deleting it... nobody knows about it. Publishers and Devs alike, even the entire "Media" have no idea that YOU hated that game. But they need to know, cause if enough people can stand tall and say "that sucks, I want my money back", then good things will a'cometh.

 

[DannyDamage]

And when you get home from your job, sit down with the new full priced game you've bought and find out you've spent your hard earned cash on a piece of shit, you see justice in that?

I've come to the conclusion, that you're pants-on-head retarded. I base this off of the majority of your replies in this thread.

You can take the game back and get your money refunded. This also lets publishers know that their games are being taken back and therefore... something is wrong. Or is that "too much effort" for you? Much easier to just pirate eh? You all run around and talk about "shit game" this, and "shit game" that... but most of you do fuck all to actually send a message to the right people.

If you've bought a shit game... you have every right to take it back, and let someone know how shit it was by getting your money back, it then goes down 'statistically' which publishers (and Devs) can see. By pirating a game and thinking "omg diz iz nuffin' like halo I h8 it lol" and deleting it... nobody knows about it. Publishers and Devs alike, even the entire "Media" have no idea that YOU hated that game. But they need to know, cause if enough people can stand tall and say "that sucks, I want my money back", then good things will a'cometh.

You must be doing something pretty personal to the game store manager if they refund you because you didn't like it. They usually need it to be broken or on fire before they'll part with the cash you've given them.

Nice try with the judgement by the way, I haven't bought (or downloaded) an FPS for about 5 years because of my lack of faith in the genre today and has that stopped them churning out 20 each year? Has it fuck!

I give you a standing applause for you naivety, thinking EA and such would give a flying fuck if people returned the games. They care about how many have flown off the shelf initially and getting those first week sales numbers through.

Lastly, just because you ALSO like Yahtzee, it doesn't mean you ARE him and certainly doesn't mean you're right because you can quote him. Again, for your simple mind that cannot absorb information: The games industry has had pirates from day 1, if it was going to kill the industry, it would have died years ago.........it certainly wouldn't have grown into the money making behemoth it is today.

 

[mcknee]

Maybe if the game companies actually spent more time on 1 game instead of 10 (plus all the shitty sequels) people would be more inclined to actually buy the game. Now i'm not saying pirating games is right, but i can completely understand why some people do it. Over the past few years games have gone down in quality and up in price (with a few exceptions) as well as releasing about 10+ games in one year. If the company is working on that many games at once then it's pretty obvious that the quality will be lacking, the story is pretty much non exhistant, the game play is just a clone of another game and it's all over in about 5 hours. (not to mention if they're making that many games at once they obviously can afford to) Now do you really want to spend £30 on something you can complete in a day?? Not to mention spending £30 on 10 things you can complete in a day. That's if you even decide to continue playing it after 5 minutes. We don't have money to waste on endless games untill we find one we like. And as for sending things back to the shop, i have tried this (inc brand new sealed games!) only to be turned away... or worse, have only half my money returned! now who's the robbing bastard? not me that's for sure.

i for one value my money and i also value my games and i'm not going to waste my money on something that's complete turd, aimed at a 2 year old and a clone of every other game on the friggin planet. If i really like a game or i'm looking forward to something i WILL buy it, but if it's something that looks like the other 50 games that's come out in the past 2 years then i'll be more inclined to download and test it, if i like it THEN i buy it, if i don't then they can feck off. so in short, what i'm saying is, maybe if the companies actually put some effort and soul into their games, then the gamers would put some effort into buying the damn thing!

Game companies are only hurting themselves by releasing the same old shit every year (again with a few exceptions) and people know this, which is why they download their games. If they are that concerned about people downloading games then they should drop their prices and i'm pretty sure more people would buy it, i know i would. Look at Orange box, it was cheap, contained 4 great games (2 of which were pretty unique) and i don't know a single person who downloaded it. if more companies took this approach then they wouldn't have to worry about money as much. It's about quality, not quantity!

