136 replies to this topic

[Tulac]

Juni Ori, on Dec 22 2007, 04:22 PM, said:

I'm sorry russ, but that's idiotic suggestion, because people are selfish and only marginal would pay for games at all. Industry would go down in no time.

The point is that, that is happening already. It's extremely easy to pirate for anyone, or at least find a pirate that sells copies for very low prices.

I think at least 90% who pay for the game can just  as easily pirate them, but instead they choose to support the producer.

[_r.u.s.s.]

juri that's not a suggestion, that's a "piracy" etiquette. i was not talking about real market o_O

and i did say

Quote

though some people are not wise enough to do this

[DeathDude]

Now I may not have the figures right, but a couple of years ago, they did determine that about 3 billion dollars of revenue was lost in the video games industry, its hard to say if thats a world wide figure, but anyway you spin it thats a whole lot of cash.

I think if you want to try out a game before you buy, get the demo. Then you can at least see the game in action. Downloading a full version of a game, then buying it, no I think there is a much less likely chance that someone will buy it at that point.

While I wouldn't say piracy is running rampant in the vid game industry, I also do not approve of the tactics of companies who are putting in copy protection programs in their games. Thats just as bad, I mean yes there are pirates, there will always be, but what about the gamers who buy all their games, why should they have to suffer and face the copy protection progams, I'm referring mostly to securom by Sony, which if you do a search via google, you can see how bad of a program it is and how it basically stays on your system, even after you uninstall a game (BioShock is a game for example that uses this technology)

The main issue I have with pirates in the video game industry, is that they are truly hurting the game developers. Game developers aren't rich and you need to put in a lot of time and effort to make a game, especially now moreso than ever before, so especially for newer games, when a game gets pirated that sucks. I mean with the movie and music industry, the stars and people in high positions do get a lot of cash, and thats why I can sorta understand how people can legitimize pirating in those industries, with the amount of cash to go around. Nevertheless, the musician will suffer, especially if they are not in the big time, so even in those areas I support them by buying albums, buying merch at concerts, and other avenues to support bands and whatnot.

Anyways with Video Games Piracy, its better to pay than pirate, think about who is getting hurt by the lost sales, its more direct than the movie and music industries.

[Potatoe]

Pirating is dumb. Also, I love the warm fuzzy feeling that I get when supporting small game developers. If I really enjoy the game, I might even donate some money to the game developers themselves, if they are small that is. Since I know that big game companies make profit no matter what, but the little guys need help since the mainstreams either haven't heard of them or think the game sucks because it's different.

I also strongly agree with AJ and DD.

[Blood-Pigggy]

If I buy the game I actually want to finish it, if I don't, usually I stop playing once it gets past the first hour or so.

Unless it's in the case of games like System Shock 2 or something that are so good that even a pirated copy gets me playing.

Not saying anything about my opinion on it, but that's one of the big reasons you won't see me pirating much, for some reason the game is less enjoyable.

[Ruff-Ryder]

Well not sure what to say,Look if I had the money I would gladly pay for my games. As a matter of fact I do.  let me ask you this, If you were walikng down the street and you seen 2 food stands. 1 says $5. a plate and the other says free, which does you chose? To me it is common sence. So you fellas that  are against file sharing have never loaned a friend a game or movie. I guess if you dont like file sharing, don't do it.But dont judge people, everyone has different opinions and lifestyles. Trust me there is alot worse things people are doing in the world. I'm just trying to play a game. Its not that serious. Now if I was out selling the game trying to make a profit, then i could justify your stealing theroy. Ok, I got to go. I'll check back later. PEACE

[_r.u.s.s.]

DeathDude, on Dec 22 2007, 05:47 PM, said:

I think if you want to try out a game before you buy, get the demo. Then you can at least see the game in action. Downloading a full version of a game, then buying it, no I think there is a much less likely chance that someone will buy it at that point.

no way, the game just can't be compared with demo. they could pick up the best stuff and make you think wooow this is so well level designed and there are so many details while in the full game the only locations and scenese which are that cool are only the ones you have seen in demo+ some others. and you might dislike the whole game for many different reasons as well anyways, like it could be too short or the plot could be terrible, doesn't matter.

Quote

1 says $5. a plate and the other says free, which does you chose?

but that's something totaly different. it's different when you steal your plate or when the manufactor gives it for free.

[Potatoe]

Ruff-Ryder, on Dec 22 2007, 11:29 PM, said:

Well not sure what to say,Look if I had the money I would gladly pay for my games. As a matter of fact I do.  let me ask you this, If you were walikng down the street and you seen 2 food stands. 1 says $5. a plate and the other says free, which does you chose? To me it is common sence. So you fellas that  are against file sharing have never loaned a friend a game or movie. I guess if you dont like file sharing, don't do it.But dont judge people, everyone has different opinions and lifestyles. Trust me there is alot worse things people are doing in the world. I'm just trying to play a game. Its not that serious. Now if I was out selling the game trying to make a profit, then i could justify your stealing theroy. Ok, I got to go. I'll check back later. PEACE

No, your example can't be compared with downloading games illegally. If you see 2 food stands, the other says five dollars a plate and through the other stall you can steal the food. Which one can would you choose?

russ said:

no way, the game just can't be compared with demo. they could pick up the best stuff and make you think wooow this is so well level designed and there are so many details while in the full game the only locations and scenese which are that cool are only the ones you have seen in demo+ some others. and you might dislike the whole game for many different reasons as well anyways, like it could be too short or the plot could be terrible, doesn't matter.

You know you COULD read reviews AND try the demo out.

[_r.u.s.s.]

