189: Rob from the Rich, Steal from the Poor

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Whispering Death said:
The declining rate of "good PC games released in a year" is is direct alignment with the upswing in internet game piracy.

Then people ***** about why games aren't as good as they used to be.

Companies don't exist to please YOU they exist to please their PAYING CUSTOMERS, if you are a paying customer - bravo! But that's an important fact to realize. If the only people who are buying PC games are the casual gamer that's too ignorant to know how a torrent works and just wants to play generic Halo ripoffs, then generic Halo ripoff games are all you're going to see in the market.

These self-styled "hardcore gamers" that pirate nearly everything they play say they want something new, different, and innovative. But at the same time that they're complaining on message boards they're torrenting World of Goo instead of paying for it. They'll play the whole game while wondering why there's so many terrible Halo ripoffs and not enough new innovative gaming experiences
I disagree somewhat, companies keep rehashing the same games over and over its because they sell. As for the rate of good games, it's largely decided by if a game (ported or otherwise) is stable and playable.

As for games never being as good as ones from the past, thats just rose coloured glasses syndrome. I have been a PC gamer since the early 90s and while there have been a few fun games there have never really been any "Wow!" games, at least none that make me say "There are no good games being made anymore."
 

Whispering Death

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008Zulu said:
Whispering Death said:
The declining rate of "good PC games released in a year" is is direct alignment with the upswing in internet game piracy.

Then people ***** about why games aren't as good as they used to be.

Companies don't exist to please YOU they exist to please their PAYING CUSTOMERS, if you are a paying customer - bravo! But that's an important fact to realize. If the only people who are buying PC games are the casual gamer that's too ignorant to know how a torrent works and just wants to play generic Halo ripoffs, then generic Halo ripoff games are all you're going to see in the market.

These self-styled "hardcore gamers" that pirate nearly everything they play say they want something new, different, and innovative. But at the same time that they're complaining on message boards they're torrenting World of Goo instead of paying for it. They'll play the whole game while wondering why there's so many terrible Halo ripoffs and not enough new innovative gaming experiences
I disagree somewhat, companies keep rehashing the same games over and over its because they sell. As for the rate of good games, it's largely decided by if a game (ported or otherwise) is stable and playable.

As for games never being as good as ones from the past, thats just rose coloured glasses syndrome. I have been a PC gamer since the early 90s and while there have been a few fun games there have never really been any "Wow!" games, at least none that make me say "There are no good games being made anymore."
1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Theif, Unreal, Rainbow Six, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, and Grim Fandango

All of those games were released in 1998. I couldn't even imagine a year of awesome game after awesome game being released for the PC like that in the modern day.
 

Whispering Death

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May 24, 2009
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008Zulu said:
Whispering Death said:
The declining rate of "good PC games released in a year" is is direct alignment with the upswing in internet game piracy.

Then people ***** about why games aren't as good as they used to be.

Companies don't exist to please YOU they exist to please their PAYING CUSTOMERS, if you are a paying customer - bravo! But that's an important fact to realize. If the only people who are buying PC games are the casual gamer that's too ignorant to know how a torrent works and just wants to play generic Halo ripoffs, then generic Halo ripoff games are all you're going to see in the market.

These self-styled "hardcore gamers" that pirate nearly everything they play say they want something new, different, and innovative. But at the same time that they're complaining on message boards they're torrenting World of Goo instead of paying for it. They'll play the whole game while wondering why there's so many terrible Halo ripoffs and not enough new innovative gaming experiences
I disagree somewhat, companies keep rehashing the same games over and over its because they sell. As for the rate of good games, it's largely decided by if a game (ported or otherwise) is stable and playable.

As for games never being as good as ones from the past, thats just rose coloured glasses syndrome. I have been a PC gamer since the early 90s and while there have been a few fun games there have never really been any "Wow!" games, at least none that make me say "There are no good games being made anymore."
No "wow" games? Let's go to the way back machine and see waht PC gaming was like a decade ago, before piracy was rare.

1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Thief, Fallout 2, Tom Clacy's Rainbow Six, Unreal, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, Grim Fandango

All of those games were "wow" games. So much so, many of them have spawned franchises that continue to this day and are still held up as examples of pinnacles of game design.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Whispering Death said:
No "wow" games? Let's go to the way back machine and see waht PC gaming was like a decade ago, before piracy was rare.

