We’ve already seen that studios manipulate the big game review websites (forgot which studio was doing it).
I don’t trust those reviews anyway, I only read actual user reviews on random forums.
seriously ,stop making an embarrassment of ur self ,You believe in this piracy and it’s ur choice BUT KEEP IT TO YOUR SELF ! did ur angry posts and all that debate thing made any difference ? ,Did piracy stop ? no matter what u do ,it will not stop ,so stay low & stop trying to convince us in believing in what you believe in
Holy hell this thread really took off…here’s a nice long wall of quotes and text for you guys.
Because you want to support the people that made it? If I find a product enjoyable I’m more than glad to hand over my hard-earned cash for it in the hopes that developers will make more awesome things, even in poor economic conditions.
Not quite…a lot of work goes into producing music as well. It’s not the same technical aspects as game design but it has various stages as well…
Do you really think piracy is the sole factor behind these console jumps? The gaming market is changing, and developers are adopting new methods of production and distribution to maximize their profit. They’re not getting butt hurt and switching to consoles out of spite; that would be childish and foolish on their part.
The good thing about developing for the PC, especially for indie developers, is that you can create and distribute a game now with relatively low overhead. Development for consoles is quite different and requires additional tools, funds, and personnel which a small studio or team may not have the money for. Companies like Valve and Bioware which started on the PC aren’t going multiplatform because of piracy, they’re going multiplatform because they have the resources to do so, which means they can get their games out to more people and make more money.
I can tell you from experience that you can play with a modded console online just fine. I keep personal backups of my console games as I have had to deal with a number of damaged discs for my 360. MS doing something like this makes a good image for pirates to be afraid of but in reality I don’t think it’s going to change much. Whether it was good or bad for them business wise, that could go either way.
You cannot simply say that pirated games equal lost profit. As I said before just because someone steals something doesn’t mean the company would have made a profit on it if it wasn’t stolen (in most cases they wouldn’t.) If nobody buys a game (even a game that is of quality and good) and a studio has to fold because of it, it’s not necessarily because of piracy, it’s because of the market, and sales, and other factors, perhaps marketing, or public awareness of the title. It’s a shame because some really quality studios have gone under due to low sales, but you can hardly blame pirates as the sole cause of these problems. If the option to pirate wasn’t there then they simply wouldn’t play the game at all, and the sales would probably have been comparable.
I’m not so sure this is the case. I would be more inclined to believe that it was to make the development cycle a bit shorter (you need a matchmaking system for console networks, its easier to port than writing a new PC interface I would imagine) as well as to maximize potential for profit by limiting end-user customization which people usually do through dedicated servers and mods. If they remove these and limit addons to those provided by DLC (which will inevitably be released for the consoles, possibly PC) they get more money. It’s more about maximizing profit, not curtailing losses; at least I would think so, considering the incredible amount of money they made from MW2.
Ultimately I think piracy comes down to more of a moral issue. If I were to steal something that I gained great happiness and value from I would feel pretty bad about the people that made it, and so I think it’s more of a moral issue in that regard, which is why I pay for games!
I think for all the arguements made for and against piracy here, it basically comes down to this, piracy can harm games sales in the hands of the irrespionsable, but their is a majority who both pirate and pump endless money into the entertainment industry. Is it moral to download? No it isn’t. Can the games industry do something about it? Yes. The main problem between pirates and big cheeses is that they each have something shoved up their jacksy, like any problem talking is the key to soltuion, and their are soltuions. For example games need to be released to the world on one set date, games need to increase the amount of demos and the size of their demos to the public, game specs should be more clear and online stores should stop worrying about street stores and pass their savings of selling online to the customers. People steal, its been that way since time began, is downloading ultimately the same as you nicking a car? No it isn’t, it’s a lot more complex then that, but yes it is stealing. The entertainment industry will have to shape itself around the pirates, that is the future of gaming, and their is nothing no one or any goverment can do about it. Adaption is the key to evolution
I don’t pirate games, but I always wait until a year or two after their release, they get so cheap I can actually afford them. Plus, by that time my computer equipment has been updated so far I can actually play them in maximum graphical quality. I never pay more than 20 Euros for a game. 30, if I want it really bad and cannot wait any longer. But I never buy them for the original price.
Mininova was always pretty crap for me.
I often download music and stuff, rarely games, Because my PC can’t deal with them.
The only game I’ve downloaded is HL: Source.
Because I purchased HL1 through steam, and it was pointless to by HL: Source.
You lost all credibility there.
