Now hold on, Hamachi just like Bit Torrent has plenty of legit uses for games with no online modes, or online modes on defunct networks.
Don't go blaming a useful tool just because some people use it for piracy.
Yeah, that's right. It certainly has its uses, just like Bittorrent.
However, I expect that a fairly large proportion of people using it are doing so because they are locked out of the legit servers, or are worried about playing on official servers with their pirated games. I doubt the people using Hamachi servers for CoD4, AoE3 or Crysis are doing so because they can't find a legit server.
EDIT: To clarify, I expect that a decent proportion of Bittorrent users are using it for legitimate reasons. Just as I expect that many Hamachi users are just using it for general VPN use or for old games. However, I doubt that many people go to The Pirate Bay for Linux ISOs or game demos, and I doubt that the people using most of the Hamachi gaming server websites out there are doing so innocently.
Heck, I play D2 over Hamachi just because my buddy's connection blocks Battle.Net. We both have the disks.
Still, I'm glad piracy is still a relatively small issue on consoles. Also I'm very glad that the use of cheating devices is way down on the newer systems. Net tricks on Halo notwithstanding I've had a fairly cheat free experience on all current consoles. PSP doesn't have much cheating either, and besides Tetris and Metroid Prime Hunters, (and a bit of pokemon) I haven't run into too much cheating on the DS, but it is probably the worst offender this generation.
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
i have a friend who is really huge into pirating. movies, games, programs, you name it, he's downloading them at any given time of the day. the thing is though, if he finds a product that he really likes, he'll actually go out and buy it. i figure that makes up for some of his behavior. it keeps me from badgering him about the whole thing, in any case.
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
Pirated DS games bother me, because everyone I work with has one of the damn flash cart things with basically every DS game released on it. I wish Nintendo could do something about those things.
i have a friend who is really huge into pirating. movies, games, programs, you name it, he's downloading them at any given time of the day. the thing is though, if he finds a product that he really likes, he'll actually go out and buy it. i figure that makes up for some of his behavior. it keeps me from badgering him about the whole thing, in any case.
That's like everyone I know. But less pirating overall. They've been burned too many times, they like to test stuff out first.
shryke on
0
HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
Replace "PC" with "Dreamcast" and you've perfectly described one of my college roommates. The guy had a half dozen CD spindles full of nothing but Dreamcast games; I think he once figured that he had pirated an average of 2 games per day for an entire semester.
All of my Uni friends pirate every single PC game they have. I am the only one that buys his PC games (actually my PC is out of date and I don't feel so inclined to upgrade it for the newer games when I could just be buying more console/NDS games). Anyway, any time we wanted to play multiplayer together, I always ended up being the only one with a legit copy. They were the types that told me it was "pointless" to buy my games, and they laughed at me when I said that piracy hurts the industry; because, they say, "Oh c'mon, how much is pirating just one more copy going to hurt them? They spend millions of dollars making these games, they probably have billions of money in profit. They won't be hurting because of one instance of piracy." Anyway, I refused to let them copy my CD-Roms, not that they much cared once they discovered BitTorrent (being one of the bigger geeks among them, I tried to hide BT from them for as long as possible). Now even my friends' friends think that they're somehow these super computer hacker geniuses because they can "get a copy of any PC game a week before it comes out, for free lolz!" So not only do I have to put up with the mentality of people that don't think they're hurting the industry when they are, of patronizing me for caring, but I also have to put up with people that couldn't tell the difference between an AGP and PCI-E slot telling me how slick they are for going to one website and downloading a torrent, while I'm being a 'sucker' for having to wait an extra week only to pay $50 for the same thing.
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
Replace "PC" with "Dreamcast" and you've perfectly described one of my college roommates. The guy had a half dozen CD spindles full of nothing but Dreamcast games; I think he once figured that he had pirated an average of 2 games per day for an entire semester.
Hey, do me a favorite.
Go kick him in the nuts.
6 times.
Once for each year that we went without new Dreamcast games because of his dickery.
i have a friend who is really huge into pirating. movies, games, programs, you name it, he's downloading them at any given time of the day. the thing is though, if he finds a product that he really likes, he'll actually go out and buy it. i figure that makes up for some of his behavior. it keeps me from badgering him about the whole thing, in any case.
That's like everyone I know. But less pirating overall. They've been burned too many times, they like to test stuff out first.
I don't accept the "testing it out" excuse. I used to use that excuse myself, but half the time I'd finish the game and then decide that even though I'd enjoyed it, buying it was a waste of money (since I'd finished with it). The rest of the time, I'd decide that I didn't like the game enough to buy it - but I'd usually only make that decision after playing through at least half of it.
