They just need to do better and make it so games cant be pirated. If they cant do that then tuff shit. Calling it a crime is a joke.
Get better programmers. If the pirates are too smart and keep finding ways to crack games then fire the moron that calls himself a programmer and hire the pirates. Those pity commercials about pirating software are pathitic. It's even more pathitic to find out that some people fall for that crap. "oh they stole it" ..."Oh they should be paid for their hard work" Pathitic brainwashing by big companys..guys making millions and some sheep still say "they should get paid for thier hard work".
They just need to do better and make it so games cant be pirated. If they cant do that then tuff shit. Calling it a crime is a joke.
Get better programmers. If the pirates are too smart and keep finding ways to crack games then fire the moron that calls himself a programmer and hire the pirates. Those pity commercials about pirating software are pathitic. It's even more pathitic to find out that some people fall for that crap. "oh they stole it" ..."Oh they should be paid for their hard work" Pathitic brainwashing by big companys..guys making millions and some sheep still say "they should get paid for thier hard work".
The programmer monkeys that code 90% of the game do not get paid millions.
YES, they should be paid for their hard work.
If it's so easy, why don't you got stop hackers? Go stop Annonymous, then come back to the forums here and say the same shit you just said.
What I find funny is all the work companies go through to try some kind of DRM. And every.single.time the DRM is broken within days. Even Diablo 3's DRM was cracked a few weeks ago. So all these companies do is inconvience people who do buy the games (such as not allowing offline play) while the people who are going to pirate are still going to pirate since there is no perfect DRM.
And I'll adit I have pirated some games. Funny thing is that I tend to pirate them to try them out and [i]then[/i] buy them so I know if it's worth my money.
They just need to do better and make it so games cant be pirated. If they cant do that then tuff shit. Calling it a crime is a joke.
Get better programmers. If the pirates are too smart and keep finding ways to crack games then fire the moron that calls himself a programmer and hire the pirates. Those pity commercials about pirating software are pathitic. It's even more pathitic to find out that some people fall for that crap. "oh they stole it" ..."Oh they should be paid for their hard work" Pathitic brainwashing by big companys..guys making millions and some sheep still say "they should get paid for thier hard work".
WHAHAHA either you trolling or have absolutly no idea what you talking about. I am sure that even the Pantagon can be hacked if people REALLY where dedicated to do so. There is not such thing as making something completly save. In fact the more money they seem to invest into trying this the more people they piss off and turn them into pirates, because they end up not playing the game while the pirate are.
Anti-piracy does not work that good. It just cost money in my opinion although some people might buy the game if they do not want to wait for a cracked version after release I doubt they gain more money from those sales then they payed for the anti-piracy. Especially the always online feature, they actually need to have a server running constantly and have people on standby to fix it. Only costing the company money yet at the same time people are happily playing the same game illigaly.
Also it are the lobbyist group that are the big screamers. Most developers really do not care to much about it, while annoying and a easy scapegoat toward the investory and stockholders it in general does not harm them much and in fact might increase sale.
hacks and cheaters just make me move on to a different game. I have no interest in paying for a game that has cheaters affecting my enjoyment of the game so PvP games are strictly F2P until it's proven hack-free. If someone cheats at their PvE it really doesn't affect me so I don't care as such. I the game developers can't resolve the problem, they lose money, if that isn't enough incentive to fix it then why bother playing their games.
Won't Diablo 3 be great for supporting all these people that cheat and hack, allowing them to even potentially make money from it?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Why are you demonizing the term "modder", which in most game contexts is an extremely positive word and refers to enhancements that a publisher wants to encourage from the community. Even though it is a similar skillset that leads to the creation of client hacks, calling that "modding" is like using the words "consumer" and "pirate" interchangably because they are both end-users.
Ah well, I have two sides within me. Who am I letting out today? *tosses coin*
Side A: Stealing (intellectual) property is evil! Don't do it.
Side B: Property is a lie. The amount of property you can have is merely defined by what you can.
You decide where the coin falls. When the poor of London had enough of being poor, they started to just take TV sets. Was it evil? Or is getting rich with evil speculation just legalized robbery at the expense of the poor? Are laws not just vehicles of rich and powerful to get their ways?
