I only pirate software (£300 for photoshop? I think not....)

I might pirate MW2 and not play on it just to spite Activison, Recommended retail price (As sais by activison) £55? no way (Note you cant find it for the price Activision recommened for it as it was too much so every where sold it for £ 40-45)

HAY GUYZ. Havent you seen the horrible state the DS is in with the R4 cards and such? Its about to collapse thanks to an abundance of pirates and no real sales to justify making games on it. Just like PC ames! In North Korea there are more Ds's than ds games sold.

Kalezian:
you do realize they are treating the game THE EXACT SAME ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS AS THEY HAVE SAID NUMEROUS TIMES, what he was meaning the only difference between the PC version and the console version is that you use a mouse and keyboard.

really, are people this stupid?

Yes, people really are that stupid. He's stupid because what you said is right; the game is the same across all platforms. You're stupid because you're losing out on a chance to demand for your game to have more stuff. I am stupid for reasons that I have yet to discover.

I think that if IW wanted all the games to be equal, then they sould've just: 1) given mods, keyboard+mouse support, and dedicated servers to X360 and PS3 versions. 2)Added IW.net to PC versions, but keep the server option open. 3) Put party chat into the PS3 version.

There, now they're all equal! And now all the versions have more features! This way I can actually accept Activision's decision to raise the price. Please note that with the exception of number 3, all the other features have already been implemented by others in the industry.

Back to topic: I don't pirate, with a possible exception for PSP. For the PSP I buy the UMD, then proceed to rip the game off the disk and play it using the memory stick. I don't put the rip up for P2P downloads, so I don't think what I'm doing is really pirating. I don't like carrying UMDs, and I use my PSP as an alarm clock and radio, which means that I have to use Custom Firmware on it.

For all the PC gaming pirates out there, please send me your mailing address. I have a gift package for you. It's a surprise, but I can tell you that it has very high potential energy values.

EDIT: I don't consider people who downloaded a pirated copy and still purchased a ligitimate copy to be a pirate. I also don't consider things like Photoshop ($300+) and Matlab (they wanted me to pay $1800! WTF?) to be pirates. Photoshop and Matlab make their money off bulk licensing sales anyway.

And for the people who claims that PCs are too expensive. My PC was $900, and it was decked out. It's 23 months old and I won't have to upgrade for another 18 months at least (and when I do, it's for switching from 32 bit to 64 bit, Vista to 7, and upping the RAM from 4GB to 8GB). The PC is plugged into my TV, and now serves as my TV, home phone, living room radio, and everything else a PC can normally do. So I really disagree when you say that a console is more cost effective.

Crysis was a PC exclusive and because of it's reputation as the most visually appealing and best to test out how "Rad" your rig is, it became one of the most pirated games of all time. So much so that Crytek have stated "No more PC exclusives". Someone said earlier in this threat "Can you see Crysis on a console". Well actually, you can when Crysis 2 comes out because they're making it for consoles aswell so more people buy instead of pirate it. Say sayonara to the good graphics. All textures will be made with consoles in mind now :). And it'll probably be a port.

EA tried an online activation for games like Spore and had their 5 install limits. Before that game was released it was cracked and became the most pirated game ever as people PROTESTED against this new form of Copy Protection. EA haven't learned anything from this because they are still doing it. It's a flawed system.

Bohemia Interactive goes a different approach with their games. Batman Arkham Asylum, players who pirated the game were unable to glide and do some certain game required moves. While in ArmA, you could not shoot straight if you had a pirated copy of the game.

The Pirate Bay, leaders of the "We can make it free, come and get it" don't realise the damage they are doing to the industry. They say that these things are overpriced. In 1995, games were priced at £50. I remember buying titles like Destruction Derby 2, Goldeneye 007, Conkers Bad Fur Day all for £45-£60 and not complaining and they were GOOD GAMES. Fantastic games in fact. The PC market at the time was the same. Games for the PC were also £40-£45 with games in the years of 1995-2000 like Diablo 2, The Sims, Half Life, Starcraft, Quake 2 and people still happily bought these games with no complaints.