Developers and publishers take a risk by developing games that they aren't sure will sell. So consumers can take a risk on buying games. It's not like there aren't ways you can mitigate that risk (e.g. demos, review sites, rentals for console games, etc).
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
I agree.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels). Trauma Center, for example, he passed maybe 2 surgeries. New SMB? Maybe the first world. Castlevania? The first boss. Then he'd put it down and forget about it. Because he had no real connection with any of these games individually. And since he had acquired them all so effortlessly, he had no real incentive to try to get into the games at all. Thus, his DS remained untouched since that weekend he got back from his trip and sits there collecting dust to this day.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
Pirated DS games bother me, because everyone I work with has one of the damn flash cart things with basically every DS game released on it. I wish Nintendo could do something about those things.
Those things bother me to no end.
But you know what also bothers me about DS piracy?
The damn games really, honestly, do not cost that much! Is it really so burdensome to pay $35, or $30, or $20 for a fuckin' game? My pirating friend (described above) couldn't even be arsed to buy a single game, not even Brain Age or Dawn of Sorrow for $20.
Replace "PC" with "Dreamcast" and you've perfectly described one of my college roommates. The guy had a half dozen CD spindles full of nothing but Dreamcast games; I think he once figured that he had pirated an average of 2 games per day for an entire semester.
Someone posted this image they found on Ebay not too long ago:
This kind of thing was far too common for the Dreamcast. It's really sad.
Replace "PC" with "Dreamcast" and you've perfectly described one of my college roommates. The guy had a half dozen CD spindles full of nothing but Dreamcast games; I think he once figured that he had pirated an average of 2 games per day for an entire semester.
Someone posted this image they found on Ebay not too long ago:
This kind of thing was far too common for the Dreamcast. It's really sad.
Hmmm, I guess I don't really see the point of selling multiple DCs in one auction. It would be pretty funny to see how he described all those pirated games though.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Dreamcasts start piling up after awhile, I remember getting five in the span of a few yard sales. My brother probably has about ten or so by now.
For the record though, the Dreamcast's death wasn't caused by piracy. Nor did EA kill it. Sega being pretty much bankrupt did the job well enough on its own.
Dreamcasts start piling up after awhile, I remember getting five in the span of a few yard sales. My brother probably has about ten or so by now.
For the record though, the Dreamcast's death wasn't caused by piracy. Nor did EA kill it. Sega being pretty much bankrupt did the job well enough on its own.
Well of course piracy didn't "kill" the Dreamcast; for the most part, Sega did the job pretty well itself. With everything leading up to it from the Genesis revisions and absurd addons (32x, sega cd, etc), to the finicky to develop for and expensive Saturn, to Sony's big entry to the market, there were a lot of reasons for whichh the Dreamcast failed besides just EA and piracy.
But rampant piracy certainly didn't help the Dreamcast, that's for sure.
i have a friend who is really huge into pirating. movies, games, programs, you name it, he's downloading them at any given time of the day. the thing is though, if he finds a product that he really likes, he'll actually go out and buy it. i figure that makes up for some of his behavior. it keeps me from badgering him about the whole thing, in any case.
That's like everyone I know. But less pirating overall. They've been burned too many times, they like to test stuff out first.
I don't accept the "testing it out" excuse. I used to use that excuse myself, but half the time I'd finish the game and then decide that even though I'd enjoyed it, buying it was a waste of money (since I'd finished with it). The rest of the time, I'd decide that I didn't like the game enough to buy it - but I'd usually only make that decision after playing through at least half of it.
Developers and publishers take a risk by developing games that they aren't sure will sell. So consumers can take a risk on buying games. It's not like there aren't ways you can mitigate that risk (e.g. demos, review sites, rentals for console games, etc).
It works fine for CDs, which is what I mainly use it for, but for games, yeah, it's generally like what you say.
Thing is, alot of people do think that way. Every game you buy that turns out crap is seen as a waste. So the next time, they pirate it and figure "They owed me one". And then off it goes.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
I agree.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels). Trauma Center, for example, he passed maybe 2 surgeries. New SMB? Maybe the first world. Castlevania? The first boss. Then he'd put it down and forget about it. Because he had no real connection with any of these games individually. And since he had acquired them all so effortlessly, he had no real incentive to try to get into the games at all. Thus, his DS remained untouched since that weekend he got back from his trip and sits there collecting dust to this day.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works. Most of the time it's "I want this game". The next thought it then "It's fucking like $70. I can barely afford that. Plus, who knows if it's any good.". So they pirate it and play it.