The native Americans believed, "earth" can not be owned as property and belongs to all, just as air. Today we are selling nature as genetic patents. That is the law. But is that RIGHT? For thousands of years story telling never had intellectual rights. See the Term "Transmedia Storytelling":
Ah, it must be so wonderful to have a clear good VS evil compass, innit? Sometimes in my advanced age I start to think that laws and governments are just a more refined way of bullying people. But maybe I just say that because I am again trying to quit smoking.
Maybe what you are taught is right and good in the end... is a sharade, a lie, a tool to exploit you, a vehicle to coerce conformity? What IS real? What IS right? But I suppose easy good/evil answers always win. So back into the barrel, Diogenes!
EDIT:
If I play one side, I could argue this: a game is not a cake. If I eat the cake, it is gone. It's use is consumed and thus robbed. If I copy a game or a music, it isn't consumed and not away. So it's potency is not diminished. Which leaves the question of the damage. If I live from 500 EURO, I can not buy more than 1 game every 2 months. So if I copy it, the company has no loss, simply because I don't HAVE the money. The theory of their loss is based on the idea, that people instead of buying the software copy it. And that is where it is wrong, because many who copy it just't don't HAVE the money anymore the our downspiral of dwindling real income of the lower 30% of society. So there is no objective loss. It is only a loss, if that person would have enough money to buy all that. But since the value is not diminished, since a game is not a cake, I can not see where the actual loss is.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
They just need to do better and make it so games cant be pirated. If they cant do that then tuff shit. Calling it a crime is a joke.
Get better programmers. If the pirates are too smart and keep finding ways to crack games then fire the moron that calls himself a programmer and hire the pirates. Those pity commercials about pirating software are pathitic. It's even more pathitic to find out that some people fall for that crap. "oh they stole it" ..."Oh they should be paid for their hard work" Pathitic brainwashing by big companys..guys making millions and some sheep still say "they should get paid for thier hard work".
WHAHAHA either you trolling or have absolutly no idea what you talking about. I am sure that even the Pantagon can be hacked if people REALLY where dedicated to do so. There is not such thing as making something completly save. In fact the more money they seem to invest into trying this the more people they piss off and turn them into pirates, because they end up not playing the game while the pirate are.
Anti-piracy does not work that good. It just cost money in my opinion although some people might buy the game if they do not want to wait for a cracked version after release I doubt they gain more money from those sales then they payed for the anti-piracy. Especially the always online feature, they actually need to have a server running constantly and have people on standby to fix it. Only costing the company money yet at the same time people are happily playing the same game illigaly.
Also it are the lobbyist group that are the big screamers. Most developers really do not care to much about it, while annoying and a easy scapegoat toward the investory and stockholders it in general does not harm them much and in fact might increase sale.
Whahahaha are you a troll.
Like i said they need better programmers. PAY FOR THEM. It might mean they only make 10 million as compared to 15 million.
Do lobbiest work for free? They get paid by BIG companys.
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
Ah well, I have two sides within me. Who am I letting out today? *tosses coin*
Side A: Stealing (intellectual) property is evil! Don't do it.
Side B: Property is a lie. The amount of property you can have is merely defined by what you can.
You decide where the coin falls. When the poor of London had enough of being poor, they started to just take TV sets. Was it evil? Or is getting rich with evil speculation just legalized robbery at the expense of the poor? Are laws not just vehicles of rich and powerful to get their ways?
The native Americans believed, "earth" can not be owned as property and belongs to all, just as air. Today we are selling nature as genetic patents. That is the law. But is that RIGHT? For thousands of years story telling never had intellectual rights. See the Term "Transmedia Storytelling":
Ah, it must be so wonderful to have a clear good VS evil compass, innit? Sometimes in my advanced age I start to think that laws and governments are just a more refined way of bullying people. But maybe I just say that because I am again trying to quit smoking.
Maybe what you are taught is right and good in the end... is a sharade, a lie, a tool to exploit you, a vehicle to coerce conformity? What IS real? What IS right? But I suppose easy good/evil answers always win. So back into the barrel, Diogenes!
Sadly, most people these days think that law is morality.
The intent of law was to enforce morality, but sadly laws fail to keep up with the changes of time, or are twisted to facilitate the narrow "morality" of the few. There are still many things that are legal that are morally corrupt, just as there are things that are illegal even though it has little basis on morality.
