Piracy and game sales...

[OrR]

As a kind of follow up on http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=33230 I'd be interested to know if piracy made you buy more or less games.

I'm pretty sure that piracy has made me buy more games than I would have bought otherwise. I own 17 DS games now, with another one on the way and several more purchases already planned. I bought most of these games because I pirated them and liked them. I would never have ordered Ouendan, Phoenix Wright or Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends (

) without playing the Rom first. I don't like buying games without knowing if I like them or not beforehand. Ideally all games would be free and I'd pay for them if I want to. Obviously many people aren't that open about giving money voluntarily so this model probably wouldn't work that well since some people would take advantage of not having to pay for anything. So how is the ratio of good people to bad people in this community?

 

[Orc]

Same here. I like buying obscure games so I love testing them out first to see if they're worth it.

 

[legendofphil]

I'd say less, but mostly in a good way.
If I can test first a game to see if its any good and its not then I would buy less games.
I would rather buy less good games than more bad ones.
But for a few systems (PC, Xbox and gamecube) I have bought much less than I would have had there not been an option to play a "backup" of the game.

 

[lagman]

I´m not sure if I buy more or less, but I buy better games and that´s important

Like Killer 7 I think I´m the only person who really likes it.
And the awesome, gorgeous, incredible and completely unknown Beyond Good & Evil

, I never knew someone else who owns it..or even played it.

 

[mthrnite]

Buy games? What do you mean by this... "Buy.. games.."...

Could you restate that in the Pirate language, I think something's being lost in translation.

j/k

If I find something used for under 25 bucks that I know I like, I buy it (Zoo Keeper, Brain Age, Super Mario.)
If it's an import (and not somehow related to Sailor Moon) I usually don't. Oendan may change that though, I've put so many hours into that thing that I feel guilty not buying it.

If I haven't played it, and it's not a 9 on GameSpot, and it's not under 15 bucks, I won't chance it.

So, I probably buy more, and I definitely buy smarter.

 

[Kyoji]

And the awesome, gorgeous, incredible and completely unknown Beyond Good & EvilÂ

, I never knew someone else who owns it..or even played it.

Lurk moar.

There are a TON of people on the net who have played, and enjoyed BG&E, myself included. It's no where near completely unknown-maybe to the general public, but the general public doesn't matter in this context.

Piracy, for me, is a way to obtain something I wouldn't spend money on anyways. Like GTA: SA for the PC...I'm glad I downloaded it instead of wasting my money. Got my kicks for an hour or two, then uninstalled it. Rarely it will make me buy a game I downloaded, but it has happened; I bought Metroid Zero Mission after I downloaded it, because I absolutely loved the game. To bits. I suppose it just comes down to what kind of person you are.

 

[lagman]

And the awesome, gorgeous, incredible and completely unknown Beyond Good & EvilÂ

, I never knew someone else who owns it..or even played it.

Lurk moar.

There are a TON of people on the net who have played, and enjoyed BG&E, myself included. It's no where near completely unknown-maybe to the general public, but the general public doesn't matter in this context.

Oh, I mean people that I know..that I REALLY know, friends and schoolmates..

QUOTE(Kyoji @ Sep 30 2006, 05:23 PM)......
. I suppose it just comes down to what kind of person you are.

I agree, I love GTA:SA

 

[OrR]

Beyond Good & Evil!

I still feel guilty because I missed the chance to buy it for the full price. Got it for 10 bucks from one of them cheap game pyramid things... I wanted to pay more!

 

[Sick Wario]

Kyoji said what I was thinking reading this topic

"Piracy, for me, is a way to obtain something I wouldn't spend money on anyways. "

I understand that developers, publishers etc etc all need their cut f media sales to survive, but if I honestly NEVER would have purchased product-x in the first place, it's not a loss of a sale in my eyes
A lot of my choices depend on DRM on the products, I won't get into that
I do try to support the brands I 'care' about, as much as you can care about a brand, so most 1st party DS games, gamecube games, soon Wii games, the very rare new release dvd I might buy. honestly I haven't paid for a new CD in mabye 5 years though now that I think about it

 

[Railgun]

Thats the problem with the piracy...

