Weak rant on yet another reason why I dont feel bad about pirating.

[Fritzo]

Yet somehow PC gaming exploded along with the internet, and made companies huge profits. All with nothing more than an easily crackable CD check. Pirates aren't your customers. You sell games to your customers, and the pirates don't matter.

You may think that, but piracy has killed more PC game developers than you would believe. The dev team behind Midtown Madness comes to mind. Awesome game, easy to pirate, they dropped out of the game.

Here's Epic's president on the matter:

“If you walked into [Epic's Offices] six years ago,” said Capps, “Epic was a PC company. We did one PS2 launch title, and everything else was PC. And now, people are saying ‘Why do you hate the PC? You’re a console-only company.’”

“And guess what?” he says, “It’s because the money’s on console.”

“We still do PC, we still love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy: it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model.”

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/05/16/epic-president-the-moneys-on-console/

 

[AMDZen]

Weak rant on yet another reason why I dont feel bad about pirating.

It isn't pirating if you own it. Plain and simple.

I download music all the time that I own because its less hassle then going downstairs, finding the CD and then ripping it to my computer. I didn't pirate or steal anything because I owned it.

 

[zinfamous]

give kid a coloring book. challenge his brain.

win?

 

[smitbret]

his airport analogy works wekll though, as the legit joe schmoe is getting screwed in both analogies :whiste:

It's not really a good analogy. Next time I hijack a movie or an .mp3, I'm pretty sure I'm not taking down an airplane full of people with me.

 

[Zargon]

It's not really a good analogy. Next time I hijack a movie or an .mp3, I'm pretty sure I'm not taking down an airplane full of people with me.

notice I merely pointed out the part that worked and left it that

give kid a coloring book. challenge his brain.

win?

isnt PvC a tower defense 'strategy game'? how would that NOT challenge the brain?

or are you in the same camp as my dumbass SIL who wont let her kids play video games because it rots their brain but lets them watch 6 hours of disney channel a day

 

[Fritzo]

It's not really a good analogy. Next time I hijack a movie or an .mp3, I'm pretty sure I'm not taking down an airplane full of people with me.

The analogy is to signify that you can't tell good and bad people at face value, so you must assume everyone is bad and have a screening process.

 

[shortylickens]

Amen.

Its why I went from purchasing a dozen new games a year, to only 1 or 2. The other part being the subpar quality of the shovelware these days.

This.
1: Too much bullshit in the good games.
2: Not enough good games.

 

[Zargon]

You may think that, but piracy has killed more PC game developers than you would believe. The dev team behind Midtown Madness comes to mind. Awesome game, easy to pirate, they dropped out of the game.

Here's Epic's president on the matter:



http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/05/16/epic-president-the-moneys-on-console/

6 years ago UT2003/4 was one of THE GAMES anyone who played FPS's, played

then they made it suck more(UT3, own it, barely touched it) and havent published shit on the PC since.

Hes blaming piracy but in reality since UT2003/4 the only good games they have released are Gears games and Shadow Complex(XBLA).

because one UT game bombed they gave up and waved the pirate flag

I like EPIC, I lived Unreal Tournament for a few years when Rainbow6/Rogue Spear died for MP

but geez, look in the mirror guys, you left PC gaming, it didnt leave you

hell I bought UT3 twice

 

[lord_emperor]

PVZ is pretty fun.....

Along these lines, if you own the DVD or bluray version of a movie, do you consider it stealing if you want to put said movie on your mobile device of choice and rather than spending the time to rip it yourself you grab an already ripped version of it somewhere else?

I own Star Wars on VHS and damn me if Lucas is getting another penny from me just to play them in another format.

 

[saratoga172]

stealing is stealing. do not look for excuses to justify it.

i'm sure your experience is one out of millions. i.e., extremely rare. call customer support again.

I'd call defaulting on CC's stealing too...

 

[RadiclDreamer]

give kid a coloring book. challenge his brain.

win?

PVZ is more engaging than a coloring book, he actually has to think to win. At 3 years old it was the first game he finished in its entirety, something my wife still has a little problems with.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

It isn't pirating if you own it. Plain and simple.

I download music all the time that I own because its less hassle then going downstairs, finding the CD and then ripping it to my computer. I didn't pirate or steal anything because I owned it.

Still, circumventing their schemes technically violates DMCA

 

[Lash444]

I own Star Wars on VHS and damn me if Lucas is getting another penny from me just to play them in another format.

This times a billion. The idea of going from

VHS -> DVD -> Bluray

and then the combinations of

Theatric trailer -> Director's Cut -> Special edition

Just makes me want to punch babies.

I would rather spend XX.XX on a movie, and have "digital rights" where I am entitled to that movie regardless of the medium that is currently available.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I have a bunch of old PC games that require some sort of CD Key to install/play. I used to keep all my keys in a text file. Then I had a hard drive failure. I didn't have the cases for most of my games any more, so now I have legal copies of dozens of games and no way to play them. When I toss a cartridge in my SNES, I can be assured that it will work (usually). Ditto for my N64, or Dreamcast, or PS1, or 2, or 3, or XboX, or 360, or Wii... but that's too much to ask of PC gamers. Steam's been a great alternative, as I only need to remember one password, but the only way I'll be able to play some of my games that I legally own is through "piracy." That's some bullshit right there.

 

[William Gaatjes]

It is also getting insane about dvd legally bought and owned.

I buy a dvd and what happens ? I have to sit through minutes of short videos where i am blamed and warned about stealing. And the worst part is that you cannot skip it. Actually i can skip it if i want to. But it is insane that i have to remove the copy protection and rip my own legally bought and owned dvd to HDD to be able to skip short videos and menus i do not want to see. I have less and less desire to honestly buy dvd's and just get illegal copies from wherever i can.

