Piracy Numbers

[StriderShinryu]

Okay Shamus,

Let me ask you something: getting past the whole issue of the numbers of pirates and so on out there, how much is this actually hurting the game industry at all?

I don't agree with piracy one bit, but this is actually something I would like to know as well. I have a sneaking suspicion that were we able to be shown the real impact of software piracy it might change some peoples opinions.

I don't have any facts, but I would imagine what piracy is really costing is the jobs of the little guy. The sideline coder or the texture artist that, when the numbers are added up, is deemed expendable. The extra $100,000 that was going to be spent on a risky property will no longer be there to invest because the CEO sure as hell isn't going to be taking a paycut because Game X didn't make as much money as expected. Etc. I'd imagine the same thing happens in the music business. Of course the big name artists are still going to be getting funding and making records, but it's the little guys that are really suffering due to just how rampant piracy is. As I said though, I have no facts so the above quoted question is one I would love answered as well.

 

[benoitowns]

Not using it to justify, using it to explain why I do pirate. Im not saying it is good for the world for me to pirate or anything, if I had the money I would buy it, but since renting sucks
I think Im gonna keep the PC games that you aren't able to rent.

Or just buy something off of Steam or GoG.com There are lots of games for like 5 dollars. Multiplayer will be non-existent of course, but the SP is still fun. I've bought lots of cheap games off of both of those services.

yea, but buying something defeats the purpose of pirating a game....and why would I buy a cheap game that I dont want?

 

[Wicky_42]

Same here, although if I see said item in a shop then I won't hesitate to buy it.

I wish I could find an ISO for FF7 though. I want to know what makes it better than 8 or Legend of Dragoon.

I got FF7 trough the PS3 Store, cheap.
great game.

Wuh?! Misquote and a half, sir! I mean, that's not even anything like what I was saying o.0

 

[Hallow'sEve]

Bet you don't have the balls to do real shoplifting and theft. Way to go internet tough guy.

So your response to online piracy is for those who do it to take to the streets and become real pirates?
That's very intriguing....

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Piracy is stealing only if you accept the concept of intellectual property.

And if you don't accept the concept of intellectual property, good luck eating if your career is as a producer of it.

Indeed. I want to see the downfall of the entire entertainment / culture industry. If tomorrow everyone decided to stop buying anything of that nature and start pirating, it would be wonderful. Now culture would be produced solely by volunteer work or funded by donations and foundations and people would be unrestrained and free to develop whatever derivative works they pleased.

And we'd lose literature, theatre, cinema, concerts - so there would be no need for a retail industry, which would lose millions of jobs...which would mean thousands of lives...and we're back to the old "Anarchy is Cool" argument.

I know that you think you're rocking the system, but you're just reinforcing it. It needs people like you to justify the ever-increasing stranglehold it has on the rest of us through DRM and the like.

Tell you what, take your greatest skill and give it away for free to whoever wants it. Then everyone else can follow.

 

[polygon]

Yeah, I've played some of Yahtzee's free games, and they were fun. But can you imagine an entire gaming industry with similar games?

Yes. It would be much, much better.
Without promise of monetary compensation, no one would make shitty cash-in games. No one would have their unique ideas shut down because they weren't marketable enough. Games would be made because people wanted to make them and not because they wanted to make a quick buck by exploiting a huge industry. The overall quality would go up, too: if you don't get any compensation for doing something besides your own satisfaction, you are much more likely to try and do it well.

Every once in awhile, a team of dedicated people would release something at similar production levels to the "big" games, and we would actually care enough to recognize the effort that went into it, because there wasn't one released every month by some faceless corporation.

Unfortunately piracy doesn't actually affect the industry enough to effect a change like this, or I would be firing up uTorrent right now to help bring down the industry.

 

[FloodOne]

All I'm going to add to this conversation is, I absolutely love all of the people here justifying their immoral acts to anonymous strangers over the internet.

 

[benoitowns]

Not using it to justify, using it to explain why I do pirate. Im not saying it is good for the world for me to pirate or anything, if I had the money I would buy it, but since renting sucks
I think Im gonna keep the PC games that you aren't able to rent.

Or just buy something off of Steam or GoG.com There are lots of games for like 5 dollars. Multiplayer will be non-existent of course, but the SP is still fun. I've bought lots of cheap games off of both of those services.

yea, but buying something defeats the purpose of pirating a game....and why would I buy a cheap game that I dont want?