Oh yeah, and off topic: i'm fed up of all this "look at the perty graphics" shit, a game is NOT about looking all nice and shiny, it's about the game play, the content, the experience and oh yeah, having some fun! but it seems a lot of companies have forgotten this. If i wanted to see realistic trees i'd go outside! if a games not fun then who's gonna buy it(apart form those who just wanna look at some characters big breasts). If the majority of development is spent on making something shiny and realistic, then there's no time left for the other stuff... the IMPORTANT stuff which makes a game WORTH buying. Plus is doesn't help the matter even more when they're trying to churn things out asap. Take some time to make your game a fun experience and i garentee more people will take the time to buy it and enjoy it. I could say a lot more but this it turning out to be a rather long post.

 

[DannyDamage]

MAJOR WALL OF INFO

Nice rant. Welcome! ^^

 

[djeeten]

I used to pirate almost all my games. I got them from a friend who had these pirate cd-roms with loads of games on them. Now I buy all my games, mostly when they are a few months old and cost next to nothing. I usualy get 4 or 5 games for the price of one (and I'm talking A-class titles like C&C3, Company of heroes, The Witcher, FEAR...). I noticed PC games drop in price much quicker then console games do though.

 

[merf1350]

I did try to get a summer job but its hard when you or your parents dont have any contacts.

It's called McDonalds...suck it up, we've all been there(jobwise, and if not McD, then another type), no contacts needed...and usually within walking distance.

 

[wolfwood_is_here]

The games industry has had pirates from day 1, if it was going to kill the industry, it would have died years ago.........it certainly wouldn't have grown into the money making behemoth it is today.

Dumb. Storytime:

Man jumps off a 100-story building. When falling past floor 10, he thinks to himself "I dunno what all the fuss is about."

Just because things appear all fine and dandy doesn't mean they will continue to be so.

My point is, if it's much better for a games developer to have 10k more people play his game illegally than to have 1k more people play the game legally. The more people know about a game, the more people that play a game, the money the developers will get from their games, and in the long run, for a game series, it really doesn't matter whether or not people are playing it legally or illegally.

Unless the videogame is open source, this is BS. There is a reason why The Sims was considered a success. It wasn't because a lot of people played it, it was because a lot of people bought it legitimately and played it. I mean somewhere around 50 million legit copies.

 

[mcknee]

There is a reason why The Sims sold so many copies and also saw a lot of expansion packs. It wasn't because a lot of people played it, it was because a lot of people bought it legitimately and played it.

Yes, and maxis are robbing bastards. They're not content with the money they get from people playing the sims legally, so they have to release god knows how many add on packs, which are NOT cheap and have hardly any "content". I own the sims 2 and some of the add ons and i wish i hadn't wasted my money on the shit they call "new content". The pets expansion was just laughable. Yes it was nice you could make your own pet and breed, but there was no content, the pets had a couple of animations which were replayed over and over in your house (such as your cat jumping on and off furnature, big whoop) and there were like 2 toys your pets could use. So in the end you got a very expensive, visually appealing virtual pet, that was actually even more useless than those crappy tamogotchies that used to rule the world. i won't be buying any sims 2 add ons in the future as it's just another example of how shiny graphics are more "important" than game play.

What they should do instead is combine the expansions into 1 big expansion and i'd quite happily buy that instead of trying to take my well earned money just so they can make even more crap add ons.

Dumb. Storytime:

Man jumps off a 100-story building. When falling past floor 10, he thinks to himself "I dunno what all the fuss is about."

Just because things appear all fine and dandy doesn't mean they will continue to be so.

Again, there wouldn't be such a huge problem with downloading games if the companies actually made games that were worth buying. And yes, there have been pirates from day one. the only difference is games were actually decent back then and more people liked them enough to buy them, even after pirating, so if it's anyones fault its the companies. Stop using downloading as an excuse to make shite games and steal our hard earned cash and stop using dumb metaphors to defend your point.

