Pirates ruining it for the rest of us.

[Olivia Faraday]

Well it does to me... because that student ruined it for the rest of the class. In your example the teacher as the game developer wouldn't know which student did it... which would make their action much more understandable.

The teacher only took their marks away because of the cheating student. If that cheating student wasn't there they wouldn't have done anything.

Your own metaphor proves you wrong.

Cool. Nothing much else to say then as there is a hilarious gap in philosophy, here. I'm just going to hope nobody ever gives you a position of authority, feel sorry for your theoretical future children, and keep seeding DRM heavy games out of spite until Jesus returns in his fiery chariot.

 

[Vampire cat]

I agree that piracy is hurting gaming. But pretty much all of my friends buy their games first hand, and I cannot recall anyone pirating something for ages, if at all. One thing I DO know is that all of my friends that are anime fans download ALL of their anime. Not a single one of them has bought even one DVD of their favorite shows (and for an outsider, it sounds like they have like a 100 favorite shows...), they don't even buy manga. It's all downloaded. I'm not sure about the state of the anime industry on a gobal scale, but THAT sounds like hurting your medium quite bad X3.

I think the pirates attitude towards piracy as a whole is linked to the fact that the internet makes it look so damn easy.

It doesn't just look easy, it IS easy! I'm not sure how it works in other parts of the world, but in Norway (and it seems most of Scandinavia and large parts of Europe) there is virtually no risk to pirating. A pirate does NOT get caught, not in Norway. Those that CAN do something about it in our country do not have the resources to do so, and those that WANT to do something about it (usually the game/movie/anime companies) do not have the RIGHT to do so...

People with slightly shady morals will always grab those oportunities for free stuff, even those not prone to crime seem to be tempted when there is no risk at all. Even worse, piracy has become something not connected to illegal activity. It's called "downloading" when you talk about it, and no one seems to mind a bit of movie/music/game/anime/manga "downloading", regardless of the source.

Maybe we need a Steam for anime and manga too? Oo

 

[Da Orky Man]

Well, those $60 add up, and think of $60 times the number of pirated copies of witcher 2. that's almost a billion dollars. pirates are doing this, and EVERYONE else pays for it. we get punished for their crime.

No, it isn't. 4.5 million times 60 is 270 million. Not "nearly a billion".

 

[CulixCupric]

Well, those $60 add up, and think of $60 times the number of pirated copies of witcher 2. that's almost a billion dollars. pirates are doing this, and EVERYONE else pays for it. we get punished for their crime.

No, it isn't. 4.5 million times 60 is 270 million. Not "nearly a billion".

i didn't take the time of doing the math, i apologize.

 

[RagTagBand]

Did Piracy kill PC gaming when there was no DRM, no difficulty involved in piracy (ctrl-c, ctrl-v) and PC gaming wasn't a niche (gaming as a whole was a niche, but PC's were pretty much the main system)? Nope. Piracy has been around since before most of us were even born, hell it used to be one of the fastest ways for a company to gain some fame and status would be people passing some floppy disks around in the playground.

Amazingly gaming, and PC gaming, exists still today despite it, It's actually a massive industry even though those nasty pirates exist.

Personally I don't think the name "Pirate" suits what they do, the image of a Pirate conjurers up someone stealing something and selling it on for cash...but Internet Pirates buy something then make it available to everyone for free, and they do that task for free as well. It's practically a charitable service.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Well it does to me... because that student ruined it for the rest of the class. In your example the teacher as the game developer wouldn't know which student did it... which would make their action much more understandable.

The teacher only took their marks away because of the cheating student. If that cheating student wasn't there they wouldn't have done anything.

Your own metaphor proves you wrong.

Cool. Nothing much else to say then as there is a hilarious gap in philosophy, here. I'm just going to hope nobody ever gives you a position of authority, feel sorry for your theoretical future children, and keep seeding DRM heavy games out of spite until Jesus returns in his fiery chariot.

You don't see the fact that the teachers reaction was only because of the cheating student? The student ruined it for the rest of the class which is the entire point of this thread. Games developers are punishing legitimate consumers because of pirates. Not because one day they decided to slap DRM on everything out of the blue.

I don't understand how you can't follow that logic. DRM and movement to developing on consoles is a reaction to piracy not the other way around.

 

[DrunkPickle]

Like few people have said before me: You can't stop piracy, at least not completely...

Besides, most pirates won't buy the game anyway; they either get it for free, or not at all.

See the flaw here? If piracy WOULD be somehow stopped, the increase in sales wouldn't be that big anyways...

EDIT: I really doubt piracy is ruining PC gaming. It may sound dumb but, piracy, is what got most of my friends into gaming in the first place.

*Not sure if it's a good idea to use "me"?

 

[Esotera]

Protip: shut down Pirate Bay. You know, have people who can do something about it actually do something about it.

