ResonanceSD said:
ReinWeisserRitter said:
I really don't want to hear the "developers can't afford to loan people games until they feel like buying them" excuse until more people start offering freaking demos for us to try their games on. If I'm stuck with the thing (and if I buy it on PC, stuck is exactly what I am with it), I should be able to try it, then get the offer to buy it from there. Since nine out of ten developers, at best, offer demos, they shouldn't whine when people decide to pursue other means to try the game.
Also, the claim that piracy to lost sales is a one to one ratio is still bullshit. No one ever brings up where the downloaded games go, and how available (and reasonably priced) the product is in that area, because god forbid we do anything but paint the consumer in an ugly light.
I'm not going to claim that even most pirates fall into either "want to try it", "can't buy it here", or "can't buy it here without a ridiculous markup (Australia, for example)" categories, but I'd wager a bet they're a much larger margin than the people behind this piracy uprising are willing to divulge, not when they can be used as a statistic to slap everyone else across the face with.
You know, there is a way to research games and how they'll run on your system. Youtube can help there.
And if you won't buy a game until it has a demo, tell the developer. Don't resort to illegal means, as that only helps you.
Not all pirates buy what they've downloaded again. Why would they? They already have the product. Thus, someone is consuming content, for free = lost sale.
And remember, as always, COMPUTER GAMES ARE A LUXURY, NOT A RIGHT.
I sure do love it when people read into things I say with no basis whatsoever. And by that I mean knock it off.
First of all, my computer can run absolutely any PC game on the market reasonably. This is absolutely, positively
never an issue for me. My concern is whether the game will
entertain me. Do you know how that's achieved? By playing it.
Secondly, I'm not going to
tell the developer to release a demo; no game is worth that effort. I don't have to tell a car dealer to let me test drive the vehicle before he suckers me into buying the thing, and if I did, I'd already be going to a different dealer. It's his responsibility to ensure the sale, not mine to help him with it.
Thirdly, I've bought many a game I've pirated first. I in fact don't have a single one on my computer that can't make this claim. Why? Because I liked them and I felt they deserved my money. Don't presume to tell me, or anyone, what their motivations are; your feet look better
out of your mouth. So again, the piracy to lost sale ratio being stated as one to one is bullshit; several of those developers actually owe the illegal download, because I wouldn't have bought them otherwise.
Lastly, I never said, or even fricking implied, what my impression of whoever-have-you's rights is. I'm not saying I'm entitled to anything; I'm saying it's reasonable to expect me to have some kind of way to find out what I'm getting out of a one-way deal. You speak of the player being the only person who benefits from pirating a game to try it, but the developer is the only person who benefits if the player buys a game they didn't care for, and in my opinion, the developer isn't entitled to money simply because they made the game.
But since you want to bring it up, if anything it's some of the developers who have become self-entitled, offering little to assist the consumer in making an informed decision (Ubisoft's refusal to let publications reveal reviews of their games without first promising a positive portrayal comes to mind), but expecting the money regardless of what happens, then belittling players of all strokes for the consequences. Meanwhile, I don't hear a lot of complaining coming from the guys running Steam about piracy and the destruction it's laying upon the industry. Maybe it's just difficult to hear over the
massive profit gains they've been receiving every year for almost a decade now.
Incidentally, I bought all of the aforementioned games on Steam, and even some I hadn't pirated, two of which have a demo available to play. They sure do provide a convenient way for thoughtless, destructive thieves such as myself to get the game in an honest fashion, which is helpful when my time is tied up punching babies and setting buses full of nuns on fire.
To reiterate, I'm not saying piracy is justified by any means. I'm saying that when developers are more interested in treating people like criminals than they are making their products accessible, the consumer shouldn't be blamed for it. And indeed, some people look at is as a license to do exactly what they're accused of. And that brings me to something else as unquantifiable as how much money piracy costs developers: how much money being assholes to their consumers costs them. No one's ever willing to call them out for that though, are they?
