Video Game Piracy - New approach

Just read a really interesting article about a game developer that released a game about developing games, along with uploading a "cracked" version which in reality had a bit different gameplay, where developing really good games would cause other people to pirate them and you make virtually no profit (a bit of a mind**** unless you read the full article xd). They released statistics with comparison of how many legit vs cracked copies were downloaded along with epic complaints by pirates about video game pirating xd

Way to get a taste of your own medicine xd

Video Game Pirates Complaing About Video Game Piracy | Geekologie

Give it a read and let me know what you think

 

This topic is going to get way out of hand fast. .. You just opened Pandora's box Smartik. It's impossible for me to be anything but hypocritical about this topic. The problem is the "ideals" of ownership only look good on paper but don't translate well to real life. You can't hope for success for 1 person without indirectly wanting failure for someone else.. though we don't really think about the latter do we? The way I see it there are 2 contrasting ideologies here.

1. I invent something great. I profit from it. I can reinvest my profit into how I see fit. (individual progress, individual failure)
2. Someone else inventes something great. I profit from it. (shared progress, shared failure)

Before you rage on how ridiculous option 2 is, keep this story in mind. The government didn't force feed Person 'A' bad food. The government didn't give Person 'A' the heart attack, but the government paid for the quadruple bypass surgery because in my country we have socialized medicine... and by government i ofcourse mean taxpayers. So why the hell is every tom dick and harry paying for Person 'A'\s bad choices?

All for one and one for all? Every man for himself? There's no right and wrong answers. These kind of philosophical debates will go on long after we're all dead. Personally I feel this game is like tennis. When it comes to doubles or "company" vs "company" as it were.. the better one should win out. But watching singles is equally enjoyable.. so what's the correct tennis.. singles? or doubles? There is no "right" and "wrong" tennis. There's nothing wrong with individual, goal driven, win at all costs, hardnosed, 4.0gpa, no smoking, no drinking, no drugs kind of success or failure. There's also nothing wrong with the open-source, teamwork, shared, cooperation, free hippie love, don't beat your kids kind of effort either..

In truth i have no idea

 

Can't help but disagree with your example. In terms of taxes and your money paying for other people's healthcare, if something happens to you then other people are paying for your healthcare. Long story short, it is more of a way to spread risk where you pay little at a time instead of having to pay nothing and then all of a sudden a lot at once while you can't afford it.

This case is different in a sense that it is not a balanced win:win but a huge win:huge loss (you get fun for free, they get nothing for hard work) kind.

I didn't quite get your "company vs. company" concept since there is no competition in this context, more like a principle along the lines of if there were no patents, would people have an incentive to care to invent something that benefits everyone in the long run.

 

Haha, the game was very well thought and the idea of it made me laugh. It's perfect example of the present, it shows how it trully is. Pirates were ruling the Game World last few years, but I think that the number is decreasing. Since EU started to augment, there was less piracy between the european countries. In north america, it's also a well fought problem. I think that this game should be spread more than it is, it is showing the true face of pirates. I know that it's way easier and cheaper to download a game via torrent or any piracy program, but yeah it kinda ruins the whole game, game company and it doesn't give them a reason to make new one.

Halpin, I didn't quite understand your example either, I don't see a connection between the 2 metaphores. I also don't see how can someone profit from other's work, I know that it's often and it's possible in real life, but how is that possible in making video games and in torrenting and cracking them? Leechers and Seeders don't make any money as far as I'm informed. Prove me wrong or explain yourself please, I didn't quite get at all what you said.

Also Smartik I would say that piracy is something that has to be taken care of, but also paying 50$ or € maybe for a game that you will finish in 2 weeks (now a days' games last even shorter) is a rip-off. If they lowered prices, did something for community and maybe make games more accessible (I am not from NA so I often have many problems with buying original games), I think that the piracy would get on a much lower scale.

 

I went to a party once where someone played a Cranberries (band) mp3 that they had downloaded illegally.. they weren't a big fan so they didn't shell out the cash for 1 song they liked. I heard the song and loved it so much that i went and looked up the band.. and ended up buying 3 or 4 of their albums. Now i would have never been exposed to their music without this person playing their pirated copy of the song. It's hard to put a price on "exposure". It's the same reason MMO's go free-to-play, the same reason cellphone companies give you free phones, the same reason food companies give out free samples of their products, the same reason a sports company might intentional "leak" information that one of their players is available for trade (etc).

Rather than vilifying piraters, companies could use this system as a way of popularizing their product, and monetize and market other aspects such as Tshirt sales, action figures, live shows, movie deals, product accessories, etc etc etc.

 

Funny that you say that, I had the exact same discussion with Guiilleh. Yes, the small producers suffer because of this but the globally known games charge outrageous prices (software companies even more, photoshop cost several $100, now they changed it to $20 monthly fees, well good luck with that one). Also said that if they charged something realistic people would be more willing to pay it.

Music is free on youtube, that is a whole different story. As for games, you have demo versions for most of them that people these days completely forgot about. As for the cracked vs bought statistics shown above, I don't quite agree. Some people just wanna see how good the game is first before paying a whole lot of money for it (why waste cash on a game you don't like). I know some people who get a cracked version first to see if they like it, and if they do they go buy it for real. Those statistics would not reflect such people. I also know people who buy the game and get a crack anyway because of annoying DRM on them.

 

I thought it was a pretty interesting read.

 

You play a game to have fun, I don't pay to have fun.

 

Wouldn't even touch that shit if it was free.

 

why pay when u can get it for free -its basically like that.
and with those absurd price tags on games, there is no way for ppl to buy.

a good example of the makers that rips off people is EA. LOL!

 

That one I understand, right now I am talking about the smaller developers that actually make their games affordable xd Either way the fact remains that if everybody thought this way it wouldn't be "why pay when you can get it for free", it would be "there is nothing to get free because there is nothing". They won't develop for no pay xd

 

its kinda too late tho. those softwares that enables them to do so are already there.
unless, a massive action w/ those huge companies and small ones will be done that disables those people in any way possible, that pirates/crack/edit or whatsoever these stuff (if its even possible) LoL

 

Lets say Minecraft. It's a perfrect example if you ask me. It was one of the cheapest games that I've ever seen, and it was pretty cool. You could do way more with the original version and it was so easy to get. The publisher of minecraft got rich by making it, but still most of people have the cracked version, free version..

 

There is no such thing as absolute DRM protection that works. The most extreme case was Diablo III that required a constant server connection just to be able to play a solo campaign and what happened next? A local server emulator popped up so you could host it locally and play without an account anyway.

There are better ways to get people to pay for it, such as semi online content in solo games. Create an active community, possible ingame chat with other people, multiplayer sections of single player campaigns (co-op maybe), certain features only available while logged in with an account, online website linked high scores and achievements etc. It encourages people to stick with the official.

There are also people who don't torrent. If it is affordable they pay for it, if it is not they don't buy it. The player base increases quite a lot when the game is cheaper. Cheaper games even get donations out of respect for the creators, seen that happen too. Don't try to milk your consumers and they will be kinder to you.

 

^ what you said.

It drives me nuts when they sell a disc with a game on it for $100 NZL which is about $85 USD. You could get a half decent prostitute instead or NBA league pass.
The only games i waste money on are Multiplayer ones like cod or bf and longer RPG games like Skyrim, Mass effect, FF.

imo shit games should be cheaper same goes for short games with no replay value.