Why I Think It Is GOOD To Pirate Commercial Games
by
- Tessera -
DISCLAIMER: this post should not be misconstrued as in incitement to commit crimes. This post is merely a statement of my own personal philosophy with regards to the pirating (theft) of commercially available gaming software. It is important to remember that regardless of what my personal philosophy might be, this is not any sort of directive that I am issuing, nor do I really care about what other people do or do not do with their own time and money.
Now that the obligatory legal disclaimer is out of the way, let me take a moment to discuss my thoughts and feelings regarding the pirating of commercial games...
For the longest time, I was vehemently opposed to the pirating of commercial games. In fact, during the early history of tessmage.com, it was a bannable offense around here to encourage that sort of activity. At the time, I felt that it was not only illegal to pirate games, but that it would also spur the industry towards creating increasingly invasive anti-piracy schemes which would screw things up for ALL users (which has indeed turned out to be the case).
However, during the past year or so, I have had quite a turn-around in my ways of thinking about this issue. I am no longer opposed to the pirating of commercial gaming software. Let me tell you why:
Because the gaming industry... or to be more specfific, the major gaming publishers... have been stealing from and exploiting their consumer base so severely during the past few years that I no longer feel any sense of fair play, decency or integrity coming from "their side." Thus, I no longer feel obligated to hold up my end as a consumer, either.
Just think about how absolutely abysmal the state of PC gaming software has become during the past few years. I realize that there are some exceptions here and there, but generally speaking it seems that the old rule of "release it now -- patch it later" has spun wildly out of control. There is almost no originality to be found anywhere these days, either. Everything has become formulaic, everything has been dumbed down, everything is aimed straight at undiscerning adolescent males and everything has been executed in a half-assed manner from the get go. And why not..? Because if those are the only choices that you are giving to the consumers, then most of them will probably end up buying it... regardless of how mundane and mediocre your game might be. An unsophisticated consumer base is the gaming industry's best friend.
Let's pick something notorious as a working example... Hellgate: London, for instance. That game was released waaaaaaay prematurely, by people who KNEW... absolutely KNEW AHEAD OF TIME... that their product was being released in a largely broken, unfinished and downright dysfunctional state. And yet, the law allowed them to release it anyway... and charge everyone a premium price for it.
Hellgate is not the only such example, either. We could say exactly the same things... to varying degrees... about Oblivion, or Fallout 3, or Age Of Conan, or Vanguard, or Spore, or F.E.A.R., or Stalker, or any one of literally hundreds of other "blockbuster" titles. All of those games were knowingly released prematurely by their publishers in a dysfunctional state... and in some cases the game was barely playable in its original "plain vanilla" condition.
And yet, those publishers have consistently been allowed to charge full price for a broken product... and still get away with it.
What do you call someone who sells you something that doesn't do what they promise it will do..? For example, what if I charged you full price for a new car -- knowing that the brakes were faulty, or that the engine was only producing two-thirds of its rated horsepower..? I dunno about you, but I'd call that person a scammer. Or a con artist. Or a manipulative, greedy and amoral thief.
The law considers software piracy to be a form of theft. Yet isn't it also a case of theft when somebody knowingly charges you full price for a broken product, and then gets to keep your money regardless of how loudly you complain..? We have even seen quite a few cases of those complaints being stifled on the "official forums" of various software publishers (such as Bethsoft, ActiVision, Blizzard, EA, etc. to name but a few) Many people (myself included) have even been banned... pushed under the rug for telling the truth, basically.
So then, who committed the first theft here..? Who was the first to be dishonest..?
When the buying public is repeatedly made to feel as if they are being ripped-off and exploited, then the inevitable result is a breakdown in consumer confidence. That is precisely what led in large part to the near-total collapse of the global economy in late 2008. So is it any wonder that an increasing number of consumers are beginning to feel a desire to fight back against their feeling of being exploited... by refusing to pay full price for inferior merchandise..? The law offers them little recourse, so is it any wonder than an increasing number of gamers have decided to take the law into their own hands... by engaging in piracy..?
This is the essence of what I am trying to say here: that in my opinion, the pirating of crappy (or even not so crappy) commercial gaming software is, to at least some extent, a way for pissed-off consumers to lash back at an exploitative industry, who have been greedily giving us all the shaft for far too long. In many (if not most) cases these days, those publishers simply do not deserve our money anymore. Or at least, they don't deserve full price for a broken or otherwise inferior product. And until there is some sort of federal regulation of the software industry, this problem will continue to frustrate us all... for lord knows how many more years.
Please just think about it some more, for a moment. When you go to the store and buy a new game, the industry expects you to pay the full retail price for that game... regardless of how broken it might be out of the box. Keep in mind that they *knew* that it was broken when they sold it to you, yet there are no such warnings anywhere to be found... not on the box, not in their advertsing, not anywhere. And if you contact them for technical support after you discover that your new game is broken, they often simply tell you to wait patiently for an upcoming software patch. That is, if they even bother to reply to you at all (many don't... or else they reply in a deliberately vague and anemic fashion a la Electronic Arts).
I wonder what would happen if we told the publishers "I'll give you *some* of the retail price now... and the rest of it after you patch the game and give me a fully functional product that works as advertised." Would they make that kind of a deal with us..? Of course they wouldn't... because these people have next to zero integrity and not only that, but the laws issued by the corporate whores in Congress fully protect the industry and its greed. Meanwhile, there are absolutely NO LAWS TO SPEAK OF which protect the consumers of gaming software. Almost none whatsoever. These pricks have been given free reign to sell whatever they want, for as much as they can get away with, whilst deliberately engaging in false or misleading advertising... and let the buyer beware.
What can We The People do to empower ourselves in the face of this kind of theft and exploitation by the software industry..? We do not have any real legal recourse, other than to attempt to reclaim our purchase price in a small claims court. And let's face it... most people simply do not have the time, nor the will to commit themselves to filing a court case to reclaim their 50 bucks. NOR SHOULD THEY HAVE TO. These games were not released in a broken state because the devs didn't know any better. Games are released in a broken state because the industry has beeen allowed to get away with that kind of dishonest marketing. It is as simple as that... and it's just plain WRONG.
Which brings us back around to the issue of pirating commercial games. Well, in my carefully considered opinion... and based upon the absolutely abysmal conduct as of late by the commercial gaming industry... I have concluded that the only truly meaningful way in which consumers can fight back at the grassroots level is to simply start exchanging pirated copies of various games. That's the very best way to hit the gaming publishers in their wallets... far more so than simply not buying those games to begin with. Not buying a given title simply means that it won't be very popular... and the publisher will then write it off as a loss on their income taxes. But a *pirated* game may very well become popular... except that the greedy, amoral and exploitative publishers will not make a single penny from it. I like that idea *much* better, because it truly punishes the industry for being a bunch of irresponsible thieves.
I guess what I am saying is that I do not feel so bad about stealing from another thief. And in my opinion, the gaming software industry has become overrun by polyester-clad thieves. Min-maxxing, outsourcing and downright lying about their products seems to be a perfectly acceptable way to conduct their businesses... so much so that frankly, I don't feel that the industry is entitled to our money anymore. If they feel that it is perfectly okay to steal billions of dollars from *us* every single year, then I don't see why it isn't okay for us to steal our money right back from them... in the form of pirated, hacked and freely exchanged copies of commercial games.
A bad movie costs about 8 bucks at the theater. So why does a bad game cost 50 bucks at Amazon..? In the face of that type of exploitation, it makes more sense to me if ten people all get together and chip in 5 bucks apiece for a new game. And then, take that total of 50 bucks from all ten of them, and buy ONE copy of a particular game.
And then...
...hack it, remove its DRM, copy it and pass out those copies to all ten of the people who chipped in their 5 bucks. That way, nobody is getting ripped off and the industry can just fuck off if they don't like it. You can't file charges against everybody... especially if everybody is doing the same thing. In the end, the industry will be forced to cave in and start producing products with INTEGRITY again. Either that, or just eat it.
I could continue... and perhaps I will at a later date... but I think that I have already given you a decent outline which explains why I have changed my mind about pirated games. If the industry was conducting their business in an honest and sincere fashion, then I would still be opposed to piracy. But when I look around at the dysmal state of PC gaming today, I am so disgusted that at this point, I have completely reversed my philosophy about this issue.
We will never allow any sort of piracy on tessmage.com and that is for legal reasons. But just between you and me... I could honestly give a rat's ass what anybody does amongst their own private circles at this point. The industry needs to be hurt... and they need to be hurt BAD. Piracy seems to be the very best way to hurt them at this point, so hey... knock yerselves out, fellow gamers.
- Tessera -
NOTE: this editorial article is mainly directed at the gaming PUBLISHERS... not at the gaming studios. I realize that most studios these days are essentially whoring out their work to some huge publisher or other and for the most part, any problems with the software are not the direct fault of those studios. They haven't been given much of a choice by their lords and masters, in most cases. Just look at what happened to Troika Games and many other fine studios that were pushed right off the face of the planet by their greedy publishers... and you'll see what I mean.
For the longest time, I was against the idea of piracy, but recent... "changes" in the industry made me reconsider my ideas.
Why should I be frustrated with preposterous copy protection methods even when I purchase a legal copy?
Why should I enter a fake address from USA when I'm logging into Games for Windows LIVE? If you don't know, LIVE is only supported in 27 countries excluding mine, even though legal copies of LIVE games are sold throughout the world.
Why should I be connected to the internet to play a single player game?
Why should I wait for a patch for months to have a satisfying game experience, after I buy a so-called full version of a game for its full price?
And last but not least, and what this post is all about, why should I pay for the game publishers' advertisements when all I want to buy is their game? Check out this money grubbing bastard:
http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/08/26/eas-chief-creative-officer-describes-game-industrys-re-engineering/
QuoteEA now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game. That's because advertising is critical to getting a game in the top ten rankings. If you have a $10 million game, don't be surprised if the the TV advertising costs drive the ad budget to $30 million.
I'm fed up with this shit. Every game needs to be published with
advertisements whose budget triples the game's budget to be able to deceive casual idiots who'd buy craptastic games. Sure, there are other factors to determine games' prices other than advertisement costs, but when the ad budget triples the game's budget, I feel like I'm paying for these ads more than the game itself. Even though I don't care about these ads.
I know it's unlikely, but I still hope to see the demise of the top selling game publishers. >:( Maybe then we would have a chance to see a new game which doesn't suck donkey balls.
There isn't that games worth buying in these coming months.
There are a few games out there that's worth buying, but they are old games that don't have the dreaded DRM or activation codes, no CD's key codes, if you lose that,,,, well,,,. Hell!! I don't register none of my games, BECAUSE, it's none of their bee's wax to know.
Quote from: Cat on August 31, 2009, 01:17:13 PM
There isn't that games worth buying in these coming months.
Nothing that I am interested in until Dragon Age in November.
Quote from: Steeal on August 31, 2009, 05:51:34 PM
Quote from: Cat on August 31, 2009, 01:17:13 PM
There isn't that games worth buying in these coming months.
Nothing that I am interested in until Dragon Age in November.
I would agree, if I wasn't so excited about Batman Arkham Asylum. I bought and finished the PS3 version, but I'm going to sell it next week so I can get the PC version instead on the 15th. Best voice acting since Vampire Bloodlines (aside from just being a good fun game). Almost all of the Animated series cast including Mark Hamill as the Joker. There has never been any other Joker compared to Mark Hamill. That was reason enough for me to buy it right there.
Quote from: AjuntaPall316 on September 01, 2009, 01:54:34 AMThere has never been any other Joker compared to Mark Hamill.
What about Jack Nicholson..?
Quote from: Tessera on September 01, 2009, 02:02:04 AM
Quote from: AjuntaPall316 on September 01, 2009, 01:54:34 AMThere has never been any other Joker compared to Mark Hamill.
What about Jack Nicholson..?
Both Nicholson and Ledger did good jobs on their "interpretation" of the Joker. But Mark Hamill IS the JOKER. ;)
Quote from: Tessera on September 01, 2009, 02:02:04 AM
Quote from: AjuntaPall316 on September 01, 2009, 01:54:34 AMThere has never been any other Joker compared to Mark Hamill.
What about Jack Nicholson..?
Jack Nicholson is a "clown" type of Joker. Mark Hamill's Joker is more in the psychopath wave. Guive him fangs, and enjoy your "friendly" sabbat malkavian... :)
Why couldn't they have just dug up Heath Ledger, strapped a load of cables to his throat and force-emulated his voice?
Quote from: Steeal on August 31, 2009, 05:51:34 PM
Quote from: Cat on August 31, 2009, 01:17:13 PM
There isn't that games worth buying in these coming months.
Nothing that I am interested in until Dragon Age in November.
Divinity 2.
*Has German version.*
One of the best games i have ever played.
I'll make sure to take a look at that one. I loved Divine Divinity.
I know there was a PS3 game in which they (Sony?) injected advertising AFTER the product was sold. What kind of bullshit is that? They sell it one way, then you play it for a few weeks, then they slap advertising all over it?
I don't think piracy itself is going to teach the publishers a lesson, because I think they are too stupid to connect the dots.
Rather than use it as a form of punishment, I would support it in a similar, but different way. I can support someone downloading a pirated copy of a game to see if it is worth a shit first. If it is broken and unfinished, bye-bye. If it is a complete product, then you go buy it.
Even bringing a claim in small-claims court is gonna set you back 20-30 bones, so the incentive to win back $50 is weak...
I agree also. that Mark Hamill, is the best Joker hands down! He must be a trip in the recording studio when he does his voice over.
Stay on-topic, guys. :police:
What!? You should know by now that my return means threads get derailed rather easily. :angel:
Nice to see you back here, BTW. 8)
PS -- she still has herpes.
I wonder if theres still the pirates Codex: If the game is good, i buy the legal copy. Thats how im doing it with every stuff. Good work needs its fruits, and EA needs a shovel in its face...twice.
They really spend 30m on ads for a 10m game? mmmh correct me if im wrong but thats not what they thought me in Buissness studies, old rule was 4% of project cost into ad, now they raised it to 10% due to high media presence... so which idiots idea is it to spend 300% of costs????
Oh... that reminds me:
It is very easy to exchange copies of Hellgate: London with your friends. But only if (1) their installed copy of the game has been patched with the most recent single-player patch and (2) if both of you have 64-bit operating systems (XP or Vista x64, etc.)
Just compress the entire installed game into an RAR file and then give it to your friend. Decompress that RAR onto your friend's hard drive, so that all of the various sub-directories are restored intact. And then, your friend just needs to create a desktop shortcut to the following file:
hellgate_sp_dx9_x64.exe
- OR -
hellgate_sp_dx10_x64.exe
Select whichever one corresponds to your version of DirectX (DX9 or DX10/11). Highlight the correct executable file for your version of DirectX in its sub-folder, then press <Ctrl+C> to copy it and then, right-click anywhere on your desktop and select "Paste Shortcut" from the pop-up menu. You can rename the resulting shortcut anything that you want to, if you so desire. Both of those files can be found within Hellgate's "SP_x64" sub-folder.
This works because the most recent SP patch "unprotected" the 64-bit versions of the Hellgate engine... meaning that you don't need to have any Windows registry entries present for Hellgate, nor do you need to have the DVD in your DVD-ROM drive in order to simply play the game. Just launch it directly from its 64-bit executable file and have fun... it is as simple as that.
Note that I am merely providing the above information for educational purposes only. I would *never* actually try to encourage anyone to pirate a copy of Hellgate from their friends. I mean... that would be like, a totally wrong thing to do.
Almost as wrong as charging $50 USD for a miserably broken and poorly supported game, that ultimately drove its studio (Flagship) out of business... thanks to their own (and EA's) greed and irresponsibility. :P
Quote from: Prometheus on September 03, 2009, 04:21:16 PM
I wonder if theres still the pirates Codex: If the game is good, i buy the legal copy. Thats how I'm doing it with every stuff. Good work needs its fruits, and EA needs a shovel in its face...twice.
They really spend 30m on ads for a 10m game? mmmh correct me if I'm wrong but thats not what they thought me in Business studies, old rule was 4% of project cost into ad, now they raised it to 10% due to high media presence... so which idiots idea is it to spend 300% of costs????
I completely agree, I have played a lot of games I never payed for it... because they weren't what I wanted to begin with. And in the other hand, I have a lot of games I purchased after playing with a "security copy" version of it, games I don't mind to reinstall an play again and again. My only regret is the end of Sierra as how it was (I'm a great fan of their "Homeworld" series, and I totally loved No One Lives forever 1 & 2), and the fact the Ground Control saga won't have a fourth game (and there I was, wondering about Sarah Parker's fate, and how she looked so similar to the bad girl commanding the Terran empire's army...).
The problem is, mainly, people no more wants to make good videogames, but to make money fast and cheap. The thing you say about games having x3 more money invested in the launching than in the developing? It sounds to me quite similar to the cinema "top movies", movies so "good" they have to regain all the money invested in them, in their premiere's weekend. And if you go an watch them, they aren't worth a damn.
In my opinion, the main reason of all of this may be quite well an arrangement between software makers and hardware makers. I mean, all that crap about "hiperrealistic water", and it worked quite well enough for the old games just have something people was able to call "water" in the game. If I want to see "hiperrealistic water" I'll go to see the sea, or a river, or the Discovery Channel!
So here we are (and I'm sorry if this is a little out of topic), in a global town, with a society to which is not only good, but a way to prove you are successful when everything produced is just like Kleenex: use and discard.
Mmm... thinking about it, I sound quite like an easy politician, sorry >.< (and sorry too if I wrote something wrong, english is not my primary language... By the way, the Spell Check works ^^U).
Zack Mc Krakken fitted on 1 floppy disc .... plain story and jokes.. same as monkey island or Day of the Tentacle... course those arent shooters or sport games but cmon, they "represented" whats possible at that time
Take Baldurs Gate 2 f.e. wow... was just plain wow... they used 1gig space when the harddrives where slighty in that range for an affordable price... but they used that space wisly
Now you get games that are humoungeuos, for 2- 10 hours playfun somethings definitly wrong there.
