Piracy Numbers

[Asehujiko]

I still think the best was for a company to do anti piracy would be to flood the pirate sites with fake torrents for your product.

That is a bad idea because:
1. Purposefully pissing of people who might buy your game after they tried it(unless it's an overpriced iphone game that you shamelessly ripped from kongregate and everybody goes to play the superior original instead) is a very stupid idea. Go ask Iron Lore.
2. It won't work. Nobody wastes several gigs of ratio on something that hasn't been greenlighted by rlslog.

 

[Arothel]

Wow. I love how many nerves have been struck by the simple word "jerks". You'd think we were back in 3rd grade again. This thread is drifting violently back and forth between the act of piracy and sore egos due to namecalling, both of which are juvenile.
Bottom line: You obtain something which belongs to someone else without their permission = theft (regardless of whether or not you intended to bring it back).
You whine about being called a jerk = you take yourself too seriously, and should be brought down a peg.

 

[dochmbi]

I just realized that paying for games is already optional and yet people still continue to pay for their games. If we abolished intellectual property rights not much would change, right?

Apart from the fact that people would stop making games as they couldn't make money out of them, so yeah...

How come? It's not the law which is stopping people from pirating (there is no enforcement), it's morality.

 

[Undead_David]

OK heres my question people, how is pirating different from borrowing a game from a friend? You never payed for it, you played it for free, and nobody makes any money.

Or what about buying a used game from ebay or a garage sale (not gamestop) or something, even though you payed for it, the developers dont see a penny.

This question actually deserves an answer. Since nobody else is willing to bother, I will.

Because I don't think I need to explain how the money going into making the games we play, comes out of the pockets of gamers who buy them, we can cut right to it:

as a pair, the friend and the person who borrows from him, contribute for 50%.
(That is ofcourse, IF the friend gets to borrow in return too, else it's 100% for the friend and 0 for the other.)
I don't have a problem with that. Bigger shoulders, heavier burden and all that; atleast your examples still contribute significantly to the games they enjoy.


Since the issue isn't binary, you have to draw the line somewhere: as with anything in life, if a person only borrows and gives nothing in return, that person soon outlasts his welcome.

Borrow a game between alot of friends then you should either start buying it, or possibly stop wasting eachother's time with a game you don't like.

The good part for the pirates is, since the gaming community isn't a real community, you cannot get beaten or expelled for taking your free meals, but rather you may just come across some pointless, angry posts as you browse.

Well in the community the way you "return the favor" is by seeding so you can help everyone else out who wants their free meal lol. Its like playing it forward. Your points do seem to be a bit valid but a bit off center from my point. What I am trying to demonstrate is the problem with this black and white view about piracy that keeps showing up with people focusing on playing the game and the developers not getting any money for it. Honestly Im just tired of people calling me thief for playing a game for free or in essence not giving the companies money for it when there all these other avenues that allow people to play the game with nothing going to the company.

 

[Xvito]

How many pirates are jerks?

100%

How wonderful! I didn't know The Escapist had started featuring trolls on their website.

I usually agree with most of your sentiments, but that was highly unnecessary.

It can be said as often as we like.

You pirates are getting a free ride, while we fund the developers out of our own money to make those games you play.

"You"? I never said I was a pirate...?

Although, I do support piracy. The only reason that I don't download things is because my Internet-connection is slow.

Then you shouldn't complain for getting lumped in with the pirates.

Yes, because wanting to do something is clearly the same as doing it... Wait, no, that's n-

I want to go into space. Am I there? No. You just failed.

 

[Olrod]

How many pirates are jerks?

100%

How wonderful! I didn't know The Escapist had started featuring trolls on their website.

I usually agree with most of your sentiments, but that was highly unnecessary.

It can be said as often as we like.

You pirates are getting a free ride, while we fund the developers out of our own money to make those games you play.

"You"? I never said I was a pirate...?

Although, I do support piracy. The only reason that I don't download things is because my Internet-connection is slow.

Then you shouldn't complain for getting lumped in with the pirates.

Yes, because wanting to do something is clearly the same as doing it... Wait, no, that's n-

I want to go into space. Am I there? No. You just failed.

