Piracy and Why Its Killing Our Community

Street Fighter IV is the latest victim in the ever growing list of pirated console titles. Please, tell me how this is an issue exclusive to PC games again...

its not really the piracy that is killing our community, its the "profit" that is doing it..

piracy stems from people taking something because they believe that the price set by the publiser/dev are too high for what the product is worht, because the dev/publisher want to make X amount of profit.

piracy isnt the problem, its a symptom of the problem.( one of the many symptoms )

though im not supporting piracy, im just stating my 2 cents.

I'm a diehard fan of Boserup's theory behind human development: Necessity is the mother of invention. I thoroughly believe that brand new, inexperienced game producers can pull off an absolutely cracking game that will hardly get pirated - best example possible is The Witcher and its Enhanced Edition. When a company devotes so much love to its community and redoes the entire game and irons out bugs, redoes dialogue and enhances engine performance...you cannot pirate a game coming from such a dedicated and fabulous developer. Inexperience leads to creativity.

What I'm saying is this: Screw piracy, it's existed for decades much like corruption in the US government, if people really do care about their games and lifestlye, then they will do what Boserup said, and try to break through any barriers and find a way to beat piracy. DRM of course didn't work, but that was generated by EA Games, and my theory is that they use piracy as a scapegoat for what is in fact, their fault for making such shocking PC game ports that don't deserve our money.

Piracy will always exist, and the best way is to not fight it, but to accept it, and to try and work around it and generate something so powerful and with so much devotion...that piracy won't break its shell: Call of Duty 4 knew the threats, but they went ahead and created a stonking good game, that people knew deserved credit and their money. We need more dedicated and loving companies such as CD Projekt behind the Witcher, not money draining bastard entities such as EA games and Ubisoft.

I'm a diehard fan of Boserup's theory behind human development: Necessity is the mother of invention. I thoroughly believe that brand new, inexperienced game producers can pull off an absolutely cracking game that will hardly get pirated - best example possible is The Witcher and its Enhanced Edition. When a company devotes so much love to its community and redoes the entire game and irons out bugs, redoes dialogue and enhances engine performance...you cannot pirate a game coming from such a dedicated and fabulous developer. Inexperience leads to creativity.

What I'm saying is this: Screw piracy, it's existed for decades much like corruption in the US government, if people really do care about their games and lifestlye, then they will do what Boserup said, and try to break through any barriers and find a way to beat piracy. DRM of course didn't work, but that was generated by EA Games, and my theory is that they use piracy as a scapegoat for what is in fact, their fault for making such shocking PC game ports that don't deserve our money.

Piracy will always exist, and the best way is to not fight it, but to accept it, and to try and work around it and generate something so powerful and with so much devotion...that piracy won't break its shell: Call of Duty 4 knew the threats, but they went ahead and created a stonking good game, that people knew deserved credit and their money. We need more dedicated and loving companies such as CD Projekt behind the Witcher, not money draining bastard entities such as EA games and Ubisoft.

Solidus171

i agree. and piracy will always exist as long as the monetary system is in use.

if the devs cared more about making a great game instead of profit (worrying bout piracy, worrying bout shipment dates, worrying how much it would cost to make the game that much better) then people are more likely to not pirate the game in general comparison i mean.

The current business model just isn't working. It's as simple as that and it's not us that need to worry about how to make a profit. I like how the younger generation of pc devs seem to be handling the problem a lot better than the older ones and it's only a matter of time before things become healthy again.

Stardock have a smaller target base, a smaller budget and a decent DD model. CD Projekt are opening up a new market in Eastern Europe and Valve have given Indie games a bigger chance through their steam services. I may be overly positive, but I do think that these things will solve itself in the end.

If people can get things for free, they will. If people can do things free of risk, they will do it.

This has been the rule of thumb for as long as we humans have existed.

I think that the current business model for PC gaming is completely fine. Piracy is a fact of life for anyone employed in video gaming, book publishing, music, and film. It's just inevitable. It's best to ignore it and look after the customers who do decide to pay. DRM is not the answer. Chasing after pirates is not the answer. Putting out a great product no matter what is the answer.

The current business model just isn't working. It's as simple as that and it's not us that need to worry about how to make a profit. I like how the younger generation of pc devs seem to be handling the problem a lot better than the older ones and it's only a matter of time before things become healthy again.

Stardock have a smaller target base, a smaller budget and a decent DD model. CD Projekt are opening up a new market in Eastern Europe and Valve have given Indie games a bigger chance through their steam services. I may be overly positive, but I do think that these things will solve itself in the end.

