The game comes out in four days. While quick, this isn't as fast as some leaks that have occurred before.darth.pixie said:It leaked already?
I guess Bioware gets to hunt down the source of the leak which has to be fun times!
The game comes out in four days. While quick, this isn't as fast as some leaks that have occurred before.darth.pixie said:It leaked already?
That is also not my concern. As a customer, I want the product. And if I want it, I'll get it no matter what stores will be pissed off.MaxPowers666 said:Let me put it in much simplier terms, you cant fuck over the people who actually sell your product, its not good business. How long do you think a company that makes multiplatform games will last once they piss off microsoft, sony, and every physical distribution store out there. Because that is what you are suggesting.gl1koz3 said:That changes nothing. It artificially bloats the market. We all know the game is actually done well before the release date, so why do I have to wait for some blokes with their shipping problems when I can get it NOW? These "problems" do not justify anything; why does it affect me, when it's clearly not my issue.
As I said, market bloat and artificial regulation. They should be on a first-to-get first-to-sell basis to call it a good competition.
Not to mention that your statement is nearly entirely not valid for digital distribution; the thing I've been only buying since 2008 already.
Your missing the point. If you steal a TV the store has 1 less TV to sell to your 4 friends. Thus a lost sale.Nova Helix said:I find Notch's argument to be complete crap. If I steal a new 3D TV but watching it convinces 4 friends to by it it is still stealing. If you pirate a game it is the same thing. To compare it to something a little better if you steal an idea and use it in your paper it is plagiarism and possibly a violation of copy right laws.
He focuses on "loss of sale" which I agree it's not, but they do not make money and you enjoy the fruit of their labor. If someone wants to sell their intellectual property either you buy it or you don't, but just taking it is wrong.
Er... What?Savagezion said:Furthermore, I could smack the people in the face that ***** about the used games market. That is downright retarded and nonsensical from an economical standpoint and I seriously can't believe customers are falling for it. I work in sales and the nature of business is Shrewd jackass assholes get a better deal than the nice people you would rather give the better deal to because it is a cost casualties game.
cool caveat bro.Vanaron said:Edit: Disclaimer: Let me just clarify that piracy IS against the law, so "seeing no harm in it" is no excuse. If you disagree with an established law, vote to change it. DON'T BREAK IT.
Or people B,C,D pirate the game of the same site and end up with 0 sales but 4 people enjoying your work.Zechnophobe said:Case 1: Person A Pirates game. Persons B,C,D buy game. Net gain: 3 sales
Case 2: Person A Doesn't Pirate game, and doesn't buy game. Net gain: 0 sales.
Case 1: Someone beats you up you and steals your I-Pod. He sells it to a pawn shop and then turns around and buys a family pack of Ho-Ho's and a 40 of Jack. You in turn get dealt with by a health professional to give you stitches, and a week or so later go buy a newer I-Pod.Zechnophobe said:Case 1: Person A Pirates game. Persons B,C,D buy game. Net gain: 3 sales
Case 2: Person A Doesn't Pirate game, and doesn't buy game. Net gain: 0 sales.
That argument doesn't hold any water.Zechnophobe said:This kind of analysis is about as reasonable as saying "Buying games when they are on sale is unethical, because you didn't pay full price!" The merchant knows they can get more total sales by having the sale. They might even give away free ones to build up hype.
Yeah, I just assumed that from the weird behavior that it quoted Squid instead of you. Not sure how that happened. Plus, I don't find thread necromancy nor failure to use the search bar a sin. If you think about the fact that both of those are a sin on alot of forums you can find an ironic contradiction of forum posters. Not allowed to post a new thread on an already covered topic, and your not allowed to "necro" a thread.MisterShine said:Two things I'd like to apologize for, first that it took me so long to respond to this, I didn't get a quote mail so I figured the topic had died. Second for dicing your post into bite-sized pieces and responding to them, I know its annoying to see that but you make a lot of points and I'd rather not garble up my responses.
One thing is that DRM is suspected to be used for a multitude of purposes. It's purpose gets dissected in every one of these threads almost. I have never bothered to read those responses because I am not fervent in regards to why DRM is used. I am a fan of Stardock, and if you know anything about them and why they forgo DRM then you pretty much see my stance on it. You can let your friends use your disc for any Stadock game and have it installed on their computer and they are good to go. Stardock "combats" piracy by accepting it and not dumping millions of the company's money on DRM just to delay the inevitable.Fact.Savagezion said:Piracy is impossible to stop.
