How would you make piracy pointless?

[Ferrariman]

Step 1: Try to kill most popular flashcarts.
Step 2: add atleast 5 security features to your game and then add more crazy exclusive stuff. (Instore activation + Unique IDs = profit. When A game is activated, the stores sends the ID to nintendo)
Step 3: browse the interwebs
Step 4: ????

Step 5: PROFIT

 

[Awdofgum]

Make all games free...

Edit: Cockroach Man, I guess great minds think alike.

 

[Law]

Probably a number of things, make titles cheaper, probably Digital Distribution only. Make the games good, etc. Probably what has already been said in this thread.

But what I would mainly do is remove copy protection from PC games. I have a shelf full of PC games, most of them don't even work without me having to download a crack. It is a lot easier to pirate something for free than it is to obtain it and run it legally.


Also: Making games online only will NOT stop piracy. Ever heard of Private Servers?


In fact, there is NO way to stop piracy 100%, the only MAJOR way I could think of would be to get rid of the internet all together, and stopping people from selling blank media.

Not only the internet, actually. All Networks. Strip the shelves of Ethernet Cables and Wireless enabling devices.

 

[xalphax]

i bought quite some games and movies that were too cheap to make it worthwhile to pirate them.


so my suggestion: if the price is right, piracy is just not worth it anymore.

 

[Deleted member 76381]

Make the game free and put ads in it.. it works with movies..

What movie was this? I've had to pay the full retail price for the movies I view in theaters. Though I rarely do anyway. Hum.

I'd like to respond to Panzer Tacticer but he brought up many good points, and I can't really argue a point especially when I'm not fully informed of the whole topic and even moreso when my heart isn't fully in the argument as a whole. =P

I had a minor idea though while writing this. You know how you can pay the cable company for the premium channels, the HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and all? What if there were something like that but for games? I mean...let's compare this to movies, completely ignoring the enjoyment-versus-cost argument first.

Movies come out in theaters, and depending on their sales, go on DVD in a few months, and then appear on the cable channels in around a year (this is purely a guess since it's been years since we've even had the premium channels). Now, games come out in stores, and depending on their sales, either fade into obscurity, become bargain bin material, or simply line the shelves. Why not have a service where, after a set amount of time or performance in the actual market, games become available for download if the person is a subscriber to this service. Of course it's not going to be free.

Granted, one can argue that this is nothing more than paid piracy as the people who make the games get no profit from this service, but the same can be said of HBO and the likes. They're nothing more than distribution channels, and after paying royalties and the like... And, because games released are partially dated, I don't think it'd be the death of the new releases. I mean, I'm sure people said the same thing about HBO being the eventual end of theaters, and so far I haven't seen this supposed death yet. Huh.

It's an idea. I could imagine if Nintendo were willing to do this, they can do the same with their DS-Vision cart thing. As for how much to pay a month for the service, I dunno. You ARE technically getting unlimited games this way for a flat monthly rate. Though, if they do like with the Virtual Console, maybe you can pay a singular fee for unlimited access to that game, like $20 for DS titles and the like. And again that'd be for the DS-Vision.

 

[jesuschristmonke]

Restrict internet/computer usage to only spoiled rich kids, everyone else can read a 1980's version of Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

[BurlyEd]

I think Veho in on the right track. Bundle something that you cannot download:
A custom Stylus, a Wristband, a special Gameguide, a small Asian child, ...
Something that is specific to the game that you cannot buy otherwise.

(Just kidding about the small Asian child).

 

[spinal_cord]

1. Free stuff, like people are saying, a custom stylus, tshirt, collectors card.

2. Where ever possible release demos of the games that will get to potential customers. I would have absolutly no objection to seeing a couple of games demos (as well as my full game) on a Wii disk or DS cart. Magazines should have demo disks, hell if the C64 could do it why can't Nintendo!!

3. Get your name put in a prize draw for registering a legit copy of a game. ALL of the big console manufaturers can afford a monthly give away of some sort, even small(ish) prizes like a gamepad/wii-mote would be very welcome.

4. Remove copy protection from games, if you have to download a crack to get your brand new game to work, they the company is obviously doing it wrong. I'm fairly sure that a couple of official game wbsites have even offered no-cd cracks for download because either people are tired off all the hoops, or the legit copies of the games just don't work right.

