For the most part what I pirate is
- TV show episodes that I miss and I don’t feel like waiting 8 days for it to appear on Hulu.
- Movies and games that I can’t find to rent or buy.
- The first couple chapters of a comic series to see if I’ll like it.
Unfortunately that is the only argument that really relates to piracy. It is accepted that some folks out there will pirate software, and other intellectual property. You can’t charge any money for something where people have the ability to get it for free, and expect no one will decide to get it for free. The only thing you can do is provide incentives to possibly convince some that may have pirated to purchase your software. This is counted as potential sales, not loss. Pirated copies aren’t considered lost sales. They are considered unrealized potential profit.
Wrong. See above.
So long as you charge anything for something people can get for free, some piracy will exist. Piracy can actually be used as a tool. If a publisher notices the game is selling lower than expected, and there is report of it having high pirate traffic, it can be a sign of overvaluing your product. Your potential customers aren’t buying because the value is too high, but there is potential because pirate traffic is high. This is actually useful because it means that your game isn’t a total flop, you just misread the market for it. A big sale could be a big boost to your sales numbers. and your margins could rise significantly.
So you think, that if games were going for $20 instead of the $60-80 they go for now, that people will buy it again?
I say you’re delusional. Pirates are pirates, they want shit for free and they can get shit for free, why pay even a penny when you can get it for free? I’m pretty sure that at least 80% of the people in this very thread who say that “if prices were lower or the company changes business tactics, I’d buy it”, won’t buy it if those requirements were met.
To be fair, what you’re saying is pretty much the same as stealing a car, just ebcause you can take something for free, doesn’t mean you should.
In before the “zomg u cant compare a game with a car!”. Well you can.
Looks like all those “You wouldn’t steal a car” ads worked on someone, at least.
Good thing all that money the RIAA stole from innocent consumers is doing some good after all!
/sarcasm
Frankly, money is indeed a factor. Who do you think is the largest demographic of file sharers? 15-25! How much money do people aged 15-25 make? Very little, especially in this economy. They can’t afford the level of media consumption they have grown accustomed to, and thus, they chose not to pay for it.
Basic sociological factors a work here, folks.
You’re very wrong on this point.
Yeah, there will always be pirates, but if I see a $60 game on steam going for $20, that I kinda want, I’ll go for it, and I know a lot of other people will as well, which is why steam is profitable.
There will always be pirates, but dropping prices is definitely a way to get people back to buying.
Issue with this though is that it’s not the consoles that companies profit off of, it’s the games, which is why they make them so expensive. Sure they could drop the price, and still turn a large profit margin, but the way it is right now seems to be doing pretty well.
I don’t download stuff much now, but if there’s something that I already bought, an I’ve lost it somehow, I download it.
I’m 24, I make €1400 a month, minus all my costs per month, I have about 400-500 to spare.
I might be one of the rare cases, but I think your point is moot. Life isn’t expensive, unless you want it to be.
That is correct. In a culture of want, games are just another want item.
I’m not exactly sure how what I said can be related to stealing a car at all. Cars are a physical commodity. Their potential sales aren’t made up greatly of people who steal cars of lots, but the same thing applies. If you make a new minivan but sales are low, and you see that economic trends indicate people are still buying minivans at the rate expected, it would tend to imply you have overpriced your minivan.
You can’t argue that when popular games go on sale there isn’t a jump in sales numbers. I think the argument that sales numbers for games at a lower price don’t include a significant number of individuals who had previously pirated the software is false. However, even if that were true, that isn’t the point. Even if none of those sales numbers account for people who had previously pirated, the hard fact is that a lot of people bought the software. The piracy numbers are just an indication of potential demand. If pirates want it, customers want it. Thus, if customer aren’t buying what they want, the price is too high. It’s only common sense. I think the numbers include some ‘converted pirates’, especially in cases where piracy rates are higher than is typical. This is an unprovable point, but I would put forth that it is highly likely that there is a number of people who have pirated games on their computer, who would buy the retail version if the price was significantly lower, if not simply for the benefits of owning a legit copy.
