StarCraft 2 Sets New Mark for Piracy

Xanthious

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Dec 25, 2008
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Cryo84R said:
Xanthious said:
Cryo84R said:
There are sure a lot of excuses being made here for people being thieves and douchbags.
Your right, people should really stop trying to defend these big game publishers. . . . .
Yeah because publishers and developers charging for a product to make a living is totally theft. Get past yourself, you are not entitled to game. It's not a right, its a luxury.

Stop stealing other peoples work and passing your behavior off as some kind of good fight against big evil companies. Its pathetic.
That's cute. It must be nice to see the world in only black and white. Sadly though the cold hard reality is that the popular trend amongst big developers is to milk every last dime out of the paying customers they can. It is their goal to get as much of our money as possible and give as little as they can in return. It's happening more and more with games being shipped with large missing parts to be sold at a later date as DLC and PC games with install limits etc. The truth is these companies would gladly take your wallet and hand you a pile of actual human shit packed in a DVD case in return if they thought they could get away with it.

As to your other point. hypothetically speaking of course, I would make no delusions I'm part of some greater good. On the other hand I wouldn't fool myself into thinking that the majority of these companies are driven by anything more than greed. They want as much of my money for as little of their product as they can get away with. If that's the game they want to play then it only seems fair that I, again hypothetically speaking, should be allowed to do the same and get as much of their product for as little of my money as I can get away with. Guess what? I come out ahead when we play that game I promise.. .. .. hypothetically speaking of course.

This isn't to say I don't see companies out there doing things the right way. Hell I think GTA IV, Fallout 3/New Vegas, Red Dead Redemption, Sins of a Solar Empire and others do an amazing job of presenting consumers with a worthwhile product that is very deserving of the price they ask and I have paid full price on release day for all five of those games. Furthermore, I think Blizzard, despite my problems with StarCraft 2 and Activision as a whole, does a hell of a job with World of Warcraft and I gladly pay my 15 dollars monthly in addition to any WoW related merchandise I might buy.

Bottom line is there is a right way and a wrong way. They want to try and rip me off then don't be surprised if people turn around and do the same in return. However, if you want to put forth an actual quality product that isn't designed to milk me for every last cent I own then I will gladly support those companies over and over.
 

Cryo84R

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Jun 27, 2009
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So they arent doing what you want them to do, so it's perfectly fine stealing.

You used quite a lot of text to say that if things don't work the way you want them to, then you happily resort to crime. It's pretty immature. If something isnt worth having or paying for, do pirates even think for one moment that maybe they SHOULDN'T have it? Do they feel they deserve it? If so, why? What did they do other than complain about companies trying to pay the bills? What's wrong with profit?

I don't know how many times i can ask it. If its a bad product, or costs too much, what gives one the right to act criminally?
 

Xan Krieger

Completely insane
Feb 11, 2009
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icyneesan said:
Why would you want to play Starcraft single player?

Starcraft has single player?!
I've played the singleplayer campaign 3 times over and never touched multiplayer. I don't even know much about the multiplayer nor do I really want to.
 

Gindil

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Nov 28, 2009
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Cryo84R said:
So they arent doing what you want them to do, so it's perfectly fine stealing.

You used quite a lot of text to say that if things don't work the way you want them to, then you happily resort to crime. It's pretty immature. If something isnt worth having or paying for, do pirates even think for one moment that maybe they SHOULDN'T have it? Do they feel they deserve it? If so, why? What did they do other than complain about companies trying to pay the bills? What's wrong with profit?

I don't know how many times i can ask it. If its a bad product, or costs too much, what gives one the right to act criminally?
Again. As a lot of people are saying. The moral argument means little to nothing when it comes to economics. All it does is ignore Every. Last. Little. thing in regards to competition:

Features
Economics
Time spent with a product versus other products
Similar goods


So let's talk about Time. You spend money on a great game such as WoW. You meet new people and find it worthwhile to be in the community. Great, good for you. Then that subscription is money well spent. Same thing with Starcraft. At $60 there are a ton of features to the game, bar none. Now...

Why should people invest in this game? Because it's Blizzard? If they're 15-18, then they may not know about Blizzard's older but good(er) games. They may not even remember Blackthorne. People say use the demo. Well, does a demo test the campaign? Does the demo test other people in multiplayer? Does it allow LAN? Also, since these games are release internationally, does the price of the game allow for people to get to retail stores where it's priced decently (hint: in Europe, that's doubtful). Or can it be that a gamer could go broke in paying for ONE game? Which... really defeats the purpose.

Now, similar goods:

Vindictus
Ragnarok Online,
Company of Heroes
Plants vs Zombies
World of Warcraft

These are just some of the competitors for that thing I've talked about up top.

