Comments on: Piracy, Take Overs and More http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/ Chris 'Evo' Evans on PC Gaming....good bad or ugly I cover it! Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:13:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Chris Evans http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Chris Evans Sun, 20 Jan 2008 13:07:48 +0000 http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/#comment-21 Marc - you raise some interesting topics, and hopefully I will be able to expand on them better in a future article. My opinion (in brief) is that digital distribution is the way of the future. When old games are added to Steam a smile comes across my face as I know that these lost classics are back able to be bought and in some cases the rightful people get their share of the sales. The second point you raise inextricably ties in with digital distribution, many small developers are aware that by placing awful anti-piracy measures on their games they will just drive people away. By providing an affordable, downloadable game without any anti-piracy crap they know they can get people to support them. Marc - you raise some interesting topics, and hopefully I will be able to expand on them better in a future article.

My opinion (in brief) is that digital distribution is the way of the future. When old games are added to Steam a smile comes across my face as I know that these lost classics are back able to be bought and in some cases the rightful people get their share of the sales.

The second point you raise inextricably ties in with digital distribution, many small developers are aware that by placing awful anti-piracy measures on their games they will just drive people away. By providing an affordable, downloadable game without any anti-piracy crap they know they can get people to support them.

]]> By: Marc Morrison http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Marc Morrison Sun, 20 Jan 2008 07:15:41 +0000 http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/#comment-19 The issue of piracy is a tricky beast, mainly due to gray area's and how it's not all black & white. I initially got my hands on a copy of CoD 4 (pirated), just to see if it'd run on my computer. Having beaten the game, I actually went out and bought it (only, ironically, to have my DVD drive fail on me, when installing the game). In any case, piracy is generally bad for the gaming world, but can also be a positive, at least in two area's: 1. Games older then 2006 aren't in wide-release, or distribution anymore. You can't exactly call up Interplay and ask them to sell you a copy of Planescape: Torment, or the like. Piracy can give old games (and gamers) a much longer life-span, by letting people play the games again. (The used PC game market doesn't count, as the money isn't going to the game developer, just to the seller.) 2. Most games (about 95% of them), install and play with very harsh requirements. Mainly, you have to have the actual game disk in order to play the game. I think Galactic Civ 2, is one of the few games that doesn't have any of that B.S. on it (and it's why I bought the game, even though I could've pirated it, in a heart beat). Piracy (or at least, cracked EXE files), allow me to play games where ever I want, regardless of what's in my disk drive, or where I'm at. If game companies didn't treat you as a criminal when trying to play the game with constant "The game CD is not in the drive, i'm not booting up, screw you", messages, then more people would buy them. Remember, Brad Wardell's words (in a para-phrased quote), "When you install a copy of Photoshop, it doesn't require you to have the install disk in the cd drive. Why should games have this requirement?" But, that's just my view. The issue of piracy is a tricky beast, mainly due to gray area’s and how it’s not all black & white. I initially got my hands on a copy of CoD 4 (pirated), just to see if it’d run on my computer. Having beaten the game, I actually went out and bought it (only, ironically, to have my DVD drive fail on me, when installing the game). In any case, piracy is generally bad for the gaming world, but can also be a positive, at least in two area’s:

1. Games older then 2006 aren’t in wide-release, or distribution anymore. You can’t exactly call up Interplay and ask them to sell you a copy of Planescape: Torment, or the like. Piracy can give old games (and gamers) a much longer life-span, by letting people play the games again. (The used PC game market doesn’t count, as the money isn’t going to the game developer, just to the seller.)

2. Most games (about 95% of them), install and play with very harsh requirements. Mainly, you have to have the actual game disk in order to play the game. I think Galactic Civ 2, is one of the few games that doesn’t have any of that B.S. on it (and it’s why I bought the game, even though I could’ve pirated it, in a heart beat). Piracy (or at least, cracked EXE files), allow me to play games where ever I want, regardless of what’s in my disk drive, or where I’m at. If game companies didn’t treat you as a criminal when trying to play the game with constant “The game CD is not in the drive, i’m not booting up, screw you”, messages, then more people would buy them. Remember, Brad Wardell’s words (in a para-phrased quote), “When you install a copy of Photoshop, it doesn’t require you to have the install disk in the cd drive. Why should games have this requirement?”

But, that’s just my view.

]]> By: Chris Evans http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Chris Evans Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:39:00 +0000 http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/#comment-11 I know! I'll admit that I have pirated a few games, only a handful, but that was only back when I was a without a job and couldn't afford to go buying loads of games. Nowadays I just don't see the point, it is damaging to the industry and has forced developers to leave the PC which is something I hate to see happen. Haha I know, good ole Valve :D I know! I’ll admit that I have pirated a few games, only a handful, but that was only back when I was a without a job and couldn’t afford to go buying loads of games.

Nowadays I just don’t see the point, it is damaging to the industry and has forced developers to leave the PC which is something I hate to see happen.

Haha I know, good ole Valve :D

]]> By: Daniel Purvis http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Daniel Purvis Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:11:26 +0000 http://evo-gamer.com/2008/01/15/piracy-take-overs-and-more/#comment-10 That piracy stuff really gets under my collar man. So frustrating! In the past I must admit to downloading or getting copies off friends for games I really wanted to play - but back then it was a matter of $$$. I would have been fourteen without a job and minimal allowance, which meant if I wanted a new game, it was going to take a while to get it. When I finally got my first job and was able to reasonably save for games I really wanted to play, that's when the urge to copy other people's work stopped. No more piracy for me! Now I'm older, the number of games I pre-order on a weekly basis is simply ridiculous and in some ways, I feel like now I'm making up for past thieving. How many frickin' updates did Valva want to release yesterday ... seriously :| That piracy stuff really gets under my collar man. So frustrating! In the past I must admit to downloading or getting copies off friends for games I really wanted to play - but back then it was a matter of $$$. I would have been fourteen without a job and minimal allowance, which meant if I wanted a new game, it was going to take a while to get it.

When I finally got my first job and was able to reasonably save for games I really wanted to play, that’s when the urge to copy other people’s work stopped. No more piracy for me! Now I’m older, the number of games I pre-order on a weekly basis is simply ridiculous and in some ways, I feel like now I’m making up for past thieving.

How many frickin’ updates did Valva want to release yesterday … seriously :|

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