All computer games are expensive when they come out. That’s why I don’t buy them when they come out. I always wait until two or three years later the 50 € have turned to 10 €. By that time my computer also is usually equipped best to deal with the game’s graphics.
Weren’t you saying in the “Ask an Atheist” thread that atheists only deal in evidence and don’t believe anything that’s unprovable? 
Maybe you’re right here and maybe not. But I tend to agree with Bolteh - if you can get it for free, and you don’t have any hang-ups about doing so, why would you pay $20, $10, even a cent for it? I worry greatly about a world in which people believe that just because they want something entitles them to have it.
BrotherShrike said something earlier about MW2 being overpriced, but everybody buying it anyways. If everybody bought it, brother, then it’s not overpriced. If people are willing to pay $60 for a great game, why in the hell should IW not charge $60? The only reason would be if more people were turned off by that $60 than those who were willing to buy it…and while it’s true that MW2 was heavily torrented, it also sold 4.7 million copies in 24 hours, according to Wikipedia.
The more people who feel they’re entitled to something without paying it, the more torrenting will occur; and when taken to the extreme, this will be highly detrimental to any industry. As I said in our last lovely discussion of this, no company will want to make quality products if they don’t make any profits off of it.
So, if you feel a game is overpriced, or you just don’t have the money for something, realize that you’re not entitled to it. The only “entitlement” a person has is money itself - that is, money is a quantity of how much you deserve. If you can afford it, great, you deserve it - and if you can’t afford it, you don’t deserve it.
I guarantee you, if a game is TRULY overpriced, so much so that more people won’t buy it than will, a company will lower the price. If you consider it overpriced, but everybody buys it anyways, then it’s not overpriced - so either spend the extra money, or suck it up and don’t buy the product.
Fifty and Sixty bucks for a game is too much. I avoid them. And in the case that its something I REALLY really think I’ll like (which hasn’t happened in quite a while), I probably won’t even look at them. 60 dollars is gouging. As to pirating, I tend to pirate older games, some that aren’t sold, or that are ridiculously hard to come by, or one that I’m a bit iffy about to try, and since I happen to be a slightly moral person (moral being good-intentioned towards others in general, no religious connotation) if I like it, I’ll buy it.
Just because you can get something for free, doesn’t mean that you should. Some people feel bad about paying nothing for that 20 or 30 dollar game. (I however would feel NO sorrow for ANYBODY if I pirated a 60 dollar game) Those people would buy it. Humans aren’t always logical that way. I’m human, I’m illogical, I sometimes pay for things that I could get for free, I sometimes don’t, yay me.
sometimes I downlaod games which aren’t available in germany because of the stupid laws about brutal games (I downloaded 2 Games so far)
I buy stuff I like and support developers I like, but in the case of MW2 I pirated it. With all the millions they made from the console versions they would just use my money as toilet paper.
No. Athiest don’t believe in anything where the evidence suggests otherwise. While I can’t prove what I say there is some ( if not circumstantial ) evidence to suggest that at least points to it being a possibility. I don’t think theorizing on economic trends is the same as existential belief systems though. So 
Like I said, there will always be SOME people who will pirate games because they can’t be swayed from the free price tag. However, it’s hard to argue against the idea that some people can’t justify paying 60 bucks for a game, but can justify 30 bucks. Because we live in a society of WANT, just because some people can’t afford the game doesn’t mean they won’t resort to piracy to get it. Even if multiplay/stability/DLC isn’t going to be there.
EXACTLY! There it is. Yes it is highly torrented. It is also heavily purchased. Since the piracy RATE is in line with purchases, this simply indicates it’s a popular game. It also indicates it’s at a reasonably good price point. Higher may decrease sales, lower may increase sales, but it looks like a very lucrative price point for MW2.
That’s how it is though. It’s the society we live in. I don’t understand how the mentality of punishing this behavior AND legitimate customers overtook rewarding paying customers. It doesn’t make sense. You make the problem worse to solve it? What?
Very true. Unfortunately, there is a portion of our society who just don’t care. they want it, so they get it. Financial ability or not.
