BF2S Forums PC Game Piracy Examined

TheEternalPessimist wrote:

I know I'm in a minority but, I do buy the games I download if they're any good, take Fallout 3, I DLd that first and liked it so much I went and ordered the game 2 days after getting it, even though I'd pretty much finished the game once through already, that game has re-play value and justifies it's price, I've downloaded games that are ok but not worth the money so I just get rid of them or wait til they come down in price and buy them later, crap games I just delete and carry on with the good games.

The only game I've never DLd and just gone out and bought is Spore, and what a fucking mistake that was, biggest disappointment of my gaming life, total waste of money so I'll never do that again, people argue that demo's are for the purpose of testing but tbh they're quite often not exactly like the full game and as such unreliable, they also don't give you an idea of how the game plays out in the long term, I can be left wanting more from a 20 min demo only to go buy it and be bored shitless after 2 hours.

Sadly 99.9% of downloaders wont buy games if they already have them for free, I make a point of buying good games, and ditching the shit ones, it's my little vote for quality games, otherwise the shit publishers have a chance at making money from utter crap, while I'd be much happier if they went bankrupt and allowed quality games developers to thrive.

Hope_is_lost117 wrote:

TheEternalPessimist wrote:

I know I'm in a minority but, I do buy the games I download if they're any good, take Fallout 3, I DLd that first and liked it so much I went and ordered the game 2 days after getting it, even though I'd pretty much finished the game once through already, that game has re-play value and justifies it's price, I've downloaded games that are ok but not worth the money so I just get rid of them or wait til they come down in price and buy them later, crap games I just delete and carry on with the good games.

The only game I've never DLd and just gone out and bought is Spore, and what a fucking mistake that was, biggest disappointment of my gaming life, total waste of money so I'll never do that again, people argue that demo's are for the purpose of testing but tbh they're quite often not exactly like the full game and as such unreliable, they also don't give you an idea of how the game plays out in the long term, I can be left wanting more from a 20 min demo only to go buy it and be bored shitless after 2 hours.

Sadly 99.9% of downloaders wont buy games if they already have them for free, I make a point of buying good games, and ditching the shit ones, it's my little vote for quality games, otherwise the shit publishers have a chance at making money from utter crap, while I'd be much happier if they went bankrupt and allowed quality games developers to thrive.

That's why companies should implement a try-then-buy system for games, you download it for free, play it for a day/couple of hours and if you like it you buy it and if you don't you sink it.

Last edited by TheEternalPessimist (2008-12-15 05:32:46)

Spidery_Yoda wrote:

I just got linked to this article from the Steam Users Forums.

http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html

***I very highly recommend people (especially PC gamers) read through the whole thing.***

I doubt many (if any) of you will read it in its entirety, but i'm going to try my best to get people to at least try. It took me over 3 hours to read, but i'm now in a state where i feel I have a much better idea of whats going on. It talks about the economics and scale of piracy, compares PCs to consoles, and finally talks about DRM. It's all completely unbiased and tries to be as factual as possible.

I now firmly believe that nobody has any excuse to pirate PC games. It is doing significant damage to the industry, and while MMO's, casual titles and online games are still profitable for companies on the PC, traditional singleplayer games are not, and many companies have been making the move to consoles within the last few years, and they all say its due to piracy. Now I don't want to have to play console ports on my PC. They suck. Console games in general don't stand up to a well made PC exclusive title. However that's the future for these sorts of PC games if people continue pirating games the way they are.

Please read it. It's quite an eye opener. For the record, i've not pirated any PC games that I can think of in recent memory. Back in the day my brother may have given me a cracked copy of something about 5 years ago, but its all in the past. Both I and him now buy all our PC games. To me, being a poor student, this means mot playing the vast majority of what comes out. This year the only 2008 PC games i've played have been my brothers copy of Dead Space, and my copies of Left 4 Dead, Kane's Wrath, and Crysis Warhead. I can't afford more than that. But I don't pirate them. I keep every other game i'm interested in on a list of possibly future purchases.

tl;dr

Don't pirate games. Buy them or just don't play them. More and more developers are crossing over to consoles, and the reason they all give is PC piracy. They know more than you do on the subject so don't blindly say they're wrong. Pirating games is only hurting us all in the long run. Stop it now while there's still time to pull back.

Mexanick wrote:

Don't pirate PC games IF you care about PC gaming future. I dont care, so if all the good game titles will go to consoles, ill wish them luck. And if I wont't have the money for alfa-romeo super-mega-xxl 5000, but will have ability to copy it 1-to-1 for free, I'll do it.
So, developers are good = true, steam is good = 50/50, classic publishers are good = false, DRM is good = bullcrap.

Spidery_Yoda wrote:

I didn't say it will die. I didn't say it was stealing. I said its getting severely damaged. You don't need to look far to see that. Epic, id, Crytek. These are all big game companies that have always been PC centered. But now? They've all said that piracy is the reason they now develop for consoles first and foremost. And I think everyone can agree that their console games with PC ports have been pretty poor compared to previous games. Everyone I know thinks UT3 is crap. Same with Gears. Gears 2 isn't even coming out on the PC, and Cliff said it was because of piracy. Look at GTA IV. Rockstar began on the PC, and have always made good PC ports in the past. This time they just didn't bother. They knew it would be pirated.
The quality of most PC games is dropping significantly. And no doubt every single person here who pirates games just because they can will be here complaining about it. Something to keep in mind: It's your fault.

I don't want Crytek to start making console games. I don't want Epic to keep making shallow console shooters. Even Valve. Beloved Valve! Left 4 Dead on the PC shows many signs of being developed with a console in mind. No serverbrowser, coloured bars instead of ping, unstreamlined menu, etc. I want Rockstar to put a good deal of effort and thought into their PC ports of GTA games, or even better, develop them for the PC in the first place. Battlefield. Compare BF2 to Bad Company. Yuck. Hopefully though we'll get a new proper Battlefield game in the not too distant future. It's always been a big money maker for DICE and EA. But what if when they make it they make it side along with a console version? The quality will be way below standards and you know it. It could very easily happen.

As the article shows, the gaming PC install base is easily big enough to get comparative sales as the consoles. But. The sales just don't stand up. I'm not suprised at all that the move to consoles is happening. But I don't want it to .

You can't compare piracy 20 years ago to piracy today. The internet changed everything.

Spidery_Yoda wrote:

Indeed. Valve do everything right. They have no problems with Piracy do they.

But the fact still remains that its driving most developers away from the platform.

blah wrote:

Why would I pay for something I can get for free?!

DefCon-17 wrote:

In VALVe we trust.

I've pirated games.
..But to be honest, I've never bothered playing those again, even if I have them burned on DVD. The only games I play repeatedly are the ones I bought.

Or, I kinda use pirated games as demos.
At first I downloaded Company of Heroes, but I own it legitimately now. (For example. Same with BF2.)

So basically, if I pirate a game that I end up liking, I'll buy it.
If I don't like it, I'll stop playing it and won't buy it. They don't deserve my money if I don't like the game.