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."
I buy the game, but only if I decide it's worth the risk.
I eliminate the risk completely by playing the game thoroughly before buying it.
I'm not going to waste a week of time trying to download a 2-6 gig game off of the internet which may or may not even work, and may even harm my computer.
If it takes you a week to download a game, then I can understand your reluctance. For most people, it is just a matter of hours, during which they can do other things while downloading in the background.
I don't like RTS's much, but I bought Company of Heroes and loved it, and I'm playing through it again because I played the Homeworld series and Dawn of War, and knew Relic could deliver a game I could enjoy regardless of genre.
While I'd love to have faith in every developer, reality does not allow me to. I loved Gothic 1 and 2 (in spite of generally mediocre reviews of both) and bought them. Gothic 3, however, was a complete mess. Luckily, I pirated it and discovered this for myself.
As I said before, the best research you can do is simply play the full, final game for yourself.
This comment was edited on Mar 10, 06:48.
Date
Subject
Author
Copyright © 1996-2024 Stephen Heaslip. All rights reserved.
All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Privacy Policy. Manage Cookie Settings.
News CGI copyright © 1999-2024 James "furn" Furness & Blue's News. All rights reserved.
Chatbear v1.5.0/blue++: Page generated 6 October 2024, 22:23.