Blog: Why the PC is Not about Piracy

[Kayden]

Here is a blog piece I put together last night and today. Since I know many of us here prefer PC games and think piracy is a scape goat. I thought it would be a good idea to share what information I found with you guys. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.gamingbus.com/2011/10/24/blog-why-the-pc-is-not-about-piracy/

 

[Doomsday]

very very nice article man!

These idiots are always blaming pc users for piracy, they should start looking at the amount of pirated games on consoles too!!!

 

[Kayden]

Thanks Dooms. Your right they really need to.

 

[eunoia]

Appreciated this article as a light gamer who's never pirated a game, the cutting through the bull approach is always refreshing. And there's always a lot of bull where fortunes are to be made.

The impression I get from hardcore gamers is that many are still willing to pirate a game, however they're taking responsibility for supporting games that are delivering value. The days of fooling consumers with all hype and no substance deserve a quick death, and PC gamers deserve a lot of credit for not being easy to fool.

 

[marfig]

Really liked it too Kayden. Excellent job exploring this ugly falsehood and exposing many of the weaknesses of the arguments used against PC gamers as a whole.

I must say that as a pure breed PC gamer I've never felt so insulted as by many of these companies and the people behind them (many of which are in fact members of the PC Gaming Alliance!).

You'd look at the market and you'd expect companies like Sony or Nintendo to be the front-runners for this type of derogatory and slanderous speech. They would be the ones to gain most from it. But no, we hear it from the very same companies that then try to sell us their games. It's a sad state of affairs that we then go on to buy their games, all in the name of another fix for our entertainment dependency. A weakness they know all too well how to explore.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

We're just smarter than console gamers p), we learnt to build these here machines with our bare hands, put up with the mountains of text to read on configuring them; spent days, weeks even, fine tuning, driver swapping, benching, then troubleshooting... just to get these games to work. But what do we get for our patience and determination...? Berated for stealing, activation limits, always on connections, more bugs than a termite mound, and leery eyed kids pulling a WTF face calling us nerds...

Thanks EA/Ubisoft... thank you...

 

[Rob Williams]

Hell, maybe more of those cheap-ass pirates will pay for your games if they show effort and respect was put into them instead of being more of the half-assed ports that have become the norm. There is a problem with piracy—there is no doubt in my mind about that—but pirates aren’t the only ones with the problem here.

That about sums it up. And it kind of correlates to the news post I wrote earlier about Gabe Newell, where he said if a better service is offered, piracy becomes less of an issue. Better service in many ways could simply mean better respect. Ubisoft became hated quite readily for its always-online DRM scheme, but it didn't back down. The sad thing is, even when sales were unspectacular, the company plead the igorance card.

I'm not going to lie - I can see why publishers would want to focus on the console. But to not develop for the PC right off the bat, or at all? That's just asinine. *sigh*

Great write-up, Brandon!

 

[marfig]

Gabe Newell does say a lot more than that, hence why I was less than impressed at his words (to put it kindly). But yes, definitely he's right about that particular issue.