Sharing gaming and games

[Durgiun]

I've been reading a lot of these debates where people discuss piracy and used game sales and online passes and whatnot.

But, if the used games market ''hurts sales'' then why haven't I read a single thing against a friend going over to a friend's house to play the latest CoD's multiplayer campaign?

The reason I ask this is that a friend of mine offered to lend me his 360 and Red Dead Redemption game to play for a week and it got me thinking: ''The publishers and developers lose money this way because I get to experience the game without paying them diddly. Yet noone mentioned borrowing a game to a friend for a few days causing the industry to nose-dive into the Apocalypse.''

OK, not those exact words, but still. So, my question is, what is the Escapist community's opinion on borrowing games to a friend or coming over to a friend's house and playing the game there? Why isn't the game industry having the mother of all hissy-fits over that factoid?

P. S.
I never took the guy up on his offer. Last thing I need is to get RRoD'd whilst playing a great game.

 

[El Poncho]

If they want me to buy every game at their sale price then maybe they should lower the price, there is plenty of games I would of bought if they cost a bit less but instead I would borrow it from a friend since it didn't seem worth the money.

 

[PanYue]

Tough question. But I do support this sort of thing because it saves me money and it's not illegal! (yet ) I borrow games alot. Heck, I'm currently playing through LA Noire and Batman AC that my friend kindly gave to me to play when he found out how much I wanted to play them and that I didn't go back to work for a while.

It's just a nice way to try a game out quickly and painlessly, or play it and finish it without killing your wallet. May I also add that damn your point about "Game borrowing and sharing" got me to thinking. It's killing my brain!

 

[Durgiun]

It's just a nice way to try a game out quickly and painlessly, or play it and finish it without killing your wallet.

True. But what boggles my mind is that the game industry hasn't made any statements about this (as far as I know). I assume this is because they can't put in DNA recognising software into the games, but that's just my paranoia talking again.

 

[PanYue]

True. But what boggles my mind is that the game industry hasn't made any statements about this (as far as I know).

If you want my thoughts on that matter, I think it's all coming down to either;
A) They haven't really thought of a good reason to make a big deal of it yet
or
B) They have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

I'm putting my money on B. ;P

 

[brunothepig]

Because game swapping isn't really as large a "problem" as the used-sales market? I honestly don't know, but that does seem likely. More importantly, there would be an uproar if devs and/or publishers tried locking games to a specific console or whatever.

As for my opinion on the matter, if anything it's garnered a number of game sales for devs in my case. Borderlands, Crysis (and Crysis 2 because of that), Portal (which also encouraged me to buy TF2 and all the HL's, and of course Portal 2), Batman AA, COD4, Saints Row 2 and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. And that's all just off the top of my head. So, it certainly doesn't seem to be hurting the industry, and as I said above, there would (rightly so) be an uproar.

 

[Durgiun]

True. But what boggles my mind is that the game industry hasn't made any statements about this (as far as I know).

If you want my thoughts on that matter, I think it's all coming down to either;
A) They haven't really thought of a good reason to make a big deal of it yet
or
B) They have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

I'm putting my money on B. ;P

As much as I'd like to think of the pubs being evil, skeeming douchebags, I have to agree with you on that.

 

[Durgiun]

More importantly, there would be an uproar if devs and/or publishers tried locking games to a specific console or whatever.

As for my opinion on the matter, if anything it's garnered a number of game sales for devs in my case.

As much of an uproar it would make, I'm sure there would still be some tools supporting that decision.

Point, but couldn't the same be said for piracy as well in some cases?

 

[brunothepig]

More importantly, there would be an uproar if devs and/or publishers tried locking games to a specific console or whatever.

As for my opinion on the matter, if anything it's garnered a number of game sales for devs in my case.

As much of an uproar it would make, I'm sure there would still be some tools supporting that decision.

Point, but couldn't the same be said for piracy as well in some cases?

Absolutely, which is why I was talking about me specifically. While I don't support piracy, I don't see it as wholly evil. However, while for some people piracy may encourage them to buy a game, or it's sequel or whatever, most people still pirate a game so they don't have to spend money. So if you're wondering why publishers are attacking piracy instead of friends borrowing games, it's because piracy is a far more widespread problem, and it's already illegal in most places.

 

[Durgiun]

More importantly, there would be an uproar if devs and/or publishers tried locking games to a specific console or whatever.

As for my opinion on the matter, if anything it's garnered a number of game sales for devs in my case.

