Gaming Piracy - How to stop it?

[Chemix2]

Problem 1: Availability- Not every game is available everywhere, often it's delayed. If I could find a copy of "Sins ...." I would buy it, but I haven't seen it carried by any of the stores around here, and hell, I'm in the US. Old titles are often very hard to acquire, just try and find Deus Ex on a store shelf in good condition.

Problem 2: Insecurity of Internet transactions- Many are afraid of their credit information leaking somehow or getting stolen, making over the internet purchases more difficult.

Problem 3: Prices are high, quality is inconsistent. With things like Windows Live pervading multiplayer even more than it's predecessors like Gamespy, more and more features are promised, then locked off without further payments.

[captaindeadman]

I also would like to say that offering new games at different times in different countries is one cause of piracy.

I mean why not import something like a new final fantasy if its not due out in europe for over a year?

[aeroSPACE_engineer]

Personally, I have pirated a handful of games, usually those that are sold in the shop for £2.99 (on account of being old) or maybe impossible to find (also on account of being old). But I always buy the latest games, sometimes I borrow copies off friends if I can and see what they're like, I also try the demo where there is one.
Most software is currently licensed to the end-user, you pay for the right to use it indefinately. You do not actually own the software. I personally think that the user should own the software, and then normal copyright law applies and the law only stops you distributing copies.
I would absolutely refuse to connect to the internet to verify my copy every time I want to play (at least on single-player) and including such a requirement would drive me to finding a crack to get around it.
I don't generally copy films/DVDs or games, unless I really can't find what I'm looking for (usually because it ceased production) and the few people selling them second hand are trying to charge 10 times the price for those desperate enough to get a copy.
I used to copy a lot of music, usually just odd tracks where I maybe like only 1 or 2 on an album, not enough to justify paying £12 or more for the whole album. Then came iTunes, which generally makes it much easier to find those odd tracks and only charges 79p. It's not like I don't buy on average 10 albums a year anyway.
To be honest, I have little sympathy for big companies like EA, film studios and record companies. They all have huge profit margins on their end products, the money doesn't seem to go to the creators of the content so much, although there is so much of it Actors and Musicians usually do end up very rich. I think though that the salaries of people involved in such industries is disproportionately high and it is hard to sympathise with them when they make losses. I couldn't live without music, but I think most of the artists I listen to, would (and some do) continue to make music even for a modest living. Certainly, they do not "lose" money because of piracy, they just profit less. Although I notice EMI is currently operating at a net loss, but that is due to the popularity of iTunes and the like.

[Dalt]

Battlefield heroes is an example how it might work as anti-piracy, since it's free and is sponsored in other ways.
for example, the game has ads, and those who do not want ads can always pay for non-ad version or for more features.

but this doesn't pay as much as selling games. piracy to try out games without buying them? what's the demo for?

but in the other hand, some games are overpriced. i feel ripped of sometimes because i payed a lot of money for a crappy product.

i just hate when they make the demos better than the real thing. anyway, having an original feels a lot better than having a copy. i just don't want the small publishers to go out of business.

but there is no way to stop piracy, if there was the publishers would already do it. only thing they can do is slow it down, and make it harder to copy so noobs will mostly give up and buy the real thing.

[arcadeplayer987]

Games should cost less especialy in country's like mine where the minimum wage is 200$, you just can't afford to pay 50$ for a game.

[The Fat Controller]

Gaming piracy can't and won't be stopped. The only thing companies can do to stem the tide is to make it tricker to crack and copy games, and perhaps pay other organizations to catch a few individuals who infringe copyright and sue their asses off, as it discourages others from pirating stuff themselves.

[Mokusaku]

Anybody remembers old good game, Operation Flashpoint? It had this nice copy protection system named FADE. It was tied to your cd-key and it didn't care if you used cracks or anything like that, all that was relevant to it was authenticity of your cd-key else was just sideshow. If your cd-key wasn't real it started to corrupt and alter your games files and soon made it unplayable.

As far as I know not even many cd-key generators made to it helped as FADE somehow knew they too were wrong, you could pass installation but you couldn't cheat the FADE and it eventually killed your installation. System like that when used more could give some headache to those lowly pirates.

I too can confess that I have pirated games mostly because I want to test them before I'm going to give away my hard earned money. In past I just buyed them and many times it proved to be bad choice. Demos hardly ever give right impression as they are not from the final product and they are so limited. I know its wrong but I've learned that its better to test them beforehand than realize you have just wasted your money in something that isn't what all those reviews told. But those who pirate stuff and never ever buy the product afterwards are just pitiful.

But its too true that piracy have always been here and it shall remain with us. I remember how piracy just killed Amiga market as everyone just copied diskettes and never bought anything. And now with internet and torrents its just too easy.

[-DarthMaul-]

That still doesnt mean it isnt causing much. With the advent of the next-gen consoles(well the NOW consoles) it is easier to port games to those consoles. And sitll harder to pirate those vs. PS2 or Xbox.

Ok it could be you need to test a game, but sometimes when its a game like Gears of War, Spore, Civ 4, BF2, etc. Not much need to pirate lol, some games you just know are going to be good.

And I actually dont remember the whole Fade thing although I HAVE played the game. So why dont they start using that system in thier games?

'Subversive' code could kill off software piracy - 10 October 2003 - New Scientist

seems like a really cool way to stop things, if you read more into it seems to be really cool. Also I dont think we should pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into thisanti-pirate thing. it is SO easy to pirate a game right now and other software!! All it takes is a good search engine, or a web site dedicated for it, that goes around actually PROVIDING the content. There should be more done to curtail the number of the CASUAL pirate, I dont care about the hard core guys that sit around cracking codes lol, its the guys that me that dont kno sh*t but can still gewt a few games if needed.

[homo sine domino]

Originally Posted by The Fat Controller

The only thing companies can do to stem the tide is to (...) perhaps pay other organizations to catch a few individuals who infringe copyright and sue their asses off, as it discourages others from pirating stuff themselves.

And then teenagers and students are sued for thousands of dollars?

[Dalt]

the biggest reason for pirating games in my country is that the games cost too much, and the salaries are not that big.
the fact that you can't find a newer game or movie here that costs less than $80 (unless they're really old) is the reason. especially since the average salary is around $620.

the thing is, a game like Sid Meier's Pirates or Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars is worth those $80, but some games are crap and nobody wants to buy them based on a demo that was made to look better than the actual game.