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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Another Look At Piracy

Ail said:
vlad321 said:
CommonMan said:
So it's a matter of not getting your moneys worth, so you just take them for free? Hmm. . . personally I look at reviews and get friends input and decide myself how much a game is worth, if it's doesn't sound like it's going to be a full-price purchase, I wait until it goes on sale. Different thoughts.

Also, Vlad, it seems like you have impossibly high standards if SC2 isn't going to meet them and therefore be "okay" to be pirated. So the company that you profess is awesome at treating PC gamers and caters just to them can't even make your standards to be "worthy" of your money, makes it sound like you are just using this quality argument as an excuse to take whatever you want, since nothing is good enough.

So let me get this straight. LAN is now "high standards?" Gaming has really went down the shitter if that's the case.

The battlenet features that will come with SC2 are way beyond anything SC1 had, but you obviously are not going to go point that out as that would invalidates your argument that SC2 is inferior to SC1....

 

LAN is a thing of the past...

Only a few hardcore still cling to it. The majority of us would rather not have to carry our PC around to play a multiplayer game...

 

 

Yes, except they dont offer sub 10 ping games. However seeing how most people in this day and age don't understand shit about ping yeah, I can see LAN dying. Sadly, ping is a very important factor, and the only way to remove it is through LAN. As I said, you gaming has really become shit when LAN is gone.

Unless you are trying to imply one of two things:

a) ping is no longer important

b) you can have decent ping without LAN

If you go by either of these two then you are just ignorant and just don't know shit about gaming then, so I really hope you aren't trying to imply either.



Tag(thx fkusumot) - "Yet again I completely fail to see your point..."

HD vs Wii, PC vs HD: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=93374

Why Regenerating Health is a crap game mechanic: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=3986420

gamrReview's broken review scores: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=4170835

 

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I love LAN, but hell I don't give a crap about a slightly better ping.
Spending some time playing with your real life friends in one room and see their reaction, converse, check out or show off some games/images/videos etc. and drink a lot of beer.



Barozi said:

I love LAN, but hell I don't give a crap about a slightly better ping.
Spending some time playing with your real life friends in one room and see their reaction, converse, check out or show off some games/images/videos etc. and drink a lot of beer.

There is that too, being able to drunkenly yell at your friend's face after you show utter superiority is absolutely priceless.



Tag(thx fkusumot) - "Yet again I completely fail to see your point..."

HD vs Wii, PC vs HD: http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=93374

Why Regenerating Health is a crap game mechanic: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=3986420

gamrReview's broken review scores: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=4170835

 

Really... I don't get the flipping of logic. You're not obligated to buy the product. You don't have the right to say "Where is my share?".

You lose nothing when a firm sets a price too high. The day before and after the release of a game, you lost nothing. You're only unrightfully taking something from somebody else, their labor, their sweat, their dignity as a man, by making them a slave.

Just wait for a price cut, or a shift of Supply. Then you'll get your money's worth.

The firms are not obligated to give you a game, nor give you a game you want. You have the right to rationally decide (is this worth it for me, or do I pass), so some fucking crying that you're only taking back something rightfully yours is bullshit.



Ail said:
Lord N said:

The issue that this thread is trying to address is not the morality, but whether or not the financial effects are anywhere near what the industry would have people believe.

I don't think there's any question. Most of the people by far who download or otherwise obtain unauthorized copies of games, music, video games, and software and then don't buy them never would have bought them anyway. The people who go out and buy bootleg CD's, movies, video games, etc usually live in poor countries where they barely have enough income to buy a bag of rice for their family to eat every night. People who obtain it through P2P(Bittorent and the like) are mostly teenagers and poor college students who couldn't afford it either.

There are also other factors to take into account, such as people who download just for the sake of it. There are tons of people who download movies and tv shows that they aren't going to watch, games that they'll never play, and music they'll never listen to just to add to their collection or just to say that they have the whole set. There's also stuff that's out of print/discontinued or otherwise not available for purchase. There's also stuff that's available, but very cost-prohibitive. I live in Philadelphia and i listen to a lot of electronic music and J-pop, a great deal of which a) isn't available here, b) is available here, but I'd have to pay ridiculous import prices(I'm talking $30-$40 per CD). As far singles go, a lot of trance/techno/house etc is only released on vinyl, and vinyl can cost $9-$15 a piece just to get 2 or 3 songs, and only a fraction of the stuff is available via iTunes or other download services.

So you see, every download does not equal a lost sale, and if the industry were suffering anywhere near the damage they claim, then the record labels would have long ago gone out of business considering that it's been possible for years to download an artist's entire discography in less than an hour.






 

Then how the heck you explain the fact that DS software sales started to go down the shitter in Europe this year, at the same time as it became easier to pirate DS games ?
 
It's not like the quality of the DS games released this year was any worse than the quality of the games released the previous years...