Anyone I've met, their piracy tends to be very focused. Want specific game, pirate specific game, play specific game. Pirating is just like shopping for them, but freer.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
I agree.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels). Trauma Center, for example, he passed maybe 2 surgeries. New SMB? Maybe the first world. Castlevania? The first boss. Then he'd put it down and forget about it. Because he had no real connection with any of these games individually. And since he had acquired them all so effortlessly, he had no real incentive to try to get into the games at all. Thus, his DS remained untouched since that weekend he got back from his trip and sits there collecting dust to this day.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works. Most of the time it's "I want this game". The next thought it then "It's fucking like $70. I can barely afford that. Plus, who knows if it's any good.". So they pirate it and play it.
Anyone I've met, their piracy tends to be very focused. Want specific game, pirate specific game, play specific game. Pirating is just like shopping for them, but freer.
Oh, it's definitely not a common practice. I'm sure most pirates are just as you've described: focused on getting the one or two games they really wanted.
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
I agree.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels). Trauma Center, for example, he passed maybe 2 surgeries. New SMB? Maybe the first world. Castlevania? The first boss. Then he'd put it down and forget about it. Because he had no real connection with any of these games individually. And since he had acquired them all so effortlessly, he had no real incentive to try to get into the games at all. Thus, his DS remained untouched since that weekend he got back from his trip and sits there collecting dust to this day.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works. Most of the time it's "I want this game". The next thought it then "It's fucking like $70. I can barely afford that. Plus, who knows if it's any good.". So they pirate it and play it.
Anyone I've met, their piracy tends to be very focused. Want specific game, pirate specific game, play specific game. Pirating is just like shopping for them, but freer.
I know both type of pirates. I had a friend who was never really into videogames besides some of the most basic and simple fun ones. But he would download ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. His bandwidth was maxed out every second of every day.
Another friend would download the latest game getting good reviews and play it.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels).
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works.
It's more common that you would think. I knew plenty of people who matched that description when I was an undergrad at Uni. Pirating games (and applications) was an obsession, they collected games, but rarely played them right through.
However, one guy took this to extremes, and certainly fit the description of "freak". He had a garage full of disks and CDs with his collection of downloads. It was crazy. If his internet connection wasn't being used for downloading games and applications, then they would get upset and have to queue up some more downloads. Someone would ask: "Do you have AutoCAD?" and he'd go fetch it from his collection, despite never having used it.
This was before Bittorrent, and the way the warez scene worked back then was that you had ratio servers. You would have to upload something before you could download something else. So, for example, you might upload a 100MB app onto the server, and that would give you 600MB of quota for downloading a few games. Hoarding apps meant that you had more chance of having something to upload that wasn't already on the server.
There are other reasons too. People think: "If I don't download this game now, I mightn't be able to find it later", or they just feel an urge to "collect" all the major game releases. In fact, I work with a guy at the moment who is "collecting" every Wii release.
I have to admit that I went through a phase of obsessive pirating. I've still got dozens of games on old CD-Rs that I haven't played. And, similar to what Slash says about his friend, at the time I was doing this I wasn't really playing the games all that much. There were some that I played right through, but there were others that I just looked at for half an hour, then archived away, planning to get back to them later (but I never did).
I think that most people who pirate games do it on a small scale, just to get the games they want without paying for them... but for some others it becomes an obsession, and you'd be surprised how many people there are out there who are like that.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works. Most of the time it's "I want this game". The next thought it then "It's fucking like $70. I can barely afford that. Plus, who knows if it's any good.". So they pirate it and play it.
Anyone I've met, their piracy tends to be very focused. Want specific game, pirate specific game, play specific game. Pirating is just like shopping for them, but freer.
Oh I agree with you. I think most of the pirates hear about the next great game and then immediately pirate it and play it and enjoy it as soon as possible.
But as far as my friend there who took my extensive and detailed recommendations of ~25 or so DS games, he figured he might as well just steal them all at the same time while he was at it.
Since he obtained so many truly great games at once, and never actually really played any of them, I can only assume that since he pirated them all in bulk instead of focusing on 1 or two great games, then he simply didn't end up having the incentive or skill to actually get into and enjoy any of the games he pirated.
What also pisses me off is the smug attitude he had about the whole thing. Since I had not told him about pirating DS games, he assumed that I did not know about it or how to do it. He acted like he got such a great deal and knows so much about games and technology since he basically replicated my game collection without buying any of the games. As if I had gotten such a "bad deal" by buying all of these games I had instead of just downloading them all at once like he did.
Anyway..
When he and my other group of friends pirate games, it's usually some cool new game that they've heard or read about on the web. And they're hot to trot to pirate the game before it hits store shelves and play it and enjoy it thoroughly for days/weeks, depending on the game. Like Oblivion, they poured tons of time into that one.
But there are some instances of people pirating in such great volumes that they never end up playing the games they do pirate. My two old room mates would pirate so quickly they never finished a game.