When it comes to movies or games you legally bought and own. Make sure you have the means to remove the copy protection in order to secure your own investment. That is the moral of all these histories.

 

[BoberFett]

PVZ is pretty fun.....

Along these lines, if you own the DVD or bluray version of a movie, do you consider it stealing if you want to put said movie on your mobile device of choice and rather than spending the time to rip it yourself you grab an already ripped version of it somewhere else?

You may not consider it piracy, but you can damn well be sure the MPAA does. They want you to pay for the same thing over and over and over and over. Copyright is out of control.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Your rant is the same as saying "When I go to an airport, know that I am not a terrorist and just let me on the damn plane."

There's no way to do that without safeguards. Just the same way there is no way to use software legally without safeguards. They're a necessary evil because one hack could mean the difference between providing income for a developer and rampant piracy.

For your analogy to work airports would have to have a back door that almost any terrorist can use to get on a plane with no hassle, while people that bought tickets has to stand in long lines and have their junk groped. If DRM actually worked it would not be so bad.

You may think that, but piracy has killed more PC game developers than you would believe. The dev team behind Midtown Madness comes to mind. Awesome game, easy to pirate, they dropped out of the game.

Only bad PC developers have been killed by piracy. Piracy will kill your company if you make a bad game and try to sell it by hyping it with lots of marketing dollars. Make a good product and plenty of people will buy it no matter how easy it is to pirate. We have seen that time and again as independent developers come out with games that have no DRM yet make them millions.
That is exactly what happened to Epic, they made a crap game and it didn't sell. So they moved over to consoles because 10 times as many people play games on consoles then on PCs, so even crap games make more money.

 

[William Gaatjes]

F

Only bad PC developers have been killed by piracy. Piracy will kill your company if you make a bad game and try to sell it by hyping it with lots of marketing dollars. Make a good product and plenty of people will buy it no matter how easy it is to pirate. We have seen that time and again as independent developers come out with games that have no DRM yet make them millions.
That is exactly what happened to Epic, they made a crap game and it didn't sell. So they moved over to consoles because 10 times as many people play games on consoles then on PCs, so even crap games make more money.

This is very true. Return to castle Wolfenstein i first received as an illegal copy and played it from start to end. I liked the game so much that i bought it legally after i had finished it. Good games need to be supported and always will be supported.

 

[Locut0s]

Only bad PC developers have been killed by piracy. Piracy will kill your company if you make a bad game and try to sell it by hyping it with lots of marketing dollars. Make a good product and plenty of people will buy it no matter how easy it is to pirate. We have seen that time and again as independent developers come out with games that have no DRM yet make them millions.
That is exactly what happened to Epic, they made a crap game and it didn't sell. So they moved over to consoles because 10 times as many people play games on consoles then on PCs, so even crap games make more money.

:thumbsup:

 

[sunzt]

 

[werepossum]

Like SandEagle I came here mainly to say I look forward to your rants on why you feel justified torching cars and touching children, but luckily I read your post. I don't think stealing is ever justified, but your complaints are spot-on. Publishers often do make things much more difficult for their paying customers. And if you've paid for something, I don't think it's stealing to download it from a torrent site if you cannot get an operable version through approved channels in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[werepossum]

For your analogy to work airports would have to have a back door that almost any terrorist can use to get on a plane with no hassle, while people that bought tickets has to stand in long lines and have their junk groped. If DRM actually worked it would not be so bad.
SNIP

The bitch is that all this happened after I was too old to want to stand in line to have my junk groped.

 

[mattpegher]

Although, I don't generally have the tech savvy to try pirating games, the same can be said for music. Over the past 35 years, I swear i have purchased some of the music 2 or 3 times. First LP, then cassette then CD and I will be damned if I am going to purchase it again. I did rip most of my CD's, and purchase digital music either from itunes or amazon, but there are thousands of titles I would purchase again if they would just put the old music on sale. My daughter wanted a copy of "blackbird" by the beatles and I realized that that was the one album I have yet to buy on CD, I had it on cassette (and reel-to-reel). So I bought it. Sort of feel dumb for doing so because it cost more today than it probably did when it was released on LP.
I just wish there was an outlet for music older than 20 years old, where you could legally buy it at like one tenth the price of new music. They could sure make it up in volume, they really have no overhead on these titles. And it is unlikely the original artist still gets anything from the sales.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

The bitch is that all this happened after I was too old to want to stand in line to have my junk groped.

You must have been desperate for action when you were young, huh...?

 

[Locut0s]

Although, I don't generally have the tech savvy to try pirating games, the same can be said for music. Over the past 35 years, I swear i have purchased some of the music 2 or 3 times. First LP, then cassette then CD and I will be damned if I am going to purchase it again. I did rip most of my CD's, and purchase digital music either from itunes or amazon, but there are thousands of titles I would purchase again if they would just put the old music on sale. My daughter wanted a copy of "blackbird" by the beatles and I realized that that was the one album I have yet to buy on CD, I had it on cassette (and reel-to-reel). So I bought it. Sort of feel dumb for doing so because it cost more today than it probably did when it was released on LP.
I just wish there was an outlet for music older than 20 years old, where you could legally buy it at like one tenth the price of new music. They could sure make it up in volume, they really have no overhead on these titles. And it is unlikely the original artist still gets anything from the sales.

Bu bu bu but thing of the Jacksons!? Think of Michael's kids. I mean if you don't buy Beatles music those kids will starve to death. :'(