I think that this article has some merit in the piracy debate, although it’s more to do with PC game piracy than piracy in general.
I’m sure some of you will deny some things said there, but what I’m really interested in is opposing views that can be backed up with reliable data.
Could you give a summary for those of us who don’t want to read through a ten-page article? At the very least, is this in favor of or opposed to piracy?
The author is firmly against piracy. There’s also TL: DR summary on the last page of the article.
It seems to boil down to “companies good, piracy bad, consumers stupid & liars”.
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free! You! Are! A pirate!
Well…companies are good, piracy is bad, and consumers are generally stupid and lie. So…what’s the debate? 
(In general I’m against software piracy, but I think there are valid points that can be debated both ways, and certainly not all software and not all piracy are cut from the same clothe. I haven’t slogged through the article, however, and probably won’t unless the OP does a bit more to engage the debate than a drive by link and some cryptic comments)
-XT
I read most of it. Will try to sum up.
Piracy numbers much higher on PC versions than consoles. Most reasons given by pirates to “justify” their piracy are full of shit. Game companies are modifying their business models to accommodate the facts on the ground - focus on consoles, aggressive DRM, move to mmorpgs. Unfortunately, some of these changes are detrimental to pc gaming. However, most complaints about aggressive DRM are overblown, and whenever aggressive DRM prevents day-zero piracy (crack out at or before release date) it’s a huge win for the publisher.
I don’t see a whole lot to disagree with, but neither do I see any amazingly deep insight into the issue. On the whole I might be slightly more inclined to accept drm now than before reading, but I’m still not going to buy Assassin’s Creed II though I’d very much like to play the game.
I agree that most excuses used by pirates are bullshit. I’m also all for companies being able to protect their intellectual properties. I’m less sure about the real amount of abuse, however. I’ve certainly seen the stats that some companies use (I say this to short circuit any 'dopers inclined to rush out and find a cite demonstrating that software companies claim to be losing $x million per year due to piracy…I’ve seen the figures, so no need to go get them again on my account anyway), but I think that in many cases it’s a matter of adding up all the folks who pirated your software (plus a few more to pad the number appropriately) and then putting a dollar figure on it, instead of realizing that many people who pirated the software probably wouldn’t have gone out and bought it (or used it) otherwise.
I don’t have any real issue with DRM type watermarks or encryption, though I tend to avoid games that use the really aggressive stuff, as it’s to much of a pain in the ass IMHO. I do prefer one stop shops like Steam to get my games, really, since it allows me to buy and download games easily, and put them on multiple platforms without having to bother hunting about for a DVD whenever I want to play a game of Total War or something.
-XT
Pretty much, or outright made up.
The author doesn’t really address the “$x gazillion dollars lost to piracy” stuff aside from noting that a) clearly you can’t add up piracy numbers and claim an equivalent number of lost sales and b) nevertheless each act of piracy does represent some loss, even if a much smaller one on average.
As I said, there really isn’t much to disagree with - largely because he doesn’t say anything particularly insightful.
On the matter of drm, I’ll say that my personal line is this: I should be able to dig out my copy in 10 years time and, hardware & OS permitting, play the game. Therefore, drm that involves limited numbers of activations, or that the publisher maintain servers to log into, or whatever, is out. If publishers would promise to strip off those measures via a patch after some period of time, then I wouldn’t object to such drm.
Meh, I always pirate games before I buy. It’s something you learn to do as an avid gamer after being burned so many times. For me, it’s that I want to taste the milk before I buy the cow. There are just so many lying developers, rose-colored reviews, and hardware incompatibility problems that you have to be genuinely stupid (or perhaps rich) to buy games without trying them.
If some of these companies weren’t so unscrupulous, I could be convinced to abstain from pirating. Unfortunately however, these 21st century snake oil salesmen are so concerned about delaying the pirates by a few days with their drm protection measures they refuse to address some of the core reasons regular honest people pirate. Going back to my cow analogy, which I’m particularly fond of, it’s not “why buy the cow when the milk is free” it’s “why buy the cow when i know full well this company has sold me rancid milk in the past.”
