Game Piracy

[Fishman]

I came across this interesting post and quite agree with it;

You know, I'm so disillusioned with computers and gaming that I'm actually thinking of quitting altogether. Publishers and developers are more worried about piracy than they are about putting out a decent product. They blame piracy for everything. They worry more about piracy than they do pleasing their legitimate paying customers. I honestly hope most go out of business because they don't deserve to be in business. You don't treat customers like criminals. A chip, DRM or any other anti-piracy method still treats legitimate paying customers as criminals.

The gaming industry is the only industry that I know that does this. Go to a bakery and buy a cake. The cake is yours. You can keep it to yourself or share it with family and friends. Bottom line is once money and cake exchange hands, you own the cake. Now look at software. Buy a piece of software and you have the publisher/developer not only taking your money but still claiming ownership dictating what you can and cannot do with your purchased product. What's the difference? IP? Sure the software is intellectual property but so is the cake. The cake came from a special recipe known only to that specific bakery. Everything written, manufactured, grown or produced could be claimed as intellectual property. Publishers and developers on these forums argued several weeks ago against piracy but saw nothing wrong with sharing books or newspapers. What's the difference? They're intellectual property too.

Like I said, I'm so disillusioned with computer gaming that I'm really thinking of giving it up. On top of the piracy issue, which I think is a crock, we have the "release now, collect money, patch whenever" method of sales. I have some games that are still waiting to have bugs fixed six months after purchase. Some developers even get indignant when people ask about patches. Name one industry that can get away with that. I've never purchased a book with a missing chapter and had the publisher/author say "you'll get it when it's done". I've never purchased an appliance or car that when found defective wasn't fixed in a timely manner. Most times the places I purchased from were apologetic and bent over backwards to keep me as a customer. Only in the computer gaming industry have I been treated like a criminal and given the impression that my business isn't really wanted. So I hope all these jerks go out of business. It serves them right. Let them get real jobs instead of dreaming of becoming millionaires and being treated like rock stars. This is entertainment not national security.

 

[hammockmonkey]

The computer gaming industry is to blame for the our demise because of everything you've said. I hate how they treat you I hate the fact they release products that ARE NOT FINISHED and then make you patch them. They release BULLSHIT and then fix it later. When you're paying upwards of 60 bucks a game I want it to work perfectly, seriously the game should be finished and friggin tested before someone buys it. Costumers are not Beta testers. . . . I understand that some computers will not run games because of conflicts, too many different types of graphic cards ectrera . . . I'm very worried that console games are going to suffer the same fate because developers feel like they can release.

I feel nothing for having pirated computer games, the only games I don't are Blizzard games cuz WarCraft 3 is awesome and StarCraft2 is going to kick ass too, but I got Fable, holy shit that game is nothing like it was advertised. NWN2 didn't even fucking work for about 3 months . . . Too many more problems. . . oh man I hate the computer gaming industry.

 

[Someone]

The gaming industry is the only industry that I know that does this. Go to a bakery and buy a cake. The cake is yours. You can keep it to yourself or share it with family and friends. Bottom line is once money and cake exchange hands, you own the cake. Now look at software. Buy a piece of software and you have the publisher/developer not only taking your money but still claiming ownership dictating what you can and cannot do with your purchased product. What's the difference? IP? Sure the software is intellectual property but so is the cake. The cake came from a special recipe known only to that specific bakery. Everything written, manufactured, grown or produced could be claimed as intellectual property. Publishers and developers on these forums argued several weeks ago against piracy but saw nothing wrong with sharing books or newspapers. What's the difference? They're intellectual property too.

That's not really right, pirated games are downloaded off the net and with them a CD key which belongs to someone who legally bought the game, causing them to stop playing.
Most people don't just give out their CD keys, but have it stolen from them.

But yeah, the gaming industry is a load of shit.. They only care about delivering a half ass attempted game and hope they make a good profit with no complaints.
And uhh NWN2 worked fine for me since it was released.

 

[Ziggy]

The main problem with gaming is that people don't buy good original games such as Ico, Okami, We Love Katamari etc. etc. But of course everyone buys generic first person shooters, car games and another sports update that's pretty much the same as the one that was released the year before. Better graphics, but the same game I was playing 10 years ago... I'm bored now.

People are willing to pay for crap, and they are given crap. Can't blame the game industry for that can you? Stick with the publishers that do a good job and ditch the ones that treat you all like idiots. I guess they'll blame piracy for decreased sales but I think everyone should write to them and say "we didn't pirate your games... we just didn't want to play them"

 

[Someone]

The main problem with gaming is that people don't buy good original games such as Ico, Okami, We Love Katamari etc. etc. But of course everyone buys generic first person shooters, car games and another sports update that's pretty much the same as the one that was released the year before. Better graphics, but the same game I was playing 10 years ago... I'm bored now.

People are willing to pay for crap, and they are given crap. Can't blame the game industry for that can you? Stick with the publishers that do a good job and ditch the ones that treat you all like idiots. I guess they'll blame piracy for decreased sales but I think everyone should write to them and say "we didn't pirate your games... we just didn't want to play them"

Ico was really cool :wink:, didn't know anyone else who played it though. Games use to be really deep and unique, such as FF7. You're right, nothing news really coming out at all.

 

[bleach]

I didn't play video games for several years, until i finally got a new computer this year which can actually run new games (i.e. anything from this millennium).

Anyhow, the games I've played since are MUCH better then the ones I played as a kid/adolescent. It's not even close. I don't know anything about the industry itself, and really don't care to, but they are doing something right.