Potatoe, on Dec 22 2007, 11:00 PM, said:

russ said:

no way, the game just can't be compared with demo. they could pick up the best stuff and make you think wooow this is so well level designed and there are so many details while in the full game the only locations and scenese which are that cool are only the ones you have seen in demo+ some others. and you might dislike the whole game for many different reasons as well anyways, like it could be too short or the plot could be terrible, doesn't matter.

You know you COULD read reviews AND try the demo out.

it's about whether i like it. not about whether the reviewer likes it.

[PrejudiceSucks]

Piracy's a bit of a disgace, to be honest.

These people have to make their money somehow, or they lose their jobs and they themselves become poor. The best games are often the ones which end up losing a lot of money, because they're really well made for a small area of the market (a lot of flight sims, for example, are like this), which then goes and pirates them.

Games which actually make a lot of money are games like The Sims, which the whole of the general public enjoys - so piracy basically kills the creative area of the market, and means that we'll be playing dull Sims games and C&C clones and nothing else of much quality sooner or later.

[Eagle of Fire]

Let's face it, reviews are now useless in the modern world we're living in. Reviews are more often than not biased, reviewers themselves are extremely biased on all the games they are reviewing, and the big niche in games now is action and FPS. Did you find any kind of good strategy game from a major production lately? I sure am looking, I sure am at a loss.

A computer magazine I sure liked over the years was Computer Gaming World. Another magazine was Strategy Plus. Those reviewers were great, they always wrote about the true results of games... But those magazines died of their glorious death. CGW became "Games for Windows" magazine, a magazine which is shamefully sponsored itself by Microsoft. Plus, reviewers are given extras when they write good reviews, and are given nothing when they don't and tell the truth... This mean that good reviewers get hammered down while those who don't care get better and better... But those reviewers are not those we'd like to see writing.

All in all, the golden age of computer gaming stopped in the late 90's. Since then, it been a downhill slope and never really stopped even if the momentum slowed down and the future is looking better...

Can you blame people from wanting to get the games for free before even considering paying for them when they got so disapointed in the past few years? I know I am in any case.

However, the difference is that I been so disapointed in the past few years that I don't even consider pirating games... 'Cause I just don't even want to try them in the first place.

It's that bad for me.

Edit: Demos are just as bad a reviews too. How many times did you ever try a demo which wasn't even near like what the real game was? Sure happened way too often for me...

[Ruff-Ryder]

Maybe someone could explain the difference between file sharing and piracy cause honestly I dont know the difference. They are many file sharing sites and programs to purchase. How is that legal? And then how could the athorities come after me for using the progam. Serously I'm alittle confused.

[Eagle of Fire]

File sharing is not illegal per se. It's to obtain a copy of a game without paying for it (which is stealing) which is illegal.

So, nobody can come to your house and bag your computer 'cause you installed uTorrent or something similar on your computer. They need to prove that you used it illegaly to have something against you.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Eagle's right about reviewers, usually you can go ahead and buy a game as far as the *bovine droppings* that paid gaming critics will help.
This is especially the case with online gaming sites, which have far more dynamic measures when it comes to advertisements.
The marketing department holds most of the power in these cases, they can threaten never to pay a site again which would have a massive hit in revenue for that site. Of course, there's plenty of other popular places these companies can go for their ads.

GameSpot is one of the crappiest reviewing sites ever, not only that, but it's so terrible that even the user reviews are *crapola*. The facts are that most paid reviewers are *crapola*, most "contemporary" gamers' opinions are *crapola* (most play games for an hour and give their *meep*ing opinion) and it's only worse when you consider that the best place to get a good opinion these days are on respectable forums like RPGCodex or so on.

I find it impossible to find good forums in order to get opinions on games sometimes, especially for action/FPS games because they feed the bottom of the barrel.

Therefore, when a developer/publisher is *crapola*headed enough not to take the time to offer me a demo, I will pirate their game to see if it's worth the time to play it, if it is, I'll buy it because chances are I can't play multiplayer with a pirated copy, and I can't enjoy the game thoroughly either because I can't get proper patches and so on (sometimes even mods).
I'd buy it anyway if it was good, I like packaging, manuals, and so on.

If the game sucks then I'll delete it, because I don't want to play suck *money-maker* games.

That brings me to another thing about people who say they pirate games because they have bugs in them or are subpar.
What's the *meep*ing point? You wouldn't play a piece of crap if you paid for it, and you must be stupid to play a piece of crap for free when you can play plenty of legal good games for free elsewhere, as on Reloaded.

That's why I like freeware, I think if it became big enough and companies would just put their god damn outdated games out as freeware after a couple of years there would be less piracy because people won't be scrounging for something fun when they have no pennies in their pockets.

[Eagle of Fire]

I'd like to add a piece of personnal experience here too.

Back in the days where Civilization III have hit the shelves, I did not beleive it would manage to actually better Civilization or Civilization II. I really thought that it was a game to avoid while continuing to play the original.

After a while, a friend of mine shown me his copy of the game he got somewhere. I didn't know at the time, but it was a pirated copy he got from someone who got it from a warez site... And we both thought that the game was great and even better than the original. After about 4-5 months of playing the game, we both agreed we'd go buy the game the first occasion we have to support the company which made it.

However, in that time, Atari bought over the rights of the game. Expentions rolled out, and a "gold" package was made. Me and my friend both purchased the "gold" edition, with both expentions included. And we had quite a lot of fun with it, until I realized that Atari shipped that version of the game with a spyware which install itself every single time the game is run.

So here I am, finnaly purchasing the full game out of faith over the company who made the game (or who have the rights to the game at that time), only to discover that the pirated version was actually better and spyware free.

Yeah... That is sure going to be a good point into the side of "pirating is immoral and wrong". Go Atari! You're sure winning your "war" over piracy and pirates!

Geez...