Gaming Is piracy ruining the Wii?

[DrYHeLL]

I'm not sure if this is appropriate but I would like to know what you guys think and let you all in on my opinion.

Is piracy ruining the Wii?

My answer: yes and personally I think it should be stopped or limited.

I think that because many of us "Hardcore" gamers have homebrew and thus access to piracy methods.Many of these people choose to pirate "core" (good) games like Madworld, SSBB, Mario, pretty much all of the good games because that's how they roll. You wont see a pirate stealing a copy of Petz, Imagine, or any of that crap because THEY ARE NOT GOOD. So, while good game's sales are hindered (can range from slightly or largely) because of their targeted demographic, crappy casual-core games seem to sell a lot more. (also because Wii is so "little girl/small child" accessible.)

This in turn causes a paradox of developers thinking its a good idea to make these crappy games because they sell so they do all the while we get less good games, then pirates steal the few good games(again) companies take hits because they decided to actually make a good game thus decide to make more shovelware because it sells...

Now I don't have a problem with legit "backups"(hell if I wasn't afraid of all of waninkoko's projects I'd be doing it myself) but what I would like is people to stop lying about their "backups" and really just come right out, and for once buy a game that deserves to be bought.

But I don't know; what do you guys think?

(I really do respect people that actually only use the loaders for backups and actually buy their games and I'm sorry if I offended anybody

)

 

[jargus]

When I get the opportunity I buy games that I really think are worth it (ToS2 for example). If I've lost a game I'll just download it (No More Heroes). It does seem like piracy is rampant on these forums but in most others not really. For most major games, piracy only affects a small percentage of sales.

Some forums (like here) can be overrun by talk of piracy. That makes it seem like piracy is a bigger deal it is.

 

[DrYHeLL]

I see Jargus, well very good. I can also understand if it is a game you had lost or misplaced downloading may be the option or if you lived in an area where games were largely unavailable or ridiculously priced.

And yes I'll agree for major titles piracy doesn't hinder sales that much but (although not on the wii) Look at GTA Chinatown Wars, it IS a major title and one that is very good in terms of gameplay and fun among others, and very hyped up. Guess what happened... It practically went to failure headfirst.

Now I know this isn't the Wii (or that that game's failure is a direct result of piracy) but it still shows that piracy may have a lot to do with a game's sales.

Anyways its just something I thought of and wanted to let people be aware of.

 

[FlatFrogger]

No, it isn't.

The wii is digging its own grave and its little to no thanks from piracy, just look at how many games get released vs how many are actually WORTH buying.

Too many games get released people are expected to buy.

You quote homebrew as an issue yet compare how many people have "homebrewed" their wii or are likely to know how to "homebrew" it (or hard mod it) compared to how many wii's have been sold and to the typical demographics its being sold to (kids, old people, house wives, etc).

The day [insert publisher/developer name] comes out about [insert game name] and blames piracy on the wii is yet another day when i think /facepalm at the gaming industry, especially if that game is another shovelwaretastic pile of bollocks.

 

[nando]

a non pirated game does not equal a sold game.

i haven't pirated any wii games (honest) - but that doesn't mean i have bought or will buy the games i would pirate.

nintendo likes to think that every pirated game would of been a sale if pirating wasn't an option and that's simply not true. if pirating wasn't an option that said pirate most likely wouldn't play the game at all.

 

[NostalgicMillennial]

umm...yea its a erm.."problem"


*goes back to WiiGator Gamma 0.3 to play Marip Galaxy*


"meh...who cares..."

 

[Tanas]

Both of these are true.
No, you're paranoid
No, I have proof piracy isn't ruining the wii!(explain in your post) explained HERE Just check out Wii game sales compared to both the 360 and PS3.

So these are proven to be utter nonsense.
Yes, it should be stopped and/or limited
Yeah, but.... meh who cares?

 

[Smuff]

I couldn't give a crap - screw the wii

 

[jebrown19]

I have to agree with Tanas on this one. Wii Sales are still huge. I doubt Piracy is hindering anything. Since the PSX first came out and Mod Chips soon followed Piracy has been available on most newer generation console systems.