Yup, this is all true. Piracy is a given. It will happen, so distributors will have to accept it. At least it can be used as a tool to help a company analyze their own product.
I still say the more paying customers are punished, the worse piracy will become. Lowering the value of your product by decreasing customer satisfaction, while not decreasing piracy is a bad prevention model. Creating more value to the paying customers is the road to more paying customers. You can get the pirated copy for free, but you can’t play online, you won’t get DLC, and so forth. THAT is how you hit back against piracy.
I’m a few pages late with this, but I felt I might as well explain myself.
More or less. I’m not going to spend my money on a company whose business practices I disagree with. If they want my money, they can make a reform.
And on the effort and work thing, those corporations didn’t put any effort or work into it. When I purchase media it either goes to a company that I know treats their developers with humility (i.e. VALVe, or a small recording label like Fat Wreck) or straight to the artist (i.e. an indie band with no label, game companies like SKA studios).
I couldn’t care less about pencil pushing bigwigs with million dollar salaries. Just the people who matter: the proletariat, the artists, the fans, and myself.
I’ll also pirate a game if I plan on buying it, to see if it’s worth the money. I don’t have a lot of disposable income to be throwing around willy-nilly. I want to make sure its a well-spent investment. I haven’t done that in a long time though.
You might say you care for the artists and want to give the money to them… But you do that… by… -not- buying their product… at all? Just because a huge chunk of it goes to a company that had nothing to do with the actual production of the product?
How does that even make sense? Even if a game is priced at $80, and $75 goes to the company that sells it, while $5 goes to the artist, that $5 is still more than the $0 you decide to give them by pirating (and potentially even hurt them by not giving them the money they need to keep existing).
And if you just want to make a statement, do you honestly think it would make a difference? Even if a million people make that statement, it won’t change a thing. All you do is destroy the poor artist you seem to care so much about, while putting a slight dent into the company that leeched from the artists.
Also, demos. Download them.
Agreed.
Did you know the bonus that devs get is directly correlated to sales?
Even after the game is on shelves the devs are still getting paid for your buy.
We are so lucky Johnkiller is banned right now. XDDD If he wasn’t it he’d come in here and attack us all.
I give them money when I go to their shows by buying tickets and merchandise. That’s where they make their real money anyway.
Because a huge chunk of it goes to a company that treats their artists like products, treats their consumers like idiots, treats their employees like trash, and lines their pockets with the cash earned from the hard work of others.
how is not buying a game hurting them? chance are i wouldn’t be buying their product either way.
Yes, it is completely pointless to make a statement. Nobody who ever made a statement ever accomplished anything (Vietnam war, 8-hour work day, riot in seattle, alcohol reform, american revolution, civil war, french riots, spanish riots, underground railroad, blah blah blah).
If you’re telling me to give up because there’s no possible way I could ever hope for developers and music artists to ever find a way to produce high-quality products on their own without giving themselves up to the iron fist of corporate life, you’re either naive or a fool. Or both. Millions of development teams/bands do it on a daily basis.
I pirate because 1) I don’t like what the corporations do, and 2a) I want the product which leads to 2b) since i won’t be spending my money on the product, pirating it does no more damage than not buying it.
If I give a company $0
and pirating takes $0 from them
how does pirating hurt them?
I don’t pirate games from companies I want to have my money (iD, VALVe, SquarEnix…) unless I’m testing a game (I only need to test games if I’m iffy about them, like Left4Dead, which I hated). If I don’t like the game, I delete it the .iso or whatever. If I like it, I buy the full version. They make money off of it, and I’m happy with my purchase, rather than them making money off of it, and me potentially having a game I won’t enjoy.
This is just smart consumerism.
I also pirate to make an archive of games I already have, which makes up about 95% of the things I pirate. All old NES games that aren’t being made anymore, or PSX games I can’t find, but are somewhere in my house.
You can’t make me. :3
I use my money as a form of encouragement. I spend it on companies that do good, compelling them to do better. I’m not some evil douche sitting in a basement, wringing my hands and cackling madly to myself as I run a hundred .torrents, imagining that by doing so I will create a world with no corporations or trade.
That’s just silly.