People need to start thinking for themselves rather than allowing opinions and beliefs to be force fed to them.
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
Ah well, I have two sides within me. Who am I letting out today? *tosses coin*
Side A: Stealing (intellectual) property is evil! Don't do it.
Side B: Property is a lie. The amount of property you can have is merely defined by what you can.
You decide where the coin falls. When the poor of London had enough of being poor, they started to just take TV sets. Was it evil? Or is getting rich with evil speculation just legalized robbery at the expense of the poor? Are laws not just vehicles of rich and powerful to get their ways?
The native Americans believed, "earth" can not be owned as property and belongs to all, just as air. Today we are selling nature as genetic patents. That is the law. But is that RIGHT? For thousands of years story telling never had intellectual rights. See the Term "Transmedia Storytelling":
Ah, it must be so wonderful to have a clear good VS evil compass, innit? Sometimes in my advanced age I start to think that laws and governments are just a more refined way of bullying people. But maybe I just say that because I am again trying to quit smoking.
Maybe what you are taught is right and good in the end... is a sharade, a lie, a tool to exploit you, a vehicle to coerce conformity? What IS real? What IS right? But I suppose easy good/evil answers always win. So back into the barrel, Diogenes!
Sadly, most people these days think that law is morality.
The intent of law was to enforce morality, but sadly laws fail to keep up with the changes of time, or are twisted to facilitate the narrow "morality" of the few. There are still many things that are legal that are morally corrupt, just as there are things that are illegal even though it has little basis on morality.
People need to start thinking for themselves rather than allowing opinions and beliefs to be force fed to them.
The problem here, as so often is: people mistake means with goals.
Democracy, political parties, laws, fincancial systems - all these are MEANS not goals. They are methods we chose to make a society which is fair, free and safe. They are not values in itself, but only as means insofar they work to achieve the goal, the fair, free & safe society.
Now what went wrong here as in so many places: people started to see these means as goal, as values in itself, which they are not. So there always IS the valid question: do these means still function to create the goal? No matter to what side your answer falls, it must be allowed to question the validity of the means. And in SOME, especially in recent days, I would dare say the means no longer function apparently.
In the words of Henry Ford: "If the masses really understood our economic and financial system, we would have a revolution by tomorrow." Words to ponder.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
Then they can think of it as free advertising.
There are a lot of people who "pirate" to trial music, software, etc before deciding whether to buy, where they would otherwise just never pay anything for the product if they didn't have the option to try it first. There's also a growing number of musicians that have become famous because of P2P downloading of their music.
There has never been any proven correlation between piracy causing lower sales. Higher piracy rates actually tend to correlate more with higher sales and greater profit, go figure.
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
Then they can think of it as free advertising.
There are a lot of people who "pirate" to trial music, software, etc before deciding whether to buy, where they would otherwise just never pay anything for the product if they didn't have the option to try it first. There's also a growing number of musicians that have become famous because of P2P downloading of their music.
There has never been any proven correlation between piracy causing lower sales. Higher piracy rates actually tend to correlate more with higher sales and greater profit, go figure.
Quite true.
What I want is, that a person legally pays as much as he can reasonable afford and not do wanton stealing, as a question of personal moral integrity. I can say I pay for as much as I can afford, and leave it with that. I then feel I have done all in my power to "give the Emperor what is the Emperors" as the Saviour said.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
They don't spend that much to create at all, they spend all the money on marketing and production. It's not about the devs, it's about their bottom line.
The US supreme court has allowed a landmark lawsuit against the four major record labels to proceed. According to the plaintiffs, Sony, Vivendi-Universal, Warner Music and EMI colluded in the early 2000s to keep download prices high, while preventing consumers from burning purchased songs to CD.
Any of those names look familiar to you? So yeah, my ability to care about the 'criminal' act of pirating music and games is suffering from a pretty severe case of anemia. But offer me a service at a reasonable price and I will pay for it. I didn't buy a music cd or movie for more than five years. Then Netflix came out, and I'm a happy subscriber. Give me a good game where the company running it stays on top of the cheating issue, and I'll pay to play it. Otherwise, nope, don't care.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
This is such a tough subject. WHo doesn't like to get free stuff if they can? I know I'm guilty from time to time, but I really can't argue that its right.
