[d0mm2k8]

QUOTE (Username482 @ Apr 20 2011, 11:08)

Say what you waynt to say,but I'm 100 % sure that people who download pirated games wouldnt buy a game,even if that game cost a dollar.

I've illegally downloaded a number of games and songs before. If it's sh*te I delete it, if it's good however, I support them by buying it.

I did pirate the uncut Manhunt 2 though, since it was only available for PC by legal download in the US, and not here in the UK.
Wasn't worth it.

[K^2]

The problem with piracy is nowhere near as bad as publishers/labels want you to believe. The losses quoted are usually numbers of copies downloaded times the full cost of the game/album, which is absolutely absurd.

First we start by considering elasticity of demand. All of the copies downloaded were acquired basically for free. Would all these people pay the full price if they couldn't download? Of course not. A small fraction would. Perhaps, many would pay a bargain price later on, but we are still talking a minor fraction of the number quoted. Next, how many of these people bought the game/album anyways? Personal experience and posts in this thread suggest that it's not a small number. Most, probably, at bargain prices, but these are still not sales lost.

So far, we are still talking losses, how about benefits of piracy? It's free advertisement. Sure, people who downloaded a copy did not contribute to the sales, but what about people they talked to? It's word-of-mouth advertising, and if the game is good, that is the best kind of advertising.

I'm not going to say that industry isn't taking losses due to piracy. I'm sure they do, but nowhere remotely as great as they claim. Why do they overinflate the estimates? Because it allows them to excuse their actions when the employ draconian measures in DRM. The reason these measures are put in place is to allow publishers to milk every last drop of possible revenue. But do they explain it that way? No, of course not. They spin the piracy as a catastrophic revenue loss, and trying to get their customers to blame pirates for the unnecessarily strict DRM.



I'm not going to talk about morality of piracy. It's a bunch of baloney. There is only one issue, and it is issue of social responsibility. You can acquire a game for free, but it does ultimately mean less money to developers. If you can spend money on a game you like, you should. End of story. How much you can spend is for you to figure out. Determine that amount, and buy the games made by people you think should have that money. At that point, your social obligation is complete. If you choose to download more games/music past that point, it's not actually harming anyone, so it's between you and whatever legal system is in place.

[bammargera]

I'll download the game pirated, to make sure it works on my PC, then I'll buy the disc, but normally keep the pirated version installed because I can't be arsed to swap discs. IMO there's nothing wrong with this surely.

[DannyBee]

Too be fair I have pirate a few games sometimes, though it all depends, if it's a franchised game owned by a huge company I will probably pirate it and if I like it a real lot I'll buy it, but I will buy games off small indie developers because they need my money and I want to support them but I don't really want to support Activision for churning out the same game every year just re skinned with 1 new feature and even shorter single-player.

[*MURDOC*]

The only times I find myself downloading games without paying is when the game is literally no longer available for purchase anywhere.

On that note, anyone know where I can acquire a copy of "Bad Mojo"?

[YankeesPwnMets]

Here is my opinion on some things:

Microsoft Windows: Microsoft shouldn't be expecting people to be able to afford their horribly overpriced software. Same with Apple.

Music: Artists have enough money already. Those fools don't need anymore money. Same with actors and directors.

Games: They aren't that expensive, except for those 60 dollar new games. I really don't see why people pirate it. Just wait for some sort of Steam or Amazon sale and you could get some games for as little as $5

[*MURDOC*]

QUOTE (YankeesPwnMets @ May 12 2011, 18:11)

Music: Artists have enough money already. Those fools don't need anymore money. Same with actors and directors.

Nice generalization there homeslice.

[Josh]

QUOTE (YankeesPwnMets @ May 13 2011, 00:11)

Music: Artists have enough money already. Those fools don't need anymore money. Same with actors and directors.

So you'd be in favour of imposing a sort of oligopoly where only those who have built up enough money to be able to afford to have ther music given away can actually sustain themselves in the market. In fact your statement makes no real sense because they aren't fools, and many of the small bands scraping a living through iTunes downloads certainly don't have enough money...

[YankeesPwnMets]

QUOTE (Josh @ May 13 2011, 17:45)

QUOTE (YankeesPwnMets @ May 13 2011, 00:11) Music: Artists have enough money already. Those fools don't need anymore money. Same with actors and directors. So you'd be in favour of imposing a sort of oligopoly where only those who have built up enough money to be able to afford to have ther music given away can actually sustain themselves in the market. In fact your statement makes no real sense because they aren't fools, and many of the small bands scraping a living through iTunes downloads certainly don't have enough money...

I am talking about those like Jay Z, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, etc. All the big names. The smaller, less popular artists, I don''t really listen to them.