Games these days carry at tops a price tag of £40, even though they now take A) Longer to develop, B) Have to be more engaging, real and have to have stonking great graphics because that is what you, the consumer, now look for and C)Require larger development teams because of all this new extra work for the modern age. Realistically, the price tag should be alot higher.

Also, may I note that Modern Warfare 2 has a £35 price tag on Steam right now. Very acceptable price so I think i've missed the hype of the $90 price, unless that is the console version.

I have 2 pirated games on this computer out of a total of 43 installed. These games are Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance. The reasons I did this are: 1) The Original Disc didn't work [Great big scratch down it] and the downloaded disc I got had the expansions. (Rollercoaster Tycoon 2) and 2) I already bought Sons of Liberty and Substance on the PS2 years ago, and have not yet found a place where I can actually buy this game. (MGS2 Substance). I will buy this game when I can find it available to buy.

Quite simply, you can't stop it, you can try to deter it but the only way is to close down these sites and stop the distribution.

Pingieking:

For all the PC gaming pirates out there, please send me your mailing address. I have a gift package for you. It's a surprise, but I can tell you that it has very high potential energy values.

......Mana Potions? _{http://www.manapotions.com}

because those things are expensive as hell................

I'm really sorry, but I always buy my games. And I know that it's a right thing to do.

Curse us PC gamers torrenting.
And curse us all for buying pre owned games too and not supporting the industry!

Kinichie:
While in ArmA, you could not shoot straight if you had a pirated copy of the game.

actually, the FADE DRM slowly degrades the game to the point that it is literally unplayable.

I cant even describe how unplayable it becomes, imagine if you have a fairly slow computer where you have input lag [moving your mouse right takes three to five seconds compared to the 1:1 ratio it has as default], not put that with everything, flying, moving, chatting, shooting. but most online servers have an autoban on people using illegal copies that is turned on by default.

FADE DRM makes a faux scratch on the game disk, when someone creates a crack for it, the program sees these scratches and auto fixes them, you cannot change this. The scrathes are read by the computer and sent to a mother server which verifies that the scratches are real, thus letting you play a non degradable version.

honestly its one of the better DRM's out there, simply because at first you fail to realize anything is wrong.

My humble opinion is that all the butchering (slicing and dicing if you preffer) that's happening in the pc games (MW 2 for instance) isn't about pirating.Piracy is just a good excuse for developers so they can do that.

I believe that the actual reason is to make less work and make more money.There are allready gamers who are fine with how MW 2 has been delivered and future gamers will be happy with even less!Especially the console gamers,unfortunatelly,are almost welcoming the laziness of the game companies.Is it because they can't do otherwise since they allready bought the console?I don't know really.(i'm not accusing them or anything so relax)

Game companies are driving away the old gamers,those who have seen more and will naturally demand more and new things.They are targeting those who will buy a game no matter how messed up it is,especially when we talk about series.We've seen many times in series that either there isn't any real progress or new ideas or there's actually a downfall to them but the developers keep making them because people who've played the past titles will go for the sequels too just for the hell of it.

My point is that,even if piracy would dissapear completely tomorrow the game companies wouldn't change their ways.Is there a way to stop it?Not really.

I for one truly hate a majority of PC games, only because of the argument "mods keep the game going". if thats the case, get the source engine and never play another game ever.

You hate PC gamers because they like to modify their games into something better...great logic there.

Its true that consoles pull their weight with games, after all, its cheaper the buy a console and a game for just under $400 [if new] and play it immediately, while you have to constantly update/upgrade almost everything in a computer every six months. Its just more economic to have a console.

I don't understand why I see this argument, as wrong as it is, time and time again.
I've had my computer for 5 years with no upgrades and it can still take whatever system specs devs throw at it. You would have to be out of your mind to buy new hardware every 6 months.

as for pirating games, a number of 360 and ps3 owners used to do it, but thankfully Microsoft and Sony dont put up with that bullshit.