 

 

 

It's been easy to get free games on your DS since the thing was released. That's not something that just happened this year. You need to consider extranneous factors.



 

Consoles owned: Saturn, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PSP, DS, PS3

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vlad321 said:
Ail said:
vlad321 said:
CommonMan said:
So it's a matter of not getting your moneys worth, so you just take them for free? Hmm. . . personally I look at reviews and get friends input and decide myself how much a game is worth, if it's doesn't sound like it's going to be a full-price purchase, I wait until it goes on sale. Different thoughts.

Also, Vlad, it seems like you have impossibly high standards if SC2 isn't going to meet them and therefore be "okay" to be pirated. So the company that you profess is awesome at treating PC gamers and caters just to them can't even make your standards to be "worthy" of your money, makes it sound like you are just using this quality argument as an excuse to take whatever you want, since nothing is good enough.

So let me get this straight. LAN is now "high standards?" Gaming has really went down the shitter if that's the case.

The battlenet features that will come with SC2 are way beyond anything SC1 had, but you obviously are not going to go point that out as that would invalidates your argument that SC2 is inferior to SC1....

 

LAN is a thing of the past...

Only a few hardcore still cling to it. The majority of us would rather not have to carry our PC around to play a multiplayer game...

 

 

Yes, except they dont offer sub 10 ping games. However seeing how most people in this day and age don't understand shit about ping yeah, I can see LAN dying. Sadly, ping is a very important factor, and the only way to remove it is through LAN. As I said, you gaming has really become shit when LAN is gone.

Unless you are trying to imply one of two things:

a) ping is no longer important

b) you can have decent ping without LAN

If you go by either of these two then you are just ignorant and just don't know shit about gaming then, so I really hope you aren't trying to imply either.

sorry but a 50ms better ping isn't going to change a game of Starcraft at all...........

Heck, most RTS games transmit user interaction at 10 to 4 per second...

So now explain me how your 8ms ping make thing any better when the game doesn't interpret more than 4 to 10 user interactions per second anyway...



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

vlad321 said:
Ail said:
So basically you are mesmerized by shit and can't help yourself but you have to play those shitty games ???
PS : so what excuse are you going to bring when Starcraft 2 becomes the most pirated game of 2010 ? I wonder...

Not really, I give them a try and they end up being shit. Not my fault their are shitty games.

P.S. Pretty good ones, lack of LAN and $60 to start off with. If those don't cause a ton of piracy then I'd be disappointed. Companies bend over for their customers, not the other way around.

Now here's where I have to call bullshit.  Earlier you gave examples of games that were more than worth the money:  "I spent $80 for D2 LoD, and I spent hundreds of hours on it, many many hundreds. $70 for Starcraft and Warcraft 2 and 3 and I spent hundreds of hours out of them. UT2004 set me back only $50.Don't even get me started on the value of Civ 4.  FInally, while I have spent around $750 on WoW, I have 250 days of /played. That's 6,000 hours.

"Why should I pay $60 for MW2 which is a re-tread of a game, and is utter shit when it comes to features? Same goes for jsut about any shooter that has come out since 2005, except for Metro 2033 which had some amazing new features, and Portal."

But now I'm supposed to believe that SC2 isn't going to measure up?  If you spend hundreds and hundreds of hours on a game (a precedent set by SC1), then you are the biggest fucking crybaby liar in the world if you are seriously going to try to convince me that you can't put up $60 for it.  LAN or no LAN, playtime tells the tale. 

And in any case, where do you get off being "disappointed" by low piracy levels EVER? 



Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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Akvod said:

Really... I don't get the flipping of logic. You're not obligated to buy the product. You don't have the right to say "Where is my share?".

You lose nothing when a firm sets a price too high. The day before and after the release of a game, you lost nothing. You're only unrightfully taking something from somebody else, their labor, their sweat, their dignity as a man, by making them a slave.

Just wait for a price cut, or a shift of Supply. Then you'll get your money's worth.

The firms are not obligated to give you a game, nor give you a game you want. You have the right to rationally decide (is this worth it for me, or do I pass), so some fucking crying that you're only taking back something rightfully yours is bullshit.

You can't "take" a digital copy of a game. You can experience a game without paying for it. Don't forget these professionals get payed salary and maybe have stock options or bonuses based on how well a game sells. The main thing piracy directly affects in the video game industry is job security, and even that is a loose relationship. I would argue in capitalist societies that companies do have an obligation to produce attractive products at reasonable prices. Equally, any economy relies the movement of goods, the use of services, and the transfer of money: people are obligated to buy products. Overpricing and lack of value hinder a healthy relationship between producer and consumer. If you give a person a reason to want something they cannot obtain conveniently, they'll think of another way of getting that something. 