As you said, money makes the world go round, no exceptions on games too... you cannot be to political on this issue because its as politically f***ed up as everything else
Simple, we are addicted to the eye candy. And gamers will put up with any amount of bullshit to have it.
I don't think it's so much that we're addicted to eye candy.
I think it's more a matter of having learned to accept eye candy
in place of imaginative and well-constructed gameplay content.
We see the same lowbrow bullshit in major motion pictures these
days. Does your script suck..? Are your actors only slightly more
talented than a trained chimp..? Well then hey, no problem...
just add a bunch of loud explosions and some tits and the public
will happily pay 8 bucks a pop to go see it in the local multiplex.
Chalk it up to the systematic dumbing down of our culture.
Quote from: GameOn on September 05, 2009, 07:06:06 PM
Simple, we are addicted to the eye candy. And gamers will put up with any amount of bullshit to have it.
Bloodlines and Omikron were both released on 3 CD media, which is much smaller in size compared to recent releases. And while they are technologically inferior, they look a lot better than many modern games with super hi-res textures and overused bloom.
Eye candy should be just icing on the cake i.e. a good game with all of its components, story, gameplay, everything, it should not be something to hide a game's flaws.
Quote from: Tessera on September 05, 2009, 08:00:48 PM
We see the same lowbrow bullshit in major motion pictures these
days. Does your script suck..? Are your actors only slightly more
talented than a trained chimp..? Well then hey, no problem...
just add a bunch of loud explosions and some tits and the public
will happily pay 8 bucks a pop to go see it in the local multiplex.
Likewise, make the exact same third person borefest action game with EZ mode regenerating health and automatic cover system, add a soap opera story with a "romance "subplot, pay attention to nothing but its graphics, and you'll make truckloads of money.
Me? I want to play something original. :(
"Necessity is the mother of innovation". As long as hardware capabilities will be enough, the software companies won't make any effort to use them at 100%. And people just demand eye candy, they find beauty = apparency, which is not correct (philosophically speaking, something is more beautiful when it does its function better...).
Personally speaking, 2D adventure graphics were just enough for me, and as for "eye candy", I prefer "to see" something rather than to have a greatly representation of every atom composing the thing I'm seeing... I mean, why do I need an hyper-defined graphic, when my eye won't be able to see more than 20% of the image?
Here's the thing, though...
There's no reason why eye candy and solid content need to be mutually exclusive.
Superior writers exist. Superior games like Bloodlines have proven that they exist.
So where are all the good writers these days..?
Quote from: Tessera on September 06, 2009, 09:04:09 AM
So where are all the good writers these days..?
Looking for work! Developers don't want
good writers, they want something that can be punched out and sold like
an assembly line. GITTY, GITTY GO!!
By, the way, anariel. Your English is not bad at all!
Everyone seems to be trying to imitate the riskless, shallow, 100% politically correct mainstream games instead of coming up with something original and unique. Especially during the financial crisis. Who would invest in a game like Bloodlines instead of making yet another Comic Book superhero game with much less effort and similar budget? Activision? I bet they even regret publishing Bloodlines.
Good writers have no place in today's game industry. Our only hope is to see the collapse of big companies.
Quote from: perez007usa on September 06, 2009, 10:02:58 AM
By, the way, anariel. Your English is not bad at all!
Ty ^^.
I assume the good writers are working as mass-producers for the "top writers". Besides, a great writer with a great idea seems to me something "too complicated" (mean: expensive, in time, money and programming) for the taste of the commercial companies.
Anyway, a great game doesn't need a great writer: just a great idea is good enough to start with. The problem here, few people things about "recycling", which means they try to innovate, making things so "unique" they are... well, plain crap.
Bloodlines is a game without a great idea (it's based upon a pen&paper RPG, with one "classical" main adventure, in the same way the city books were made), but its a carefully nurtured game: the dialogs are well written, the voice actors are good, the music is great without being intrusive (and more importantly: you try to play the game without sound, and you will miss its music a lot), the characters are well defined... But again, its a great game because it was made carefully.
An example of a "great" idea, in my opinion, was "American McGee's Alice". The game has not great dialogues, and is not nearly as inmersive as Bloodlines, not to mention the graphics are even cruder than the ones in Half Life... But the idea of an Alice in wonderland struggling into her mind to retain her sanity, with all the traits of a psychopath, that was what gibed the game a great point.
And now, an example of a great idea becoming bad, Dungeon Siege and the skill-rising system. Like oblivion, the more you used a skill (well, in that game, a type of combat: ranged, melee, magic...), the more it raised. Sadly, unlike Oblivion, you couldn't train the skills out of combat. And unlike in Oblivion, you had one to five characters to train. A totally grindfest, to me. Or SW Republic Commando, a game which I think was designed by the same dudes who made Resident Evil games... I spent most of the game out of ammo, and without my 3 buddies (you play the role of the leader of a 4-squad clone commando), my damage output is about zero using the main weapon. Quite frustrating, going from "3 shots => 1 dead" to "300 shots => maybe five enemies death". Both games tend to be frustrating (but Republic Commando has some good missions to save it from the thrash).
Great dialogs, acceptable graphics, but not a very great idea? No One Lives Forever. Pick James Bond in the 60's, change him to become a cat burglar (a feminine one: the main character is a girl), and mix all with Austin Powers to get the bad guys... It wasn't a great game, but I laughed to tears more than once, being it hearing the dialogs between H.A.R.M.'s agents (that's the name of the "evil organization which wants to conquer the world" XD), or visiting their Space Station, seeing their weapons, or looking at the history's developmet. Quite hilarious for a shooter, I may add.
I'm in no position to judge anyone's English, but apparently you really have a good taste in games. Alice is one of my favorites.
For me a good writer is Hideo Koshima. Well hes stucked in the Console world (i dont know why the hell he doesnt jump into computers to have more space for his ideas)
He hands out books to all members of the developing team and demands that they write in 1 idea per day they always wanted to have in a game. At the end of the day he gathers all books and have a huge laugh and/ or tells the coders to add this or that idea to the game.
But then again, behind him KONAMI swings "the big Club of RELEASE DATE+2"
So long story short, the only way for a good game today seems to be independant of the market... which is impossible because of the slightest showup EA jumps in and buys of your game (just to ruin it again)
Quote from: Kandid on September 06, 2009, 10:59:46 AM
I'm in no position to judge anyone's English, but apparently you really have a good taste in games. Alice is one of my favorites.
Tanks again ^^. For me a game should be:
a) Believable. That doesn't needs tied to reality, but to an internal consistency
b) At least three of: fun, interesting, without requiring half of the NASA computers to run, with room to free development, without 90% useless map, with good characters.
c) A reasonable price (I don't care to wait until the game goes from 60 euros to 20, it's just 6 months or so...)
d) Stable. I can bear an "unfinished" game, as long as my computer won't crash 50% of the times I enter a new zone (of course, additional "missions", like the one for Mass Effect, are welcome), and I know a lot of things are being keep out of every game, for several reasons (money being the most common...).
Hideo Kojima... Great games, but they may become a little too complicated at a times. I hate to get stuck, I must confess. Sadly, since FF10 (and my lost savegames of FF7, at lv 54 before ending the first CD...) I don't have the patience to "master" a game the way a console shooter requires from me (keyboard + mouse for me, thanks...). By the way... Did you know he was behind 3 dating simulation games for the DS? Quite strange, but I feel he would do a great job in graphical adventure games.
Quote from: Prometheus on September 06, 2009, 11:00:19 AM
For me a good writer is Hideo Koshima. He hands out books to all members of the developing team and demands that they write in 1 idea per day they always wanted to have in a game. At the end of the day he gathers all books and have a huge laugh and/ or tells the coders to add this or that idea to the game.
Hideo Koshima, was doing the same thing that Gene Roddenbury creator of Star Trek. He gave out to the writers, a book on what to write and not to write about Star Trek to keep the "continuity" of the show, and Hideo was doing that.
If the game developers would JUST LISTEN to theirs writers instead of their bank accounts, maybe then they will come up with something original. That will last, and make a name for themselves.
That's my way of thinking!
What happen to that wirters' strike a while back?
That was just about writers getting more money.in a few years time, you're not going to have a game anymore. You're going to have a CGI rendered man jangling a set of keys saying "Look at the shiney shiney. Look at the shiney shiney", and it will sell like hotcakes.
As of this morning, Hollywood has once again managed to temporarily shut down The Pirate Bay (http://thepiratebay.org/) web site.
The owners of the site... whomever they may be... have promised that they already have a contingency plan ready and they hope to be back online within a matter of hours.
My personal comment regarding this ongoing situation of piracy is simply this...
To the entertainment and software industries:
Stop releasing assembly line garbage that you don't deserve to be paid for -- and people will stop stealing it. Piracy is a predictable response by an angry public, who have felt exploited and ripped off for far too long by a greedy and dishonest industry. When all nine theaters in the studio-owned multiplex are all showing formulaic crap, produced by untalented whores who go to great lengths to shut out independent productions from their theaters, and when they charge eight bucks per ticket for said dumbed-down and formulaic trash... does it really surprise anyone that such a large percentage of the public has fought back by resorting to online piracy..?
Fix your own mess, Hollywood. A deterioration in customer loyalty is what is truly at the heart of your problem. And that problem is entirely your own fault... you greedy, unethical slimebags.
The above comment also applies to the PC gaming industry. In triplicate.
Power to the people. 8)
Oh, well... It would be good if they would stop shouting wihtout pause that every pirate is a 100% sure customer if there were no other choice but to pay for their crap. The problem is, they have been doing it for so much time now, they believe it themselves...
Oh well... now where can I go when EzTV can't give me my weekly dosage of TV series? At least, from time to time, I found one I really like or found entertaining...
About the games, I'm less worried. Almost all of the ones being released lately don't even deserve the effort to find, download and install a pirated copy... And I think that says everything that can be said about the gaming "industry".
Quote from: anariel on May 17, 2010, 09:18:47 AM
Oh well... now where can I go when EzTV can't give me my weekly dosage of TV series?
Pirate Bay will be back. It will probably take a few hours to a few days before their new IP is resolved and propagated throughout the web. They've been through this bullshit once before (back in 2006) and it took them three days (if I remember correctly) to get back up and running again.
But this I know: 50 million users are more powerful than 50 Hollywood lawyers. A lot more powerful... especially when we have magnet links.
Fuck you, Hollywood. You lose... again. Now stop monopolizing the theaters and then churning out miserable, formulaic crap and MAYBE you will become winners again. Food for thought.
Establishment gonna fall down and go boom soon. :laugh:
unless they get bailed out
They won't.
That's fine.
The government can keep stealing our money to provide unauthorized bailouts... and We The People
can keep stealing it right back from these corporate clowns, by pirating the living mortal shit out of
their monopolized, formulaic, mediocre-by-design products.
Works for me. Bad laws were made to be broken. And when the laws no longer protect the majority
of the people, but instead only seem to serve the interests of a small percentage of greedy parasites
living in ivory towers at all of our expense, then that's what I call a bad law.
Quote from: Tessera on May 17, 2010, 01:28:22 PM
That's fine.
The government can keep stealing our money to provide unauthorized bailouts... and We The People
can keep stealing it right back from these corporate clowns, by pirating the living mortal shit out of
their monopolized, formulaic, mediocre-by-design products.
Works for me. Bad laws were made to be broken. And when the laws no longer protect the majority
of the people, but instead only seem to serve the interests of a small percentage of greedy parasites
living in ivory towers at all of our expense, then that's what I call a bad law.
And they can only gives so much money till the economy collapses.
What!!?? economy. They are playing the same game, but now they are using our money instead!
LOL...
http://thepiratebay.org/
Hollywood's shuysters probably spent two years preparing a case against Pirate Bay.
And it took TPB all of two days to get back online. Fucking hilarious.
And they posted a quirky little message on their entry page.
I love it. :laugh:
Quote from: Tessera on May 18, 2010, 06:48:19 PM
And they posted a quirky little message on their entry page.
I love it. :laugh:
Though I bet you didn't like the accompanying photo, being a cat hater and all. :P
Cylnar, Internet cats are not really cats, the same way computer mouses don't eat cheese. And lolcat is a very good way to ridiculize them XDDDD
Keep stealing their software via Pirate Bay and elsewhere as a way of punishing the software industry... and then maybe their wallets will start hurting enough for them to actually start responding to the rampant problems within their companies and their products. Power to the people... and pain for greedy, bloated and uncaring corporations. If profits are all that they care about, then that's the best place for consumers to attack them in retaliation. Chew away at their profits... terrify their stockholders... scare away potential new investors... and their pitiful house of cards will come crashing to the ground.
As for the legalities..? Fuck 'em. Where are the laws protecting all of -us- from being exploited and bled dry by forced consumerism, planned obsolescence, false and misleading advertising, inferior and broken software, draconian DRM schemes, products unfit for their stated purpose, and so on..? And hey... good luck putting all 500 million of us in jail (that's the best estimate of how many people worldwide have pirated software at least once during the past ten years). Let us know when you get finished building all of those new prisons to hold us, okay..? And good luck paying for them, too.
Fight back against big business, people. Don't just let them suck you dry and think that you have no power to stop it. Yes you do... in sheer numbers. Believe it -- because it is the truth.
another thing to point out about company greed (i flipped through the thread so i'm not sure if it was mentioned) but buying dlc for a game when its obviously already installed with the original (or vanilla version) of the game, for example i bought the vs gameplay for resident evil 5 for ps3, the download was only 100kb, how is that ethical to bleed your customers for extra money to get content thats already on the disk
That's why I love abandonware so much :D
Quote from: Tarbos on March 17, 2011, 04:17:40 AMThat's why I love abandonware so much :D
Quite a few Abandonware games are still better than whats churned out these days.
I think quite a LOT of old games are far better than new "games". For example old dungeons like Realms of Arkania Trilogy, Ambermoon, or Black Crypt have higher replayability than all recent RPGs together (with exception of Witcher, VtM:R and VtM:B)...
Hey all, here is a link to an article that I think could apply to this discussion, this is an article by PC Gamer with Christofer Sundberg
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/25/just-cause-boss-says-hiring-hackers-and-better-games-will-beat-pc-piracy/
I can only hope that he will put his money where his mouth is and not just be saying what he thinks we as PC gamers want to hear. Make it and we will pay it to play it...if not then shut the fuck up and dont make statements you wont back-up.
Quote from: Schu on March 26, 2011, 06:55:00 PM...and better games...
Well, duh!
And in the same vein, Ubisoft got caught with its pants down, again.
"Ubisoft have just made yet another piracy related screw up. Hot on the heels of their earlier usage of a warez crack to fix Rainbox 6: Vegas 2, the publisher is now accused of downloading their own soundtrack from Demonoid, re-encoding it to a lower quality and selling it to the public."
Quote from: PC GamesBetter PC games and a better relationship with hackers are the key to fighting piracy, according to Christofer Sundberg, the boss of Just Cause creators
Or to put it more simply: stop ripping off the public with shitty products at a premium price.
And then maybe, we will stop retaliating... by ripping off YOU, dumbass.
::)
Personally, I would actually be happier to see their entire industry come crashing to the ground.
They've earned it... in spades. So has the music industry. And so has Hollywood.
Now eat it.
Quote from: Ratcatcher on March 26, 2011, 10:46:57 PM
"Ubisoft have just made yet another piracy related screw up. Hot on the heels of their earlier usage of a warez crack to fix Rainbox 6: Vegas 2, the publisher is now accused of downloading their own soundtrack from Demonoid, re-encoding it to a lower quality and selling it to the public."
What? I want to hear more details of this one XDDD
Quote from: anariel on March 27, 2011, 09:49:01 AM
Quote from: Ratcatcher on March 26, 2011, 10:46:57 PM
"Ubisoft have just made yet another piracy related screw up. Hot on the heels of their earlier usage of a warez crack to fix Rainbox 6: Vegas 2, the publisher is now accused of downloading their own soundtrack from Demonoid, re-encoding it to a lower quality and selling it to the public."
What? I want to hear more details of this one XDDD
There you go. (http://torrentfreak.com/ubisoft-pirates-assassins-creed-brotherhood-music-from-demonoid-110316/)
ty ^^
How To Play Civilization 5 for FREE and WITHOUT STEAM:
First, you will need a torrent downloader. My personal favorite is BitTorrent, but there are a few other good ones out there. You will need this software on your computer for any and all torrent files that you wish to download in this world. Do not worry... it is not a virus or a piece of malware. BitTorrent is simply a Windows application like any other, and it is perfectly safe. As for exactly what a torrent is, that's a lengthy explanation that I don't feel like getting into right now. Suffice to say that there are lots of people all over the world who have copies of the file you are trying to download. The torrent system allows everyone to upload and download bits and pieces of what they have to everyone else who is sharing that same torrent. Torrent software like BitTorrent simply locates where everyone is and then coordinates the flow of data between all of the people sharing that torrent. Torrents are also an excellent way for people to exchange files on the web, without having to worry about being harassed by law enforcement agencies. It is very difficult to trace a specific data packet back to any one individual... and not only that, it is even more difficult to prosecute anyone even if you -did- catch them, due to the fact that no one person is giving the entire file to any other one person. All of it is broken up into a billion pieces and there may be hundreds or even thousands of individuals sharing those pieces... all over the world at once. So like... no worries. And besides, any law which protects the super-rich at the expense of normal folks like you and me is a very bad law -- and bad laws were made to be broken.
Okay, so now that you have Googled for BitTorrent and installed it into Windows, here is what you need to do , in order to download a free copy of Civilization 5 and then, apply a large "crack" to it, so that it will launch and run independently... without any need for serial numbers, activation codes, or the Steam service:
(1) First download the game itself from The Pirate Bay. You can find an excellent copy of it here:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5846266/Civilization_V_-_Deluxe_Edition
Simply download that torrent (click the link that says "Download this torrent") and then unpack it afterward (it's an RAR file), to any location of your choosing on your hard drive. Do not try to play it yet.
(2) Download the extensive SKIDROW crack for Civ 5 from The Pirate Bay. You can get it here:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5851928/Civilization_5_Crack_from_SKIDROW_this_one_works
Download and unpack that file. You will end up with a whole bunch of files after it has been unpacked.
