Excuses on the High Seas

[Mistwraithe]

LOL at harhol.

You should try visiting Twenty Sided... Shamus is one of the most strident anti-DRM bloggers I know of and that often leads him to heavily anti publisher stances as a careful reading of the article in question would tell you.

But then I guess reading comprehension might be dump skill for harhol?

 

[Aardvark]

I think you missed one.

I pirate because I'm unashamed criminal scum

Though, it's not really an excuse.

 

[Dev Null]

Another I've seen - though do not agree with - is pure convenience. And I think its actually a big motivator from what I've seen, whether or not its one that the pirates will actually admit to. Its actually less effort to download a copy of most games than to buy one legitimately. This is changing in the more recent era of digital purchase / downloads a la Steam / Stardock / etc. and is one of the few examples I can think of of the industry taking a sensible approach to a slice of piracy, but it seemed worth mentioning...

 

[Doug]

Hmm, we've officially won the music-DRM war (http://xkcd.com/546/). I'm more hopeful about winning the gaming-DRM war now!

 

[Nehx]

First of all. My english sucks, so deal with it please.

You are forgetting something really important to me, or better said, to us who live in third world countrys like Argentina.
Here the videogames market barelly exists, we dont have the same chances to get a high end pc at a reasonable price or a new generation console (im not asking for anything free, but im tired to see the prices in EU o US 3 times cheaper than here - read below for some facts). If i want to buy The Orange Box (with the box literally) for example, i have to contact someone to import it for me and he will sell it to me for at least twice as the real price.

So services like steam are getting more popular over this part of the world. Like NCsoft who made a deal with a another local company and that allowed us to buy GW at the same price than anyone in the world. Blizzard made available the expansions at the same days that US (a little more expensive buy we didnt care, it was a good deal) and they charges the monthly subscription in out local currency!!! (about 10 US dollars).

In other hand companies like EA, they market reach brazil for example, but they dont care about extending that market to the rest of Latin America (mexico is NOT latin america dont compare their video games market to the rest of us please).
Nintendo don't give a s*** about Latin America, i bought a DS for like 250 dollars with an a R4 (another 50 dollars) because any game cost me 4 times more expensive!!!

In the beggining i was not able to buy WAR because i was from Argentina (im like a terrorist or something like that?), sometimes that make us feel like we are not good or rich enough to play those games, even is we have the money.
So piracy is a common thing, because a videogame company knows that they wont be winning to much money over this lands as they do in US or EU.

The piracy will stop here when the prices get to a reasonable amount. I want to buy the game, but if they dont make it a little easy to me to get it, ill find another way to play it. Thanks to power of the Internet.

Some Facts on local prices based on US dollars:

Range of the common gamer salary = 400 to 1000 US dollars
Playstation 3 = 900 - 1100 US Dollars.
X box 360 = 700 - 900 US Dollars
Wii = 750 - 800 Dollars.

PS3 Games = 100 - 150 US dollars.
PC Games = 70 - 150 US dollars.

Dont tell me that this is all fault of ouy goverment import taxes or politics, because if the company is interested they can overcome that (see the past example like blizzard or ncsoft, even valve with steam).

So in conclusion, consoles like PS2 (i have mine with the mod chip) DS, PSP who let us play game without spending a ridiculous amount of money are famous around here.
I dont download pc games anymore, because im mostly a fan of MMOs and it feels REALLY good to pay for a good game like wow, lotro, EVE like anyone else.

The prices are the problem!!! not the piracy itself.

And thats why piracy exist here, is not an excuse its a REALLYTY.

Again sorry for my lame english and a long reply, im trying to express my self at the same level that i do in spanish.

Thanks for reading this!

 

[Aries_Split]

I think you missed one.

I pirate because I'm unashamed criminal scum

Though, it's not really an excuse.

Not many pirates have commented.

Except the person above me, who I feel is totally in the right.

 

[Say Anything]

I started a little flame-war on the IRC because some people think it's wrong to show discontent towards people who commit acts of piracy...a little (read: extremely) mindblowing to me, but I'll take the side of the author of this article on this one. Extremely well written, and a great message - well done, sir.

 

[Bongo Bill]

Of course, there's a bit of a gulf between the reasons pirates claim for their piracy and the actual reasons they do it. An interesting point I picked up from Gabe Newell's DICE keynote, combined with some anecdotal evidence of my own, suggests that many pirates pirate just because they hate retail. The only evidence for this, of course, is that, when given an opportunity to get a game legitimately without having to buy it through retail channels, many pirates take that chance (say, through Steam or Impulse or GOG), despite being more expensive than free.

There's more to it than just not wanting to pay. Something about psychology, too.

I wouldn't describe being "anti-crime" as being "pro-corporate", though. At the very least, it's stupid to suggest that only big companies' games are pirated. One might make the point that the law is in some way wrong, but there aren't many reasonable ways to amend it that would leave pirating the latest blockbuster release legitimate.

 

[Socken]

I think you missed one.

I pirate because I'm unashamed criminal scum

Though, it's not really an excuse.