[Josh]

That doesn't make your argument any less poor. Just because you don't listen to smaller artists doesn't mean that they don't have the right to survive and make money.

[post]

QUOTE (YankeesPwnMets @ May 14 2011, 13:40)

I am talking about those like Jay Z, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, etc. All the big names. The smaller, less popular artists, I don''t really listen to them.

it sounds like you have no need to pirate music. just turn on whatever pop radio station you have handy.

i honestly only play a couple of games a year and spend 100+ hours playing them. i've learned to tell the difference between a game that's worth my $$ and a game that's a waste -- i wouldn't think of buying 'kung fu panda II' for xbox, but i laid down my clams for fallout.

i feel like if you have unlimited free access to all games, you're going to have a harder time learning that discernment.

i agree with just about everyone here that it's impossible to stop, that it drives up game prices, and that that cost markup is inflated and largely artificial. IMO the used game market and outfits like steam hurt sales more than piracy does.

a good example from my actual life:

i have a mate that pirates lots of games and has steam and buys up a ton of games for pennies at every chance. i pay full price for 2-3 games a year. i suck the life out of games exploring every option. he gets bored with them in a day or two. he gave up on gran turismo because it took more than 20 minutes to set up a driver. he quit arkham asylum after level 2 because it was too hard. he got an illegal copy of fallout complete with trainer and got bored after half a weekend. he doesn't like multiplayer FPS games because he doesn't play them long enough to build up any skill - there's always a new game to play the next week. every day it's a new game he's talking about, and the next day he says it sucks. total gamer ADD.

maybe not a typical example, but it illustrates this point - when you don't have to earn something, you don't appreciate it. so there's a down side to the pirateers.

i'm not totally against piracy - there are am sure many situations where there isn't any other way to get a game, or it's just economically out of reach, as previous posts point out. i admit i pirate movies - i pirate foreign films that don't have a chance of showing up in a video stores ( there are still video stores? ) and TV shows - no different than a tivo IMO. if it IS worth owning, buy it. there's no way around the fact that piracy = theft, no matter how you try to justify it. we're not talking about bread to feed your kids here.

if i can't afford a game, then i don't have time to spend playing it either. if a game isn't worth paying for, it's not worth playing either.

[PHCharls]

Game piracy won't stop especially in poor countries like in south east Asia,southern Asia like in Indonesia,Burma,Thailand and other countries including my country


In my opinion,I don't really care of it.

This post has been edited by PHCharls on Sunday, Jun 19 2011, 13:16

[bobgtafan]

Piracy is 100 percent ok when a game isn't available through legal channels. If you live in Zimbabwe or something and can't get it otherwise go ahead. Otherwise I don't buy the other arguments for it. Industries such as gaming and music might not be able to survive/thrive at the level they could have otherwise due to privacy. Sure every person who pirates probably wouldn't of bought the product otherwise but piracy decreases the amount of innovative titles.

Think if you're a publisher and you're thinking of backing a new game. Both will get pirated at 20 percent. Are you going to go with
Game A. Which is amazing, but cost more delevopmentally. Not only that but it's a larger risk with audiences.
Game B. Which is just another generic FPS/RPG that has pretty explosions. It doesn't take much cost to make and will probably sell well.

With 20 percent of the potental audience already gone and the need to sell 1 million copies to regain investment, the standard ball of crap is more likely to be released. This goes with movies, books and a lesser extent music.

Since at piracy at some level reduces profits, it also by extention reduces investment. The less money for investment means less innovation, which means less Grand Theft Autos and Fallouts will rise in the future. Of course for the pirate this doesn't matter much since they get their fill then and their, ignoring the cost to themselves, others and the industry in the future.

I also don't buy the "The games crap anyway argument". If it is f*cking rent it. This is why we have gamefly, blockbuster and redbox. Gaming and other industries can't remain viable if when it's time to make a profit they have to hope those who played the game will feel like paying. Even if pirating is limited, it scares investors with the prospect that their resources, and delevopers time could of been used, had made an amazing game; hell work of art, only to not make enough money because of damn pirates.

That said I pirate, I'm not proud of it, it's not something to be f*cking proud of. It's stealing only without the damn gun. I'm no hypocrite, I fully understand the actions I partake in and the consequences they cause. As a result I'm reducing the amount of material I do pirate.

[goin-god]

QUOTE (YankeesPwnMets @ Thursday, May 12 2011, 20:11)

Games: They aren't that expensive, except for those 60 dollar new games. I really don't see why people pirate it. Just wait for some sort of Steam or Amazon sale and you could get some games for as little as $5

Maybe not in the US, but here they are f*cking expensive.

