The Great video game Taboo : Piracy

I'm not even sure this thread will last long but here goes.

There's one subject the giantbomb guys will avoid, same on every "pro" podcast out there. Piracy.

It's something that's been bugging me for a while now because, I don't know about you guys, but I know LOTs of people around me with hacked psps or hacked 360s, downloading games and burning them and whatnot. Hell, on this very forum there's been mentions here and there of piracy.

I don't like it. I pay good money for my games because it's my passion. I don't drink anymore, I don't smoke anymore. All that sweet sweet cash goes directly in gaming. Then you come to work one morning, and 4,5 guys are exchanging the latest burned DDVD 360 release, sometimes when the game is not even out yet. It pisses me off. Back in the days, i would mind less because in the nintendo days, most of these games were from japan and somehow, it felt so far away i wouldn't mind much. But when i see people with burned copies of Mass Effect, my canadian heart burns with rage. Bioware works freakin hard on their titles and they don't deserve this. Nor any developper for that matter.

I've been quite hosest with that, if a web site would exist where you could turn those people in, I gladly would, and then tell em to their faces. But i don't think such a thing exist.

I know you guys will probably be touchy on this subject but still, you have opinions? Stories? you know how we, paying gamers could do something about piracy?

Note : Theres no piracy concept page, granted it's illegal, but its a gaming-related concept. Even if its against the law, it exist.

I'm not even sure this thread will last long but here goes.

There's one subject the giantbomb guys will avoid, same on every "pro" podcast out there. Piracy.

It's something that's been bugging me for a while now because, I don't know about you guys, but I know LOTs of people around me with hacked psps or hacked 360s, downloading games and burning them and whatnot. Hell, on this very forum there's been mentions here and there of piracy.

I don't like it. I pay good money for my games because it's my passion. I don't drink anymore, I don't smoke anymore. All that sweet sweet cash goes directly in gaming. Then you come to work one morning, and 4,5 guys are exchanging the latest burned DDVD 360 release, sometimes when the game is not even out yet. It pisses me off. Back in the days, i would mind less because in the nintendo days, most of these games were from japan and somehow, it felt so far away i wouldn't mind much. But when i see people with burned copies of Mass Effect, my canadian heart burns with rage. Bioware works freakin hard on their titles and they don't deserve this. Nor any developper for that matter.

I've been quite hosest with that, if a web site would exist where you could turn those people in, I gladly would, and then tell em to their faces. But i don't think such a thing exist.

I know you guys will probably be touchy on this subject but still, you have opinions? Stories? you know how we, paying gamers could do something about piracy?

Note : Theres no piracy concept page, granted it's illegal, but its a gaming-related concept. Even if its against the law, it exist.

I don't think that's what the people on Giant Bomb say they do when they mention "piracy." I'm guessing they use it to play old games that nobody really cares about anymore (as people have directly told me). However, your post has enlightened me as to why my Lost Odyssey discs have this "Please don't make illegal copies of this game" warning on it (even if it won't work :P).

Piracy is not a game related concept. That's why it's called piracy, because it dates back to when PIRATES used to do it, on actual ships. It's just stealing, stealing is not a videogame related concept.

It has to do with the culture around video games, as does playing games while sitting cross-legged on the floor, but it doesn't have to do with the concept behind the games themselves, nor their design, so it wouldn't really fit as a concept.  Any game can be pirated, so it's not like putting it in the database is very useful.

You might want to send an email to the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft asking how to report piracy in your area, if you're keen on losing your friends.

I did not argue with you in the least, why so touchy? Stealing involves physically making something unavailable to the owner. Downloading a game does not fit that description. I do not disagree with your view, so calm down.

How is this subject taboo? It's illegal and it's wrong, there's not grey area at all. People don't talk about it on podcasts because it's a one sided arguement.

I like to think of it as "try before you buy". I have made too many duff purchases over the years to throw my money away on a crappy game.

Its like stealing a car before coming back to the dealership going " yeah, feels nice, i'll pay for that. I've paid for too many crappy cars in the past "

Dumb.

When you steal a car, you're physically depriving the retailer of a car that they can sell.

Not to mention plenty of people take test drives of cars before they buy em.

Piracy in all cases is wrong. The only time I can see it being justified is if you already bought the game and it breaks and then you pirate but you always buy it first.

Which is why Valve and Steam are so awesome.

They have weekends were you can "try before you buy".

Thus, I have never pirated a Valve made game, and happy to say I own all current Valve published titles legally.

Basically, Steam is the future.

It's not like you can play online anyways (most of the time, unless with private servers). Not much you can say about it. The internet is too tough a place to regulate when thousands of people are seeding weeks before a game's release.

I admit I download games, and I used to download to play them but since I've seen a few companies fold, I've change my mindset, I'll download it if there's no demo and treat the first few levels as a demo, if I like it I buy it, if not well I'm not going to continue playing it so I uninstall it, if there were more demos freely available it'd probably stop a little at least. I've just not got as much money as I used to so I'm cautious with what I buy.

I download games, while I play the game I'll think to myself just how much money in my opinion that game was worth, if I look up the game at the time and it's below or the same price as my evaluation I'll usually buy it fairly quickly. If not, I'll wait for a price drop.

Problem is, everyone has a reason to do it and i can't argue against all that, but i'm wondering what can be done about it.