If anyone who supports piracy actually created a product themselves and had it stolen, they would understand.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
They don't spend that much to create at all, they spend all the money on marketing and production. It's not about the devs, it's about their bottom line.
It's sad but true.
This falls under the category of "I'm sorry life sucks, but it is what is it."
They need marketing and production to generate interest and sell box copies which pays for the development/creative process.
And without shareholders being happy and comfortable and the stock price going up funding is pulled and people are fired.
Is it right?
Not really, in terms of a "moral" sense that the people who do the least get paid the most.
But that is like bitching about water being wet.
The way I see it, 52 dollars out of the 60 I pay for a game might go to the marketing team and shareholders, but that 8 dollars that goes to keep the programmer/artist employed and continuing to create amazing games for me to play.
Don't blame the people who know how to take games and movies without paying for them, instead, target the people who hack these games and make regular players hate their experience.
But why do we have to put only one at fault? Both suck and should be stopped, overall.
Yeah, I've torrented files before, and honestly I still do on occasion when the things I want aren't easily found. (for example a while ago before they released the DVDs I downloaded the cartoon Sam & Max: Freelance Police.) Once the DvDs were available, I bought them, but thats not the point.
The point is, IS it a question of money? Its unlikely in most cases. If you really want a game, its all a question of time. If you wait 6 months after release, chances are the game will drop in price - most times drastically, and on top of that, online retailers always have discounts.
Then you factor in risk vs reward. Is the risk of downloading torrents or what have you worth it when you can buy something you want on the cheap?
Sure, ISPs now detect and "report" or at least notify you when you've downloaded something "illegally". On top of that they also have started throttling connections, sometimes imposing caps on data usage, or the big guys out there charge various torrent sites with litigation to shut them down.
At the end of the day, there are just WAY too many people ACTUALLY torrenting to prosecute them, and thats why, when you do see a prosecution, its drastic, and blown out of proportion.
People can try and twist it morally all they want, legality shouldn't have anything to do with - because something is available for free, that you normally would pay for - its okay to take it. Its obviously not. When you're at the store and you see someone handing out samples of an apple, you take one, you like it - doesn't mean you can start shoveling apples in your bag and walk out without paying for them.
The question I have is why would anyone really care? There is no proof that says the lack of piracy would lower the prices you pay for a game, movie, or music. Lets be honest here..it wouldn't.
Do you really believe that you would get better quality from those things if there was no piracy? I could point to the MMORPG genre as proof that piracy has no effect on quality at all.
Do you think that piracy is some how limiting the amount and types of games, music and movies that are released? That indie developers are going bankrupt because their stuff may get pirated? Can you name any person or organization that has released a quality product that lost everything because that product was pirated?
What part of piracy is really bothering people? Is it that you are mad that you spend money for things that other people don't? Are you such a law abiding citizen that you never break a law..even a small one? I really do not understand peoples adverse reaction to this topic.
This is totally devs faults because they try to fix it the wrong way. The way modding could be fixed is easy, if you are caught: buying gold, using a cheat ie mod, buying power level service then the dev should kick you from the game and ban your ip. If devs did this no one would use these cheat services and gold sellers would go away over night. If the devs will not enforce the rules that they created then they should just go RMT and that would help some as at least everyone would be even, so would help with the gold stuff but RMT option does not fix the botting I am sure. Devs if your going to have rules enforce them or go RMT, stop playing the middle and trying to only get a little preggo as this is the root of the problem.
As for the Priacy
I think your dead wrong. I took computer science and web dev in college. I can tell you I have about 10 friends that play online games most about dumb as a rock, and yet 8 of the 10 steal: games, movies, and music. In a perfect world ppl would realize there is no difference in downloading a game for free as oppose to going shop lifting at your local mall. However lets face it anyone that lived on campus at a college knows almost everyone pirates movies, music, and games. We have lost all sense of right and wrong in today's world most ppl think if there is no chance of getting caught or in real trouble its not stealing, well I hate to break it to them it is. These company's did not spend tons of money, take out loans making it so you can play for free. I am sure alot of you are thinking like what one of my friends told me when he was stealing cable. He said "I just do not have the money for all these cable channels" and I told him "some people do not have the money to eat that does not mean they go rob a store". At the end of the day these company's have every right to protect their property. With all this said I do agree the modding issues is a bigger one. Do not get me wrong any of you that steal software I am not saying your the devil or anything I am only saying its stealing just most ppl that do it think I will not get in trouble so its ok and thats my only point really. Ok I am now off my soap box
The question I have is why would anyone really care? There is no proof that says the lack of piracy would lower the prices you pay for a game, movie, or music. Lets be honest here..it wouldn't.