More like they try to get rid of it and fail miserably in the process, just like all other attempts to stop piracy.

as for Madden, its the exact same game from '98, only with marginally better graphics. now had they actually ADDED something new to the game in the past decade, it might of been a good series.

tell me that its needed for a new madden game every year when all the states and team rosters could just as easy be changed with patches.

Now this I agree with.

On another note about how "poorly" the PC version of CoD4 did. Activision is simply doing what all the other cool kids seem to be doing, complaining about retail sales while ignoring the vastly superior digital distribution sales.

corroded:

TylerC:
Yes, YOU. If you are one of the vast majority of people who pirate copies of video games, you are causing a huge problem.

People complain that their beloved PC games are being cut from development or are losing support, but companies can't keep making games or providing support because it costs money, yeah all of your hard earned money for buying a game isn't going to the publisher. The developer needs money for their own salaries and for development and support of their game and future games. Pirating is like going to a game store and just stealing a copy. Think, would you really go to say Best Buy, and just grab a couple of games and walk out? Using CoD4 as an example, up to 60% of players online were using pirated games, and the removal of dedicated servers could also be part of the of control piracy.

If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released as a PC exclusive, I'm sure you would have seen no dedicated servers, and no MW2. These games are surviving on console sales, and its no surprise that games like EA's extremely popular Madden NFL games are being dropped...it's just not worth the time, effort and money to make a free game.

This isn't happening as bad with consoles because it is so hard to mod your console, and if you go online, you can say goodbye to your PSN, or XBL account.

So next time you complain about the dying art of PC gaming, think, what can I do to prevent this?

Feel free to argue your point against me, or provide your thoughts.

I did a quick search and didn't see anything on this, if their is, please provide a link and let this die.

FYI This ISN'T a MW2 Topic.

Edited for better structure.

Answering the bolded points

- No it's not. You clearly don't understand how most pirates work. A large portion trial then buy. There will always be cheapskates. How does borrowing a game off a friend factor in to this for you? Am i currently pirating Call of Duty as it's my friends, and i haven't paid for it?

I'd love to see your reliable data backing this up. I know if I were pirating games I'd really have no problem saying 'oh, well I'd just buy it anyway if I dig it'.

Also, if I own a game, I'm completely authorized to do what I want with said physical copy of the game, including letting friends borrow it. This is quite different than if say, I had a clone machine, cloned said game and just gave it to everybody. It's all about scale.

TylerC:
Using CoD4 as an example, up to 60% of players online were using pirated games

As much as I hate pirating, I hate people who spout bullshit figures even more. Seriously, there are so many things wrong with figures for piracy that if they were used in anything important they would be neglected immediately.
Companies love to spew this shit out to justify invasive DRM and fucktarded ways of allowing you to use the game.

And the fact that people like you believe them unquestioningly makes you just as bad as them.

Crysis is also another noteworthy one, claiming it wasn't as successful as it should have been. Newsflash, I like most other people don't buy games we can't run properly, 2 years on and it's still buttfucking graphics cards. The game looks like shit on medium and there sure as hell isn't anything non generic about it's gameplay. The selling point of that game was its graphics, which most people never got to see because of the poorly coded engine which gave shit performance it gave out on 90% of PC's, even with todays hardware. Even with all these points against it, it still clocked up over 1 million sales, yet they still moaned.

Piracy is bad, but it's only made worse by the bullshit people love to spew out about it killing gaming and love any excuse to make their wallet a bit bigger.

The DSM:
I only pirate software (£300 for photoshop? I think not....)

I might pirate MW2 and not play on it just to spite Activison, Recommended retail price (As sais by activison) £55? no way (Note you cant find it for the price Activision recommened for it as it was too much so every where sold it for £ 40-45)

You're silly now. Go get a Paint.NET or GIMP. Every office program has a free counterpart. Even for vector graphics or AutoCAD

I love my boxes. I always buy games. I once said I'd pirate Spore to spite EA, but never bothered.

HUBILUB:

StarStruckStrumpets:
What makes you think I care?
I don't play games on the PC anyway.
Nor do I pirate.
You're the PC gamers, you fix the problem.

