• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Doom 3 piracy

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Originally posted by: Hardcore
To those that justify themselves by saying they're giving warez a 'test drive' before purchasing it, i say BS. Maybe once in a blue moon you might buy a game you've already downloaded, or you need a key to play online, but it's easier just to say "I finished the game, and it was good, but not good enough for a collection. So i'll just save my money for a videocard purchase." etc etc

If you're going to commit a crime, then commit it. Don't justify all this bullsh1t. Just be honest and say "Yes i download warez. I don't care if i'm stealing, if i'm taking away from the developers."

That said, the numbers on how much warez really hurt the industry is BS as well. Just because 50,000 people have downloaded the game, doesn't mean those 50,000 people would have bought the game if a download wasn't available. Some people download because they're curious, others just because they're a sort of packrat, and download whatever they can, others because they don't have the money for the actual purchase of course, and if a download wasn't available, these people wouldn't have been customers anyways.

But i do feel for id for having the game warez already. It's a singleplayer game, so there isn't much incentive for the warez kiddies to buy the game once they've downloaded it.
Click to expand...
Every game gets warez'd so this is nothing new. That said, I have a feeling you're wrong about Doom3. JC is almost worshiped in the gaming circle and I think most gamers will pay up for his work. I'll admit I downloaded it off Usenet and it's working perfectly but I've got my preorder at EB Games and I will be purchasing it by the weekend. Why? Because I tried it, I liked it, so I'm buying it.

If everyone downloads games instead of paying for them the developers will stop making them. None of us want that. The right thing to do is if you like it, buy it. 🙂
 
If they would release the demo, a lot of people who want to "try it out" wouldn't have to warez the game. They should release demos at or before a game's release.
 
Originally posted by: AmericasTeam
Originally posted by: Giantsfan24
I understand the lure to go to some p2p network and dowload the game for free but I have a real problem with it. Not only are you cheating the company out of like 2.5 million dollars(i saw a report that said like 50,000 copies have been illegally downloaded) but you hurting the genre that you love. Less money the developer makes, less money they spend upgrading the game. I play a couple nes roms and i try to find the actual copy of the game so it is legal. Any rom is illegal unless you own the game but i think you can have it 24 hours then you must delete it. But a brand new game is not like an nes game or even genesis or snes. Nintendo and genesis are not getting any money from the selling of used games but the publisher of doom 3 is and i would encourage people to think not only is it illegal but it also hurts the genre and game that you love playing. I am a christian but even if i werent, id like to think that i would feel the same way. Thank You for allowing my rant.
Click to expand...

I was starting to believe what you were saying (typing), but then you said you were a Christian.
Click to expand...

Well you are entitled to your opinion. I do think thats a bit close minded. Its like saying yes, you can find a chance at world peace....wait....your a democrat...nope won't work but still, your entitled to your opinion.
 
I agree with this wholeheartedly; as I stated in my previous post, the sole reason I obtained a warez copy was to test the game's performance on my system. Had a demo been available, this would not have been necessary.
 
Originally posted by: BigJ
I pre-ordered Doom3 months ago along with a bunch of other people I know. I wont receive it until tomorrow, so I got a copy from a friend who downloaded it, and he also had it pre-ordered several months ago. I really don't think they're taking that aspect of the game into account. Some people (like myself) just can't wait for it, even though we already shelled out $50+ for it.
Click to expand...

exact same thing for me
 
Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
If they would release the demo, a lot of people who want to "try it out" wouldn't have to warez the game. They should release demos at or before a game's release.
Click to expand...

I agree, but to say you downloaded a copy just to test your hardware is pretty weak. Either make peace with the fact that you're stealing, or don't do it.
 
I would like to see an official purchase to download these days. But not like steam. I want to download a full set of CD images so I can burn legal CDs or DVDs and use them. This can be a big piracy problem so maybe they can create a download specific decryption key for each download, finding how to do it is the more difficult part. And any prorated copies may be tracked from the specific key.

Legal + a decent download unlike the steam crap. Best of both worlds. Thinks this will ever happen.
 
