Maybe we are self-entitled... or maybe, far more likely, the Game Developers are even more self-entitled.
I took the liberty of reading the copyright page at the front of a book recently. It's fascinating, primarily because what it says amounts to "X wrote this book, Y published this book. Do not claim this work as your own."
Wow. In an age where I am treated like a criminal for LOOKING at a Used Game shelf, that's amazingly refreshing.
See, here's the thing; I buy a book, and it's mine. I can read it whenever, wherever and however I like. I can give it away as a gift, sell it on, loan it to a friend for them to read (that might not be 100% 'legal', but no law inforcement agency on the planet gives a shit and so they let it happen). I can write notes in the margins, doodle on the cover or tear it up and use it as bedding for a pet hamster. I paid for it, it's mine. Open and shut case.
We, the customer, see ALL products this way. We also acknowledge, in a nebulous sort of way, that there are some things that are wrong. We know that we shouldn't claim to have MADE the product or its content unless we honestly did. We know we shouldn't make and sell copies of the product, nor should we use it for criminal activity.
However, when I buy a CD off iTunes, I feel entitled to burn it to a disk so I can listen on my home stereo, or in my car. I bought the music, after all, so I should be allowed to listen to it however I want, on whatever media system I want. Technically, this is illegal in Britain, as is burning a CD to your computer so you can put it on iTunes. I believe such an action would be considered 'Piracy' by the letter of the law, but here in the Real World nobody actually believes that.
Now, we can establish that two things are, by and large, true. The first is we want to be able to do whatever we want with what we own, and the second is it is LEGAL to do whatever we want with what we own.
Enter, the Games Industry.
The Games Industry likes to think that we do not own products, so much as rent them. See lawsuits against console modders for reference.
The Games Industry abhors the idea of Used Games. Whilst I am 100% behind them with regard to GameStop's business model and the thieving little shits who sell 'nearly new' games, I refuse to believe that buying out of the 2 for £15 used game bin is ruining the industry, any more than used book shops are causing printers to go bust.
Moreover, their anti-piracy efforts are NOT welcome. I hold up my hand and admit to having pirated everything under the sun. I listen to music and watch movies on Youtube that I haven't paid for, and probably never WILL pay for. That's Piracy, or something like it. I own mp3s I didn't pay for. There are DVDs in my house that are clearly counterfiet. I have on my hard drive pdf books that I have no intention of paying money for, mostly because the content was so bad I refuse to reward people for writing it, but I needed the content at some time or another.
Doubters, ***** all you want, but I stand by the argument many use; this shit is not causing lost sales.
I have a bookshelf full of Pratchett, Abnett and several other writers, and I have so many magazines, comics and RPG/wargame publications my floorboards are going to break if I buy the new edition of D&D. I didn't steal or pirate any of that. What I stole was the shit stuff - the stuff I wouldn't pay for anyway.
Movies? I have a ton of them. I still have VHS tapes of the first Remastering of the SW Old Trilogy. If I like a movie, I will buy it, or at least drop hints around Christmas and birthdays that said film would make a great present. What films do I pirate? The 'meh' titles. The ones where I stand there in the store and say "do I really want this enough to buy it?" I never do. I put it back and walk off and forget about it for two months.
Thing is, sometimes this causes a sale. My friends and I watched In Bruges after one of them pirated a copy. He loved the film so much he later BOUGHT a copy!
Finally, music. If you were to look through my list of pirated music you would see a trend; you'd find a few songs from various artists, no more than one or two each, usually their more popular or better known titles. If you then compared it to what I own, and you'd see a more revealing trend - that with several 'pirated' bands I later went out and bought whole CDs.
Often, the Piracy has a reason: You try finding a copy of Quest for the Manticore by 3 Inches of Blood legally, and YOU WILL FAIL! They won't let me buy it, so I'm happy to steal it. Their loss.
Most of the rest can be considered sampling; if I liked what I hear, I buy more. I have pirated about... three Disturbed songs. I own one Disturbed CD, bought because I liked what I'd pirated. The Cog is Dead? You've never heard of them. Nor had I, but someone put a copy of their CD on Youtube and I fell in love. Within a month I owned a copy myself.
Already I can hear the outrage at this, but let's deal with hard fact for a moment. Being generous, I would say that I have stolen about... £2.40 worth of music. That is, I own three songs that I could have downloaded of iTunes at 80p a pop, was WILLING to do so, but decided not to because, well, piracy is free. However, I have BOUGHT at least £80 worth of music because of Piracy and/or people illegally hosting copyright music on sites like Youtube. Again, that assumes £8 a CD off iTunes. The reality is probably much higher; I discovered Abney Park thanks to someone linking to an illegally hosted song on iTunes. I've spent £30 on merchandise alone, not including the music (of which I bought five CDs worth).
Do you think Abney Park are going to begrudge me that 'stolen' music? Do you think they're going to be pissed off at me for discovering them via illegal material and subsequently buying shit off them? I think they'd be THRILLED to know that, thanks to someone posting Airship Pirates on Youtube without their consent, they have a fan who's spending money with them!
I would like at this point to inform you that the 'too long; didn't read' line is not for those of you who read the whole thing. You are an awesome person.
So where does this leave games? It leaves them in a bit of a mess. After all, we've all become accustomed to cheap media. I admit that I have bought some bad films that would normally be in the 'just pirate it' category simply because it's £3 at ASDA. For the sake of a pint and a bit of convenience I'll buy the damn thing... yet if I want to buy a cheap, second-hand copy of a game I now risk losing out on massive amounts of content unless I spend another £15 for a one-use unlock code.
I don't like that. I don't like being treated like a criminal over something I paid for. I don't like that owning a second hand game is wrong - how that game is sold is a fair bone of contention, but why is it the CUSTOMER who is punished and not the assholes running the store?
I don't like companies putting malware on my PC, or installing ANYTHING without my consent. I don't like being FORCED to have an active online connection to play an OFFLINE game.
Moreover, I don't like being called a criminal because I have a dozen ROMS of SNES and MegaDrive games on my PC. You tell me a place that still sells Mutant League Hockey!
In short, I don't like that the games industry takes all its shit out on us. It has a problem with used game retailers, so it punishes the customer. It has a pathological fear of piracy, so it punishes the people who PAID for a copy. It's just not acceptable! I bought your fucking game and you have the fucking cheek to spit on me for it? Well fuck you, EA! Fuck you everyone who supports invasive DRM, and fuck you everyone who expects me to pay another £10 to play a game I got out of the bargain bin! If you want to treat me like a pirate so bad, then maybe I should start stealing your games instead! After all, your shit is much more tolerable when I'm getting £200 worth of games and only spending £40!
Every other industry out there seeks to control piracy in ways that do not place undue cost and/or frustration on the user. If Gaming follows there is no guarantee it'll stop piracy. Hell, there's no guarantee it won't INCREASE Piracy... but what it WILL do is kill support for piracy; I don't condone pirating books, music or film on the whole, even though I do it myself. I firmly believe that if you like something you should pay for it. The problem comes to games, particularly ones made by companies with a god-awful DRM track record. I just can't tell someone 'you should pay for that game if you like it so much' when I know, more often than not, the pirated copy is the more desirable one.
tl;dr: You're a retard and a failure at life. Go back to the start and read the post.
