I wish

[ScottyGrayskull]

Wow... I'm surprised we made it this long before our first big piracy argument. I should be proud, but then you lot went and started one... Well done.

To be honest, I don't know how you lot find the time to play all these pirated games. I barely have time to play the scant few games that I actually do buy. I have pirated new games in the past, played through them, and liked them enough to buy the full game (LEGO Star Wars, POP: Sands of Time), but really can't be bothered much anymore

I do think however that many people use that excuse to justify it to themselves even though they never would buy the game regardless of how good it is. Just admit you're stealing it and stop playing the innocent victim... it's pathetic.

Besides, why are you lot playing your pirated games when you should be playing TF2 god dammit?!?

Seriously though, and this is as the forum owner: Would ALL of you please STOP blatantly encouraging piracy on my forum. If you are going to, at least try to be discreet about it (and no, adding that bullshit "NOT" in front of things does not count as being discreet). Thx. ^_^

[Budr]

To be honest, I don't know how you lot find the time to play all these pirated games.

When you can freely download any title you want, you feel less obligation to sit down and play than if you've spent your hard-earned cash and want to get the most out of your product.

(and no, adding that bullshit "NOT" in front of things does not count as being discreet)

More importantly, it's fucking annoying and whenever people say it they sound like pricks.

[Surf314]

For the piracy issue I will tell you a tale of two companies.

EA: Puts in draconian anti-piracy measures that are super ineffective and only serve to annoy or debilitate the game and make it worse than people with a disk (see caff for an example).  They purposefully strip out content and nickel and dime the shit out of you.  For at least spore reputable blogs like Ars Technica have actually stated that the pirated version of the game is the better one.

Valve: Has steam which offers actual benefits like keeping track of all of your games you have ever purchased and allowing you to access them at any time so that you can not worry about clearing off games you don't play but still get them later.  Regularly has sales and bundle discounts.  Does a good job of marketing the software that gets sold through them.  Is completely unobtrusive, to the contrary I find steam to be an amazing utility not just for managing my games and servers but also for keeping in touch with my friends.  And this is their anti-piracy protection!  Something we want!  They are also promising a method of storing all our saved games for us  ;D


And now getting back to the original topic, games are suffering from the same problem as hollywood.  They are trying to minimize risk and maximize profits which mean whenever they get something successful they milk it for all its worth.  The irony being that in the long term it makes all of their IPs worth less.  Or worthless depending on your POV.

[Budr]

Valve: Has steam which offers actual benefits like keeping track of all of your games you have ever purchased and allowing you to access them at any time so that you can not worry about clearing off games you don't play but still get them later.  Regularly has sales and bundle discounts.  Does a good job of marketing the software that gets sold through them.  Is completely unobtrusive, to the contrary I find steam to be an amazing utility not just for managing my games and servers but also for keeping in touch with my friends.  And this is their anti-piracy protection!  Something we want!  They are also promising a method of storing all our saved games for us  ;D

hyp·o·crite    Audio Help  /ˈhɪpəkrɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hip-uh-krit] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1.  a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

Sorry dude but that is as obvious a case of double standards as I've seen. I'm personally with you, in that Steam is incredibly useful and I have no problem with it but if I was the man on the street buying HL2 and having to install a client that ran every time I played, authenticated my single-player game online, tried to gather information about my computer, etc. To the layman I see a pattern emerging very similar to the complaints levied against EA.

[Surf314]

I'd still use steam rather than not.  I mean I'm not into all the internet hippy shit anymore.  If they provide me with a service I'm willing to return the favor and use their product especially if it does the validation and information gathering in as painless a way as possible.  Same with google.  Yea you can criticize them a lot but what of the things they are doing are really bothering you at any given moment you are using their services.  I mean the only thing steam does that bothers the shit out of me is going down and not giving me my unlockables, but I got those for free anyways and they weren't a part of my original value decision to buy the game so I don't feel ripped off.

Valve is still the pinnacle of online distribution.  It competes directly with piracy and beats it in terms of value added and ease of use.  That's how companies need to view their products to succeed in the world of digital distribution is to think of piracy as competition.  What makes it worth it to you to not pirate?  Easier more reliable access, lower hassles installing, no fear of viruses.  This is assuming your not even worrying about the legal side.