Originally posted by: brigden
Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
If they would release the demo, a lot of people who want to "try it out" wouldn't have to warez the game. They should release demos at or before a game's release.
Click to expand...

I agree, but to say you downloaded a copy just to test your hardware is pretty weak. Either make peace with the fact that you're stealing, or don't do it.
Click to expand...
Why is testing your setup a weak reason to download it? There's no demo available and at $55 + tax it's not like this is a bargain bin game. And if someone downloads it then buys it or downloads it and ends up not playing it for whatever reason who's out any money? In either case there's no gain or loss so I'd hardly call it stealing.

Oh, you might want to move out of that glass house before you break a window... 😉 😛
 
Originally posted by: Hardcore
To those that justify themselves by saying they're giving warez a 'test drive' before purchasing it, i say BS. Maybe once in a blue moon you might buy a game you've already downloaded, or you need a key to play online, but it's easier just to say "I finished the game, and it was good, but not good enough for a collection. So i'll just save my money for a videocard purchase." etc etc

If you're going to commit a crime, then commit it. Don't justify all this bullsh1t. Just be honest and say "Yes i download warez. I don't care if i'm stealing, if i'm taking away from the developers."

That said, the numbers on how much warez really hurt the industry is BS as well. Just because 50,000 people have downloaded the game, doesn't mean those 50,000 people would have bought the game if a download wasn't available. Some people download because they're curious, others just because they're a sort of packrat, and download whatever they can, others because they don't have the money for the actual purchase of course, and if a download wasn't available, these people wouldn't have been customers anyways.

But i do feel for id for having the game warez already. It's a singleplayer game, so there isn't much incentive for the warez kiddies to buy the game once they've downloaded it.
Click to expand...

I in turn call BS on this.
I do this with damn near every game I get, and my game collection is quite large.
The only games I haven't downloaded before making my decision recently have been WarCraft III and Diablo II(if you can call that recent), along with some spontaneous purchases.
I buy Blizzard games without trying them because I tend to be confident they'll make a great game, and so far they haven't let me down, I'll do likewise with Doom 3, however I'd never do that with Farcry, a game from an(to me) unknown developer, I downloaded that first, it was good, very good in fact, so I bought it.

I've been burned by those spontaneous purchases a few times too many not to try it first, be it through a demo or a pirate version.
 
I wonder HOW MANY purchases are made of software
that are never gotten to work on some unsuspecting soul's
hardware, purchased - but defective and never returned,
or purchased and simply do not work and never returned by MFG.

I would like to see those stats but more than likely never will....
 
Originally posted by: Sunner
I in turn call BS on this.
I do this with damn near every game I get, and my game collection is quite large.
The only games I haven't downloaded before making my decision recently have been WarCraft III and Diablo II(if you can call that recent), along with some spontaneous purchases.
I buy Blizzard games without trying them because I tend to be confident they'll make a great game, and so far they haven't let me down, I'll do likewise with Doom 3, however I'd never do that with Farcry, a game from an(to me) unknown developer, I downloaded that first, it was good, very good in fact, so I bought it.

I've been burned by those spontaneous purchases a few times too many not to try it first, be it through a demo or a pirate version.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup: I agree completely. I download or "pirate" every new game I want to try, but that doesn't have a representative demo available. After I play for a few hours or so, I either remove it from my harddrive completely, or I go find the cheapest version for sale and buy it. I've done this with JK2, WCIII, CoD, UT, etc. I don't feel the least bit guilty. I own a legit license or CD for every game I play, even if it takes a week or so to get it.

I have a warez copy of DIII that I'm playing now. I played some last night, mostly to tweak my system. I finally got it to run nicely, so I figure I'll play for a few hours this week to see if I'll go buy it. (I can honestly say that if it doesn't get any better, I'll end up just deleting it. It's pretty, I guess, but monotonous as hell.)

