Piracy is rife and ruining gaming!

I only really play wow and obviously I have to pay for that, other than that I buy games on steam. I have GTA4,grid, HL2/CSS, Stalker and some other random ones.

I do download some games to try to see if I like it but I used to download quite a lot until I have a life that takes up time. Years back I could buy my copied games(talking gta3 here) and music from the ice cream van! Good old days lol.
 
Im willing to bet everyone who has posted/read this thread has pirated at least 1 song/movie/app/ebook/game, in fact I dont know anyone that has any kind of tech savvy that hasnt, and neither do you.
 
I think the real issue is game quality and pricing. Not to mention the fact that physical retail of digital media is going down the drain anyway, in games, music AND film.

Publishers need to be LESS involved in development, they need to adopt digital distribution 100%, as this is the future (arguably the present too) of the media industry, and they need to realise people are NOT going to continue paying £50 for a game. It should be £25 tops, especially with digital media.

I used to pirate games lots, but I don't even bother these days as there aren't many games that have drawn my attention... mostly stuff that the publishers have got too involved with and gimped, or poorly ported to PC.

If I do get any games, it will be on Steam... that's IF they aren't over £30.
 
Natima said:
and they need to realise people are NOT going to continue paying £50 for a game. It should be £25 tops, especially with digital media.
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Digital media is a bit of a taboo on consoles though. On a PC buying a second hand copy of a game is often useless because it has serial numbers and so on. On a console i can buy a game and sell it. Whoever buys it after me gets exactly the same experience that i got for less than the new price. Japan has rejected the PSP Go becuase its digital distribution only and they LOVE to trade in used games.

Used games of course are another problem for the industry and i'd love to see the comparison on how much they think they lose to that with how much they think they lose to piracy.

PC games are cheaper than console games yet i'd imagine there is more % piracy on PC than consoles. So its nothing to do with the price.

if you compare the PSP with the DS, both as WE know are easy to pirate on. My mother on the other hand wouldnt know how to turn them on let alone get free stuff. I'll bet that the % of piracy on the PSP is far higher than that on the DS for one simple reason, know how. The DS appeals to everyone, old folks, kids, mothers. Almost no real limits. The vast majority of whom dont have any of the "mad ski110rz" needed to pirate material. Most problably dont even know that you can. The PSP on the other hand is something that tends to be guys, and tends to be in the 10-30 bracket. The very people who know how to get, and how to play, free material.

At some point developers may find a way, but at the moment all DRM seems to do is cause problems for a few people who then whine about it endlessly on the internet, and cause no problems for the pirates who just crack it in 2 days anyway.

Ultimately piracy stems from one sin that is inherent in the human race, greed. We want everything, and we'd like it for as little as possible. But if we are selling that something, we want to get as much as we can for it regardless of how much it actually cost us to make.

Once we lick greed, piracy will stop. Problem solved :p
 
Not much to add but I think I see what you're saying. Back in the Amiga days, everyone copied games. That's just how it was. If you got in a conversation with someone and discovered that they had an Amiga, they would talk about what copied games you can get them/they can get you/ you can get for their son etc. The 2 things went hand in hand. I know piracy exists on pretty much all platforms (not sure about PS3 at the moment) but the only modern day equivalent to the Amiga situation I can think of is the Nintendo DS where it seems 'the norm' to copy games.

It's probably personal perception as well. When you're younger you have less money and more time so piracy might be something that you're more likely to fall into. As you get older you have less time to mess about with things but more money so buying a game and just being able to play it when you want with no hassle might appeal more.
 
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Just in case some developer n00b is reading this thread: Develop a quality product, and make it available via download at a reasonable price and I will buy it.
 
I used to be the same, had the modded PS1/PS2/Xbox 360 the lot.

but now I would much prefer buying games. I got a new xbox 360 and buy all of my games now.