This discussion amuses me, because I knew a guy like that in college, he was in the weekly gaming group I helped host for a year. Only instead of obsessively pirating games and not play them, he would obsessively buy games and not play them. If it was from Japan and/or for a Nintendo system, he would buy it and own it. If it had peripherals, he would have four of the peripherals if anyone ever wanted to play it with him. Every week he would come in with some new game that he swore was the new most awesome game on Earth, and I don't think he ever finished more than 10% of what he bought.
But he was awesome because he bought Guitar Hero and a second guitar and brought it to all the meetings, then loaned it to me for like three months because he was too busy playing two hours of every new DS game that came out to have time for it.
Here is my question though, do those kinds of obsessive collectors actually damage videogame sales at all? I mean, yeah, they're getting all this stuff without paying for it but I honestly doubt those type of people would pay for it anyways considering they don't play games.
It's information they're taking and replicating. And they're replicating on their own dime (or their ISP), not the developers. The only way they can cause harm is by reducing a dev's sales. I suppose an argument could be made that they're adding to the general culture of piracy, as well as enabling actual paying consumers to pirate easier.
If anything, I think that the individuals who pirate just the good games they want to buy are worse. They pirate them because they really, really want to play but it's freeer this way. Well, newsflash, those huge pirates steal a gajillion gigs but don't cause lost sales, whereas you just directly hit the company with one less sale.
Here is my question though, do those kinds of obsessive collectors actually damage videogame sales at all? I mean, yeah, they're getting all this stuff without paying for it but I honestly doubt those type of people would pay for it anyways considering they don't play games.
It's information they're taking and replicating. And they're replicating on their own dime (or their ISP), not the developers. The only way they can cause harm is by reducing a dev's sales. I suppose an argument could be made that they're adding to the general culture of piracy, as well as enabling actual paying consumers to pirate easier.
They're still pretty bad, as they often allow other people to pirate from their pirated collections, or leech off of them. Be it by providing an online/bit torrent means of sharing their stuff, or by simply having a friend come by and telling the friend, "Dude I just downloaded Crysis!" and the friend saying, "Sweet! Burn me a copy!" ... "OK!"
In the case of my DS friend, his theft of ~20 games is, in my opinion, the equivalent of Nintendo or Konami losing a sale. Because instead of buying just one $20 game (Brain Age or Dawn of Sorrow), like he would have if he had not pirated, he would have enjoyed those games for at least 4 to 8 hours or so, for the trip he went on. The games he pirated he probably spent a total of 4 to 8 hours dicking around playing the first level of each one and moving on. heck, he'd have probably saved money by buying 1 game and enjoying it rather than buying the piracy equipment and skimming between games..
If anything, I think that the individuals who pirate just the good games they want to buy are worse. They pirate them because they really, really want to play but it's freeer this way. Well, newsflash, those huge pirates steal a gajillion gigs but don't cause lost sales, whereas you just directly hit the company with one less sale.
I agree that they are worse, because they really are translating piracy into lost sales. If they can afford the equipment to run the games, they can afford the games themselves. They are looking forward to the new games and anticipating obtaining them so that they can play them and enjoy them thoroughly, as if they had bought them. But they don't buy them, they download/pirate them for free. So I agree with you on that.
But the ones that pirate hundreds of gigs of stuff are like the dealers to these people in some instances. At least the ones that host the files/torrents/what have you. And even if they aren't actively hosting on purpose, just by merely downloading the torrent - even for collection purposes and nothing else - they are aiding other 'lost sales' pirates in obtaining their own copies by providing more bandwidth and another copy for the torrent to latch onto.
But yeah. the guys that pirate games because they want that game and enjoy it to its fullest, they are the worse of the two evils.
Here is my question though, do those kinds of obsessive collectors actually damage videogame sales at all? I mean, yeah, they're getting all this stuff without paying for it but I honestly doubt those type of people would pay for it anyways considering they don't play games.
It's information they're taking and replicating. And they're replicating on their own dime (or their ISP), not the developers. The only way they can cause harm is by reducing a dev's sales. I suppose an argument could be made that they're adding to the general culture of piracy, as well as enabling actual paying consumers to pirate easier.
If anything, I think that the individuals who pirate just the good games they want to buy are worse. They pirate them because they really, really want to play but it's freeer this way. Well, newsflash, those huge pirates steal a gajillion gigs but don't cause lost sales, whereas you just directly hit the company with one less sale.
I'd rather not get into a discussion of whether one type of pirate is worse than another, or theorizing that "it's probably not as bad as you think". To me, it often leads people into slippery-slope thinking: "What I'm doing isn't so bad" or "Other people are worse, so it's not bad if I download just one or two games".
I'd much rather people accept that what they're doing is just wrong. It's obviously not condoned by developers/publishers, and I'd say we gamers shouldn't condone it either. As we can see nowadays, it definitely is affecting game sales and that ought to be stopped.