 

[nikomas1]

And when you get home from your job, sit down with the new full priced game you've bought and find out you've spent your hard earned cash on a piece of shit, you see justice in that?

There's nothing I hate more than spending my cash on something that turns out to be much shitter than expected. And with all the hype surrounding EVERY bit of media (games, film, tv, music) that counts for quite a lot of potential purchases, or "MUST BUYS" as every product claims to be and a lot of potential disappointments.

That's why I try before I buy, and not with demos. If something is genuinely good, then I'll still enjoy it AFTER finishing the download and buying a legit copy and finishing it all over again.

Speaking of those same media, they may as well be forcing you to buy it. Simple psychology (if not further in some cases) followed by beautiful graphics and breasts (in most cases) with some voice over shouting "BUY THIS GAME! THIS MAGAZINE SAID IT'S THE BEST, THAT ONE SAID IT'S FUCKING AWESOME, SOME OF 'EM SAY IT'S BETTER THAN ANYTHING IN THIS WORLD, BUY IT NOW AT THESE PLACES FOR FAR MORE MONEY THAN YOU SHOULD PAY.........GO.......GO........GOOOOOOOO!"

Oh, and drug dealers that give away free samples? That's news to me. Do they go do to door or stick samples on the front of magazines?

Games are a luxury item. You are not harmed by 'does not meet your expectations', nor are you harmed by abstaining from purchasing or experiencing these luxuries. Companies in various luxury-related industries tend to enjoy having repeat customers, and getting them to come back by addressing their concerns on quality, through a refund or some other method, is something they may do. If they don't, then don't buy their products, but don't use their products without paying for them either.

If you are not finding reviews and reviewers who share YOUR taste and that give you the information you need to know concerning a game, you either need to continue looking until you do, or accept the 'risk' involved when making a purchase. If you buy into the hype, that's your problem.

Your requirement that a game has to be good enough to play through twice before you will buy it is an interesting concept, except for the problem that while you might honestly stick to this (you do, 100% of the time, yes?), others do not. Additionally, if you spend significant time playing the game to its completion, and decide the game isn't worth your money, you are, in effect, straight up dishonest. You found it worth spending some time on, and apparently more time than a demo would entail, but somehow it's not worth money. Just as you say you cannot get your money back from the company, they cannot get their money 'back' from you for what you did experience. Perhaps if there was a way you can send part of the full price, would that be acceptable to you? Again, extending this beyond you, the problem arises with determining who would honestly do this, and who would just take it because they can. Who wouldn't want to just pay whatever they wanted for whatever it is they wanted?

Also, you don't cover the concept of a game that is perfectly enjoyable when played to its conclusion once. Nothing extra tacked on you need to go back for. No unlockable features, or bloat, or cruft that requires larger and larger design teams try and satisfy this 'replayability' requirement you demand. This requirement is the death of any smaller developer.

You may think that because these large developers can afford to soak up losses due to pirating that it doesn't hurt the industry, but you're already seeing the effect: mergers, takeovers, layoffs, and cutting 'non-AAA' titles. Then there's what you don't directly see, where a small group of people can't develop a small, enjoyable game because they can't afford to soak up the losses the huge companies can through 'lowest-common-denominator' production. If you think that this hasn't happened, and isn't happening now, I can tell you right now you're very mistaken.

 

[nikomas1]

Yes, and maxis are robbing bastards. They're not content with the money they get from people playing the sims legally, so they have to release god knows how many add on packs, which are NOT cheap and have hardly any "content". I own the sims 2 and some of the add ons and i wish i hadn't wasted my money on the shit they call "new content". The pets expansion was just laughable. Yes it was nice you could make your own pet and breed, but there was no content, the pets had a couple of animations which were replayed over and over in your house (such as your cat jumping on and off furnature, big whoop) and there were like 2 toys your pets could use. So in the end you got a very expensive, visually appealing virtual pet, that was actually even more useless than those crappy tamogotchies that used to rule the world. i won't be buying any sims 2 add ons in the future as it's just another example of how shiny graphics are more "important" than game play.

