PC Gaming and Piracy: Must Read Article

[Zadred Darkflame]

There are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to buy the console version of a game rather than the pc version. The user may prefer to use a wii-mote. Or maybe they'd rather increase their gamer score on xbox live.

As for pirating, I do and I don't, and because I doubt I'm the only one out there who acts in the same manner, I argue that the results are skewed. For example, I've legally purchased TES III: Morrowind twice, the Game of the Year edition once, and pirated it probably 14 times. Why? Because torrenting the ISOs when I reformat or use a new computer is easier and more convenient than finding the possibly scratched or lost disks. Is downloading something illegally wrong if I already have 3 licenses to use the software? Hell if it was on steam it would be the same thing, only steam is a clunky piece of shit.

As a counter example I offer SPORE, a game that I have pirated, and did not enjoy enough to purchase. The Baldur's Gate series I have bought numerous times, I had the original 5 disk set with the painted disks that killed my disk drive. But when I'm reminiscing I'll torrent the ISOs.

Warcraft 3 I bought back when it came out, and put it in a disk drive not knowing there was a disk my sister had put in there already. Needless to say my poor WC3 disk had its surface re-planed. And I just downloaded another copy of the ISOs the other day.

I think users should have the full right to try a game (the full game, not a misleading demo) and if they enjoyed it have the moral obligation to purchase the game legally... multiple times if its a really worth it.

DRM is not the answer to anything. If you look at the most pirated game, it was SPORE, and arguably because of its DRM. My room mate even bought a copy and then threw it in the trash to play that hacked version, it was that much more enjoyable.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

if you download a game and realise that its rubbish then delete they still might lose a sale because the only way to find out otherwise is to buy it.
Whether a pirate completes the game or not they still haven't paid for it so companies don't care either you like it and complete it, then probably don't buy it or stop playing because its rubbish then never going and buy it then probably hits up the forums and encorage others not to buy it

Tough shit I say. Program something worth buying then if people are pirating it and seeing how much it sucks it is only helping the consumer and thankfully taking money out of corporate coffers thus a double-win for humanity.

 

[CmdrGoob]

I proudly pirate games. Rationalization? It is a protest to an industry that has overly coproratized and no longer produces quality products. I will not use my labour to pay for the half-assed product of anothers labour. I put in hard work and long hours for my money and I refuse to give it to companies whose only wishes are to milk shit software for profit. So until they can prove to me they are worth the $60 price tag full of malicious DRM spyware I won't spend a dime.

I have no qualms and I see nothing immoral about it. IP is a social construct created by corporations in order to keep a control and monopoly on things I believe all digital media should be for public consumption not for the lining of the coffers of international corporate behemoths. So you might want to find someone who actually believes in International Law or social conditioning before you try ye olde guilt trip. It surely hasn't worked for the gaming industry.

And yet despite the fact that this software is "shit" you continue to download it all. It's shit, dammit, and yet you demand the right to get it for free.

Yep, that stinks of rationalization.

Haha that jump in logic was amazing. You fail at trolling but its alright I will feed you once more before I hit the head then go to bed. Did I say I download "shit" software? No, but I do download and give it a go if I find it mildly interesting but most of the time its a no go and gets deleted within 24 hours of download because its pure shit or I complete it thus proving its content was mediocre. I do applaud your lack of logic though I now download all software I do wish I had the bandwidth, time and space to do all that but saddly I can't download all the internet for my personal enjoyment.

Oh, of course you're only checking them out and you always delete them. Like every pirate claims to. Sure.

And every pirate seems to claim that they're reacting to DRM, or they don't like shitty corporate games, or they just want a demo just like you do.

So let's take World of Goo. It's rated 90 on metacritic. It's bright and different, not another EA FPS or something. It's developed by two guys from San Fransisco. They insisted on having no DRM. They have a very generous demo. All the usual pirate rationalisations don't apply.

So what's it's piracy rate like? 82%. They counted the number of copies of the game that were out there and submitting high scores via the internet and compared it to their total game sales, and there are more copies out there than they sold by a 4:1 ratio.

So despite all the reasons pirates usually give for pirating, it got pirated like crazy. Because mostly those reasons are nothing more than rationalizations for the real fact that they just like gettting stuff for free.