Do you really believe that you would get better quality from those things if there was no piracy? I could point to the MMORPG genre as proof that piracy has no effect on quality at all.
Do you think that piracy is some how limiting the amount and types of games, music and movies that are released? That indie developers are going bankrupt because their stuff may get pirated? Can you name any person or organization that has released a quality product that lost everything because that product was pirated?
What part of piracy is really bothering people? Is it that you are mad that you spend money for things that other people don't? Are you such a law abiding citizen that you never break a law..even a small one? I really do not understand peoples adverse reaction to this topic.
Those are fair points and a great post GreenHell, +interwebz!
I especially liked the highlighted.
I do think piracy hurts the "little guys" a LOT more then it hurts the big guys, of course, because the big guys can afford to eat the losses (no matter how big/small) but the little guys need every penny they can get to stay a float.
I don't think it is an issue of quality, nor is it truly an issue of morality or greed.
I think it is an issue of fairness.
Do the companies/artists/developers play fair?
Probably not.
Should we play fair even if they aren't playing fair?
That is the question.
If I support the developers, I play fair. I buy their products - I vote with my wallet.
I am impressed! I was ready to dismiss this article as another "oh lets feel sorry for Big Business" rant but you actually spoke the truth. Again I'm impressed. I hope MMORPG.com keeps you around.
File sharing has existed for decades. And guess what: People are still buying things and companies are still getting rich off of them. If you can get a copy of something that does not destroy the original then why not? NO ONE LOST ANYTHING! Please leave all stupid analogies at the door. FS does not equal stealing! Nothing physical has been taken that the buthurt party in question is not able to make a profit from. They still sell products. They still make money. Some of us that can FS will. Those that don't won't.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
The point is that piracy is overblown, not about the morality. Piracy does not cost the industry as much money as they claim. Disagree? As a paying consumer of video games, piracy has had an adverse effect on my experiences due to the anti-piracy measures the companies have taken. Internet down so you want to play an offline game you bought? Too bad. Can't verify the client. Try to buy a used video game? This game was registered from another computer, access denied. Build a new computer and try to install your games? Jump through hoops to prove you really are you. Hackers/cheaters haven't had much impact due to the games I play, but these pirate counter-measures have actually made me decide not to purchase or try a game in the first place. I don't even consider Blizzard products because they are not worth the trouble of dealing with their anti-piracy policies. I want to enjoy my hobby, not be frustrated by being denied access to a game I purchased.
I can agree with the banning peoples ip idea. Excellent idea actually but its hardly ever done. If they do ban, they ban that email address and name, and there's nothing stopping the person from just creating a new one. And its about more than modding. Its about griefing, harassment, and more. Its not that hard to prove, and there needs to be more moderating of things like live chat channels in online games.
The devs need to start doing whats needed instead of worrying about money.
Comments
They just need to do better and make it so games cant be pirated. If they cant do that then tuff shit. Calling it a crime is a joke.
Get better programmers. If the pirates are too smart and keep finding ways to crack games then fire the moron that calls himself a programmer and hire the pirates. Those pity commercials about pirating software are pathitic. It's even more pathitic to find out that some people fall for that crap. "oh they stole it" ..."Oh they should be paid for their hard work" Pathitic brainwashing by big companys..guys making millions and some sheep still say "they should get paid for thier hard work".
The programmer monkeys that code 90% of the game do not get paid millions.
YES, they should be paid for their hard work.
If it's so easy, why don't you got stop hackers? Go stop Annonymous, then come back to the forums here and say the same shit you just said.
Perspective, come get some!
What I find funny is all the work companies go through to try some kind of DRM. And every.single.time the DRM is broken within days. Even Diablo 3's DRM was cracked a few weeks ago. So all these companies do is inconvience people who do buy the games (such as not allowing offline play) while the people who are going to pirate are still going to pirate since there is no perfect DRM.
