Pirates are never short of an excuse for why they download the latest games. The trouble is, it's getting increasingly tough to be on the industry's side.
I'm not advocating illegal downloading, or even taking Grand Theft Auto 4 to its logical conclusion, ram-raiding PC World and selling a few copies down the local market for beer money, but I am getting sick of paying money to get an inferior product.
Why should I have to put a useless DVD in my PC as an honesty check when the dishonest people can play at their leisure? Why should I have to type in endless serial codes, or be restricted to one PC? The dirty secret of Digital Rights Management is that it's only the first few days that particularly matters, while there's a vague chance it might slow down the pirates for a bit.
After that, it's just a nuisance, and one that the games-buying public is increasingly rebelling against – to the extent that even official Amazon pages for big-name games such as Spore and Red Alert 3 have been turned into nothing but torrents of anti-DRM vitriol.
No, not that kind of torrent.
The industry's usual response to this kind of thing is to drop hints that the people complaining are merely frustrated pirates. With games like GTA IV on the shelves, it's not an argument that holds a lot of water.
Throw in mandatory CD checks, glitchy Games For Windows (a little program that boots up on start-up just so that you won't have to click on the Start button before running the game) nonsense, missing textures and crashes with helpful messages like 'Fatal Error RMN40', and it's no wonder that gamers are increasingly running to consoles to get their wholesome hyper-violence fix.
(It definitely doesn't help that even if you do get the game running, the port's built for the kind of systems that the Star Trek crew would use to play Crysis XVI, apparently on the grounds that while it may be ugly and slow now, it'll look great in three years' time when nobody cares any more. If I'm wrong, don't bother dropping me a line in 2012 to let me know, because I can absolutely guarantee you that I won't care.)
What makes the DRM war interesting is that the industry itself is increasingly split on its impact. The bigger publishers slap incredibly expensive third-party methods on games by default, even with the pirate community making it clear that it's the equivalent of using saloon doors to contain a fire.
Others, such as Half-Life creators Valve, come up with their own methods. Valve's is the closest to working: it's built around online distribution, with encrypted pre-load versions that don't give you the complete game until the actual launch day. And Blizzard's World of Warcraft is arguably the only major success story, because it's essentially impossible to pirate. Yes, there are private servers out there running cracked code, but you're still getting into the game via a valid account capable of pouring money into its coffers. In that light, it doesn't make a difference if you bought or stole the disc.
The real question is, does piracy actually matter? It's a difficult one to answer, and everyone will give you a different response. The two-man team behind the physics-based puzzler World of Goo (no DRM) claimed a 90 per cent piracy rate, and while the numbers behind that don't really add up, it's certainly true that many more people ripped off the game than actually bought it.
Where the game's creators – along with other indie teams such as Stardock – differ from the larger industry is that they don't focus on piracy in particular. Instead, they look at a more practical question: how many people bought the game, and how does that affect the bottom line?
It's not good for the industry that people pirate instead of stealing, but the oil companies don't like it that people are looking to solar power, and Burger King can't do anything about the fact that some people simply prefer to end the day with a juicy Big Mac.
If you're going to be in the software business, especially in the internet age, your stuff is going to get stolen. Fact. You can't claim it comes as a surprise.
A far bigger problem for the industry as a whole is that, piracy or no piracy, game development costs are getting out of control. Most don't turn a profit, and the majority of developers are working hand-to-mouth or under the Sword of Damocles.
It's easy to blame piracy, because then companies can always pin their hopes on a magic bullet finally coming along. It's harder to reduce your expectations and make games that don't need everyone on Earth to buy three copies before escaping the red.
Taking the sting out of piracy has nothing to do with DRM. Until the industry learns to work within its means, the pirates are always going to be a scapegoat. They're definitely part of the problem, but not Public Enemy No. 1.
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First published in PC Plus issue 278
Now read The history of co-op gaming
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Your comments (13) Click to add a new comment
cheysuli
May 24th 2010
13. Scenario 1: You buy a Ferrari
Scenario 2: Someone tells you how to make an exact replica of a Ferrari for free.
Which option do you take?
Does making option 2 illegal force you to take option 1?
The answer is 2 for most people & No.
As a software developer, piracy is a problem. But as someone who lives on Planet Earth, I realise you cannot force people who wouldn't otherwise buy your products, to do so at gunpoint. That just doesn't work.
Somebody please tell the music industry and their bought politicians, because they aren't getting the message.
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empiresofsteel.com
March 11th 2010
12. I'm having a difficult time following your logic on the second page of this article:
"It's not good for the industry that people pirate instead of stealing, but the oil companies don't like it that people are looking to solar power, and Burger King can't do anything about the fact that some people simply prefer to end the day with a juicy Big Mac."