 

[jamesworkshop]

My point Cajun is from a business perpective Piracy hurts sales now don't get me wrong if a games bad people have every right to inform others in that case piracy is no different from a Bad review score in a magazine.
Piracy is about getting something for free and those who do know it and thus few will talk about justifying it because they don't feel the need to, if stealing doesn't make you feel bad then you're not going to care about the opinons of people on forums you have never meet.
Q.E.D

 

[CmdrGoob]

There are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to buy the console version of a game rather than the pc version. The user may prefer to use a wii-mote. Or maybe they'd rather increase their gamer score on xbox live.

As for pirating, I do and I don't, and because I doubt I'm the only one out there who acts in the same manner, I argue that the results are skewed. For example, I've legally purchased TES III: Morrowind twice, the Game of the Year edition once, and pirated it probably 14 times. Why? Because torrenting the ISOs when I reformat or use a new computer is easier and more convenient than finding the possibly scratched or lost disks. Is downloading something illegally wrong if I already have 3 licenses to use the software? Hell if it was on steam it would be the same thing, only steam is a clunky piece of shit.

As a counter example I offer SPORE, a game that I have pirated, and did not enjoy enough to purchase. The Baldur's Gate series I have bought numerous times, I had the original 5 disk set with the painted disks that killed my disk drive. But when I'm reminiscing I'll torrent the ISOs.

Warcraft 3 I bought back when it came out, and put it in a disk drive not knowing there was a disk my sister had put in there already. Needless to say my poor WC3 disk had its surface re-planed. And I just downloaded another copy of the ISOs the other day.

I think users should have the full right to try a game (the full game, not a misleading demo) and if they enjoyed it have the moral obligation to purchase the game legally... multiple times if its a really worth it.

DRM is not the answer to anything. If you look at the most pirated game, it was SPORE, and arguably because of its DRM. My room mate even bought a copy and then threw it in the trash to play that hacked version, it was that much more enjoyable.

Yeah, I agree with torrenting a game you had but lost, actually. That's fine to me. That's not what's fucking up the industry.

A ton, if not most, of piracy isn't like that. The people torrenting newly released games aren't doing it because it's an old game they loved and they lost the discs, and they do most of the torrenting, and doing most of the harm that's making the industry move away from PC games.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

My point Cajun is from a business perpective Piracy hurts sales now don't get me wrong if a games bad people have every right to inform others in that case piracy is no different from a Bad review score in a magazine.
Piracy is about getting something for free and those who do know it and thus few will talk about justifying it because they don't feel the need to, if stealing doesn't make you feel bad then you're not going to care about the opinons of people on forums you have never meet.
Q.E.D

Is it not theft to deliver a subquality product while taking someones hard earned cash? I'm sorry but it should be a double edged sword if the Gaming Industry wants to lessen piracy then provide a worthwhile products where I don't feel robbed after installing it.

 

[Zadred Darkflame]

Yeah, I agree with torrenting a game you had but lost, actually. That's fine to me. That's not what's fucking up the industry.

A ton, if not most, of piracy isn't like that. The people torrenting newly released games aren't doing it because it's an old game they loved and they lost the discs, and they do most of the torrenting, and doing most of the harm that's making the industry move away from PC games.

I agree that it is bad for the industry. I just think the numbers are a little skewed because of people like myself who bought AND torrented a game or torrented it multiple times. I'm guilty of both charges.

One also has to look into the current economy. Console sales are way down as well. Its a simple fact that people don't have as much time or money for video games these days. Would those people who pirate every single game at release have purchased every single one of them if piracy was not possible? Probably not, even if they had that vast amount of wealth and time they'd probably purchase only four or five games a year. Less if they're into MMO's and don't bother with games they can't play socially. World of Warcraft is probably hoarding its share of cash gamers would normally be investing in new games with its monthly fees. I don't play WoW but about $10 - $15 a month is the entirety of my normal gaming budget. I'd never pay the $60 at release for a game anyway. I'll get it for 20-30 when its old or hit a GOTY Edition.

 

[Mariena]

All I see is a couple of people making great points and one who is blindly following an article's crusade.

 

[CmdrGoob]

What are we even getting in good PC exclusives these days?

There's Blizzard.

Then what have we had, Crysis? Crytech have said they aren't going to do any more PC exclusives after Cysis was widely pirated and sold poorly.

The Witcher? Kinda small Polish dev company, though.

STALKER? Kinda small Ukranian company.

