Pirates ruining it for the rest of us.

[Isaac The Grape]

I like to take the optimistic approach to the situation. Some companies still make games primarily for the PC. Not many, but some do. I'm not sure about the big AAA companies and their procedures but some small developers do it. Now I get that is kinda bad, the 'small' developers develop primarily for the PC. But at least it's something.

Yeah, it's good to see a return to the old days. And we all have one man to thank for that eh?

 

[Tax_Document]

No, pirates aren't ruining anything. The game-companies are, as long as the companies sees us (their customers) as their enemies, they will never get rid of piracy.

One example of this is the god-awful implmentation of DRM, of which Ubisoft has the most obtrusive piece of shit DRM there is. another example of this is when I bought Batman: Arkham City and wanted to play and i had to do this http://i.imgur.com/DZpLM.jpg, coupled with the fact that SecuROM is there too, so the game takes 2-3 minutes to even fucking start.

There isn't any other business in the world that thinks they can treat their customers like shit and then expect to get paid.

No pirates, No DRM.

Your point is invalid.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Why should we bag on the pirates? They're the ones who provide the products without overly punishing 'features' that make playing games a fucking hassle.

I love that steam is such a hassle for you to run. How shit is your PC?

 

[ResonanceSD]

"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?

Oddly enough, gaming is a luxury. I KNOW RIGHT? HOW WEIRD IS IT? Imagine, the fact that something that isn't an essential fact of life is expensive. holy shit, my mind, blown it is.

 

[Blow_Pop]

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.

EDIT: Okay, seriously, people, stop quoting me. I have better things to do with my life than all this-

Not to add to your quotes but I am going to extend this to shut down all the torrenting sites since it isn't JUST Pirate Bay that they can do it off of. I'd rather buy a game than torrent it. I have personally bought *almost* all my games. I have 1 that I got for free (officially from the company that made it) and a few that my friends have gifted me on Steam but otherwise I have bought almost ALL of my games myself. I'll borrow PS3/360/Wii games from my friends especially if I am not sure if I want them and if I like it enough I'll go out and buy it, if not then I don't wind up wasting the little money I do have.

 

[Something Amyss]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

You have a guy in this very thread stating that the reason pirates pirate is because he has no buying power.

Having no buying power kinda counteracts the 'we buy more' argument, because you CAN'T.

I'm hardly responsible for the claims of others. Especially in the instance where what they're saying is utter crap.

 

[Something Amyss]

At the moment people like Moviebob who use clips in their reviews aren't violating copyright law. SOPA means that he will so that completely negates your point as at the moment people who are at risk from SOPA are people who aren't doing the same thing as pirates. Pirating isn't word of mouth advertisement it's outright stealing.

More "sky is falling" crap.

Piracy isn't outright stealing; that is intellectually dishonest. Likewise, you still preclude piracy leading to sales, which is inane. And the Moviebob thing? Overhyped overreaction. But hey, why have an adult argument when you can resort to theatrics?

So you are defending something you believe is wrong? :|...huh

I dislike lies and dishonesty. I am arguing against those, not defending piracy itself.

It's a shame you're trying to think of things in terms of "black and white," "with us or against us," but there's probably nothing I can do to stop that.

The fact is that games developers are turning around and saying look we have had enough we are taking it to the consoles where we have a greater degree of control.

Yeah, especially big publishers like EA...No, they're still running on PC.

But certainly indie games are....No, wait, they're thriving on PC. Even with piracy. And due to its openness, it seems to be preferred.

Huh. Maybe this argument is complete and utter crap.

Pirates are to blame for that no one else.

Yes, pirates are to blame for a fictitious exodus from the PC as a platform.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

First of all, I find it pretty damn hard to believe four and a half million people pirated The Witcher 2. I'd be moderately surprised if four and a half million people were interested in the game to begin with. That has nothing to do with the discussion, but good lord, talk about being overly optimistic about the potential success about your game.

Secondly, buying games second-hand is no better for the game developer than piracy. It's as much "my property" when I pirate a game as when I buy it used, and indeed, the pirate might be doing them more good than buying it at, say, Gamestop, where you'd encourage them to keep preventing the developer from making money off of it. The only real difference is that game developers haven't found a way to work with the pirates; do you think the Gamestop exclusive pre-order BS is because they like them? No, it's done with the mentality of "well, if they're going to buy it there anyway, we may as well try to make them give the money to us".

Put another way, don't whine about pirates, then defend buying games used.

Lastly, not everyone who's pirated a game hasn't also bought it. It's often to circumvent developers' precious DRM, perhaps with a smug grin or a middle finger in the upright position. I've pirated games I've bought myself to circumvent anti-piracy measures, because nine times out of ten they're flipping annoying to deal with. I'm not fool enough to claim even the majority of the people who pirate games do this, but you never see that factored into companies like Ubisoft's tirades against piracy, because they refuse to admit they may be doing something even paying customers don't want to put up with.

Of course, over nine pages, someone's probably said each of these and far better points than I've raised, but hey, I've already typed the thing up.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Secondly, buying games second-hand is no better for the game developer than piracy. It's as much "my property" when I pirate a game as when I buy it used, and indeed, the pirate might be doing them more good than buying it at, say, Gamestop, where you'd encourage them to keep preventing the developer from making money off of it.

You know, now that I think on it, a second-hand gamer may actually be worse that a pirate.

When someone pirates a game, no one profits from the developers work

When someone buys a second hand game, two people have profited from the developers hard work, the second hand gamer (who sells the game back and buys at a discount) and gamestop (Who has no intention of providing any of their pure profit to the developer)

Piracy is just an excuse.

At least pirates don't profit from someone else's hard work and try to take the moral high ground like second-hand gamers do...

Interesting what happens when you look at things another way, isn't it.

