Piracy versus PC Gaming [Mar 09, 2007, 8:23 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Next Generation recaps a GDC talk titled "The Videogame Piracy Problem:
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest" by id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead about the
impact of piracy on the game industry. They outline how Mr. Hollenshead says the
estimated $3 billion economic loss caused by piracy in 2004 does not include
piracy that takes place on the Internet. There is also an article about this
talk on
Joystiq that focuses on the statement that piracy is a factor in id's
embrace of consoles, quoting Todd as saying "Piracy has pushed id as being
multiplatform." On a related note,
Can PC
Gaming Survive in a Console World (thanks
Digg) recaps a panel discussion on the topic that brought up a similar
point:
Part of the problem is piracy. Big titles get stolen by cyber thieves, and it hurts revenue. "The market," said Capps, "that would buy a $600 video card knows how Bittorrent works."
Does that mean casual games, which exponentially outsell what PC gaming traditionalists think of as A-list titles, will one day rule? Hilleman made a point: casual is a poor choice of words. The average player on EA's Pogo "casual" game network plays "for 24 hours a week. There's nothing casual about that."
There is some light in the PC gaming world. World of Warcraft, for instance, is a massive hit, and the upcoming Spore looks not only creative and different, but promising. The MMO and other social networking games could become the norm for PC gaming, with big-ticket titles growing rarer with each passing year. Johnson added that MMOs are "successful because you can't pirate WoW. You cannot pirate an MMO. Period." Therefore, he said, "game design on the PC is going to bend toward persistence."
Problem also Jerykk with the house analogy is, there are a myriad of laws to protect the buyer (at least in the states) against a fraudulent sale (not to say that doesn't happen, that's just wishful thinking and a different issue). There are none to protect gamers against well... fraudulent games?
Beamer hit it well, yes to some of us pirating is wrong because it's breaking the law/stealing/what-have you. The thing that people need to realize is and get off their DAMN HIGH HORSES AND REALIZE IS, you're just as guilty. We all speed, we all cut corners, don't use our blinkers, etc etc etc; saying someone is a filthy pirate is just silly. You do things that are "wrong" as well so stop acting all high and mighty as though you were perfect because you certainly aren't.
If I'm iffy on a game and there is no demo, yes I "try" before I buy. Sorry but being hosed by a company for a crappy game. Yeah it's stealing in the legal sense, and yes probably in the ethical sense as well. However (call it justification or whathaveyou), if if it's a game that I felt was deserving of continual play, I sure as hell will purchase it, if not I delete it out of some small respect of someone's work.
Comparing something like this to what I do, making hot tubs just doesn't work (for pure logistical reasons). However, I could fully understand if someone used one for a week, liked it and bought it, and if they didn't returned it. This is more akin to the timed demo rather than the content limited demo. With faster internet connections and whatnot these days I don't see any reason to not have the full game with a time limit set on it. This would allow people to see a larger scope of the game wouldn't give you some "discoloration" of the actual product (DX:2 being a prime example, same for several others).
Forgive the length of the post, wasn't exactly sober at the time
This comment was edited on Mar 10, 06:21.
Beamer hit it well, yes to some of us pirating is wrong because it's breaking the law/stealing/what-have you. The thing that people need to realize is and get off their DAMN HIGH HORSES AND REALIZE IS, you're just as guilty. We all speed, we all cut corners, don't use our blinkers, etc etc etc; saying someone is a filthy pirate is just silly. You do things that are "wrong" as well so stop acting all high and mighty as though you were perfect because you certainly aren't.
If I'm iffy on a game and there is no demo, yes I "try" before I buy. Sorry but being hosed by a company for a crappy game. Yeah it's stealing in the legal sense, and yes probably in the ethical sense as well. However (call it justification or whathaveyou), if if it's a game that I felt was deserving of continual play, I sure as hell will purchase it, if not I delete it out of some small respect of someone's work.
Comparing something like this to what I do, making hot tubs just doesn't work (for pure logistical reasons). However, I could fully understand if someone used one for a week, liked it and bought it, and if they didn't returned it. This is more akin to the timed demo rather than the content limited demo. With faster internet connections and whatnot these days I don't see any reason to not have the full game with a time limit set on it. This would allow people to see a larger scope of the game wouldn't give you some "discoloration" of the actual product (DX:2 being a prime example, same for several others).
Forgive the length of the post, wasn't exactly sober at the time
This comment was edited on Mar 10, 06:21.
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