If u can get this Game/Movie/something for free, why to buy it?
1 year ago, i downloaded everything. Now im distanced me from the scene
cause it was realy hard to spend time every day on my pc.

Now im testing every Game before i buy it^^

If i like it, i'l buy it!
If i dont like it i dont play it^^

hope ur guys understand it, cause my english sucks

 

[Youkai]

I think i buy as much as i did before i had the chance to look into the games ... but like some others say now i buy only the good games !

there are games i know that are good i buy as fast as possible but than on the other hand why should i pay for some junk. When you say the programmers need to be payed ... ok but than they should do a good job and not just some rubbish.

The next game i buy will be Gothic 3 even if it doesn't look as good as the former versions in my opinion ... but that series was really worth its money till now, so i will give them my money in hope for more such games

Thats the problem with the piracy...

If u can get this Game/Movie/something for free, why to buy it?
1 year ago, i downloaded everything. Now im distanced me from the scene
cause it was realy hard to spend time every day on my pc.

Now im testing every Game before i buy it^^

If i like it, i'l buy it!
If i dont like it i dont play it^^

hope ur guys understand it, cause my english sucks

Hmm i sometimes play games i don't like only to see if they may become better ... as example ... i loved to Play the Settlers 2 (have original) now i tried that remake and i have to say i like the original more ! but somehow i want to play that as well but its not really good enough to buy ...

 

[Bowser128]

So how is the ratio of good people to bad people in this community?

LMAO. So we know where you stand then. What can I say, I'm a horrible person (a.k.a. I would like to support Nintendo, but the fact is if I have the opportunity to get stuff for free, my lack of moneyz means I'm going to take the free option).

 

[TPi]

Piracy has almost no effect on game sales.

 

[tshu]

Piracy has almost no effect on game sales.

Privacy has almost no reflect on lame snails.

 

[lagman]

Beyond Good & Evil!

I still feel guilty because I missed the chance to buy it for the full price. Got it for 10 bucks from one of them cheap game pyramid things... I wanted to pay more!

WTH is that?

Yes, that game deserves to be buyed at full price.
Indeed if I see it again I´ll buy it one more time

 

[OrR]

Maybe they only exist in Germany... Lots of cheap games in CD cases for 5-10 € a pice in a pyramid shape store display thing.

 

[martin88]

Less for me. No game purchases were made after I bought a flashcart.

Same for other platforms, with privacy, I stopped buying PC games, GBA games, and DS games. Before I buy games regularly.

One exception is Doom 3 for PC because I want to own it.

 

[lagman]

Maybe they only exist in Germany... Lots of cheap games in CD cases for 5-10 € a pice in a pyramid shape store display thing.

That sounds awesome, the closest thing I`ve seen on Mexico is a pack of 3 XB games -ETM,Onimusha,and other- for like US$15.

 

[Jax]

In my country, videogames are super expensive, so I'd say I buy less games...

 

[Psyfira]

I honestly don't know. I didn't use my GBA for a year after I got it; I didn't know which games were any good, and at 25-30 quid a cart you don't want to buy a rubbish one. I only got 2 cheap games (£10 and £15 respectively). I haven't brought a single GBA game since getting the cart either, because games are dead expensive over here. (I download, test out and then buy music CD's though, cause they're only about £8 each)

So in short, my current purchases are either the same or maybe a little bit less (cause there's a chance I wouldnt've played any at all) .
But on the other hand, I think piracy has made my future purchases increase.

Let me explain: from having free access to the entire back catalouge I now know what kind of games I like, which ones are likely to be good and which to avoid altogether. Which means that in the future, when I upgrade to a system I don't have a cart for, I'm more likely to actually buy games for that system than let it gather dust on a shelf.