(3) Apply the working SKIDROW crack to the actual game that you downloaded in step 1. Simply copy all of the files and sub-folders from within the crack and then paste them into the actual game itself. If you do this correctly, then Windows will warn you that the files in question already exist and ask if you wish to overwrite. Just say "Yes" to all and allow the cracked files to overwrite the original game files.
(4) Run an anti-virus and anti-malware scan on everything, after you have finished with step 3. Just to be safe. We are talking about a pirate web site, after all... and anything can happen over there. I have personally never had a problem... but as I say, just do it to be safe.
(5) There are two different executable files which launch Civ 5. One is a normal DirectX 9 version and the other is a DirectX 11 version, for Windows 7 users. So if you are running Windows XP, then you want the normal "CivilizationV.exe" file. If you are using Windows 7, then you want the "CivilizationV_DX11.exe" file. So locate the correct executable file for your system, and then proceed to the next step.
(6) Highlight the correct executable for your operating system and then copy it.
(7) Now, right-click on any blank area of your Windows desktop and select "Paste shortcut" from the little menu that pops up. That's all there is to it.
(8} Double-click on your new shortcut and play the game. Make sure that you go into the Options menu at first, so that you can set up all of your personal preferences.
If you follow all of the above instructions correctly, then you will not only be able to get a perfect copy of Civilization V for free... but you will also be able to play it without any hassles from Steam. In fact, the game itself won't even know that Steam exists. It will become a completely self-contained, stand-alone game. THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. THE WAY EVERY GAME SHOULD BE.
Have fun out there. And remember: the best way to fight back against corporate greed is by hitting them where it hurts them the most: in their wallets. If enough of us stand together in this way, then maybe... just maybe... the amoral pricks in the software industry might just GET A FUCKING CLUE and stop bludgeoning us all to death with forced consumerism, draconian DRM and worst of all, MEDIOCRE PRODUCTS that are not worth full price. Not now -- not ever. Period.
Hey... I can dream. But in the meantime, I don't have to dream. And neither do any of you. Torrents and magnet links will bring these fucking industries to their knees eventually... and when that happens, I for one will be delighted. They've been asking for it for 30 years... and now, they're getting it rammed right up their asses.
Power to the people, baby. 8)
DISCLAIMER:
Software piracy is illegal -- so if you decide to follow any of these suggestions, then you do so at your own risk and on your own responsibility. I am simply presenting this information because... well, because this is a free country and I can say whatever the fuck I want, that's why. That right is guaranteed to me by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. It does not say "You have the right to freedom of speech, unless what you say cuts into some company's profits." No, it simply says that I am guaranteed the right to freedom of speech, period. So blow me if you don't like it, okay..? And have a great day.
Has anyone here ever gotten a "letter" from their ISP or whatever concerning piracy or am I the only one? In fact I got two, lol.
Then again I have pirated many many games. There is only one cable high speed internet provider in my area which sucks because they shut you off.
But anyways even if you get caught it's a safe bet its only a warning. Civ5 is a great game and I recommend using any and all means possible to play it! ;D
Nope, I have never received any such warnings, nor do I know anyone who has.
But yes... it is always a possibility. Everything in life involves risks... both great and small. And in this particular case, I consider the risks to be very small. Torrents are extremely difficult to identify and trace, for one thing. Magnet links are even harder. And trying to legally prosecute someone... even if you do somehow manage to catch them... is an incredibly difficult pain in the ass, especially if the accused is close-mouthed and uncooperative.
And beyond simply getting something for free, I feel that there is another issue for everyone to consider. It is in fact what this entire thread is all about: fighting back, non-violently, against corporate greed and exploitation. I think it is self-evident that money and power are the only things that these elitist parasites understand. So if you want to protest against them and everyone like them, then piracy is an excellent way for the common man and woman to give Big Business the finger.
Everywhere I go, I hear people bitching and saying that they want "change." Well there is something else that I know: at this sad point in history, change is never going to happen legally, through the system. Our legislators would have to be the ones to change the laws, and forcibly impose restrictions and accountability upon Big Business. But if there is one thing which should be obvious by now, it is that our legislators are mostly WHORES... who are in the employ of Big Business.
So then, what recourse is left to us all..? Whining endlessly, in the hopes that they will see the light one day..? Well that may be okay for the gutless sheep out there, who routinely bend over and keep taking yet another inch of corporate cock up their asses.
But as for me, I prefer to fight back... in any way that I can. And I do. ;)
Quote from: Tessera on May 26, 2011, 06:46:18 AM
....Simply download that torrent (click the link that says "Download this torrent") and then unpack it afterward (it's an RAR file), to any location of your choosing on your hard drive. Do not try to play it yet.
(2) Download the extensive SKIDROW crack for Civ 5 from The Pirate Bay.
Download and unpack that file. You will end up with a whole bunch of files after it has been unpacked.
(3) Apply the working SKIDROW crack to the actual game that you downloaded in step 1. Simply copy all of the files and sub-folders from within the crack and then paste them into the actual game itself. If you do this correctly, then Windows will warn you that the files in question already exist and ask if you wish to overwrite. Just say "Yes" to all and allow the cracked files to overwrite the original game files.
(4) Run an anti-virus and anti-malware scan on everything, after you have finished with step 3. Just to be safe. We are talking about a pirate web site, after all... and anything can happen over there. I have personally never had a problem... but as I say, just do it to be safe.
(5) There are two different executable files which launch Civ 5. One is a normal DirectX 9 version and the other is a DirectX 11 version, for Windows 7 users. So if you are running Windows XP, then you want the normal "CivilizationV.exe" file. If you are using Windows 7, then you want the "CivilizationV_DX11.exe" file. So locate the correct executable file and then proceed to the next step.
(6) Highlight the correct executable for your operating system and then copy it.
(7) Now, right-click on any blank area of your Windows desktop and select "Paste shortcut" from the little menu that pops up. That's all there is to it.
(8} Double-click on your new shortcut and play the game. Make sure that you go into the Options menu at first, so that you can set up all of your personal preferences.
If you follow all of the above instructions correctly, then you will not only be able to get a perfect copy of Civilization V for free... but you will also be able to play it without any hassles from Steam. In fact, the game itself won't even know that Steam exists. It will become a completely self-contained, stand-alone game. THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. THE WAY EVERY GAME SHOULD BE.
So the game doesn't require any registry entries (installation), even in WinXP? :o
Quote from: Tessera on May 26, 2011, 07:05:30 AM
Everywhere I go, I hear people bitching and saying that they want "change." Well there is something else that I know: at this sad point in history, change is never going to happen legally, through the system. Our legislators would have to be the ones to change the laws, and forcibly impose restrictions and accountability upon Big Business. But if there is one thing which should be obvious by now, it is that our legislators are mostly WHORES... who are in the employ of Big Business.
There's no call to insult honest prostitutes by comparing politicians to them... :laugh:
Quote from: Cylnar on May 26, 2011, 12:07:25 PM
So the game doesn't require any registry entries (installation), even in WinXP? :o
That is correct. Just follow all of my instructions and then simply launch the game. If you have any problems for whatever reason, then try running the home-made "Fixer.exe" utility that is bundled in with the main torrent package. After you set everything up, you will find "Fixer.exe" located in the main Civ 5 folder. I think that little hack automatically fixes up your registry, if needed. After that, it should work perfectly.
Well... not perfectly. There is no such thing as a version of Civ5 that works perfectly -- whether you paid for it, or not. Like most software these days, Civ5 was released with several bugs in its engine and it also seems to suffer from a memory leak. It can sometimes crash, after you have been playing it for an hour or two. I suggest saving the game after about an hour of play, then shut it down, and then launch it again and pick up where you left off... from your previous game save.
Gotta love sloppy coding. ::) Not really. :P
But yeah, memory leaks and other buggy issues are a stupidly common problem these days. >:(
Quote from: Steeal on May 26, 2011, 06:51:04 AM
Has anyone here ever gotten a "letter" from their ISP or whatever concerning piracy or am I the only one? In fact I got two, lol.
Then again I have pirated many many games. There is only one cable high speed internet provider in my area which sucks because they shut you off.
But anyways even if you get caught it's a safe bet its only a warning. Civ5 is a great game and I recommend using any and all means possible to play it! ;D
Let me guess..... ComCast?
Quote from: beetle on May 26, 2011, 12:50:49 PM
Quote from: Steeal on May 26, 2011, 06:51:04 AM
Has anyone here ever gotten a "letter" from their ISP or whatever concerning piracy or am I the only one? In fact I got two, lol.
Then again I have pirated many many games. There is only one cable high speed internet provider in my area which sucks because they shut you off.
But anyways even if you get caught it's a safe bet its only a warning. Civ5 is a great game and I recommend using any and all means possible to play it! ;D
Let me guess..... ComCast?
Got one when my brother downloaded FO3 dlc, but nothing ultimatey happened.
I have Charter
Here's another resource for ya's. The following link will take you to a forum board run by folks who produce cracked versions of Steam games.
Play almost ANY Steam game without Steam:
http://cs.rin.ru/forum/viewforum.php?f=32
There's lots of interesting stuff there, which I have no doubt makes Valve/Steam very, very angry. Which in turn makes me very, very happy. :laugh:
Thanks for that link Tessera, I have been looking for ways of getting rid of Steam.
Quote from: Schu on May 31, 2011, 05:57:37 PM
I have been looking for ways of getting rid of Steam.
Aye... you and thousands of other people.
The fact of the matter is that the gaming industry has gotten out of control. With such schemes as DRM, limited installs, and the inability to resell your games, or even give them away after you've grown tired of them, the industry has effectively exploited, inconvenienced and insulted its honest customers for quite a few years now.
And what about their revolting practice of knowingly releasing broken and buggy games... and yet charging full price for those products..? What kind of lazy, irresponsible and greedy bullshit is that..?!
The buying public has been left with little to no recourse in such matters. Most retail stores won't even give you a refund for a shitty game... not if the packaging has already been opened. Which is of course ridiculous, because there is no way to discover whether or not a given game sucks without opening it and installing it. So once again, the honest consumer is exploited, inconvenienced, insulted and downright RIPPED OFF on a routine basis.
The law offers no recourse, thanks to the deregulation of big business and also, the fact that most politicians these days are effectively in the employ of the wealthy.
So then... what solution to this problem remains..? How can We The People fight back against this kind of greedy, dishonest and uncontrolled industry..? What possible way can we punish them for all of the above and more..?
I have thought about this issue for several years. And eventually, I came to the conclusion that the very best way to punish greedy assholes is to hurt them in the one place where they seem to feel the most pain: IN THEIR WALLETS. And the very best way for us to do that is to pirate the living shit out of EVERYTHING... until their collective losses add up into the millions of dollars.
This is not amoral on our part, either.
How can you steal from a thief..? The industry has already proven itself to be a bloated gang of thieves, run from on high by selfish and insensitive publishers such as Electronic Arts, ActiVision, and all the rest of those revolting little polyester-clad pricks.
We The People have been screaming about this shit for years and years. The industry has responded by behaving tyrannically, using their wealth to leverage their way into doing whatever the fuck they feel like doing... and with nearly total impunity.
Well, it is my position that this bullshit needs to be stopped. And right now, piracy represents the very best way to stop it in a non-violent manner.
I am quite sure that there will be plenty of people who disagree with me on this issue. But I am also quite confident that there will be plenty MORE people who will agree 100 percent. Well then, for those of you who agree, I salute you. I hope that all of you will carefully consider everything that I have been saying within this thread and then... well, I think you know what to do.
I can not legally tell anyone else to resort to piracy, because technically that would be inciting others to commit crimes. But there is no law which prevents me from telling you HOW to get into piracy as a way of striking back at the industry. The rest is up to you. ;)
Quote from: Tessera on May 31, 2011, 08:15:34 PM
Quote from: Schu on May 31, 2011, 05:57:37 PM
I have been looking for ways of getting rid of Steam.
Aye... you and thousands of other people.
The fact of the matter is that the gaming industry has gotten out of control. With such schemes as DRM, limited installs, and the inability to resell your games, or even give them away after you've grown tired of them, the industry has effectively exploited, inconvenienced and insulted its honest customers for quite a few years now.
And what about their revolting practice of knowingly releasing broken and buggy games... and yet charging full price for those products..? What kind of lazy, irresponsible and greedy bullshit is that..?!
The buying public has been left with little to no recourse in such matters. Most retail stores won't even give you a refund for a shitty game... not if the packaging has already been opened. Which is of course ridiculous, because there is no way to discover whether or not a given game sucks without opening it and installing it. So once again, the honest consumer is exploited, inconvenienced, insulted and downright RIPPED OFF on a routine basis.
The law offers no recourse, thanks to the deregulation of big business and also, the fact that most politicians these days are effectively in the employ of the wealthy.
So then... what solution to this problem remains..? How can We The People fight back against this kind of greedy, dishonest and uncontrolled industry..? What possible way can we punish them for all of the above and more..?
I have thought about this issue for several years. And eventually, I came to the conclusion that the very best way to punish greedy assholes is to hurt them in the one place where they seem to feel the most pain: IN THEIR WALLETS. And the very best way for us to do that is to pirate the living shit out of EVERYTHING... until their collective losses add up into the millions of dollars.
This is not amoral on our part, either. How can you steal from a thief..? The industry has already proven itself to be a bloated gang of thieves, run from on high by selfish and insensitive publishers such as Electronic Arts, ActiVision, and all the rest of those revolting little polyester-clad pricks.
We The People have been screaming about this shit for years and years. The industry has responded by behaving tyrannically, using their wealth to leverage their way into doing whatever the fuck they feel like doing... and with nearly total impunity.
Well, it is my position that this bullshit needs to be stopped. And right now, piracy represents the very best way to stop it in a non-violent manner.
I am quite sure that there will be plenty of people who disagree with me on this issue. But I am also quite confident that there will be plenty MORE people who will agree 100 percent. Well then, for those of you who agree, I salute you. I hope that all of you will carefully consider everything that I have been saying within this thread and then... well, I think you know what to do.
I can not legally tell anyone else to resort to piracy, because technically that would be inciting others to commit crimes. But there is no law which prevents me from telling you HOW to get into piracy as a way of striking back at the industry. The rest is up to you. ;)
that why I buy used games on my console, not to mention I can ebay them if their crap.
Prob why their demonizing the used game market.
On that same note. (http://torrentfreak.com/it-is-everybodys-duty-to-defy-unjust-laws-110529/)
"Laws are not made because they are righteous. Laws are made because they advance somebody's political career."
(It should be noted that these are words that don't come from a rock-throwing masked guy, but from a professional politician in suit and tie.)
Quote from: Ratcatcher on June 01, 2011, 03:03:36 AM
On that same note. (http://torrentfreak.com/it-is-everybodys-duty-to-defy-unjust-laws-110529/)
Looks like he's saying pretty much the same things that I've been saying. I salute his rebel spirit.
And I had to smile when I saw that he is Swedish. The Pirate Bay was originally a Swedish web site.
But when the police raided them a few years ago, the owners of TPB fought back.. by moving the
physical location of their server to another country altogether.
The site has since changed hands a few times, so as to keep its location "on the move" and hence,
beyond the clutches of law enforcement. It has truly become a pirate web site, in every sense.
Power to the people. When the law mainly protects the wealthy elitists and simultaneously harms
the common person, then what does that tell you about the law..? And even more importantly,
what does that tell you about your own moral duty..? Should a moral person keep obeying an
amoral law..? Or should a moral person defy an amoral law..?
The answer to the above question depends upon the extent to which you have been programmed
into behaving like an obedient little sheep. That's the bottom line here.
GOOD REASONS FOR WHY YOU SHOULD PIRATE CIVILIZATION V:
(1) The publisher knowingly released Civ5 in a wretchedly broken, buggy and unfinished state.
(2) And yet, they charged everyone full price for what was essentially a broken product.
(3) What do you call someone who charges full price for an inferior and broken piece of merchandise..?
(4) Most of us would call people who knowingly, willingly and ROUTINELY rip us off a BUNCH OF THIEVES, would we not..?
(5) So with all of this in mind, should habitual thieves be rewarded -- or should they be punished..?
(6) Lastly... can you think of any better way to punish a bunch of thieves, than to turn the tables on them..?
(7) If you agree with all of the above statements, then pirating such games is actually the MORAL thing to do.
Yes -- I said it's the MORAL thing to do. Punishing habitual thieves by denying them their profits is the very best way to discourage them from any future thievery. That is my philosophy, so far as this issue is concerned. To knowingly release a product that is not finished... to willingly release software that you KNOW is seriously dysfunctional... and yet to smile and hold your hands out and ask for FULL PRICE for what is essentially half a product is DISHONEST THIEVERY, folks. If you wanna kid yourselves and call it something else, then go right ahead. But you'd be lying to yourselves.
A thief is a thief is a thief. And I can't think of any better way to punish a thief than to turn the tables on him or her... and show them just how rotten it feels to be stolen from. So if they're going to continue to knowingly release unfinished products and yet charge full price for them, then it is my opinion that the larger gaming community should respond by ramping up the degree of software piracy until these greedy and amoral assholes finally cave in and surrender. It really is the best weapon that we have, if our goal is to fight back against what is unquestionably a greedy, manipulative and immoral industry.
There are a number of people out there who will look at my list of reasons and say something like "But that's the way it's always been in the software industry." Well DUH... yes, I am aware of this fact. But what none of you seem to grasp is that it DOES NOT NEED TO BE THIS WAY. Forget all of the rationalizations, excuses and smiling bullshit spewed forth by software publishers, because none of those excuses bear up under intense scrutiny. No... they simply do it this way because WE ARE LETTING THEM DO IT THIS WAY. There is a complete lack of any regulation upon the software industry, thus they have pretty much done whatever they felt like doing... and laughed at the rest of us when we complained. Laughed all the way to the bank -- with YOUR MONEY in their pockets.
Hit 'em where it hurts: hit 'em in their wallets. Maybe even make their stockholders nervous in the process. And who knows..? Maybe they'll finally come crashing to the ground... which is exactly what Steam, EA, ActiVision, Ubisoft and all the rest of these parasites deserve.