It certainly isn't my concern.

Why do you even bother commenting if it doesn't concern you?

Because it is infinitely entertaining pissing off PC gamers who are now forced to play games that are on the level of what everybody else is playing. Oh the agony.

MiodekPL:

The DSM:
I only pirate software (£300 for photoshop? I think not....)

I might pirate MW2 and not play on it just to spite Activison, Recommended retail price (As sais by activison) £55? no way (Note you cant find it for the price Activision recommened for it as it was too much so every where sold it for £ 40-45)

You're silly now. Go get a Paint.NET or GIMP. Every office program has a free counterpart. Even for vector graphics or AutoCAD

But the more expensive it is, the more satisifying it is to steal, stealing a 24 carat gold bar is more satisfying than a stick of chewing gum ( I hate gum bleh)

One quote:

Pirates don't kill PC gaming, DRM does.

i reckon soon pirates will own consoles, and PC will then become the favorite again. Its only a matter of time before consoles see the same level of piracy.

Kalezian:

Kinichie:
While in ArmA, you could not shoot straight if you had a pirated copy of the game.

actually, the FADE DRM slowly degrades the game to the point that it is literally unplayable.

I cant even describe how unplayable it becomes, imagine if you have a fairly slow computer where you have input lag [moving your mouse right takes three to five seconds compared to the 1:1 ratio it has as default], not put that with everything, flying, moving, chatting, shooting. but most online servers have an autoban on people using illegal copies that is turned on by default.

FADE DRM makes a faux scratch on the game disk, when someone creates a crack for it, the program sees these scratches and auto fixes them, you cannot change this. The scrathes are read by the computer and sent to a mother server which verifies that the scratches are real, thus letting you play a non degradable version.

honestly its one of the better DRM's out there, simply because at first you fail to realize anything is wrong.

I'm assuming this is like the Batman: Arkham Asylum, game ending DRM? Although PC gamers did end up finding a way to patch that.

cyber_andyy:
i reckon soon pirates will own consoles, and PC will then become the favorite again. Its only a matter of time before consoles see the same level of piracy.

Console piracy is just the same as PC piracy, if not easier for pirates, all you need is a blank DVD and you can go online -.-.

Butbutbutbut...

Just a question: Why isn't piracy on consoles regarded as a problem too? I know people who bought a 150$ Wii... and maybe 2-3 games... but somehow have about 50 games for it. Hell i think he bought Guitar Hero only for the controler.

Ah well i have to say: Yes of yourse i pirated some games too. More when i was a child... but i am proud to say: I buy nearly all my games, especially those of innovative designers. Hell i even bought some games just because i wanted to give them some money, not because the game was that good, but because i liked their ideas.

I still get me some pirated versions... and use them as demos. Well, i miss shareware i think *g*. But most games i don't play more than an hour, and either buy it or delete it for beeing crappy (most games)

When World of Goo came out and the developer compared the number of people hitting up the high score board with the number of people who actually bought the game and found about 90% of them had pirated the game, then is when it was pretty clear that the PC platform is, indeed, far too heavily pirated.

That said, PC gaming isn't exactly dying, instead what's happening is we will still get games on the PC platform for three major reasons:

1. Because they already got a version made for another platform, it's a pretty easy conversion from there, and even if only 10% of PC gamers actually buy the thing, hey, that's still more money than it cost them to support the platform.

2. Because it's a fairly easy platform to generate content for considering it's usually the platform the content was generated on to begin with, resulting in the vast majority of indy titles being on a PC. Even for a big name game, before a game ends up on a PS3, XBox 360, or even Nintendo DS, somebody was developing and even doing test runs of it on a PC. (Okay, a mac for the content.)

3. Because developers are making a transition to subscription based services where ripping off the software doesn't make much difference so long as you're paying $15/mo to them to play the thing. Not to mention cloud gaming, technology being worked on that lets you play games without actually having them installed on your computer. Don't be too surprised if, once this technology is sufficiently developed, we're no longer permitted to install software on our computers.

