Poll: What piracy is actually doing

[V8 Ninja]

It's a real threat, but the thing is that it's not convenient enough for casual people to care. Once it becomes much easier, people will be pirating games with no thought. They'll just do it.

P.S. Most of The Choices = No Point

 

[Mr.Black]

Piracy isn't much of a threat, especially not compared to the new DRM schemes that Ubisoft and EA are using. Those do mean lost sales. I really, really want to play Settlers 7, but there's no way those dicks are getting my money when they screw paying customers like that.

Why not pirate Settlers?

 

[SultanP]

Piracy isn't much of a threat, especially not compared to the new DRM schemes that Ubisoft and EA are using. Those do mean lost sales. I really, really want to play Settlers 7, but there's no way those dicks are getting my money when they screw paying customers like that.

Why not pirate Settlers?

I might. I've pretty much stopped pirating though, so only time will tell.

 

[Mandal0re]

I know a lot of people who game,i know a couple of people who have downloaded maybe one or two games but pretty much 99% pay for all their games. Although alot of that is buying used games admittedly(ie the common sense thing to do).

 

[Benjamin Grin]

Okay, to the people arguing that piracy doesn't hurt sales because you're not taking a physical copy; it hurts sales because you are then not goign to buy that physical copy. If there are more 'products' (products here including pirated copies of the game in question) available to people, demand goes down. When demand goes down, less units are sold. When less units are sold, the company loses money. It doesn't matter that the hard copies are still there to be bought. No one will buy them because they can get them for free. In what way can you argue that that isn't hurting sales?

After the debacle that was ACII (which was unpirateable for the first month, the time span where 90% of sales take place), it is proven fact, that piracy does not hurt sales.

I really don't understand your arguement here. It was unpirateable for the time when most people would buy units, so...people bought units? Can you explain your arguement, please?

 

[Mr.Black]

Piracy isn't much of a threat, especially not compared to the new DRM schemes that Ubisoft and EA are using. Those do mean lost sales. I really, really want to play Settlers 7, but there's no way those dicks are getting my money when they screw paying customers like that.

Why not pirate Settlers?

I might. I've pretty much stopped pirating though, so only time will tell.

I'm probably one of the few on this website that will tell you to just do it

 

[Zannah]

After the debacle that was ACII (which was unpirateable for the first month, the time span where 90% of sales take place), it is proven fact, that piracy does not hurt sales.

I really don't understand your arguement here. It was unpirateable for the time when most people would buy units, so...people bought units? Can you explain your arguement, please?

AcII was unpirateable for quite a while, so if the bullshit that various ceo's blabber about (you know, piracy costing 90% of the sales) was indeed true, AcII should have sold billions over billions of copies. It didn't, in fact sales were pretty mediocre given the expectations. Because the people that might have pirated it simply didn't buy it (and quite some people who would have bought it, didn't because of the drm. After that, pretending that Piracy actually hurts the sales, is either ignorance or a deliberate lie.

 

[squid5580]

Piracy isn't much of a threat, especially not compared to the new DRM schemes that Ubisoft and EA are using. Those do mean lost sales. I really, really want to play Settlers 7, but there's no way those dicks are getting my money when they screw paying customers like that.

I have pirated before, it has lead me to buy games that I wouldn't have bought, had I not tried them beforehand, so sometimes pirating leads to sales instead.

So then piracy is a threat. If the developers have to use DRMs to try and stop piracy which in turn affects thier sales even more how is it not a threat? They keep taking shots at each other but after every shot they shoot thier own feet.

You would think so but you'd be wrong. Take Stardock, for example. Last time I checked they were still doing alright, and they have no DRM on their games.

DRM isn't a necessity, problem is most of these big publishers have this screwed up idea in their head that every pirated copy is a lost sale, when in fact it isn't. There are loads and loads of people out there, who buy games even though they could easily pirate them, and there is no excuse to treat them like dirt.

DRM doesn't stop piracy, it might hinder it, but the people who end up not pirating aren't necessarily the people who end up buying it instead. Look at Assassin's Creed 2, as far as I know, from sources on this site, it took exceptionally long for pirates to crack the game, but still the game didn't sell very well.

P.S. Hope that wasn't too messy, I just woke up like five minutes ago.

This is my point about the shooting right here. Can you say for a fact every pirated copy isn't a lost sale? How many pirates would buy a copy if there was no alternative? Would they pick up a second job, collect bottles or just go without? Both sides are calling for fairness. If there was a demo we wouldn't pirate it. If games were better, longer and cheaper we wouldn't pirate it. And on the other side hey we worked hard we deserve to profit from every copy. We have to do something to protect ourselves. And when the dust settles neither side is altogether right. Neither side really has the high ground since both are damaging themselves and taking everyone down with them. Because in the end both sides are harming the legit customer which is harming the industry.

 

[akardo00]

Legal downloading is killing Piracy!

 

[Wolfram23]

Eh, there are definitely people who pirate everything and everything regardless of if they can afford to purchase or not. Those ones are somewhat damaging the industry. Myself tho, I buy a lot of games. Just got a new PC a couple weeks ago and already purchased 2 games on Steam (STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Mass Effect) but I also may have pirated some stuff... like a certain racing game that I had no intention of buying (I considered it when it came out but got Dirt 2 instead), as well as certain microsoft document programs that would normally cost more than my legit Windows 7 copy... and I would never ever pay that much for.