Quote from: Tessera on June 01, 2011, 07:43:18 AM
Power to the people. When the law mainly protects the wealthy elitists and simultaneously harms
the common person, then what does that tell you about the law..? And even more importantly,
what does that tell you about your own moral duty..? Should a moral person keep obeying an
amoral law..? Or should a moral person defy an amoral law..?
While I don't like to go off topic, I'd like to say that I agree with this entirely... but again, there is a catch: ther is no absolute rulebook about what is moral and what is amoral, and nowadays (hell, since the dawn of time ¬¬U) a lot of children grown up without any moral compass. There are people so fucked up out there that even the "don't do unto others what you don't wanna be done" is not enough, because they don't even care about what happens to them.
And I think there is some perverse vein in all humans that makes us exploit any system we look at. Me, I do it a lot in single player videogames (and anybody could call it "customizing" the product to my tastes, but the little detail of that "breaking the code" making me less interested in the game suggests me otherwise), so I suppose I have it under control... which leads to a simple, quite common train of thought in every consciousness around: no one thinks of him/herself as a bad guy/villain. So again, the "moral way", while a definitive and true answer, proves that life is simple, but simple doesn't mean easy.
Sorry for the phylosophical rant, If it serves you as consolation, I've been wihtout buying any game since I started playing with Minecraft, heavily modded.
Quote from: anariel on June 22, 2011, 03:30:49 PMthere is no absolute rulebook about what is moral and what is amoral
Oh yes there is: your own. You decide. It is up to each of us to decide for ourselves
what is or is not "moral," and then act accordingly.
For example, some people think that sex and nudity are "immoral," where as I do not.
In my philosophy, greed at the expense of others is evil. Hence my stand on this issue.
The laws of the land are written by the people who have the most power... not necessarily
by the people who possess the best "moral compass" amongst us. Many (if not most) laws
are designed to keep the rich wealthy and the rest of us in our place. So then, is it moral to
consistently obey such laws... no matter what..? Even if it hurts us and makes others rich..?
Quote from: Tessera on June 22, 2011, 10:15:25 PM
Quote from: anariel on June 22, 2011, 03:30:49 PMthere is no absolute rulebook about what is moral and what is amoral
Oh yes there is: your own. You decide. It is up to each of us to decide for ourselves
what is or is not "moral," and then act accordingly.
Sorry, I didn't specify as much as I needed to: there is no objective rulebook about morality, all are subjective ones, and very dependant on the society their "writers" (each person) have grown up.
For example, I was making a quick look over one of the news today, when my chin almost touched the floor. There was a (small) entry about a kuwaiti (I think Kuwait was the country...) "revolutionary" woman who said that the solution to stop their men to lie to their wives (as in "fucking other women than their wives") was to, in essence, conquer other lands and bring their women as sex slaves. Leaving aside this is a condensed and by no means complete view of that news, and that I don't really fully believe all that I read/watch in the news, I see with horror the inherent contradiction in that woman words: to avoid their men to fuck other women, they need more women to fuck. And to that end, it is a good idea to capture women all around and force them into slavery.
So there is a good example of something I can say, very loudly, wrong. Evil. Bad. Call it whatever you like.
Another example would be the sex & nudity you think is good, yet so many people publicly claim is wrong (another thing entirely would be them enjoying it following the now clichè "american double moral"). There is no rulebook nobody can refer to as an absolute, perfect and impossible to dissent to look at. The moral compass is not like maths, where 1+1=2, and that was my point.
Anariel,
That's a fun little intellectual exercise. Truly.
But what the hell does it have to do with the main point of this thread..?
If you are opposed to being ripped off by the software industry, then fight back.
If you prefer not to fight back, then keep taking it up the ass and paying for it.
That's all that really matters within the context of this discussion. Fight back, or eat it.
Honestly, I don't think most gaming companies care about their software being pirated. The majority of the people who download games, don't have enough knowledge to properly download, unpack, replace DLLs or properly use the cracks that are included in the download. A lot of the game-packers omit some of the instructions because they feel that if you can't figure it out, then you need not use it.
On the other hand, the Movie and Music industries have really been hurt by the torrent sites and let's not forget Youtube!
Today's gaming companies are following the same trends the other entertainment industries are currently employing. The lack of proper content is the direct result and byproduct of the general population's low expectations. Most people have grown accustomed to low quality products and as a result, the various industries have come to recognize and exploit this behaviour. People are dullards that are easily impressed with pretty graphics or special effects.
Consumers are the one's that dictate the content and it's quality. Why else would a movie company produce 13 movies of the same guy doing the same thing every time? Friday the 13th is a prime example. But, people like the character and therefore they pay money to go and see it again.
The Majority of the movies today are pointless, but are full of eye catching effects for the attention starved customers. In the old days, if you went to see a play or comedy, and it sucked, the audience would pelt the comic or artist with eggs or tomatoes or what ever they could hurl in their direction. Just imagine if we could do the same to the gaming industries along side the movie industry.
Gone are the days where the creator or artist dictated the quality of their creations. You guys remember the days of the LP Records? I remember that when you bought an LP, you would get ....
1. A nice outside cover
2. A nice record sleeve
3. Good inside art
4. The song lyrics
5. Even a poster
6. And the most important, at least half the songs were of great quality!
Now days, you're lucky if you get more than one song that is good much less 2 in the entire CD! The record companies sold what they wanted and if you did not like it oh well!
So what I'm I trying to say? The majority of the consumers are not gamers, and therefore are not capable of discerning good from bad so the gaming companies can get away with less quality products
Accountability is what is at stake here. Companies feel that not enough people care to be made accountable. So where do we draw the line?
Big Business Never Ever Loses! You think you're sticking it to the Man, but in reality all you really are doing is sticking it to all the people who get laid off as a result of loss of revenue. Big Business claims their loses in the tax forms or if they are bigger players, they get bailed out by us!
A programmer will always be more critical of all the imperfections and bugs in a program, the same way a carpenter will find all the flaws in a house he did not build.
The Hacks from Anonymous tried to stick it to SONY and they did, but also to the people who got their information stolen. The Spineless asshole that sold out to Wikileaks tried to stick it to our government, and he did. But what about the people's lives that he may have endangered.
If the software is bad, then don't buy it, this accomplishes the same result without stealing. There are countless programmers that feel the same way all of us do, that is why Open Source Software and the GNU License exists today. They feel they can do better than the pay-for-use software and they give it away for free.
Yes I do use and download torrents for software I did not pay for. But If I like it I do pay for it, yes I do sound hypocritical but my intentions are not to never pay for software.
Quote from: g2d1 on June 23, 2011, 08:48:13 PM
Honestly, I don't think most gaming companies care about their software being pirated.
Then why do they go to such ridiculous lengths to prevent it..?
I disagree with your assessment.
Meh. The same problem exists in so many places. Take pro sports for example. People bitch and complain about how much pro athletes make even though their team never makes it to the playoffs, yet they still gladly shell out thousands of dollars for season tickets plus a few K more over the course of a season for overpriced beer and marginal food. They also subscribe to the Total Sports package on DirectTV and purchase the licensed sports clothing. Does this mean that these people should forge tickets and steal the food and souvenirs at the stadium in protest? Not quite. Want to send a great message to the purveyors of sub-par entertainment? Don't buy in. Imagine the message that would be sent if half a stadium of sports fans suddenly decided not to renew their season tickets...
The funniest part about your pirating argument is that you complain about all of the shortcomings of new games in one breath, and then mention how you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games. Does not compute.
Quote from: exx on February 23, 1974, 05:06:36 PM
The funniest part about your pirating argument is that you complain about all of the shortcomings of new games in one breath, and then mention how you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games. Does not compute.
Fighting back in an ACTIVE way "does not compute..?" And people who -do- choose to
actively fight back seem funny to you..? Well isn't that interesting...
Seeing people who behave in a non-selfish and pro-active manner amuses you..?
You have just told me a lot about yourself. You don't mind if greedy corporations behave
like thieves... just so long as it does not happen
to you. Is that it..? You seem to be saying
"Why fight back, when you can just passively sit on your ass and do nothing to help others."
Is that right..? Is that your simple philosophy regarding how to deal with corporate greed,
forced consumerism and the ongoing exploitation of the common man and woman..?
Sounds very sheeple-ish to me.
Baaa.... baaaaa.Quote from: exx on June 24, 2011, 06:06:09 PM
...you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games. Does not compute.
Go read the law. It is not a crime to download things from the internet. It -is- a crime to -offer- things for download on the internet, if you are in violation of someone else's copyright. Therefore, if the software industry seeks to prosecute, then they would have to track down and identify every single person who is seeding a particular file via torrents. Do you have any idea how much of a hassle that would be..? Torrents are files which originate in multiple locations around the world... all at the same time. No single person is uploading the entire file... there could be as many as HUNDREDS or even THOUSANDS of people involved, each of whom is only uploading a small chunk of the much larger total file. Thus it is impossible to prosecute any single seeder (uploader), without prosecuting ALL of them equally. And good luck with that, especially when you consider that a percentage of seeders live in countries where such laws do not even apply (Sweden being a prime example).
Again: it is not illegal to download files being offered by others on the internet. So just forget that entire line of reasoning, because it does not apply to this situation. Furthermore, this type of case falls within the sphere of a civil lawsuit... not a criminal prosecution. The plaintiff could seek damages, or seek to have a specific fine imposed upon the defendant. But actually putting someone in jail because of a software download is absolutely ludicrous.
I should also mention that theoretically speaking, every single person who has ever offered a gaming mod on the web is -technically- in violation of copyright law. But have you ever heard of a gaming publisher who sued a modder, due to copyright infringement..? Because I haven't... and I've been involved with modding for the better part of a decade.
One more bit of legalistic trivia: so-called "EULA agreements" are not
legally enforceable upon the end user. They are only enforceable upon the publisher. EULA agreements mainly exist as a way for publishers to avoid any potential lawsuits being filed AGAINST them, by end users. By clicking on those "I Agree" buttons, you are actually agreeing not to sue the publisher, if the product turns out to be low quality, or unfit for the purpose intended. That's how they cover their own asses... and that's another reason to fight back against them in other ways, since they have already preempted any possibility of doing so through the legal system. There's a little-known fact for ya's to digest. ;)
Yep, I said it was off topic ^^U
Quote from: Tessera on June 23, 2011, 09:23:12 PM
Quote from: g2d1 on June 23, 2011, 08:48:13 PM
Honestly, I don't think most gaming companies care about their software being pirated.
Then why do they go to such ridiculous lengths to prevent it..?
Because it is a nice, concrete politic measure to take. The people making decisions report to a group of people who sometimes (ok, most of the times) know nothing about anything but how to make money (investors, if you want). To that people, illegal copies are like being robbed, so they want active solutions to that. So the people running the bussiness (people whose job is to run things the way the investors want, and to produce money) give them a placebo: "look, this game is harder to illegally copy than the previous one" is the only measure they can take to keep the investors half happy about a situation that has no solution at all (true, quality games would reduce piracy, but I doubt they will ever be a way to eliminate software piracy once and for all as long as the software is not free/creative commons).
All that talk about LP's made me remember some games in diskettes... That ones surely had big manuals! XD
Sure... sure. ::)
Or maybe piracy simply cuts into their sales and hurts them. How about that for an answer..? Or does that answer not jibe with your "we are tiny and have no power" mentality..?
Why don't you guys stop pulling at straws and just accept the most obvious answer..? DRM... the push towards consoles... the invasiveness of Steam and other online validation schemes... all of that shit makes it very clear that the industry FEARS software piracy. And for good reason.
What about from this angle.
What if the DRM is utilized as a mechanism to throttle their loses due to piracy. They know that someone will eventually create a keygen or disable the DLL that governs the licensing. I believe that they break even on their investment solely by the people who pay for the games outright. Eventually they will eek out some mediocre profit, but not as fast as they would like to. Piracy laws are only effective in countries where international law applies. The real losses occur in countries like China or the Koreas. In China, they actually mass produce the games and sell them on the street for cheap. Even in countries like South America where the police don't care what you do as long as you give them a cut of the profits. Games could be found at flea markets as well as movies. So the laws really apply only to countries where laws are somewhat enforced or enough people can pay for the software. Laws are made to keep honest people honest. See if the this similar situation applies.
A city has laws for driving safe. We pay for the rights to use the roads (this is done when you pay for your license plate) that they built with tax dollars and government subsidies. For the most part people break those laws on a daily basis and also for the most part cops ignore them (too much paperwork involved) But, if the city is low in cash flow or if the Budget margin is on the negative side, what do they do? They send out the city cops with the task to go and generate capital by enforcing laws even if they are petty. Where do you think they are going to issue out tickets? Certainly not in low income neighborhoods where people already owe tickets and have warrants after them. Noooooo, they go to the suburbs where people will actually pay for the tickets.
Companies calculate loss by the potential of revenue loss not actually loss. Unless a game totally bombs, most companies get a decent return on their initial capital investment and perhaps some marginal profits. Everything else after that is potential profit or residual profits. Yes you can hurt them a little bit, but if they are capable of slowing down the software crackers long enough for the customers to buy the game crap or not, they will have made enough money to stay in business.
Quote from: g2d1 on June 25, 2011, 02:52:35 PMLaws are made to keep honest people honest.
And where are the laws that keep big business honest..? We used to have such laws... but not anymore. I don't know about the rest of the world, but most Americans have had more than enough of this one-sided and elitist bullshit. Democracy does not exist when the only people who truly get to wield any influence are the ones with the most money. That's not fair... that's not equitable... that's not survival of the fittest... that's survival of the FATTEST, and it needs to be squashed.
So until that situation changes, I am 100% in favor of fighting back in whatever ways we can devise -- whether legal or otherwise -- in an effort to punish greed and dishonesty on the grandest of scales: the scale of the corporatist business world.
Everyone needs to stop feeling small, meek and powerless and start thinking about strength in numbers.
You know, any single piece of DLC can be download somewhere. I didn't paid a buck for Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2, now any "expansion" or DLC of any of those games. Yet I have all of them. Not even a week after the release, they were already in thepiratebay.com, so DLC is, from my point of view, the same as copy protection: another way to keep the investors from kicking Kotic & co.
Because, right now, there is no big bussiness out there that has any other objective aside making money. Which is good because of all the jobs it sustains, but in the end is like giving a robot a photo camera and let it loose to shoot anything that matches its criteria compared to Van Gogh, Picasso, Miguel Ángel or Da Vinci's paintings. Souless formulaic products aimed to make money.
Quote from: anariel on June 25, 2011, 04:54:51 PM
Because, right now, there is no big bussiness out there that has any other objective aside making money. Which is good because of all the jobs it sustains
Which jobs..? Where..? Do you live in India or China..? Because otherwise, big business isn't doing you a damned bit of good.
Do you guys think there is a point where a developer makes a good enough game and to buy it to support the people who made the game regardless of what crap publishers decide to implement (DRM, DLC, etc)?
Quote from: Steeal on June 26, 2011, 05:57:16 AM
Do you guys think there is a point where a developer makes a good enough game and to buy it to support the people who made the game regardless of what crap publishers decide to implement (DRM, DLC, etc)?
Sure... I believe in rewarding good work.
Do you know of any such games..?
I am not being a wise-ass, Steve. You used the words "good enough" in your question. Okay, so then what do -you- consider to be "good enough..?" Do you actually look for QUALITY in your life..? Or do you simple settle for "Well, this one didn't suck as bad as the one last year... so it must be okay...."
Different people have different levels of sophistication and different expectations of quality. What may be "good enough" to a 10-year-old would most likely be complete garbage by my standards. And since I resent being charged $50 or more for complete garbage... especially when I KNOW that the developers could have done a better job, but DELIBERATELY did not... then naturally I feel the need to punish them, by actively fighting back.
Simply not buying a game is not good enough for me. That's the passive, chicken-shit approach. And it does nothing to discourage the publishers from continuing to misrepresent their products, nor does it prevent them from deliberately exploiting a very young and largely unsophisticated target demographic. No, the only way to discourage this type of sleaze is to actively hit them in ways that
directly hurt their sales.
In other words, not buying a bad product won't cut it anymore in this day and age... because they'll just find some other group of gullible and less sophisticated suckers to buy it instead. Which no doubt explains why most PC games these days have been mind-numbingly dumbed down in their overall presentation. If you want to sell big, then sell to the lowest common denominator. And the best way to do that is to keep everything nice and simple and... really, really stupid.
It's the same with movies these days. Add enough loud explosions and some tits and who cares if the rest of the movie is idiotic crap..? Stupid people will buy it anyway... and stupid people have lots of money to spend.
People have asked me why I take such a belligerent and active stand on these issues. I have done my best to answer those folks in my own words, but apparently I am speaking a foreign language to most of them. So, they tend to dismiss me as being some sort of Nimrod who needs to take a chill pill. So perhaps I can better explain my personal motivations in life if instead of using my own words... which many people do not respect... I quote another famous Nimrod instead:
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis,
maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence is betrayal."
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.No, I am not being pretentious. That quote more or less sums up my entire personality. I have never been a passive person. Never... never, ever, ever. And sure, I have pissed off a lot of people along the way. So be it. But whether right or wrong, I am the type of guy who believes that the best way to deal with things which are wrong in this world... whether they be little things, or big things... is to actively confront them head-on, instead of hiding under my bed and hoping that it will go away by itself.
Your own mileage may vary. But as for me, I don't enjoy eating my food out of a trough, alongside all of the other sheeple. I would much rather knock over the fucking trough... and then go after the pricks who are forcing us to eat from it.
I can't change the way I am, sorry.
When I said "good enough" I mean totally on a personal basis, to each their own and all that stuff.
I was only wondering if DRM, DLC, etc. are always 100% deal breakers or if people would buy a game they enjoyed ie after playing a pirated version?
Quote from: Tessera on June 26, 2011, 06:32:05 AM
I am not being a wise-ass, Steve.
I know. :)
Quote from: Steeal on June 26, 2011, 06:48:39 PM
I was only wondering if DRM, DLC, etc. are always 100% deal breakers
For me it is, yes. I don't like being manipulated by greedy sleazebags.