I'll give you a good example: before Netflix and popular streaming services I used to watch all of my television and movies from torrented downloads. Torrents were simply the most convenient way possible to get what I wanted when I wanted it. Netflix and other streaming services have actually made it immensely more convenient and they are either free (with reasonable ads) or reasonably priced. The formula: attractive product, reasonable prices, added value. 



GlingGling said:
Akvod said:

Really... I don't get the flipping of logic. You're not obligated to buy the product. You don't have the right to say "Where is my share?".

You lose nothing when a firm sets a price too high. The day before and after the release of a game, you lost nothing. You're only unrightfully taking something from somebody else, their labor, their sweat, their dignity as a man, by making them a slave.

Just wait for a price cut, or a shift of Supply. Then you'll get your money's worth.

The firms are not obligated to give you a game, nor give you a game you want. You have the right to rationally decide (is this worth it for me, or do I pass), so some fucking crying that you're only taking back something rightfully yours is bullshit.

You can't "take" a digital copy of a game. You can experience a game without paying for it. Don't forget these professionals get payed salary and maybe have stock options or bonuses based on how well a game sells. The main thing piracy directly affects in the video game industry is job security, and even that is a loose relationship. I would argue in capitalist societies that companies do have an obligation to produce attractive products at reasonable prices. Equally, any economy relies the movement of goods, the use of services, and the transfer of money: people are obligated to buy products. Overpricing and lack of value hinder a healthy relationship between producer and consumer. If you give a person a reason to want something they cannot obtain conveniently, they'll think of another way of getting that something. 

I'll give you a good example: before Netflix and popular streaming services I used to watch all of my television and movies from torrented downloads. Torrents were simply the most convenient way possible to get what I wanted when I wanted it. Netflix and other streaming services have actually made it immensely more convenient and they are either free (with reasonable ads) or reasonably priced. The formula: attractive product, reasonable prices, added value. 

You can't "take" a digital copy of a game.

Yes you can. IP is the right to exclusively produce or reproduce a software, music, etc. You have no right, the people who put it up online have no right. Lenders have a right, because they got permission from the creators. Second hand sales have a right, because while they have no right to reproduce the product, they can do as they please with their copy.

Don't forget these professionals get payed salary and maybe have stock options or bonuses based on how well a game sells.

So?

I would argue in capitalist societies that companies do have an obligation to produce attractive products at reasonable prices.

No in a capitalist society, you have choices. If there is a crappy product, that means that you choose the better product, and the crappy company fails. It's fucking ironic that people are saying "Man, this game fucking blows. Therefore, I shall take it". If the game blows, then don't fucking pirate it. It blows right?

 

Equally, any economy relies the movement of goods, the use of services, and the transfer of money: people are obligated to buy products.

There are other things an economy relies on, but the main thing is the establishment of property rights. Civil government is needed to enforce this.

Overpricing and lack of value hinder a healthy relationship between producer and consumer. If you give a person a reason to want something they cannot obtain conveniently, they'll think of another way of getting that something.

There is no such thing as "overpricing". There is only unprofitble, and price fixing/oligopolies/monopolies. If the price is above the equilibrium level, it will naturally fall. If it is below, it will rise. If the price is too high, then don't buy it. This is my point in my last point. This sense of entitlement. I think that diamonds are overpriced. For me personally at least. I have no interest in those fucking glittery rocks. But my mom doesn't. She loves that shit, and she's willing to pay for it. I'm at the very bottom of the Marginal Benefit (I get very little utitlity from the diamond), and my mother is at the center or above of that curve. The level of a price and the true value of the product varies from each person. There can be no overpricing.

I'll give you a good example: before Netflix and popular streaming services I used to watch all of my television and movies from torrented downloads. Torrents were simply the most convenient way possible to get what I wanted when I wanted it.

You were on the bottom half of the marginal benefit curve. Yet, you got to enjoy the fruits of the movie makers without having to pay for it, because you got it for free.

Netflix and other streaming services have actually made it immensely more convenient and they are either free (with reasonable ads) or reasonably priced.

There was a theoretical "price" of torrenting. That price can be measured by the opportunity cost of torrenting (risk of getting caught, hard drive space, the time it takes to download a movie, the bad quality, etc).

The price of the Netflix was cheaper, you went for that one.

 

 

... so your point is that you simply ignore property rights for your own benefit.



I pirate, but I don't give dishonest arguments for it. Like the "Try first" argument, it's just a lie or a self-deception to justify your dirty acts. It simply is very awkward to download and install a game and then later pay $30 or $40 for it. Why would anyone do that? Human psychology don't work like that. I know some would do it from time to time, if you by chance stumbled upon a cheap copy or a sale of a game you really love, but it's not something you'd do on a regular basis.

I pirate because I can. It saves money and has no legal or other negative consequences. That's the true reason for everyone who pirate.

So do we really want game sales to depend on the good will of overly-critical, spoiled people like Vlad?