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News PCGA: PC piracy is declining

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 21 Feb 2011.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. mi1ez

    mi1ez Modder

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    lol at in-game pet for Crysis!
     
  3. Baz

    Baz I work for Corsair

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    I think the case is that now it's just easier to not pirate a game. Buying a game via steam or Direct2Drive gets you the game at max-speed, with support, and not having to worry about stupid stuff like multiplayer not working or having to crack the game. Customers want convenience, it's what pushes many people to piracy in the first place, and digital distribution is finally providing the service we all want.
     
  4. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    Plus, steam sales are hard to pass up.
     
  5. B1GBUD

    B1GBUD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Accidentally Funny

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    I beg to differ, how about those that brag about playing a pirated/leaked game before the release date?

    I don't brag about acheivements, my KD ratio has been slaughtered by hacktards with their f*cking aimbots and wallhacks. You only have to look at the PBBans stats to see how rampant these hacks are, and the frequency in which they get banned. What ever happened to hardware bans? if someone with a hacked copy of a game gets banned, they just obtain a different key and start all over again. W*nkers
     
  6. BRAWL

    BRAWL Dead and buried.

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    Be nice to just ban the little gits with an motherboard ID or something right? "Come back when you've got £250 to spend again"... actually thats not a bad idea.

    Glad to see piracy coming down... might be an end to DRM?
     
  7. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    These x1000.
     
  8. Whirly

    Whirly What's a Dremel?

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    In truth I think there will always be piracy. I remember speccy and c64 games being swapped in the playground when I was young. The internet just made it easier.

    And, of course, there will alway be those who are just determined to experience something for the smallest outlay. Those people who will happily watch a top film that someone has recorded on their camcorder in a cinema and then brag about it afterwards. What they fail to mention is that their enjoyment of the product is always tainted in some way - whether it be an audience member's head popping up into frame or missing out on the latest patch for Crysis 2.

    The reason piracy is so rife throughout the film/tv/music/PC industry is two-fold. Firstly, it is relatively easy to do. A quick trip down google lane can, I'm sure, furnish you with explicit details on how to use bit-torrents.

    But it's the second reason that is far more important: Ease of delivery. Download a pirated TV/Movies, store it with 100's (1000's?) of others and then access it in HD on any TV in your house via a cheap media streamer. Games? No disc needed, no DRM, no on-line activation, no trip to the shop AND no wasted money on a crap game. And don't dismiss that last point too quickly because while £5 wasted renting a crap film from Blockbuster isn't the end of the world, £40 spent on a crap game feels like a real kick in the guts. And after a few of those kicks you no longer care too much about those poor developers not getting their money.

    Steam and others are making good progress in the "ease of delivery" areas but they still need to go further if they truly want to combat piracy. Prices are often the same (or more) than boxed copies (bad value) & DRM continues to be a nuisance. But Steam sales are very popular because people are willing to pay for quality content if it represents value and ease of use, even if they could have pirated it for free.

    The music industry is starting to wake up to the realities of the internet with Spotify and iTunes showing that there is plenty of money to be made through digital distribution.

    But the movie/tv industry continues to blind themselves to reality and try to get their lawyers & lobbyists to close Pandora's box and continuing to fail. I mean, really? Make more laws to stop people who are breaking the law? There comes a point where a law becomes pointless if such a large percentage of the population are breaking it that it becomes impossible to police. All you do is criminalise large parts of society with far worse results...just look at prohibition.

    I believe that the vast majority of people are happy to pay a fair amount to easily access the content they want to consume. Be it music, games, movies or TV the old publishing systems are not a solution to piracy but one of the driving factors. But for the last 50 years we've had a system where publishers have been making ridiculous amounts of money off of other people's creative talent and they are determined not to give up their cash cow. Who can blame them? Would you give up the easy money and associated lifestyle voluntarily?

    But progress is unstoppable and sooner or later they will lose their battle. It's as inevitable as records killing the sheet music business.

    I just hope that in their desperation to keep the easy cash flowing, the publishers don't cause widespread destruction in the creative areas of the industry.
     
  9. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    Not if some publishers reckon the reason for the decline is due to their drm....
     
