Piracy and Games.

[incal11]

I can never forgive any form of online activation...
sell your games online if you must, but don't ask me to have internet all the time!

Otherwise you should all read this:
http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_2.html

I still feel that piracy of old games is justifiable in most cases.

So the first, most important thing, and I'm going to shout here, because it's just that important: DON'T SPEND MORE TO DEVELOP A GAME THAN YOU'RE GOING TO EARN BACK IN REVENUE FROM THAT (100-x)% OF LEGITIMATE SALES!!!!!!! As a developer, that (100-x)% is the ONLY thing that matters, because that represents income from people who bought your game in spite of having free copies readily available. And the Imaginary Pirate Revenue from that x% who are playing from illegal copies? You can't account for that anywhere. Not to the taxman, not the insurance company. And the company that you licensed your DRM from certainly isn't offering to cover it. Now, to be fair, a game like Gish, World of Goo, any of Cliffski's games, they're not necessarily going to have a really long track record to make a really solid sales projection, EA has no such excuse.

Simple games with no replayability are the result of small expected revenues...
I think this is part of a vicious circle that was originaly started by piracy.

I try to buy only the most excellent games, but I sometime make an exception for those games on steam, I absolutely hate steam.

 

[DigitalSushi]

The only way I can see ending piracy is for the Governments to really crack down on them (both uploaders and downloaders). It isn't hard to find these sites so there really ought to be more that can be done about them.

the road to 1984.

Piracy can't be stopped, they do it for fun, the general public do it out of some disillusioned mentality that they have a right to all the games they want.

 

[Wicky_42]

*snip*

Second, value adds, such as physical gewgaws and DLC, to reward that upstanding (100-x)%. Who doesn't love a cloth map of the realm, or a plastic model of their flagship, or othe knickknackery.

Third, pass-along keys. The way game pricing works is that titles are launched with a high price, and as time goes on, the price drops. How about rewarding those who preorder, or who buy on launch day, with a second install code they can pass along to a friend if they register their game, in say, the first month, or first week after launch day. An especially valuable ploy for games offering multiplayer.

*snip*

These are both nice points. To combat piracy companies should be looking less at invasive software that treats everyone as criminals and checks up on them constantly and more at rewarding those who purchase the game.

One of the things that stops me going out and buying a game is the pricing - I know from past experience that a latest release at £35 to £40 can within a month be in a 3 for £20 offer, or at the least reduced itself to £20, so why would I bother buying it immediately? Only games that I REALLY want I will get when they come out, and I will have pre-ordered them anyway, thus cutting my losses. Giving away a second copy of the game for preorders sounds a little extreme, but including unique bonuses and units in preordered copies (DoW 2 is doing this) is a nice touch.

The best idea by far, however, is to provide additional content via an integrated system that requires your copy to be registered online - look at Steam, for example. Seems to work great to me, and obviously to other companies as well, seeing as how they're slowing releasing a range of games on it.

 

[Flarvii]

I admit that I do pirate games but before you condemn me to hell I just want to get one thing straight:
I only pirate the games that are no longer available on retail (e.g., Wolfenstein 3D, Doom I, Doom II, etc)

The problem with having a bestselling game is that unless you have a good anti-piracy protection your beloved game will still get pirated. But this presents a problem within itself as some idiot is bound to know how to decompile crap and get rid of the anti-piracy code, recompile the program and post it on The Pirate Bay or something...

What game dev's need to realise is that unless they think up a better anti-piracy protection instead of those tacky serial codes you make us enter people will still pirate the games. What is my solution? Make it so that if you attempt to pirate the game the game will automatically self-destruct and erase it and any backups that you might have. Or just erase the hard drive of the hacker.

 

[incal11]

What game dev's need to realise is that unless they think up a better anti-piracy protection instead of those tacky serial codes you make us enter people will still pirate the games. What is my solution? Make it so that if you attempt to pirate the game the game will automatically self-destruct and erase it and any backups that you might have. Or just erase the hard drive of the hacker.