However, DRM isn't even about stopping piracy, its about slowing piracy down and limiting it to as small a group as possible. Why did every game back in the day use disc checks? Any sufficiently clever person knew how to get around them, and anyone with even some moderate experience in IT knew how to do away with them entirely. So why put them on there at all?
To stop someone from saying to their "Oh hey I got this game, its totally awesome! Oh don't bother buying it, here's my CD!" Now some companies choose to put no DRM on their titles and that is their business (like GOG.com), as long as the DRM is disclosed before-hand people have the right to choose not to purchase that item because they don't like the DRM. If the gaming community as a whole didn't put up with DRM (like we didn't put up with it for the PC edition of AC2), then companies will see it is costing them far more money than it is making them and act accordingly. Or if they refuse to follow the consumer trend, they'd go out of business and other companies would not follow their example.
Well, I highly suspect that those cases of people being sued for ridiculous amounts are a sham like the Blizzard case. No court is going to charge someone with the unlawful acts of others. That would be like charging someone $10,000 for going 10 miles over the speed limit to set an example to all the people out there speeding and not getting caught. That isn't how the court system works. That is how the media works though and this site is proof enough that people buy into it.And hey, game companies are allowed to release their products free of charge and ask for donations from users if they thought it was worth the price of admission. I don't know how viable a business model that is but anyone is free to try it.Savagezion said:~snipped anecdotal evidence on potential benefits of piracy~
Now, do I think your cousin is automatically a bad person for breaking copyright law and taking something to which he has no right? Not really. Should he be punished for circumventing one of the major parts that keeps the world economy spinning, both to prevent him from doing it again and as a warning to others? Yes. Not like on the level of those wackos who work for the music industry who sue for like 30,000$ a song, but yes he should be punished.
I can semi-agree to that but we do have the ability and the game companies know this. So they opt not to release demos and to slant marketing and then they get upset when people don't stand for it when they have the ability not to. How dare we go around them for a demo? How dare we want to know what we are buying when their marketing is slanting the product? You see what I mean surely. Granted, we may not "have the right" but a lack of demos and such is a large outcry in the gaming communities nowadays and the companies are ignoring this. Writing to my congressman is not the solution to this. Maybe if we lived in after-school special land. But the world doesn't work that way in reality. Hell, that branches into a whole other 2 or 3 topics of discussion itself.And now we get to the heart of it all.Savagezion said:I am the type of business man who likes to evaluate my purchase before buying instead of relying on hype and a pretty cd case.
We are not entitled to anything except what the company says we get beforehand. People have no right to try things before they buy them.-snip-
Bingo. Most of the time, it isn't. Thus I am already a "lost sale". Piracy is not the reason for this, their marketing is in this particular scenario. A fool and his money are soon parted. If I am not 100% behind my purchase, chances are I will opt not to purchase it or hold out and buy the game off ebay for much cheaper or something thus not giving the devs a dime anyways.Fact again. Doesn't give anyone the right to take someone else's property without their permission. Either their sales pitch is enough for you or it isn't.Savagezion said:Customers wanting to see if this purchase is right for them is not a bad thing.
Read the first line of your statement then the last right after. Speculation doesn't hold water. I can throw imaginary numbers out there on how many pirates are "lost sales" too. But until we know the facts, no one will know for sure. However, once we know the facts speculations and predictions are irrelevant. So speculation means nothing.Major companies and governments base pretty much everything they do looking forward off of speculation. Figuring out market trends the past few years and their own sales to figure out how much money think they can spend on projects this year. Then next year they find out if they're right or not.Savagezion said:That crap about the downloads is playing the victim for publicity for the most part. These companies deal with millions of dollars every day on every half decent title. The key to that whole sentence is bolded. No one knows that dollar amount because it is speculation and speculation doesn't hold water.