I really can't believe xbox doesnt have something that can detect remotely that the integrity of an xbox has been compromised, and therefore, shuts down XBL. that should be a basic measure.

I have never pirated a game for my consoles, but i think on the PC there are so many reasons that people do it, outside of not wanting to pay for. Especially as a lot of retailers refuse to accept returns if it doesn't work on your computer.

Do you know how annoying it is to spend xx amount of a game, only for it to not even work on your system. I do, and it isn't nice. So for me it is just to see if it works on my PC, but to be honest, it has been years since i have.

I used to own a modded PS2. I had a whole dvd book of games, at least 150 games. How many of those did I play for more than an hour or two? probably about 10%. I always find that anything that I don't pay for, I don't sit down to play. If I downloaded a game and burned it, I would try it out and move onto something else usually. If I purchased it though, you can safely bet that I finished the game.

That's just me though. I now own a 360, and I can't buy a bunch of games, so I have a gamerang subscription and rent two at a time. Everyone month or two, when a major release hits, I buy that, but not always. It's been months since I have purchased any games, just keep renting.

The Iphone, that's a different story. With so many games coming out, it's hard to keep track of what is what. My Iphone is jailbroken, and I download games all the time. I rarely pay for games on the Iphone....but then again, the majority of the games I do download, I never finish.

You dont have cash for games but you have an iphone? Right.....

And like A Drain said, its no excuse.

And you're right, Drain, tough part is to prove that an xbox is hacked.

Oh...I fully agree. I am not denying stealing it. All I am saying is that it's possibly the same for other people as well. That's just how it works for myself.

Then again, I am a pirate all the way, software, movies, and some music.

The thing is, a lot of games that deserve to be purchased aren't, and a lot of it stems to people not wanting to pay 60 bucks or whatever, for something they don't know is going to be good or bad. The new terminator game took me 2 and a half hours to beat, if I hadn't rented it, and instead purchased it, I would have been rightfully pissed. Demos are a great start, but a lot of games don't get demos. So what are you to do? Read the reviews, which most people hound anyway, and hope that the reviewer has the same opinion as you?

Out of all the games I finished on the PS2, probably 90% were games I bought. I have never tried or even thought about pirating my 360. And the Iphone has so many games that are either terrible, or great, even if its only a few dollars, it still adds up. I have played way to many bad games on the Iphone that I actually payed for, it eventually made me jailbreak, just so I wouldn't buy anymore shit games.

"Try before you buy" is a morally bankrupt concept. I've likened it before to breaking into a movie theater through the exit and paying on the way out if you liked the film.

The try before you buy thing is ridiculous. How long do you actually try for? How far do you play into the game? Do you actually buy afterward? If you've ever pirated a game and played for more then an hour and didn't go out and buy it then "try before you buy" is bullshit.

This is coming from someone who has in his time hacked more then his fair share of consoles.

Piracy sucks for everyone involved. The developers get jacked, the publishers get jacked and IMHO the gamer gets jacked. I'll tell you as someone who once had somewhat of a business modding consoles that gaming becomes significantly less enjoyable when you just download all your games for free.

I no longer mod or pirate for myself or anyone else and if I could I would honestly take it all back. But when I did I was literally just downloading everything burning it and putting it in a case never to be played. I was doing it for the "thrill" I guess but I extracted no enjoyment out of the actual process of playing games at all, hell I don't think I've ever even finished a game that I pirated, including games I actually liked. Now let me make it clear, I didn't hack everything, out of the new consoles I've only hacked Wiis and even then I still bought stuff I though was worthy(with no "try before you buy" bullcrap).

Pirating is scum and I admit I was once a pirate and an enabler for pirates, if you enjoy gaming then buy and enjoy your games, don't sink in a hole like I did. All my entertainment is now purchased legit and I'll tell you I get much more raw entertainment out of it(movies, music, games, whatever). There's nothing like buying a new CD cracking it open and just sitting and actually listening too it, it's just a completely different experience then downloading the MP3s, same with games and movies.

Here's what I think:  Dragon Age is shipping with no type of copy protection.  End of story.

I don't think anything should ever be pirated, but it will be.  You can't stop it.  Maybe instead of trying to stop the unstoppable, people should start punishing the punishable.  = D

The 'try before you buy' argument is bullshit.  Like all the other pro-piracy arguments.

You can't justify it, but the industry still has to deal with it.  I think there is an argument to be made for more realistic pricing, especially on digital distribution, where the overheads of selling 10 units is barely any different to selling 1 unit.

It should never be the case that digital distribution price is more than on the high street.

How are you mentioning the 360 with piracy?  It's barely pirated.  The psp is a bit more, but still not by anyone who knows how to use the interwebz.  Pc piracy is where it's at.

So a quick question:

How many would be willing to pay an initial $10 for a full game on the premise that afterwards you had the option to pay more based on your own value?

or

How many would be willing to pay an initial $10 for a full game on the premise that afterwards you had to pay based on a set range of amounts (+$10 more, +$15 more...)?

The pusblisher will get some money out of the deal up front, and a potential amount of more money if they put out a good product. There would also be the added benefit of consumer response to a product; if a majority of consumers only pay the minimum, then maybe the product could have been either better advertised or better made. If many consumers paid more, then you're doing something right and only improve from there. Just a guess here, but I think the payment structure would follow that of the standared bell curve. The real question is what numbers would be needed to be in place to be profitable.