I also buy a lot of PS3 games tho, since getting my Slim the week they were released, I've purchased about 10 games or so (new). I'd say I do my part to support the industry, getting a few freebies that I wasn't going to ever buy anyway is morally acceptable to me. I wish I had pirated ME tho... I'm not liking it all that much right now... tho I guess I just have too many other good games to play (just got Red Dead Redemption =D)

 

[Proteus214]

I chose the "haven't made up my mind" option. Piracy may decrease sales, but it does increase exposure, which can be a very positive thing. I kind of like the whole "pay what you want" thing as an experiment to see what people will actually pay for these games. I think that the problem lies not in the fact that the games have weak protection, but in that the prices aren't entirely agreeable to the target audience.

 

[epunk35]

The defense for pirates is "they wouldn't have bought that anyway", if I pirate a song that I really love, then I pirate the rest of the album the song is from, then never buy a record from that artist. They have lost a sale, because I liked their music a lot obviously, but piracy was free and easy. Had the option not been there I would have had to suck up $10 and buy the album. Same with the game if I wanna buy Metal Gear Solid but I pirate it instead and I play it. Sale lost because I don't need it since I've played it.

Not everyone in the world has the same logic of thinking as you do

True, but then again who is going to feel the need to buy something they've already experienced like a game, unless it's a game like Bad Company that has lasting appeal with Online Multiplayer. Same with a CD if I go to the store and see that I can listen to it on my iPod why bother? Maybe my thinking isn't applicable to everyone it's just a general observation. Also why music artists and record companies are in a scramble to figure out a way to combat piracy. It's crippling some companies that work hard to put something out, then some prick uploads it to the internet. The "I wouldn't have bought it anyway" is crap no matter who you talk about because if you cared enough to find a link, download the link then listen to the link. Buying it in the store wouldn't have killed you, if you're that lazy or just prefer digital media there is, iTunes, Zune Marketplace, Amazon, Rhapsody. Piracy has no excuse this day in age. Other than the fact that people are cheap, but people are also materialistic. Find a way to eliminate piracy, then I guarantee that music sales and game sales (mostly PSP sales) would come back around. Tangible music media isn't exactly unpopular because before piracy and the 21st century came along we had records, cassettes and cds doing quite well in their time. So thats just my observation take it or leave it.

 

[tehweave]

I do like big butts.
And am incapable of lying about said subject.

 

[ScruffyTheJanitor]

Piracy is a bit blown out of proportion, and even if these companies were to gain all pirate loses, they still wouldn't reduced their games at the proportional price as it would just be "woo we've got more money." call me a cynic, but it just seems more likely and all the money spent on stopping these pirates would be mostly for the benefit of the companies rather than the buyers. and because of that.. Not many are going to go anti-piracy to support it.

 

[Flour]

Piracy is a bit blown out of proportion, and even if these companies were to gain all pirate loses, they still wouldn't reduced their games at the proportional price as it would just be "woo we've got more money." call me a cynic, but it just seems more likely and all the money spent on stopping these pirates would be mostly for the benefit of the companies rather than the buyers. and because of that.. Not many are going to go anti-piracy to support it.

Piracy just gave publishers a convenient excuse to implement extremely restrictive DRM.

What's needed is the complete reboot of the gaming industry, giving pirates lesser versions of games(e.g. no online functionality) and focusing on the legitimate buyers.
I mean, when this [http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=7852] is needed to play a game, why shouldn't you pirate it? Just copy over a file and you don't need an account, you don't need to ask someone permission to play, and you certainly don't need to waste 45 minutes talking on the phone to some asshole just because something went wrong and you're no longer able to log in.

 

[Necromancer1991]

Here's Philip Defranco basically summing up my opinion on Piracy for me

 

[Eldarion]

...Or people pirate because it's more convenient and they don't have to pay, regardless of whether or not they support the company. It hurts companies because that's one more sale that company is making and last I checked, loosing money on a sale isn't good for a company.

Because every pirate is automatically a lost sale right?

 

[lasersandbearsohno]

The thing that really bothers me about piracy is this sense of entitlement people have to games. Do I love games? Yes. Can I afford games? Not always. Does this mean I can steal? No. Yeah If I want a stereo and I can't get it, I could certainly steal one from best buy, (Assuming there was an easy, undetectable way to do so), and go home and enjoy it, for free. Does that make it right? Nope. A lot of people seem to believe that they should be able to play whatever game they want because "Hey I am a loyal gamer!!" or "I don't have the money but I love to play". The fact of the matter is, the only reason that games are separated from any other type of stealing is because of the accessible, easy way to do so. The fact that you are stealing data isn't a justification; there is such thing as intellectual property. A lot of arguments seem to come down to self justification. We are raised to not steal, (Unless you are a boat pirate), and to give an exchange for things. If we are taking without giving without a solid base of reason, we feel the need to build it up with fairly bogus reasons to keep ourselves on a moral high ground. If you can't afford a game, you don't get to play it. If a game developer is creating a game with harsh DRM, then don't buy it. When you make something, you have the right to do whatever you want to it, it is yours. If you make it really had to play or download, people won't buy it.