Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy

Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by chii on Monday April 29, 2013 @06:20AM (#5625154)

so in other words, they pirated PC games, and used their limited resources to buy the games they couldn't pirate. Thus, the total amount of money they spent had been the same whether they pirated or not (just distributed differently, to different platforms). Had they not been able to pirate PC games, they might've spent a few more coins on PC games, and a few less coins on the xbox games - the industry wouldn't have seen more profit. However, having the ability to pirate meant that they are more enriched culturally, where as had they needed to pay the full price, they would've had less culture to immerse themselves in. I say that's a good result.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by rubinelli on Monday April 29, 2013 @06:44AM (#5625261)

Yeah, they rewarded the companies that hose their customers with crippling DRM and release the same old FPS and sport game with prettier graphics year after year, and penalized those that trust their fans and are trying to push the envelope in gameplay and storytelling. That's a fantastic result.

(EDIT: sorry for the rant, but this stuff really gets under my skin. If you are too cheap to spend 8 bucks on an indie game, SAY SO, don't come up with rationalizations about how the world is a better place for it)

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by everyone on Monday April 29, 2013 @09:50AM (#5626099)

I dont buy games with DRM and I make a point of buying ones without it (for instance on GOG).. My rational is that if the games publisher doesn't trust me then I dont trust them! I also make games and I personally dont mind about piracy.. Its free advertising imo

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by kefka on Monday April 29, 2013 @10:16AM (#5626259)

Well, pirates sure aren't making you money. You care about paying customers.

Makes sense to me.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by jeltz on Monday April 29, 2013 @10:53AM (#5626495)

He called them "free advertising", so he does believe they are making him money. And as an indie developer that could very well be the case.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by biot on Monday April 29, 2013 @11:14AM (#5626666)

You're overlooking the possibility that some may have eaten less at McDonalds or bought fewer candies in order to save up more money to buy those PC games if piracy weren't such an easy option.

It's not as if kids rigorously budget their money and have a "video game" line item which cannot be exceeded. If they could easily sneak into movie theatres or hockey games and never get caught, they'd do that too and spend the leftover money on something else.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by lilsunnybee on Tuesday April 30, 2013 @12:22AM (#5630407)

I think most of the video game market are in their 20's+ now. Not sure what proportion of those people have reasonable disposable income or just wasted bills money on a video game.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by pgsandstrom on Monday April 29, 2013 @06:51AM (#5625288)

It seems as if his friends buys game that can't be pirated and pirates games that can be pirated. Yet somehow you come to the conclusion that they would still buy for the same amount if pirating wasn't possible?

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by pbhjpbhj on Monday April 29, 2013 @10:10AM (#5626215)

>they would still buy for the same amount if pirating wasn't possible? //

I thought he simply said they would spend the same amount. So they would consume less games and so have less "cultural" experiences if they couldn't pirate some games:

So, like, if they'd pirated Gears 1 and bought Republic 2 [made up names] then next period they might have bought Gears 2, but then would have pirated Republic 3 and ArmsRace 1.

With stronger anti-piracy measures Gears 1 comes out at the same time as Republic 2 but they can only buy one so they get Republic 2. Next period they get Republic 3 because they don't want to risk the new ArmsRace 1.

In both scenarios they bought 2 games - ie spent/bought the same amount. In the second they played 3 more games than in period 1. The makers of Gears benefited from piracy by winning a convert to their franchise (but notably the industry didn't gain in this scenario).

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by jiggy2011 on Monday April 29, 2013 @07:11AM (#5625363)

Well, that sends a signal to the market to produce more Xbox games and less PC games despite the fact that PC games are popular.

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Re:Pirates playing a game dev simulator complain about piracy by chii on Monday April 29, 2013 @08:19PM (#5629718)

and this is indeed the case in reality. Not really sure what to do about it unfortunately, it is quite a sad state of affairs.

However, despite the high piracy rates on PC platforms, good games still do well.

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