Publishers to fine 25,000 game pirates

lol ok i see your point now i jumped the gun soz

i used to help my m8s dad at a stall in the glasgow barrowlands.
One stall next to us was always crowded. Didnt seem to have any stock.
Just TONS of these blue floppy discs with names of games on them. Police knew about this and did nothing..always thought it was weird at the time blatant piracy in full view lol.
 
The way this thread is going it makes me wonder if anyone actually buys games,
no disrespect intended to any one who does by the way.

This is a highly computer literate forum so things like piracy are going to be higher.

Ignorance is the biggest barrier to pirates, its why despite being as old as the hills usenet/newsgroups are hardly known to most people.
 
Plus considering people who drink and drive and drive without insurance get less of a fine how can a court or magistrates say its a fair fine, how about being forced to pay RRP of the game.

That would be a pretty poor deterrent, as the absolute WORST case scenario (i.e. you get caught, charged and successfully prosecuted) would be that you'd have to pay not much more than the amount you would have done had you bought the game in the first place.
 
This is a highly computer literate forum so things like piracy are going to be higher.

Ignorance is the biggest barrier to pirates, its why despite being as old as the hills usenet/newsgroups are hardly known to most people.

Yeah, I'd personally only heard of them like a year ago, and have no idea what they are about at all.

There are alternatives to p2p and usenet though. Think Rapidshare.
 
There is just no excuse even if a game is poor and you feel its a waste of money then perhaps in future you will remember that or read reviews about it before buying.

I agree with most of what you said, but lets be honest most reviews are not reliable sources of information (Yet its the only source of information we have... except Demo's, but not every game has a demo). Yeah fine its just the reviewers opinion, but often that reviewer is usually a fan of the game and is going to praise the game to high heaven or he is caught up in the hype and again gives it a high score that the game didn't deserve.

A lot of people will disagree here, but GTA4 was a prime example of this and received 10/10 from just about every reviewer out there who had only sat down with the game for something like 10-20 hours and rushed their reviews out to be the first one.
I'm not saying its a bad game, just that it deserves no where near a perfect score when San Andreas was superior in everyway (bar the physics + graphics). I mean San Andreas there was absolutely loads to do after you had finished the main story, where as GTA4 I was left thinking to myself "Is that it?"

Car modding is gone
Buying Properties is gone
Planes are gone
70% of the weapons are gone
90% of the missions are generic and not enough are Unique

I can go on, but I will give you all another example that will be easier to understand my point, Halo 3 got 10/10 everywhere aswell :p
 
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I'm somewhat split thoughts/rants on this issue.

Obviously, publishers and developers are losing money and at the end of the day the product there is to be paid for.However, just because someone downloaded the game does not automatically indicate a lost sale. I also think at the end of the day if a game is going to be of quality then people WILL buy it. Yeah, it will get pirated it but many, many, many more will buy it and supoprt it and return millions of pounds.

Also I feel there is often displacement with regards to pricing of such game. Some games that take millions to develop will retail at £30 and others which cost much less to develop still get sold at that price.

I'd love to play on Bio Shock, but the DRM aspect off it as put me off, but I've not pirated it and I'll just get it on the ps3 instead at a higher cost to the PC version.

Now, I also want to take a shot the game developers / publishers who act all very innocent. Don't forget often we've had cases of high profile games being rushed out to the market to get ££ without proper testing/bug fixing. Games such as Championship Manager 4 and Tomb Raider the Angel of Darkness comes to mind.

I also get frustrated with the yearly 'updates' of games and games rushed out for Christmas period regardless of quality.

Even games like CnC Tiberium Wars which crashes on me and many others - the tech support forum has a huge thread about this and to my knowledge has yet to be fixed.

Even reviews arn't trustworthy. Just see the example with Gamespot
 
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I agree with most of what you said, but lets be honest most reviews are not reliable sources of information (Yet its the only source of information we have... except Demo's, but not every game has a demo). Yeah fine its just the reviewers opinion, but often that reviewer is usually a fan of the game and is going to praise the game to high heaven or he is caught up in the hype and again gives it a high score that the game didn't deserve.

A lot of people will disagree here, but GTA4 was a prime example of this and received 10/10 from just about every reviewer out there who had only sat down with the game for something like 10-20 hours and rushed their reviews out to be the first one.
I'm not saying its a bad game, just that it deserves no where near a perfect score when San Andreas was superior in everyway (bar the physics + graphics). I mean San Andreas there was absolutely loads to do after you had finished the main story, where as GTA4 I was left thinking to myself "Is that it?"