As much of an uproar it would make, I'm sure there would still be some tools supporting that decision.

Point, but couldn't the same be said for piracy as well in some cases?

So if you're wondering why publishers are attacking piracy instead of friends borrowing games, it's because piracy is a far more widespread problem, and it's already illegal in most places.

While piracy is widespread, I honestly don't see it hurting the big names in the industry. They still make money whether it is from long time fans or newly acquired fans. They got so much popularity it's almost hilarious that they think piracy is hurting them.
The only people, I think, piracy IS hurting are the indie developers. They are the ones that really need money, so I can see how piracy is bad in that context. So, yeah.

 

[Memoriae]

Well, depending on the jurisdiction you live in, it can be anything from lending, to public performance. If they class it as public performance, then it'd be illegal without licensing it for that.

 

[JET1971]

Sharing games is actualy a bigger hurt to the industry than piracy ever was but why doesnt the publishers whine and cry about the millions of lost sales? because it would fall on deaf ears. A pirate is a villian, but a friend that loans the game is a good guy. want proof? read the comments that say there is nothing wrong with it. truthfully though all the piracy that is not an actual fake physical purchased copy is the same exact thing as a friend loaning you a game, you just dont actualy know who the friend is.

 

[Durgiun]

Sharing games is actualy a bigger hurt to the industry than piracy ever was but why doesnt the publishers whine and cry about the millions of lost sales? because it would fall on deaf ears. A pirate is a villian, but a friend that loans the game is a good guy. want proof? read the comments that say there is nothing wrong with it. truthfully though all the piracy that is not an actual fake physical purchased copy is the same exact thing as a friend loaning you a game, you just dont actualy know who the friend is.

So, it's just basic human psychology. I should really read up on it. Well, thanks for answering my questions, man.

 

[Ghaleon640]

I think that it is a bit trivial. Impossible to stop other than asking politely, but also I think that it advertises the game to those friends so it helps the sales somewhat.

 

[JET1971]

Sharing games is actualy a bigger hurt to the industry than piracy ever was but why doesnt the publishers whine and cry about the millions of lost sales? because it would fall on deaf ears. A pirate is a villian, but a friend that loans the game is a good guy. want proof? read the comments that say there is nothing wrong with it. truthfully though all the piracy that is not an actual fake physical purchased copy is the same exact thing as a friend loaning you a game, you just dont actualy know who the friend is.

So, it's just basic human psychology. I should really read up on it. Well, thanks for answering my questions, man.

No problem. Funny that the majority of gamers has no problem loaning/borrowing a copy but that same majority has a problem with someone downloading and doing the same exact thing. Playing a game they did not buy.

 

[Durgiun]

No problem. Funny that the majority of gamers has no problem loaning/borrowing a copy but that same majority has a problem with someone downloading and doing the same exact thing. Playing a game they did not buy.

This sounds like a logical fallacy of some kind. Like if Moving The Goalpost and False Dichotomy had a child.

 

[veloper]

That is a smart way to go about it.
You're not getting ripped off by a fat corporate middleman when you deal with other gamers directly. More gamers should trade and borrow the old fashioned way.
Consider it as a form of legitimate file sharing: still doesn't help or harm anything and it's the smart thing to do. Just never claim you're a fan of anything.

 

[Durgiun]

That is a smart way to go about it.
You're not getting ripped off by a fat corporate middleman when you deal with other gamers directly. More gamers should trade and borrow the old fashioned way.
Consider it as a form of legitimate file sharing: still doesn't help or harm anything and it's the smart thing to do. Just never claim you're a fan of anything.

I think JET1971 put it best, that sharing like that is no better than piracy. So, why would it be more legitimate? A game is being given to someone without that someone paying the pub for it. I'm not against this, I'm just pointing out a flaw in the idea.

 

[veloper]

That is a smart way to go about it.
You're not getting ripped off by a fat corporate middleman when you deal with other gamers directly. More gamers should trade and borrow the old fashioned way.
Consider it as a form of legitimate file sharing: still doesn't help or harm anything and it's the smart thing to do. Just never claim you're a fan of anything.

I think JET1971 put it best, that sharing like that is no better than piracy. So, why would it be more legitimate? A game is being given to someone without that someone paying the pub for it. I'm not against this, I'm just pointing out a flaw in the idea.

I suppose I should have wrote legal instead and that bit is just a technicality really. It doesn't make a difference.