What I grow weary on is people always saying "pirating is wrong."
Well, why is it wrong?
"Because the law said so."
*shakes head* "Can you at least say which laws it breaks?"
"Uhm... The DMCA!" *nods head* "And who lobbied for that?"
"But, but..."

"No. It was a trade industry pursuing copyright infringement which isn't a truly valid excuse for saying that somehow this is killing the industry."

As I repeatedly say, piracy is NOT something that's killing the gaming industry. Look at how much SC2 was pirated. Now look at the sales. People are just passing times with different games. Quite frankly, saying people are acting criminally is itself intellectually dishonest. If you ever look at the market, it's increasing, not decreasing.
 

Belbe

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Oct 12, 2009
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GTFO pirates...there are things that should be pirated, and there are things you should respect enough to fork out some dosh for!
 

Gindil

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Belbe said:
GTFO pirates...there are things that should be pirated, and there are things you should respect enough to fork out some dosh for!
... That truly makes no sense... It's like you want to say piracy is great in some senses but not for the games you feel it's not needed for.
 

Gindil

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Stiffkittin said:
Still I think we can agree that pirating undoubtedly has some, not insignificant, negative impact on the industry as a whole. If nothing else but for the uncertainty and sense of insecurity it creates. Which negatively impacts us all in the form of draconian DRM, crazy pricing, market conservativeness etc.
Sure. People pay for what they like in a game and won't purchase a game if there's too much hassle. Spore showed us that. Hell, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 project showed us that people will focus on a game that goes against what they don't want. And if I want a break from the DRM? A quick google search and voila, DRM broken. Is piracy a big deal versus giving your customers what they want?

Also, I'd dispute the fact that you would call out the criminality of piracy as intellectually dishonest. The true right or wrong of it is certainly a bit vague but the legality isn't. Obtaining copyrighted intellectual property in the form of interactive software and copying it or installing it on your computer without paying the retail license fee to use it is copyright infringement which is certainly not legal in most countries. I'd agree that many things are seriously rotten in copyright-law-town but for better or worse this is the current way that artists and developers insure they get paid for their work so thumbing your nose at these laws is criminal.
Here's the problem of piracy as intellectually dishonest. As I detailed in my previous statement, the law is used to hamper customers for business reasons. I have NO say in what I do with "Blizzard's" game. I basically bought a license to use it. I didn't buy a game, I bought a license. That is absolutely BS.

Let's also realize this, intellectual property is NOT true property. When I buy a game, I am supposed to have rights to it. The right to burn a copy of it and play it as I see fit. the right to give away a copy or the original as I want to. The problem arises when every industry is lobbying Congress for more Draconian laws that have no effect on the market place save to fill their coffers. We've had the DMCA (US law) for 10 years? Has it made gaming more secure? Has it truly made piracy evaporate? Or has it influenced more game makers to focus less on gaming and more on litigation?

Well...:
Blizzard won a default judgement of 88$ million for "copyright infringement" on their "intellectual property"

The PC has shifted to the playground of Steam and GoG who license their engine and allow modding.

Ubisoft has backed away from their always on broadband from Assassin's Creed

EA and Spore. Nuff said.

Blizzard sues three hackers who aren't even in the country. All for a tool that changes the game around from what Blizzard want.

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Quite frankly, I like to play a game MY way. A game maker can give parameters but if they decide to come off too strongly as antigamer, they should expect consequences. Regardless, the industry has moved on away from IP law and no one truly sees it. There are now Free 2 play games that make a LOT of money. I expect in the next few years, we'll see them take down the Blizzard juggernaut fairly subtly. All without a concern for piracy destroying their industry.
 

sniddy_v1legacy

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Jul 10, 2010
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OK - just gotta add this

I've pirated games....and either deleted them as (I though) they were trash within a day or two (about 50 - 60%)

Played them for a bit, maybe a week before ditching them....kinda enjoyed them but meh - no appeal, glad I didn't waste my money (20 - 30%)

OR

Brought the hard copy...(10 - 20%)

There are 2 or 3 games in my collection I would not have - had I not pirated them...and there are 2 or 3 that wouldn't be there had I waited and tired before I buy-ed

So are all 2.x million downloads lost sales? No - most wouldn't buy it some will afterwards....some are genuine lost sales

And all the anti piracy stuff gets on my nerves, I own cracked copies of at least 2 games I own simply to either not have the disc present or some other annoyance....

With all the 'evil pirates' and software thieves there is no way to trail (and not some crappy demo) a PC game, one game would cost over half my disposable income for a month....call me wrong, call me immoral, call me what you like...I think it's sensible

If developers could find a way to actually let me trial things legally...I'd be happier, as it is if I drop notes on a game it's either a preorder I'm taking a risk on, or something I've already gotten into.