What they should do instead is combine the expansions into 1 big expansion and i'd quite happily buy that instead of trying to take my well earned money just so they can make even more crap add ons.

Dumb. Storytime:

Man jumps off a 100-story building. When falling past floor 10, he thinks to himself "I dunno what all the fuss is about."

Just because things appear all fine and dandy doesn't mean they will continue to be so.

Again, there wouldn't be such a huge problem with downloading games if the companies actually made games that were worth buying. And yes, there have been pirates from day one. the only difference is games were actually decent back then and more people liked them enough to buy them, even after pirating, so if it's anyones fault its the companies. Stop using downloading as an excuse to make shite games and steal our hard earned cash and stop using dumb metaphors to defend your point.

Stop using excuses to avoid taking responsibility for your bad purchasing decisions.

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

Out of curiosity, how old are you? I run into this a lot on other gaming forums. Younger gamers can't figure out how people can afford all of this stuff while assuming that everyone else on the forum is their age. I'm not saying your post is bad or anything, I'm just curious. I'm 22 and I have a full-time job with pretty decent pay and no current debt so I can afford to buy myself the toys that I want when I want.

On the issue of piracy, I won't really comment because I've argued about piracy for a long time online and I've just given up.

*Sigh* Im turning 16 soon, I Didn't post that right did I? I know people with jobs and all can afford their own games but I know spoiled kids who get a new game like several times a month while i have to beg to borrow one and thats what i realy meant.

I did try to get a summer job but its hard when you or your parents dont have any contacts.

If you can formulate the opinion i'd love to hear it, Im more interested in what you think than to contredict you.
I guess ill be on in a hour or so, Please respond ^^.

You think you need contacts to get a job? Get off your ass and put in applications, get on craigslist and look for job ads, make calls. That's what everyone else does.

 

[DannyDamage]

-Some text....and then-.....
You may think that because these large developers can afford to soak up losses due to pirating that it doesn't hurt the industry, but you're already seeing the effect: mergers, takeovers, layoffs, and cutting 'non-AAA' titles. Then there's what you don't directly see, where a small group of people can't develop a small, enjoyable game because they can't afford to soak up the losses the huge companies can through 'lowest-common-denominator' production. If you think that this hasn't happened, and isn't happening now, I can tell you right now you're very mistaken.

Okay, so you're saying major company A went and bought indy company A, sacked a load of the original team and bastardised the company because of piracy? And not because they saw a great game in their catalogue that they could whore for the next decade or two?

AGAIN (how many times?), I'm not saying everyone should download everything. I'm not even saying people should download independent stuff, I stated that I (personally) see nothing wrong in 'trying before you buy'. Demos aren't always accurate and may only let you play a half decent portion of the game and hide the fact the rest of it is a pile of poop. And we all know what I've said 18 times about reviews in this day and age. It's not about finding a reviewer with "my taste", it's about finding a reviewer that isn't going to whore something so they'll get money, free stuff.....OR FRIENDS ON INTERNET FORUMS!

Payola scandal anyone?

If it were as simple as taking a game back to the store and getting what I paid for it, then it would be a different matter.

 

[mcknee]

Stop using excuses to avoid taking responsibility for your bad purchasing decisions.

Excuse me, but if a game is advertised as being amazingly awesome, having lots of new content and features, then i think i am justified in being pissed off at the lack of awesomeness and content. I am not making excuses for my own bad judgement, i admitt, i bought the game, it was shit, but that is not my fault, that's the publishers fault for making it out to be more awesome than it actually is, and they shouldn't be making money from lies. If you can't handle my opinion about a game i actually BOUGHT, then don't friggin reply.