_Pedro_

I'm glad to see that you're an optimist, nothing is going to get accomplished if we keep announcing the death of PC gaming for the upmteenth time.

As for the OP's message, I'm afraid that you're preaching to the choir on this forum. However, I do agree that piracy has been a rampant issue. There are no simple solutions to combat piracy just like there aren't any simple ways to deal with the US's dependence on oil. I do believe that as long as developers release quality games and don't use DRM (Spore) or rip customers off with exlusive content (ala Total War: Empire) or overpriced DLC (Fallout 3), then people will be less inclined to pirate. Someone in an earlier post made a very good point that foreigners (i.e. people not from the US) have delayed releases, that could have a lot to do with it. Another reason why piracy may be so rampant on the PC is that there is no easy way to rent PC games like you can with a console and many modern games don't have demos. An easy solution to this problem would be some kind of digital distribution platform like Steam that allows you to rent games for a reasonable fee (say $5 per week).

Street Fighter IV is the latest victim in the ever growing list of pirated console titles. Please, tell me how this is an issue exclusive to PC games again...

-wildflower-

its definately not exclusive issue to PC, especially in Europe and Asia. But most of the devs are pretty short-sighted, so they only see what's in front of them - piracy on PC in the States is bigger than console piracy. So they point the finger at us and move on

piracy is piracy. its like steroids in baseball. people are doing it but it wll eventually grow out.pvtdonut54

I understand that piracy is a problem. I understand its gotten worse due to largely to improvements with internet speeds and peer-to-peer networks. I understand its eating into the bottom line of developers which affects what kinds of games they make. I don't care.

I got my start as a PC gamer back when Zork was king of the hill. Since then I have seen every kind of copy protection and it all failed. I have seen a steady stream of games that are highly unstable, generally buggy, or just flat out broken. In that time I have seen virtually zero effort by distributors and developers to improve the way they do buisness. All I do hear are excuses.

"Oh woe is us, piracy is so horrible." Suck it up. Your own actions have done a lot to promote it. Yes, I know most pirates are only blowing hot air when they start listing their reasons. It doesn't change the fact that when those reasons first arrived they were backed by the cold hard truth. If the industry really wants to fight piracy they are going to have to change the way they approach development.

"PC hardware configurations are so hard to work with. There are too many possibilities." Um, no. I'm not buying this at all. First, I do alot on my PC besides games. No single type of non-game software, not even Windows, has given me anywhere near as much trouble as games have. Second, how you explain developer two being unable to release a stable game even though developer one was able to and they both used the same engine. Take a look at Unreal Engine 3. Epic made it and yet both Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War ran poorly for most players. Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Mirror's Edge all used the same engine. I haven't heard anywhere near as much complaints about those games as I did for GoW and UT3.

I'm sick of getting riped off. I'm sick of fighting with broken games. I don't like that my $50 is now a rental fee thanks to activation and digital distribution. I'm sick of listening to weak excuses by people who don't have the talent to meet the challenges of their chosen professions.

I won't be buying any brand new games at full retail price for a long time. I'll be getting my games at a deep discount from Circuit City or from Goozex.

Meh, I've been hearing for years that pirating is killing PC gaming, but there are still good games out there and more on the way. Skeptomania

You do realize how many games are not being developed because of pirating, right?

Hundereds.

Go pirate some more.

we need to go back to super nintendo,

you cant download a cartridge off the internet

Piracy is a curse but people won't stop. If people can get it for free with no consequences...I know up here in Canada no one ever gets busted...then they will. All developers can really do is make games that are really worth the consumers while at a price people can afford. The Orange Box is a great example...cheap, high quality, and a decent amount of gameplay behind it. That's how companies should go about it.

[QUOTE="Skeptomania"]Meh, I've been hearing for years that pirating is killing PC gaming, but there are still good games out there and more on the way. spartan8579

You do realize how many games are not being developed because of pirating, right?

Hundereds.

Go pirate some more.

I'd say console gaming is damaging PC gaming more than piracy is.DigitalExile

I'd say console gaming is damaging PC gaming more than piracy is.DigitalExile

This. Because console developers dont put as much effort into their games as PC game developers do...it's easy cash. Plus there's the issue of DLC, where it's compulsary to pay for it on consoles, but free on PCs. I'm not being elitist, but PC Gamers always had higher standards with their games...after 3 months a PS3 got so stale and dull, and since most of the games were so bad, I got rid of it, upgraded my PC and enjoyed some REAL games (The Witcher:EE).

Forget about Piracy, we need game devs to wake the **** up and start making great games again, not franchise exploiting rehashes.

