Piracy: Would this work?

[Raumarik]

I am living proof, just see my steam account, I actually buy good games and when they're priced well ( weekend deals ). I also have BF2 on my (small) stack of retail games ( can post a pic incase you don't believe me ) .
Otherwise I'm a big pirate.

But what teki says also works for me, I didn't start buying from steam because of the good mp features, I could have just as well not bought portal, hl2 games, audiosurf, geometry wars, bioshock, bullet candy, commander keen, etcetc and still not notice any disadvantage by sticking to my downloaded versions.

I started buying again for convenience, I HATE, ABSOLUTELY HATE cd's and dvd's. I hate DRM. I'm sick of game setups and typing/pasting cd keys/serials all the time. Steam is simple and efficient, all my games in 1 place, I click download and play something else in the meantime while my game is made ready to play.

If games would be more decently priced, I'd be buying 1 or 2 new games every week ( now about 1 game per 2-3 weeks depending on what weekends deals come by but I got drawn in the cod:waw deal and universe at war deal recently). Digital downloads + far more decent price ( eg. eliminate retail profit/costs, transportation costs, retail box/ booky/ art/dvd costs, publisher costs) would easily mean I'd buy much more, provided there is no such thing as an activation limit, some kind of check before playing, annoying protection drivers ( starforce ) ( and of course, if it's a good game) etc...

100% agree with you mate, mirrors my own reasons for using steam and I'd also be buying more if they were more sensibly priced.

 

[m4cc45]

To the people who pirate games, have done or thinking of doing, would being able to buy the game direct from the developers via digital download make you more or less likely to pirate a game?

What i'm trying to figure out is, if people are more likely to support a developer via buying directly from them, helping them profit more from there game, rather then large publishers taking a cut.

For this to work it would have to be one centralised location. Having 20 clients installed from various companies would be unmanageable.

It would also have to be well priced, simultaneous worldwide game release and have high quality games on there. Steam is a very good example but, for me, it gets a lot of things wrong such as games only available in certain areas, dearer than the boxed games, etc.


M.

 

[Teki187]

Having 20 clients installed from various companies would be unmanageable.

Thats a very good point, never thought about that.

One problem i see is, if we had a centralised downloading system, then they can monopolise the industry and dictate prices either making them stupidly low forcing developers under or stupidly high making them not available to the current market.

How about having a 3rd party app that takes a mild sub fee like say £2-5 a month and with that they allow you to connect directly to the developer so you pay money to them, download from them and get patches etc directly from them?

Rather then paying for a steam type platform? Steam (as far as i know) developers and publishers pay them to host there games or valve take a cut of the sales?

 

[Alex74]

True points, but higher powers would step in against price dictatorship. It also seems improbable that there would be a distribution system with absolutely no competition.

One of the beauties of steam is that the client itself is free, with valve itself being supported by the games it sells. This allows a very simple, convenient conduit between the consumer and the developer's material. As soon as we have to pay for the privilege, then it starts to seem like a better idea to spend £2 going to the local shop to buy a copy. This is rather than paying your monthly fee for every month that they want to be able to, not only buy the game, but play on line, get patches and reinstall it as well.

EDIT: Badly misspelled privilege

 

[IamMed]

If they dramatically reduced the prices for digital downloads I'd be more inclined to buy them, EA and Sony quite often charge the same price for there downloads as the full retail disc bought from a shop which is stupid.

Very rarely buy anything for the PC now, most new games I'll download and try them out but I find the majority have a very short lifespan, play them for a day, complete them and never touch them again.

If they actually are good and I can see me playing them regularly then I will go out and buy the full game albeit usually second hand to save some cash.

I really don't see the point of spending £30+ on a game only to find out it's rubbish.

I just wish I could do the same with the PS3 as there is quite a few I wouldn't trying first, demos are ok but they are too short usually to show wether the game is good in the long run.

 

[Kenai]

One problem i see is, if we had a centralised downloading system, then they can monopolise the industry and dictate prices either making them stupidly low forcing developers under or stupidly high making them not available to the current market.

Whilst they could, if the objective was reducing piracy, pricing out half your potential market is just going to drive more piracy so that would end up being limited by natural market forces anyway. Software like games, even in a monopoly would be relatively controlled by the fact piracy prevents a total monopoly.

 

[Alex74]

one assumes that the people running the distribution system arent complete idiots, and will happily find that equilibrium without pricing out all but the highest percentile or bankrupting devs (It's ultimately in their interest)

 

[theukmoog]

Two issues for me...

I'd be way too wary to purchase digitally from each developer for the very real fear that the developer would disappear a few months later and their DRM/authentication servers with it.

I also couldn't see the developers being allowed to sell at the sort of price I'd consider buying digitally whilst still having retail publishers/distributors.

 

[mame]

The key for me is price. Steam is WAY over priced. Lets take my current favourite PC game, Dawn of War 2. Its £35 on steam, always has been since launch. It was £25 online at launch. It dropped to £20 in GAME a month or so ago, and is now £18. Sure there might be some bargains, but at launch, steam games are higher than the high street! Similar story with Empire: Total War.