And then you wonder why people download games...

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

ebay is a blessing, selling old stockpiled computer hardware is pretty much how I make my money. Selling old stuff is also pretty good. ASSUMING you have something to sell almost every day you could make 500 dollars a week.

Anyway, gaming is simply put, too expensive - we need to find out how to bring the equilibrium price for games to be 30 dollars instead of 60. I just bought Clear Sky for 30 bucks on steam, seriously what the hell? I hardly ever find games this good for that price, why is everything else that's brand new at 60 bucks?

 

[nikomas1]

Excuse me, but if a game is advertised as being amazingly awesome, having lots of new content and features, then i think i am justified in being pissed off at the lack of awesomeness and content. I am not making excuses for my own bad judgement, i admitt, i bought the game, it was shit, but that is not my fault, that's the publishers fault for making it out to be more awesome than it actually is, and they shouldn't be making money from lies. If you can't handle my opinion about a game i actually BOUGHT, then don't friggin reply.

And then you wonder why people download games...

If a game is falsely advertised, you have legal recourse to demand refund from the company. If you disagree with the opinions of others concerning the 'awesomeness' of the game, there is no legal, moral, or justifiable reason it should suddenly be free of charge for failing the 'mcknee-level of awesome' requirement.

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

Stop using excuses to avoid taking responsibility for your bad purchasing decisions.

Excuse me, but if a game is advertised as being amazingly awesome, having lots of new content and features, then i think i am justified in being pissed off at the lack of awesomeness and content. I am not making excuses for my own bad judgement, i admitt, i bought the game, it was shit, but that is not my fault, that's the publishers fault for making it out to be more awesome than it actually is, and they shouldn't be making money from lies. If you can't handle my opinion about a game i actually BOUGHT, then don't friggin reply.

And then you wonder why people download games...

If you can't handle his reply to your post then keep your mouth shut, moron.
You are making excuses for your bad judgement - you want people to take care of you. You're too dumb to make smart purchasing decisions so you think you should be protected from that and that it's the game company's fault that your subjective idea of good doesn't match theres and your inability as a clueless consumer to not listen to marketing lingo.

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

There is a reason why The Sims sold so many copies and also saw a lot of expansion packs. It wasn't because a lot of people played it, it was because a lot of people bought it legitimately and played it.

Yes, and maxis are robbing bastards. They're not content with the money they get from people playing the sims legally, so they have to release god knows how many add on packs, which are NOT cheap and have hardly any "content". I own the sims 2 and some of the add ons and i wish i hadn't wasted my money on the shit they call "new content". The pets expansion was just laughable. Yes it was nice you could make your own pet and breed, but there was no content, the pets had a couple of animations which were replayed over and over in your house (such as your cat jumping on and off furnature, big whoop) and there were like 2 toys your pets could use. So in the end you got a very expensive, visually appealing virtual pet, that was actually even more useless than those crappy tamogotchies that used to rule the world. i won't be buying any sims 2 add ons in the future as it's just another example of how shiny graphics are more "important" than game play.

What they should do instead is combine the expansions into 1 big expansion and i'd quite happily buy that instead of trying to take my well earned money just so they can make even more crap add ons.

Dumb. Storytime:

Man jumps off a 100-story building. When falling past floor 10, he thinks to himself "I dunno what all the fuss is about."

Just because things appear all fine and dandy doesn't mean they will continue to be so.

Again, there wouldn't be such a huge problem with downloading games if the companies actually made games that were worth buying. And yes, there have been pirates from day one. the only difference is games were actually decent back then and more people liked them enough to buy them, even after pirating, so if it's anyones fault its the companies. Stop using downloading as an excuse to make shite games and steal our hard earned cash and stop using dumb metaphors to defend your point.

Again, it's your own fucking fault for spending money on a virtual pet. Read reviews before you buy, rent games, try the demos, stop acting like a tool and then whining like a child because you want trade-backs.