Sure, there'll be massive fucking rage, but that'll blow over eventually.

Can't really tell if you're serious with this...

Pirate Bay is used for warez, but there's also a lot of legitimate open-source/free content on there that isn't copyrighted. And more importantly, pirate bay don't actually host anything. They just tell you where to find it. Any action should be taken against the person distributing pirated material.

And that assumes that piracy is actually bad for the industry.

 

[The Floating Nose]

Yeah, that sounds legit.

I've never heard of such a thing. That's how school works in the US ? If one student cheats then the entire class pays for it ? In Canada, when you get caught cheating, you get a 0 and that's the end of it.

Not American myself, and I'm pretty sure this isn't a standard thing. But it happens in a lot of places on a teacher by teacher basis, and it's pretty much across the board a shitty idea that shows a basic misunderstanding of how things should be handled.

Which is my point.[/quote]Exactly, i mean that's kind of an unfair treatment. Schools should not be handled like boot camps. They tried that once at my high school a few years ago and it ended with our entire class sitting in a room for 3 hours just because one asshole couldn't shut his fucking pie hole.

 

[Baradiel]

I don't pirate games. Never have, never plan to. However, I can't bring myself to give a fuck.

One of my housemates does it all the time. I patronise him, he accepts what he is doing is wrong. He still does it. I'm beyond caring. I shouldn't, I know, but it doesn't change the fact it doesnt bother me

 

[Xanthious]

A lot of people would argue that second hand sales are also piracy but like I said thats a dicussion for another time.

I'm pretty sure the main reason DRM and restrictions where introduced was to stop piracy most developers have now provided a way to legitimise your copy of a game for a tenner or suchlike if you buy them second hand.

Initially? Yes that is how it started, as a way to stop piracy. Anymore though it has fuck all to do with piracy other than using it to misplace blame on. It's all about a means to control and devalue the product after it's initial sale. I can promise you secondhand PC sales are dead thanks to DRM. There is no way to resell the gross majority of PC titles. There is no project ten dollar for PC sales and that is because they want to keep the secondhand market dead and will continue to do so via DRM.

You have to keep in mind these companies are throwing millions upon millions of dollars into DRM all the while most PC titles are cracked either on or before launch. You really think they would drop that kind of money to try and stop something that continuously fails on such a massive level? They aren't going to throw money away like that. They know they can't stop pirates but what they can do is keep their paying customers in line and that is just what they are doing all the while blaming piracy.

I'll say it again, even if piracy were to vanish from the face of the Earth DRM isn't going anywhere. It's there to keep the paying folks in line and make sure that their game has zero value to anyone after it's initially purchased. I suppose if you want go ahead and blame the pirates but at the end of the day these publishers and developers are the ones screwing you over and piracy is only a part of it as a handy scapegoat.

 

[CrazyJew]

Protip: Don't fight pirates. Win them over. A vast majority of pirates are these crowds:

1. What the hell, 60 dollars in USA, 150 dollars here? F**k you.
2. No free demo? I'ma try it... *later* Eh, too lazy to go buy.
3. DRM blows. F**k you, publishers.


Also, the DRM costs publishers more money than pirates could ever steal.

 

[Woodsey]

"You can't beat 'Free'.

Also, pirates obviously think the game is worth something, otherwise they wouldn't have pirated the game in the first place. By taking the time to download the game and using the space on their computer, they've shown a greater than zero interest and would obviously be willing to pay something."


What if they simply can't afford to buy the games? Being a gamer is expensive,regardless of platform. Why should the poor be excluded? Libraries exist, and music can be listened to and recorded from the radio. Why should games be the only media free from being copied and freely distributed?

There have been like 10 games I've wanted that have come out in the space of a couple of months. I bought one, can't afford to buy the rest, so I don't buy them, and I don't play them. That applies to everyone, whether you're a guy on minimum wage who can only afford a couple of games a year, or a millionaire whose a few hundred thousand short of being able to buy himself a new jumbo jet. Games are a luxury, not a necessity.

And your point about recording songs from the radio is irrelevant - they play songs on the radio to promote themselves so that people will buy it, not so that they have an opportunity to get it for free.

I'm not supporting pirates by any means, but why are you not opposed to buying second hand if you are opposed to piracy?
If every pirate started buying used games instead only the retailers get more money.
The developers and the publishers won't get a single penny and will still rule the system as being "not worth it."

Someone would have had to buy the copy once, and I doubt many copies are sold more than twice (one original purchase, one pre-owned purchase).

 

[CrazyJew]

REMOVED


Accidentaly posted the same twice. The internet acting up today. Move along.

 

[Rasmus Emilsson]

Protip: shut down Pirate Bay. You know, have people who can do something about it actually do something about it.

Sure, there'll be massive fucking rage, but that'll blow over eventually.

Can't really tell if you're serious with this...