If you want my money, then do it honestly. If you can't do it honestly,
then you deserve to be treated in kind... with lots and lots of piracy.
You see, I consider forced consumerism to be a form of theft. So if the
industry is going to set the precedent that theft is somehow acceptable,
then I consider piracy to be an appropriate form of retaliation.
Other people may have a different take on it. But that's mine.
Quotemanipulated by greedy sleazebags
Do you realize that, you have just summed up
1. Lawyers
2. Politicians
3. Car and Insurance Salesmen
4. Ex-grilfriends
5. Plastic Surgeons
6. IRS
7. Some family members :)
and on and on..........................
Quote from: g2d1 on June 27, 2011, 01:40:03 PMQuotemanipulated by greedy sleazebags
Do you realize that, you have just summed up
1. Lawyers
2. Politicians
3. Car and Insurance Salesmen
4. Ex-grilfriends
5. Plastic Surgeons
6. IRS
7. Some family members :)
and on and on..........................
Maybe that's one of the reasons why the world is so deep in shit?
Quote from: g2d1 on June 27, 2011, 01:40:03 PM
Do you realize that, you have just summed up
1. Lawyers
2. Politicians
3. Car and Insurance Salesmen
4. Ex-grilfriends
5. Plastic Surgeons
6. IRS
7. Some family members :)
and on and on..........................
Yes I do. And I hate all of them, too.
Are you trying to excuse greed and dishonesty, by reminding us that it's commonplace..?
If everyone is into torture and murder, would that make torture and murder acceptable..?
If the majority of people thought that the world was flat, would that make it come true..?
Surely, you are smarter than this. Because using the "lots of other people do it too" ploy should be beneath any intelligent person.
I don't care if
a hundred billion people do it. It's still rotten, it's still wrong and it still needs to be discouraged and punished. Unless you relish a return to imperialism and the complete loss of human dignity and freedom, which is usually what happens when people start making excuses for greed and exploitation. In which case, I can turn you on to a cool place where they sell swastika armbands, if you're interested.
I have no love for any of them, I was only stating the fact that you summed them up in one sentence.
1. If it were up to me I would start with the IRS. They keep our money intrest free all year and then levy taxes on goods that have been already taxed, like our homes.
2. Car Salesmen are next. They are the worst kind of human. They will sell you a car even when they know you are about to get banged without lube.
3. Lawyers, I'm not even sure that they are human.
I wonder if we were allowed to pay them with glitchy money? One that disappears or suddenly bursts into flames? Or that our money was only good for a day and then randomly vanish. Or perhaps force them to accept money from an escrow account that would only release payment upon satisfactory performance?
Agreed. But being that this is primarily a game-oriented web site for adults,
I'm focusing my attention right now on the gaming industry, and the ways
that common folks like you and me can punish them for behaving like
greedy and manipulative pricks.
Piracy fits the bill perfectly. And it's easy to do.
I wanna repeat something that I've said in other places on this board...
There was a time, not too long ago in fact, when I was strongly opposed to
software piracy. In fact, I used to ban people who advocated piracy from this
board, on the grounds that they were encouraging others to break the law.
But that was then and this is now... and many things have changed. I no longer
feel that the gaming industry deserves to be supported and defended against
piracy, because the industry has NOT shown good faith by holding up their end.
They have done the opposite -- they have exploited their customers, they have
undermined and destroyed creative gaming studios left and right, they have done
all that they can do to absorb smaller competitors and become bloated, callous and
dictatorial monopolies and on the whole, the industry has behaved like greedy pigs.
Greedy pigs don't deserve our support. They deserve to be turned into bacon.
Quote from: g2d1 on June 27, 2011, 02:33:45 PM
3. Lawyers, I'm not even sure that they are human.
I wonder if we were allowed to pay them with glitchy money? One that disappears or suddenly bursts into flames? Or that our money was only good for a day and then randomly vanish. Or perhaps force them to accept money from an escrow account that would only release payment upon satisfactory performance?
Do what Shakespeare said. "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" Hamlet, Henry The VI.
Quote from: Tessera on June 27, 2011, 03:43:47 PM
They deserve to be turned into bacon.
Hmmm... bacon!
Or would that make me have to take a ride on Tessera's Volcano ride?
;D
Only if you turn into a fatty. Fatties get the ride into the volcano.
But, but, but... there are so many greedy pigs to turn into bacon!
:D
Then we can start with this revolting pile of worthless shit:
(http://www.tessmage.com/images/misc/bob_kotick_thief.jpg)
Somebody needs to chain this balding Jewboy bastard to the back of a pickup truck and then drag his ass for a few miles.
Nah. The main gist of my argument is that if a company is offering to sell me a shitty product, I say "fuck off" and don't buy it, and tell all the people I know not to buy it either. Why would I want to play a game if it's shitty to begin with, regardless of whether or not it's pirated? I'd rather deprive the company of my hard-earned money by not buying the game, and save myself from being aggravated by not playing the shitty game.
Quote from: Tessera on June 25, 2011, 05:13:12 AM
Quote from: exx on February 23, 1974, 05:06:36 PM
The funniest part about your pirating argument is that you complain about all of the shortcomings of new games in one breath, and then mention how you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games. Does not compute.
Fighting back in an ACTIVE way "does not compute..?" And people who -do- choose to
actively fight back seem funny to you..? Well isn't that interesting...
Seeing people who behave in a non-selfish and pro-active manner amuses you..?
You have just told me a lot about yourself. You don't mind if greedy corporations behave
like thieves... just so long as it does not happen to you. Is that it..? You seem to be saying
"Why fight back, when you can just passively sit on your ass and do nothing to help others."
Is that right..? Is that your simple philosophy regarding how to deal with corporate greed,
forced consumerism and the ongoing exploitation of the common man and woman..?
Sounds very sheeple-ish to me. Baaa.... baaaaa.
Quote from: exx on June 24, 2011, 06:06:09 PM
...you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games. Does not compute.
Go read the law. It is not a crime to download things from the internet. It -is- a crime to -offer- things for download on the internet, if you are in violation of someone else's copyright. Therefore, if the software industry seeks to prosecute, then they would have to track down and identify every single person who is seeding a particular file via torrents. Do you have any idea how much of a hassle that would be..? Torrents are files which originate in multiple locations around the world... all at the same time. No single person is uploading the entire file... there could be as many as HUNDREDS or even THOUSANDS of people involved, each of whom is only uploading a small chunk of the much larger total file. Thus it is impossible to prosecute any single seeder (uploader), without prosecuting ALL of them equally. And good luck with that, especially when you consider that a percentage of seeders live in countries where such laws do not even apply (Sweden being a prime example).
Again: it is not illegal to download files being offered by others on the internet. So just forget that entire line of reasoning, because it does not apply to this situation. Furthermore, this type of case falls within the sphere of a civil lawsuit... not a criminal prosecution. The plaintiff could seek damages, or seek to have a specific fine imposed upon the defendant. But actually putting someone in jail because of a software download is absolutely ludicrous.
I should also mention that theoretically speaking, every single person who has ever offered a gaming mod on the web is -technically- in violation of copyright law. But have you ever heard of a gaming publisher who sued a modder, due to copyright infringement..? Because I haven't... and I've been involved with modding for the better part of a decade.
One more bit of legalistic trivia: so-called "EULA agreements" are not legally enforceable upon the end user. They are only enforceable upon the publisher. EULA agreements mainly exist as a way for publishers to avoid any potential lawsuits being filed AGAINST them, by end users. By clicking on those "I Agree" buttons, you are actually agreeing not to sue the publisher, if the product turns out to be low quality, or unfit for the purpose intended. That's how they cover their own asses... and that's another reason to fight back against them in other ways, since they have already preempted any possibility of doing so through the legal system. There's a little-known fact for ya's to digest. ;)
Quote from: exx on July 06, 2011, 09:17:15 AMWhy would I want to play a game if it's shitty to begin with, regardless of whether or not it's pirated?
Easy answer: because it is a much more militant and effective way of punishing the industry and calling attention to their greed.
In this era of global markets, simple boycotts are no longer as effective as they once were. If you don't buy it, then they'll just peddle it to a bunch of undiscerning dinks in Korea... and make their money that way. Piracy is a much more effective way to punish unethical game publishers, because piracy is -also- global and it puts a serious and very costly dent into their profits worldwide.
And it also helps We The People to feel a bit more empowered, in this era of corporate dominance. That's important, too. People need to stop cowering in the face of corporate capitalists and actively fight back against them. Piracy is not only a financial strike against the industry... it is a very powerful psychological strike, too.
To add to the above post...
In my opinion, piracy also represents paying these amoral publishers exactly what their new games are worth: nothing.
These days, the market has been monopolized by huge publishers like Electronic Arts and ActiVision. And they have flooded that market with a plethora of dumbed-down, unsophisticated, eye-candy-only titles which are generally not worthy of more than one or two plays. And to make matters worse, they also tend to release BROKEN products, which more often than not require three or four post-release patches, before they function properly. Essentially, the industry is charging us money for the "privilege" of being their beta testers... a situation which I consider to be intolerable.
So let's see... what is a broken and unsophisticated product worth to me..? The answer is: nothing. I may still wanna play it once or twice, but it is definitely not good enough to warrant an expenditure of $50 or more. And not only that, but as I said in my previous posts, I want to PUNISH the industry for routinely monopolizing the gaming market with this kind of exploitative garbage. Well, software piracy covers both bases. It punishes the industry far more than a simple boycott would -- and at the same time, it also represents what I consider to be a fair price for broken merchandise: no price at all.
No one deserves to make a profit from selling mediocre and broken products. And if we lived in an age where economic boycotts had an appreciable effect upon those industries, then I would be content to deal with it that way. But we don't... we live within an inequitable and UNREGULATED global market, where industries are free to peddle their shitty wares to all parts of the globe at once. If people are boycotting your products over here, then they'll just jack up their promotion and sales over there... and make up for it that way.
Piracy is the best way to piss these bastards off and hopefully, give them an extra incentive to change the ways that they do business. And if they don't change..? So what..? At least we didn't pay them a single penny for their mediocre garbage. If the industry is determined that the ONLY stuff that they are going to peddle is garbage, then sure... I'll take your garbage. It's better than nothing. But I'll be damned if I'll pay you single a penny for it.
Produce something of value, and then I'll happily pay for it. And I'll encourage others to do the same (and I have). But keep producing min-maxxed, dumbed-down, broken and unsophisticated crappola, aimed at the lowest common denominator, well then I'll just keep encouraging everyone to pirate your garbage... until you finally blow a blood vessel in your ineffective attempts to stop us.
Theres also the fact that many people are hypocrites when it comes to piracy.
"Piracy is bad, blah, blah, blah".
But they sure as heck don't mind playing it if they have access to it.
"Piracy is bad, blah, blah, blah", part 2.
Then they turn around and ask you to find them something rare and obscure.
I use to really be against pirating myself, but I am disgusted greatly not only in the way most every company releases garbage Console ports, but how they treat all players like criminals. I dont want to lease or rent software, I want to buy it. I dont want anyone telling me the game I paid 49$ for isnt mine for however long I live and im limited in activations and DRM that makes the game run like crap. The worse thing is, now big companies have the nerve to jump on the Activision bandwagon and sell PC Games for 69$ which is just plain greed. The reason it costs more on consoles is Licensing fees to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, PCs dont have licensing fees, so its just plain greed.
Quote from: LordRikerQ on August 05, 2011, 08:37:26 PM
I use to really be against pirating myself
So was I. In fact, I used to forbid our members from talking about it on this board.
But I eventually changed my mind... and for all of the reasons which you have mentioned.
My attitude has pulled a 180-degree turn over the past few years.... the the point where
I am now completely in favor of piracy, as an ideal way of punishing a greedy industry.
Copied over from the members-only area of this board...Quote from: tessmage Forum member
I would like nothing more than the gaming industry to fail and implode. So that a fresh group of gamers can start the industry from scratch.
Then stop buying new games -- and force them to go broke. That is the ONLY answer to this dilemma.
So if you see a new game that you really, really want... then wait for it to show up on The Pirate Bay. And then you can get it for free.
Incidentally, it isn't the developers who are the problem... it's the publishers, who undermine their efforts.
It is the publishers who need to go broke and disappear. Will this hurt the developers, too..? Yes, it will... for now. But only because their industry is dominated by nasty publishers. Once the publishers are gone, then the developers will simply be forced to come up with a new outlet for their creative efforts. That's how the gaming industry got started in the first place -- so if it happened that way once, then it can happen that way again. In the long run, we'll all be better off for it. And that includes the devs.
In the meantime, I'll just keep doing what I do: adding more entertainment value to existing games, regardless of how old or new they might be. I don't care how old a game is... I just care about how
good it is.
Newer isn't always better -- I've said that many times around here. And in this day and age of ultimate cheapness and corporate greed, newer is usually ten times shittier. Look at this topic, for example. We're talking about the original, classic EverQuest. Now I challenge all of you to find me a single MMO released within the past five years which is even one-tenth as deep, as engrossing, as complex and as re-playable as the original EverQuest was. In my opinion, every single MMO to have been released during the past five or six years (WoW included) has been absolute garbage...
without a single exception. Your own opinions may differ, and that's fine. I've just given you mine.
Quote from: Tessera on June 27, 2011, 03:43:47 PM
Greedy pigs don't deserve our support. They deserve to be turned into bacon.
When there is corporate greed involved pirating should be done just to piss the greedy pigs off.
Pirating was never a big deal to me because I lived with the saying in my head "that information should be free". I would do it all the time and not call it pirating. I'd just take a cd game from a friend and copy it(when cd burners became afordable) for my own use but that was a different time. Now when it comes to pirating games today in this day of internet its this huge deal because you can download all types of digital media and some greedy fuck wants a cut. Me personally dont see much to pirate anyway because theres a lot of recycled shit with super graphics that I have already saw in some format or other.
Quote from: Tessera on June 22, 2011, 10:15:25 PM
Quote from: anariel on June 22, 2011, 03:30:49 PMthere is no absolute rulebook about what is moral and what is amoral
Oh yes there is: your own. You decide. It is up to each of us to decide for ourselves
what is or is not "moral," and then act accordingly.
For example, some people think that sex and nudity are "immoral," where as I do not.
In my philosophy, greed at the expense of others is evil. Hence my stand on this issue.
The laws of the land are written by the people who have the most power... not necessarily
by the people who possess the best "moral compass" amongst us. Many (if not most) laws
are designed to keep the rich wealthy and the rest of us in our place. So then, is it moral to
consistently obey such laws... no matter what..? Even if it hurts us and makes others rich..?
WoW I really like the level of discussion here. I feel like starting a revolution.
Quote from: BloodyKidney on September 19, 2011, 03:50:28 AM
WoW I really like the level of discussion here. I feel like starting a revolution.
Keep reading. 8)
You will learn more in the coming days,,,,,, and about our corporate funded candidates.
Quote from: Ratcatcher on September 19, 2011, 10:14:13 AM
Keep reading. 8)
Oh I will my eyes are burning from it
Quote from: perez007usa on September 19, 2011, 12:50:16 PM
You will learn more in the coming days,,,,,, and about our corporate funded candidates.
Looks like I need to get into the politics section then
I don't pirate because of the economy or because I'm cheap. It because sick of disappointments. What type of BS is this when i have more fun playing game from 2000 then 2010? I got idea in stead of making shity games with more DRM. Let make good games with Less DRM. Let give people hope and faith in game industries. Let show that we haven't become stale and old. Let show we can make new idea and innovation. No more space marine or dead island. No more maddon or call of duty. Let settle for more. Lets settle for no more restriction and copy right. Let combine halo, aliens and predators. Lets are imagination run free to places we cant even imagine. Let have picard fighting orcs on top of unicorn wearing storm trooper armor!
Quote from: Dontai on September 24, 2011, 03:54:49 PM
I don't pirate because of the economy or because I'm cheap. It because sick of disappointments.
Precisely. And the people most directly responsible for those disappointments need to be punished.
And since money is the only thing that the gaming publishers understand, then piracy is the very best way to punish them.
Hey some one understands me. Yeh, Second the notion. Let those that sin live there sins. Their playing with are lives and our money. No more! You must fight for right to my business! We control this game not the companies!!!
Well, as some of you already know, my current project is to produce a complete, stand-alone (single-player) version of classic EverQuest. And by "classic," I mean everything prior to the Planes of Power (PoP) expansion. Which means the original "plain vanilla" EQ, plus the Kunark, Velious and Luclin expansions. And that's it -- nothing else beyond that, because everything which came after Luclin totally undermined (and ultimately destroyed) everything that was great about the original Verant version of EQ.
And privately, I'll also be releasing some nude and semi-nude textures for the Luclin-era female character models. Just for laughs. ;)
Sony Online Entertainment (aka "SOE") is one of the worst offenders, so far as gaming publishers are concerned. Under the horrible leadership of a revolting leech named John Smedley, SOE has become notorious for their greed, their misrepresentation of their products, their rampant disregard for their original player base, their horrible customer service, their dumbing-down of what had previously been relatively sophisticated content (case in point: pre-PoP EverQuest as compared to post-PoP EverQuest), and their generally condescending, intractable and irresponsible attitude, so far as how they interact with their customers.
If ever there was a company who deserves to be pirated to death, then it's SOE. And the good news is: you can do exactly that, if you feel so inclined. The original EverQuest "Titanium" client is a popular download from places like Demonoid and The Pirate Bay. And there are literally dozens of free-to-play, emulated EQ servers on which you can create an account and then play the game (just do a Google search for "EQEmu" if you want to know more). Keep in mind that none of this will cost you a single penny. You can get the game itself for free, and you can then play it for free. As much as you want.
And as for what SOE thinks about all of this..? Fuck 'em. They have already lost their court case against EQEmu. And frankly, the thought of John Smedley seething with anger over this shit just makes me smile from ear to ear.
Just another FYI for y'all. 8)
(http://www.tessmage.com/images/misc/SOE_We_Destroy_Good_Games.png)
Ain't it the truth.