And I'll adit I have pirated some games. Funny thing is that I tend to pirate them to try them out and [i]then[/i] buy them so I know if it's worth my money.
WHAHAHA either you trolling or have absolutly no idea what you talking about. I am sure that even the Pantagon can be hacked if people REALLY where dedicated to do so. There is not such thing as making something completly save. In fact the more money they seem to invest into trying this the more people they piss off and turn them into pirates, because they end up not playing the game while the pirate are.
Anti-piracy does not work that good. It just cost money in my opinion although some people might buy the game if they do not want to wait for a cracked version after release I doubt they gain more money from those sales then they payed for the anti-piracy. Especially the always online feature, they actually need to have a server running constantly and have people on standby to fix it. Only costing the company money yet at the same time people are happily playing the same game illigaly.
Also it are the lobbyist group that are the big screamers. Most developers really do not care to much about it, while annoying and a easy scapegoat toward the investory and stockholders it in general does not harm them much and in fact might increase sale.
hacks and cheaters just make me move on to a different game. I have no interest in paying for a game that has cheaters affecting my enjoyment of the game so PvP games are strictly F2P until it's proven hack-free. If someone cheats at their PvE it really doesn't affect me so I don't care as such. I the game developers can't resolve the problem, they lose money, if that isn't enough incentive to fix it then why bother playing their games.
Won't Diablo 3 be great for supporting all these people that cheat and hack, allowing them to even potentially make money from it?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Why are you demonizing the term "modder", which in most game contexts is an extremely positive word and refers to enhancements that a publisher wants to encourage from the community. Even though it is a similar skillset that leads to the creation of client hacks, calling that "modding" is like using the words "consumer" and "pirate" interchangably because they are both end-users.
Ah well, I have two sides within me. Who am I letting out today? *tosses coin*
Side A: Stealing (intellectual) property is evil! Don't do it.
Side B: Property is a lie. The amount of property you can have is merely defined by what you can.
You decide where the coin falls. When the poor of London had enough of being poor, they started to just take TV sets. Was it evil? Or is getting rich with evil speculation just legalized robbery at the expense of the poor? Are laws not just vehicles of rich and powerful to get their ways?
The native Americans believed, "earth" can not be owned as property and belongs to all, just as air. Today we are selling nature as genetic patents. That is the law. But is that RIGHT? For thousands of years story telling never had intellectual rights. See the Term "Transmedia Storytelling":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmedia_storytelling
Ah, it must be so wonderful to have a clear good VS evil compass, innit? Sometimes in my advanced age I start to think that laws and governments are just a more refined way of bullying people. But maybe I just say that because I am again trying to quit smoking.
Maybe what you are taught is right and good in the end... is a sharade, a lie, a tool to exploit you, a vehicle to coerce conformity? What IS real? What IS right? But I suppose easy good/evil answers always win. So back into the barrel, Diogenes!
EDIT:
If I play one side, I could argue this: a game is not a cake. If I eat the cake, it is gone. It's use is consumed and thus robbed. If I copy a game or a music, it isn't consumed and not away. So it's potency is not diminished. Which leaves the question of the damage. If I live from 500 EURO, I can not buy more than 1 game every 2 months. So if I copy it, the company has no loss, simply because I don't HAVE the money. The theory of their loss is based on the idea, that people instead of buying the software copy it. And that is where it is wrong, because many who copy it just't don't HAVE the money anymore the our downspiral of dwindling real income of the lower 30% of society. So there is no objective loss. It is only a loss, if that person would have enough money to buy all that. But since the value is not diminished, since a game is not a cake, I can not see where the actual loss is.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Whahahaha are you a troll.
Like i said they need better programmers. PAY FOR THEM. It might mean they only make 10 million as compared to 15 million.
Do lobbiest work for free? They get paid by BIG companys.
It's all shareware it's just like barrowing a game or movie from a friend. Game compnays and hollywood just can't stand the fact we have brought shareing to the next step.
Sadly, most people these days think that law is morality.
The intent of law was to enforce morality, but sadly laws fail to keep up with the changes of time, or are twisted to facilitate the narrow "morality" of the few. There are still many things that are legal that are morally corrupt, just as there are things that are illegal even though it has little basis on morality.