I love the idea of buying a game at a decent price and knowing that a good chunk of the money actually made it to the people who made the game. I like buying games through Impulse for example, does everything steam does, only better value. Shame the selection of games isn't as good.

Thats exactly how I feel about it. I have steam but don't use it that often (only have HL2's and couple of mods). The odd time I log in I'm greeted with "buy COD4 modern warfare, only $44.99" And I think: well I could pick that up for next to nothing in any game shop and possibly a supermarket and have a nice shiny box to go with it. If you could download new games for a good price the temptation would be too much to just log in and buy/download. I don't mean a silly price either, just a sensible one.

As for stopping piracy, it wouldn't stop it but it wouldn't be worth the effort to a lot of people. Think back 10 years when CDs were £13.99. Most work places had someone selling copied ones for a fiver each and people from all walks of life would buy them. I know it's only 10 years but people did earn a fair bit less than they do now. So it was probably more like £17-18. That's quite a bit for a CD. Today you can get any new CD for £8.99 or less. I often buy one on impulse in a supermarket just to play in the car. I Know people now download music but my point is, CDs are now sold at a good price. If I want one, I'll just buy it. If something is a good price and you want it then you buy it.

 

[Azagoth]

I don't pirate games, just music for me, but I can't stand Digital Distribution. So I guess my answer would be no, unless developers started mailing out hard copies.

 

[dbmzk1]

Wont make any difference to me, don't really care where it comes from or who makes money from it. The price is what matters to me.

 

[mame]

Wont make any difference to me, don't really care where it comes from or who makes money from it. The price is what matters to me.

Reminds me of that advert for some anti-piracy thing where it tries to tell you that pirated goods support crime or something like that

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Games arn't worth £40.00 each for new titles. Music is not worth £12.99 for an new release album. Movies are not worth £20.00 for a new release title. They will not stop the pirates now they simply need to 'adopt' for example, really cheap digital downloads. Atleast they would be earning alittle bit money rather than nothing.

 

[Sayso]

I really don't see the point of spending £30+ on a game only to find out it's rubbish.

thats why i always try out a demo, read various reviews before any purchase, saying that i still bought COD5 which is ****!! cos it was on a special on Steam.

 

[FreeStream]

If its good, I buy it.

If its rubbish, I don't.

DRM really has no effect on me, because if its a REALLY good game, then its worth it.

Don't have any downloaded games, all purchased Just wait 6 months after launch and you get em for £5 (SC: FA)

 

[Angleboy]

I pirate games for demo purposes mostly, else becasue some friend insists on playing it over lan once in a blue moon. If i find i will be playing them for more than a week, i buy them. Yeah its not exactly the legit way to do things, but not everyone has money to burn. There are a fair few games i would not have bought had it not been for their avaliablity via "other means".

Digital purchases suit me fine. As long as the game works without any flaws becasue of it. It wouldnt really affect me aside from the easy to obtain-ness, wich appeals to my lazy side

 

[Buzza]

To the people who pirate games, have done or thinking of doing, would being able to buy the game direct from the developers via digital download make you more or less likely to pirate a game?

What i'm trying to figure out is, if people are more likely to support a developer via buying directly from them, helping them profit more from there game, rather then large publishers taking a cut.

Cutting out the publisher and the games store would allow games to be cheaper and make more money for the developer which would be great. Gamers like us would also be showing there support for the good developers by buying from them too. Thing is, would all developers drop there prices?

Personnally i never pirate, i used to when i was kid but i found i had loads of games i didnt play, i simply had no appreciation for them because i got so many for free. If i had bought a game i would make point of sitting down and giving it a good go.

Games arn't worth £40.00 each for new titles. Music is not worth £12.99 for an new release album. Movies are not worth £20.00 for a new release title. They will not stop the pirates now they simply need to 'adopt' for example, really cheap digital downloads. Atleast they would be earning alittle bit money rather than nothing.

Many release games/movies can be had for way less than those prices and i think many are worth the money, if you find them still to expensive, wait a few weeks/months and get them cheaper. Besides I dont think piracy would stop completely even if a game/movie was a fiver, because some people are quite happy to steal something thats easy to get hold of and theres little risk of getting caught.

In regard to Steam, isnt that a little irrellavent for the most part, as your not cutting out the middlemen(Publishers) and buying direct from the developers(except for Valve games)? There pricing is dreadfull either way though. EA have a digital distribution system too, but even then, many EA games are made by other developers, so in a way you are not cutting out the publisher there either.

 

[TheVoice]

Reminds me of that advert for some anti-piracy thing where it tries to tell you that pirated goods support crime or something like that

They'd be right, many organised crime and terrorist groups have used piracy to fund other activities.

 

[master811]

For me the main issue with steam, as with any pretty much any digital download is you can't resell the game later on, like you can with a normal boxed retail game.

If steam allowed you to transfer any game to another account (and you arranged for it to be sold - say over ebay), it would be perfect.

I'm not including the Orange Box/HL2 free transfer as that doesn't really count.

 

[Streeteh]

I've always thought steam should have a system where you revoke ownership of a game in return for some discount credits towards your next purchase. Say for every £1 of the amount you bought it for you get 10p or something. That way you're encouraged to buy another title from them in the future and god knows there's some games on my steam account i just don't want.