I have never bought a game. And god knows I have played lots of them. Do I like to pirate them? No I don't. I would much rather buy them and use all the nice features most pirated games don't have. But I just can't afford to buy them, they are not worth the overpriced price.
And like Blitz said, it is hard to find legal games here! I once went to Wall-Mart, they only had BF Bad Company (wich was really expènsive) and a bunch of noname games.
I would be more than happy to buy COD5 for example. I have no idea of where to do it (I don't buy things via internet).
Red Orchestra 2 is coming, and I soo want to enjoy it completly... wich means paying for it. It will be the first game I will pay for.

Just so you know, a 60 dollars game (like the stupid new COD's) costs 240 pesos (60x4 in my currency) + taxes.
There's no way I'm wasting that much money in videogames. How much do I pay if I buy it ilegally (although I download them now)? 60 pesos!

And there is no way Im getting a PS3... I would go bankrupt with the first couple of games.

[H3NR1QU3]

coin-god, you said EVERYTHING man, I totally feel your pain. Games and computer related things are the most overpriced sh*t ever and I just don't know what the f*ck they make with that money they earn with those absurd taxes.

Just look at this sh*t:

http://www.shoptime.com.br/ShopProdF/22/40...2022220%2022221

(PS3 Version)

R$ 169,90 and it was R$ 379,00 before. Who the hell would spend that money on a game when you can simply download it? Rich people would, but that's not the reality of most people here in Brazil, so I don't see piracy ending any time soon here.

An even worse example:

http://www.submarino.com.br/produto/12/108...+pc?menuId=1473

Vice City has what? 8, 7 years? and it's still R$ 79,90! In a local store that value would be even higher.

This post has been edited by H3NR1QU3 on Sunday, Jun 26 2011, 01:42

[DTUMan]

I do agree to the practice of pirating video games, as I have done so in the past - but I also buy games too. Like mentioned above, pirating a game can be a good method of testing whether or not the game works on your PC. Because if you go out and spend your money on a brand new PC game, install it and find out that it doesn't work on your PC - you have just wasted your money on a game that doesn't work, plus the disappointment that you can't even play the game. If you pirate the game beforehand, sure; there is the disappointment that the game didn't work, but at least you have as much money in your pockets afterwords.

Another situation I think that piracy is acceptable is if you are wanting to get the full version of an old game that doesn't get sold in stores any more - because there is no other way to get that game otherwise, and it wouldn't be affecting the developers of that game in any way either as they stopped producing copies of that particular game.

I also think that it is acceptable to pirate a game if you have brought the game previously, but have lost the original CD one way or another. Because you have given the developers a little of your money for the game that you brought, I don't see the problem with pirating it if you lost the CD instead of spending money and buying it again.

In conclusion, what is the difference between someone burning a game onto a blank CD for you, and downloading it from a website? You are still getting the game either way. People blow piracy way out of proportion but I am sure as sh*t that there are a fair share of people who are playing games that their friends burnt for them, and that doesn't even get a mention.

[vertical limit]

The only pirated games I have on PC are

GTA SA
MS Flight Simulator

Music, don't get me started.

[M.A.K]

QUOTE (vertical limit @ Sunday, Jun 26 2011, 10:28)

The only pirated games I have on PC are GTA SA MS Flight Simulator Music, don't get me started.

I usually get new games on my birthday i don't have to pay for them the last game i bought was GTA IV & the episode's of libert city which cost me $60 which in my currency are Rs.5160 god so expensive ,oh and music every one pirates that

[Carter.Slade]

In my country we don't download Pirated Games because in 10 out 5 gaming stores rent/sell the Pirated DVD's even more expensive then the original price.
As fas my experience I asked all the shopkeeper (those who sells pirated one) "can you order a original GTA:EFLC?" and all of them answered same that "It will cost about Rs.2000-2500"
I replied "but it costs only Rs500" and he was trying to deny it, but still people buy/rent those pirated games .
I still don't have GTA:EFLC as I was unable to find a legit version, I'll try to order it from a site with free home delivery and cash on delivery with even discounts and pre-order .

[ThePinkFloydSound]

There's not doubt that pirating games is wrong. It's stealing. Fact.

But, that's not to say I don't understand why people do it. Games costing over a €100 is just crazy and I sympathise with people stuck in a place where they get charged extortionate amounts.

There's also greed in this too for the guys selling the copied stuff. When I was in Turkey, even in the legitimate looking entertainment shops, they were selling ripped DVDs but the price wasn't that cheaper and it probably only cost the less than 20 cent to produce. That's f*cked.

I've downloaded games before like San Andreas, but I bought that game about twice, new and twice, second hand so I felt Rockstar still got my profits and in a sense, it was justifiable.

I'm not to sure about people downloading as a try before you buy thing. So, do people play the first mission of a game they wanted so bad, go through the trouble of installing, then stop after one mission. Uninstall it and by the game? Doubt people do that every time.