Irridium said:
Sovvolf said:
I agree and admit that DRM is not the way to go about it. They need a much better system, this is punishing the customers true enough and I don't find it fair at all. However, people are putting the blame squarely on the companies who are just trying to protect their property. Very few are pointing their fingers at the real bad guys here, the worse thing about it is that people are actually cheering these people on.
I know, and that pisses me off just as much. I'm sick of people seeing pirates as digital Robin Hoods, and I'm sick of all the love they seem to get.
They may not be "stealing" in traditional terms, but they're still massive cock-heads who are the cause of all this.
I don't condone piracy, let me get that out first. But no, it's not the pirates who are causing this. I'm not saying they're innocent in this either, but as in any other conflict, it requires both sides to continue or stop it. One side alone won't manage, and when they fail, it's easy to blame the other side for that failure.
Interestingly enough, historically, it's content creators that called publishers "pirates", because they were well known for taking content, monetizing it, and giving little back to the content creators. That what copyright laws were originally invented for, for protecting content creators. Now it protects distributors, who still don't give much back to the creatives in the industry.
Pointing your finger at pirates alone in this is ignoring half the picture. Sadly, some content creators will echo what their distributors tell them is the reason for why they can't pay out more. But repeating something often enough doesn't really make it true, it just makes it sound true. There's a difference.
If publishers/distributors had any interest in solving this issue, they would find a way that awards paying customers instead of punishing them. Here's an interesting model: DDO and LotRO are both free to play. There's no way pirates can pirate, because you can't pirate what's free.
Paying customers? They get points. Points get them extra stuff. Extra stuff gives them a competitive advantage in-game, or just more fun. Paying customers are awarded. And you know what? Looking at Turbine's press releases when they made DDO and LotRO free to play, that model works pretty well in their favour.
Granted, this works because there's a strong online component that not every game shares. And games that require an online component when they don't technically need it, well, they're annoying. For those games, publishers need a different model. And they've got one and use it already, they pack goodies with games boxes, for example. Special editions. Stuff that only paying customers get. Might not work as well as fro DDO and LotRO, but it's an idea that can be improved upon.
The fact that this is not the norm just goes to prove that publishers have no interest in stopping piracy. If they did, they'd get smart about the issue.