First, I assume you meant to write "It's not good for the industry that people pirate instead of [buying]".
Second, this is a flawed analogy. You can't compare piracy to choosing a competitor's product. Let's take three situations:
(1) A person decides to shoplift from a store.
(2) A person decides to pirate software.
(3) A person decides to buy solar-power instead of fossil-fuel based power or choose a Big Mac over a Whopper.
Now, in all three situations we can say "companies prefer that people make a particular choice" - as if that's all that's involved - the desires of the company and the desires of the consumer. But, there's a problem. No one would seriously say, "Gee, companies would prefer that I don't shoplift; but Burger King would also prefer that I didn't go to McDonalds." - as if shoplifting was similar to choices of which store to buy from. I maintain that situation #2 (piracy) is more similar to shoplifting than a choice of who to buy from.
A few comparisons:
Question: Are you getting the benefits of that's company's work without paying them.
Situation #1: yes
Situation #2: yes
Situation #3: no
Question: If everyone made the choice that was against the company's interest, what would be the results?
Situation #1: Stores would go bankrupt, people would lose the benefits of having stores in their communities. Everyone loses.
Situation #2: Companies would go bankrupt, people would lose the benefits of having software developers producing software. Everyone loses.
Situation #3: Oil companies would lose money/go bankrupt, but society would still get what they're after: electrical power. But, it would be from a different source, and solar power companies would benefit.
Based on those comparisons, piracy is a lot more similar to shoplifting than choices between oil vs solar or Big Macs vs Whoppers. So, I don't think your analogy is helpful at all in elucidating the situation. I think there are other problems with stuff you've written on the second page, but I think this is enough for now.
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range152
August 5th 2009
11. there is absolutely no justification to pirating. it IS wrong, there's no debate about it.
my name is jonny, and i pirate games. that's it, final.
*but i DID buy GTA4 cos it's just THAT good. XD
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eury360x
July 16th 2009
10. When it comes to PC games, developers should use Steam to distribute their games. Because Piracy can't touch Steam it's a fact. And Steam offers alot of discounts and promotions from time to time so don't be afraid to check it out.
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dreamhunk
April 6th 2009
9. I want to add more up date on console pircay. Here is some links with more information on it.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10232
http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/rehashplus/post.htm?id=63005989
http://news.softpedia.com/news/1-Billion-Dollars-Worth-Pirated-DS-Games-Were-Seized-83135.shtml
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abc123
January 19th 2009
8. You should read something about ACTA :)
DRM is future - now comes in your own law !
FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
http://www.linux.com/feature/142403
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Proposed_US_ACTA_multi-lateral_intellectual_property_trade_agreement_(2007)
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bluetigerbc
January 19th 2009
7. Well northern, for starters if you go into a car dealership and take a car you like w/o paying it's theft. If you COPY a game (w/o depriving the original) then it's infrigement. Might not be right but it's not technically theft...
..as for games that people have been burned by a company, say Capcom...well they'll pirate the next game by the same company b/c spore was a bad game from most gamer reviews. I don't mean to knock Capcom as they make GREAT games but some companies feel that THEIR games can have whatever junk soft they feel their entitled to dump on them. SOME might put up with the junk but the pirate version had an experienced tech working for hours (or a team) so that average users have an image to play the copied cd/dvd using alchohol 120 and the image instead of a slower original cd. The value adds up for single player games w/o arguement
Blizzard (bless their hearts) make ONLINE games. Original unique keys needed to play WITH PEOPLE. The value is WITH PEOPLE. Anyone can play by themselves. Same for consoles. Online games are harder to crack/pirate.
If you stop using their product you'll never know if it was good enough to buy. Lots of gamers I know "try before they buy". Further still lots don't buy AFTER they try b/c the value wasen't worth the cost.
With "insert media here .torrent" in google most people can get their torrent of the image needed to play the games they've bought.
I downloaded Starcraft and Broodwars after not being able to make a proper copy of the cd (basic copy protection). The image I got worked fine as a file on the hd, it was legal (backups of games you already own are fair use/fair game).
I encourage friend to buy it so I can play online with them.
If the owner of the game/producer make quality games then they shouldn't need worry about piracy.(as developers are the REAL creators/owners of the works yet don't get nearly enough compensation for their works similar to musicians).
Piracy matters. It allows people on the fence to make good gaming purchasing decisions. If the pc market had a central online gaming the way the consoles have I'm sure they can keep online gaming under wraps. For the single players games...well that's the reason to buy a game you love for online play! ;)
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dreamhunk
January 19th 2009
6. sorry I mean to say console game devs. in my last topic.
