If you could help me out by answering a few questions.

[auser]

Some people are digital pack-rats and or archivists/collectors. I have a lot of game dumps from tens of systems, 99% never even get played. I play some that I played in my youth, or some that I heard about but never got the chance to play, but mostly they just sit on disks taking up space

I also buy a lot of games, too. They tend to just stay in their boxes, waiting patiently for the day I get time to play 'em lol. "Pirating' is far more convenient too, usually allows for far more features (built in cheat support, game guides, real time saves, multiple games on one cart/disk/whatever, etc) Lost sales? From me, not really. I could never afford to buy all of them and would simply go without - but then again most of the stuff I have is from systems no longer commercially available. My plan is if I have kids some day, I can show them some gaming history of my growing up and what was around then.

 

[VLinh]

Im not a spy, just a student XD

 

[CarbonX13]

1) Try before I buy. The last thing I need is to pay $50-$70 for a game, only to have it end up being a piece of junk. I can't afford to go to the game rental store and pay another $10 just to rent it first.
2) No, they're already making millions of dollars off of every title anyways, so I doubt piracy actual does much harm to their profits. AAA titles will sell millions of dollars, even with piracy. If people constantly pirate a non-popular title, then yes it'll affect its profits for the company, but in all honesty most people won't bother pirated a not-very-popular game anyways.
3) Yes, they've stepped up a bit with anti-piracy, but they haven't come up with anything that was absolute yet. PlayStation 3 survived a long run, but that's a completely different story now.

 

[GundamXXX]

Companies arent losing out that much imo.
Every game I pirated I wouldnt have bought save MAYBE 1, mainly because I think its ridicilous to pay 40-60 euro for a game. Im saving money for certain games that I most definatly will buy.

Also I pirate because even when I do want to buy a game, the lack of demo's is cause of concern. Prime example is The Force Unleashed 2. Im a Star Wars geek and I love the KOTOR games and the Jedi Knight series, I even loved the first TFU on the Wii (PC version sucked ass due to shitty controls)
I wanted to buy this game but had no money, so I decided to test it out before I made teh decision. Im glad I did.
If I had ever played a demo of this game I wouldnt haev bought it because it is uttershit.

Most people download because theyre lazy fucktards who dont want to spend a dime. I download because I have lsot faith ni teh game industry for creating good games. The last game I bought was Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but only after I got it from torrents to try it out. If downloading was made impossible I would probably stop gaming all together because I cant afford to fork out so much money for a game I might or might not like to play.

My tip to developers. Stop whining and give us demo's like 5 years ago. I used the have a subscription to PC Gameplay and there was a CD/DVD with it filled with demo's of games. It gave a good taste of what the full game was and I based my purchases on this.

Keep in mind that I dont support piracy but the industry has gone downhill so much in the recent years that it useless to spend so much money on crappy games and I for one refuse to.
And some of you will think/say "Youre just making excuses etc etc blablabla" but Im not. The amount of games I purchased legally far outnumber the games Ive downloaded. And like I said, the games Ive downloaded far outnumber the games I wouldve actually bought.

 

[exangel]

My tip to developers. Stop whining and give us demo's like 5 years ago. I used the have a subscription to PC Gameplay and there was a CD/DVD with it filled with demo's of games. It gave a good taste of what the full game was and I based my purchases on this.

Keep in mind that I dont support piracy but the industry has gone downhill so much in the recent years that it useless to spend so much money on crappy games and I for one refuse to.

Agree.

I don't think they realize how much interest in games they have lost due to not offering demos as much as they did as recently as 5 years ago. I remember going out of my way to buy certain magazines because of included demos of certain games. I also remember playing demos of games I didn't think I was interested in or never heard of (just because they were on the disc also), and winding up buying the full retail game because I saw that some stuff kicked ass.

I think one reason they have gotten so damn lazy with playable demos is because they think having lots of online reviews with gameplay videos is probably a good enough start for promoting games in an enormous sea of competition.

Because the markets are mostly growing and they have their heads up their asses worrying about piracy and more ways to charge the customer for content, they don't really seem to realize that a significant chunk of the piracy is happening because people want to try before they buy, or don't want to risk spending cash on something they can't sample without pirating the game.
So there are some rational reasons people will rip them off as a result of game companies not delivering something that they should realize the customer wants, and needs to continue being an honest customer.

