Piracy...

[Evil Robot]

What can we do to combat it?

I personally, in my limited group of acquantainces, know at least 15 people who are willing to warez ANY piece of software without any compunction. They have the typical 'well, if i don't get caught...' attitude towards it. What can I do to convince them of the errors of their ways, or alternatively, stop the methods they use to get their warez?

My suggestion would be forced online registration for all products. No registration, no product. Duplicate registration is rejected and thus you eliminate the warezers. The only trick to these would be ensuring that legitimate users cannot have their 'registration keys' stolen by hackers and not be able to reclaim them.

What can we do?

[kimmygibler]

If you can figure out a way, you could make a lot of money selling it...

[Bakunine]

My suggestion would be forced online registration for all products.

And who doesn't have net acess?

But making it like Diablo II where to play MP you must have original copy is a good idea.

Hope CIV III will be that way when it gets MP.

Foot Note: Since 1 November i am running a warez copy. In 16,17,18 November,or around that then i will have original game.

[Evil Robot]

And who doesn't have net acess?

In this day and age, no one. There is no excuse anymore.

[Bakunine]

Originally posted by Evil Robot


In this day and age, no one. There is no excuse anymore.

Maybe you live in a diferent or smaller world than i do.

MANY people don't have net acess ( i mean acess from home, not acess to a computer with net acess). So if when installing it prompts to acess to some server to authorize you get stuck.

[yin26]

The best way is simply to set a good example for your friends. Preaching won't work in most cases. You could also start a 'group trading' concept in which different friends by different games, play them, then pass them around once they are deleted off the computer. That won't work for games you want to keep, of course, but most games are only good for about 20-40 hours of gameplay anyway.

I've played many many games that way. Legally.

[WhiteElephants]

My suggestion would be forced online registration for all products. No registration, no product. Duplicate registration is rejected and thus you eliminate the warezers. The only trick to these would be ensuring that legitimate users cannot have their 'registration keys' stolen by hackers and not be able to reclaim them.

While I support your cause and initiative I find this would severly complicate things. For example, I borrow games from friends and parents all the time and vica versa. Limiting one game to one computer is a little extreme to me, especially considering the fact that I recently installed a new hard drive and had to re-install several games. If I couldn't re-install those games I would have been highly irritated.

I imagine that in the not so distant future you probably won't even own any software for a game. You'll probably play the game from their server and pay a premium per hour or a one time fee for unlimited access. The only software on your computer would be the minimum requirements to log in and begin the game much like the software for logging into the Zone or GameSpy.

While this would be a reasonable solution to the problem, to me, it's a rather bleak approach to gaming where you don't physically own anything and simply rent space in the anonymity of the internet. In fact you wouldn't even have to leave your home to buy the game.

Perhaps I'm being pessimistic and that whole human social interaction thing isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all I'm posting here.

[zapperio]

Re: Piracy...

Originally posted by Evil Robot
What can we do to combat it?

I personally, in my limited group of acquantainces, know at least 15 people who are willing to warez ANY piece of software without any compunction.
What can we do?

Turn them in.

Zap

[Evil Robot]

Re: Re: Piracy...

Originally posted by zapperio


Turn them in.

Zap

To who?

[zapperio]

Errr...

Me? I need some free games man.

Zap

[Your.Master]

Re: Re: Re: Piracy...

Originally posted by Evil Robot


To who?

The cops.

I know, there are many policemen who don't really care, but if you report them, they HAVE to do something about it (depending on local laws and the extent to which the police abide by them, of course).

But don't turn them in (he DID say they were friends).

I personally have nothing warez on my computer. For a short time, ironically, I had Grand Theft Auto but that one amused me for about 10 minutes and then was deleted. It was wrong, I know...but come on. Even if you hate the game, it is fun for the first 10 minutes, no matter what .

But I know many who ask if I will burn my CD's for them. Actually, that sort of thing is exactly why I was glad that StarCraft supported spawned copies. It makes very little business sense that I can see, but I loved it.

[Kc7mxo]

Ahoy matey. . . .

Piracy is good. I pirated AvP2. I enjoyed it so much I went out and bought it. I pirated Civ 3. I watched my tanks get demolished by cavalry. I unistalled it.

Waited three days, lost control and reinstalled it.

watched my newly conquered cities defect to the enemy and annilate my army. i unstialled it.

i'll probably be reinstalling in a few days. if i enjoy it this time, i'll probably buy it.

[Monoriu]

One very important thing game companies can do to combat piracy: make sure that they don't ignore overseas markets, say, a 7 million pop city with a GDP exceeding Britain's that happens to situate on the other side of the Pacific Ocean STILL WON'T GET LEGAL COPIES OF CIV 3 FOR MANY WEEKS . People there play games as well, you know. Totally ignoring these markets or delaying release of the game there for a few months won't encourage the people there to use legal copies.

[Venger]

Shiver me timbers...

Originally posted by Evil Robot
What can we do to combat it?

Release finished games at a reasonable price?

Or did you mean in Civ? Build frigates and ironcalds to escort your galleons...

I personally, in my limited group of acquantainces, know at least 15 people who are willing to warez ANY piece of software without any compunction. They have the typical 'well, if i don't get caught...' attitude towards it. What can I do to convince them of the errors of their ways, or alternatively, stop the methods they use to get their warez?

Just buy your own software. Personally, I tend to share games with a friend of mine. But that's as far as it normally goes.

Now I've cost Microsoft untold millions...

My suggestion would be forced online registration for all products. No registration, no product. Duplicate registration is rejected and thus you eliminate the warezers. The only trick to these would be ensuring that legitimate users cannot have their 'registration keys' stolen by hackers and not be able to reclaim them.

Nothing is uncrackable. If you release a product that requires registration, someone will release a program that defeats it. It's just that simple.

How about they release games at a price that is reasonable? $50 for a game is way too high. I wasn't going to buy it. But I saw it for $28. I snapped it up.

It's like anything else, make the price attractive - pirated goods may be "free" but they are not the same as owning the product most times.

Venger
P.S. Including complete and correct documentation makes buying more attractive...

[Venger]

Bug hunt

Originally posted by Kc7mxo
Ahoy matey. . . .

Piracy is good. I pirated AvP2. I enjoyed it so much I went out and bought it.

Hey, I have the original AVP. Is AVP2 worth it? Is the multiplayer fixed? I loved playing Lab14 with my kids, they got a huge kick out of it...

Thanks,

Venger
P.S. Ever play online? I always played as TheOrkinMan - pretty much owned some serious bug ass...