Alternative to Piracy

[Kagim]

Well alternatives that could work would be programs that allow for both full purchase and single purchase songs for cheap and DRM free. As well as allow buyers to view entire movies for a small fee, make it on demand to. We could also incorporate these two ideas into one smooth program that accepts both credit card and pre-paid cards you can buy pretty much everywhere.

Itunes doesn't just give you the song for free, no DRM attached. They watermark the files with your email and creditcard information.

That would be a problem if it wasn't for the fact you don't need a credit card to buy from itunes.

As well the fact even if it did i don't give everyone and my dog files i download.

That's not destructive DRM. If you don't mind people knowing your personal info you can give it to anyone.

It doesn't matter what you pay with. You need a credit card to get an iTunes account in the first place. Now, you can sign up for iTunes with a prepaid gift credit card, but I'd be pretty sure you didn't.

Still though. It's not a destructive DRM and i don't see a major issue with it. It discourages you from giving out the song without having to limit your ability to use it. While someone can steal my credit information by hacking my account or stealing my ipod they could just as easily pull the info from my computer or just take my wallet.

As well its by far probably one of the least offensive DRM's out there. Its a step. Rather then pinpoint a problem work to make it better.

 

[GamerPhate]

If there is a cheaper way to get things, people will always do it.

If someone pirates, that is up to them. They should however, keep it to themselves.

True you can't control people no matter what you do. But we have to admit, many a good game company died along the way either failing to recoup the game costs, or being eaten up by the big few that are left.

If we don't figure something out, like EA will own everything.. if Microsoft doesn't buy them first lol.

 

[Lisolet]

I like the demo ideas. Put out 1 or 2 levels or episodes of a game with all the features those would have in the purchased version. Or maybe a lower level and a higher one, so we can see what it's like when we start out and have no weapons or powers and what it will be like later on in the game. Game prices are high and we aren't going to get that changed anytime soon, so a realistic way to test out a game and see if we like it seems fair for all.

Even better if these demos were in cereal boxes like Enigmers suggested

Thanks to Darkenwrath for starting this thread.

 

[Darkenwrath]

Actually buy the game?

this should really end the thread.

Yes it should, however the simple fact is that piracy is out there because of a whole host of problems, you can't magically make people do your way of thinking, therefore I was trying to create a thread that addresses the problems of piracy not the morality of it.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Still though. It's not a destructive DRM and i don't see a major issue with it. It discourages you from giving out the song without having to limit your ability to use it. While someone can steal my credit information by hacking my account or stealing my ipod they could just as easily pull the info from my computer or just take my wallet.

As well its by far probably one of the least offensive DRM's out there. Its a step. Rather then pinpoint a problem work to make it better.

Never said it wasn't.

 

[Darkenwrath]

No. You could make brand new games ten dollars each and people will still pirate them. The only alternative is to give them away for free.

That's great, but do you an idea or system that would actually allow designers to do this? Would you take a game for free if you didn't mind having adverts popping up throughout it?

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Oh so youre accusing me of simply being a cheap thief who is making excuses for his pirating. Someones seems a bit butthurt.

Ill just quote a post i made you might have missed

"A price cut was simply an example of an incentive but perhaps there would be more effective ones such as perhaps extra goodies included with the retail version that people who pirate it could never get. Ever something as silly as poster included with the game or a nice thick manual/guide book included in every game would give me an incentive to actually pay for a new game. That way I can tell myself ive made a good choice. Sure I might be out of pocket but ive got the game and something else I can enjoy that I wouldnt have got if i had pirated it."

Also, using steam is not an option for me. You know because not everyone can access internet with sufficient bandwidth to download games. I would if I could but excuse me if im not rushing over to steam to watch as my connection explodes.

So you wouldn't just, say, grab the ripped PDF file of the poster or book? If there's creative content, I'm sure you'll find a way to pirate it.

Also, how do you pirate your games if your connection's so shitty? You'd be downloading the same amount of data through torrents.

 

[DividedUnity]

Oh so youre accusing me of simply being a cheap thief who is making excuses for his pirating. Someones seems a bit butthurt.

Ill just quote a post i made you might have missed

"A price cut was simply an example of an incentive but perhaps there would be more effective ones such as perhaps extra goodies included with the retail version that people who pirate it could never get. Ever something as silly as poster included with the game or a nice thick manual/guide book included in every game would give me an incentive to actually pay for a new game. That way I can tell myself ive made a good choice. Sure I might be out of pocket but ive got the game and something else I can enjoy that I wouldnt have got if i had pirated it."

Also, using steam is not an option for me. You know because not everyone can access internet with sufficient bandwidth to download games. I would if I could but excuse me if im not rushing over to steam to watch as my connection explodes.

So you wouldn't just, say, grab the ripped PDF file of the poster or book?

Also, how do you pirate your games if your connection's so shitty? You'd be downloading the same amount of data through torrents.

I dont pirate them myself. I use the PC of a family member who lives in the city then burn them to a disk. I cannot use this system with steam as i would need to directly download to the machine i want to play on.

Why the hell would i want the pdf of it? Even if i did go through all the bother of getting it printed it would never be of the same quality and reading it on a computer monitor is hardly the same as having a good quality booklet that you can read and always have their if you need it

 

[Darkenwrath]

Include video games in cereal boxes. That's all I can think of.

BRILLIANT!

Or we could just make them cheaper.....?

