As someone who works in an industry (game, not movie) that suffers a lot from piracy, I hate pirates with a passion.
I can't understand why these spoilt children think they have some sort of inalienable 'right' to free entertainment on demand. If I've worked hard to create something, why should I give it away free to less talented morons?
I particularly hate those idiots who justify their greedy and selfish act of theft by making out it's some sort of anti-capitalist strike against the 'evil multinationals'. Right....
If you feel that strongly about it, why not go to your local Walmart, steal a load of DVDs and redistribute them - or would that mean you'd have to come from behind the safe anonymity of your PC and deal with real people, who get upset when things are stolen from them.
I've got friends who are out of work due in part to piracy. Piracy means that lower selling games sell even less, meaning they become less viable to produce, which means many companies stop producing them and focus production on 'guaranteed hits'.
Thus there are less projects going around and so people get laid off. Moreover, the projects that do get the go-ahead tend to be mainstream crowd pleasers, which means piracy not only reduces profit but also limits creativity.
And it's the same deal with movies, music, whatever.... So well done, you urban warriors - you're really hitting 'the man' where it hurts.
Idiots.
Thats a two way thing you are playing at now...
Yeah piracy ensures hits only because the risks are to great and game company's have to work harder to make money. On the other hand however prices of games have not dropped at all, they haven't become higher either, just a lot of games dying off.
Whats the most effective way from stopping a bum from stealing? Making sure he can afford his food and drinks... € 50,- for a game is a lot if you only make € 50,- a month...
Of course people are going to download the games, what else did you expect? This really can not be blamed on one side, yes pirating is wrong. Sure I agree it can hurt the gaming industry but when I still only made about €50,- a month I wasn't buying games I was downloading them all and for a good reason, I had more important things to spend my money on then a possible 10 hours of fun on a game.
Not to mention that a lot of games just suck. For a lot of people €50,- is a lot of money to waste on something not even fun to play. Make games better and cheaper and more people will buy them, but then you will say they can't because of piracy.
Endless circle here.
Ah, the usual roster of self-justifying 'I'm not the nasty villain, they are' arguments.
Look, I'd like a Porsche, but that doesn't mean I'm going to steal one.
Your noble bum *needs* food and drink to live. You, on the other hand, don't *need* games, or movies, or music, or whatever to survive - you just want them now and you want them free. You're being selfish and greedy.
I agree games are too expensive (although the prices have been stable for years, so in real terms they're cheaper than they've ever been) but the majority of pirates would still download stuff for free if they could no matter how cheap it was. Look at music piracy - you can download tracks legally for less than 70p, yet piracy is still a huge problem.
And as for the 'most games suck' argument - grow up! 90% of everything is crap - it's a fact of life and that's what reviewers and demos are for, to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. No-one's forcing you to buy every game going, so cherry pick... Aaaah, but you want to play every game, don't you, so you can whine to your 'friends' on the forums about how Game X is crap and Game Y is awesome? So ultimately it's just greed once again.
If I randomly buy a book and discover it's crap, does that now mean I have the right to steal every other book I see? No - I should've read the reviews, done some research to find out if it's the sort of book I'd like - you know, like an intelligent person would.
It's not a circular argument, Fishy - piracy is stealing, no matter how you cut out. Just because you can do it without any serious risk of being caught doesn't make it okay, just the crime of choice for weak, greedy cowards.
Hutt out
Originally posted by Oswald Kenobi
That just simply isn't true. People will go see a movie in the theater or buy the DVD if the film interests them. And why would they download it if it didn't interest them? Eventually they break down or they wait to watch it on cable. Either way, they're paying for it.