And don't get me wrong, kids at home, I'm not saying either is good. I'm saying you may want to look in the mirror before you jump on the bandwagon to demonize someone else.

 

[Levethian]

Apparently those who pirate music, games, films, etc, contribute more to entertainment media than those who don't. Their findings state that money saved is spent on entertainment media eventually anyway. That's why it's staying legal in Switzerland.

https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-downloading-movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111202/

 

[Paladin Anderson]

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.

Apparently The Pirate Bay isn't actually doing anything illegal. The torrent files they keep don't contain any copyrighted material since it's a P2P thing. However, that just means that copyright laws on the internet are woefully inadequate. But I'm sure that you've seen how people flip the fuck out whenever legislation mentions internet anything. (Patrick Leahy: "Let's make illegal streaming a felony instead of a misdemeanor. It's currently difficult to enforce and the fine used as punishment is negligible compared to the profits generated from illegal streaming making it profitable to essentially bribe the law." Internet: "THEY'RE TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR RIIIIIIIIGHTS."

Yes, exactly that. I would also say that you should kick them in the crotch, but apparently that's sexual harassment.

It's an industry-wide issue and should be treated as such.

I have tried this 'method' before. It seems to always end up with them calling me of being a "goodie-goodie" or something of the like. Then they go on about how they're broke or they can't buy games or some lame excuse. I somehow manage to scramble a few bucks together for a game when I want it. I think the pirates attitude towards piracy as a whole is linked to the fact that the internet makes it look so damn easy.

I agree. A free game is just a Google away.

If I can't afford a game, then I don't play it. `-` The attitude you mentioned is what put the US into a major recession, actually. Many people took out large loans from the bank that they didn't need, because they wanted a new car or bigger house or whatever.

This can explain it more. It's wrong on one point, though. Federal Reserve isn't private, it's controlled by Congress.
I got off topic, sorry.

Wow.... was anything in that cartoon accurate? I think most of it is plausible, if presented in a sensationalist manner. Except for the Kennedy assassination thing which reeks of conspiracy theory.

Kennedy Assassination? Wut?

I've only seen up to where it finishes with the ancient bank thing.

Dude, watch the whole thing. It accuses England of being owned by some super organization of banks called The Red Shield and that Kennedy was assassinated because he went against the National Bank.

 

[silverbullet1989]

If game devs actually spent some time making a game worth while to buy on the pc then piracy wouldnt be nearly as bad for tht particular game... when games dev send out a port as crap and broken as RAGE was... what do companies expect?

Yes there's always gonna be piracy... but im sick of game devs hiding behind that pathetic excuse, there gonna make a butt load of money from the console market, and i don't think it costs a company that much to make a few hundred thousand copies of the pc version to sell, so either way there gonna make some money from the pc market, even if 50% go out and pirate it, they've still got the sales from the other 50%

And lets not forget pirate copies exist for the console market -_- its just because there are more console users which drive down the overall figures of piracy on the console market

 

[TokenRupee]

Please note that I am not talking about second hand sales, I personally think that the consumer should be allowed to treat their own property as just that as long as it doesn't violate the IP and copyright laws. I don't trade in games myself but I can at least see the argument there.

They do nothing to support for the game designers; same as the pirates don't. As such they can never be considered fans. Should be okay on general gaming forums, but not on fan sites.

But it's still their right to do so. If I don't think a company's game is worth $60 and a store is selling it for half, you'd better believe I'm going to buy it used. It's that kind of attitude that it promoting the whole online pass/$10 crap.

As far as the topic, I'll start doing my part and reporting pirates when I'm not treated like one simply because I would rather buy a used copy of a game than a brand new one without being punished.

Find the gamer instead who was willing to part for it for a $5. That's how such games end up in shops in the first place. Be smarter and skip the middleman atleast. In this day and age of easy communication that shouldn't be too hard for you.
If you're not going to contribute anything, atleast save yourself some real money. Pirates are not at the bottom of the hierarchy in this scenario.

I do try to find people who want to sell the game. But a good chunk of the time, either the stores are the only ones with it or the seller thinks their game is worth so much more. I'm not saying I don't buy new games because I do when they're lowered to a more reasonable price or if I think the game is worth $60. But I do buy used when a company, not naming any names, thinks that their game is still worth $60 after a year or more when it was never worth that much to begin with.

 

[veloper]

Please note that I am not talking about second hand sales, I personally think that the consumer should be allowed to treat their own property as just that as long as it doesn't violate the IP and copyright laws. I don't trade in games myself but I can at least see the argument there.

They do nothing to support for the game designers; same as the pirates don't. As such they can never be considered fans. Should be okay on general gaming forums, but not on fan sites.

But it's still their right to do so. If I don't think a company's game is worth $60 and a store is selling it for half, you'd better believe I'm going to buy it used. It's that kind of attitude that it promoting the whole online pass/$10 crap.

As far as the topic, I'll start doing my part and reporting pirates when I'm not treated like one simply because I would rather buy a used copy of a game than a brand new one without being punished.

Find the gamer instead who was willing to part for it for a $5. That's how such games end up in shops in the first place. Be smarter and skip the middleman atleast. In this day and age of easy communication that shouldn't be too hard for you.
If you're not going to contribute anything, atleast save yourself some real money. Pirates are not at the bottom of the hierarchy in this scenario.

I do try to find people who want to sell the game. But a good chunk of the time, either the stores are the only ones with it or the seller thinks their game is worth so much more. I'm not saying I don't buy new games because I do when they're lowered to a more reasonable price or if I think the game is worth $60. But I do buy used when a company, not naming any names, thinks that their game is still worth $60 after a year or more when it was never worth that much to begin with.

Okay that's good to hear. More gamers need to this. That would make traded games cheaper for everyone.