Bohemia Interactive Boss Claims Crazy Piracy Numbers

[Turtleboy1017]

Well let's see. Total ARMA online population who payed for the game is... give or take 10. Let's say about 300-400 people got bored while browsing piratebay and decided to try downloading the cracked version of ARMA because they had absolutely nothing else to do.

Yeah sounds about right.

 

[Avalanche91]

..............Who?

Just because no one bought your game, doesn't mean everyone is pirating it.

 

[fractured_sanity]

Bohemia Interactive takes an unusual approach to anti-piracy measures. It uses a system it calls DEGRADE to mess with illegitimate copies of its games; in the Arma [http://www.amazon.com/Arma-2-Combined-Operations-Pc/dp/B003JZNDN4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321634959&sr=8-1] series, for instance, weapons in pirated copies have lower accuracy and they occasionally turn into birds with the words, "Good birds do not fly away from this game, you have only yourself to blame."

You could partially blame the DEGRADE system. That sounds amazingly entertaining.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Wait weren't these games free...
Anyway I'm pretty sure the guy is just dropping hard server numbers, i.e. every failed attempt recorded be it the same guy or not.

 

[lacktheknack]

Uhm...I call bullshit.
Options:
1. He's lying
2. He's stupid
3. It's one guy who let reconnect on and went to sleep

Option 4: It's actually a nasty problem. While pirates will try to reconnect more than once, SO WILL ACTUAL BUYERS. You don't buy a game and play the multiplayer once.

 

[lacktheknack]

First of all I've never even heard of Arma, so it can't be that big

It's THE standard for "realistic shooters". It's to realism what Crysis is to graphics, which gives it a giant boost in popularity right there.

Remember, some people have never heard of Myst, gaming's first crazy-mega-hit. That doesn't make it any less of a crazy-mega-hit.

 

[GiantRedButton]

Im really proud of the escapist for being critical about these numbers.
i remember the humble indie bundle 1 statistic where a guy claimed that every customer only wanted a thirrd of the games but traffic suggests that they want 75% so clearly the "increase" in traffic is from pirates.

the escapist was basicly the only place that didnt understand that those numbers where made up.
even at that indie guys block the other devs nd users told him why this wasnt accurate.

The fact that no dl link was used more then 25 times, instead of the 1000+ it would get on TPB instead sugggested that no piracy happened, so people are finally being nice and this is then seen as a massive piracy problem.

 

[Beat14]

He stated there were "100 attempts" to play with a pirated version. He may not have said exactly how many people contributed to that 100:3 ratio for pirated copies, probably because they don't know. He never said there were 100 people with pirated copies to every 3 people with a purchased copy. It's all about how you read that statement and apparantly people are thinking it makes the guy sound like either some kind of idiot or bullshitter. He provided actualy facts, sure more information is needed in order to fully support his point, but he still has a very valid argument; piracy is a big problem.

It's taken into context with the rest of what he says.

"We do not have any such data for single-player, but I'm afraid there the ratio of pirates to legitimate gamers is undoubtedly much worse."

That basically says "The 100:3 ratio is individual pirates, not attempts".

Right I typed up an answer then pressed backspace, and went to the page I was on before so this might come out all wrong

>.<

In short I agree with Mortis Nuncius, as this "but I'm afraid there the ratio of pirates to legitimate gamers is undoubtedly much worse" could just mean he thinks the amount of pirates is higher than the amount of legit gamers making the ratio much worse in the sense that more are pirating.

I seriously doubt he means what you're saying, as Mortis said he would have to be an idiot or bullshitter, and as this bullshit is obvious, I don't think it's that. I also don't think he is an idiot, look at where he has got to CEO. Maybe he doesn't have the best grip of the English language, only reason I say that is because his name doesn't sound like it's from a country with English as the primary language, not much to go off I know but still I think that's more likely than suggesting he is bullshitting, or an idiot.

His quote could have got twisted in some way, I think it's narrowed minded to assume he means 100 pirates to 3 legit, as he states it's just failed attempts. Why would he contradict himself?

 

[Yal]

A 97% piracy rate is a little higher than average, but it's not orders of magnitude off like everyone is claiming. The lowest number I can remember was 90% for World of Goo [http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/], calculated based on submissions to their high score table.

PC games have tons more pirates than they do legitimate users. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by this.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Here's something: he said there were 100 attempts to play with a pirated copy for every three legitimate players. He didn't say there was a piracy ratio of 100:3. My guess is that, first of all, the numbers are inflated for all of the reasons noted above, but that more importantly, those "attempts" aren't unique users; they're a minority of users who are trying to log on but, for whatever reason, can't. Either that, or the statistics he's looking at are the accuracy statistics, in which case it's really inflated, because most of those people aren't pirates, just people who suck at the game -- and probably people who either play with gamepads, or don't know how to turn off mouse acceleration, to boot.

 

[antipunt]

"OMG can you imagine? We could've had THIRTY-THREE TIMES the amount of profit! The inhumanity of it all!"

/sarcasm

 

[Icehearted]

My comment was more a slam unto myself....

....

 

[RicoADF]

First of all I've never even heard of Arma, so it can't be that big
Second of all perhaps he confused pirated and used, people in his industry seem to be doing a lot of that lately
Third and finally, No, I really really don't even know anyone that's ever heard of Arma

This attention = free advertising, and now that at least I've heard of Arma, I guess his advertising paid off, except I know what to avoid now.

No the ArmA series isn't a huge and popular series, yes the guy has worded it badly altho not incorrectly, and 3rd I'd suggest you check it out if your into realistic shooters, it is THE realistic shooter. The US, Australia, UK and other militaries use it (named VBS2) as training simulators for their troops. And for good reason, also its sandbox military gameplay is damn awesome, unlimited possibilities, and its the most moddable game out there.
Seriously, theres nothing like it... period.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

First of all I've never even heard of Arma, so it can't be that big
Second of all perhaps he confused pirated and used, people in his industry seem to be doing a lot of that lately
Third and finally, No, I really really don't even know anyone that's ever heard of Arma

This attention = free advertising, and now that at least I've heard of Arma, I guess his advertising paid off, except I know what to avoid now.

No the ArmA series isn't a huge and popular series, yes the guy has worded it badly altho not incorrectly, and 3rd I'd suggest you check it out if your into realistic shooters, it is THE realistic shooter. The US, Australia, UK and other militaries use it (named VBS2) as training simulators for their troops. And for good reason, also its sandbox military gameplay is damn awesome, unlimited possibilities, and its the most moddable game out there.
Seriously, theres nothing like it... period.

Calling ArmA II any flavour of 'shooter' is doing is a disservice, it's a military combat simulator. Not to mention that it gives people the wrong impression of the game, to the point where many people who are into 'realistic shooters' would, and do, absolutely hate ArmA II (and ArmA 1 and the original Op:Flashpoint games). Let's be honest here, playing ArmA II like a 'realistic shooter' is the path to rage quitting after the 10th time being sniped by a pixel.