Videogames piracy - Why so much hate?

[John V]

Definitions.

NSS. Care to actually give the definitions?

[Napoléon]

NSS. Care to actually give the definitions?

No not really. Care to address all the points I've made previously?

[John V]

NSS. Care to actually give the definitions?

No not really.

OK, thought I'd give you a shot.

A company allows a free download of a product, and asks you to pay for it if you like it.

You say these payments would be donations, not sales.

The difference that I see is that, in a sale, the person does not get the product until they pay. In this scenario, the person already has the product before they pay. You are therefore calling it a donation rather than a sale, and conceding that "Obviously this would result in lost sales, because they wouldn't be making sales at all."

By that logic, anyone who pirates a product to try it out, then subsequently pays for it, is likewise making a donation, and sales are lost.

[Violet]

It's called intellectual property law. You need to read a fucking book.

Sure. I'll start with this one



Oh wait... I already read that one. And several others.

Perhaps instead of telling me to read a book, you might want to try giving me an argument. Otherwise, there's not much to refute. Law does not by state make 'right', as morality and law are not one and the same.

And other nonsense... ugh *stretches*.

---

1. Read reviews before you buy.

Reviews are like gossip... they're everywhere, they entertain... and they exaggerate.

Take the Mona Lisa, yeah? You've *never* seen it, not even a picture of it... but you read a review of it and then: you still aren't seeing it, only what other people saw of it. Of course... you are not they, and thus what they say is for you hearsay.

Here, buy these apples, they're the freshest apples in the world... oh, but you'll have to do it without seeing them, or getting to taste one. But they're the best apples! BUY BUY BUY NOW! They won't last (because they're... already rotting).

2. If all the people who pirated started paying, maybe they wouldn't need to charge $50 per game.

The consumers have decided that they're willing to pay such an amount for their games. They've voted with their wallets... and thus it would be stupid of companies to lower their prices to net the very few pirates who've decided that 50 is too high a price to pay. Piracy doesn't bother big business, as it's big: its marketing will net sales, and those sales will be highly enough priced that they will meet their opportunity costs at the end of the quarter (unless their product is shite and poorly marketed, then... well: nobody was pirating it anyway).

It's business, and it's good business for big companies. Pirates don't grossly affect such business... until they start trying to crack down on it. I've been so frustrated by DRM in games I have bought (Spore...) that I've then had to pirate in the future, lest I (a paying user) be forced to buy the product *again*. Infact, this is one of the primary causes of the prevalence of online piracy:

Little companies, though? They can't charge huge amounts... because they won't survive people passing up their title. They need their title out there, by any means possible... and they need to be lowly enough priced that people will purchase them, instead of passing them by. Piracy, even were it extensive, doesn't hamper a small company, as what they need is users... and they're getting users. And most of those users would be willing to drop 5-25 bucks on a game they like.

Of course... microtransactions in free games are... the best. It's very very hard to effectively pirate a free game.

[Violet]

No not really.

OK, thought I'd give you a shot.

A company allows a free download of a product, and asks you to pay for it if you like it.

You say these payments would be donations, not sales.

The difference that I see is that, in a sale, the person does not get the product until they pay. In this scenario, the person already has the product before they pay. You are therefore calling it a donation rather than a sale, and conceding that "Obviously this would result in lost sales, because they wouldn't be making sales at all."

It's not a question of whether payment will come before or after, it is a question of whether payment is necessary for the package. Such is a sale, whether it take decades to process, or becomes vaporware.

By that logic, anyone who pirates a product to try it out, then subsequently pays for it, is likewise making a donation, and sales are lost.

You can't lose a sale that was never had... simply, there was no sale, only a service freely offered.

Tipping your waiter is not the same as paying for your meal. You can optionally not tip a shite waiter... but you can rarely refund a shite meal. A good waiter one shows their appreciation for by the size of the tip they leave them... a good meal's appreciation is shown by return trips to that restaurant to trade that $9.85 in your pocket for their brownies.

A sale is a trade. A donation is a gift.

[GrandizerII]

This guy is spot on regarding the piracy matter:

[Sejanus]

I'm in the Alice + Napoleon camp on this one.
I'll share some of my piracy stories... and you tell me how they're "stealing".
Spore:
I purchased a physical copy of this game, but I lost it/left it behind when I moved house. I then got an urge to play it, but didn't feel I should have to pay for it twice, so I pirated it.

Mount & Blade: Warband:
I pirated this game to try it. I loved the game, but the pirated versions obviously don't get patches, so I couldn't install new mods, and also couldn't play multiplayer. So then I bought it. And the only reason I bought it is because I pirated it and was able to try it.

Going slightly off the gaming side of piracy:
Megadeth:
I found their music on youtube, loved it, and downloaded most of their songs and put them on my phone. I wanted something to play in the car, so I bought their CDs, and also several Megadeth t-shirts. I will also most definitely buy tickets to a concert if they ever come to NZ. Their music isn't really mainstream today and I never really hung around with the kind of kids who might listen to them, so if not for piracy I'd never have been exposed to them.

So in my personal experience, piracy actually boosts sales.

[dyresand]

you can legally pirate a video game but if your caught and someone wants to do something they can legally.
if you are caught sell a reproduction or dvds of the game you can be fined.

[The Grand Nudger]

You know, that's something that I've never understood about this, piracy? Who decided to call it that? Were they aware of what pirates did, how they made their living? The term doesn't seem to apply. It's not like I'm trying to sell their own game back to them (or anyone) at a profit........ I just want to know what it is they're trying to extort me with, before I let them part my cheeks.

[dyresand]

You know, that's something that I've never understood about this, piracy? Who decided to call it that? Were they aware of what pirates did, how they made their living? The term doesn't seem to apply. It's not like I'm trying to sell their own game back to them (or anyone) at a profit........ I just want to know what it is they're trying to extort me with, before I let them part my cheeks.

trackers can be infected noted TBP had infected tracks a tracker on a torrent can pull your ip also your ip is public via pooling and downloading and uploading. if you have a dynamic ip chances are getting caught or lower but a person can go through your isp to get your info. if you have a static ip well easier to track someone down. if you download anything might as well be a game also piracy is good for the game industry people play single player game the multip layer is non functioning so they go buy it.