There's an updated version of Civilization V available on The Pirate Bay:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6653927/Civilization_V
As with all torrent downloads, it is preferable to download it via the "Magnet Link" option if possible.
Also, be sure to follow all of the author's instructions to the letter. That probably goes without saying... but I'm saying it anyway.
I'm pretty sure that this newer version (1.01.348) contains numerous bug fixes for Civ 5... including quite a few graphics and gameplay fixes.
Also, I believe this version of Civ 5 has been "pre-cracked" by the Skidrow team, meaning that it should run just fine as a stand-alone application (no need for Steam).
PERSONAL OPINIONS:
As I said earlier in this thread... if there was ever a game which deserved to be pirated to death, then it's Civ 5. All of us who purchased this game (including me) were totally ripped-off by Electronic Arts. I never saw a more broken and buggy game in my life than the original release of Civ 5. Seriously... it was the absolute worst that I have ever seen in a major release. So it was downright criminal for those assholes to release what amounted to an alpha (barely tested at all) version of Civ 5... and then on top of that, force every single customer to sign up for Steam and then be hassled by DRM and advertisements, every single time they wanted to play this fucking game.
But that's okay... because in my opinion, the best way to punish EA for being greedy and irresponsible assholes is to simply download as many of their games as you want for FREE... via torrents.
So if any of you have any interest in Civ 5... or, if you already have a cracked but older version of the game... then this 100% safe torrent on TPB might be just what you're looking for.
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: this post is being offered for information purposes only. What you do and how you decide to do it is entirely your own responsibility.
UPDATE to the above post:
The copy of Civ 5 linked to in the above post has been verified to be 100% working and virus-free.
And it is indeed the recently updated (patched) version of Civ 5... which means a lot less bugs and crashes, as compared to the original release.
Definitely worth downloading -- since it doesn't cost you a penny. ;)
Interesting bit of trivia: The Pirate Bay currently has nearly 30 MILLION users... and it's only one pirate web site out of several dozen on the web. Yes, it's the biggest of them all by far (Demonoid doesn't even come close), but it's still rather amusing to me that there has been such an enormous increase in the number of pirateers during the past couple of years.
Keep fighting the system, folks. I'm proud of ya's. 8)
Oh it may not cost me a penny to play but it is costing me many pennies to rebuild a machine in which to play your god fosaken pirated games :laugh:
Rebuild your machine..? You lost me...
Did you blow out your video card or something..?
Video card with everything else :laugh: The begining of the year I decided to upgrade my system with a Velociraptor 10000rpm hdd except when I did it I was drunk. I fried everything pretty much and have been sending everytthing out to get replaced. My last fix is the graphics card which I may get a new one for myself if I am a bad boy for christmas. Yet even then it still might not work, wont know till I try.
I don't like piracy because original games generally better than cracked games . Because they haven't crack bugs itself . But DRM is generally easy chick for me . Only I hate Online DRM . I am not bypassed it yet :S . This is pretty bad . It needs everytime internet for play the game and fuck everything . I paid the money . Why I am not playing it ? This is totally bullshit I think . What do you think about online DRM Tess ?
Quote from: Kyon on November 14, 2011, 12:53:48 AM
I don't like piracy because original games generally better than cracked games .
This is false.
When cracked properly, the only difference between the retail game and the cracked game
is that the retail game costs money... and the cracked game is free.
That's it. No other differences at all.
But if cracked properly :) Most of game cracks have problems . They not in the retail game . But inside the cracks .
Quote from: Kyon on November 14, 2011, 01:52:48 AM
But if cracked properly :) Most of game cracks have problems . They not in the retail game . But inside the cracks .
Look for the good cracking groups and make sure you are applying the right version of the crack to the game. Personally, I tend to get Skidrow's releases lately, and have no problem at all.
Quote from: anariel on November 14, 2011, 02:21:43 AMPersonally, I tend to get Skidrow's releases lately, and have no problem at all.
Best cracks on the web.
//nodGood, clean and fully functional.
I think same . Skidrow's cracks are really good :)
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/17/interview-bohemia-interactives-ceo-on-fighting-piracy-creative-drm/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/17/interview-bohemia-interactives-ceo-on-fighting-piracy-creative-drm/)
Okay I got to reading this article off of PC Gamer and it got me thinking about this topic. From what I remebered about DRM was it is security that asked me to insert disc to play a game so I would grab a fixed/cracked exe and play wihout the cd but this DEGRADE sounds way more complicated. Would something like that be able to stop playing a pirated game?
As Mister Scott once said: "The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
Anything that the industry can devise can be cracked. They aren't privy to some sort of secret computer code. Hackers and crackers are generally just as skilled and knowledgeable as so-called "professional coders" are... so if it can be invented, then it can be cracked. It's simply a matter of reverse engineering.
And in the meantime, the industry is continuing to engender more and more bad blood between themselves and their consumer base. Which in turn means: more and more people resort to online pirating in disgust. There are already something like 100 million people worldwide who regularly engage in online media piracy. And each time that the industry comes up with a new way to inconvenience its customers, that number increases by about 10 percent or so. I'm basing that number on the fact that, according to the best estimates that I've seen, the number of people actively engaging in online piracy has jumped up by a factor of ten times over the course of the past 10 years. That's an enormous increase... and it tells me a lot about the general sentiment out there amongst consumers.
So let them keep piling on the DRM. Each time that they do so, their profits will plummet... either because (1) lots of people simply won't buy the game, or (2) because lots of people throw up their hands in anger and frustration and decide to pirate a cracked copy instead. Just as they have been doing, in VAST numbers.
IMO, online piracy is a great way to actively protest against corporate greed, arrogance and bullying.
Quote from: Tessera on October 22, 2011, 04:40:53 PM
There's an updated version of Civilization V available on The Pirate Bay:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6653927/Civilization_V
Oh.... and I almost forgot. I have a special holiday message for Firaxis, Electronic Arts and Steam:
(http://www.tessmage.com/images/misc/Civ5_Monty_Is_Pissed.jpg)
That oughta cover it.
And here's a holiday message for Bethesda Softworks:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6853218/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim
That's the new PC version. Merry Christmas. :-*
I bought a game this days . It's from 2005 later I heard it have Starforce . And later I saw from some peoples Starforce may fuck 64 bit Win 7 . Really asshole :S
Yeah...Starforce is the most evil and destructive offline DRM scheme ever devised. I suggest you find a crack ASAP. :-\
Yeah otherwise I will not play this game . I don't want to fuck my 64-bit win 7
Quote from: Cylnar on November 29, 2011, 03:00:33 PM
Yeah...Starforce is the most evil and destructive offline DRM scheme ever devised. I suggest you find a crack ASAP. :-\
Entirely agree.
Unfortunately, quite a few Starforce "protected" games were simply ignored by the various cracking groups, so there might not be a crack.
It might be worth mentioning that
Good Old Games is planning to expand its catalogue with more recent games while keeping its no-DRM policy.
http://www.gog.com/en/news/gog_coms_plan_for_the_future_gets_some_news
Quote from: Tessera on November 29, 2011, 01:54:38 PM
And here's a holiday message for Bethesda Softworks:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6853218/The_Elder_Scrolls_V_Skyrim
That's the new PC version. Merry Christmas. :-*
Thanks, but I will pass. Since I finished the game, I felt no need to play it (hell, I was playing it because I felt I needed to do it before speaking of the game...). So you see, I had low expectations. And Skyrim gave me a surprise: my low expectations were actually high ¬¬U
You might consider grabbing the Skyrim torrent anyway. Because...
You can also enhance it significantly if, in addition to the game itself,
you download and install the "Skyrim Total Enhancement Project,"
which is basically just a big collection of mods and engine tweaks.
That mod package helps to transform the PC version of Skyrim
from being a crippled console-to-PC port (which is what Skyrim
actually is) into being a smoother running PC game. Or at least,
that's what the authors are claiming.
We saw similar mod packages back when Oblivion was released
and most of them turned out to be quite decent.
More info:
http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2789644/?load_bal=003907210612&show_files=&page=1#comments
STEP Mod Package -- Direct Magnet Link (requires BitTorrent or similar torrent client):
http://www.demonoid.me/files/downloadmagnet/2789644/003907210612
Looks like a good plan to me. You get the game for free... you get the new
enhancements for free... and you also get to PUNISH the gaming industry,
for trying to sell us shitty console-to-PC ports at ridiculous prices. ;)
And bethestha hasn't launch the the construction set yet. Before the game launch they mentioned the construction set, but they haven't delivered it yet. I was hoping to buy new pc ( mine is a compaq presario that came with win me, 700 mhz procesor,) to rework the skills, put atletism( warrior skill) that let the player alter a bit his enviroment for strategic purposes( digging the earth with tools, moving giant boulders in a certain pattern for an ambush, cutting trees down , acrobatics( thief skill) would include climbing with rope and hoooks as an action to move on celings and walls for more sneaking options, jumping hight doing back flips, and moving fast and Manipulation ( mage skill) wich let the mage shapeshift his body in magical and creative ways( this is the mage's "body" skill) and also let him change people, trees etc.
I'm planning on adding Thaumaturgy and Mysticism.
They should make it more like a roguelike game.
All games in general need to have a complete magic system and not just offensive magic.
For that to happen they need to put more physics in the game. New concepts of world dynamics. But I don't see that coming. They need to make it so that the Alteration skill lets you "dance with time", to make alteration skill way more than just a defensive skill. But since the companies have become lazy i don't see that coming.
I think Diablo 3 is the same formula like before, 2 mage type classes, 2 warrior type classes and the one in the middle which is an archer, the skills have nothing new to it since is they do the same things like diablo 2, but are rearanged diferently, skills like freeze and slow time( just slows all monsters on the screen). The only thing that you do in the game is killing monsters and nothing more than that, and with no other roguelike game commands or other actions to interact with the world ( Diablo 2 suffered from the same thing). I read that one can gain real cash on diablo3 like some browser games that pay real cash, but I think it will be a really sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow to gain money, just like those browser games.( on those browser games you have to change 100 basic money units to 1 gold, then you need 100 gold to change to 1 euro, and then there is the minimun for cash out, and when you cash out the euros, they lake 25% of what you cash out. I think Diablo 3 will be like something like that)
By the way I have only dial up were I live, the wireless alternatives are too expensive, I can only download large software occasionally from the nearby university, but it has the file-sharing sites like rapidshare, hotfire etc. and torrents websites blocked. So I'm pretty much screwed.
..I never paid for any game! I don't know how is in USA, but here, in argentina... Who pays for games or music, original cd's/dvd's, etc?
(http://verydemotivational.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/demotivational-posters-graphical-upgrades.jpg)
^^ (applause)
BTW... does anybody recognize the "1992" graphic..?
I do. And I totally loved that game. Still do, in fact.
Quote from: Tessera on December 14, 2011, 04:52:49 AM
^^ (applause)
BTW... does anybody recognize the "1992" graphic..?
I do. And I totally loved that game. Still do, in fact.
Terra
JRPGs where at their perk in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
Nowadays it mostly over the top cinematic tedious crap.
It's the main player character from Final Fantasy (the original NES game).
What about Phantasy Star Universe . Maybe it is the same boat :P
Phantasy Star had -much- better graphics than ANYTHING which was available on the Nintendo NES. The Sega Genesis was a superior console in its day.
New games looks like childish :/ Especially PC , Xbox360 and PS2 version :S
*** BREAKING NEWS ***
Because of immense public pressure, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee canceled their vote on the bill
that would kill Internet innovation and free speech -- and adjourned for the rest of the year!
A flurry of liberal and conservative groups issued last-minute pleas in the hours before the House Judiciary
Committee prepared to vote on its latest version of a controversial intellectual property bill, known as the
so-called "Stop Online Piracy Act."
But the fight is far from over -- big corporations are still pushing hard for this bill. We won the battle with
today's delay, but we still have to win the war against Internet censorship.
SOURCE: Progressive Change Campaign Committee
(Tessera is a contributing member)
FROM TESSERA: Keep fighting the good fight, people. 8)
Fuck yeah. Let's do what we can to kill SOPA.
And the RIAA and MPAA keep circling the drain...excellent.
I think the neo-con parasites in Washington were shocked to see almost as many
cries of outrage coming from conservatives as there were from liberals.
This is one of those issues that I think we can all agree upon:
KEEP YOUR FUCKING GREEDY CORPORATE MEAT HOOKS OUT OF MY INTERNET... OR ELSE.
Fucking Aye ;D
Well, let's not get -too- optimistic about this.
We're heading into an election year, which means that the parasites in Washington are very nervous about their jobs right now. Obama is up for re-election, too. Also, keep in mind that the current administration was expecting us all to be dancing in the streets over the end of the Iraq war (or the SUPPOSED end to the Iraq war, we should say). But instead, people have been PROTESTING in the streets all over America, against the very obvious bias in Washington towards the desires of the super-rich.
So what they are doing, in my opinion, is holding off on any more corporate pandering until after the November, 2012 elections.
But you can bet your asses that right after those elections, they'll go right back to sucking corporate cock and giving the rest of us the shaft. Err, so to speak.
We need to keep ramping up the pressure, folks. And we can start by throwing every single incumbent out of office in the next year's elections. No matter who they are... from the President, right on down to your local assemblymen. Just vote AGAINST whoever is running for re-election. Even if their opponents are evil. Even if their opponent is Adolph Hitler reincarnated... just go ahead and vote for him anyway. Read on...
The system no longer works FOR the people... that much is obvious. But we can still use the system AGAINST the corporate whores in Washington, by repeatedly throwing them all out of Congress each and every four years. Just keep voting against the incumbents from now on -- no matter what.
And no, it is NOT a waste of your vote... not if you understand that no matter who you vote FOR, that person will always end up becoming just another cog within the corporate machine in Washington. We have seen the ample proof of that statement, time and time again. So then, we all need to employ a reverse approach from now on... and vote AGAINST that diseased corporate machine. That is how we will force their hands in the end.
Quote from: Tessera on December 17, 2011, 05:40:50 AM
Well, let's not get -too- optimistic about this.
Thanks for raining on the parade negative Nancy. Would you like to kick in my balls while you are at it? :laugh:
Joking aside I'm gonna agree with you cause thats the way the game is played.
Quote from: Tessera on December 17, 2011, 05:40:50 AM
Well, let's not get -too- optimistic about this.
WHOA! Even if we do vote to get them out, so the other(Hitler types) to get in. I don't think the country can take the abuse much longer. I may be vague about this, so what happens if the people decide not to vote, one big massive boycott on the election system, nobody gets in, cause nobody voted them in. Will congress go against the Constitution and do some dipshit thing to keep their power.
What we need is to get them ALL OUT! WE need to get those who made congress a career out. 4 years tops that it.
Because it doesn't work that way, Perez. If most people do not vote, then the electoral college will decide the outcome... based upon whatever few votes were cast.
You need to vote AGAINST whoever is running for re-election. By doing so, We The People will be IMPOSING 4-year term limits upon each and every "career politician" in Washington and elsewhere. That is how we can smash the machine, without breaking any laws. We can use the system AGAINST the system. Get the idea..?
Yep! loud and clear! Lets get the ball rolling.
Quote from: Tessera on December 17, 2011, 11:24:42 AMthen the electoral college will decide the outcome... based upon whatever few votes were cast
We need to do away with the electoral college. That's how Bush got into office the first time. Gore won the popular vote, which means the people voted for him, but the electoral college went with Bush. That shit wasn't right.
That's how those idiots get it. They can't do it the honest way.
SOPA Cabana by Dan Bull
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1w6GtwOvnWM#!
*snickers*
The Pirate Bay is running that video on their home page
at the moment. It's a hoot. :laugh:
Just saw it, its great. 8)
Quote from: Tessera on December 21, 2011, 07:00:36 PM
The Pirate Bay is running that video on their home page at the moment. It's a hoot. :laugh:
Thats where i got it from originally, while shopping for x64 replacements. ;D
In other news.
Ubisoft Closes Vancouver Studio
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/17/ubisoft-closes-vancouver-studio.aspx
I'm tempted to ignore the reasons they say caused this. Id rather believe that their DRM schemes are comming back to bite them in the arse.
Quote from: Ratcatcher on January 19, 2012, 10:11:42 AMId rather believe that their DRM schemes are coming back to bite them in the arse.
Go right ahead and believe it -- because that is indeed the real reason behind all of this.
They are suffering from public backlash... just as we have been predicting on this board for the past six years.
Another good reason to pirate stuff.
Mass Effect 3 on PC requires EA's Origin service be installed
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/mass-effect-3-on-pc-requires-eas-origin-service-be-installed-20120116/
I refuse to go anywhere near STEAM, and for some reason i should allow Origin on my box? Nuh-uh!
Mass Effect 3 is almost guaranteed to be shit, anyway.
But no worries. Somebody will crack it. And it'll be torrent'ed the very next day.
Maybe one day, these assholes will get the message:
WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF BEING EXPLOITED.
I send you a PM about this my friend :) Could you answer it ?
Yarrrr matey!!! I wanna be a mighty pirate! I wanna stick it to the man!
Now that my gaming rig is near completion I want to get back the games I sold on ebay through pirating.
Any tips, tricks, pointers, dos and donts that can be handed out to this young scallywag in the art of pirating? A tutorial of some kind. I saw the VTMB link somewhere around here. I just want to fill up my hdd with games and maybe a little or a lotta porn.
i can't afford these games anyway so they aren't losing any money off of me pirating anything (hypothetically of course heh)
I cant afford these games either but I'd still buy quality stuff from indie game designers. I shelled out 45 bucks for Liesure Suit Larry redo, Shadowrun Returns, and Wasteland 2 which all were kickstarter funded games that have not been made yet. When it comes to the big corps that try to squeeze the pennies out of your pocket for shite quality games I say Fuck em. I've been using piratebay to check out mediocre stuff lately.
I do but only after a set time they have been released. shouldn't pay for a game thats 10 years old no one plays anymore.
I do buy some indie games, because I hope to be indie developer meself someday and I'd like people to buy games from me. I'd buy all games, but I don't have the funds for that.
I generally don't buy any s/w including the O.S. Pirate version gives nearly same benefit. Last 2 games i bought were for 2 different reason.