It isn't chump change to any one person no. It is chump change to a corporation. They will make it sound like they are going out of business because of it to any one person. But look at it in the sense of total assets. Remember that the rights to games sell for more than any game has claimed to lose due to piracy. Plus remember this is all based on a 'speculated' million dollars.A million dollars isn't chump change to anyone. Rich people get rich because they don't do stupid things with their money. Usually.Savagezion said:CEOs are greedy people, it has to do with raising stock returns. The gamer crowd is just making it out to be more than it is because a million dollars to them sounds like a LOT of money.
No, what I am doing is pointing out that they blow this whole thing out of proportion. If piracy was as bad as they make it out to be no company would dare do what Stardock does. It would be corporate suicide. When in actuality they are choosing to lose money to pirates by investing millions in DRM. They are essentially paying tons of money to have their game stolen. Stardock knows they can have their game stolen for free. And that isn't based on speculation.Also, accusing them of being greedy and divining their supposed motivations for crying how much piracy is hurting looks an awful lot like you're trying to paint them as the vicious tyrant who oppress us poor gamers, why, whatever can we do to fight those evil powers? Pirate!
You forget that we live in a world that isn't perfect. Someone isn't going to opt a purchase of a game they aren't sure about or do without when they do have another option that is fast and easily accessible to boot.If the 'gamer' market at large REALLY had a problem with not having demos for most games or the demos just not being representative enough of the actual game, people would stop purchasing those products and companies would realize that their consumers just aren't going to take that crap. Since it hasn't happened yet..
I don't see that. I see piracy spreading through word of mouth too. After all, consider if B, C and D also pirate the game. Then consider person E. He would've bought the game, but after seeing how easy it was for A through D to pirate it, he decides to pirate it too. Net gain: -1 salesZechnophobe said:Oh great, more childish arguments like this. He's written a length post discussing the economics and intrigue in the scenario and you basically 'lulz' it away with the same old tired "But if you stole a material good blah blah blah" argument. As always incorrectly trying to apply physical goods economics to a virtual good.Nova Helix said:I find Notch's argument to be complete crap. If I steal a new 3D TV but watching it convinces 4 friends to by it it is still stealing. If you pirate a game it is the same thing.
His argument is very simple:
Case 1: Person A Pirates game. Persons B,C,D buy game. Net gain: 3 sales
Case 2: Person A Doesn't Pirate game, and doesn't buy game. Net gain: 0 sales.
This is his point. And yes, He'd much rather person A bought the game, but he can't deny that the availability of the game via other means did end up turning better than zero profit. He's making an argument from an economic standpoint, not an ethical one.
This kind of analysis is about as reasonable as saying "Buying games when they are on sale is unethical, because you didn't pay full price!" The merchant knows they can get more total sales by having the sale. They might even give away free ones to build up hype.
Yes there is a difference of volition here, in one case the merchant is purposefully taking the per unit price hit for the overall gain, and in the other they aren't, but they do end up with similar results.
Please, if you want to discuss this, at least address the full issues at hand, and don't reply to thought out prose with the equivalent of a 'party line'.
Because file sharing is a 1:infinite ratio of lost sales in theory. The fact that it is a physical copy of the game is why used games aren't as bad. Demand will cause more physical copies to come into circulation. Used games have been around since the first home consoles in the days of Atari. That was before video games were as widely acceptable as they are today and were a much bigger risk.Timmibal said:Er... What?Savagezion said:Furthermore, I could smack the people in the face that ***** about the used games market. That is downright retarded and nonsensical from an economical standpoint and I seriously can't believe customers are falling for it. I work in sales and the nature of business is Shrewd jackass assholes get a better deal than the nice people you would rather give the better deal to because it is a cost casualties game.
Re-sold games constitute a concrete 1:1 loss of sale to the producer plus an obscene and undeserved profit to the retailer. How is this more justifiable than filesharing?
You said something about speculation being useless I think =PSavagezion said:One thing is that DRM is suspected to be used for a multitude of purposes. It's purpose gets dissected in every one of these threads almost. I have never bothered to read those responses because I am not fervent in regards to why DRM is used.
And as I said, publishers are able to release DRM-free products, and personally I prefer such a system myself but I understand why many publishers don't. Also I'd keep in mind the difference between companies like Stardock and EA, Activision or Ubisoft. As far as I can tell a Stardock game has never even broken a million units sold, and their games tend be rather niche-market in the first place, unlike the Big 3 who spread themselves out over many genres and styles. Also of course they make truck loads more money than Stardock does. If Stardock ever released a AAA game with a tens of millions of dollar budget, I wonder if they might change their DRM tune, at least somewhat?Savagezion said:I am a fan of Stardock, and if you know anything about them and why they forgo DRM then you pretty much see my stance on it.