TylerC:

I'm assuming this is like the Batman: Arkham Asylum, game ending DRM? Although PC gamers did end up finding a way to patch that.

no, I think the disk had a tangible code inside it, where if you didnt have the disk it wouldnt have the code for the moves.

It was a good idea until people found out what really was going on. I think there was a third party patch to fix it I think.

geldonyetich:
When World of Goo came out and the developer compared the number of people hitting up the high score board with the number of people who actually bought the game and found about 90% of them had pirated the game, then is when it was pretty clear that the PC platform is, indeed, far too heavily pirated.

Everyone outside the US had to wait 4-6 weeks longer for that game.

The DSM:
But the more expensive it is, the more satisifying it is to steal, stealing a 24 carat gold bar is more satisfying than a stick of chewing gum ( I hate gum bleh)

Then you ARE as dumb as I thought. Thanks for picking developer's pockets wanker, thanks to the likes of You PC gaming is in bad shape.

Kinichie:

geldonyetich:
When World of Goo came out and the developer compared the number of people hitting up the high score board with the number of people who actually bought the game and found about 90% of them had pirated the game, then is when it was pretty clear that the PC platform is, indeed, far too heavily pirated.

Everyone outside the US had to wait 4-6 weeks longer for that game.

Well okay, that was fairly asking to get ripped off if you release a same-language version of the game without copy protection in Europe several weeks before the U.S. version.

Still, even if it was several months, that's just an excuse. I don't go down to the game store and steal a copy because the product was released in Japan first.

Honestly at the beginning part of that first post I was certain he was trying to be ironic.
Pirates don't care if they're ruining things for the rest of us, they're freaking pirates.

Mmmm... No. I remember the better times when there were tons of demos, and people worked hard on games you didn't regret to buy.

Now you buy something like Mirror's Edge, a game with no PC demo and a short console demo that is basically 1/10th of the game, and you can just replay it few times.

I don't mind paying for GOOD or at least adequette games. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Torchlight, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Portal, Plants vs Zombies, Left 4 Dead. I don't regret buying any one of those. But I tried half of them before buying, except for Borderlands, because I pre-ordered, paid and then downloaded the US version three days before EU release.

You know who's destroying the PC gaming (since... 1985?)? The developers who just use piracy as a scapegoat. Notice how console devs don't blame renting stores for their failure. They know they made a crappy game and that's why people would rather pay $5 and play it for 3 days than pay $50-60 and own it.

Also, you lost all validity when you said something about EA. They make one game per series a YEAR and barely change anything. I don't think it should qualify as an ADD-ON, or an expansion pack, tops. Not a new game worth $50. So I don't care that another MADDEN LOLOWTF 10!! didn't come out on the PC. *

*... Not to mention that I just don't like sport games. I prefer games that are a lot better on PCs than on consoles. FPS games, strategies, MMOs, online games in general.

I only pirate games I would never actually buy. So the developer isn't losing money.

Kalezian:

Pingieking:

For all the PC gaming pirates out there, please send me your mailing address. I have a gift package for you. It's a surprise, but I can tell you that it has very high potential energy values.

......Mana Potions? _{http://www.manapotions.com}

because those things are expensive as hell................

LOL!
No, my present is a little more... sinister. But I guess a mana potion would be nearly as destructive.

Good topic,

However the way I see things is the same as music.

If I really want the game / album I buy it. My preorder list is pretty extensive.

If in a million years I'd never pay for it but it tweaks my interest then I'll download it and then go raving about it (advertising) to friends if its any good of course.

Developers aren't losing money as I would never had bought it but gaining advertising.. meh!

cyber_andyy:
i reckon soon pirates will own consoles, and PC will then become the favorite again. Its only a matter of time before consoles see the same level of piracy.

How do you work that one out? First off you have to do hardware mods in most cases, which is going to put someone off through lazines/not wanting to pay/lack of technical know-how.

Secondly, most console gamers are into online in some form, and since the online services of consoles operate as a more closed system, it's always going to be easier to catch people who pirate.