I'm all for the shame factor, rather than developers having to spend more and more time securing their products, or publishers spending more money on obtrusive copy-protection schemes.
I agree that they are worse, because they really are translating piracy into lost sales. If they can afford the equipment to run the games, they can afford the games themselves. They are looking forward to the new games and anticipating obtaining them so that they can play them and enjoy them thoroughly, as if they had bought them. But they don't buy them, they download/pirate them for free. So I agree with you on that.
Well I agree with the general thrust of your post, this doesn't hold. Especially for PC gamers. A 3 or so year old PC that cost less then 2 grand could run anything out there today. But that much money spent 3 years ago doesn't mean those people could necessarily afford those games at $70 a pop today.
When I was a lad, my grandad would say that if you can't afford something, you don't deserve it. He lived by that until the day he died, working hard to get what he and his family needed. He failed, from time to time, but no one could fault him for that.
These people who make excuses for piracy based on the claim that they 'can't afford it' make me sick. Games are luxury items. Get a job/work more hours/save better or do without.
Here is my question though, do those kinds of obsessive collectors actually damage videogame sales at all? I mean, yeah, they're getting all this stuff without paying for it but I honestly doubt those type of people would pay for it anyways considering they don't play games.
I doubt they personally damage sales too much. They are more interested in the game of piracy and collection than real games.
However, part of the appeal for them is saying to their friends: "What game do you want, I'll give you a copy". As Slash said, they're the ones who 'feed' many casual pirates.
When I was a lad, my grandad would say that if you can't afford something, you don't deserve it. He lived by that until the day he died, working hard to get what he and his family needed. He failed, from time to time, but no one could fault him for that.
These people who make excuses for piracy based on the claim that they 'can't afford it' make me sick. Games are luxury items. Get a job/work more hours/save better or do without.
/rant
Well yeah, no shit. I don't think this is a tough concept for anyone in this thread. Which is why I'm not arguing about it.
I was simply pointing out that being able to afford a PC capable of playing games doesn't mean you can actually afford the games. Which is basically supporting the idea that not all people pirating are lost sales.
I was simply pointing out that being able to afford a PC capable of playing games doesn't mean you can actually afford the games. Which is basically supporting the idea that not all people pirating are lost sales.
I think most people can afford something if they want to save for it. If they couldn't pirate games, then they might occasionally forego getting drunk on the weekend, and put that money towards games.
It's hard to tell what would happen. Piracy distorts the market so much.
I was simply pointing out that being able to afford a PC capable of playing games doesn't mean you can actually afford the games. Which is basically supporting the idea that not all people pirating are lost sales.
I think most people can afford something if they want to save for it. If they couldn't pirate games, then they might occasionally forego getting drunk on the weekend, and put that money towards games.
It's hard to tell what would happen. Piracy distorts the market so much.
Arguable. I know quite a few people in college living pretty fucking close to the line. Or really, lets be honest, way over the line and surviving on loans.
And even if you could save up enough to buy like 1 game a month, what if there's more then 12 games you want a year?
Piracy on the grounds that "I can't afford it" happens quite a bit imo. Especially since "People who pirate games" and "Colleges kids with little money" are demographics with large overlap.
<Pointless Addendum>: This of course, doesn't make it right.
Someone should make a game where you play a guy on a quest to pirate as many games as possible, and you get points for successful installation of pirated games.
And then at the end, you die a painful death. Just as the main character realises the error of his ways, he gets crushed by a mountain of CDRs.
Edit: and it should only be released on torrent sites.
Someone should make a game where you play a guy on a quest to pirate as many games as possible, and you get points for successful installation of pirated games.
And then at the end, you die a painful death. Just as the main character realises the error of his ways, he gets crushed by a mountain of CDRs.
Edit: and it should only be released on torrent sites.
Is there someway to write a graphics engine that causes graphics cards to overheat?
shryke on
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Dr Mario KartGames DealerAustin, TXRegistered Userregular
Someone should make a game where you play a guy on a quest to pirate as many games as possible, and you get points for successful installation of pirated games.
And then at the end, you die a painful death. Just as the main character realises the error of his ways, he gets crushed by a mountain of CDRs.
Edit: and it should only be released on torrent sites.
There should be an option to repent, and to make it up by becoming a prolific buyer of games. Of course, in that ending, you will be forever haunted by guilt for what you have done.
Without that ending, I'm screwed. I don't want to die a painful death.
Maybe I should throw out the old floppies and CD-Rs that are hiding in those shoeboxes before they crush me.
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Yeah, that's right. It certainly has its uses, just like Bittorrent.