Rightio!
Why pay for something you can get for free? Seriously my conscience died like 10 years ago when I found some rare Pokemon card in some kid's deck >_>

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

I just want to try it out, and if I like the game I pay for it.
Counter-Question. If the publisher refuses to give out a demo and therefore strips you from any chance to judge if a game (1) runs or (2) is fun, is it still incorrect to shoot back by stripping them from any chance to get your money? I know it's a gray area but I remember times where demos of games had been the defacto standard. Nowadays publishers seem to think customers are pricks that can be milked by serving products they can't be held reliable for. Nearly all games ( except some due to recommendation from friends or having played it there ) I bought so far has been because the demo convinced me.

No offense to you in particular, but I'm really sick of hearing this excuse about lack of demos. If after reading 3 or 4 well written reviews you still can't decide if you'll enjoy a game, you need to explore your taste in videogames more.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

The Escapist has the most vehemently anti-piracy stance of anywhere I've ever read, gaming sites or otherwise. All the writers seem to be of a similar (and in some cases identical) pro-corporate mindset.

If anything, it's pro-developer. That's different from pro-corporate in the following way; supporting corporations gives someone else more dividends, so big whoop I know, but supporting developers gets us more games.

Games are made by people, and people need to eat and pay their rent/mortgages, so they either have to find some way to make a living making games or they won't be able to spend 40 (or more) hour weeks doing so. For that reason alone I object to piracy, because it's not supporting the people who make these games and not establishing a foundation for their making more. If piracy goes too far (especially these days when household spending is way, way down anyway) we'll see studios closing, and then there'll be less and less to pirate out there. (And more and more games turning to adware just to pay the bills, which if anything is even more corporate than the big studio releases.) In the long run, piracy is self-defeating; I just don't like the collateral damage that would result from letting it get to the long run.

I could have gone into a lot more detail but I think my point is clear enough. Besides, I wasn't criticizing the article in the first place, I was just wondering why this site promotes such a typically North American pro-corporate agenda when it's supposed to offer an alternative to other (equally right-wing) gaming forums. An answer to my original question would be appreciated, though I don't expect one.

I've given my version. I'd be interested to see if someone out there can tell me how piracy can actually still support making more games.

-- Steve

 

[Ray Huling]

The Escapist has the most vehemently anti-piracy stance of anywhere I've ever read, gaming sites or otherwise. All the writers seem to be of a similar (and in some cases identical) pro-corporate mindset.

Hold up, Slim. Freelancers do most of the feature writing here. We don't operate under any kind of restrictions as to viewpoint.

I don't remember if I've advocated piracy in any of my articles, and, naturally, I don't engage in the sordid practice myself, but I think piracy is a healthy pressure on a sick industry.

Look at the major publishers. Look at the revenues they've generated and the losses they've suffered over the past year. They deserve piracy.

I don't think that piracy will collapse the industry. It hasn't even achieved that glorious revolution in music. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if the whole thing went down the tubes. People will figure out how to make big-budget games without the backing of major corporations, just as musicians are finding ways of attaining success without major labels (consider the distro system in Indonesia).

Beyond that, who's really going to miss Halo or Spore or Gears of War or whatever? Games aren't really interesting. They never have been. It's players who are important--and dedicated players will keep playing whether or not new games are made.

 

[jmpatt]

I want to see if it actually works before I buy it.

Against this excuse I can offer no counter-argument.

The really interesting thing about this is that for console games (which you can bet fairly heavily will at least work consistently), there's more recourse than for PC games. I seem to recall that some stores would refund console games (although I'm not sure why... "I couldn't figure out where this copy of Halo3 goes in my DS... can I get my money back?" I guess it makes as much sense as a refund for slightly used pants.) With PC games, of course, you have no such luck. So for the one that's likely to fail, you're SOL. For the one that's nearly guaranteed to work, you can return it. And even if you can't return it, you can take it to a used games store and get something back for it.

 

[ShadowKirby]

The Escapist has the most vehemently anti-piracy stance of anywhere I've ever read, gaming sites or otherwise. All the writers seem to be of a similar (and in some cases identical) pro-corporate mindset.

So what are you doing here ? Fighting the evil pro-corporate machine from the inside ?

I'd like to see piracy suddenly become exponentially more popular and so common that it would crash the entire entertainment industry and all production of games, movies, tv-shows and music would grind to a halt. Then, by the power of immense unsatisfied demand, a new media made for the people by the people would emerge. People would only pay if they want to, there would be donator unions forming which seek to get 10$ from a million people so a new game can be developed, there would be more low budget, fresh and innovative titles, though less high profile high graphics games.

Hi Che.

 

[capnjack]

This article is so immature, so poorly constructed and so ridiculously biased, it makes me want to stop contributing to Escapist traffic at all. It makes me want to boycott you guys, for having so many damned stupid writers. Do you get paid by the RIAA or something?

The idiocy on this site is so rampant when it comes to the misinformation about piracy... If it weren't for Yahtzee, I wouldn't visit the Escapist at all.

What ever happened to fair and balanced news? You basically take the weakest arguments from pirates, and respond to propagate your own misunderstanding of the information.