Because of that lapse of fulfilling the need, most of us who would've stayed honest or at least wanted genuine physical copies (when applicable) most of the time -- just don't care anymore. And in my opinion, I think that's really unfortunate for the game companies who've had significant, visible losses because of piracy, because most of us who have decided to sample games on our own terms aren't going to go back to being loyal, paying consumers on the right side of the law.

 

[Psyfira]

My tip to developers. Stop whining and give us demo's like 5 years ago. I used the have a subscription to PC Gameplay and there was a CD/DVD with it filled with demo's of games. It gave a good taste of what the full game was and I based my purchases on this.

Agree.

I don't think they realize how much interest in games they have lost due to not offering demos as much as they did as recently as 5 years ago. I remember going out of my way to buy certain magazines because of included demos of certain games. I also remember playing demos of games I didn't think I was interested in or never heard of (just because they were on the disc also), and winding up buying the full retail game because I saw that some stuff kicked ass.

Same story; games are pretty expensive over here, I didn't feel confident spending £25 on a game without knowing if I'd like it. Thinking back, half of our PS1 collection was games that we'd bought after playing a level on a demo disc. It's getting better, some companies provide flash demos online now but they're in a minority.

Ironically, in the long run piracy has turned me into a more confident consumer. In the beginning I didn't buy anything, but exploring the catalogue freely had given me a much better idea of what's out there and the kinds of games I like and dislike. I spend far more money on games now than I would've if I'd never downloaded anything. But that process has taken years; had I been accessing single-level demos rather than full length games I think I would've hit that happy-to-spend point a lot sooner.

 

[Infinite Zero]

WHen I had my PS2, I usually buy the Playstation Magazine to test out the demo CDs in them

I miss those days...

 

[nryn99]

well for me:

1. 'cause it's cheaper or most of the times free, i don't have enough money to buy games.

2. i don't know, and don't care much, but i'm an aspiring programmer and one day i would want to work there

3. nothing, long as there are people who wants free stuffs and people who do can steal/duplicate these kinds of stuffs and sell it cheaper or give it away for free, and i'm wishing piracy would never end

 

[Edgedancer]

1. I have a modded wii and DS and they are never played anymore. I did it initially because of free games but the saturation of games at my finger tips has stopped me from doing it anymore. That said, I do pirate music and I feel no remorse for that. There are some bands I will support , John Butler Trio for one, but much of the time, I know 1 song so i grab the album and listen to everything.

2. I believe that it is hurting companies. I also believe that a lot of the statistics are blown out of proportion.

3. I believe that you can try to make the prices cheaper and easier to get. There are still some people that will pirate no matter what but they wouldnt be a huge market.

 

[Javacat]

I used to pirate because it made everything free! And I used to be poor. Money isn't really a problem these days sooo...

I don't do it so much now and buy as much as I can (within reason). These days if I pirate something it's either because it's now out of distribution, extremely hard to find or severely overpriced.

My music piracy has pretty much stopped, and I don't think I've done any since about February and have been buying up a lot of the pirated stuff that I actually like or listen to. For the music I like this usually means hunting around on the internet for ages finding some obscure publisher in europe/canada/whatever and importing it (as long as the price is right), or hunting around on online market places.

For PC games, I try and buy where possible. I usually buy games for my PC, but there are a lot of games that are now out of print that I want to buy, but just can't find anywhere. If I want to play these I usually have to resort to piracy which makes me

When a "modern" game comes out that I want then I do buy it.

I never buy games for my DS, they are soooo overpriced.

The Wii games are also uber overpriced (even when discounted :|), so it's very rare for me to buy anything for it, however I've not done any piracy on it.

For movies/dvd's/etc, I've not pirated any of them since sometime last year. DVD's have become super cheap now, which has meant my DVD collection has gone boom

I suspect that piracy does have a bit of an impact on some distributors, but nowhere near as much as people make out. When I did used to be a big pirate, nobody actually lost any sales from me. There was a lot of stuff that I pirated that I wouldn't have bought even if it wasn't available to pirate. If that makes sense..
I remember reading about some stuff with World of Goo, where the guy that made it could keep track of who was playing it (through the online stats). I believe it turned out something like 2 to 3 times more people were recording stats than had actually bought it.