~snip
Stardock "combats" piracy by accepting it and not dumping millions of the company's money on DRM just to delay the inevitable.
I agree that this is unfortunate. I'm certain it has something to do with the gaming industry telling the editors that if they want news items and interviews they'd better crackdown on pro-piracy talk here, and I don't blame them for that decision.Savagezion said:As well, a thread was started and deleted from this very site about a month or two ago titled "The reason I pirate and probably always will" and it actually was an argument that would stand up in the court of law. .. This irritates me as well and feel the thread should not have been deleted but simply locked.
Hm. This reads a lot you're saying companies deliberately don't release demos because they know we can just pirate it, and then use the resulting pirating numbers to play up their own financial hurt? First off thats incredibly paranoid of you, second you're speculating again! Follow the rules man =)Savagezion said:So they opt not to release demos and to slant marketing and then they get upset when people don't stand for it when they have the ability not to.
I do indeed, but companies have rights that should be protected just like the consumers do. Demos are not simple things and cost the company what could be very valuable resources, resources they might just not have. Companies show tons of prerelease info, such as screenshots, gameplay videos, story snippets, interviews with the developers on game mechanics.. customers are usually well informed on their purchase if they choose to look for it, and if that's just not enough we are free not to purchase anything. Now matter how cool we think something looks or how much we might want it doesn't give us the right to take what the property owner says we can't.Savagezion said:How dare we go around them for a demo? How dare we want to know what we are buying when their marketing is slanting the product? You see what I mean surely.
True. However, I see no reason why this shouldn't be allowed, just because you, me or anyone wants it another way.Savagezion said:The game company is opting to ignore an entire demographic by not making demos. They choose to forgo those sales of people on the fence that a demo would lock in on the hopes they will just go ahead and buy it.
Corporations being able to afford any potential losses of piracy does not change the fact that it is wrong. They've made the product and they deserve to be reimbursed for it by people who want to use it.Savagezion said:It isn't chump change to any one person no. It is chump change to a corporation. They will make it sound like they are going out of business because of it to any one person. But look at it in the sense of total assets. Remember that the rights to games sell for more than any game has claimed to lose due to piracy. Plus remember this is all based on a 'speculated' million dollars.
Or they're forcing some pirates who can't wait a few days for a crack to purchase the game. But crap, now we're speculating again.Savagezion said:When in actuality they are choosing to lose money to pirates by investing millions in DRM.
Yeah, and people also make up dozens of excuses to justify their feelings of entitlement or just don't give a shit about other people getting what they deserve and steal the games. Either/or I guess.Savagezion said:You forget that we live in a world that isn't perfect. Someone isn't going to opt a purchase of a game they aren't sure about or do without when they do have another option that is fast and easily accessible to boot.
Thanks a lot TU4AR, thats a very interesting read.TU4AR said:Since the guy you were talking to didn't, I'll provide it.
Oh, I'm also gonna get around to making an analytical pirate thread at some point, and I'd like to see you in it.
The game is not yet playable, from what ive heard there is a release date checker, which until the 8th cannot be cracked, as it requires first downloading from their servers. When they get their hands on that piece of code from Bioware, they will crack it and THEN, it will be playable.darth.pixie said:It leaked already? Honestly, either the people at dev teams hate security or are plain sloppy with it. Who the hell leaks these things?
They could have waited for a couple of days for it to get out at least.
Honesly, DA2 didn't need more advertising, piracy or not. Not with all the campaigns. And while Minecraft was a cheap, infinitely replayable game that anyone could buy, the same could not be said about Dragon Age. I only played it twice before having finished all the quests, adopted all the conversation options and exploring everything and DA2 doesn't sound too different. So I'm not sure it will be good advertisment.
It is totally playable on consoles. The PC version which leaked a day or so ago is NOT playable yet.Hyper-space said:The game is not yet playable, from what ive heard there is a release date checker, which until the 8th cannot be cracked, as it requires first downloading from their servers. When they get their hands on that piece of code from Bioware, they will crack it and THEN, it will be playable.