However, I expect that a fairly large proportion of people using it are doing so because they are locked out of the legit servers, or are worried about playing on official servers with their pirated games. I doubt the people using Hamachi servers for CoD4, AoE3 or Crysis are doing so because they can't find a legit server.
EDIT: To clarify, I expect that a decent proportion of Bittorrent users are using it for legitimate reasons. Just as I expect that many Hamachi users are just using it for general VPN use or for old games. However, I doubt that many people go to The Pirate Bay for Linux ISOs or game demos, and I doubt that the people using most of the Hamachi gaming server websites out there are doing so innocently.
Heck, I play D2 over Hamachi just because my buddy's connection blocks Battle.Net. We both have the disks.
Still, I'm glad piracy is still a relatively small issue on consoles. Also I'm very glad that the use of cheating devices is way down on the newer systems. Net tricks on Halo notwithstanding I've had a fairly cheat free experience on all current consoles. PSP doesn't have much cheating either, and besides Tetris and Metroid Prime Hunters, (and a bit of pokemon) I haven't run into too much cheating on the DS, but it is probably the worst offender this generation.
this is kind of rant-y, so I'm spoilering it:
As I was saying, we'd always end up having to play these games on local networks at lan parties, because all of their copies of the game were banned.
Otherwise, they'd invite me to play the game on some pirate server or using pirate software and I just told them it was too much trouble to uninstall my legit copy and reinstall using some oother thing and blah blah blah just to play a few MP games.
urgh. The "what's the harm?" and the "Just one more copy can't hurt" mentality.. I think it's like a domino effect or something.
There is 1 positive thing about my story here. Half of my friends (described above) have started turning to console gaming, simply because more games that interest them are coming out on consoles and not on PCs any more. Plus, they like the idea of avoiding the hassle of maintaining PC upgrades, and having guaranteed performance on their console as opposed to their PCs. So the bright side is that since they've started playing console games, their piracy has shot way down, since they buy their console games. They have not figured out or bothered to figure out how to pirate their console games yet, or maybe they're too lazy, but at least they're not doing it.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Weren't you the one that had a friend that pirated DS games but didn't really play any of them?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Yeah, that was my friend. I was extremely disappointed by that whole thing.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Back in college, I knew someone who spent a lot of time pirating PC games. At some point, he had more games than time to play them. If anything, collecting games became a mini-game itself ... finding more and more to acquire, but not actually doing anything with it. I bet it's the same thing.
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Pirated DS games bother me, because everyone I work with has one of the damn flash cart things with basically every DS game released on it. I wish Nintendo could do something about those things.
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That's like everyone I know. But less pirating overall. They've been burned too many times, they like to test stuff out first.
Replace "PC" with "Dreamcast" and you've perfectly described one of my college roommates. The guy had a half dozen CD spindles full of nothing but Dreamcast games; I think he once figured that he had pirated an average of 2 games per day for an entire semester.
Hey, do me a favorite.
Go kick him in the nuts.
6 times.
Once for each year that we went without new Dreamcast games because of his dickery.
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I don't accept the "testing it out" excuse. I used to use that excuse myself, but half the time I'd finish the game and then decide that even though I'd enjoyed it, buying it was a waste of money (since I'd finished with it). The rest of the time, I'd decide that I didn't like the game enough to buy it - but I'd usually only make that decision after playing through at least half of it.
Developers and publishers take a risk by developing games that they aren't sure will sell. So consumers can take a risk on buying games. It's not like there aren't ways you can mitigate that risk (e.g. demos, review sites, rentals for console games, etc).
I agree.
What basically happens is that he literally acquires about 25 games, all of which are really really good. But you can't play 25 games at once. But since he acquired them all at once, he attempts to play one only to be distracted by the promise of another. He'd play one game until he got 'stuck' or 'died' a single time, then move onto another immediately. What happens is he never really acquired the skill, however minimal, to progress through any one game; and he never gave any one game the proper attention it took to appreciate that game and fully enjoy it and become engaged by it enough to complete it (or even get past the first few levels). Trauma Center, for example, he passed maybe 2 surgeries. New SMB? Maybe the first world. Castlevania? The first boss. Then he'd put it down and forget about it. Because he had no real connection with any of these games individually. And since he had acquired them all so effortlessly, he had no real incentive to try to get into the games at all. Thus, his DS remained untouched since that weekend he got back from his trip and sits there collecting dust to this day.
That's my theory on the psychological aspect of it, anyway.
Those things bother me to no end.
But you know what also bothers me about DS piracy?