[QUOTE="Skeptomania"]Meh, I've been hearing for years that pirating is killing PC gaming, but there are still good games out there and more on the way. spartan8579

You do realize how many games are not being developed because of pirating, right?

Hundereds.

Go pirate some more.

If you don't have some kind of proof, don't be throwing around accusations like that on the board. It's uncalled for.

Most of the people who think piracy isn't a big issue except in the minds of the publishers don't pirate games. In the US at least, it's easier to go out and buy the game, and most people are lazy like that. If anything is damaging the industry and the community, it's that damned DRM publishers like EA keep slapping on their games. Limited activations and buggy authenticators that won't work if you have legitimate programs on your PC are frustrating enough that I've actually purchased the PS3 versions of some recent games over the PC version. Bad ports, like GTA IV are also not helping. Why in the world would I wait to buy the PC version if it's going to be a lousy quality port with no improvements and many, many bugs?

Pirates and piracy are not what's killing the industry (if anything is). The developers and the publishers are doing that all on their own without the pirates' help. Aim your complaints at them.

Meh.

Piracy isn't killing PC gaming. Pure nonstop crap games is killing PC gaming.

I can go to this site, or any other site, and the chances of me seeing a game I'm remotely interstested in is very low.

Diablo III is the only title coming anytime soon I give a crap about and there's a good chance that even Blizzard will screw that up if it doesn't have the same type of randomized content as D1 and D2. Ie, if it has static dungeons it will just be another crappy Diablo clone.

I've been playing PC games since there were PCs.

IMO, the problem is that games now are overproduced and they try to shove all games into either the RTS model or the FPS model OR worse, they try to make PC games like console games.

True PC game players buy games and want PC games, not crappy console game style games for the PC. Console kiddies and other cheesebags who aren't serious about gaming steal or pirate games.

Look at something like Fallout 3 - it isn't really Fallout, it's FPS, it's a console/FPS version of a former classic. It's not what real PC gamers want, it's garbage, over produced, cost a ton to make, took forever to make, and ultimately isn't really Fallout. Fallout is a perfect example of a "classic" PC game and what real PC gamers want - but instead we get a mutilated bastard stepchild of post apocalyptic oblivion shoved down our throats. Maybe it's a decent game, but it's not really a PC game and it's not worth buying (or pirating IMO, I happen to pay for my software but wouldn't even try the fallout3 abomination).

Look at Dragon Age. It might end up being a good game, but right now it looks like crap to me. It looks like NWN2. It looks like a console game. It does NOT look anything like a "classic" RPG like BG or IWD - which is what I, as a real PC gamer, really want. I want a classic PC RPG with a new story, slightly better graphics (maybe 3d with the ability to rotate camera - or not), updated or fabricated ruleset, etc.

Shadowrun...another mutilation of a formerly great title.

Why does every awesome game from the past have to be bastardized into FPS dookie if it's remade or ignored completely (X-COM, JA for ex)? People loved the game as it was when it previously existed, obviously, so why ruin it and make it something else?

It used to be that I could walk into a PC game selling store and just browse and find several titles I wanted to try. Now I scour the internet for games I might like and can rarely find anything. Now I'm ultra selective about even trying PC games because most of the time the gameplay just isn't there - games today are more about glitzy graphics, bugs, incomplete features, and are just crap compared to the games of old that focused on gameplay (due to lack of ability to overdo graphics and glitz).

It wouldn't bother me if the overall PC gaming market was smaller, and people actually paid for games instead of stealing them like scumbags, and the audience was real PC gamers instead of console players, and companies spent less money on overproduction and focused more on solid gameplay, and if PC games returned to the styles of old that are no longer or infrequently represented.

After all these years you'd think AI would've come along strongly, gameplay too (and in many ways it has), but instead mostly we just get more ridiculous eye candy and shader effects to support the video card industry's endless cycle of video card upgrades.

we need to go back to super nintendo,

you cant download a cartridge off the internet

marshbaboon

ummm ever heard of emulators????

though i dont support piracy... but im not totally against it either..

piracy is NOT the problem, it is a symptom of the problem... and if we work on the actual problems, you will see many many symptoms (piracy among millions of other symptoms) start to decline.

the whole piracy thing i feel is an escape coat as it dosen't really do as much damage as they say as it just a loss of sale there are ways to remedy it such...

Release demo before release.

Better accuracy with the specification recommendations.

also more games that arn't crap fps's and boring both time and wallet taxing MMOs. Thank god capcom is supporting the pc with the latest street fighter, dead rising, devil may cry not something i'm interested in street fighter but its good to see thing other the RTS, FPS and MMO.