1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Thief, Fallout 2, Tom Clacy's Rainbow Six, Unreal, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, Grim Fandango

All of those games were "wow" games. So much so, many of them have spawned franchises that continue to this day and are still held up as examples of pinnacles of game design.
I played those, they were fun (mostly), but nothing about any of them lept off the screen at me. None of them didn't add anything that we hadn't seen in their respective genres already.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Whispering Death said:
1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Theif, Unreal, Rainbow Six, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, and Grim Fandango

All of those games were released in 1998. I couldn't even imagine a year of awesome game after awesome game being released for the PC like that in the modern day.
Exactly, none of those games had staying power. If they did then people would still be playing them in the numbers they first were upon release.

Release those same titles today and people would berate them for poor level design and dated graphics.
 

Whispering Death

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008Zulu said:
Whispering Death said:
No "wow" games? Let's go to the way back machine and see waht PC gaming was like a decade ago, before piracy was rare.

1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Thief, Fallout 2, Tom Clacy's Rainbow Six, Unreal, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, Grim Fandango

All of those games were "wow" games. So much so, many of them have spawned franchises that continue to this day and are still held up as examples of pinnacles of game design.
I played those, they were fun (mostly), but nothing about any of them lept off the screen at me. None of them didn't add anything that we hadn't seen in their respective genres already.
Half-Life, you're saying that about Half-Life.

008Zulu said:
Whispering Death said:
1998: Half Life, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Theif, Unreal, Rainbow Six, Baulder's Gate, Starsiege: Tribes, and Grim Fandango

All of those games were released in 1998. I couldn't even imagine a year of awesome game after awesome game being released for the PC like that in the modern day.
Exactly, none of those games had staying power. If they did then people would still be playing them in the numbers they first were upon release.

Release those same titles today and people would berate them for poor level design and dated graphics.
Starcraft, you're saying that about Starcraft.





Oh no, I believe I've just fallen victim to a troll. Silly me.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Whispering Death said:
Half-Life, you're saying that about Half-Life.
Starcraft, you're saying that about Starcraft.
What did Half Life and Starcraft add to their respective genres that make them such "wow" games?
 

Neferius

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A wonderfully accurate, astute, and most-of-all Fair observation on the phenomenon.
Thank you.

92% of those unpaying "customers" are people from places like India, Pakistan, Turkey, South-Africa ...places where 1$ a Day is considered a Great salary. Places where people just can't afford to spend 20$ on Software, no matter how well-intentioned they are in real-life.
That's where the "Garden of Eden" effect kicks-in. When something is readily available for Free, right in front of you for the taking, can you honestly refuse to on the grounds of moral objection alone. Especially given the Internet's ensured relative anonymity?

I'm not saying that the same percent of people who use the Internet on a regular basis have NOT at one point or another downloaded something illegally.
 

Emergent

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Clemenstation said:
Also: mandatory linking-in to a central server for the express purpose of tracking advertising would not go over very well with most consumers.
It might if the game is otherwise free.

EDIT: on this:
Nurb said:
most people hate the big publishers, but yea, it really does hurt the indie developers quite a bit. The smaller developer comeback like we had in the 90's can't happen again at this rate, it'll still be the age of bland, crappy, corporate sequels
I think blaming the constant string of cheap sequels marketed as triple AAA titles by the industry on internet piracy is a bit of a red herring.
 

Ilyak1986

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Ads in games: okay, good job, you just got a reputation as a penny-pinching money-grubbing miser who would strip away your audience's escapism. I don't care if you can pay money to make the ads go away. You put real world ads in your escapist product. Your game is half-assed, and I'll go back to playing Starcraft 2 and all of its customs (when I have the time).

DRM: okay, I think I'll wait a week, then pirate that game if I want it.

CD Keys: see above.

Microtransactions: congratulations, your game is dominated by a bunch of no-life losers with nothing better to do with their money than to burn it on magical little pixels to dominate all of the kids who didn't burn their money on the same things. See ya, sucker, and enjoy your little sandbox dominated by no-life nothing-better-to-spend-money-on clowns.

Seriously, I don't understand all of this whining about piracy. Rather than fight it, why don't developers realize that they have far more people playing their games far sooner without the need for a marketing budget?

Hell...what about this biz model?

When the CREDITS roll (you know, after the player beats the game), why not have a link to a youTube video (or a series of them) detailing the blood, sweat, and tears that go into producing this game? What about keeping a journal of what's going on--that is, a progress report, etc...?

Hell...check this out:

www.flipsidecomics.com

See that little donation bar? When it reaches $100, there's a bonus page that comes out (they normally come out MWF). That's what you call innovation of the fact that you're getting tons upon tons of eyeballs. No, it doesn't fill up too often, but there's also the sale of printed books, possibly some other stuff as well.

On a whole though, devs should realize that they're trying to get rich off of an intangible, infinitely-reproducible product that can be redistributed with surprising ease.

What rational reason does any homo economicus have for paying for that which he or she can get for free?