Piracy, Not Consoles, Killed the PC Exclusive

And then you get the added bonus of overcrowded servers causing lag in games, servers being down, being unable to play when there's no internet connection available, meaning if I'm at the beach house no games at all for me on the rainy days.

No thanks, not for me. :P
 
Graal said:
Title should read

Publishers' Irrational Approach and Obsession with Piracy, Not Consoles, Killed the PC Exclusive

In reality, piracy really should be a non-issue. Despite what publishers claim, it doesn't affect sales at all. The point of piracy is that the pirate isn't planning on buying the game anyway. That's the case with 90% of pirates. Every year publishers come out with 'projected losses' based on piracy, and it's bullshit. How can you consider piracy lost money? It's money you never had, and there's no indication that you ever would have had that money, so how is it lost money?

The gaming industry is the only industry stupid enough to take the stance they're taking on piracy. Other industries would attempt to coax pirates into seeing their product as more appealing than the alternative of pirating it. The gaming industry actively makes their product less appealing in an attempt to stop piracy.

Where's the logic in that?
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+1 this man
 
Graal said:
And then you get the added bonus of overcrowded servers causing lag in games, servers being down, being unable to play when there's no internet connection available, meaning if I'm at the beach house no games at all for me on the rainy days.

No thanks, not for me. :P
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Fair point. but as technology improves those limitations will evaporate.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
So apart from the points made. Question is what can one do to get people to buy games?
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For one, move away from DRM that's overly restrictive. I think steam has made quite a few great strives, not taking into consideration it's relatively poor performance locally. It's a service that's made game delivery extremely simple, not to mention it's plethora of deals.
 
Pr⊕phet said:
So apart from the points made. Question is what can one do to get people to buy games?
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That's the thing, nobody is really sure. A good start will be to not alienate your customers using methods like DRM. A general price drop would also be another good start (there is no way production costs require that games cost between R400 - R700).

Aside from that, my guess is to attempt to make the actual product more appealing. Making the box contents more appealing would be a very effective method of doing this.

Look at the standard edition of this game

draft_lens17718405module150295661photo_1305803463witcher-2-premium-edition


And the standard edition for this game

dragon-age2x-large__56052_zoom.jpg


Quality of the games in question aside, if I had to walk into a store and see them side by side for the same price, not knowing anything about either game, I know which I'm going to pick.
 
Kharrak said:
In the past, I've pirated when (a) I can't afford to get the game, (b) game doesn't interest me enough to warrant purchase, (c) never heard of the game before, and I want to try it out.

In all the cases, if it turns out the game is fantastic, I will always end up purchasing the sequels, and often purchase the game itself.
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a) If you can't afford then you shouldn't have it.
b) You say the game isn't worthy buying but it's worth playing, which is a massive contradiction.
c) Plenty of games come with demos.

As for the "oh I pirate, if I like I buy" it's the same argument just about every pirate uses and it's rather well known that they don't in fact go and buy the games they like. Waiting for the sequel is all well and good unless of course they go out of business or decide not to make it people when not enough people bought the original.

ANYWAY

Arguing about piracy is like running on a treadmill, you're never getting anywhere.

As far as DRM goes, I absolutely agree it's often ridiculously stupid and ONLY punishes legitimate customers.
 
I would think that pre-ordering can be more exploited. 2 weeks earlier access or more to games where it is relevant. How about 30% discount if pre-ordered or even all dlc free. Hec I would say that that also needs to be looked at. If you have people pre-ordered then you already have the money. However as pointed out this will only really work of the product is decent and drm doesn't take you to hell and back.
 
How about 30% discount if pre-ordered or even all dlc free.
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You know what's cheaper than a 30% discount? Free
Oh if you pirate you already get all the DLC free, coz you pirate that too.

:)
 
Pr⊕phet said:
Seriaaaaaaaaaassssss ? :eek:
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LoL

Just saying that it's tough to apply 'value propositions' like that when it comes to piracy since you are competing with free so you are forced to adapt your product not just your business model.

Free to Play and the MMO are game models that work pretty well on PC since it really avoids the whole issue of piracy entirely.
 
MOnk said:
a) If you can't afford then you shouldn't have it.
b) You say the game isn't worthy buying but it's worth playing, which is a massive contradiction.
c) Plenty of games come with demos.

As for the "oh I pirate, if I like I buy" it's the same argument just about every pirate uses and it's rather well known that they don't in fact go and buy the games they like. Waiting for the sequel is all well and good unless of course they go out of business or decide not to make it people when not enough people bought the original.
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These points are all perfectly valid from a logical point of view, but they still don't change anything. I was making the exact same points in a rather heated piracy debate on the MyBB forums back in 2008 (you can look the thread up there if you like. Was something along the lines of Open Letter to MyBB, or something like that). Even though I took up that stance, it still didn't stop me from pirating like a mofo afterwards.

Nobody is going to stop pirating just because it's wrong. They pirate because they can't or won't pay for something, and they want that something. That's all there is to it. Arguing that their excuses are invalid isn't going to stop them pirating.

The excessive masturbator makes up all kinds of excuses for why he masturbates excessively. Even if you point out his excuses are stupid, he's still going to rush home after work to go choke the bald guy.
 
Nobody is going to stop pirating just because it's wrong.
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I did.

I even convinced a few of my friends to stop, not because I made them feel like shit but I would just constantly chirp them about 'the dark side'. :)
 
MOnk said:
a) If you can't afford then you shouldn't have it.
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Entitlement much? So you're saying that one SHOULDN'T purchase a game gift for a friend, if they can't afford it themselves? Or accept it if it is bought for you? That's thin ice you're walking on.

MOnk said:
b) You say the game isn't worthy buying but it's worth playing, which is a massive contradiction.
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Except that you've misunderstood what I said: I never said a game wasn't worth buying, I said if a game didn't create enough interest. Biiiiig difference between the two.
MOnk said:
c) Plenty of games come with demos.
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Yes, though most demo's are, ironically, rather limiting in what they show you. In addition, not all games have demos. Ultimately, my view was that pirated games provide a more coherent idea of what the game could provide. If I liked it, I would buy it. If I didn't, no skin of anyone's back.

MOnk said:
As for the "oh I pirate, if I like I buy" it's the same argument just about every pirate uses and it's rather well known that they don't in fact go and buy the games they like. Waiting for the sequel is all well and good unless of course they go out of business or decide not to make it people when not enough people bought the original.
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Yeah, I realized how it sounded as I typed it, and I knew someone was going to make the stab regarding a studio going out of business - but firstly, what can I say? I buy what I can, money providing. That's not to say I pirate EVERY game I can't afford - I've not yet played The Witcher 2, Alice: Madness Returns, nor Rage, not to mention the slew of console related games I'm aching to try... for no particular reason. Considering the game purchases I make (and I mean, digital games, as apposed to any table top game I may also purchase that month), mixed with any other lifestyle purchase I may make, I personally would probably pirate one game, for every eight I legally purchase.

And secondly, for indie devs, piracy is a double edged sword. One one hand, it acts as an advertising quotent, but naturally on the other, you will have some who may have potentially paid money for it, well... not. Ultimately though, piracy is currently just overly easy an excuse for why a bigger game may not have sold.
 
Yes, but look at the bigger picture. Do you think +- 10 million people are simply going to stop randomly? :p
 
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