Well you just said that the reason for you pirating is a lack of money, so if you want to not pirate then simply spend less money on games. Now what you're saying is that you pirate for the sake of pirating and have no reason other than the fact you can. So really you have no reason at all and your "I don't have money to buy games every month is irrelevant". In fact the ability to even play modern PC games requires a good gaming rig and therefore money, so you probably do have money to play games, you're just full of shit and pirating instead.

I am full of shit, but that has nothing to do with this. I never said I didnt want to pirate. I pirate for the sake of not paying for games I wouldnt have bought. But I did say like an hour ago, I wouldnt pirate if I couldnt, and therefore in the converse, I pirate because I can. I do have a good gaming rig, saved up for like a year to get it. So your argument at this point is a straw man. And you have not been giving reasons to not pirate, you have been saying ways to not pirate, which since it seems in your judgmental view you wish me nor anyone to pirate, it is therefore irrelevant. And I already stated that I am not justifying my pirating, but simply explaining the process in which I decide to, I will re explain it because looking through quotes sucks: I pirate because I can, I pirate games I would not buy, because buying games I see not worth buying but worth playing leads to two conclusions: Borrowing from/playing with a friend or pirating. My friends do not in the cases that I have pirated had the game or was willing to lend, so that leaves pirating. Your previous arguments are invalid to this, but go ahead and make more.

 

[SnipErlite]

Pirates are thieves. Simple as.

I only pirate games I cannot physically get, like Sim City 2000 or Aladdin (ie. old classics)

So I'm a mini-thief, I admit.

Same here, although if I see said item in a shop then I won't hesitate to buy it.

I wish I could find an ISO for FF7 though. I want to know what makes it better than 8 or Legend of Dragoon.

Oh of course.....but something like Aladdin isn't ever possible (mainly because the Windows version it ran on....might have been 3.1 or even DOS isn't even made anymore).

Are we acceptable pirates then?

 

[Undead_David]

Piracy isnt hurting developers if the people who play the pirated games :
1. Cant afford it
2. Never had the intention of buying the game in the first place

You cant count the money you could have made from someone who was never going to give it to you.

 

[benoitowns]

This site's moral superiority complex over pirates is really starting to ride on my fucking nerves.

lol morality.......why is that even considered in the events of ever?

 

[Hallow'sEve]

No you're right there have always been dirtbags in civilisations since the dawn of time and it hasn't brought any of them down so you can feel free to keep being a dirtbag without regret.

The one thing you've got wrong though is the concept that you're in the air, riding a bomb, up above everything. If anything you're a rodent scurying on the ground and hiding in the bushes. Stealing what you can get from the plates of people who work hard in life. If civilisation collapses because of you it's not because you rode a bomb but because you gnawed away at its foundations with your flea bitten hide and buck teeth.

And when your fantastical vision of the future manifests, who better than the vermin will be adept in this grave new world? And I don't want society to collapse, it's working out just fine. Between all the wars and misery, it's still standing.

Overall, and this is all I have to say, you do nothing. You're just the nobody on the street who passes out empty pamphlets and judges passerby's whose actions are other than your own. By holding yourself morally superior than others, are you not just as worse than them? These four pages are nothing but angry jibbering. Write all the articles you want, make up all the statistics you want, say whatever you want. You're on the Internet, no one cares what you think.
But what do I know? I'm just some filthy rat.

 

[jtesauro]

How many pirates are jerks?

100%

How big of you to make that claim.

Not paying for something that it cost money and peoples' hard work to make is pretty jerk-y to me.

but what if i want to keep my hard earned money and not buy something overpriced?

The term 'overpriced' is absolutely meaningless.

Please, bear with me. It's a standard at this point that new games for consoles for example are released at 59 dollars. So that's a given. It's up to you to decide if that's worth it. It's not as if EA says, "Hey, we spent 8 million dollars marketing Dante's Infero, and twelve dollars marketing the Saboteur, so let's make this game cost 59 and this 20." They cost what they cost.

Bioshock 2. Aliens Vs Predator. Dark Void. Dante's Inferno.

These are ALL games that have been released recently. I'd like to play all of them, but I don't consider any of them worth paying 60 bucks for right now. I'm content to wait until they're either bargin bin, used, greatest hits whatever. That's what they're worth to me.

If I decided I wanted to play it and not pay for it, I'm a thief and a pirate. And a jerk.

If this applies to you and you don't like being called a jerk, well then don't act like one. When I walk to work and see a guy run a red light, nearly run someone over, and then stop so they can yell at that person, I tell them "Don't be a cock."

That's all Samus is doing, he's calling people out on unjustifiable theft.

That said, can we move on? Please?