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dreamhunk
January 19th 2009
5. Good topic, I want to talk console pircay. Rented games snd use game come into play here.
It's funny that consoles game devs talka bout pc gaming pircay when console games don't talk about console pircay. I wonder why is it because if people knew about console pircay there would be an up raor. Nintendo had lost 1 billion to pircay on consoles. Console pircay is so bad there is people who make a living on console pircay. Here I have a few links.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/1-Billion-Dollars-Worth-Pirated-DS-Games-Were-Seized-83135.shtml
http://www.gamedaily.com/games/gears-of-war-2/xbox-360/game-news/gears-of-war-2-pirated/6940/21592/
http://kotaku.com/5127249/elspa-celebrates-first-anti+piracy-raid-of-2009
it 's funny that pc gaming has drm. console games has a used game market and you can rent console games. Console game sit there and say they lose money on games on the pc. The turht is they lose more money on console. High production costs,rented and use game markets. Pircay is huge on the console.
here i have another link people should look at
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/01/15/game-to-start-game-rental-service/1
http://www.azentium.com/2008/12/01/pc-gaming-in-crisis/
http://www.megamers.com/news.php?game_category=1&article_id=3491
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brorjace
January 18th 2009
4. Well there are a few things to keep in mind. Firstly, people turn to piracy when something for some unknown reason isn't available for purchase either locally or online (i.e. a recent Green Day album that wasn't available to Canada at all for 4 months, Amazon wasn't even shipping it here!), or you're afraid to purchase something because you've been burned in the past by inferior products. I can't even count the number of times that I've spent 60+ dollars on a game that really should be sold for 20 dollars or under because it's just got nothing to it and isn't worth 60 dollars or more. These are games that didn't have a demo for like 5 or 6 months after the game released.
So software piracy exists because people are afraid to be burned or would like to actually get something in a decent amount of time without waiting for 4+ months for it to be available to them.
People also pirate because something just isn't available at all (like an old tv show which they like is just one example).
So beat on the author of the article all you like, but until companies re-evaluate how they sell things to people who essentially pay their salary we will still have software piracy. It, like Winter, isn't going anywhere any time soon. So I say: just deal with it.
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baz111
January 18th 2009
3. @northerngeek
Capitalism is a damn good system, huh? Capitalism is about honesty and markets working themselves out, eh? …and Jesus loves us all too I’m sure, and so does the tooth fairy…and when we die we are all reunited with everyone we love, and puppies and kittens dance around us for all eternity…
Are you really brain washed enough to believe in what you said? Perhaps it’s time to pull the blinders off. The only reason the United States even exists to conduct our glorious capitalism is because we physically removed or killed everyone and anyone in our way on this continent while relying on slave labor for hundreds of years. Capitalism is about obtaining and consuming the most, by expending the least.
The only true capitalists here are the ones pursuing their own interests at the expense of everyone else's; the internal ethos of any self respecting software pirate. If a great game comes out and I can afford it…I will buy it. If I’m poor at the time, I will take it. Anyone who doesn’t like this, or who doesn’t think it’s fair can cry me a river. Try telling the thousands of people who bought games like Tabula Rasa, and Hellgate about fairness.
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scottgilbert
January 18th 2009
2. It matters because we feel agrieved that the ratio of profit made is too high eg Batman Dark Knight DVD on Amazon for £11.98 for the basic version. The Special Edition goes on for £17.99. I'v no doubt there will be a 3rd Directors Special Extended Edition released in the future. Nobody wants to buy this 2nd time after you have bought the 1st edition. So we download.
Another example the Hulk films the different between DVDs and Blu Ray is 70 minutes of additional footage. Why should i be penalised for not having a Blu Ray, why should i miss out on 70mins??
This is wrong and greedy, if the producers stopped taking the p*ss out of the consumers and stopped releasing different variations of the same product and released it at a reasonble price where as they made a profit and we "felt" happy at not been ripped off especially as i can buy blank dvds for 11p.
Just wait till the e-readers takes off and those expensive educational books will be next to be copied.
last comment...it is because we can pirate that we do so and if we could do the same with any other products we would.
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northerngeek
January 18th 2009
1. Of course it matters, if people feel that the product they're getting is something they want then they have to pay for it, whatever the OWNER charges. Why are things different if they're digital? I would not go into a car dealership and take the car because I don't think it's worth the sticker price.
If you stop using their products and tell them why then you're doing the right thing, otherwise there's simply no excuse. If you don't think something is worth the price you can't have it- that's capitalism and it's a damn good system if people would stop thinking they're entitled to entertainment for some stupid reason. It's simple.
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