PC Game Piracy Examined

When I first got into pc gaming I did my share of pirating. I would get off on getting software that I never needed ..some fancy 3d modeling crap etc. I did my share of cracks and fixes but after a while it became old. I ended up with some nasty virus and other crap that made me reformat too often for my liking. Now after after 10 years of gaming I do not pirate at all. I do download demos and I do read reviews before purchasing a game. I do try and read about what drm is on a disk as there are a few I will not risk my pc too...Starforce anyone??

I truly think the trouble is the drm used nowadays can render software useless or broken. Not often but it happens and there is no excuse for a paying customer to have no avenue to return a non functioning game on their rig.

I think stardock and steam have some good digital distribution systems but they should allow users to use it for say 2 days or 3 hours ...and if not happy you can uninstall it and get a refund. If they went that route I would totally go digital to buy a game as I would feel protected from bad software or lousy games.

It looks like Stardock does have a refund policy but it is limited. Steam has none so this is where I see some changes could enhance the service and promote the digital downloads.

waste is not good for the economy as a whole whether or not you use it isn't the issue on a micro scale. if it happens on a larger scale then hell yes its a problem. it gives the whole system false data. if tons of people buy a game but never play it then the publishers will make more games which will then sit on a shelf due to lack of demand. worse still unwanted items on the factory side, store, or even the consumer side will get dumped in a landfill. net gain in wealth zero, net cost quite a lot. that said, not playing a game you choose to buy is a non-issue compared to problems like piracy. piracy is like a virus and wreaks havoc on the whole 'market' economy.

also to delve more into consumerism, i believe it can be applied to waste, excess in many regards. its a focus on want, rather than need (whether than need be applied to the indiviual or a large entity as well).

take for example driving. one of the most prominent irritants to me is people's braking habits. i myself accelerate at a decent rate, and could save fuel by doing it a bit slower but it saves a bit of time by do it. what saves ZERO time however is when you break and or decellerate when their is a red light or cars stopped in front of you. some people however are still accelerating when there is a red light or cars stopped clearly in front of them (but apparently too distant, and thought requiring). not only is this practice less safe {see drain on economy for accidents not counting increased revenue from car insurance} but it wastes gas in the acceleration and is harder on your breaks which both waste money.

why do they do this? why not, the alternative is an extra step that requries less self-absorption and caring about others (even if that other is simply your car).

better interaction between drivers and the road, benifits all just as better and more conscious interations between buyer and seller are good for the economy as they build a stronger, and more lasting relationship that is less subject to failures, crashes, etc.

Barzenak said:

It looks like Stardock does have a refund policy but it is limited. Steam has none so this is where I see some changes could enhance the service and promote the digital downloads.

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I wonder what the legal position on this is. Here, a store MUST give a refund despite posting signs saying No Refund, it's the LAW. Is that common in other countries?

I just got enlightment, the reason that crappy games for consoles sells much, is that the people who are not smart enough to know how to pirate games, are the majority buyers, and thus they appriciate simple games???

could it be like this? Maybe I am way off an intressing thought none the less.

I wonder what the legal position on this is. Here, a store MUST give a refund despite posting signs saying No Refund, it's the LAW. Is that common in other countries?

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If you opened it and used it ( IE played the game ) you are not allowed to refund it. At least that is swedish law. You could probably exchange it for a product of equal cost though.

GothicGothicness said:

Yes my argument can be broken by, I didn't finish the game I stopped playing it after 20% through. A valid argument. For some AAA games you cannot even find a demo, and if you could find one it covers less than 1% of ( probably the most fun part of the game )

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With recent games such as Rise of the Argonauts, Mirror's Edge and LotR Conquest ... they had console demos but not PC. ... and then they are going to complain about piracy? Some nerve!

txa1265 said:

With recent games such as Rise of the Argonauts, Mirror's Edge and LotR Conquest ... they had console demos but not PC. ... and then they are going to complain about piracy? Some nerve!

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Yes, it appears to be a recent trend to not even offer a demo for the PC, they said it was too much work and too few people downloaded the demo. Since often the demo is a big to download and might take as long to download as the entire game.

GothicGothicness said:

Yes, it appears to be a recent trend to not even offer a demo for the PC, they said it was too much work and too few people downloaded the demo. Since often the demo is almost as big to download as the entire game.

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Lol. Funny. The whole idea of a demo is not to put the whole game in it. Demos usually ranged from 1 gig to 2 gigs i think, and the full games often weigh in at 4-6 gigs and more. So they pretty much flat-out lied.

Lol. Funny. The whole idea of a demo is not to put the whole game in it. Demos usually ranged from 1 gig to 2 gigs i think, and the full games often weigh in at 4-6 gigs and more. So they pretty much flat-out lied.

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Sorry, it was wrongly phrased by me, my fault. You have to download a 2 GB demo, and the whole game might be 4 GB, but the demo is ussually much less than 5% of the game.

For most people to download 2 GB and download 4 GB is not a huge difference, and the demos can often just be downloaded from HTTP which has slow speed, while people use a torrent program with much higher speed for the full game. I think it is often faster to download the full game compared to downloading the demo.

GothicGothicness said:

Sorry, it was wrongly phrased by me, my fault. You have to download a 2 GB demo, and the whole game might be 4 GB, but the demo is ussually much less than 5% of the game.

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Yeah, I know what you're saying. And it's really weird because what occupies most of that space is usually 3D content(textures,models,animations), voice-overs and music and cinematics. The game engine is usually quite small in comparison with the rest of the 'game'.

What a pathetically biased article.

Anyway, discussing piracy is like discussing incest. No matter what the truths may be, they won't become relevant to the people having the discussion.

That's not to say it's a total waste, because essentially these discussions are necessary micro-steps towards a distant future - where people might be more interested in truth versus their own personal bias.