You are killing PC gaming. (Updated)

[MiodekPL]

I'm really sorry, but I always buy my games. And I know that it's a right thing to do.

 

[Ivan Issaccs]

Curse us PC gamers torrenting.
And curse us all for buying pre owned games too and not supporting the industry!

 

[CerealKiller]

My humble opinion is that all the butchering (slicing and dicing if you preffer) that's happening in the pc games (MW 2 for instance) isn't about pirating.Piracy is just a good excuse for developers so they can do that.

I believe that the actual reason is to make less work and make more money.There are allready gamers who are fine with how MW 2 has been delivered and future gamers will be happy with even less!Especially the console gamers,unfortunatelly,are almost welcoming the laziness of the game companies.Is it because they can't do otherwise since they allready bought the console?I don't know really.(i'm not accusing them or anything so relax)

Game companies are driving away the old gamers,those who have seen more and will naturally demand more and new things.They are targeting those who will buy a game no matter how messed up it is,especially when we talk about series.We've seen many times in series that either there isn't any real progress or new ideas or there's actually a downfall to them but the developers keep making them because people who've played the past titles will go for the sequels too just for the hell of it.


My point is that,even if piracy would dissapear completely tomorrow the game companies wouldn't change their ways.Is there a way to stop it?Not really.

 

[SneakyCanuck]

I for one truly hate a majority of PC games, only because of the argument "mods keep the game going". if thats the case, get the source engine and never play another game ever.

You hate PC gamers because they like to modify their games into something better...great logic there.

Its true that consoles pull their weight with games, after all, its cheaper the buy a console and a game for just under $400 [if new] and play it immediately, while you have to constantly update/upgrade almost everything in a computer every six months. Its just more economic to have a console.

I don't understand why I see this argument, as wrong as it is, time and time again.
I've had my computer for 5 years with no upgrades and it can still take whatever system specs devs throw at it. You would have to be out of your mind to buy new hardware every 6 months.

as for pirating games, a number of 360 and ps3 owners used to do it, but thankfully Microsoft and Sony dont put up with that bullshit.

More like they try to get rid of it and fail miserably in the process, just like all other attempts to stop piracy.

as for Madden, its the exact same game from '98, only with marginally better graphics. now had they actually ADDED something new to the game in the past decade, it might of been a good series.

tell me that its needed for a new madden game every year when all the states and team rosters could just as easy be changed with patches.

Now this I agree with.

On another note about how "poorly" the PC version of CoD4 did. Activision is simply doing what all the other cool kids seem to be doing, complaining about retail sales while ignoring the vastly superior digital distribution sales.

 

[AgentNein]

Yes, YOU. If you are one of the vast majority of people who pirate copies of video games, you are causing a huge problem.

People complain that their beloved PC games are being cut from development or are losing support, but companies can't keep making games or providing support because it costs money, yeah all of your hard earned money for buying a game isn't going to the publisher. The developer needs money for their own salaries and for development and support of their game and future games. Pirating is like going to a game store and just stealing a copy. Think, would you really go to say Best Buy, and just grab a couple of games and walk out? Using CoD4 as an example, up to 60% of players online were using pirated games, and the removal of dedicated servers could also be part of the of control piracy.

If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released as a PC exclusive, I'm sure you would have seen no dedicated servers, and no MW2. These games are surviving on console sales, and its no surprise that games like EA's extremely popular Madden NFL games are being dropped...it's just not worth the time, effort and money to make a free game.

This isn't happening as bad with consoles because it is so hard to mod your console, and if you go online, you can say goodbye to your PSN, or XBL account.

So next time you complain about the dying art of PC gaming, think, what can I do to prevent this?

Feel free to argue your point against me, or provide your thoughts.

[small]I did a quick search and didn't see anything on this, if their is, please provide a link and let this die.

FYI This ISN'T a MW2 Topic.

Edited for better structure.[/small]

Answering the bolded points

- No it's not. You clearly don't understand how most pirates work. A large portion trial then buy. There will always be cheapskates. How does borrowing a game off a friend factor in to this for you? Am i currently pirating Call of Duty as it's my friends, and i haven't paid for it?

I'd love to see your reliable data backing this up. I know if I were pirating games I'd really have no problem saying 'oh, well I'd just buy it anyway if I dig it'.

Also, if I own a game, I'm completely authorized to do what I want with said physical copy of the game, including letting friends borrow it. This is quite different than if say, I had a clone machine, cloned said game and just gave it to everybody. It's all about scale.

 

[MiodekPL]

I only pirate software (£300 for photoshop? I think not....)

I might pirate MW2 and not play on it just to spite Activison, Recommended retail price (As sais by activison) £55? no way (Note you cant find it for the price Activision recommened for it as it was too much so every where sold it for £ 40-45)

You're silly now. Go get a Paint.NET or GIMP. Every office program has a free counterpart. Even for vector graphics or AutoCAD

 

[Sebenko]

I love my boxes. I always buy games. I once said I'd pirate Spore to spite EA, but never bothered.