Car modding is gone
Buying Properties is gone
Aeroplanes are gone
70% of the weapons are gone
90% of the missions are generic and not enough are Unique

I can go on, but I will give you all another example that will be easier to understand my point, Halo 3 got 10/10 everywhere aswell :p
Yeah I agree with you on GTA4 I bought it completed it, slated it, sold it then pre-ordered for the PC as its the only platform which can handle it. 360 & PS3 just could not cope with the graphics engine properly so the technical shortcuts to make it fit hurt your eyes bigtime. At least the PC version will be better in that respect but as you said the gameplay is nowhere near San Andreas. All reviews of games, music, movies are subject to corruption or commercial pressures but at least with PC games you usually get to hear quickly if its worthy or not from the people who do buy games!!
 
I'd love to play on Bio Shock, but the DRM aspect off it as put me off, but I've not pirated it and I'll just get it on the ps3 instead at a higher cost to the PC version.

Bioshock DRM is fine now they removed the limit of installs so no need to worry about that aspect + PC version is the best one so save the difference over the PS3 version as you can buy for around £12 now!!

Thats a good example of how DRM helps the PC as they sold enough copies to remove the DRM limit (1.8 million so far PC + 360).
 
And what's that going to acheive?

"Oh noes, the games developers that I support are actively seeking to stop people from illegally aqcuiring their games, I know, I'll stop supporting them!"

:rolleyes:

I don't care if it's legal, illegal, or sick eagle, fact is I don't like stupid games developers trying to kill off peer 2 peer, it's their own fault for charging so much.

Also, why should I buy a game and find it's crap and find I have wasted my money, when I can pirate it and if it's good buy it afterwards? Oh yes, I'll get sued anyway so let's just stop buying or playing their games to begin with.
 
I don't care if it's legal, illegal, or sick eagle, fact is I don't like stupid games developers trying to kill off peer 2 peer, it's their own fault for charging so much.

Also, why should I buy a game and find it's crap and find I have wasted my money, when I can pirate it and if it's good buy it afterwards? Oh yes, I'll get sued anyway so let's just stop buying or playing their games to begin with.

i believe that's why they create demos?


sorry but are newsgroups/usenet legal or what? cause saying you are mentioning them on this forum...
 
Also I feel there is often displacement with regards to pricing of such game. Some games that take millions to develop will retail at £30 and others which cost much less to develop still get sold at that price.

How is a game's development cost indicative of it's value?

That's like saying I should fork out £20 to see Titanic, because it cost a fortune to film - whereas a film like Bad Taste, which was produced on a shoestring budget should only cost me a quid.

You can't define the quality (and therefore value) of a game based on developement cost!
 
I don't care if it's legal, illegal, or sick eagle, fact is I don't like stupid games developers trying to kill off peer 2 peer, it's their own fault for charging so much.

Also, why should I buy a game and find it's crap and find I have wasted my money, when I can pirate it and if it's good buy it afterwards? Oh yes, I'll get sued anyway so let's just stop buying or playing their games to begin with.

That's just retarded.

Games developers are stupid because they want to get paid for their full time job?

Second sentance is also piffle, how many games can you name that don't have a demo or trial period? Seriously?
 
maybe this is a better way for them to make money......make a pile of junk game and if the public dont buy it then release it on p2p then sue those that dl it.
 
That's just retarded.

Games developers are stupid because they want to get paid for their full time job?

Second sentence is also piffle, how many games can you name that don't have a demo or trial period? Seriously?

Elder Scrolls IV is one, I've been on the go all day so I'll probably come up with more by tomorrow. :)

And yes, you are right. Only buying good games is retarded.

*Hides under flameproof jacket*
 
I don't care if it's legal, illegal, or sick eagle, fact is I don't like stupid games developers trying to kill off peer 2 peer, it's their own fault for charging so much.

Also, why should I buy a game and find it's crap and find I have wasted my money, when I can pirate it and if it's good buy it afterwards? Oh yes, I'll get sued anyway so let's just stop buying or playing their games to begin with.

Now I know you're having a laugh:D:D:D £20 to £30 is too much for you? Awww, tough.

If the games carp, you're unlucky, and you've wasted a few quid. WOW:eek:
 
Now I know you're having a laugh:D:D:D £20 to £30 is too much for you? Awww, tough.

If the games carp, you're unlucky, and you've wasted a few quid. WOW:eek:

Why should I be wasting money on crap games when I can download it and then buy it if it's good, thereby rewarding good developers and not rewarding nasty developers?

I'm all for GOOD games, don't get me wrong, but I don't fancy wasting £100 odd on crap games a year when that can go to much better things.
 
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