After seeing the recent trend of utilizing DRM to it's fullest to stop piracy. I'm compelled to make another topic on this rehashed subject. But this time, it'll be a from a pirate's point of view.
Most of the people believe (usually, the first-world ppl) that piracy is actually one's unwillingness to spend money on something. But in reality, that's just a pixel of a 4k screen. In my experience, almost all of the pirates I've ever seen or met, pirated games because they couldn't buy them. Don't get me wrong now, it's not that they've a bad job or something. It's just something that they can't be blamed for. It was not their choice to born in a third world country. Take me for an example, I'm a High School student. The concept of part-time job is non-existent. Even if you are in College, that concept is still a far fetched one. So people here rely on their parents till they get a 'proper' job of their own. Now my dad never prohibits me from buying games. But the reason why I still don't, is that, I'll be putting a big Goddamn burden on my whole family if I do. My father has a diploma in Cardiology and has an MRCP degree. But just because he's living in a third world country, his salary is a disappointingly dazzling $1000. $100 every month goes for the house rent, $400 for the utility bills (just last month's electricity bill came with an awesome figure of $360), $100 for my brother and my School fee and the rest goes for the miscellaneous.
In the end, there are hardly any savings left. So, now I ask you, is a $60 game affordable for us? of course not.
The most logical option is to NOT play any games. And that's certainly justified well. Games are a form of entertainment, and any entertainment is luxury. Luxury is not someone's right.
The second most logical option is to wait for the price drop and buy it when it's dirt cheap. Now that's certainly sounds good. But as I mentioned before, we have to rely on our parents. In most Eastern cultures, we do. I'm lucky to have an understanding father. But most people aren't. Retail shops are non-existent so there's no way you could save up your pocket money and then buy the game secretly. Sales come online and online shopping requires a credit card. That's self-explanatory as to why I put this in the second most logical option.
The Third most logical option is that devs themselves should try and figure out a remedy for this. If devs don't have the time, then it's us to find out. As an example, let's just say that games should have regional prices. Prices that vary from region to region depending on the consumer power. Like if all games were around $10 in my country where the average salary of a working man is $450, games should be a little bit more affordable. The piracy will reduce drastically. But again, even the most rich people don't want to spend more money when they can spend less. So there's a 90% probability that people will try and figure out a way to buy games from regions where they're cheap. That's why I put this in the third most logical option.
So, what solution do you have to present to tackle this ever-growing ubiquitous problem? Which options sounds the most logical? and what more options do you have to present?
I'll be happy to see your views on it.
Log in to comment