Also the point wasn't that one was a sinner and the other a saint, it's just that they both do (as you said) the same thing but one makes you want them to do it and the other makes you want to kick them in the face, let alone buy their product.

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=Surf314 link=topic=1369.msg37593#msg37593 date=1220985359]
Valve: Has steam which offers actual benefits like keeping track of all of your games you have ever purchased and allowing you to access them at any time so that you can not worry about clearing off games you don't play but still get them later.  Regularly has sales and bundle discounts.  Does a good job of marketing the software that gets sold through them.  Is completely unobtrusive, to the contrary I find steam to be an amazing utility not just for managing my games and servers but also for keeping in touch with my friends.  And this is their anti-piracy protection!  Something we want!  They are also promising a method of storing all our saved games for us  ;D

hyp·o·crite     Audio Help   /ˈhɪpəkrɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[hip-uh-krit] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1.   a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

Sorry dude but that is as obvious a case of double standards as I've seen. I'm personally with you, in that Steam is incredibly useful and I have no problem with it but if I was the man on the street buying HL2 and having to install a client that ran every time I played, authenticated my single-player game online, tried to gather information about my computer, etc. To the layman I see a pattern emerging very similar to the complaints levied against EA.
[/quote]

Theres also a huge glaring difference between what EA and valve do. If EA wants to, they don't have to give you another install after you have used up your limit of 3. Additionally there's no guarantee on what will happen 3, 4, or 5 years down the line if EA takes down the spore servers and you want to install then, you wouldn't be able to activate.

In the EULA of all steam games, valve states that if steam ever goes down permanently, they are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to send you a physical copy of everything that you purchased that will work offline.

[Surf314]

In before vandam bitches about what we've done to his topic.

[Vandamguy]

Wow... I'm surprised we made it this long before our first big piracy argument. I should be proud, but then you lot went and started one... Well done.

To be honest, I don't know how you lot find the time to play all these pirated games. I barely have time to play the scant few games that I actually do buy. I have pirated new games in the past, played through them, and liked them enough to buy the full game (LEGO Star Wars, POP: Sands of Time), but really can't be bothered much anymore

I do think however that many people use that excuse to justify it to themselves even though they never would buy the game regardless of how good it is. Just admit you're stealing it and stop playing the innocent victim... it's pathetic.

Besides, why are you lot playing your pirated games when you should be playing TF2 god dammit?!?

Seriously though, and this is as the forum owner: Would ALL of you please STOP blatantly encouraging piracy on my forum. If you are going to, at least try to be discreet about it (and no, adding that bullshit "NOT" in front of things does not count as being discreet). Thx. ^_^

Well I didn't really intend to start a piracy discussion with this thread, original and second post were put in to curb thread derailment.

And this is less of an argument and more of a discussion between Eschatos and I trying to find the difference between not supporting game companies at the release of a game , or a few years afterwards.

It wasn't untill your fellow admin Caffeine brought up the topic that he intends to pirate Fallout as a way to rage against the developer.

There's really no way to explain how one person has more time than you to play games Pirated or not. we all have 24 hours a day. some may sleep less at night to put in 2 or 3 hours of tf2 in the evening. or work only 5 hours a day instead of 8. It's just where someone puts their priorities and allocates time accordingly. ( I scheduald a day off work for warhammer headstart day )

As for the "try before you buy, then never buy" pirate excuse, yes its flimsy.
Here's my excuse - I'm fuckin poor.

I know paragraph four is a rhetorical question, but I'll answer it anyways. TF2 has tread itself thin for me. It has been out for a year now ( open beta ) and I just dont feel like playin the same shit over again. There's a lot of the older BRB:Us that feel this way too, they just don't want to say it out loud and demoralize the community.

I know why you would post up the final paragraph you're worried about someone coming at you for using these forums to facilitate warezin. I didn't actually read the TOS when I signed up for the forums, but I'm sure there's something in there that covers your ass. Especially when there are places like GBAtemp.net still running, it makes us look like a pasty white kid on the beach in Jamaica.

[Vongore]

<3 Valve. i really like how it is designed

At first, i didn't liked it, it was like.. "another program besides mah TF2 D:" but now, it is very useful, and it IS an anti piracy  system. Also, it helps me to talk with my girlfriend while i play, because TF2 doesn't like Alt+Tab

[cbre88x]

So..how 'bout them Braves?