The damn games really, honestly, do not cost that much! Is it really so burdensome to pay $35, or $30, or $20 for a fuckin' game? My pirating friend (described above) couldn't even be arsed to buy a single game, not even Brain Age or Dawn of Sorrow for $20.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Someone posted this image they found on Ebay not too long ago:
This kind of thing was far too common for the Dreamcast. It's really sad.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Hmmm, I guess I don't really see the point of selling multiple DCs in one auction. It would be pretty funny to see how he described all those pirated games though.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
For the record though, the Dreamcast's death wasn't caused by piracy. Nor did EA kill it. Sega being pretty much bankrupt did the job well enough on its own.
Well of course piracy didn't "kill" the Dreamcast; for the most part, Sega did the job pretty well itself. With everything leading up to it from the Genesis revisions and absurd addons (32x, sega cd, etc), to the finicky to develop for and expensive Saturn, to Sony's big entry to the market, there were a lot of reasons for whichh the Dreamcast failed besides just EA and piracy.
But rampant piracy certainly didn't help the Dreamcast, that's for sure.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
It works fine for CDs, which is what I mainly use it for, but for games, yeah, it's generally like what you say.
Thing is, alot of people do think that way. Every game you buy that turns out crap is seen as a waste. So the next time, they pirate it and figure "They owed me one". And then off it goes.
I'd say your friends a freak. Sorry, that's not the way anyone I know who does this sorta thing works. Most of the time it's "I want this game". The next thought it then "It's fucking like $70. I can barely afford that. Plus, who knows if it's any good.". So they pirate it and play it.
Anyone I've met, their piracy tends to be very focused. Want specific game, pirate specific game, play specific game. Pirating is just like shopping for them, but freer.
Oh, it's definitely not a common practice. I'm sure most pirates are just as you've described: focused on getting the one or two games they really wanted.
The guy I know, who was a huge collector, became a distributor as well. From what I can gather, the size of your "stash" correlated with his popularity and fame. The more stuff he had, and the more recent it was, the better. It's like collecting Pokémon, only with pirated games.
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I know both type of pirates. I had a friend who was never really into videogames besides some of the most basic and simple fun ones. But he would download ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. His bandwidth was maxed out every second of every day.
Another friend would download the latest game getting good reviews and play it.
It's more common that you would think. I knew plenty of people who matched that description when I was an undergrad at Uni. Pirating games (and applications) was an obsession, they collected games, but rarely played them right through.
This was before Bittorrent, and the way the warez scene worked back then was that you had ratio servers. You would have to upload something before you could download something else. So, for example, you might upload a 100MB app onto the server, and that would give you 600MB of quota for downloading a few games. Hoarding apps meant that you had more chance of having something to upload that wasn't already on the server.
There are other reasons too. People think: "If I don't download this game now, I mightn't be able to find it later", or they just feel an urge to "collect" all the major game releases. In fact, I work with a guy at the moment who is "collecting" every Wii release.
I have to admit that I went through a phase of obsessive pirating. I've still got dozens of games on old CD-Rs that I haven't played. And, similar to what Slash says about his friend, at the time I was doing this I wasn't really playing the games all that much. There were some that I played right through, but there were others that I just looked at for half an hour, then archived away, planning to get back to them later (but I never did).
I think that most people who pirate games do it on a small scale, just to get the games they want without paying for them... but for some others it becomes an obsession, and you'd be surprised how many people there are out there who are like that.
EDIT: Spoilered boring, semi-irrelevant stuff.
Oh I agree with you. I think most of the pirates hear about the next great game and then immediately pirate it and play it and enjoy it as soon as possible.
But as far as my friend there who took my extensive and detailed recommendations of ~25 or so DS games, he figured he might as well just steal them all at the same time while he was at it.
Since he obtained so many truly great games at once, and never actually really played any of them, I can only assume that since he pirated them all in bulk instead of focusing on 1 or two great games, then he simply didn't end up having the incentive or skill to actually get into and enjoy any of the games he pirated.
What also pisses me off is the smug attitude he had about the whole thing. Since I had not told him about pirating DS games, he assumed that I did not know about it or how to do it. He acted like he got such a great deal and knows so much about games and technology since he basically replicated my game collection without buying any of the games. As if I had gotten such a "bad deal" by buying all of these games I had instead of just downloading them all at once like he did.
Anyway..
When he and my other group of friends pirate games, it's usually some cool new game that they've heard or read about on the web. And they're hot to trot to pirate the game before it hits store shelves and play it and enjoy it thoroughly for days/weeks, depending on the game. Like Oblivion, they poured tons of time into that one.
But there are some instances of people pirating in such great volumes that they never end up playing the games they do pirate. My two old room mates would pirate so quickly they never finished a game.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
But he was awesome because he bought Guitar Hero and a second guitar and brought it to all the meetings, then loaned it to me for like three months because he was too busy playing two hours of every new DS game that came out to have time for it.