No everyone is an "3vil war3z p1rate." Is what I'm doing legal? No. Is it immoral? I don't think so.
 
without warez i would never have bough such games at bf1942 and RtCW

it pisses me off that someone takes to the Software forum to bitch and moan about piracy. they complain about the sales lost, but never mention a damn thing about sales gained. everyone on this forum know what piracy is and its illegality (in the US at least). if you don't like it, fine: don't do it. if however, you are a person like myself that would actually like to try a game before buying it (remember, there is no doom3 demo), then maybe you should STFU and mind your own

edit: and for those of you calling foul on this school of thought, i'm glad i'm protecting myself from the inflated prices of crappy games. maybe if games were a bit more reasonable in price, i'd be more apt to buy them
 
Originally posted by: Robor
Originally posted by: brigden
Originally posted by: GeneralGrievous
If they would release the demo, a lot of people who want to "try it out" wouldn't have to warez the game. They should release demos at or before a game's release.
Click to expand...

I agree, but to say you downloaded a copy just to test your hardware is pretty weak. Either make peace with the fact that you're stealing, or don't do it.
Click to expand...
Why is testing your setup a weak reason to download it? There's no demo available and at $55 + tax it's not like this is a bargain bin game. And if someone downloads it then buys it or downloads it and ends up not playing it for whatever reason who's out any money? In either case there's no gain or loss so I'd hardly call it stealing.

Oh, you might want to move out of that glass house before you break a window... 😉 😛
Click to expand...

There are recommended specs on the game's box. It has been widely documented by professional reviewers on how the game handles on particular machines. You have some idea beforehand just how your machine will run the game.

Besides, $60 isn't an investment; if you purchase a game and your machine can't handle it, or you don't like it, you've lost a few bucks. If you think $60 is too much to risk, you shouldn't be buying games in the first place.

Go ahead, download it, but please don't mince about words and BS about "testing" your rig. If you want it and don't want to pay for it, just download it.
 
Originally posted by: eklass
without warez i would never have bough such games at bf1942 and RtCW

it pisses me off that someone takes to the Software forum to bitch and moan about piracy. they complain about the sales lost, but never mention a damn thing about sales gained. everyone on this forum know what piracy is and its illegality (in the US at least). if you don't like it, fine: don't do it. if however, you are a person like myself that would actually like to try a game before buying it (remember, there is no doom3 demo), then maybe you should STFU and mind your own

edit: and for those of you calling foul on this school of thought, i'm glad i'm protecting myself from the inflated prices of crappy games. maybe if games were a bit more reasonable in price, i'd be more apt to buy them
Click to expand...

What do you think a reasonable price for a game is? (Keep in mind Doom 3 took years and cost between $15-20 million Dollars to produce.)

I can't walk into a movie, watch it, and pay them only if I liked it. What makes you think you have the right to try before you buy?

Guys, I'm not trying to play the moral or ethical card here, but a spade is a spade is a spade. If you want it, but don't want to pay for it, just download it. Stop justifying your actions with pure BS.
 
Originally posted by: brigdenThere are recommended specs on the game's box. It has been widely documented by professional reviewers on how the game handles on particular machines. You have some idea beforehand just how your machine will run the game.

Besides, $60 isn't an investment; if you purchase a game and your machine can't handle it, or you don't like it, you've lost a few bucks. If you think $60 is too much to risk, you shouldn't be buying games in the first place.

Go ahead, download it, but please don't mince about words and BS about "testing" your rig. If you want it and don't want to pay for it, just download it.
Click to expand...
You are taking piracy just a bit too seriously IMO; it is bad in theory, but depending on circumstances can be good in practice. This is an unusual case where no demo was available at the time of release; it is not unreasonable for a person to want to see how it runs on their specific configuration before parting with 60 bucks. There are some of us who mean just what we say: we downloaded it to play through a level or two and see how the framerate held up, and following that we deleted it from our hard drive and plan to pick up a copy at the store today. No one will ever convince me that there is a moral issue with that course of action. Your only argument remaining is that $60 is "just a few bucks," which is not only subjective, but frankly ridiculous, at least for most folks.
 
