What is piracy? Why does it exist? And why should we care? Well, none of this matters because we all know the facts. I, like you all, don't give a damn about other people's bussinesses and the reasons behind statistics. The most important question then should be "why am I writing this?". Ranting. Yes, I sometimes get tired of ranting that I have to rant about it.
The fact is, people don't want to pay for something they can get for free. Like video games, PC mostly, but there's no shortage in the console department. Money is a problem for most of us and hard earned cash is best spend wise. Gaming is not what is used to be, that's for sure. We're not buying games just for kids or for the whole family anymore, we're buying them for the whole gaming community. Don't get me wrong, the game is yours, the case with the disc inside or the digital download you paid for is yours until you lose it.... or torch it. But every product we buy today has a huge impact on what the future of that product will look like. Indeed, this is how it has been working for decades inthe gaming industry. Or has it? No, there was passion and innovation back when developers actually cared about their creation, about what gamers think of the game they made. After some time, developers started shifting towards pure marketing, gaming became nothing else but bussiness, no passion, little innovation. I can't pin a date when that started happening, but I guess piracy has a role to play in it.
Is it the intrusive protection that some publishers insist to implement in their releases that has a repeling effect on gamers? I remember some Atari 2600 cartridges had some sort of protection that required inserting a code from the manual, from a specific page and line on that page. That was annoying. But wait, persistent online authentication? limited install activations?? software tampering??? Wait what? The game turns you into a bird if it's detected as being pirated? That's rich! But no, as much as we would want, no DRM has that much of a damage over a game that it's better downloading it from a torrent site. Some pirated versions actually make more damage than any DRM. Blizzard has an efficient enough protection, but online authentications became the nicest of them all. I've come to grow fond of Uplay, Origin and Steam after bashing the hell out of them.
Steam has probably the best digital protection out there and it's a great platform to buy games from. Even if you're a hardcore collector like me. I prefer a solid case with a disc inside, especially if it has a figurine or some other goodies. But Steam has your back if you don't mind digital purchases. You've got everything in one place: an incredible amount of demos, you get them day one, a great interface, mindblowing deals and even free games once in a while. Not to mention the awesome comunity and social interactivity. Also achievements. There's a lot to say about Steam and it's alternative to cracks, but we're getting off track. Steam should remain a subject for some other time. GFWL sucks though.
Anyway, if you act like a priest and tell gamers about the sin that is piracy, they'll start feeling reprimanded. My personal issue is not the stollen intelectual property -- that's someone else's job --, but I have the feeling that we're losing much more than money on game nowadays. Honestly, great quality games come fewer and fewer as the time passes. And it's not that good games take time, Duke Nukem Forever has proven that is not the problem. The problem is that publishers give their product a value, even if that value is subjective from one individual to another. Some don't think a game deserves 60 bucks and will download the game for free. I think publishers accepted this fate and took advantage of this: make a 4 hour campaign and an unlimited multiplayer mode, also just a small upgrade to the graphical engine if it's a sequel. It takes little effort and less money release the game in this form and later update it in the form of downloadable contents for which the same customers will gladly pay. Flawless marketing strategy. You'd think the gaming industry didn't get here because of piracy, but because we buy every crappy game that gets released. There's nothing more false. Why wouldn't you make a better product if your previous product sold like hot bread? How many of you heard of City Interactive and how many of you that heard of them actually bought and played a game from them? How many even bothered to download a pirated copy of their games? Those are bad games.
Publishers prefer consoles because of their native protection, although second-hand games has become an issue as well. As you can see, every sold game counts. Console games are expensive, while PC games are cheaper. Even bad porting seems like a marketing strategy. Why buy a bad PC port of GTA IV at $49.99, when you can buy the real thang for $60?
We can't all buy games that come out in a month, some even get released the same week, but that's the beauty of it. I've made a list of games that I have to buy. I had to leave behind a lot of good games for other and of course I'm behind in some areas in contrast to the GameSpot staff and most of you guys, but I'll get there. In fact, now that I think of it, I have a lot of games that I've barely touched. So I leave you guys with a few questions: is it worth buying a game? isn't it great playing a deathmatch without cheaters? isn't it great playing online? aren't Steam achievements incredibly awesome?