Pirate Bay is used for warez, but there's also a lot of legitimate open-source/free content on there that isn't copyrighted. And more importantly, pirate bay don't actually host anything. They just tell you where to find it. Any action should be taken against the person distributing pirated material.

And that assumes that piracy is actually bad for the industry.

They did this, the founders are four swedish guys. The police shut the site down, but it was up again after 24 hours, they just said, well let's move the servers to somewhere else, like the netherlands, so they did that and voila, TPB is up again. They also got a fine for about 50 million, but seeing as none of them makes that kind of money, the companies who sued them will never get the money.

fighting piracy is a lost cause, the people on scenegroups like SKIDROW, RELOADED etc. is lightyears ahead of the police in the world.

 

[JET1971]

Fun fact, Piracy played an important role in making gaming mainstream. started out as trading floppies, then warez sites, to todays torrents. how it made gaming software more mainstream is by spreading software much further than a box on a shelf when PC's were considered glorified typewriters. nobody thought to play a game on the office machine though they new they could and a friend gives them a floppy and says "try this out its fun" and they then give it to someone else. over many years this in turn became buying a new game at the store rather than your buddy giving you a floppy. Thats how I started playing games on a computer way back before most of you were born.

fun fact Piracy of games brought us download versions instead of the physical copy only. This was because of the popularity of warez sites, developers saw a large portion of gamers are very willing to not have a physical copy and to spend the time downloading a game. no piracy then we would all be buying AAA titles in the store and hoping the store actualy carries it or ordering it through snail mail and waiting a week instead of getting on steam and downloading it.

I wouldnt say that piracy is 100% bad for the industry, though its not exactly good for it. But I will say that the problem of piracy is not the industry crushing mountain that publishers claim it is but more of a mole hill. People who start threads like these just make the publishers made up mountain seem real. but to blame anyone for the piracy is a problem? well you would need to look at 2 other industries for that and the 2 associations belonging to them. RIAA and MPAA. without them making up bullshit piracy wouldnt be an issue, yes it would happen but game publishers would never have stopped thinking of pirates as potential future customers.

 

[DarkRyter]

You can't beat 'Free'.

Also, pirates obviously think the game is worth something, otherwise they wouldn't have pirated the game in the first place. By taking the time to download the game and using the space on their computer, they've shown a greater than zero interest and would obviously be willing to pay something.

What if they simply can't afford to buy the games? Being a gamer is expensive,regardless of platform. Why should the poor be excluded? Libraries exist, and music can be listened to and recorded from the radio. Why should games be the only media freee from being copied and freely distributed?

If you can't afford it, then you don't get to play the games. Boo-hoo.

I mean, I've been without enough money for a game I really wanted before, and I just went without.

Video games are a part of the entertainment industry. As in, it isn't vital to your continued existence. If you can't afford it, that's unfortunate. But also too fuckin' bad. (I'm not entirely sure why libraries don't carry video games, though. Probably because the licensing costs are way too expensive compared to something like books or old movies.)

If someone genuinely can't afford a game, then it doesn't matter whether they pirate or not. They wouldn't have bought the game anyway. Not that this justifies it because piracy is bad, mmkay, but it doesn't hurt game profits.

People who can afford the game, but simply don't are more of a problem, and they're what the industry identifies in their heads when they create draconian DRM. These are the people to blame more than anyone, but there's really nothing that can be done about them.

 

[Aeshi]

You can't beat 'Free'.

Also, pirates obviously think the game is worth something, otherwise they wouldn't have pirated the game in the first place. By taking the time to download the game and using the space on their computer, they've shown a greater than zero interest and would obviously be willing to pay something.

What if they simply can't afford to buy the games? Being a gamer is expensive,regardless of platform. Why should the poor be excluded? Libraries exist, and music can be listened to and recorded from the radio. Why should games be the only media freee from being copied and freely distributed?

If you can't afford it, then you don't get to play the games. Boo-hoo.

I mean, I've been without enough money for a game I really wanted before, and I just went without.

Video games are a part of the entertainment industry. As in, it isn't vital to your continued existence. If you can't afford it, that's unfortunate. But also too fuckin' bad. (I'm not entirely sure why libraries don't carry video games, though. Probably because the licensing costs are way too expensive compared to something like books or old movies.)

If someone genuinely can't afford a game, then it doesn't matter whether they pirate or not. They wouldn't have bought the game anyway. Not that this justifies it because piracy is bad, mmkay, but it doesn't hurt game profits.

People who can afford the game, but simply don't are more of a problem, and they're what the industry identifies in their heads when they create draconian DRM. These are the people to blame more than anyone, but there's really nothing that can be done about them.

Then that just becomes unfair to the people who did pay. Why should they be forced to pay when some other guy can just go "oh I'm poor boohoohoo" and then be "morally justified" in downloading it for free?