Originally posted by: brettjrob
Originally posted by: brigdenThere are recommended specs on the game's box. It has been widely documented by professional reviewers on how the game handles on particular machines. You have some idea beforehand just how your machine will run the game.

Besides, $60 isn't an investment; if you purchase a game and your machine can't handle it, or you don't like it, you've lost a few bucks. If you think $60 is too much to risk, you shouldn't be buying games in the first place.

Go ahead, download it, but please don't mince about words and BS about "testing" your rig. If you want it and don't want to pay for it, just download it.
Click to expand...
You are taking piracy just a bit too seriously IMO; it is bad in theory, but depending on circumstances can be good in practice. This is an unusual case where no demo was available at the time of release; it is not unreasonable for a person to want to see how it runs on their specific configuration before parting with 60 bucks. There are some of us who mean just what we say: we downloaded it to play through a level or two and see how the framerate held up, and following that we deleted it from our hard drive and plan to pick up a copy at the store today. No one will ever convince me that there is a moral issue with that course of action. Your only argument remaining is that $60 is "just a few bucks," which is not only subjective, but frankly ridiculous, at least for most folks.
Click to expand...

I've donwloaded it, run timedemo, now I'm off to play my (legal) copy of UT2004.
You test drive cars, why not games 😛
 
You assume that those that download would pay for the game if they didn't have the ability to pirate it. I'm not necessarily justifying pirating software, but the "losses" you speak of are grossly incorrect.
 
Originally posted by: Lonyo
Originally posted by: brettjrob
Originally posted by: brigdenThere are recommended specs on the game's box. It has been widely documented by professional reviewers on how the game handles on particular machines. You have some idea beforehand just how your machine will run the game.

Besides, $60 isn't an investment; if you purchase a game and your machine can't handle it, or you don't like it, you've lost a few bucks. If you think $60 is too much to risk, you shouldn't be buying games in the first place.

Go ahead, download it, but please don't mince about words and BS about "testing" your rig. If you want it and don't want to pay for it, just download it.
Click to expand...
You are taking piracy just a bit too seriously IMO; it is bad in theory, but depending on circumstances can be good in practice. This is an unusual case where no demo was available at the time of release; it is not unreasonable for a person to want to see how it runs on their specific configuration before parting with 60 bucks. There are some of us who mean just what we say: we downloaded it to play through a level or two and see how the framerate held up, and following that we deleted it from our hard drive and plan to pick up a copy at the store today. No one will ever convince me that there is a moral issue with that course of action. Your only argument remaining is that $60 is "just a few bucks," which is not only subjective, but frankly ridiculous, at least for most folks.
Click to expand...

I've donwloaded it, run timedemo, now I'm off to play my (legal) copy of UT2004.
You test drive cars, why not games 😛
Click to expand...

A game is a form of entertainment, not an investment or a material necessity. You can't test drive movies or theme parks, why should you be able to test drive a game?

Granted, a demo should have been made available, just as movies are advertised with trailers, music is played on the radio. However, I'm still not sold on the merits of the argument. I can guarentee it wouldn't hold up from a legal perspective either.
 
I agree, but to say you downloaded a copy just to test your hardware is pretty weak. Either make peace with the fact that you're stealing, or don't do it.
Click to expand...
That's not really what I meant. Testing hardware is great, but I'd meant trying the game out (legally) before buying it.

Granted, a demo should have been made available, just as movies are advertised with trailers, music is played on the radio. However, I'm still not sold on the merits of the argument.
Click to expand...
And that's all I am talking about.

There are recommended specs on the game's box. It has been widely documented by professional reviewers on how the game handles on particular machines. You have some idea beforehand just how your machine will run the game.
Click to expand...
Game reccomended specs are complete BS. Just about every game is unplayable with the minimum specs, and most are unplayable with the socalled "reccomended" specs. Take a look at Doom 3 performance with the "minimum" specs, 6 fps minimum, 22 average is hardly what I call reasonable.
 