I guess there's casual Sims and Spore pap. Well, I guess some people like it, but not me.

What else? Ummmm.

Great, obscure eastern European companies and Blizzard. That looks healthy.

Devs have been slowly abandoning PC exclusiveness, and when they do, they all talk about their poor sales and rampant piracy.

PCs are on a down hill slope from tons of exclusives, to tons of console ports, to console ports six months late, to no ports.

 

[Zadred Darkflame]

Hey selling out is the new rebellion. As companies grow they lose a healthy relationship with their clientele because their interest is no longer in pleasing the clients but in pleasing the share-holders. At this point their base will split into fanboys who will submit themselves to the heel and whip to please their masters, and disgruntled fans who won't put up with it. "It" here referring to DRM. Big corporations such as Microsoft and Viacom have used the media to make selling out the new rebelling. So not only do corporate whores continue to argue why every one else should lick corporates shiny golden arse-hole, but they feel they are hip in doing so. I am in complete support of pirating for the purpose of petitioning DRM.

Pirating wasn't always such a huge problem because gamers used to have a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with the companies that make their games. One argument for DRM might be that its easier and easier for people to pirate games. Well here's a thought, instead of fighting piracy, developers embrace it, and make games that have an option in the main menu to pay for the game? Perhaps a little in game pop-up that pops up with each load that politely asks that the player pays for it, until the user either purchases the game in game or enters a key that came with the retail version. Such a strategy would be relatively non-invasive, as it wouldn't require the user to pay for it, but would politely ask.
---
Dear valued player,
We're proud to release this product to you DRM free. We feel that restricting the use of this game is not in the best interest of the player, and thats what we feel should matter most. If you've purchased this game through a retail outlet, please enter the key below to continue. If not please click the button to the right to be linked to our purchase page. We ask $40 retail price for use of this product. If you cannot afford this at the time, by all means pay for it whenever you are able. Its your money that allows us to continue making these games for you, the player. If you truly enjoy it, recommend it to a friend, blog about how great it is, buy a copy for your cousin. If not we won't force you to pay for it, but we ask that you fill out a brief questionnaire as to what you believe could have been improved about the game. Because our goal is your entertainment.

Thanks for your time and we hope you enjoy our product,
IntelligentGamingCorporation
---

A guy can hope right?

 

[Rajin Cajun]

What are we even getting in good PC exclusives these days?

There's Blizzard.

Then what have we had, Crysis? Crytech have said they aren't going to do any more PC exclusives after Cysis was widely pirated and sold poorly.

The Witcher? Kinda small Polish dev company, though.

STALKER? Kinda small Ukranian company.

I guess there's casual Sims and Spore pap. Well, I guess some people like it, but not me.

What else? Ummmm.

Great, obscure eastern European companies and Blizzard. That looks healthy.

Devs have been slowly abandoning PC exclusiveness, and when they do, they all talk about their poor sales and rampant piracy.

PCs are on a down hill slope from tons of exclusives, to tons of console ports, to console ports six months late, to no ports.

What a load of bollocks. Console gaming has become a cash cow because it has a relatively new gaming audience compared to the PC Market thus allowing for easier recycling and also a less demanding audience they just want mindless fun. The PC Market has been going downhill for a long time and the industry has fed us one excuse after another pirating is just the whipping boy of the year. Before piracy was to blame it was that the market was over saturated with unoriginal gameplay, then they couldn't keep up with hardware advancement, it was becoming harder to meet deadlines, etc. They had an excuse for everyone of their failures and sometimes they were legitimate but most of the time it was a company whining because their products were rubbish and they weren't selling.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Ah, yes, let's take a thread on piracy and turn it into Platform Warz again. Joy.

-- Steve

(PS: I take offense at the term "console tards"; you could at least try to disguise your arrogance, y'know.)

I'll disguise my arrogance as soon as Bethesda apologizes for making the PC version of Oblivion an obvious console port rather than the other way around. At least they released the Construction Kit, thereby allowing PC gamers to rescue their game for them---Oblivion's status as 2006's Game of the Year relies entirely upon its mod community to earn the honor, something 360 players didn't get to enjoy.

Morrowind was really the same, though. I own both the PC and Xbox versions, and personally, I found the console version more fun.

But I do like mods. Some of them, at least.

 

[EzraPound]

Good point. Wikipedia says 11 million monthly subscribers to world of warcraft.