Actually that's an extremely bad idea,
programs like that are never 100% trustworthy, someone with the wrong configuration , or trying to update his game can result in catastrophic misfires; imagine that when simple DRM gets such hate already.

The best idea by far, however, is to provide additional content via an integrated system that requires your copy to be registered online - look at Steam, for example. Seems to work great to me, and obviously to other companies as well, seeing as how they're slowing releasing a range of games on it.

That's the only case for which I'd stand online activation, as long as it doesn't come with ads and cookies on top, and I register online only if I want that additional content.
Again, you should read this
http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_2.html
it's quite long but worth it, it also addresses your blind love for steam.

 

[Credge]

These are both nice points. To combat piracy companies should be looking less at invasive software that treats everyone as criminals and checks up on them constantly and more at rewarding those who purchase the game.

This sums things up nicely. Why would I, a consumer, pay money for something I can get for free? What kind of incentives are you giving me? Do I get to play online? Sure, I'll buy your game for that... if the online play is actually any good. Am I forced to register with you so I can play single player? No dice most of the time. I can't be bothered.

That isn't to say that single player games are bad to buy ~ the very opposite. I bought Fallout 3 and Farcry 2 because they were worth the money. I enjoyed them. However, if I'm iffy on your product, I need something a bit more than nothing.

Also, don't expect me to buy your game on PC if the start screen says "Press the Start button". Not going to happen.

 

[sequio]

improve the economy/increase wages/reduce taxes. If I had more expendable income I'd buy more games, not that I pirate games now.

 

[Sir Ollie]

You forget that piracy is very common these days, since it has a few benefits

Such as

Free games (well yeah thats the main reason)
Since most games come out early E.G Fable 2, fallout 3 and Gears 2 all were released on the web between 1-2 weeks before release date

Of course if you ask people why the do it, you normally get the same reponse

The price of games these days (they have always been same well nearly)
Going against a certain company E.G EA like Spore for example

 

[duckfi8]

there isnt a way to stop piracy unless they crack down on uploaders nd downloaders, but then the jails would b filled with people that pirated games and people that did drugs nd killed people so in all it wouldnt b good at all

 

[Specter_]

Make the games prices relative to how good the game is (i know that "good game" is a matter of opinion, i'm sure there are some twats out there who love Sonic unleashed).

I quite happily pay my hard-earned money for a good game to give my share for the hours of fun provided by the developers.

For instance, i bought three copies of Operation Flashpoint, because i love it so much (and because i'm stupid enough to have lost the first two copies)

On the other hand, i'm not gonna give away 50 or 60 euros for something that keeps me occupied and happy for 2 hours, while i still might want to get my hands on it to kill time.

 

[Sir Ollie]

For instance, i bought three copies of Operation Flashpoint, because i love it so much (and because i'm stupid enough to have lost the first two copies)

How the hell did you lose two copies?

 

[Specter_]

For instance, i bought three copies of Operation Flashpoint, because i love it so much (and because i'm stupid enough to have lost the first two copies)

How the hell did you lose two copies?

I honestly have absolutely no idea. First i blamed it on my lack of tidiness, but even after renovating and moving/sorting through all my stuff they never showed up again. So now i blame it on the dwarves who also stuff those big balls of dust under every possible object i come close to.

 

[JokerGrin]

All I have to say is, being a PC gamer for what must be at least twelve years, the amount of ridiculous piracy checks, scans and serials has made me buy an Xbox 360 last week. I'm enjoying it immensely. Whack a game in, play it, good times.

I just don't see how things are going to get any better from now.

 

[squid5580]

there isnt a way to stop piracy unless they crack down on uploaders nd downloaders, but then the jails would b filled with people that pirated games and people that did drugs nd killed people so in all it wouldnt b good at all

Nah jail is not appropriate. Make the punishment fit the crime. Make them intern at the company they ripped off and give them all the grunt jobs. It would help the companies recoup thier losses and might teach them a lesson. The whole working for nothing may help them see what they have been doing to the devs.

