Excuses on the High Seas
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Very well presented arguments. It's true that there are many excuses that can be made to justify piracy and it was interesting to read this take on them. Though the one about trying the game out before buying doesn't hold water in my book. Even if not all games have demos, then they certainly have lots of reviews, interviews, screens and trailers to present the game.
I wasn't normally going to post again after I gave my justification for why I pirated 3 games (2 of which I ended up buying, 1 of which didn't work on my pc) I wasn't normally going to post again, seeing as how these threads tend to become lenghty debates about "what is and isn't piracy, what is and isn't morally acceptable".
But there's one idea i'd like to drop in here now.
Is it possible that the first book stores that promoted sampling of the works were created because literature was becoming more common place and more openly distributed, and as such the stores needed to give people a way to personally test the quality of the work to see if it was something they'd enjoy reading?
If so, would it be possible that by giving people acces to more easily accesable demo's, and by trying to make the purchase more casual (Such as steam?) people would have a harder time justifying piracy to themselves and as such be less inclined to take the step to pirate a game?
Not much you can do with your copy of Guildwars after that other than keep your table straight. Or you can bear with it and become increasingly frustrated staring at a black screen evry 5-10 minutes, untill you change graphic cards.
If you, like me, are strapped for cash just enough so that you can't afford to buy several games, this one game that doesn't function, despite your adequate system, would warrant some pretty justified anger.
A more transparent system of sampling would have prevented that.
But there's one idea i'd like to drop in here now.
Is it possible that the first book stores that promoted sampling of the works were created because literature was becoming more common place and more openly distributed, and as such the stores needed to give people a way to personally test the quality of the work to see if it was something they'd enjoy reading?
If so, would it be possible that by giving people acces to more easily accesable demo's, and by trying to make the purchase more casual (Such as steam?) people would have a harder time justifying piracy to themselves and as such be less inclined to take the step to pirate a game?
With the large quantity of reviews and interviews out there trying to objectively judge the quality of a game becomes very difficult, not to mention knowing wether or not a game will work on your system is nigh impossible without research. I'd like to state as example the NVIDIA Geforce 8800, a graphic card more than strong enough for Guildwars, but with a compatibility issue that caused a lot of people to be unable to play the game without frequent crashes.October Country said:
Not much you can do with your copy of Guildwars after that other than keep your table straight. Or you can bear with it and become increasingly frustrated staring at a black screen evry 5-10 minutes, untill you change graphic cards.
If you, like me, are strapped for cash just enough so that you can't afford to buy several games, this one game that doesn't function, despite your adequate system, would warrant some pretty justified anger.
A more transparent system of sampling would have prevented that.
In what way are demos not easily accessible now? If you have broadband it's just as simple as downloading the file. If you have dial up, you do have a problem, but it's not really the fault of the game publisher or seller. It's more just a technical limitation of your own connection. I think demos are about as accessible as you could reasonably expect them to be. Maybe you meant that they should be more available -- and I would agree with that. Given that, once you buy a game, you're stuck with it, I think there should be a demo for every game ever made. It's only reasonable.
As far as making the purchase more casual, I'm not sure what that means. For brick and mortar stores you just hand over your cash or credit card and you're on your way. No need to dress in a suit or anything. Online you can be casual to the point of being naked and still buy the game. How much more casual can it possibly get?
My translations seemed to ruin my point a bit, yes I meant available ont he first point. And for the second point I meant stores where you can more easily try out a game before purchasing it, have free acces to the game in the store before the purchase. Buying a game blindly on reviews is unfair.mcbond said:
This way demo's could show you if the game works on your computer, and acces to the game in the store could let you find out if you enjoy the game or not.
Wait now you tell me boarding, looting, and razing ships is... oh THAT kind of piracy...
Anyway, yeah I tried it, I felt guilty, I got rid of it, and don't do it anymore. Lesson learned. There are a lot of nice indi titles and free copies out there for everyone, and people have a right to be paid for their time, labor, and creativity. It really speaks to the lack of moral backbone when people come up with brazen and obviously perverse reasons for breaking laws that only protect the creator and his right. I mean besides the "No refund on a computer or video game" thing there's nothing all that wrong, not more wrong than anything else in any legal system at any given time, anyway.
Anyway, yeah I tried it, I felt guilty, I got rid of it, and don't do it anymore. Lesson learned. There are a lot of nice indi titles and free copies out there for everyone, and people have a right to be paid for their time, labor, and creativity. It really speaks to the lack of moral backbone when people come up with brazen and obviously perverse reasons for breaking laws that only protect the creator and his right. I mean besides the "No refund on a computer or video game" thing there's nothing all that wrong, not more wrong than anything else in any legal system at any given time, anyway.
I do buy games, but I still prefer to crack them, which creates awkward questions sometimes lol. It's more convenient, though it can be a ***** to find cracks for some of my older games, still looking for thief 2. I have downloaded a few old games cause I just can't bloody find them. They just disappear lol. That said, I don't think piracy is going to hurt the industry much at all.
Well written article. I pirated games when I was in school as I had no source of income but since I've had a job I've bought 95% of my games. I'm honestly scared to work out how much I've spent on games for my 360 and the ps2 before it. I just don't want to know lol.
If society really wants to tackle the piracy issue, regardless of how big/small an impact it has on industry revenue, we need to come to an agreement on what a fair price is for digital products. The values for the raw materials used in making cars have an obvious anchor in reality. For a theater play, however, you pay for the cost of the set, and a reasonable salary for the cast and crew, so the price may be more abstract, we can still come to a common ground. Video games cost $50 because is an unreasonable explanation. This doesn't absolve pirates of responsibility; but they really are not the problem, because if the general public still can't decide if pirating virtual entertainment products is a bad thing, then the industry needs to open a channel of communication with them. And as they have not done this, ever, they continue to distance themselves from their customers, so they lose legitimacy.
edit: and yes I just realized I'm reviving a dead thread. I'd rather respond to already established opinions than re-hash and do-over.
edit: and yes I just realized I'm reviving a dead thread. I'd rather respond to already established opinions than re-hash and do-over.