And yet only 12-15 million frequent PC gamers, EzraPound?

Absolutely; I just strongly suspect that alot of the people who play WoW only use their computers for playing WoW, and, like, one other game (alot are probably console gamers that relish in WoW being one of the few popular, exclusive PC games nowadays) - thusly discluding them from the criteria I suggested, which was contingent upon multiple purchases - because that seems more likely than WoW owners being particularly engaged with the PC market, given that the sales of GOTY-winning titles like Crysis wouldn't suggest a large PC gaming demographic if there was a copy pirated for every one purchased. Hit me back with a title that's sold over six or seven million and isn't a complete pop phenomena à la The Sims and I'll reconsider - I said in the first place that alot of people were probably buying 3D cards for one game, and WoW is quite likely to be that.

Speaking of The Sims, that's the ideal metaphor since everyone owns it: I own it, you probably own it, all my female friends own it. But I don't even play many games on my PC, and the latter category aren't exactly the kind of people who would run out and buy Crysis; or anything short of Spore and maybe WoW, for that matter. Hence my point: I believe the attach rate for PCs is abysmal, that many PC gamers overlappingly own consoles and game primarily on them and play just a game or two on their PCs, and that the demographic buying as many PC games as 360 owners buy 360 games would only add up to - like I said - 12-15 million.

What is it that makes you come up with such transparently ridiculous rationalizations, "a defense mechanism in which unacceptable behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner; this avoids the true explanation of the behavior or feeling in question"?

Well seeing how I don't believe that cash injections necessarily help artistic industries anyway (that's the thing about art: people always do it regardless of the incentives, and even if the budgets no longer existed for games like Fallout 3 we'd probably just get equally interesting indie fare), or that it's good on principle to endorse the notion that downloading endless reproducible files is akin to theft since it's entirely abstract anyway in relation to supply and demand (i.e.: you have a set supply that's price is based on accordant demand), I wouldn't need to rationalize anything.

 

[CmdrGoob]

Good point. Wikipedia says 11 million monthly subscribers to world of warcraft.

And yet only 12-15 million frequent PC gamers, EzraPound?

Absolutely; I just strongly suspect that alot of the people who play WoW only use their computers for playing WoW, and, like, one other game (alot are probably console gamers that relish in WoW being one of the few popular, exclusive PC games nowadays) - thusly discluding them from the criteria I suggested, which was contingent upon multiple purchases - because that seems more likely than WoW owners being particularly engaged with the PC market, given that the sales of GOTY-winning titles like Crysis wouldn't suggest a large PC gaming demographic if there was a copy pirated for every one purchased. Hit me back with a title that's sold over six or seven million and isn't a complete pop phenomena à la The Sims and I'll reconsider - I said in the first place that alot of people were probably buying 3D cards for one game, and WoW is quite likely to be that.

Speaking of The Sims, that's the ideal metaphor since everyone owns it: I own it, you probably own it, all my female friends own it. But I don't even play many games on my PC, and the latter category aren't exactly the kind of people who would run out and buy Crysis; or anything short of Spore and maybe WoW, for that matter. Hence my point: I believe the attach rate for PCs is abysmal, that many PC gamers overlappingly own consoles and game primarily on them and play just a game or two on their PCs, and that the demographic buying as many PC games as 360 owners buy 360 games would only add up to - like I said - 12-15 million.

Well firstly that's fine, as I argued even an estimate of 12 million active PC gamers still leaves the PC sales figures underperforming relative to the consoles sales figures.

Secondly, I disagree that "given that the sales of GOTY-winning titles like Crysis wouldn't suggest a large PC gaming demographic if there was a copy pirated for every one purchased". That would be ~3 million copies, not far from Gears of War's 4.7M considering Crysis had a problem with its highly demanding specs.

Thirdly, you discount WoW's 11 million subscribers on the grounds that you "strongly suspect that alot of the people who play WoW only use their computers for playing WoW". I don't know what makes you suspect this, I know about 10 WoW players and they are all very active PC gamers. I strongly suspect very large segments of the WoW player base are dedicated games; a game like WoW where time and organisation are a big part of the game tends to suggest someone who has more than a passing interest in gaming as a passtime.

You're still trying to judge the size of the PC market by game sales as part of an argument that PC game sales are adequate for the size of the market - it's still circular.