Yes, Softmodding is easier, but if people actually want to Pirate.. they will pirate. I personally see it similar to a rental system. there are very few games I play consistantly for more then a week or two. (I guess I would be considered more "Casual" then hardcore but regardless If I do play them more often, I buy them.

As for Wii digging their own grave... unless they are digging through the mounds and mounds of revenue that the system is bringing in month after month I can't agree with you on that one (and personally if I was nintendo I wouldn't be digging a grave.. I'd probably make a fort... or have cashball fights in the backyard... but.. that's just me.

 

[ryukyus]

what a stupid question wii a is a kiddy system, you know what is surprising to me, is no one seems to blame the economy, the moment sales goes down they jump on piracy's back, the thing is if the game was worthy to be bought people would have gone and bought, because if you really like a game you want to have it on hand even the art box, lately companies have been making shitty games with a lot of hypes and when you go and buy it, the game was nothing like you expected it to be. the way the economy is right you would thing they would have known that money hungry bastards.

 

[air2004]

how about a real question... are property taxes preventing more people from buying a home ? thank about it , even after you pay your home off , you have to continue to pay to keep it

 

[dinofan01]

I'm sorry if I sound pissed off in this post but guess what, I am. Im sick of fucking of hearing people blaming pirates for low game sales. No dip shits. Its because you didn't buy the fucking game. I'm sick of people saying "dude, I want to sell my Wii. There is no 'mature' games for Wii. Its for kids." Well if you bought the mature games like metroid and no more heroes in the first place third parties would have invested money in more games like that. Even though it may seem "piracy is rampant" on a website full of pirates; it's not. Even if every person that pirated Madworld bought the game, the sales still wouldn't be high. The sales would be higher of all the people that bitch about wanting more games actually bought the games.

End Rant

I'm sorry if some stuff didn't make sense. Its just alot of pent up rage from hearing stupid people blame pirates all day.

 

[jesuschristmonke]

No.

Nintendo makes money on console sales alone, unlike M$ or Sonys current gen consoles. Wii has a thousand peripherals (more on the way). And the amount of hard or soft modded consoles is nominal overall. Plus modders run a risk with Wiiware wads if they don't know what they're doing. THis is evidenced by all of the "Help, I bricked my Wii threads"

 

[DrYHeLL]

Well if you bought the mature games like metroid and no more heroes in the first place third parties would have invested money in more games like that.

^ This is what I'm trying to get at.

Also, sorry again to anyone who this angers/frusterates, I'm merely trying to gain multiple insights on this topic. Please lets all be civil.

 

[DSGamer64]

I have a problem with people pirating the good Wii games that Nintendo has sunk a lot of time and money into that are actually worth paying for, sadly they are not the games keeping the Wii afloat. I personally couldn't give a damn about all the 3rd party half assed trash that is constantly getting churned out by terrible developing teams instead of making serious real games. Piracy is not killing the Wii, sadly if all the games that started coming out for it were hardcore player targeted titles, the Wii would drop off faster then a speeding Bullet Bill going over a cliff. Why? Because Nintendo in all their stupidity and ignorance turned the Wii and to some extent the DS, into casual non gamer machines with an overload of garbage games like TV show and movie based games that must have been made by a room full of chimps sitting in front of a computer with Windows 95 and Visual Basic or half assed attempts at hardcore titles that just turn out to be mediocre rail shooters and gimmick control games with graphics inferior to the best looking Gamecube titles.

 

[Giga_Gaia]

It's not rui9ning the Wii at all. In fact, if it were ruining it, the Wii wouldn't be the top sell console this gen.

 

[ether2802]

there is like 1000 users buying retail games, and 2 or 3 doing piracy in this world.....is a fact..!!

 

[Rebound]

My Philosophy is to do it, but don't tell people about it who wouldn't otherwise know

 

[Reaper]

A lot of people get it to pirate so it kind of evens out

 

[Styles420]

a non pirated game does not equal a sold game.

i haven't pirated any wii games (honest) - but that doesn't mean i have bought or will buy the games i would pirate.

nintendo likes to think that every pirated game would of been a sale if pirating wasn't an option and that's simply not true. if pirating wasn't an option that said pirate most likely wouldn't play the game at all.