Ashes Cricket 09 to support Cricket based PC game.
GTA 4 because my net speed sucks and 16GB download will take more than 10 days.
Cracked version loads faster than retail version is good added bonus.
I admit, I myself have downloaded games to see if they are good or not. Other times, I have bought the game, wanted it on a different platform (in this case, the PC) so, I figure, I already supported the company by buying a copy of their game, what difference does it make if I download a copy to run on something else? Not only that, I enjoy being able to mod the heck out of games on my PC and show to other people.
I have to also admit it does seem that creativity these days is at an all time low when it comes to a lot of things. Part of it I think may be the factor of "This genre sells a lot, so well do the same thing over, maybe change names, or places to some small degree and all shall be well."
I heard that with anime these days most can be considered copy & paste scenarios for the most part as of recent. Oh well.
FYI everyone...
"Half-Life 2," "Half-Life 2 Episode One" and "Half-Life 2 Episode Two" are all available in cracked, "no Steam" versions from The Pirate Bay:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5040138/Half-Life_2_NO-STEAM__no_crack__no_keygen___install_and_play
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/3492004/Half.Life.2.Episode.One-PROViSiON
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/3848139/%5BPC%5D_Half_Life_2_Episode_Two_%5BRIP%5D_%5Bdopeman%5D
All of them are 100% working and do not contain any viruses or malware.
There's a small glitch with the cracked version of "Half-Life 2 Episode Two," which causes the script to stop running at one point in the game (it's at a point where Alyx asks you to get into an elevator and then, she simply stands there and stops responding). As a work-around, the author(s) of the cracked version of HL2 Ep2 have included a saved game file, which overcomes this relatively minor problem (it allows you to continue the game from the point where the glitch occurs).
Enjoy. 8)
Really! I luck out on that one, cause it's working for me. I have all of them.
Quote from: BloodyKidney on April 13, 2012, 10:22:03 PM
Yarrrr matey!!! I wanna be a mighty pirate! I wanna stick it to the man!
Now that my gaming rig is near completion I want to get back the games I sold on ebay through pirating.
Any tips, tricks, pointers, dos and donts that can be handed out to this young scallywag in the art of pirating? A tutorial of some kind. I saw the VTMB link somewhere around here. I just want to fill up my hdd with games and maybe a little or a lotta porn.
It seems if you don't want to invoke the wrath of the corporations, don't upload. Download stuff using Rapidshare or another file hosting company.
Well, Ubisoft has pretty much made my 'never buy from again' list, but I have to ask:
If the games are so shitty and broken, why would you want to pirate them at all?
Simple solution: don't buy broken games, wait for them to come out with that patch, then go and get the game - but if it's fixed at that point, why not buy it?
Quote from: mouser on November 03, 2012, 10:28:25 PM
Well, Ubisoft has pretty much made my 'never buy from again' list, but I have to ask:
If the games are so shitty and broken, why would you want to pirate them at all?
Simple solution: don't buy broken games, wait for them to come out with that patch, then go and get the game - but if it's fixed at that point, why not buy it?
Well, how can you know if a game is shitty and broken if you don't try it out, first?
Quote from: mouser on November 03, 2012, 10:28:25 PM
If the games are so shitty and broken, why would you want to pirate them at all?
I suppose it's for the same reason that some people march in the streets holding up signs for a political cause, or chain themselves to fences at anti-nuke rallies. Online piracy can be an effective form of active (but non-violent) protest against serious problems within the gaming and entertainment industries.
The best way to punish greedy corporate capitalists is to take their money away. Now, you could either do that at gunpoint... which is rather extreme, to say the least... or you could do it through online piracy. It seems to me that the latter is a far less dangerous method.
Just my opinion -- but that is what I believe.
Quote from: monkeymax on November 03, 2012, 10:41:10 PM
Quote from: mouser on November 03, 2012, 10:28:25 PM
Well, Ubisoft has pretty much made my 'never buy from again' list, but I have to ask:
If the games are so shitty and broken, why would you want to pirate them at all?
Simple solution: don't buy broken games, wait for them to come out with that patch, then go and get the game - but if it's fixed at that point, why not buy it?
Well, how can you know if a game is shitty and broken if you don't try it out, first?
Amazingly enough, once a game has been out a day or two, the intertubes are full of peoples reviews and actual 'people playing' footage (as opposed to corporate staged gameplay footage). You may even know someone who has a copy.
And btw Tess, contrary to what the MAFIAA says, piracy doesn't actually take money out of their hands, unless you were going to buy the game anyway - but I think that's the minority of cases. Not buying the game has the same effect. Not buying the game and letting everyone (or the right people in the company - hard to find though from the outside) WHY you're not buying the game can have an even greater effect.
But I haven't bought a 'major' PC game title since the Witcher 2... so maybe I'm not in the best position to judge. I love Big Fish Games though - hope to have one of my own up there by this time next year.
Quote from: mouser on November 04, 2012, 01:48:20 AM
And btw Tess, contrary to what the MAFIAA says, piracy doesn't actually take money out of their hands
Then why is the industry trying so desperately to stop it..? They have been trying VERY desperately, in fact.
Your opinion makes no sense at all. Not when you examine the actual facts. Online piracy costs the software and entertainment industries between $200 and $250 billion per year, in the form of lost profits. That's
serious money and frankly, it makes me smile. Power to the people, baby. ;)
Anyway, I have already told you what I believe and I will continue to encourage others to fight back against corporate greed. And if we can wage that fight in a non-violent manner, then so much the better.
Quote from: Tessera on November 04, 2012, 01:58:00 AM
Quote from: mouser on November 04, 2012, 01:48:20 AM
And btw Tess, contrary to what the MAFIAA says, piracy doesn't actually take money out of their hands
Then why is the industry trying so desperately to stop it..? They have been trying VERY desperately, in fact.
Your opinion makes no sense at all. Not when you examine the actual facts. Online piracy costs the software and entertainment industries between $200 and $250 billion per year, in the form of lost profits. That's serious money and frankly, it makes me smile. Power to the people, baby. ;)
For the same reason the music industry has fought every technological innovation since the player piano, it shakes up their business model.
The huge numbers the industry throws around are typically done with the assumption that every illegal download equals a lost sale. They then trumpet those numbers around congress - who see the tax $$$'s that kind of revenue would bring in, and push for whatever bill of the month their pushing for. I find it strange you'll accept a number like that when you're usually so critical of anything coming from corporate mouthpieces. If you look at the companies balance sheets, you'd see a different story - profits have been steady or even climbing in recent years.
To play devil's advocate - online piracy is giving them the excuse to play police and get the DoJ involved in what should be civil cases. It's how they pushed through laws like the DMCA, and how the US shuts off websites hosted in foreign countries, hosting material ruled by that nation's courts to be legal.
Anyway, I certainly agree that it's better than taking a gun to their offices :)
Quote from: mouser on November 04, 2012, 04:10:50 AM
For the same reason the music industry has fought every technological innovation since the player piano, it shakes up their business model.
LOL... yeah, I think we can safely assume that a net loss of
200 billion dollars each year shakes up their business model. :laugh:
I don't understand you mouser, It seams that what we say here in the forums, you lash out. As with me, I have not bought a single game that was listed a waste to buy, after my ordeal with a few of them. Yea! right! buy it, eventually maybe never, we will have "something" for you. I have a whole bunch of games, "that I'm still waiting". Meanwhile, you have a game that is full of crap. Yet, you come here and take the TPG for yourself, how ironic is that. If you are here long enough, you get the "Mega-Mod", and after that you don't hear from these people again.
The Bay is there for a reason! You get tired of being ripped off? Come to the Bay and find what is the fuss is about. Even the Bay in the info block will say if you like the game buy it. That's good enough for me. We are living in the "worst of times, the best of times" to quote Dickens ( a very good read). Again, if you are tried of being ripped off, by all means go there. As for you, mouser, I have, nothing to say too you, but, God Bless, you already made up your mind.
I don't think Mouser is a TPG user, Perez. He has already hinted, in other topics on this board,
that he uses one or two mods for VTMB which I know for certain are not TPG-compatible.
And that's fine. The TPG is not for everyone. Our patch was designed and created for those
players who prefer to play the game that they paid for, instead of Wesp's butchered version.
Quote from: mouser on November 04, 2012, 01:48:20 AM
Quote from: monkeymax on November 03, 2012, 10:41:10 PM
Quote from: mouser on November 03, 2012, 10:28:25 PM
Well, Ubisoft has pretty much made my 'never buy from again' list, but I have to ask:
If the games are so shitty and broken, why would you want to pirate them at all?
Simple solution: don't buy broken games, wait for them to come out with that patch, then go and get the game - but if it's fixed at that point, why not buy it?
Well, how can you know if a game is shitty and broken if you don't try it out, first?
Amazingly enough, once a game has been out a day or two, the intertubes are full of peoples reviews and actual 'people playing' footage (as opposed to corporate staged gameplay footage). You may even know someone who has a copy.
You can't trust reviews and not all of us has friends who are gamers. A let's pay video also can't show you if the game is poorly optimized.
Quote from: perez007usa on November 04, 2012, 05:08:30 AM
I don't understand you mouser, It seams that what we say here in the forums, you lash out.
Lash out? You and I must have different meanings for that. If you expect me to agree with everything said here because I use TPG or Megamod, then it's your expectations that are at fault. Most of the threads I've posted in have nothing to do with the mods anyway, so I don't know why you'd wouldn't expect a lot of different opinions, the internet being what it is and all.
To answer's Tess' question from earlier - I'm one of those who likes both cheeseburgers and Filet Mignon. I'm playing the megamod now, I've played Tess' patch before (before the 'gold' version) and liked it, and I also like some mods built from Wesp's patch (I don't think I've ever played Wesp's patch alone... could be wrong though).
I don't see things like that as either/or choices: most things in life aren't that simple. I will say I'm very curious to see this new 'library level' that's coming or just came out.
When I agree with something I say so (and have said so to numerous things here), when I disagree I also say so. Otherwise, I just give my opinion and reasons, if any (some opinions don't need reasons - they simply are what they are).
Let's all be friendly to one another, folks. This is tessmage.com, not some kiddie board where people bicker all the time. :police:
I know this is a late topic, but in reading it, it reminded me of a game I bought in the mid 80's called DarkLands. Something like that. I waited for a month to get it, and once it came out, I couldn't wait to begin play. What a Royal piece of shit that turned out to be. The Deliberately sold it broken, because they ran out of money, and needed the revenue to fix the damn thing. This was the first Really broken game I ever bought. I, and most of the people I knew who bought it, were disgusted with how it went. The Patch took almost 3 months to get out, (this was pre internet, so you had to get it off compuserve. Told all day to dload the patch, and it still didn't fix the game. Never could complete it, cause they only fixed the bugs in the early part of the game, not those in the later part.
So, this is not a new trend, and I can't say that Darklands started the idea, but I never forgave the game for being broken, never getting fixed, and fucking me out of my 50 bucks, (back then!)
Correction: it isn't a new phenomenon, but it -is- a new trend.
Darklands was broken?
I never had any issues with it. I must've gotten the only working copy then :P
If i remember correctly, it had an insane character generator for the time.
Maybe I'll dig it out of its box or find the GoG version, less hassle.
Quote from: Ratcatcher on December 22, 2012, 08:20:53 AM
Darklands was broken?
I never had any issues with it. I must've gotten the only working copy then :P
If i remember correctly, it had an insane character generator for the time.
Maybe I'll dig it out of its box or find the GoG version, less hassle.
mine was broken all to hell, and so was everyone else's who bought it.
Lol the only games I've ever paid for since I was like 10 was WoW and all expansions up until WotLK when I quit right after the patch where you could actually fight the Liche king, which my guild failed at and when I quit playing noone on my server had. Thinking about going back but hate buying expansions and leveling so..prolly not. Viva la free pirated games lol
Just because I pirate a game doesn't mean I won't buy it. Got Fallout New Vegas from tpb at realease, bought it last week on Steam. Pirated Oblivion but bought Skyrim. Pirated Mass Effect 1 and 2, bought both and 3 too.
Just seems you are having double standards here when it comes to your own work. You are fine with pirating stuff from others but god forbid someone downloads something you made from somewhere else.
Pirated Oblivion and Minecraft. Ended up buying them both later because I enjoyed them. Tho I still have to pirate most of the DLC for Oblivion because it didn't come with the copy I bought.
Quote from: Ykalon on June 17, 2013, 06:05:30 AM
Just seems you are having double standards here when it comes to your own work. You are fine with pirating stuff from others but god forbid someone downloads something you made from somewhere else.
You're comparing apples and apricots. Tessera is far from the only modder to ask users for some basic consideration from users. Since modders generally cannot legally accept payment for their work, because it is based on someone else's IP, they will often ask people to respect their work in other ways. From giving credit for any other derivative use (like a screenshot or fanart depicting a modded character) to asking that people download the mod only from a certain location (a site the modder controls or trusts) to having the basic consideration not to relentlessly badmouth and trashtalk someone and then turn around and use that person's mod as if you're doing them a favor by using it, all any modder wants is a little respect and maybe some props for all their hard work. And there are few if any modders who work harder than Tess. Free work that adds value and replayability to a game can not be pirated...but it (and the modder) can certainly be disrespected. :P
Game publishers, on the other hand, profit obscenely through exploiting the lowest common denominator - putting out shitty rush job games that all the teenagerz just GOTS to buy with mommy and daddy's money. So if for some reason you want the game (maybe this particular game may not suck so much as all that) you just find it on Pirate Bay or something. If you happen to like the game, maybe you later buy it when the price drops...thus paying the price YOU think the game is worth, maybe $40 or $30 or $20 or even $15 or $10, rather than the arbitrary $50 or $60 the developer charged all the "gimme-it-NOW" morons. If more people followed this model, some of these greedy execu-scum might get the message, and start putting out games that were actually WORTH $50 or $60. ::)
Quote from: Ykalon on June 17, 2013, 06:05:30 AMYou are fine with pirating stuff from others but god forbid someone downloads something you made from somewhere else.
Modders are subject to a different code of conduct. We aren't ripping people off, the way gaming publishers are. We don't charge money, ever. So stealing from modders is simply inviting us to stop producing any more mods. Which is precisely what I have done. I am not hurting anybody... I am simply not giving you anything nice for free anymore. If you want to get angry at someone, then take that anger over to the people who are directly responsible for my decision to stop offering my mods. They are the bad people here -- not me. I am just reacting to them.
Now answer a question for me, if you dare...Do I owe you something..?
No..? Then take your attitude of entitlement and cram it. For the past seven years, I have given great globs of wonderful things to my fellow gamers... and I've done it all at my own expense.
But let's get back on-topic. Greedy gaming publishers -do- charge money... and they charge money for what is, more often than not these days, totally inferior merchandise. And that is why I have been saying that online piracy is a good thing... because it punishes greedy publishers right where it hurts them the most: in their wallets.
If you can't understand that fundamental difference, and if you have decided that you resent and/or dislike me for some reason, then feel free to leave. There's the door. Please use it. ;)
PS -- many thanks for the kind words, Cylnar.
There are responsible game developers that self publish or uses gog.com or get it greenlit on steam or use kickstarter but I bet all those games still will be offered on tpb.
In those cases you are not hurting gog.com or steam that much since they probably are not gonna lose any investments since they really don't spend mouch money on advertising.
So in those cases it is the game developers we are hurting (say we since I do still download games like that on tpb).
Yes I want the mega-mod but I know damn well that I'm not entitled to it. If I make a mod for a game and only want to offer it to the Pope that's my right.
Quote from: Ykalon on June 24, 2013, 10:59:59 AM
So in those cases it is the game developers we are hurting
This is incorrect. The devs are paid directly by whatever publisher they hooked up with. It is the giant publishers (like EA) who are hurt the most by online piracy.
Did you know that Electronic Arts was recently named "The Worst Company In America..?" Do you know why..? It's because EA is a disgusting corporation, run by amoral thieves and slimeballs.
You wanna know who hurts the developers the most..? It isn't pirates. No, the giant publishers like EA hurt them the most... that's who. Thanks to the immoral tactics of giant publishers like EA and ActiVision, many talented and once-independent game studios no longer exist (Westwood Studios, Flagship Studios and Troika Games come to mind). Other once-independent studios have been effectively absorbed by the giant publishers, and then pressured into producing what ends up being inferior content (BioWare is a great example).
So the way I see it, harpooning the giant publishers, via online piracy, is a great way to put pressure upon the devs' worst enemy: the greedy publishers who routinely screw them
and us.
Well if you read what I wrote I was talking about devs that publish games themselves either through kickstarter, Steam Greenlight and/or gog so EA, Activision etc is getting zero dollars.
The Witcher is one example of a selfpublished game since the developer decided to offer it drm free on gog. In witcher's case there is of course a boxed version published by Atari so if you have to pirate the game get that version, if you actually want to support the devs buy it on gog.
There are alternatives to the big bad publishers now.
Quote from: Tessera on June 24, 2013, 02:33:42 PM
Quote from: Ykalon on June 24, 2013, 10:59:59 AM
So in those cases it is the game developers we are hurting
This is incorrect. The devs are paid directly by whatever publisher they hooked up with. It is the giant publishers (like EA) who are hurt the most by online piracy.
Did you know that Electronic Arts was recently named "The Worst Company In America..?" Do you know why..? It's because EA is a disgusting corporation, run by amoral thieves and slimeballs.
You wanna know who hurts the developers the most..? It isn't pirates. No, the giant publishers like EA hurt them the most... that's who. Thanks to the immoral tactics of giant publishers like EA and ActiVision, many talented and once-independent game studios no longer exist (Westwood Studios, Flagship Studios and Troika Games come to mind). Other once-independent studios have been effectively absorbed by the giant publishers, and then pressured into producing what ends up being inferior content (BioWare is a great example).
So the way I see it, harpooning the giant publishers, via online piracy, is a great way to put pressure upon the devs' worst enemy: the greedy publishers who routinely screw them and us.
Quote from: Ykalon on June 29, 2013, 12:24:08 PM
There are alternatives to the big bad publishers now.