I want to eat candy and poop emeralds. ;-)

I've downloaded a few NES, SNES and GB ROMs in the past.

Sure, if I had the opportunity I'd pirate games like Grandia 3 and Legend of Mana, because I'm never going to be able to get them any other way.

I don't pirate games these days because I simply don't trust what I'll be downloading to be authentic, too many files with the same name but different filesizes make me suspicious and sceptical, so currently speaking, I'm no longer a pirate.

 

[Littlee300]

As for pirates being jerks, hey at least were not a bunch of racist sexist assholes like the legitamate guys on XBOX Live

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

 

[Undead_David]

As for pirates being jerks, hey at least were not a bunch of racist sexist assholes like the legitamate guys on XBOX Live

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

Lol game developers get laid off for not managing their finances/investments like crap games such as Too Human . As for the viruses they did that for a while but people have anti-virus programs that pretty much put a stop to that, which everyone should have by the way. If I was a developer Id just use the DLC as a way to mitigate pirating by rewarding those who buy the games with free content and charginga lil something for everyone else who is being all cheapo lol

 

[Littlee300]

As for pirates being jerks, hey at least were not a bunch of racist sexist assholes like the legitamate guys on XBOX Live

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

Lol game developers get laid off for not managing their finances/investments like crap games such as Too Human . As for the viruses they did that for a while but people have anti-virus programs that pretty much put a stop to that, which everyone should have by the way. If I was a developer Id just use the DLC as a way to mitigate pirating by rewarding those who buy the games with free content and charginga lil something for everyone else who is being all cheapo lol

Rewarding the good kids with something, making the bad kids jealous and become good kids? Hmmm.... might just work

 

[Olrod]

As for pirates being jerks, hey at least were not a bunch of racist sexist assholes like the legitamate guys on XBOX Live

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

Lol game developers get laid off for not managing their finances/investments like crap games such as Too Human . As for the viruses they did that for a while but people have anti-virus programs that pretty much put a stop to that, which everyone should have by the way. If I was a developer Id just use the DLC as a way to mitigate pirating by rewarding those who buy the games with free content and charginga lil something for everyone else who is being all cheapo lol

Rewarding the good kids with something, making the bad kids jealous and become good kids? Hmmm.... might just work

I dunno, sounds far too controversial to me. Encouraging people to WANT to purchase the software? That's crazy talk!

Obviously it's better to make really restrictive DRM to encourage people to, uh... where was I going with this?

 

[Eremiel]

On Demigod..

The reports stating that 85% of Demigod players were using pirated is a bit off, to be honest. An asston of Demigod players were using a third party program to connect to games. Most people did indeed play a pirated or modified/cracked version of the game through this.

The thing is.. you couldn't play the legit game AT ALL online. The matchmaking was non-existant. If you wanted to play online for the first month of Demigod, you had no choice but to pirate the entire game. The legit game had a completely broken online system. Hell, I was forced to download and pirate the game I had LEGALLY BOUGHT just to be able to play online. I did not manage to connect to ONE SINGLE game until I had done this. I'm certain that everyone who bought the game on release can back me up on this one. The developer never once mentioned this when they spoke of how horrible the mass-pirating of their title was.

I'm fairly certain most of the people who bought this on release also regret having wasted their money. I know I do.

 

[Littlee300]

As for pirates being jerks, hey at least were not a bunch of racist sexist assholes like the legitamate guys on XBOX Live

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

Lol game developers get laid off for not managing their finances/investments like crap games such as Too Human . As for the viruses they did that for a while but people have anti-virus programs that pretty much put a stop to that, which everyone should have by the way. If I was a developer Id just use the DLC as a way to mitigate pirating by rewarding those who buy the games with free content and charginga lil something for everyone else who is being all cheapo lol

Rewarding the good kids with something, making the bad kids jealous and become good kids? Hmmm.... might just work

I dunno, sounds far too controversial to me. Encouraging people to WANT to purchase the software? That's crazy talk!

Obviously it's better to make really restrictive DRM to encourage people to, uh... where was I going with this?

Restrictive DRM just delays how long it will take before the game is cracked.(i think...)