Originally posted by: Xenon14
You assume that those that download would pay for the game if they didn't have the ability to pirate it. I'm not necessarily justifying pirating software, but the "losses" you speak of are grossly incorrect.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. This is getting blown waaay out of proportion! Doom3 is a game that you BETTER have a bad ass rig to play it. Most of the people downloading it probably won't even be able to play it. And I'm not convinced that most of the people downloading it would have even bought it. I'm not saying it is right, I'm just saying it's getting blown way out of proportion.

BTW, I bought my copy of Doom 3 last night. 😉 Great game, and I think John Carmack and the id team deserves every bit of what I paid for it. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Giantsfan24
I understand the lure to go to some p2p network and dowload the game for free but I have a real problem with it. Not only are you cheating the company out of like 2.5 million dollars(i saw a report that said like 50,000 copies have been illegally downloaded) but you hurting the genre that you love. Less money the developer makes, less money they spend upgrading the game. I play a couple nes roms and i try to find the actual copy of the game so it is legal. Any rom is illegal unless you own the game but i think you can have it 24 hours then you must delete it. But a brand new game is not like an nes game or even genesis or snes. Nintendo and genesis are not getting any money from the selling of used games but the publisher of doom 3 is and i would encourage people to think not only is it illegal but it also hurts the genre and game that you love playing. I am a christian but even if i werent, id like to think that i would feel the same way. Thank You for allowing my rant.
Click to expand...


Don't take this the wrong way Giantsfan24, I agree on the piracy thing, but I have to ask - What is a christian doing playing Doom3 anyway!?!? Does it glorify God somehow?

Sorry, but had to ask.
 
This is the exact same argument as the whole MP3 piracy thing, or even movies... except you don't really have the evil RIAA- or MPAA-type figures. The fact is, I can't justify dropping $50 a game, $20 a CD, or $10 (and 2 hours) on a movie every time one interests me. I'll download a movie, and if the first 10 minutes suck, I stop watching... it's a lot harder to justify that in a theatre. With music, I don't want to drop $20 on a 15 song LP only to learn there's only 2 decent tracks on it. I own about 400+ cds, but I'd bet that in my lifetime I've downloaded around 2000. I don't feel too badly about that... if an artist can't put together a decent album, they don't deserve my money - I'll get a copy of the single I like on a compilation or something.

So the same goes with gaming (or other software, as far as I'm concerned) - shareware/trialware has always been a great idea. You demo the program for 30 days, if you like it, you give the author $25. I'm too lazy to look who said it, but having a playable demo out would immediately invalididate all the 'try it before you buy it' piracy justifications. Well, for the most part... I mean, you gotta figure that they might put some extra work into the demo, and that might be as good as it gets... kinda like hearing the hit single off a one-hit-wonder album.

In any case, obviously, I'm all about downloading, well, just about everything. If I like it, I'm also down with paying for it - be it movies or music, apps or games. I'd say that a good ammount of piracy doesn't result in lost sales... for financial or other reasons, there are a lot of users out there who wouldn't go out and get this stuff if it wasn't free.

How many of you have ever borrowed a movie to watch from a friend... or borrowed a CD to listen to? Borrowed a console game, beat it, gave it back, and never bought your own copy? Not much different, as I see it.
 
Originally posted by: Booty
How many of you have ever borrowed a movie to watch from a friend... or borrowed a CD to listen to? Borrowed a console game, beat it, gave it back, and never bought your own copy? Not much different, as I see it.
Click to expand...

Yes, because sharing a single physical copy of something between you and your friend is the same is distributing a exact copy to 100's of million's of people all over the world via the internet.


Lethal
 
Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
the problem wouldnt be this bad if theyd freakin offer a demo!

geez
Click to expand...


i agree. some developers never make demos, PERIOD. neverwinter nights doesn't have a demo. i downloaded it, tried it out, had fun, and now i have NWN and both expansions legitimately. i think a demo should be released before the game is released, or on the release date. unreal 2 was pretty hyped up, and ended up sucking. saved myself $40 (got nwn instead 😛).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top