I saw Stalker: Clear Sky at Wal-Mart the other night..should I buy it?

[Surf314]

So..how 'bout them Braves?


I saw Stalker: Clear Sky at Wal-Mart the other night..should I buy it?

I heard its still pretty buggy.  I've gone through my entire list of games I wanted for the month and reading up on them discovered that none of them were worth their asking price.

[Evil Cheese]

This is really one of the big downfalls to PC gaming. You don't really get a choice to rent something before you decide to buy it. If you're lucky you might get a demo, but other than that it's either buy or pirate. In the old days we had shareware, but now nobody wants to risk anything on that archaic style, what with the intertubes and all. These days there is renting via digital distribution which always feels somewhat awkward to me. For some reason renting a physical copy of a game feels less like a waste of money than downloading a soft copy and having it uninstall itself after a period of time.

[Mission Difficult]

Here's my excuse - I'm fuckin poor.

Says the man with a new 37" monitor.

But seriously, the problem with PC gaming for me is that I feel like I'm being treated as a potential criminal instead of a consumer. If I choose to spend my money on a game, I can't return it unless it's unopened. If it's downloaded from a service, I sure as shit can't return it, even if it doesn't work. If I buy a game on any other platform, I can return it if it doesn't work, and most times if it's just an awful game. Sure, you should check the minimum requirements of a game before you buy it, but companies are constantly releasing broken games, often times ones that won't work on a 'puter exceeding the minimum requirements. Also, there is almost no excuse to not have a demo for a game. I don't care how big your in-game world is or how many features there are. Not making a demo of some kind is like not letting someone test drive a car before selling it to them. It means you're either too lazy to make one or your game is a piece of shit and you don't want people to know beforehand.

[ainmosni]

I know paragraph four is a rhetorical question, but I'll answer it anyways. TF2 has tread itself thin for me. It has been out for a year now ( open beta ) and I just dont feel like playin the same shit over again. There's a lot of the older BRB:Us that feel this way too, they just don't want to say it out loud and demoralize the community.

This is one of the reasons why I like to think of BRBu as a PC gaming community, we don't rise and fall with one game, the community is the reason why I keep playing the game, it's not because of the game that I like this community...

[Vandamguy]

[quote author=Vandamguy link=topic=1369.msg37605#msg37605 date=1220987468]
Here's my excuse - I'm fuckin poor.

Says the man with a new 37" monitor.
[/quote]

it aint new bought it last december

[1Trace1]

I still find TF2 fun but I do find myself cutting down my hours played. Although I think part of me just keeps playing due to curiosity about the next updates. But like Ain said what's great about brbu is that we do other things and aren't limited to one game.

[Eschatos]

[quote author=cbre88x link=topic=1369.msg37607#msg37607 date=1220987664]
So..how 'bout them Braves?


I saw Stalker: Clear Sky at Wal-Mart the other night..should I buy it?

I heard its still pretty buggy.  I've gone through my entire list of games I wanted for the month and reading up on them discovered that none of them were worth their asking price.
[/quote]

The first STALKER was buggy as hell when it came out, and it's turned out to be an amazing game.  If I were you I'd buy Clear Sky as well.


Also I do agree that TF2 is getting boring.  We need something else to play together besides Warhammer, since a lot of people here hate MMOs.


As for the piracy thing, I know I may come off as hypocritical.  I pirate plenty of the time but I think people should have a personal line they don't cross.  Piracy is a slippery slope.  I refuse to ever pirate a game that was released sooner than two years ago.  I don't do it because magically after two years developers stop making money off of it, I do it so I don't lose what shred of decency I have left on the subject. And yes, I have decided not to pirate Spore.

[Dave]

we need that asian planetside2.

[cbre88x]

Also I do agree that TF2 is getting boring.  We need something else to play together besides Warhammer, since a lot of people here hate MMOs.

Anyone out there still remember?? Left 4 Dead in 69 days...

[CaffeinePowered]

[quote author=Eschatos link=topic=1369.msg37647#msg37647 date=1220997325]
Also I do agree that TF2 is getting boring.  We need something else to play together besides Warhammer, since a lot of people here hate MMOs.

Anyone out there still remember?? Left 4 Dead in 69 days...
[/quote]

Its like what 4 or 8 players max in a server

it should be 24 - 32