I probably wind up buying at least 50% of the games I ‘test drive.’ I really don’t see anything wrong with what I’m doing from a moral standpoint either. If anything, this allows me to put more money into the hands of developers who are doing right by me. When the rest address the grievances of the gaming community maybe I’ll stop feeling so apathetic towards their cries of piracy.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2n8ddas.jpg - I still spend a ton of money each month towards PC gaming, and that’s just my steam library.
I’m one of the fortunate few who can survive without playing video games. For me, they’re a luxury, not a necessity; and if I disagree with any aspect of a game–from the sexism in the cover-art to the lameness of the premise, to the shoddy voice acting to the obnoxious DRM–I can actually refuse to do business with the game maker altogether.
I know that software pirates have a genetic condition that requires them to play each game or else slowly wither away into nothingness, so I don’t hold them to the same standards as myself. Were I to pirate a game, that’d be unethical. But only because of my unique physiology.
I just play free games nowadays. It’s not like every video game out there costs money.
I tihnk there were some interesting points about the change in culture from ‘get it for free’ to ‘stick it to the man’, and the increase in general levels of justification and rationalising for doing it.
I dont think much of his suggested solutions for publishers. Really the only solutions are what they’re doing - moving to online only gaming an subscription/ongoing payment models (MMOs, DLC, servers required to play etc) , or releasing on PC after sales on other platforms have already declined.
Otara
I think the point he was making is, that if the game is shit he can’t actually refuse to do business, because the business has already been done. Perhaps you would explain how your remarkable physiology allows you to get your money back in that situation? Is there any way I can train my mind and body to achieve similar powers, cause that’d be just dandy.
Gamestop offers store credit on trade-ins…
D&R
Just curious, of the 50% of games that you don’t buy, how many of which have you played to completion, or at least put >2 hours into?
I’ve pirated my fair share, for a variety of reasons.
-Games that are simply impossible to get in any other way. Copyright or no, its my firm belief that any published material should revert to public domain if its not made available for purchase anymore. If its not worth it for them to bother selling, I’m not going to care either, and at that point, a used copy is identical in effect to the publisher as a pirated copy.
-Games that I owned at one time and lost the disc or codes to and wanted to play again. To be perfectly frank, I can’t consider this piracy, even if legally it is.
-Games I just wanted to check out and knew weren’t worth buying. Spore is an ideal example here. Played for about 2 hours just to see how the tech worked. Crap game. Clearly not worth the money. I’d rent, but there is no place to rent pc games, and more and more often, no way to test them, since there is no demo.
-Games that have DRM i didn’t want to deal with. Sad how the copy i pirated is more functional and user friendly than the copy i bought from the store. These are mainly crackes, but I’m pretty sure cracks are piracy as well, due to distributing an only slightly modified exe and/or other game files. Any software with a dongle is a prime candidate for this, but CD checks are reason enough. I crack pretty much every game I own unless it has an online component(which nowadays thankfully have little obvious drm).
-Not so much games, but software, particularly the expensive kind. Particularly if there is a step needed in a conversion process for two programs that you use, that can only be accomplished in a third, very expensive program(like $3000), where the entirety of your use of that expensive, highly complex, highly capable program is saving as a new format, which can’t be done anywhere else because they decided to use a new, closed, format for their new standard, which is the only conversion path you found from tool a to tool b that doesn’t leave artifacts.
Of course a lot of commercial grade software like that gets pirated just because there is zero chance of hobbyists actually being able to afford it, and their business model is based almost entirely off commercial customers anyway.
But I digress.
There are wrong reasons to pirate. There are right reasons, where copyright law has failed consumers. There are the muddy areas, such as downloading a new format that you didn’t purchase initiall(such as a ROM for an old SNES game that you own so you can play it on your PC).
The only clear cut case where its completely wrong is if the person is clearly able to pay, and doesn’t.
“I think the point he was making is, that if the game is shit he can’t actually refuse to do business, because the business has already been done.”
You mean like after going to a movie or play or concert, or any number of other things?
Otara
It’s even easier than that: I’m not forced to buy the game in the first place (I know, it sounds like I’m bragging about these amazing powers, but I’m serious). If I want to find out about a game, I read reviews, play any demo the designers have decided to release, maybe ask friends for recommendations. Otherwise it’s caveat emptor–and since it’s a luxury item, that’s just dandy, indeed.