You set the benchmark at 6-7 million copies. Why? There's only one 360 game that meets or exceeds that, Halo 3. See this list [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games]. The next closest is GoW1 with 4.7M, then
there are only three more with sales greater than 3 million. Why 6-7M? You judge market size by one outlier?

But as I said, even with a market of 12M PC games underperform in sales.

 

[searanox]

I was going to post something interesting and relevant, but reading over most of the posts in this thread, I've quickly felt the need to vomit rising up within me. It's entertaining, and sad, how the vast majority of the "discussion" in this thread has nothing to do with the article posted. In fact, if any of you guys would bother to read more than just a few paragraphs from it in the first place (it's ten fairly long pages, so you know, it might actually require some vague facsimile of effort on your part), most of the arguments given for PC piracy have already been dealt with and ousted as frauds. It shows just how deep the culture of piracy amongst PC gamers runs, that they are so determined to ignore the evidence and cast it aside using fallacious arguments just because they don't want to question their own practices. There are other things that operate on exactly that sort of thinking. I wonder if all pirates are Christians.

Laughable. I don't even know why I post on forums anymore. I'd rather have dung thrown at me by a horde of chimpanzees - it'd be a better use of my time and energy, that's for sure.

 

[CmdrGoob]

I was going to post something interesting and relevant, but reading over most of the posts in this thread, I've quickly felt the need to vomit rising up within me. It's entertaining, and sad, how the vast majority of the "discussion" in this thread has nothing to do with the article posted. In fact, if any of you guys would bother to read more than just a few paragraphs from it in the first place (it's ten fairly long pages, so you know, it might actually require some vague facsimile of effort on your part), most of the arguments given for PC piracy have already been dealt with and ousted as frauds. It shows just how deep the culture of piracy amongst PC gamers runs, that they are so determined to ignore the evidence and cast it aside using fallacious arguments just because they don't want to question their own practices. There are other things that operate on exactly that sort of thinking. I wonder if all pirates are Christians.

Laughable. I don't even know why I post on forums anymore. I'd rather have dung thrown at me by a horde of chimpanzees - it'd be a better use of my time and energy, that's for sure.

Well what do you know, sounds like another atheist who's had to argue with Christians.

 

[AdamAK]

I know several gamers in real life and while they all know how to pirate games they don't always do it. There are many people who both buy games legally and pirate them. My brother, for example, downloaded AoE3 and CoH to try them out. He liked both games and ended up buying them.
Another example; I have downloaded WC3 and AoM ( literally ) dozens of times, but I also ended up buying these games because I considered them to be awesome. Many people simply download games to try them out. If it's rubbish, they'll delete it. It still counts as a download, though.

That does not mean that piracy doesn't exist though. There are lots of people who do not purchase any games at all. While this may very well be higher than the number of people who pirate games on consoles, the 10:1 ratio is just crap.

 

[Hevoo]

Ever hear of SLI? Many people are buying two video cards. There is a high end setup that can use four video cards.

<--3 cards here;D

 

[thisbymaster]

Maybe the PC games are not being sold at the right price point. I know that I would be far more likely to risk 30 bucks on a game then 50.

 

[Varchld]

I'd go even further and blame the lack of PC sales compared to console sales to the inherent laziness of mankind. Sure, John Q Average could buy himself up a PC, having to go through the install rigmarole after buying it, the boot-up time whenever he wants to play it and deal with upgrades every so often just to keep abreast of increases in gaming technology. And he would be richly rewarded in terms of satisfaction if he did. But Mr Average is fat and lazy. After a hard day's dragging his arse around the office/factory/wherever, Mr Average wants to come home and play games. He doesn't want to engage his brain very much and wants to be as comfortable as possible. Which is what consoles cater for. Couch, control pad and TV. John Q pops a disc in, grabs the ergonomically-intended controller, switches TV on and is gaming. Yes, Mr Q Average could have hooked up his PC to the TV, quite easily now that video cards are coming with HDMI output, but then John needs to check his emails, do his online shopping, work on that presentation that he can't complete because he's overworked and underpaid. You can do that on a TV, but you don't want to. Especially when John and Jane Q Jnr want to play Banjo Kazooie.

The moral of this story is that consoles are for the bone idle. RE: Most of the population.

Not only lazy, but there are a lot of stupid people many of which aren't entirely capeable of aggrevation free PC gaming.