It's information they're taking and replicating. And they're replicating on their own dime (or their ISP), not the developers. The only way they can cause harm is by reducing a dev's sales. I suppose an argument could be made that they're adding to the general culture of piracy, as well as enabling actual paying consumers to pirate easier.
If anything, I think that the individuals who pirate just the good games they want to buy are worse. They pirate them because they really, really want to play but it's freeer this way. Well, newsflash, those huge pirates steal a gajillion gigs but don't cause lost sales, whereas you just directly hit the company with one less sale.
They're still pretty bad, as they often allow other people to pirate from their pirated collections, or leech off of them. Be it by providing an online/bit torrent means of sharing their stuff, or by simply having a friend come by and telling the friend, "Dude I just downloaded Crysis!" and the friend saying, "Sweet! Burn me a copy!" ... "OK!"
In the case of my DS friend, his theft of ~20 games is, in my opinion, the equivalent of Nintendo or Konami losing a sale. Because instead of buying just one $20 game (Brain Age or Dawn of Sorrow), like he would have if he had not pirated, he would have enjoyed those games for at least 4 to 8 hours or so, for the trip he went on. The games he pirated he probably spent a total of 4 to 8 hours dicking around playing the first level of each one and moving on. heck, he'd have probably saved money by buying 1 game and enjoying it rather than buying the piracy equipment and skimming between games..
I agree that they are worse, because they really are translating piracy into lost sales. If they can afford the equipment to run the games, they can afford the games themselves. They are looking forward to the new games and anticipating obtaining them so that they can play them and enjoy them thoroughly, as if they had bought them. But they don't buy them, they download/pirate them for free. So I agree with you on that.
But the ones that pirate hundreds of gigs of stuff are like the dealers to these people in some instances. At least the ones that host the files/torrents/what have you. And even if they aren't actively hosting on purpose, just by merely downloading the torrent - even for collection purposes and nothing else - they are aiding other 'lost sales' pirates in obtaining their own copies by providing more bandwidth and another copy for the torrent to latch onto.
But yeah. the guys that pirate games because they want that game and enjoy it to its fullest, they are the worse of the two evils.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I'd rather not get into a discussion of whether one type of pirate is worse than another, or theorizing that "it's probably not as bad as you think". To me, it often leads people into slippery-slope thinking: "What I'm doing isn't so bad" or "Other people are worse, so it's not bad if I download just one or two games".
I'd much rather people accept that what they're doing is just wrong. It's obviously not condoned by developers/publishers, and I'd say we gamers shouldn't condone it either. As we can see nowadays, it definitely is affecting game sales and that ought to be stopped.
I'm all for the shame factor, rather than developers having to spend more and more time securing their products, or publishers spending more money on obtrusive copy-protection schemes.
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Well I agree with the general thrust of your post, this doesn't hold. Especially for PC gamers. A 3 or so year old PC that cost less then 2 grand could run anything out there today. But that much money spent 3 years ago doesn't mean those people could necessarily afford those games at $70 a pop today.
These people who make excuses for piracy based on the claim that they 'can't afford it' make me sick. Games are luxury items. Get a job/work more hours/save better or do without.
/rant
I doubt they personally damage sales too much. They are more interested in the game of piracy and collection than real games.
However, part of the appeal for them is saying to their friends: "What game do you want, I'll give you a copy". As Slash said, they're the ones who 'feed' many casual pirates.
Well yeah, no shit. I don't think this is a tough concept for anyone in this thread. Which is why I'm not arguing about it.
I was simply pointing out that being able to afford a PC capable of playing games doesn't mean you can actually afford the games. Which is basically supporting the idea that not all people pirating are lost sales.
I think most people can afford something if they want to save for it. If they couldn't pirate games, then they might occasionally forego getting drunk on the weekend, and put that money towards games.
It's hard to tell what would happen. Piracy distorts the market so much.
Peace.
Arguable. I know quite a few people in college living pretty fucking close to the line. Or really, lets be honest, way over the line and surviving on loans.
And even if you could save up enough to buy like 1 game a month, what if there's more then 12 games you want a year?
Piracy on the grounds that "I can't afford it" happens quite a bit imo. Especially since "People who pirate games" and "Colleges kids with little money" are demographics with large overlap.
<Pointless Addendum>: This of course, doesn't make it right.
And then at the end, you die a painful death. Just as the main character realises the error of his ways, he gets crushed by a mountain of CDRs.
Edit: and it should only be released on torrent sites.
Is there someway to write a graphics engine that causes graphics cards to overheat?
There should be an option to repent, and to make it up by becoming a prolific buyer of games. Of course, in that ending, you will be forever haunted by guilt for what you have done.
Without that ending, I'm screwed. I don't want to die a painful death.
Maybe I should throw out the old floppies and CD-Rs that are hiding in those shoeboxes before they crush me.