Once again, do you have a way to implement this? I'm not trying to be annoying or point out flaws in your logic, but the point was to try and come up with a system that would somehow reduce piracy but also be feasible to put into place, simply saying "make it cheaper" sure does the former, but the latter would require some explanation.

 

[Gardenia]

I'm not going to talk about the pirating of games, because I don't know enough about the industry. I will however say this:

Avatar (2009):
Budget: 237 Million USD
Gross Revenue: 2,718 Million USD

Weep for the movie industry, I do not.

I saw a couple of episodes of that Cribs show (where they visit rappers etc in their homes) a few years ago.

Weep for the music industry, I do not.

 

[Jfswift]

Meh I proposed an alternative in the last thread. I guess it got overlooked.

A few measures need to be taken to slow piracy or get rid of it.

- Sell sealed consoles.
- Eliminate cd drives (dvd, blu-ray, hd-dvd) The consumer will see an immediate benefit from a reduced price from the removal of packaging, shipping and lowered advertising costs.
- games available for download only (at discounted prices like what steam does)
- if you go to a friends house you can log into your account and download anything you bought so you're not lugging around a console

 

[beefpelican]

-An Ad Sponsored version of the game that's basically the full game for free, but you have to sit through ads inbetween levels, and little watermarks on your screen, ect ect. Advertisers pay the company for their losses.

-A fucking demo. Is it really that hard to release a fucking demo?

I agree with you about demos. As far as adds go though, don't lots of games these days put them in to the version they sell? I am under the impression that just adds won't pay the development costs of a modern big budget game.

 

[Darkenwrath]

- Sell sealed consoles.
- Eliminate cd drives (dvd, blu-ray, hd-dvd) The consumer will see an immediate benefit from a reduced price from the removal of packaging, shipping and lowered advertising costs.
- games available for download only (at discounted prices like what steam does)
- if you go to a friends house you can log into your account and download anything you bought so you're not lugging around a console

COuld you explain sealed consoles?

So you would completely remove all games in hard-copy form? essentially making games only marketable on the internet? I don't think this would work, it would eliminate the retailers and not everyone has internet, if I misunderstood what you meant please explain.

Friends house idea seems good though.

 

[AWAR]

It would be nice if we could trade games on steam. And the if the prices dropped a bit...

 

[Chrissyluky]

You could try downloading your pirated dvd's with utorrent instead of bittorrent. I mean steal them from a real store instead.

 

[Darkenwrath]

It would be nice if we could trade games on steam. And the if the prices dropped a bit...

But how? WHY?! Do you have a way? That's the point, suggest something that makes this a plausible thing to say and not just dreaming.

 

[Dommyboy]

Do what Rocksteady did with Batman Arkham Asylum and put glitches within the code that alter gameplay if you pirate it.

Easily fixed though, so still no issue for pirates.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

That's great, but do you an idea or system that would actually allow designers to do this? Would you take a game for free if you didn't mind having adverts popping up throughout it?

I would watch a 30 second ad during the loading screens and have product placement if they didn't affect the game at all as long as it means a free game. But I really don't see that happening any time soon.

 

[AWAR]

It would be nice if we could trade games on steam. And the if the prices dropped a bit...

But how? WHY?! Do you have a way? That's the point, suggest something that makes this a plausible thing to say and not just dreaming.

I dont know put pressure on steam I guess? In any case I think it would be right to kill the middle man (Publisher/distributor) by having companies sponsor developers in return of putting their ads on loading screens and distribute them digitally with most of the money going to the developer. Games would be cheaper and bring more money to the people who actually made the game.

 

[Jfswift]

- Sell sealed consoles.
- Eliminate cd drives (dvd, blu-ray, hd-dvd) The consumer will see an immediate benefit from a reduced price from the removal of packaging, shipping and lowered advertising costs.
- games available for download only (at discounted prices like what steam does)
- if you go to a friends house you can log into your account and download anything you bought so you're not lugging around a console

COuld you explain sealed consoles?

So you would completely remove all games in hard-copy form? essentially making games only marketable on the internet? I don't think this would work, it would eliminate the retailers and not everyone has internet, if I misunderstood what you meant please explain.

Friends house idea seems good though.

I was thinking about that too, what if you don't have internet but I figured game retailers could setup an infrastructure for downloading (for a fee of course) or internet cafes. I'm not concerned if this hurts business for retailers (I suppose retailers could go online and compete). My only goal for this conversation was to eliminate piracy (I know that's a bit jaded but that's the direction I was going.)

The unit would be completely sealed shut with no security locking tab you could remove. If maintenance needed to be done then a special digital lock could be engaged internally (maybe via radio remote control. Something only the repair people would have access too.) Any tampering with the unit will brick it but the warrently would also be extended, no questions asked if it bricks. I think three years is good. I suppose usb ports would be okay but i'd want some kind of watchdog hardware or software to keep an eye on things going into the unit.

I recommend this as a slow transition. I bring up usb ports for disk drives and backwards compatibilty but I really, firmly believe that cd units are a dead technology and need to go away. Blu-ray is nifty but I sincerely hope it's the last generation for these things.

Somewhat offtopic but I don't like how the movie industry wont transition to online usage. I know this because I read an article about Netflix and NF said that they were only allowed to stream so many movies because it would dig into dvd sales. If companies are serious about elminating piracy than they need to upgrade their business model. I realize this will be a painful change but that's my opinion.