This ain't a shot at you dude, but please don't use that term. It grates me to the point of wanting to smash peoples faces in with their keyboard. I'd be terrified to know how many hours I have clocked up on computer games since I started in '96
Graphics are important but not everything. I spent more time last year and this year playing vector graphics on my iPhone than I have PC. Geodefense and Tower Madness. On a PC I want great graphics where possible as well as gameplay. But sometimes you have to sacrifice the graphics for the gameplay. Thus Railworks 2 I bought last week on steam looks pretty crappy compared to modern day 3d engines. Still thinking about Dirt 3. Problem is I have wheel and pedals (force feedback) but it's a pain to fit and remove to desk every time I want to use it. I need a solution where it can be left in place or mounted elsewhere. I wouldn't play a racing sim without realistic controls. Get yourself an 6 to 12 inch bass speaker, attach it to the back of your chair, connect via an amp to the subwoofer out on your soundcard and your Dirt 3 will be raised to a whole new level of realism.
Most developers are NOT releasing DEMO's for their products these days. Are they worried the masses will play their games and then cancel their pre-orders because the game is rubbish? What are they afraid of? Personally, if there is no demo before launch or after for that matter, I will pirate the game to try it out (how many of the % do this and can you narrow it down) If I'm impressed with the game, I'll either buy it or not!
Well, according to one of Mr Molynoux's priceless comments, making a demo (i.e. grabbing the first 2 levels out of the campaign and throwing it out there) is like super huge effort.
£30 for a computer game is a bloody good deal IMO. You can get a few dozen hours out of a good game and it's all top quality entertainment. If £15 is your limit then you aren't getting much out of your games.
Bad Company 2 was £5 on the STEAM deals. Your statement doesn't make sense. You can also pick-up Amnesia The Dark Descent less than a tenner, a fantastic game also.
I will get the most value from Railworks 2 and maybe Sim X when I start using that again. Nearing the end of Crysis 2 single player. I will see how I like online. I haven't played much BC2 online yet although I completed single player. I like BC2 though. I will also be playing L4D2 although I'm starting offline mode for that.
I can't afford a Ferrari, but i've never tried to steal one. This sounds like a pirate trying to justify his actions. Gaming is a luxury, not a necessity, these things cost a lot to make and distribute, why should people sell them for less than they're worth? I don't think £30 is too much to ask for a game (which tends to be the going rate for AAA titles on the PC), when i go out for a meal with the misses it costs me that much and we're only there for an hour at most. If i bought a game for £30 and only spend 1 hour on it, then yeah i'd probably be a little pissed off, but that's why i read reviews and look into games before buying them at full price. No, i think cheap skates simply wanting what they can't afford is the cause of piracy.
What fuels piracy? Greed. Period. If piracy was punished the same way as all other theft is punished, it just wouldn't happen as much. Problem with piracy is that you get off scott free with it - whether it's an operating system, an application, a game, or a movie, you could download anything of your choice within 15 minutes of me posting this and nobody would ever know. This is what happens when people are left to their own devices: their true colours show through. People are inherently bad, which is why piracy exists (and all other wrongdoing too).
You have no patience. If you can't justify paying £30 for a game. don't. Wait for a sale or buy 2nd hand. if you can afford it then save your money. Your inpatience has lead to you stealing the game and now you have left someone with a bill to pay but don't worry it's only the people who spent years making the game. All that work and effort for you to steal there game and then compain it does work in SLI or dx11. Use a demo or read a review before buying sO your not let down. Because of you we have to pay higher prices for games but we don't mind as we can honestly enjoy the game. Find a moral compass!!
A good game, is easily worth £30. A bad game? No, but thats why you read reviews first. If you really want to play a game, but aren't prepared to pay £30 then just wait a short time and it'll drop in price. Feathers, if you don't like the price, then don't buy it, or wait, but that doesn't give you the right to download it illegally.
Piracy isn't exacty the same as theft though, piracy is more like sneaking into a cinema without paying and while I'm sure almost everyone will still consider a crime, many people will consider it a lesser crime than stealing a DVD from the store. I think part of the problem is trying to sell things to the internet userbase who are very used to recieving things for free.
Alot of people are missing the point! It's not about how much the game costs but whether you can justify spending £30 on a game. If the game had a DEMO people could play and get a feel from this and then make a decision as to whether it's worth £30 or £10 in a sale if it was garbage. But most developers don't release a DEMO so we pirate to trial the game. If we're happy with the game some of us will buy this to support the developers. I'll ask again, out of the % that show games are pirated, how do we know from that % the amount were downloaded merely to try before you buy?
Piracy is theft, plain and simple. Either you have paid for something that you possess or you have stolen it. The idea of watering down the criminality of piracy has been around for a long time, and it just doesn't work: it's theft.
The action or crime of stealing is taking another persons property without intent to return the goods. By definition, it is WRONG to call it theft as stealing what the developers/publishers already had (were paid to make the game) and then saying piracy is theft which is the profit they make from selling the game is not tangible.
