EA tells the retailers that second hand copies won't always work, unless the person unregistered.
It's up to the game shop to test that, failure to do so is their problem and should be changed, or money given back.
As I said above, I had this problem, and the store in question apologised and swapped it for a new copy for no extra charge.
Fair enough, but what about eBay and such?
The argument over piracy destroying games is the same as the argument about piracy destroying movies and music. Which is the same as the argument from the 1970s and 1980s:
Oh noes!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
"Home Taping Is Killing Music" was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI feared that people being able to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales.
To be fair, with eBay, you always run the risk of dodgy stuff.
Quote:
The argument over piracy destroying games is the same as the argument about piracy destroying movies and music. Which is the same as the argument from the 1970s and 1980s
Haha, this is true.
Personally, I just can't stand the look and feel of a fake game/DVD/CD.
Console games can be copied very easily now that they are in DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray format. I imagine any CD systems were also copyable. The only solution I can see for that is a move back to console-specific storage devices. PCs are kinda fvcked, but I guess this is a good thing overall for the industry. Sure, some companies will lose massive amounts of money from people "testing" their game before they buy and either not buying it based on the crappiness of it or not buying it based on the frugality of the "tester". So the companies that will make money will be those who have games that people feel are worth playing, theoretically.
Does anyone think this might mean a revival of shareware/asking for donations?
PCs are kinda fvcked, but I guess this is a good thing overall for the industry.
I'm more concerned about the little companies. EA deserves to suffer for its wrongs inflicted on the gaming public. But people like Paradox Interactive, and all the other smaller publishers and game houses really do deserve support.
And I think they get it, because they've adapted to new conditions. For example the booster pack Armageddon for one of Paradox's leading games: Hearts of Iron 2 was sold off Paradox's website for $5. The Hearts of Iron 2 expansion Doomsday was sold online for $20, as well as in stores. Armageddon itself was based on the response and wishes of the gamers in the official forums, who wanted to extra features added, as well as the designers who wanted to implement new things.
Rather than say a Sims expansion that EA will flog off for $60 or more.
In sheer dollar terms, pirating a big-brand game is going to be more profitable because you will save much more money.
Personally, I just can't stand the look and feel of a fake game/DVD/CD.
I just like the real thing.
amen to that.
and like marsoe said, its not big companys that are suffering. its the little ones. but even so, is piracy really dragging the market down that much? Ironclad themselves said that it wasnt a huge problem. And seriously, if they didnt gouge the prices so much, this problem would hardly exist.
and maul, its sins of a solar empire, not "sons of a sor empire."
I forgot what the name is LOL, but I enjoyed th egame, so dont be a grammar/spelling nazi on that but yeah, its actually the SMALLER companies that churn ou tthe greatest and best of games(in some cases big companie slike Blizzard)
"I'm the 82nd Airborne. And this is as far as the bastards are going!"
and like marsoe said, its not big companys that are suffering. its the little ones.
Not quite what I meant. The little companies had evolved their methods of distribution, and their pricing - as well as offering much better user support and involvement. As such, they suffer
The big ones, which tend to have poor support, excessive pricing, and old methods, are suffering more from piracy. If they want to reduce piracy, they should adapt the methods of the little companies.
A game like battlefield 2142 cannot be played online without having a legit cd-key, unlike other games you cannot create servers that don't require you to have a legit cd key (as far as i know). One could apply this to every and all games, online game or no, you must be connected to the internet to verify your copy each and every time you play.
The key thing may be enough, I feel, as more and more games rely on multiplayer for a core component of gameplay, and tying even single-player gaming to an online registration might help the problem. But maybe doing it every time you play might be a bit excessive.
As an aside, I would never pirate any form of executable or .jar file, for the simple reason of computer security: the possibility that a virus or other malicious code has been woven into the application just rules it out for me.
You can't stop it. Ever since we first started making things other people have made cheap knock offs. It's just that with the internet the cheap knock offs can be made at an incredibly low cost when compared to the price of the original. Technology isn't going to provide a magic bullet for you either.
You either learn to live with it, in game advertising etc, or you learn to tollerate a certain level of it and alter your marketing strategy to encourage people to buy, removed invasive copy protection, frequent updates requiring a valid CD key etc. Any case getting rid of it completely's a pipe dream.
Not all hackers are bad, its kinda like how PunkBuster and other software and security firewalls are always being updated, some of them can be hired to be good guys.
Very true. There are also coders who crack copy protection mainly so ordinary people are not subject to restrictions in regard to copy protection etc.
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Originally Posted by -DarthMaul-
I was only talking about what you said about devs wanting higher quality graphics. And fact is the PC has them, and more and more people are getting better PCs, and if people ONLY play for graphics I feel sorry for them.
I'm not sure, but I thought in recent years people promoted consoles as providing quality graphics for regular users.
I didn't request studies to show that piracy costs money, but for your claim that piracy is the main reason for developers moving to consoles.
In any way, that is not an (independent!) study, but an interview with Todd Hollenshead, the CEO of Id software. The numbers presented are open to claims of bias.
What people also may not realise is that, even if a lot of games were pirated, many people who download them illegally may not actually be able to afford them, so in reality no profit is really lost.
This "cannot afford, even if I tried" can be seen also when costly software is pirated. Students who use illegal copies of e. g. Photoshop may have not been able to purchase the software. So even if they had not pirated their copy, they would not have (been able to) purchased a legal copy, which is always assumed, even in regard to music or movie piracy.
(I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, otherwise I'll have to rephrase it.. )
Quote:
Originally Posted by -DarthMaul-
I just said even the good games are being pirated, and a LOT! You cant be serious and think good games arent pirated.
What I was trying to say is that if people feel the money they paid for the product was worth it (including the price being appropriate), more people may be willing to buy a legit copy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by -DarthMaul-
There was another article that Id Software said that 5-1 of the callers for support are illegitamte owners of the pirated games.
Well how do they find out?
Quote:
Originally Posted by masked_marsoe
The big ones, which tend to have poor support, excessive pricing, and old methods, are suffering more from piracy. If they want to reduce piracy, they should adapt the methods of the little companies.
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