I don’t care WHO started, I’m finishing it!
Do I need to turn this Internet around?
I would like to state that the biggest trend for piracy is that games have stopped selling things.
In the old days, you would buy a big, fat box, with CDs in their nice jewel-cases. Inside that box were pamphlets for similar games, and a big, fat instruction manual.
When I bought HL2, it came in a small box. Inside this box were 6 CDs, each contained in a paper envelope. After copying the files from these 6 CDs, I needed to load Steam. Steam would then prefer to decrypt the files online for several hours.
As happy as I was to have Half-Life 2, I realized, these CDs were worthless. Sure, I have a CD key, so now I can download the game. But if I’m ever stuck at a computer where I lack internet access, the discs are useless. I did not even have a fat instruction manual to go with my possession of this game.
Because it was purchased relatively early, hence why they had the decryption process, it came with 1 extra CD containing some making-of or preview-type stuff. This was the only tangible reward for that purchase.
Give me big, beautiful instruction manuals that make me happy I’m not living in the dark ages. Give me beautiful CD cases, contained in beautiful boxes, with their beautiful fictional worlds inside. Heck, I’d even be pleased to get a little pewter figurine (as I did getting Tiberian Sun Platinum). It also came with a soundtrack.
Gamemakers, don’t just sell me a number. If you can comply, maybe I’ll stop downloading those digits.
It’s a sob story, not an excuse.
I’m pretty sure the reason why games aren’t being sold in huge boxes with huge, useless manuals anymore is because nobody gives a shit, and because it’s annoying at best.
No it isn’t.
personally… when i sunk $50+ into a new game I quite liked being on the recieving end of not only some new-smelling awesomegame but also an artistic printed cd sleeve… perhaps one that folds out with the game disc on one side, and the soundtrack on the other, plus a small tome that will probably never be read twice but gives you some extensive world and character backstory in the universe of the game to give you perspective of where the writers and artists were coming from. And if you’re lucky, a small book containing concept art or a dvd with the making of and a whole mess of concept art files included.
Although i’m also not a fan of the huge boxes (you can fit a fair amount of stuff in a standard-size pc game box), I like it when it seems like the developers are giving you a complete package of the games universe. Not just the game disk in a plastic jewel case with some title artwork on the front and an advertisment on the back. Makes you feel like they are giving something back to you, doing that little bit extra.
Though i can understand that, even though the monumentally high costs of game development these days would warrant good/interesting packaging being a standard, there are two things to take into consideration.
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It isn’t so much about the cost of manufacturing the packaging as opposed to how many copies can be produced by their manufacturer how fast. More stuff in the box means more variables in manufacturing time, that much more possibility that something, somewhere, could go wrong… And when they’re banking on scoring millions of sales on Modern Warfare 2 in the first week, they won’t want to risk being short-supplied at launch for the sake of an upset with figurine or metallic case manufacture/shipment putting them back a week.
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As it is no-longer standard to make a big deal of packaging for standard releases, it has become the norm to additionally release ‘collectors editions’ with deluxe packaging at a markup of $10 or so which isn’t so bad if the ‘extras’ weren’t bare-bone minimal and missing that one piece of kit that people actually find most desirable which has been omitted in the primary collectors edition to be the reason people buy the tier-2 collectors editions (eg. Halo 3: Legendary edition) whose price is beefed up to nearly (or even over) double the cost of the standard game for the sake of a large t-shirt, a posters and a large tacky ornament nobody wants.
this situation isn’t going to change anytime soon either. Developers might have good intentions, but publishers will push your spending as hard as they possibly can.
and so far as I know… the only people who dislike getting free stuff with the standard-price games are neat freaks or people who get a game for its multiplayer and don’t give a rats ass about story or setting. Though if you dislike the olde’style PC game boxes twice the size of your head back in the 90’s i can see where you’re coming from there. Impractical though they looked good on your bookshelf, but realistically… bookshelves are usually taken up by … ya know… books.
yeah I’m not reading that, sorry
TL;DR
I have to agree with hammich here, I like the extra things in the box.
like a cat get’s just as much fun out of the box and instuctions as it does out of the cat tree.
when all you get is a CD and tiny write up on the back of the case, it just looks like rations for some reason.
I think discs are too much, I prefer my games on my hard drive only. And maybe on my backup drive, if I don’t feel like redownloading.
I actually miss the big cardboard boxes with cardboard holders inside, manuals, jewelcases and disks.
Some boxes actually had nice artwork on them and provided some nice decorative scenery in the average teenager’s room.
Fallout 3 has no protection, I find that quite funny personally.
Explain. And if you begin to go into a story of “ALL OF THEM ARE EVIL THEY JUST WANT TO MAKE US SUFFER” I will lose all respect for you.
I have fallout 3, I don’t think it was easier than most games, I still had to go through the hassle of loading the ISO into my virtual CD drive and install it.
you start.
with the first paragragraph…
if point taken.
stop reading.
If point not taken and rebuttal still to be made.
Continue reading. To see any such rebuttals get addressed.
Yep.
i’d agree except i live in a country where download limits are a very real and very frustrating problem… so if digital distribution becomes standard, then i’ll have the fun and convenience of losing near half my monthly download limit in ONE. GAME.
It’s not designed to prevent piracy.
I’m not sure how to put it more clearly than that.
It’s design is to limit resell. Resell is an area where a game publisher can have more solid measurable loss.
Believing otherwise when it’s obviously totally ineffective at preventing piracy is just plain gullible.
to elaborate. you only have to look at the preowned section in EB or other gamestores to see how big it is.
Here atleast, EB doesn’t deal in preowned PC games, probably for that reason.
Piracy is not any reason for high prices. The reason for high prices is because that’s the price people are willing to pay for games. The higher the price, the more money game companies make, so they push the price as high as it can go.
By using the word ‘excuse’ you make it sound like I’m doing something bad. Please show me why what I’m doing is bad.