5. Lower prices, we all know that these companies don't need hundreds of billions of dollars profit, i be they could easily half the price of EVERY game and still make billions proffit each year.

6. Don't let the technology companies encourage piract be selling such things as -
* Cassette recorders
* CD recorders
* DVD recorders
* VHS recorders
* Stereos that record tape-to-tape
* Stereos that record CD to tape
* Blank CD's
* Blank DVD's
* Blank cassettes
* Blank VHS tapes
Don't let internet providers tell us we need super-fast broadband so we can download movies and music.
Don't mention on boxes for hard drives that you can fit 200,000 mp3's on the thing.

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

Mrbob2, the only trouble with a "fee" or a "tax" is we both know, the "establishment" simply can't get it out of it's head, that piracy is illegal, and thus must be crushed. Additionally, if we gave them that bonus, they'd gladly take it, and it would be impressive if it actually reached the person that made the whatever.
Ideally I'd be plenty happy to give it to them, but I doubt if would solve anything.

Don't know about private servers, out of my range of knowledge.
I'm sure something could be thought up, without it even needing to be a mean response.

spinal_cord mentioned one of my personal favs (categories that is)

6. Don't let the technology companies encourage piract be selling such things as -
* Cassette recorders
* CD recorders
* DVD recorders
* VHS recorders
* Stereos that record tape-to-tape
* Stereos that record CD to tape
* Blank CD's
* Blank DVD's
* Blank cassettes
* Blank VHS tapes
Don't let internet providers tell us we need super-fast broadband so we can download movies and music.
Don't mention on boxes for hard drives that you can fit 200,000 mp3's on the thing.

Isn't it amazing how willing they are to sell us the good to pirate so easily?
Hands up all here that actually need spindles by the hundred for peanuts legitimately?
Who here can say they actually need a burner that can burn data in mere moments. Wouldn't an hour be ok for a legit use? I mean, whats the rush?
Who here thinks the industry is so obsessed with making money it hasn't got time to step and realize "hey, were the ones supplying the pirates".

Regarding film. Here's my problem. If a video rental store can let me see the movie for 5 bucks, why can't the owner let me see it for 5 bucks? Why does the movie magically become worth more if I get to keep a copy?
This is also annoying in my assessment of how much I think something is worth.
I think if they can let a video rental store rent it to me, should the owner not be able to sell it to me as a digital download for damn near the same price?
I think videos would sell better, if they were digital downloads and cost damn near as much as a rental.

Keep this in mind. No I won't consider downloading it free as being better, as downloading is not genuinely free. My internet services actually cost me a fair amount of very real cash.
In a month, I pay 30 bucks for use of Giganews. Now if a digital download of a legit film was 5 bucks, then that 30 bucks for Giganews is the same as 6 legit movies straight from the source. Personally I'd not have any problem getting the 6 legit films. They'd likely be soooo much better quality (well they should be, they'd be the real deal).
Not sure about you guys, but 6 movies every month is a lot of movies actually over time.
Could be 30 bucks a month in the pocket of the movie people, but it isn't. They haven't the brains to make it work.
Giganews knows how to make it work. And you don't think I'm not using that 30 bucks real well eh.
Do they honestly thing Giganews is NOT processing a lot of data they shouldn't?

I would imagine the above likely could be said of music. Music files are small though.
But I can say I've seen some very nice music dvds in my time too.

If they would just market to us in a way we couldn't resist. I'd gladly let the pirates have their cheesy lousy quality stolen copies. But sometimes cheese ain't so bad.

 

[LFF]

I think if games were not so ridiculously overpriced (I've seen pre-owned games that have been more expensive than the new), and were all decent, and had work put into them (I'm looking at youi, Ubisoft, with your Imagine series), and were released everywhere, even if not translated, there'd be little reason for piracy.

 

[arctic_flame]

Something like steam. Great games are cheap, so they get bought.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

To stop piracy they just have to sell games for free then noone would ever bother

 

[Jackreyes]

Yeah, Steam have got it almost perfect.
When I want a PC game I usually check Steam first because I have no problem with their prices and method of distribution.