People need to start thinking for themselves rather than allowing opinions and beliefs to be force fed to them.
We can share for free what they spend years and millions of dollars to create?
That doesn't seem fair to me, does it seem fair to you?
The problem here, as so often is: people mistake means with goals.
Democracy, political parties, laws, fincancial systems - all these are MEANS not goals. They are methods we chose to make a society which is fair, free and safe. They are not values in itself, but only as means insofar they work to achieve the goal, the fair, free & safe society.
Now what went wrong here as in so many places: people started to see these means as goal, as values in itself, which they are not. So there always IS the valid question: do these means still function to create the goal? No matter to what side your answer falls, it must be allowed to question the validity of the means. And in SOME, especially in recent days, I would dare say the means no longer function apparently.
In the words of Henry Ford: "If the masses really understood our economic and financial system, we would have a revolution by tomorrow." Words to ponder.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Then they can think of it as free advertising.
There are a lot of people who "pirate" to trial music, software, etc before deciding whether to buy, where they would otherwise just never pay anything for the product if they didn't have the option to try it first. There's also a growing number of musicians that have become famous because of P2P downloading of their music.
There has never been any proven correlation between piracy causing lower sales. Higher piracy rates actually tend to correlate more with higher sales and greater profit, go figure.
Quite true.
What I want is, that a person legally pays as much as he can reasonable afford and not do wanton stealing, as a question of personal moral integrity. I can say I pay for as much as I can afford, and leave it with that. I then feel I have done all in my power to "give the Emperor what is the Emperors" as the Saviour said.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
They don't spend that much to create at all, they spend all the money on marketing and production. It's not about the devs, it's about their bottom line.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/11/major-labels-lawsuit
The US supreme court has allowed a landmark lawsuit against the four major record labels to proceed. According to the plaintiffs, Sony, Vivendi-Universal, Warner Music and EMI colluded in the early 2000s to keep download prices high, while preventing consumers from burning purchased songs to CD.
Any of those names look familiar to you? So yeah, my ability to care about the 'criminal' act of pirating music and games is suffering from a pretty severe case of anemia. But offer me a service at a reasonable price and I will pay for it. I didn't buy a music cd or movie for more than five years. Then Netflix came out, and I'm a happy subscriber. Give me a good game where the company running it stays on top of the cheating issue, and I'll pay to play it. Otherwise, nope, don't care.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
This is such a tough subject. WHo doesn't like to get free stuff if they can? I know I'm guilty from time to time, but I really can't argue that its right.
If anyone who supports piracy actually created a product themselves and had it stolen, they would understand.
It's sad but true.
This falls under the category of "I'm sorry life sucks, but it is what is it."
They need marketing and production to generate interest and sell box copies which pays for the development/creative process.
And without shareholders being happy and comfortable and the stock price going up funding is pulled and people are fired.
Is it right?
Not really, in terms of a "moral" sense that the people who do the least get paid the most.
But that is like bitching about water being wet.
The way I see it, 52 dollars out of the 60 I pay for a game might go to the marketing team and shareholders, but that 8 dollars that goes to keep the programmer/artist employed and continuing to create amazing games for me to play.
That is totally worth it.
I find this article.... silly.
Don't blame the people who know how to take games and movies without paying for them, instead, target the people who hack these games and make regular players hate their experience.
But why do we have to put only one at fault? Both suck and should be stopped, overall.
Yeah, I've torrented files before, and honestly I still do on occasion when the things I want aren't easily found. (for example a while ago before they released the DVDs I downloaded the cartoon Sam & Max: Freelance Police.) Once the DvDs were available, I bought them, but thats not the point.
The point is, IS it a question of money? Its unlikely in most cases. If you really want a game, its all a question of time. If you wait 6 months after release, chances are the game will drop in price - most times drastically, and on top of that, online retailers always have discounts.
Then you factor in risk vs reward. Is the risk of downloading torrents or what have you worth it when you can buy something you want on the cheap?
Sure, ISPs now detect and "report" or at least notify you when you've downloaded something "illegally". On top of that they also have started throttling connections, sometimes imposing caps on data usage, or the big guys out there charge various torrent sites with litigation to shut them down.
At the end of the day, there are just WAY too many people ACTUALLY torrenting to prosecute them, and thats why, when you do see a prosecution, its drastic, and blown out of proportion.
