Black Ops Most Pirated Title of 2010

[orderoftheflame]

On PC though, where any tom dick or harry can do it with nothing more than a couple of easily available free programs, I think there is a far larger contingent of 'casual' piracy that could quite easily be won back if publishers didn't take such a militant approach.

I don't disagree, there are steps that could be taken to win back a number of casual pirates. I far from condone the behaviour of some of the bigger companies regarding DRM or 2nd hand sales, they're far from innocent.

Piracy however seems to be the first resort of unhappy people rather than the last it seems. If you don't want to pay release prices for a game, wait for it to drop in time. If you're unsure about the quality of a game, wait until you hear reports of what it's like, or perhaps wait until it's cheap enough to take a gamble on. It's because of this that I find it inexcusable.

I've yet to hear one person come up with the only argument that I can remotely imagine being able to sympathise with:

"XYZ game is extremely hard to come by due to it's age, pirating it was my last resort and only way of playing it."

 

[MeMeMeMe]

Again going back to the humble indie bundle argument. Dirty cheap, great games, zero DRM, still widely pirated.

And yet, the creators of the humble indie bundle aren't concerned about piracy? Why is that? Simply because they don't believe it is the major issue that publishers would like you to believe it is. They put up the most well reasoned article on the subject I've seen.
Another view of game piracy

This shows how a game can have millions of downloads from piracy might only be losing 10% or less lifetime sales due to piracy. It also draws on an area where actual verifiable figures exist, iphone sales and piracy to give legitimacy, something most piracy studies by publishers lack.

Everyone should read this article.

 

[orderoftheflame]

And yet, the creators of the humble indie bundle aren't concerned about piracy? Why is that? Simply because they don't believe it is the major issue that publishers would like you to believe it is. They put up the most well reasoned article on the subject I've seen.
Another view of game piracy

This shows how a game can have millions of downloads from piracy might only be losing 10% or less lifetime sales due to piracy. It also draws on an area where actual verifiable figures exist, iphone sales and piracy to give legitimacy, something most piracy studies by publishers lack.

Everyone should read this article.

I've read it previously, and I'm not sure how it changes anything I've said.

I've not claimed at all that developers are losing out because of it at all. I'm using the humble indie bundle to point out that regardless of pricing and DRM, people will still pirate due to greed (much as that article says).

My issue has always been with the excuses that people are using to justify it as ok. If people want something for nothing, I can't (and have no interest) stop them, and the developers don't seem to be able to (and as I've said I don't agree with the methods some are trying to). People are going to pirate games through greed, if they couldn't, the majority still wouldn't buy games. No big loss to developer doesn't make it right though imo, so why the need to justify it?

The article isn't singing the praises of piracy still mind you, it's displaying the disgrace of DRM and the like (which I agree with). I've only reskimmed reading it this time, but they put their sales due to lack of DRM and good games, not due to piracy. I'm also not entirely convinced that they have zero concern of it, they just "have no way to find out or stop it".

 

[Evilsod]

I'd agree having a demo for all games would be nice, but how is not having one an excuse to pirate still?

Because its used in place of a demo? Its not like you are immediately incapable of buying the game if you liked it, but its obviously less likely when you already have the full release than if they released an official demo. Course some games don't do demo's that well, mostly pure singleplayer FPS games, but you could perhaps include some RTS games like C&C in there too. I was skeptical about C&C3 Tiberium Wars (and have no interest what so ever in MP RTS) so dl'd it since no demo was available and it was dreadful, so much so i haven't even touched any newer C&C game since.

Frankly i think the reason most companies don't release a demo is because they know fewer people will be buying it after playing it and finding out it wasn't infact as good as all there hype made it out to be.

 

[Ryan-3]

Everywhere you look though, they charge £40 for CoD, once a new ones out, they still seem to ask £30!