I'd say that price reductions on computer games would cut down on the piracy there. PC games aren't that bad nowadays, but games console games are a rip off (they always have been though, I remember N64 games used to be uber expensive).
Dunno what you could do about music or DVD's though. Shoot the pirates?

 

[Totoy_Kamote]

1. First off. i have money to buy any game that i want because i have a decent job...
but there is a thing in pirating games... i feel like a god or something like that when i'm able to pirate a game that i really like... i can't explain the feeling but i feel great when i pirate...

it's the same as my flashcart... i can buy any legit flash cart but i still use my r4i clone... got my point?

2. Yes

3. Nothing... or Assassinate all the pirate in the world...

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

1. Why do people do it in the first place, what succumbs them into doing it?

2. Is it really affecting companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, or music companies?

3. What can we do to prevent piracy?

1. I don't know about y'all, but I started off pirating games because I wanted to play them all, now it's just mostly because I simply can't afford to buy games anymore. Once I get myself a job, however (though due to my laziness that's probably not soon), I will start buying all my games again [you gotta admit, having a game disc with a nice booklet, some extra silly ads and Nintendo Stars (or Coins for you Americans) is a lot nicer than having just the game and most of the times, trouble booting it]. I pirate music because it's easy and everyone does it. Also because I can't afford to buy all of those CDs or just don't have access to them, because they're only sold in a select few countries (and importing costs are fucking high compared to the price the CD sells at, so I don't bother with that).

2. No. Most of the games being pirated wouldn't have been bought anyway, and piracy only increases the chance of a person buying a game after a long period of doubt over whether it's going to be good or bad.

3. Resurrect Stalin. Though to be honest, piracy is a thing of all ages. It used to be pirates seizing other people's ships (yeah, that still happens, but not as much, obviously), now it's people downloading stuff and therefore 'stealing' from others. Besides, pirates 'steal from the rich' and 'give to the poor' (rich = big companies; poor = pirates). There is no way to stop it, just look at China, it's the country with which I assume to be the most strict laws in the world, yet that doesn't stop people from pirating, on the contrary, they do nothing but make bootlegs of everything.

 

[RoundedEdge]

1. Two main reasons for me. One is that games are mostly overpriced in stores. I know this for a fact because I've seen games in online stores for anywhere from $30-$50 less than what they're sold in stores for (I do buy some games from online stores). The other reason for me is that lots of less well-known games don't come to New Zealand, and if they do, it's usually months after the release date. Some games just don't come at all, and it's so frustrating trying to find a shop that sells what I'm looking for. Also, there isn't a proper game store near where I live, only department type ones, and they have a terrible range of games.

2. I dunno. It seems that even with all the piracy that goes on, the big companies still seem to make enough money. Then again, there are small companies such as Cing that make damn good games, but they can't seem to make enough money as it is, and then you throw piracy into the mix...

3. I think that if, as a general rule, games were cheaper, people wouldn't mind spending money on them and piracy would decrease, as overpricing is a major factor in this problem. Then again, people have already experienced something that is free, so why would they change?

 

[DeMoN]

I pirate because it's free, and I don't want to pay for something that I can get for free. It is also very convenient, since I don't have to go to the store, and I can even get some games before they are officially released. Are games too expensive? Yes, but even if they were cheaper I still wouldn't buy them if I could just pirate them. Free vs. Not free is a huge difference (even if it's $0 vs. $1). $30 vs. $10 is not a big difference in my opinion, despite mathematics. The second reason does not apply since I never buy games, unless I can't play them otherwise (such as online-only games). Other reasons: Because it makes me feel like a total badass.

Is piracy affecting Nintendo/Microsoft? Only for the better. Think of all the increased hardware sales they're getting, especially true for the DS. I do not think game developers are affected much either, because the assumption that 1 download = 1 lost sale is ridiculously stupid. I think it's more on the likes of 100 downloads = 1 lost sale (depending on the game of course). If the game is great, then it will make a lot of money, regardless of piracy. If the game sucks, it won't make a lot of money, regardless of piracy.

And for the third question, yes unfortunately they are, and it's really pissing me off. Spend more time on making the games better instead of using it to develop new AP measures that will get cracked anyways. That will help the sales more.