 

[theultimateend]

So how is Piracy costing the game companies money?

If basically nobody who pirates buys when they can't pirate, then isn't the amount of lost sales nonexistent?

No physical copy is lost here, so no actual loss of sales is had. It would appear the real complaint is someone is getting a free high, since there isn't a lost sale.

I'm fairly sure, assuming from the main post, that if piracy was ever defeated. People would just go get into a cheaper form of entertainment, like touching themselves.

 

[bjj hero]

not all thieves are jerks. try and tell me robin hood is a jerk? cmon? you cant.

He lived in Nottingham, that made him a jerk before he stole a single thing.

The only title I pirated (I say I, my brother did it as hes one of those Jerks) was to see if it could run it on my POS lap top. Turned out that when I turned the settings down I could run it.

My brother and I both bought the game, thats 2 sales for piracy. I buy all of my games, but I shop around for the best deal... which is rarely in Game.

 

[EmmerikXXII]

I agree completely. I buy games that I like. I buy them before I play them, before I even see them reviewed. Games that don't appeal to me or that I just want to see what all the hype is about (I.E. MewTwo, TF2 etc.) I pirate. I rarely ever buy games that I pirate, but that is because I wouldn't have bought them anyway. However, if the game does actually blow me away I WILL buy it (I'm considering getting the Orange Box [Really not sure why I haven't yet, to be honest. It's cheap]).

If they were to make it magically impossible for me to pirate games, they still wouldn't gain any sales off of me at least. I just wouldn't have the luxury of playing games I was marginally interested in for free. At least on the PC.

I still have Gamestop's 7-day rule.

 

[AzraelSteel]

If I was a developer Id just use the DLC as a way to mitigate pirating by rewarding those who buy the games with free content and charginga lil something for everyone else who is being all cheapo lol

Just to put a bit of perspective on this, DLC is hardly immune to piracy, either.

 

[dj Facchiano]

Pirates, are scum who want to destroy the gaming industry. And I really dont think the spore thing was really inspired by fighting the good fight or any of that bullshit, more people stole it and used it as an excuse to act like they were fighting teh good fight. Every one who stole teh game, helped nothing and moved us one step forward to the death of teh gaming industry

Lol don't paint them as terrorists, Most of them are normal people who don't want to spend there hard earned money for video games. Yes its wrong but human beings are very vulnerable to temptation. Pirates don't see torrenting as stealing, they see it like "I'm not preventing anyone else from getting it nor am I taking it from anyone" and in a way there right. :/

 

[Asehujiko]

Those guys are annoying, but pirates force game developers to get laid off. I am pretty sure I rather be annoyed than fired and there is a reason why pirating is illegal and annoying people is not. (Also mute button fixes it)
ps: If I was a game developer, I would make so much torrents that have viruses.

I reiterate from less then 10 posts above, in answer who said the same thing:
1. Purposefully pissing of people who might buy your game after they tried it(unless it's an overpriced iphone game that you shamelessly ripped from kongregate and everybody goes to play the superior original instead) is a very stupid idea. Go ask Iron Lore.
2. It won't work. Nobody wastes several gigs of ratio on something that hasn't been greenlighted by rlslog.

And then somebody downloads a crack for a legally purchased game because the drm has trouble with their firewall and you have a nice little lawsuit you can't do anything against because the eula saying that everything is the consumers fault doesn't apply to the crack. And even more bad publicity, which equals less sales.

 

[veloper]

How many pirates are jerks?

100%

How wonderful! I didn't know The Escapist had started featuring trolls on their website.

I usually agree with most of your sentiments, but that was highly unnecessary.

It can be said as often as we like.

You pirates are getting a free ride, while we fund the developers out of our own money to make those games you play.

"You"? I never said I was a pirate...?

Although, I do support piracy. The only reason that I don't download things is because my Internet-connection is slow.

Then you shouldn't complain for getting lumped in with the pirates.

Yes, because wanting to do something is clearly the same as doing it... Wait, no, that's n-

I want to go into space. Am I there? No. You just failed.

Sympathizers get painted with the same brush. You might aswell get used that now.
Being too sad to even pirate a game doesn't matter. On a forum all you have is your opinion.