 

[gilgamesh32]

There is but one way to stop piracy...
You must kill the internet!

 

[blood77]

Yarrr! Shiver me timbers and host the main sail, we be running into a wave of redundancy.

Yeah this has been done, a lot.

In fact I think that if some one took all the effort people have spent into creating and posting on piracy threads and concentrated it, we would have something that would be way better then silly putty.

 

[Wicky_42]

The best idea by far, however, is to provide additional content via an integrated system that requires your copy to be registered online - look at Steam, for example. Seems to work great to me, and obviously to other companies as well, seeing as how they're slowing releasing a range of games on it.

That's the only case for which I'd stand online activation, as long as it doesn't come with ads and cookies on top, and I register online only if I want that additional content.
Again, you should read this
http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_2.html
it's quite long but worth it, it also addresses your blind love for steam.

'Blind love for Steam'? I personally find that insulting - what about my post implies that I have a blind love for it? I've even posted in that past about how I find it insidious that Steam reserves the right to withdraw you access to any of the games you've purchased without any notice and for no reason.

I agree that playing single player offline, without needing online activation would be nice, with online activation required only for bonuses and multiplayer (which seems to be how most recent games did it before DRM software caught their eye), but that makes the game much more vulnerable to casual piracy.

I did read that tweakguides article, and found it to be enlightening with regard to the problems being touted on the internet. However, I'm not sure what you mean by

it also addresses your blind love for steam.

Ok, so there's a list of problems, but only the pricing issue and the presence of third party DRM (which I'm not actually sure still exists in current releases) are even remotely a problem:

# Prices on Steam are usually around the same, sometimes higher than the boxed retail versions of the game.
# There are regional release restrictions, much the same as physical retail copies.
# Some Steam games come with exactly the same DRM requirements as the physical retail versions as well as having Steam DRM on top of that.
# A Steam purchased game cannot legally be resold; the moment it's been bought it has zero resale or trade value.
# Users must be connected to the Internet to activate or periodically update all their games, even offline-only singleplayer games, and all applicable updates must be first downloaded and installed before they can begin playing.
# If the Steam servers go offline at any time, or the user's Internet connection has problems, they may not be able to login to the Steam client and hence may be locked out of their own games. Indeed if Valve suddenly goes bankrupt for example, it's theoretically possible that all Steam users would be permanently locked out of their games since Valve has no legal obligation to keep their servers running.

Oh no, how my blind love suffers... Please don't jump to false conclusions about my attitudes to anything in the future, thanks - I like to feel that I know my mind better than you do, with all due respect.

 

[000_00_00_00]

Sometimes developers make you wish you had bothered to download a pirate version of their game. Bethesda came out with Fallout 3 a little while ago, and I like many others who visit the Bethesda pc issue page, have hardly been able to play the game at all due to bugs, CTD or save corruptions. Then they released a patch which stuff things up even more and didn't actually fix what they said it would.

If I had pirated FO3 it would have saved myself the frustration of a broken game release. Buying a game and not being able to play it is retarded, what is even more retarded is that Bethesda haven't owned up to it. My brother got the XBox version and he couldn't continue past a point in the main quest, had he known this he wouldn't have brought it and neither would one.

Developers are just coming lazy and make piracy more and more applying, which is sad.

 

[Calax]

Honestly? I find steam to be the most unobtrusive version of DRM. Mainly because with steam activation you can place the game on any desktop as long as you log in under your name. Now I don't know if the Ultra Draconian measures of DRM scams like Bioshock, or Spore, or what have you are active within steam, but I would think that steam would be more secure.

Also it's nice that steam just downloads your product so you don't have to keep hunting up the disks when you want to install a game that you get an urge to play when the planets align.