 

[gamefreakbsp]

What makes you think I care?
I don't play games on the PC anyway.
Nor do I pirate.
You're the PC gamers, you fix the problem.

It certainly isn't my concern.

Why do you even bother commenting if it doesn't concern you?

Because it is infinitely entertaining pissing off PC gamers who are now forced to play games that are on the level of what everybody else is playing. Oh the agony.

 

[The DSM]

I only pirate software (£300 for photoshop? I think not....)

I might pirate MW2 and not play on it just to spite Activison, Recommended retail price (As sais by activison) £55? no way (Note you cant find it for the price Activision recommened for it as it was too much so every where sold it for £ 40-45)

You're silly now. Go get a Paint.NET or GIMP. Every office program has a free counterpart. Even for vector graphics or AutoCAD

But the more expensive it is, the more satisifying it is to steal, stealing a 24 carat gold bar is more satisfying than a stick of chewing gum ( I hate gum bleh)

 

[Darktau]

One quote:

Pirates don't kill PC gaming, DRM does.

 

[cyber_andyy]

i reckon soon pirates will own consoles, and PC will then become the favorite again. Its only a matter of time before consoles see the same level of piracy.

 

[TylerC]

While in ArmA, you could not shoot straight if you had a pirated copy of the game.

actually, the FADE DRM slowly degrades the game to the point that it is literally unplayable.

I cant even describe how unplayable it becomes, imagine if you have a fairly slow computer where you have input lag [moving your mouse right takes three to five seconds compared to the 1:1 ratio it has as default], not put that with everything, flying, moving, chatting, shooting. but most online servers have an autoban on people using illegal copies that is turned on by default.

FADE DRM makes a faux scratch on the game disk, when someone creates a crack for it, the program sees these scratches and auto fixes them, you cannot change this. The scrathes are read by the computer and sent to a mother server which verifies that the scratches are real, thus letting you play a non degradable version.

honestly its one of the better DRM's out there, simply because at first you fail to realize anything is wrong.

I'm assuming this is like the Batman: Arkham Asylum, game ending DRM? Although PC gamers did end up finding a way to patch that.

 

[Darktau]

i reckon soon pirates will own consoles, and PC will then become the favorite again. Its only a matter of time before consoles see the same level of piracy.

Console piracy is just the same as PC piracy, if not easier for pirates, all you need is a blank DVD and you can go online -.-.

 

[Summerstorm]

Butbutbutbut...

Just a question: Why isn't piracy on consoles regarded as a problem too? I know people who bought a 150$ Wii... and maybe 2-3 games... but somehow have about 50 games for it. Hell i think he bought Guitar Hero only for the controler.

Ah well i have to say: Yes of yourse i pirated some games too. More when i was a child... but i am proud to say: I buy nearly all my games, especially those of innovative designers. Hell i even bought some games just because i wanted to give them some money, not because the game was that good, but because i liked their ideas.

I still get me some pirated versions... and use them as demos. Well, i miss shareware i think *g*. But most games i don't play more than an hour, and either buy it or delete it for beeing crappy (most games)

 

[geldonyetich]

When World of Goo came out and the developer compared the number of people hitting up the high score board with the number of people who actually bought the game and found about 90% of them had pirated the game, then is when it was pretty clear that the PC platform is, indeed, far too heavily pirated.

That said, PC gaming isn't exactly dying, instead what's happening is we will still get games on the PC platform for three major reasons:

• 1. Because they already got a version made for another platform, it's a pretty easy conversion from there, and even if only 10% of PC gamers actually buy the thing, hey, that's still more money than it cost them to support the platform.
  
  2. Because it's a fairly easy platform to generate content for considering it's usually the platform the content was generated on to begin with, resulting in the vast majority of indy titles being on a PC. Even for a big name game, before a game ends up on a PS3, XBox 360, or even Nintendo DS, somebody was developing and even doing test runs of it on a PC. (Okay, a mac for the content.)
  
  3. Because developers are making a transition to subscription based services where ripping off the software doesn't make much difference so long as you're paying $15/mo to them to play the thing. Not to mention cloud gaming, technology being worked on that lets you play games without actually having them installed on your computer. Don't be too surprised if, once this technology is sufficiently developed, we're no longer permitted to install software on our computers.

This has been discussed so often in the past I might as well point you to the search button, but you do have the appropriate defend thyself stance to generate replies.

 

[Kinichie]

When World of Goo came out and the developer compared the number of people hitting up the high score board with the number of people who actually bought the game and found about 90% of them had pirated the game, then is when it was pretty clear that the PC platform is, indeed, far too heavily pirated.

Everyone outside the US had to wait 4-6 weeks longer for that game.

 

[MiodekPL]

But the more expensive it is, the more satisifying it is to steal, stealing a 24 carat gold bar is more satisfying than a stick of chewing gum ( I hate gum bleh)

Then you ARE as dumb as I thought. Thanks for picking developer's pockets wanker, thanks to the likes of You PC gaming is in bad shape.