Never pirated any games (or movies/music for that matter), I'll borrow a game from a friend (console) and if it's good I'll probably buy it at some point. Haven't really bought any games for the PC for a while, but that's generally because my PC won't play much these days.
save your comments and buy stocks in an appropriate thread? Id imagine more console games will start to get pirated the more net integrated they get, its harder to pirate console games but they are getting more like PCs every day.
But the main topic against piracy in Joe's quote is lack of developer support, one of the reasons Iron Lore had to close down was lost sales due to piracy. I'm not saying buying second hand is bad and evil, I'm saying that if you're looking from the perspective of supporting the developer, buying second hand is no better than pirating. The reason I buy games isn't so I'm not breaking copyright law, it's because the developer made a good game, I want to pay them so they can carry on making good games, and I definitely want to support them if they make a good game that isn't laden with DRM, like Stardock's games and the original CoH (wasn't impressed by the steam like login system they introduced in the expansion pack ). So for me, I rarely buy second hand.
Totally agree. 2nd hand is seen as acceptable but piracy isn't, so people will easily own up to, and defend, 2nd hand sales.
True, but it's an acceptable middle ground to me for people who are short on cash but who want the games. At least that money goes into the games industry at some level - just having it go into retail stores is good to some degree as it provides more of a market for more game to be sold on etc I suppose.
Honestly? Yes. Not anymore, but in the past I've priated maybe a dozen games or so. But the truth is, no matter what the original article says, had I not been able to pirate them I simply would not have played them, period. I didn't have nearly enough cash to spend on the games, I simply couldn't afford them. Me downloading a copy of a game did not equal one lost sale, I simply would not have played the game. I worry though that the reason piracy is so rampent is not the evils of people, but simply that it has become a force of habit. Click here, click there, wait a bit, it's-a-game! Easy, simple, rinse and repeat. People have become so used to not paying for games they don't think about it any more, they just do it. You want to play the game? Download it. However, I think for online-delivery systems such as Steam, this isn't the case. Cracking a Steam game is hard and risky, arguably too hard to be worth the effort, so people don't automatically think "Episode 2? Download it!", they just accept that the need to spend money on it, and so do. It's not even an option. There's a bit of me that feels that even if piracy is not as rampent as developers worry it is, we'll be seeing a major gathering of games on digital-distribution platforms such as Steam, locked to a single account.
Maybe lower the cost of a game to the end user, this may have an effect. I believe the consumer is getting ripped off 99% of the time.
Yeah I agree, it depends on what game I'm buying whether I decide that I'll find it acceptable to buy second hand, for instance, GoW or the 360 version of the orange box sells like hotcakes so I had no qualms with getting that cheap off eBay. However, something like Sins of a Solar Empire or DEFCON I wouldn't buy second hand (not that you actually can in the UK as they're download only, but anyway) as the smaller developers need all the support they can get.
What I dont understand is people who steal a game and complain when it doesn't work. isn't that like stealing a car and then complaining to the dealer that there is a broken window, that you broke when stealing the car?
Sorry, it's not a middle ground. Pirating games is illegal. Buying second hand games is not. It's not a grey area, legally or (IMO) morally. We live in a capitalist society. People have every right to buy any products that are legally available for sale. If I don't buy Generic Shooter 3 when it comes out because it's not worth £39.99 to me, buying it for £24.99 3 months down the line second hand is not a lost sale for the developer, as I would not have bought the game at the price at which it was made available for sale initially. Personally, I really don't think that the games industry is anywhere near the sweet spot in terms of game prices. I haven't got any evidence for the following, so take it with a grain of salt however large you want, but my instinct says that if games were priced more in line with DVDs, people would buy a lot more of them, and overall profits would increase. I'd be really interested to hear any justification for game prices being as they are. Of course, the "I wouldn't have bought it anyway" argument is a common one used by pirates - "I wouldn't have bought the game, so stealing it is not a lost sale". It's not an argument that holds any moral water, but it's certainly relevant to Michael Fitch's back of the envelope calculations in your first post. You can't say that the 90% of people who pirated Generic Shooter 3 would all have bought it if they were unable to (or decided not to!) obtain it illegally. AH
Here Here! Piracy is theft. No ifs, no buts! When you pirate games you're stealing food from developers plates. They're underpaid enough as it is, and thanks to pirates stealing games from them, more and more are being made unemployed or having to work reduced paid hours because their employers simply can't keep paying people - so people are going hungry because of piracy! You people disgust me.
I do not pirate PC games for myself, just to my broke fiends that want a copy of the game I bought (does that count?) I used to pirate xbox (gen 1) games. I do not anymore because I lost interest, but the games are still there. Now I am very materialistic with any games I aquire. I like looking at my games shelf and enjoying my vast collection af games. I like the way it looks (I know, that's weird lol) This guy seems real pissed off, and he has every right to be. I feel sorry for him and other companies (large and small) that get the shaft because of piracy.
Remember, morals depend on the person. I believe that morally I should support a developer (that makes a game I enjoy) that is in need of my support so buying a game from a smaller company second hand doesn't feel right to me. Whereas you think it's morally fine so long as you've got it by a legal means (which is in no way wrong). I imagine the reason Joe is saying it's an acceptable middle ground in his eyes is that legally it's fine, but because no money is actually going towards the developer it's still not as good as buying it new, if a developer doesn't make much money it might decide that it has to make a generic shooter to make ends meet instead of something original and fun. As for game prices, I would like it if they were cheaper, especially console games, £50 RRP is far too much. PC games are priced a bit better IMO, but brand new releases can still be pricey unless you get them off places like play.com at discounted prices. The reason they can't make them the price of a DVD is a film is shown at the cinema so has usually already gone into profit by the time it gets to DVD, any extra they get is just a bonus. With a game there's nothing like that, although the cost associated with making a typical game is a lot less than making your typical film. The market is also a lot smaller, almost everyone watches films, yes, some films only cater to a certain market, but that's the same with gaming, RTSes only cater to a relatively small section of a large market, but a horror film caters to a relatively small section of a massive market. Yeah he does seem pretty angry, he does make some good points, but at the same time, I think he's complaining about a few things that they shot themselves in the foot over. If you put DRM in a game, IMO you're asking for any trouble you get because of it. I see his points about hardware issues, but he can't expect everyone to be able to flash their BIOS simply to make their game work. Other games manage to get it right. He comes across as a bit elitist on some points really, but I can understand his frustration. When the hell did they start calling copyright infringement piracy anyway? And why? It's got nothing to do with theft on the high seas.
I agree with the statement that piracy is bad, but only in a few cases. The games industry is hit pretty bad by piracy, especially the smaller companies. However reading that article screams out that their company did an awful bit of PR work. He blames people not buying the game and increased piracy on bad word of mouth - which wouldn't have existed if they hadn't coded a hideous copy protection system. I respect games studios that do copy protection well - Introversion for example, telling you they need the money. A game which just dumps on onto the desktop with no warning? And you're complaining because people thought it was buggy? I have no sympathy for this man and his company, that is one of the worst systems I have ever heard of.
i have only ever pirated a few games, was when i was a lad and no income, and me parents would spend the cash on it. think it was a champ manager and soldier of fortune. lol now i buy all my games legit