Excellent point - I can think of at least a dozen games that I would never play simply because I wouldn't pay a dollar for them. Sometimes it's because the game looks like crap, other times it's because I can't afford the cost, but for the most part, it's because I still feel the sting of money spent on games that turned out to be a huge disappointment.

I understand that everyone has to make a living, but we have become overrun with mindless drivel that isn't worth the cost of the staples that bind their instruction manuals. Piracy is, in part, a direct result of the greed that drives the market - many of us just want a chance to see what we're buying before it's too late to change our minds. Previews and commercials work for movies (usually - I'm sure everyone has been disappointed by those movies where the preview shows all the good parts to make it look better than it really is). But games can't really be judged based on footage of someone else playing - you have to find out first hand how responsive the controls are and how fun (or not) it is to actually play them.

Shareware and demos are good concepts, but there have been more than a few cases where the full game turns out to be nothing like the free demo - that's more of an honesty issue on the part of the developers. If things worked the way they're supposed to, those companies would die out due to the damage they do to their reputation. It's a concept called Survival of the Fittest - a concept modern society has done wonders at destroying. Modern health care can keep a person alive well beyond their natural lifespan - brain dead vegetables sucking up resources while able-bodied people starve, and the whole time we're dealing with overpopulation worldwide.

The fact is, there are too many people and not enough jobs to go around. We all have to find a way to survive, and for too many of us, that means hurting someone else to sustain ourselves. Mechanics breaking customers' cars, exterminators planting rat droppings - there are countless examples of people taking dishonest means to create a need for their services where none exists. In the video game industry, this is present in the form of things like shovelware and the DSi (incremental upgrades piss me off).

Does anyone else remember that digital camera that was hacked to unlock more features? For those who didn't hear about it: someone found out that the "new" features advertised in a new version of the camera were already present in the first version, as well as many other features that were later advertised in subsequent models. The software just lacked access to those features - the code was there, but there was no way for the end user to use them. So he modified the firmware to add the additional menu items, giving owners of the first model all the features of the newest version for free. The makers of the camera, of course, were hoping people would ditch their old camera to buy the new one. It's not unlike many of the options available for cars - usually all of the wiring and hardware is present in every model, but the key component is left out. It only costs the manufacturers a few extra minutes of employee time, and the cost of the part, yet they'll add on hundreds or thousands to the customer's price.

And then there's my favorite example - blacklights. Those fluorescent bulbs are identical to ordinary white bulbs, but they lack the phosphorous coating on the glass. So they skip a step and save time and materials, yet the bulbs cost twice as much. This is the world we live in - dishonest people thrive while the honest, hard working people suffer.

Ultimately, I miss the days when people did what they did for the joy it brought them, not for the money. There was a time when professional sports players had to have another job to survive, yet they played anyway, because they enjoyed it. Now they squabble over a few thousand dollars when they're already making millions. And so many of them drop out of college or skip it entirely, so they have nothing to fall back on when their bodies are too broken to play. People use that as a defense for the exorbitant amount of pay they receive. Wouldn't it be better, for both the player and the community, if they all had no choice but to finish college first? Then, they would have a valuable skill set with which to make a living, and they would be able to actually contribute to the greater good. I can't think of any case where being able to throw a ball through a hoop from twenty feet away actually saved anyone's life (unless we're talking about a hand grenade and an enemy's fox hole... maybe sports players should be required to serve in the military...)

So I'll end my rant with this: look up the history of the video game, and that of the personal computer. It all started as a hobbyist movement, people doing it just to prove that they could. Some of the greatest software from the past came from some guy in his basement, and he released it for free, because he wasn't looking for a profit - he just wanted to share his skill with the world. That's what drives the homebrew community to this day. We've seen what many have been able to do with the limited resources available to us - imagine how much better certain programs would be if we all had full access to the specs and development tools that were made by the same guys that made the system (look at Moonshell).