If someone feel atachment and simpathy for a game or company, will not want to download torrents, because i, for example, would like that the company or game do great sales, gain money and keep making new products. But, with companies like EA... i mean, c´mon.

Treat with respect the gamers, and piracy will fall a little.

MartinCaillou

I agree with you that we should support the game studios we like, Martin, and not download torrents of games we genuinely enjoy. I'll take it one step further - we should never should download game torrents, period. Piracy is simply wrong, even if the pirated titles come from EA. Just because a company is rich doesn't mean that it should be any less protected by the law.

I unfortunately have to disagree with your second statement, though. I don't see how there could be an inverse relationship between the lack of DRM on a game and the amount it is pirated. Piracy isn't about respect - it's about wanting to own something without being willing to pay for it. That's true, whether it concerns games, music, or any other medium of entertainment.

[QUOTE="poetsoul"]Food for thought: According to the most recent Hotspot podcast (2/3/09) Spore sold 700,000 copies. According to various other sources, more than 1.7 million copies were pirated online. You bet that the companies are going to try to stop that from happening. That it ends up hurting us do-gooders sucks, but I applaud, or at least endorse, the effort.ch2423

Look a little farther into why that is. Spore was pirated so much because the retail version came with a horrible DRM program that prevented actual customers from installing and using the game right. So a strict DRM forced paying customers to suffer while people easily pirated the game without the DRM and enjoyed it, just like the problem we have with Microsoft.

Piracy is a problem, but if the solutions to stop it makes it harder for paying customers to enjoy the product, you'll have people getting illegal copies in droves, which Spore proved.

You make a very good point, ch2423. Somewhere along the lines companies are going to have to perform the hard algebra and weigh the dollars lost to piracy against the dollars lost from consumer discouragement. I'd only stipulate that the trouble people encountered in dealing with DRM doesn't legitimize outright theft.

Game companies should continue to use DRM - hopefully with as little harm done to the legitimate consumer as possible. At the end of the day, however, I certainly can't blame them for trying to protect their property.

Without trying to sound cute, I think both sides have a point here.

1) Absolutely if we, the consumer, think something is wrong or undesireable in a product, we should make our disatisfication known. It's the only way to change the system.

2) Unfortunately, the loudest voice we possess is our refusal to buy products. In that sense, we SHOULD refuse to purchase something we find objectiionable.

The reality is DRM exists today as the result of the prisoners dilemma. People desire a product for free, and they desire to use it wherever they like. Companies don't really give a damn where we use a product as long as we pay for it, but because there are people who commit piracy, they're forced to enact protocols to guard against theft. DRM and internet-mandatory games are the inevitable result.

If you ask me, we shouldn't be blaming Microsoft and Steam - they're simply looking to protect themselves and their products, as they have every right to do. I say, blame the people who force companies to enact those annoying anti-theft measures. You have the 2 million people who pirated Spore (literally, 2 million) to thank for your Arcade troubles, sharpshooter188. Feel free to bug Microsoft about it, but in the end you'll either have to refuse to buy their products or help combat the culture that makes it socially acceptable to steal in the first place.

edit: someone needs to learn to use a spell checker

My friend has an original PSP that he's looking to get rid of. I think it comes with a 2gig flash card, and a new battery.

I hear that there aren't a lot of quality games for the system. I'd be getting Crisis Core, maybe Metal Gear and Patapon. FF Tactics is also a possibility.

He's looking to offload it for $80, and I just got some birthday money. Worth the purchase?

I'm just looking for anything Russia related, any recommendations?luisen123

For what it's worth, the Halflife 2 franchise takes place in Eastern Europe. You'll see a whole bunch of ceryllic characters if you know where to look.

Hey folks.

Anyone have a reccomendation for a space-themed game? I'm looking for something comparable to the Homeworld franchise, but not necessarily limited to RTS. A good 4x title, or a wing commander clone would be fine.

Say what you will about the sequel - there's not many a game that delivers a visual like Homeworld.

If you've been waiting a while before getting into MMORPGs, and you don't mind waiting a little longer... LucasArts and Bioware are teaming up to create a Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG. It's one of the few from that genre that I could see myself getting into. Apparently Bioware has promised to put more dialog/content into the franchise than in all previous titles combined!

If the wait is too long, however, I'd reccomend looking into EVE online. There's a steep learning curve, but once you get into it there doesn't seem to be a better game for cosmos exploration. And it's pretty, too!

Good luck!

Guitar hero/rockband, I'm not sure they count. At any rate, the rock soundtracks aren't very cohesive.

I'd say that my favorite soundtracks would belong to Homeworld, Shadow of the Colossus, and the Halo series. Marty O'Donnell is a notch above the rest.

Okami, which I'm playing right now, is also very interesting if you like traditional japanese beats.