Let me just point out that most "pirates" (aka mom or dad buying bootlegged games or 13 y.o. gamer who wouldn't have been able to afford the game anyway) is simply an untapped market, and many of them do support the brands they love. More importantly, piracy is a FREE form of VIRAL advertising, that attracts a lot more fans and contributes to sales (unless you're getting your facts from the RIAA or MPAA). Yes, you heard me: Piracy makes things more popular FOR FREE. For example, The Dark Knight was both the most highly pirated movie of last year and the highest grossing one. You can't be silly enough to equate a download to a sale last: sometimes it's a new fan, sometimes it's many fans, sometimes it's a sale made, sometimes it's a sale lost.

I've found out about a lot of content online, and fell so in love with it that I had to buy it. I'm certainly not the only one. I also conveniently watched a lot of things online that I didn't like, and decided I didn't want to buy it. Who lost? Well, Blockbuster might have; sorry Blockbuster, you guys get hit the hardest when people pirate movies. Maybe rental places are slowly becoming irrelevant.

Anyway, it's simply an untapped market and companies haven't yet learned how to adapt to the new technologies, take advantage of things like bit torrent to distribute content, and give consumers their rights back. There are definitely ways to adapt (I read a web blog called techdirt a lot, and they have some brilliant ideas on this whole issue).

I hope the pirates win. I hope piratebay wins, for everyone's sake. If the corporations win, the average consumer will lose his or her rights. There's just as much philosophy and rationality behind this thing for some "pirates", and by that I mean not your average suburbanite parent who buys bootlegged movies because they're really cheap. But, on that account, if companies would lower their prices, or find different strategies, they'd be able to compete with bootlegged copies. You won't be able to stop piracy without infringing on the rights of innocent people who don't engage in piracy anyway, so your best bet is to compete with piracy. You can't beat them without changing the structure of society and giving too much power to those with money. Companies need to adapt and compete with piracy, not spend money and waste time fighting it.


You can't fight it. You can't "guilt" people into not pirating movies. To attract those who don't have a philosophy behind it - compete. To attract those who do, there are ways to draw them in, too, and even if there aren't ways, they're such a small fraction that you can ignore them; they wouldn't have bought it anyway. You're not losing a sale if someone was not going to buy something regardless.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

This article is so immature, so poorly constructed and so ridiculously biased, it makes me want to stop contributing to Escapist traffic at all.

Farewell CapnJack. You will be missed, but nowhere near the extent if Cap'n Morgan suddenly sailed away. Also, ironic choice of words to open with, and the response will be in similar fashion (fair warning.) I also find it hilarious that someone named CapnJack is pro-pirating.

The idiocy on this site is so rampant when it comes to the misinformation about piracy... If it weren't for Yahtzee, I wouldn't visit the Escapist at all.

Then why not just bookmark ZP and ignore the others altogether?

What ever happened to fair and balanced news?

Say what?

Let me just point out that the market that pirates thing is simply an untapped market

Required reading: Franco's 'A Nation of Pirates.'

Also tempted to point at the Prates of the Caribbean series for giggles. Or Sid Meier's Pirates. Or Puzzle Pirates.

On rather humorous note, one will find it hard to tap profit from a market of free goods.

For example, The Dark Knight was both the most highly pirated movie of last year and the highest grossing one.

The movie has two streaks of profitability: Theatres and home viewing. Games really only have one (to publishers.) Recently has this really changed, with older games being given new life via digital distribution or virtual console.

I've found out about a lot of content online, and fell so in love with it that I had to buy it.

Welcome to the world of digital distribution, now please wait while Steam decrypts this information.

I'm certainly not the only one.

Quite a few people seem to have the internet nowadays.

companies haven't yet learned how to adapt to the new technologies.

A rather ironic choice of words there.

If the corporations win over the pirates

Read: if everything is free.

if companies would lower their prices, they'd be able to compete with bootlegged copies.

Read: If companies laid off the vast majority of their employees, slackened graphical content and quality assurance(more so,)and cut out retail all together and only distributed digitally then they MIGHT be able to sell games for $5 - $8 and still turn a profit.

Companies need to adapt and compete with piracy, not spend money and waste time fighting it.

Oddly enough, THEY ARE competing with piracy. And those means of fighting pirates are actually a form of adaptation (albeit a rather poor one.)

You can't fight it. You can't "guilt" people into not pirating movies. For those who don't have a philosophy behind it - compete. For those who do, there are ways to draw them in, too, and even if there aren't, they're such a small fraction that you can ignore them; they wouldn't have bought it anyway.

What?

 

[matrix3509]

I honestly hope publishers bite the dust soon. Sure the big name titles will disappear, but is that such a bad thing? Who the hell wants to play the 27th iteration of some FPS with moderately improved graphics? Instead of these businesses taking advantage of the new market for information, they are trying to fight it, and as such are losing ridiculous amounts of money.

The sooner the publishers are gone, the sooner developers will finally be able to create to their imagination's delight. Sure production values will go down, and developers will be more responsible for their mistakes, but thats the way it used to be. That's the way it SHOULD be. Its quality assurance.

To this end, I support piracy. Lets take the decisions out of the hands of people who don't know or care about the fans.