  10. B1GBUD

    B1GBUD ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Accidentally Funny

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    Hardware GUID bans would be the only way to stop hacktards, they wouldn't want to fork out on new hardware each time they get banned.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PunkBuster#Global_GUID_bans_and_Hardware_bans
     
  11. DriftCarl

    DriftCarl Minimodder

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    I use to download games because I coudlnt really afford them.
    Nowadays I pick games very wisely. I play multiplayer games mostly now and I like progress so there isnt any benefit of pirating those because well, you cant progress. I dont believe in cheating in multiplayer games either, there is no sense of achievement or fun if you do that.
    digital downloads is definatly one of the main reasons why I havn't pirated a game for several years. Everything I buy now is either through steam or some other online store(blizzard store for example)
    If my PC dies, I log into my account and re-download the whole thing.
    I got a new PC a few months ago too. No hunting around for DVD's and game keys. I log onto my steam account and download the lot.
     
  12. greypilgers

    greypilgers What's a Dremel?

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    Hmmm... I have several points that occurred to me after reading the above... Firstly, all this nonsense about people 'spending £40 on a game that was rubbish, so they go out and get cracked ones for free instead'... Come on... When was the last time any of you tech-savvy lot bought a game you didnt already know was good? Either hearing it from other owners, through the internet on places like Bit-Tech, or CustomPC, etc. Surely buying something without knowing its any good or not leaves you open to many a pitfall. Generally you research whether a car is any good or not before you buy it, same with a washing machine, PC component, etc, etc. Same with games! So I don't buy that argument.

    Secondly, I also don;t think that a quantified decrease in PC Piracy will equal a decrease or disappearing of DRM. All that will be argued is that DRM caused the decrease in piracy, so a decrease or disappearance in DRM could have the side effect of increasing piracy again?

    Also, people who brag that they've played a game a week or a month before it comes out are just plain sad, really, arent they? It's a game, for crying out loud. To quote the old adage: Go out, see the sun, meet people, get a girl(or boy)friend...

    And tieing bans down to hardware would be very unfortunate for the poor git who buys a second hand motherboard or pc and inds out that he is apparently banned from every fps on the planet with no come back... Dunno about you but i'd feel slightly aggrieved at that...

    And yes, definitely, the Steam sales are absolute winners - but why are so many of their normally sold games so much higher than physical store prices???? I thought the original point of Steam was to be able to offer games digitally and so avoid the overheads of physcial media distribution? How can I buy a case and dvd game for over a tenner less than it costs a Valve server to copy some files down the internet to me???

    Madness!

    :eek:)
     
  13. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Thing is: they SAY they have proof, but they don't actually cite or provide any at all...
     
  14. greypilgers

    greypilgers What's a Dremel?

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    Sounds like something I heard on the news over the weekend where they said that the amount of alcohol consumed over the past year has declined, and then this morning I hear another report saying Britain has the highest rate of alcohol related medical emergencies in Europe! I guess its very easy to massage statistics to get your agenda across, if you're clever enough...
     
  15. Terru

    Terru What's a Dremel?

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    Steam.

    'Nuff said.
     
  16. jrs77

    jrs77 Modder

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    MMOs and online-games in general are not exactly prone to being pirated as you can't play these games with a pirated copy usually... you need an account to play them, and accounts can't be duplicated.

    This online-account-thingy can be done for every game basically, forcing players to log in even for single-player games... et voilá... piracy get's less and less an issue.

    On the other hand account-hacking increases. That's not a problem for the publisher however, but for the customer.
     
  17. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    The amount of alcohol consumed can reduce, that doesn't by any means mean that we are immune to having the highest rate of alcohol related emergencies. Someone has to have that number 1 spot, there will always be a number 1 so even if one person in 1000 drunk alcohol, there would still be a country at number 1.
     
  18. thil

    thil What's a Dremel?

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    I still don't trust these *******s, not after they basically said "We're just here to make sure the PC doesn't rock the boat for the other platforms."

    Piracy was never as big an issue as the gaming industry made out to be, in my opinion. It was more a convenient excuse to make up for the industry's shortcomings in PC gaming.
     
  19. Baggpuss

    Baggpuss What's a Dremel?

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    Alot of games already have this. But unless theres a multiplayer element theres normally a workaround to convince the game that you are connected to the online server when you are infact not.
     
  20. Whirly

    Whirly What's a Dremel?

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    I disagree here. Not every user is "tech-savvy". Many are kids or parents buying the latest hyped game only to find it rubbish. Then a mate mentions he got it for free off of bit-torrent...

    My argument isn't that only good quality games should be released but that games that don't represent value for money help to drive people towards the idea of NOT paying for the next game.

    As for buying a car, pretty much the whole of the second-hand car dealership market would collapse if people did full research before buying!

    I agree completely that companies will argue that without a big stick they can't keep people in line. But once again my argument is that said "big stick" is helping to drive people towards piracy.

    Completely agree.

    Again, I completely agree.
     
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