All paid for legitimately by the way, because I am paranoid about viruses and identity theft and the like.

 

[hammockmonkey]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/9/

 

[possessednomad]

if spore decides to definately employ the 3-times installation they're talking about when its released im going to be very, very annoyed.

 

[smackh2o]

I used to be a student studying game development. The ins and outs amaze me and it is a facinating subject but I totally agree with you about how the industry has become a law unto itself. I suppose a lot more can go wrong with a dynamic gaming platform than say a book or a movie, but that doesn't excuse shoddy customer service of not getting right on the problem and fixing it within the week. A bug usually does not take a long time to fix, especially with a team of professional programmers on it. I feel sorry for the smaller businesses that struggle to keep up with the collective franschises of developers and publishers alike, those of which actually make some very good games but never get any praise.
Will Wright has been testing my tastebuds for that damn Spore for too long. I'm into AI and it's revolutionary but damn I can't wait much longer...

p.s. There are some amazing games out that really push there type of genre furthur. Fahrenheit was one of these, another unsung hero.

 

[hammockmonkey]

5 Innovative Ways the Gaming Industry is Screwing You
http://www.cracked.com/article_16330_5-innovative-ways-gaming-industry-screwing-you.html

 

[Aquariamethystea]

My cousin is a developer in the gaming industry, and from what I've heard, they are forced into meeting ridiculous deadlines by executives who want to push unfinished product into the marketplace in order to make quick profit. Blame the damn executives.

 

[hammockmonkey]

My cousin is a developer in the gaming industry, and from what I've heard, they are forced into meeting ridiculous deadlines by executives who want to push unfinished product into the marketplace in order to make quick profit. Blame the damn executives.

Oh I do, I do.

 

[Sylar]

all my games are pirated except online ones like orange box , CS:S/1.6 and such
cba with mmorpg's , more of an action person

I just find that 60 Euros is just too much for a game I can finish in few hours
the witcher by example is a great game , took me a while to finish it , I'd buy it if I could

 

[Random]

The computer gaming industry is to blame for the our demise because of everything you've said. I hate how they treat you I hate the fact they release products that ARE NOT FINISHED and then make you patch them. They release BULLSHIT and then fix it later. When you're paying upwards of 60 bucks a game I want it to work perfectly, seriously the game should be finished and friggin tested before someone buys it. Costumers are not Beta testers. . . . I understand that some computers will not run games because of conflicts, too many different types of graphic cards ectrera . . . I'm very worried that console games are going to suffer the same fate because developers feel like they can release.

There are actually lots of products like this. I've bought several electronic devices that came with bad firmware that needed to be patched and not only do they have the balls to sell an expensive piece of electronics with half assed firmware, they expect the customer to figure out how to patch it. And half the time, the process is so complicated that the average person really shouldn't be expected to be able to figure out how to do it. If they're gonna charge me $300 for something the size of a credit card, it should be a flawless product. It should never really need to be patched and if it does, the process should be simple.

I have an Olympus camera I bought in 2002 or therabouts. When I "upgraded" to Vista, I found the camera would no longer connect to the computer. So I went looking for Vista drivers. What I finally found out was that Olympus hasn't bothered to make a driver for that $400 camera for Vista and they have no plans to. What is that? $400 a few short years ago and it's a $400 brick now because one of the largest camera manufacturers can't be bothered to write a bit of software for it? Oh, no problem. I'll just go buy another $400 camera I can afford to be plopping down that kind of cash every couple of years for a damn camera.

And Vista? Don't even get me started! They pushed everyone to upgrade to Vista before it was really even ready to see the light of day. I bought a Vista machine, turned it on and it locked up instantly. After several reboots, I finally got a "Welcome" screen, along with several Windows error bonks of indeterminate cause. Then, Vista informed me that a particular program had "Stopped working" and told me to click OK for info on what to do. So I clicked OK and it told me basically that it had no idea what happened. Great! Just what I need! An OS that doesn't even know what causes it's own errors!

It's not just games. It's everything. Nothing is made right anymore. If you pay an arm and a leg for it, you might get something nice but don't count on it.

As far as "Intellectual property", I kind of understand their point but let's face it. They're not gonna stop piracy without completely ruining the internet and everything that makes it great. If they implement copy protection, all it will do is make hassles for customers. Hackers and pirates will figure out how to crack it a week after it's implemented and it'll all be for nothing. If they start prosecuting people, they'll just piss everyone off and people will hate them even more than they already do. If they get ISPs to spy on people to catch them pirating, then they're seriously violating the rights of people who aren't pirating (as well as those who are) .

The concept of intellectual property that could be controlled even after the point of sale was doomed the minute the internet began to take off. Better technology always brings complications along with it.

 

[hammockmonkey]

I try to keep my outrage to trivial matters like gaming. I hate Vista and windows so much so very, very much. My head will explode if I start thinking about Microsoft.

 

[Raven]

I always get a copy of the game before and play it for a while, the demos suck and I want to know what I am throwing my money at. Barring that if I find that I enjoy the game I go and buy a copy, I want the game makers to make another good game and the only way to keep them doing that is to throw money at their products. If its a peice of junk I won't be sending my cash their way.

~Raven

 

[OutCaste]

i have been working in the computer graphics area for the last 6 months and i must say that its an extremely difficult job and it takes a lot of programming experience as well as maths and physics skills to sustain in the field. when i joined, way too much was expected out of me. i am some how managing. the worst part is that in computer graphics/game industry you don't get paid much while the company just sucks out all your creativity and there is no life at all. but really, the field is SO interesting that it keeps you motivated despite all the disadvantages.