News id Software talks piracy (again) at GDC 2007

Haha ... I have been thinking along the same lines in the recent past ...

I will take the easiest route, not the "cheapest" one.

cheers,
btb

 

You obviously haven't ever used a decent torrent tracker.

A choice few, whom track share ratios, will annihilate the bandwidth available on your connection. A 1.1MB/sec (more if you're on ADSL2+, I'd imagine) download makes mincemeat of a 4.7GB download.

An average speed of 1MB/sec will have you a 4.7GB image in just over 80mins, which isn't far off my assumptions (which were there for example, more than accuracy).

 

I just read BBC's article on this story, including all the comments posted by other readers, and have to say that 99% of the view so far is the one I share.

As with music, movies, & software, I download pirated games too (for all platforms not just PC)

The reason? Simple.

Download & try it first, then if I like it I buy it.
If I don't like it, I stop playing it, so therefore it doesn't cost the music/movie/software/games industry nothing at all.

With PC Games I almost always continue to play the pirated version anyway even after I have purchased the original simply 'cause I cannot be bothered changing discs all the time, plus my dvd rom drive makes too much noise when it's spinning

 

Don't most game producers offer some sort of demo? I can honestly say that I didn't have to pirate Doom3 just to try it out. I downloaded the demo, and it only took a few minutes of playing it to realize what a horrid game it was. People shouldn't have to pirate games just to try them out.

-monkey

 

The most idiotic sentence EVER? If you're gonna do it, at least have the stones to admit it.

 

Yes most do, in fact I remember playing the first 3 levels of ARM's campaign in the Total Annihilation demo for HOURS over & over again which led me waiting outside for the store to open when the full game was released.
(CORE f.t.w btw )

The point is though that not all demo's are good, they falsly portray a cool game when in fact the full retail copy is boring, repetative, & dull, or worse...full of bugs

 

2¢

Sorry if I'm saying something that's been said already; I'm kindda drunk to read through all the posts. Here's my opinion anyhow:

* Casual gamers don't buy the games at all. If some Joe wants to test this game or that, and just test it (whether because he/she doesn't really have enough time to play it seriously or because it's not his/her genre of game), they won't buy it anyways. Period.
* The "deficit" in PC game sales is due to this crazy hype whenever a graphics card is released, specially when there's a big change in architecture (like from DX9 to DX10). I think Ed, from overclockers.com, said once something like (my own words now) "it's a pity, but the PC-gaming market seems to be fated to die".
You know, if you have an XBox 360, you don't really need to get a new graphics card, or put more ram, or worry about a new operating system that'll lag your system to hell. You just buy the game, and play it. No hassles, no-****. Heh
And I've gotta say it again: I think PC-games will disappear from the market, and console-games are gonna take it's place. I don't like this idea, but that's a pretty real possibility... :-\

 

if a FPS will last more then 4 hours of gameplay (i'am thinking weeks here) i would proberly buy it.

And gamers are putting all the money in the very expensive videocard in the hope developers would make a game that brings it to his knees with all the new eyecandy.... or let me rephrase that. Developers are forcing us to buy bigger better systems to play their games. But here is the catch...

After everybody spend their hard earned cash on system upgraded, there is not much money left to buy a game!

 

Piracy is similar and not equal to theft, why? lets go beyond RIAA and MPAA and think about it.

Theft?

"In the criminal law, theft (also known as stealing) is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent."

taking: "depriving a person of private property without the payment of just compensation."

so to be a Thief, X must be able to take something from Y, and Y can not use that something because Y has been deprived of it by X, this is true in stealing another person's shoes or stereo.

Is piracy theft?

when X downloads a copy of "The return of the ones that never left, editors cut" made by and owned by Phony studios, he is making a copy of the data, the original data is still there, Phony studios was not deprived of the data and can use it and sell it at whatever price they want.
the taking part does not apply here.

How can i make piracy similar to real theft?

download "The return of the ones that never left, editors cut" movie, go to Phony studios, enter, destroy all other copies Phony studios has of the movie so they can not sell it.

OR

download "The return of the ones that never left, editors cut" movie, burn it to DVD, brand or re-brand it, go somewhere or to someone and sell it as if it was made by you.

Is there anything similar to piracy?

Yes there is, not buying any kind of media.

My answer to "Is piracy theft?": it depends on what you do with what you download and also if you buy original stuff.

 

Depends on what way you look at it. You are depriving the developer/designer/retailer of money. They cannot use that money therefore.

 

So by not buying something they make because you don't have the money for it means you are depriving the developer/designer/retailer of money.

anyway the probability of buying a game from a certain developer after you pirate it increases..... i have both soldier of fortune games after i pirated the first..... and farcry, and all of the Unreal games, all of the C&C games, some of the total war titles.... etc.... most of these would not be bought if i had not downloaded them first or played another game from the same game maker.

and i am not trying to force the change of the way you think about this, i am simply putting my cards on the table and then you can either see them or dismiss them.