People can try and twist it morally all they want, legality shouldn't have anything to do with - because something is available for free, that you normally would pay for - its okay to take it. Its obviously not. When you're at the store and you see someone handing out samples of an apple, you take one, you like it - doesn't mean you can start shoveling apples in your bag and walk out without paying for them.
The question I have is why would anyone really care? There is no proof that says the lack of piracy would lower the prices you pay for a game, movie, or music. Lets be honest here..it wouldn't.
Do you really believe that you would get better quality from those things if there was no piracy? I could point to the MMORPG genre as proof that piracy has no effect on quality at all.
Do you think that piracy is some how limiting the amount and types of games, music and movies that are released? That indie developers are going bankrupt because their stuff may get pirated? Can you name any person or organization that has released a quality product that lost everything because that product was pirated?
What part of piracy is really bothering people? Is it that you are mad that you spend money for things that other people don't? Are you such a law abiding citizen that you never break a law..even a small one? I really do not understand peoples adverse reaction to this topic.
I will start with the Modders.
This is totally devs faults because they try to fix it the wrong way. The way modding could be fixed is easy, if you are caught: buying gold, using a cheat ie mod, buying power level service then the dev should kick you from the game and ban your ip. If devs did this no one would use these cheat services and gold sellers would go away over night. If the devs will not enforce the rules that they created then they should just go RMT and that would help some as at least everyone would be even, so would help with the gold stuff but RMT option does not fix the botting I am sure. Devs if your going to have rules enforce them or go RMT, stop playing the middle and trying to only get a little preggo as this is the root of the problem.
As for the Priacy
I think your dead wrong. I took computer science and web dev in college. I can tell you I have about 10 friends that play online games most about dumb as a rock, and yet 8 of the 10 steal: games, movies, and music. In a perfect world ppl would realize there is no difference in downloading a game for free as oppose to going shop lifting at your local mall. However lets face it anyone that lived on campus at a college knows almost everyone pirates movies, music, and games. We have lost all sense of right and wrong in today's world most ppl think if there is no chance of getting caught or in real trouble its not stealing, well I hate to break it to them it is. These company's did not spend tons of money, take out loans making it so you can play for free. I am sure alot of you are thinking like what one of my friends told me when he was stealing cable. He said "I just do not have the money for all these cable channels" and I told him "some people do not have the money to eat that does not mean they go rob a store". At the end of the day these company's have every right to protect their property. With all this said I do agree the modding issues is a bigger one. Do not get me wrong any of you that steal software I am not saying your the devil or anything I am only saying its stealing just most ppl that do it think I will not get in trouble so its ok and thats my only point really. Ok I am now off my soap box
Those are fair points and a great post GreenHell, +interwebz!
I especially liked the highlighted.
I do think piracy hurts the "little guys" a LOT more then it hurts the big guys, of course, because the big guys can afford to eat the losses (no matter how big/small) but the little guys need every penny they can get to stay a float.
I don't think it is an issue of quality, nor is it truly an issue of morality or greed.
I think it is an issue of fairness.
Do the companies/artists/developers play fair?
Probably not.
Should we play fair even if they aren't playing fair?
That is the question.
If I support the developers, I play fair. I buy their products - I vote with my wallet.
/slow clap
/bow
I am impressed! I was ready to dismiss this article as another "oh lets feel sorry for Big Business" rant but you actually spoke the truth. Again I'm impressed. I hope MMORPG.com keeps you around.
File sharing has existed for decades. And guess what: People are still buying things and companies are still getting rich off of them. If you can get a copy of something that does not destroy the original then why not? NO ONE LOST ANYTHING! Please leave all stupid analogies at the door. FS does not equal stealing! Nothing physical has been taken that the buthurt party in question is not able to make a profit from. They still sell products. They still make money. Some of us that can FS will. Those that don't won't.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
I can agree with the banning peoples ip idea. Excellent idea actually but its hardly ever done. If they do ban, they ban that email address and name, and there's nothing stopping the person from just creating a new one. And its about more than modding. Its about griefing, harassment, and more. Its not that hard to prove, and there needs to be more moderating of things like live chat channels in online games.
The devs need to start doing whats needed instead of worrying about money.