Regarding PC gaming. Is it even dying? If it is I would say it's down to more than just piracy. You see people are lazy and a lot don't want to sit at a desk to play a game. Yes I know you can hook a PC up to an HDTV but you have to understand how the average person thinks. Most people aren't that tech savvy and if you give them the option of using a PC through an HDTV or saying "plug this in here, and here, oh and it's going to cost at least half as much" what do you think they are going to choose?

Personally I play consoles because I think that PC's have no advantage gameplay wise over them in anything other than RTS, menu-heavy RPGs (although some of the best RPG's of the last few years have worked on console) and FPS, but even FPS is acceptable on console. The graphics are still beautiful but what it really comes down to for me is they are "good enough" I don't dispute that PC's are capable of better graphics and control (in a minority of cases) but it doesn't really matter to me to tell you the truth.

That is part of the reason people pirate games. The developers don't provide the support, content or facilities that the players want. Pirated games are often (so I hear) much easier to mod so custom content is much more readily available. That is one of the main advantages of PC gaming, the ability to download custom content or make it yourself. If developers don't allow for that then of course PC gamers will get annoyed.

The only torrent game I have tried to download (that I can think of at the moment) is Saints Row 2. I have bought it through steam but it takes so long to download and the graphics are so poor that i thought a pirated version might be better.

Sulu:
I only pirate games I would never actually buy. So the developer isn't losing money.

Bullshit. If you didn't have the ability to pirate, you're telling me you wouldn't touch any of these games? Then why touch them now? It's called dollar votes, if you like a game well enough to play it then you like it enough to buy it and support it.

AgentNein:

corroded:

TylerC:
Yes, YOU. If you are one of the vast majority of people who pirate copies of video games, you are causing a huge problem.

People complain that their beloved PC games are being cut from development or are losing support, but companies can't keep making games or providing support because it costs money, yeah all of your hard earned money for buying a game isn't going to the publisher. The developer needs money for their own salaries and for development and support of their game and future games. Pirating is like going to a game store and just stealing a copy. Think, would you really go to say Best Buy, and just grab a couple of games and walk out? Using CoD4 as an example, up to 60% of players online were using pirated games, and the removal of dedicated servers could also be part of the of control piracy.

If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was released as a PC exclusive, I'm sure you would have seen no dedicated servers, and no MW2. These games are surviving on console sales, and its no surprise that games like EA's extremely popular Madden NFL games are being dropped...it's just not worth the time, effort and money to make a free game.

This isn't happening as bad with consoles because it is so hard to mod your console, and if you go online, you can say goodbye to your PSN, or XBL account.

So next time you complain about the dying art of PC gaming, think, what can I do to prevent this?

Feel free to argue your point against me, or provide your thoughts.

I did a quick search and didn't see anything on this, if their is, please provide a link and let this die.

FYI This ISN'T a MW2 Topic.

Edited for better structure.

Answering the bolded points

- No it's not. You clearly don't understand how most pirates work. A large portion trial then buy. There will always be cheapskates. How does borrowing a game off a friend factor in to this for you? Am i currently pirating Call of Duty as it's my friends, and i haven't paid for it?

I'd love to see your reliable data backing this up. I know if I were pirating games I'd really have no problem saying 'oh, well I'd just buy it anyway if I dig it'.

Also, if I own a game, I'm completely authorized to do what I want with said physical copy of the game, including letting friends borrow it. This is quite different than if say, I had a clone machine, cloned said game and just gave it to everybody. It's all about scale.

I obviously don't have stats... but it's just how alot of PC stuff tends to work. There has been a massive shift, and i know many who trial before they buy... but, their sale is counted. And their download is counted as a lost sale. Some protest download, like with Spore. Someone who downloads it, then hates it and never plays it. Counted as a lost sale. But they never would have bought it in the first place if they couldn't have tried it for free. Piracy 'stats' are massively overestimated.

I suggest you read the 'Not for Rental' bit on the top. It's free renting. Pretty much exactly the same as piracy. Company gets nothing from the second player, and you are denying them a sale, or a legitimate rental.