Yaaarrr mayties
I be a pirate aaarr
I come to loot all ye games and music
I dont want to take too long or ill get scurvy
eye eye captain !
If it worked like that I could just say I’m never supporting any company, but still enjoy their products. And then leech off people like you who do give them money for making good products.
Does that make me an asshole? Yes.
Does that make it illegal? Not if the Swedish pirate party ruled the world.
Do you see what I’m trying to say? There must be plenty of assholes that pretty much download everything and never buy anything right now. The number of people that would do that would rise much more if piracy became even easier to access and copyright rules were just as badly regulated as now.
Yes but it’s definitely a factor, you can’t deny that.
And it’s illegal either way, you guys just have an easy way to get them without getting caught so you do that but try to defend your pirate ways. Though everyone who uses it for games that can’t be found on shelves anymore, I have no beef with you.
Actually no, that’s you deluding yourself piracy is the future. Don’t post that kind of stuff unless you have any evidence to support it. :hmph:
Here’s a thought I want everyone to consider:
If only one person buys the game, and everyone else pirates it, then the developers make no profit. Worse, they don’t cover their costs. And then, what happens to the developers? They’re gone. They made no money out of it, they’re making no money from their other games, and they can’t stay in business. No more games from them. Can you imagine if this happened to Valve when HL1 was released? No HL2. No TF2. No Black Mesa. No source engine at all.
If you do pirate a game, buy it later. Because if you don’t, you’re just aiding the downfall of the game industry. And we all want to stop that from happening. Because if that happened, we’d be bored out of our wits.
What I was trying to state was pirating today is a whole new ball game, its only really took off over the past decade, and with internet speeds set to rise, the day of the online pirate is far from over, in fact its only just begun. No matter what happens over the next decade their will still be a way to download illeagly and to ban it will be like trying to ban booze, you’ll never truley do it. So the best and most logical step is to understand the pirate, their are solutions, Spotify to me is one and is leading the way for all mediums to follow in the future
When you’re between the devil and the deep blue sea, you need to stop worrying about pirates, and adjust your sails
A man who makes sense, I concur with this fellow.
Look, please show some evidence of how you happen to be able to see the future, otherwise that whole paragraph is your own personal opinion.
Anyways, I buy all my games (except ones for the NES), let’s look at Assasin’s Creed, it turned out to be a mediocre game with a few obvious flaws that became apparent after an hour of two of play. If I (and many others) had pirated the game because I thought it wasn’t worth the money then the developer might not have felt that they got enough support to make the second one. And the second one turned out to be great. Sure it sounds like I’m giving developers too much slack as a consumer but that’s just how I roll.
Yeah right on! if you want to try out a game, go to blockbuster or jumbo and rent it!
I also agree with this man of extraordinary Canadian-ness.
No, piracy doesn’t equate lost profits in ALL cases - however, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t many cases where it DOES equate lost profits.
Old games, or games which nobody would buy, aren’t the only things that people pirate, as I’m sure you can agree. Spore is a great example of a game that was pirated heavily upon release.
I suppose you do make a good point in that pirates would be the only cause of a developer studio closing. This is true - if a game has the potential to sell, unless EVERYBODY pirates their game, SOME copies will be bought. This being said, while pirates may not be the main cause, they certainly CONTRIBUTE - and isn’t that enough?
To answer those who keep claiming that, if presented the opportunity, anyone would steal - I’m sorry to hear that you see the world that way, but it’s simply not true. At a previous job of mine, every night I had the opportunity to pocket some cash and never be caught - and I didn’t. Why? Because it wasn’t right, and it would have only hurt the business that was employing me.
I’m one example. I don’t doubt that there’s many others.
The only thing i’ve ever pirated was windows 95 plus and some subtitled anime (which is the new way companies find out if it gets popular in regions outside of Japan). Then a friend found his old cd and gave it to me so i deleted the windows 95 torrent.
It seems to me that piracy ought to be looked at as something of a neutral force - not all piracy is bad. Downloading things unavailable, such as Win95 or old television shows, are not necessarily wrong - it’s not necessarily theft, and it’s not hurting anyone’s business.
Downloading something that is actively being sold, however, IS stealing - and THIS is wrong.
Think of it like a copier (best analogy I could come up with.) You can copy documents, whatever. But if you try to copy a dollar bill, you’re counterfeiting (if that actually worked.) The copier itself isn’t a bad thing - it all depends on what you’re using it for.
Looks like the more awesome people are coming into the thread now.
I also would not steal a car even if I did have no chance of getting caught.