I think on the PC the invention of PC has been a revolution. It's now much harder to crack the games and get the updates working. I would much rather buy off steam have it with all of my other games and have the games update automatically.

for me I will always buy from Steam.
 
mame said:
It's probably personal perception as well. When you're younger you have less money and more time so piracy might be something that you're more likely to fall into. As you get older you have less time to mess about with things but more money so buying a game and just being able to play it when you want with no hassle might appeal more.
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Sorry but thats where your logic falls down. Some games have so much ridiculous DRM or hoops to jump through that you actually spend LONGER trying to install the legit version than you would installing a cracked version.
 
Evilsod said:
Sorry but thats where your logic falls down. Some games have so much ridiculous DRM or hoops to jump through that you actually spend LONGER trying to install the legit version than you would installing a cracked version.
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Well with PC games yes. Many platforms have a been mentioned here
 
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As mulitplayer is becoming more prominent; piracy dies out IMO. I am the same as you OP, used to pirate on my modded PS2 but now just buy all my games because the multiplayer is worth it. :)
 
Its allot easier for the devs to say omg piracy ruined our sales other than say yeh well our game sucked ass and reviews were not good thats why nobody bought it.
 
Macky said:
As mulitplayer is becoming more prominent; piracy dies out IMO.
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That only makes sense if all games become multiplayer.

The SP and MP experiences are different, even in games that have both, and some of us much prefer the lonely fun of SP :)

I read reviews of games to find out if they have a substantial SP campaign, and if not, I don't buy (or pirate). MP does not interest to me.
 
mglover070588 said:
I hear the title of this thread all the time, or words to that effect anyway.

Yet I find myself as a young adult with an unmodified ps3 and a gaming pc where most of (all of recent) my games are real.

In the 90s I had a modded psx, in the 00's I had a modded ps2 and xbox, yet now I really feel piracy is dying off.

(Please note I am only talking about gaming, not music or films).

I waited a few weeks after release then picked up FF13 brand new for £18 off a massive games e-tailer, which I feel is a very fair price.

What exactly are all these game developers whining about?
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Younger kids can't afford every game around, they buy what they can and download the rest, as you get older you can afford more and you buy more and download less. This is life, its not unfair, its not stealing, for the majority of people its just playing things you'd otherwise not buy because you can't afford to.

Its not new and piracy is certainly not dying off, your reasons for pirating are lessening most likely because you have more money, or are working and have less time to play. if you have 80 hours spare a week, you'll end up playing X amount of games if you play a lot of games, if you work hard and have 20 hours spare a week, you'll play 4 times less games, which added to having more money to spend becomes much more affordable and its not worth downloading any games or dealing with the issues faced.

If you have a modded 360 you know that you generally have to keep on top of updating firmware, which isn't particularly quick to do, and jumping through a few hoops. When you have less spare time, you have less patience for things just not working.
 
i think you only need to look at that farcry movie and the director sueing people over it, to really understand how ridiculous the piracy claims are from companies.

i buy all my games when there sub £20, they can f-off if they think im paying double that. got bayonetta on 360 for £12 new yesterday amazing game, same for like red dead etc - will wait till it drops which it always does.

they should reduce the price of games - thats the main problem
 
DAvE18 said:
Its allot easier for the devs to say omg piracy ruined our sales other than say yeh well our game sucked ass and reviews were not good thats why nobody bought it.
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they can't even say that, any activision/ubi/ea game will get 905+ guaranteed.

If they released a game that gave you diarrhoea they would get 90% + reviews :p
 
If copying is on a downward trend or at least the increase slowing. Due to itunes/lovefilm and other such internet providers and of course the highlighted letters demanding money.

Or

I have reached an age, where friends and I, have decent jobs and as such, have more disposable income.
 
Sorry I should have been more specific in the OP. It is the 1st gen xbox (massive black thing!) that is modded.

Perhaps you lot are right, I am older and have less time to play.

I don't buy release games as I have a 'list' in my head of games I will play next, which is why I didn't run out to get FF13 on release day.

imo piracy ruined gaming for me. On the PS1 I would get a game and play it loads and complete it and enjoy it.
Then I got a modded ps2 and I could get hold of any game I wanted, so I had all these games and I barely touched most of them!
 
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