Not really. The big publishers have dominated the means of distribution... so even if you decide to strike out on your own, it will be hell trying to get your products into the retail stores... unless you hook up with a big, corporate publisher.
The bottom line is that most people do not buy their games via Kickstarter or Stardock or whatever. Most people buy their games from a retail store. So if your goal is to expose your game to the largest possible market, then you are pretty much forced to go suck EA's cock. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for nothing but online distribution, which only represents about a tenth of the total market.
Most retail stores don't even carry computer games anymore, and if they do, they only carry the very newest/the biggest name ones.
Steam, Stardock, and GoG are where you go for quality.
You can also buy direct from some indie people(Unknown Worlds Entertainment, for example.)
That's the way YOU do it, yes. You have taste. :P
But the majority of consumers buy their games
through the big retail outlets. That is a fact.
Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Target, the major department stores... all of them do a HUGE business
in the retail sales of video games, including both PC and console games.
And I haven't even mentioned Amazon.com yet. They must sell a billion dollars worth of retail
video games per year. Granted that Amazon is an online retailer, but they effectively function
the same as any other big retail outlet.
Don't forget you can also go to your Flea Markets, you can pick up some of the new and old PC games.
Quote from: Tessera on June 29, 2013, 07:51:56 PM
That's the way YOU do it, yes. You have taste. :P
But the majority of consumers buy their games
through the big retail outlets. That is a fact.
Yep.
Most people get their games through GameStop, EB Games, or Steam.
QuoteWal-Mart, Circuit City, Target, the major department stores... all of them do a HUGE business
in the retail sales of video games, including both PC and console games.
Maybe it's different in the states, but those stores(I've never actually been into a Target, I can't remember ever seeing one here either) only have a shelf(Or maybe half an aisle) dedicated to computer games, the rest of the section is all console games.
And by dedicated to computer games, I mean lines upon lines of boxes of WoW, Diablo 3, and the newest CoD/BF game.
QuoteAnd I haven't even mentioned Amazon.com yet. They must sell a billion dollars worth of retail
video games per year. Granted that Amazon is an online retailer, but they effectively function
the same as any other big retail outlet.
I've yet to order a thing from amazon.
I always see stuff on there, and I'm like "Damn, that's kinda cool".
I end up spending my money on other things though, like going paintballing(Air, and Paint aren't free), or buying a bag of weed(It's my alcohol, essentially.)
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Most people get their games through GameStop, EB Games, or Steam.
No... most people buy their games through retail stores.
Online sales are significant, yes... but not compared to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc.
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Maybe it's different in the states
I'm sure it is. 8)
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Maybe it's different in the states, but those stores(I've never actually been into a Target, I can't remember ever seeing one here either) only have a shelf(Or maybe half an aisle) dedicated to computer games, the rest of the section is all console games.
And by dedicated to computer games, I mean lines upon lines of boxes of WoW, Diablo 3, and the newest CoD/BF game.
Target bought a bunch of stores recently (Zellers i think), so you should be starting to see them soonish.
As for the others, yeah, its pretty much the way you said.
Quote from: Tessera on July 01, 2013, 09:49:19 PM
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Most people get their games through GameStop, EB Games, or Steam.
No... most people buy their games through retail stores.
Online sales are significant, yes... but not compared to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc.
EB Games and GameStop are retail stores.
They used to be separate, but GameStop bought out EB and the name is slowly being phased out.
Either way, those stores barely carry computer games either.
The vast majority of retail outlets either carry exclusively console games, or very very few computer games.
Quote
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Maybe it's different in the states
I'm sure it is. 8)
You guys seem to have a bigger selection of everything, everywhere.
I wish our 7/11's sold beer.
Quote from: Ratcatcher on July 02, 2013, 11:55:08 AM
Quote from: Wormphlegm on July 01, 2013, 08:14:14 PM
Maybe it's different in the states, but those stores(I've never actually been into a Target, I can't remember ever seeing one here either) only have a shelf(Or maybe half an aisle) dedicated to computer games, the rest of the section is all console games.
And by dedicated to computer games, I mean lines upon lines of boxes of WoW, Diablo 3, and the newest CoD/BF game.
Target bought a bunch of stores recently (Zellers i think), so you should be starting to see them soonish.
As for the others, yeah, its pretty much the way you said.
Yeah, I heard about that.
I haven't seen a Zellers in years either.
Then again, I'm in a rural area that does not have a Wal*Mart.
Granted, most people do buy from these retail stores.
I was one of them, until I started looking into the local Flea Markets, believe me, they have a very wide selection on every thing, they have new and used games, also the very old games. Consoles, broad games. It is were I have gotten most of my games. Chances are they may have what you are looking for. Try it, I think you may like it.
Quote from: perez007usa on July 03, 2013, 07:10:11 AM
Granted, most people do buy from these retail stores.
I was one of them, until I started looking into the local Flea Markets, believe me, they have a very wide selection on every thing, they have new and used games, also the very old games. Consoles, broad games. It is were I have gotten most of my games. Chances are they may have what you are looking for. Try it, I think you may like it.
I have never been to a flea market before. I guess based on your suggestion, I have to try it.
-ChaosArcher
Quote from: perez007usa on July 03, 2013, 07:10:11 AM
Consoles, broad games.
Can you choose the type of fleas to play a broad game? :P
From what I've seen, if a game is pirated a lot, it means it's a good game. That alone should make the devs happy. Granted, I'm not looking at the financial side of it at all.
This is one of the most intelligent post that i ever see about the piracy....wow, really smart, i don't know if i have the same idea, but for now is the only way to fight this war against this company, who destroy the other and give to us broken or incomplete games, just for make money, is like to go in a cinema and pay to see half of the film...you made a good point, i cant add nothing , and the thing that is most important is that you are not the only one who looks very smart in this forum....wow this Make me really happy :'(
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Un-italicized red is reserved for moderation on this board. ;)
I will use italicized red when commenting on an article I have posted from elsewhere. :P
But for normal posts, please stick to regular white. Thanks. :police:
I've been gaming since 1985, with the Atari 2600. I know, I know - this website is more geared towards PC players than console users, but still - here me out, as it DOES apply to both PC and console:
When I first started gaming, games were limited by several things, primarily being the inability to receive updates to correct overlooked flaws in the games. Anyone who is around my age and started gaming around that time, regardless of the platform played on, can rattle off dozens, if not hundreds, of titles they played in the past that has a flaw, a bug, etc. That part will never go away, as bugs and flaws will ALWAYS be present.
Back then, piracy was unheard of - sure, it happened, but nowhere near the extent that it happens today. When it started getting widespread in the mid to late 90s, it was a detriment to the industry, as the argument then was basically "the more we lose via piracy, the more we have to charge per copy to ensure we receive a fair profit." And I can understand that to a point, even today - if you make a product, you SHOULD be able to make a profit from it - or at least make your money back to cover expenses. Piracy is wrong and illegal.
HOWEVER, after a lot of thought, brought about by a post over in the GameFAQs message boards, I have come to realize that many games today are, indeed, released in a "unfinished" state. Or, in the case of downloadable content, sometimes we've already paid for it, as it is on the disc, but the retail version is missing a line or two of code, which tells the game to use that extra data. Forcing us to purchase an unfinished product is wrong. And in the case of "on-disc DLC", tey are basically holding rightfully purchased software hostage - it's already in our possession - do NOT try to tell me that high end graphics can be stored in a 100 kb file that we have to pay $5 or more for.
Then you have platforms like STEAM, which forces you to be connected in order to use your rightfully purchased software. Sure, you can set it up where once you "authenticate" your copy with STEAM, you can play it without an internet connection. However, the point is you BUY the software from STEAM, then you have to "authenticate" it? Why do I have to prove that it is a legally purchased copy when I literally just bought it from you?
And let's not forget the "bait and switch" tactic that some companies have pulled. The most recent one was Gearbox with Aliens: Colonial Marines. We were shown one major, kick ass product at E3, and on February 12th, 2013, we bought our copies and rushed home to play them - only to discover that we were given not only a different product entirely, but it was initially so unfinished it...it was horrible, to say the least.
The industry has evolved(or devolved) into nothing more than a cookie cutter, "let's copy this idea again so we can bang more hookers and do more coke" affair, and yet they still scream about piracy.
And as a result of that, we are given rushed, unfinished and sometimes unplayable products. And after some long, hard thought I've realized that the only way to ensure my hard earned money is not spent on a crap product is to try a pirated copy first - somethign that I still do today.
Please do not think I am being hypocritical - I still think piracy is wrong and illegal, and that it should end. HOWEVER, at the same time, I am tired of being given rushed, unfinished and inferior products for my hard earned dollar. This is why, when it's possible, I will pirate a copy to try it first. If it passes MY judgement, then I uninstall the pirate copy, delete the ISO, and go buy a legit copy.
Is it wrong, what I, and some others do? Sure, it's still wrong and illegal - it is still piracy, any way you look at it - but some of us will still buy a legit copy, if it's worth it. If we, as gamers, don't put our collective foot down and tell the industry to stop shoveling half finished, unplayable, buggy pieces of shit at us, we will continue to get just that. I, for one, am sick of it.
I have never ratted on a software pirate, and I never will - but I no longer dispise them, either. I still say it is wrong and illegal - but I'm tired of wasting my hard earned dollars on a clusterfuck of a piece of buggy software. In short, the industry has lost my trust. And until it regains it, I will continue to try a pirated copy first before I pay good money for a legit copy.
And if the industry doesn't like it, it can suck my dick like a Singapore prostitute.
They'll suck anyone's dick... so long as you wrap a hundred dollar bill around it first.
Quote from: Shotgunner on November 19, 2013, 08:04:22 PMI've been gaming since 1985, with the Atari 2600.
I still got my Atari 2600 that me and my sister used to play when we were kids. It still works. :P
As do I beetle :P Along with all the others I've gotten over the years.
Quote from: Shotgunner on November 20, 2013, 03:30:32 PM
As do I beetle :P Along with all the others I've gotten over the years.
And many games on those systems are still better than the cookie cutter crap we see today.
Agreed. Every FPS these days tries to be like COD or Battlefield, every RPG tries to emulate Final Fantasy, every RTS(not that there are many of them) tries to emulate Command & Conquer......it's sad.
And yet, some people still shell out good money for a "revision" of last year's game. Especially true with sports games - what, did they finally make it so a single button will throw the damn ball?
@ Tessera - if it involved some of the "booth babes" from the Tokyo Game Show, I'd wrap my shaft with a $100 bill - but that's just me.
Nothing wrong with stealing form a corporation with all the shit their doing, but I do think it wrong to steal form the truly independent or from local business.
Quote from: Cat on November 21, 2013, 01:20:59 AM
Nothing wrong with stealing form a corporation with all the shit their doing...
Tell me who the biggest thieves in America are.
If you don't know, then you'll find their names listed in the Wall Street Journal.
Stealing from thieves is not stealing. It's getting your money back.
It's justice.
I've never been of the mind that piracy was bad for business. As a matter of fact there are more than a few games I would have never bought, much less played, if not for piracy. I would have never bought nor played any of my Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect games. The way I see it if someone pirates a game and they like it, not only are the chances of them actually buying that game going up but then they spread word of mouth and will more than likely get a few other people to buy it also. I pirated Morrowind and Mass Effect and since then have bought both and the 2 consecutive games after them, none of which I would have if I wouldn't have exposed myself to those in the first place. I don't pirate a lot of games, but I'm not gonna take a chance on paying $50-$70 for a game that sucks either, although I did pay too much for Jagged Alliance: BIA when I much prefer JA2. :-\
With regards to online piracy, I've either read or heard some skeptical comments from various people over the years. Skeptical with regards to how effective online piracy could be, as a means of peaceful protest against corporate greed and corporate megalomania.
So... does online piracy actually hurt the big digital media companies..?
Note that when I say "digital media companies," I'm referring to any and all companies who engage in the selling of such digital media as games, movies, music, software applications, and so on.
First, we need to estimate the total number of people who at least occasionally engage in some form of online piracy. That number varies considerably, depending upon who you want to believe. The lowest number that I have seen is around 50 million people, worldwide. The highest number that I have seen is that there are over 100 million people in this world who have engaged in online piracy at least once. The actual, correct number is undoubtedly somewhere in-between those two extremes. But to be scientific about this, let's just stick to using the lowest number... 50 million.
Okay, so we have at least 50 million people worldwide who have engaged in online piracy, in one form or another.
Next we need to "guesstimate" with regards to how much money that translates to, in the form of lost revenues. This is rather difficult, because the stuff that most people pirate these days can vary wildly, in terms of its street value. Some people pirate music, for example... and these days, your average music CD costs somewhere around $10 USD. Other people pirate little things that are worth even less... maybe only $5 USD. But there are also lots and lots of people who pirate more valuable things, such as rips of BluRay DVD movies, which often sell for as much as $100 for a boxed set. And there are still more valuable things that people pirate, such as commercial software packages (eg: AutoCad, 3D StudioMax, etc.) that can sell for as much as $1000 USD.
So the exact dollar amount of lost revenues due to online piracy is unknown. But once again, we're going to remain scientific about this, and choose the lowest number -- roughly $5 USD. And we'll do this with the knowledge that the actual cumulative total of lost revenues is almost certainly going to be quite a bit higher than the result that we come up with here.
Let's do the math, then...
If 50 million people each pirate something that is worth at least $5 USD, then the cumulative total in lost revenues for the digital media industry comes to... TAH DAH...
$2,500,000,000 USD. That's two-point-five BILLION dollars, folks. And remember that we're being VERY conservative with our estimates here. The real, actual number may be as high as ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. We're talking about SERIOUS money here, folks. There isn't a company in this world that would look at those numbers and consider them to be "negligible," or "a good tax write-off," or "unimportant in the long run." On the contrary... they'd shit their pants.
So for those of you who doubt whether online piracy is actually an effective way to protest against digital greed, then my aanswer is simple: why don't you send an e-mail to any large corporation of your choosing, and ask them if they feel okay about losing 2.5 billion dollars in annual revenues. I already know what their answer will be... right after they finish taking a shit on the floor of their office, that is.
But you go ahead and ask them for yourselves. 8)
I have no idea if piracy actually hurts these companies or not. Who says a pirate would pay for something if he couldn't steal it? Maybe he would just give it a pass all together?
You've thought this out quite a bit more than I have though, so I'll just go with your line of thinking.
Though, I do appreciate knowing that I'm not the only person on the planet who didn't get mad enough to get put on death row the last time I shelled out cash for some piece of software that simply didn't work and the publisher laughed at me while wiping their ass with my money.
I would buy any software that I need and pay good for it too. If it worked. However, they won't let you try it out first. Oh no, fuck you! Non-refundable cash up front only! Oh, you installed it and it doesn't do shit? Well fuck-a yooo twice!! Hahahaha!
It's nuts. But when I come up on a new task I need to perform and I need a little app, I end up going through at least 4 different ones before I find one that at least half ass does it's job. I have to install at least 12 before I find one that's the shit. Had I paid for all that..? I'd be one broke dick bastard.
Plus, you speak of whores.. You can't find any sort of site who does reviews of software that you can trust. They ALL lie. But, you can ask a pirate and they'll shoot you straight. What kind of fucked up situation is that? (I mean it makes sense, but it's kind of ass backwards in that legitimate legal people will lie to your face, while the thievish outlaw types will shoot you straight even though they keep their identity hidden.)
Quote from: finalphoenix on July 19, 2014, 05:32:47 AM
I have no idea if piracy actually hurts these companies or not.
Oh please... of course you know that it hurts them.
If it didn't hurt them, then why would they go to all sorts of trouble to prevent it..? Online requirements, cloud storage of critical game files, encryption, DRM... you name it. All of those things cost the company lots of money to institute and enforce. Plus most of those anti-piracy schemes hurt their honest customers almost as much as they hurt the pirates, which fosters quite a bit of ill will.
So why would they bother going through all of that, unless they had a very serious financial reason for doing so..?
Their actions speak louder than words. Online piracy hurts them VERY badly... to the tune of literally hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Point taken. I wasn't looking at it from a realistic angle.
I agree with all of what you are saying and is actually the reason why I almost always wait to buy games. Thanks to Steam and it's sales, the likelihood that a decent game that ends up with a billion add-ons (all of which EA will make you pay for) goes on sale is very high. It's only when a game that would have cost me 50 I can get for 5 do I buy it.
This does mean I end up years behind everyone else, but then again my computers tend to be as well, so there is no problem.
If I do want a game now though, I will pirate it.
The following is a copy of an article that I found on the web. I did not write it, but it seems like good information...
5 Ways To Download Torrents Anonymously
Thanks to Torrentfreak
With anti-piracy outfits and dubious law-firms policing BitTorrent swarms at an increasing rate, many Bittorrent users are looking for ways to hide their identities from the outside world. To accommodate this demand we'll give an overview of 5 widely used privacy services.
With an increasing number of BitTorrent users seeking solutions to hide their identities from the outside world, privacy services have seen a spike in customers recently.
Below we've listed some of the most-used services that allow BitTorrent users to hide their IP-addresses from the public.
The services discussed in this post range from totally free to costing several dollars a month.
The general rule is that free services are generally slower or have other restrictions, while paid ones can get you the same speeds as your regular connection would.
VPN (strongly recommended!)
Hundreds and thousands of BitTorrent users have already discovered that a virtual private network (VPN) is a good way to ensure privacy while using BitTorrent.
For a few dollars a month VPNs route all your traffic through their servers, hiding your IP address from the public.
Some VPNs also offer a free plan, but these are significantly slower and not really suited for more demanding BitTorrent users.
Unlike the other services listed in this article, VPNs are not limited to just BitTorrent traffic, they will also conceal the source of all the other traffic on your connection too.
BTGuard, StrongVPN and Itshidden are popular among BitTorrent users, but a Google search should find dozens more.
It is recommended to ask beforehand if BitTorrent traffic is permitted on the service of your choice.
BTGuard (strongly recommended!)
BTGuard is a proxy service that hides the IP-addresses of its users from the public. The service works on Windows, Mac, Linux and as the name already suggests, it is set up specifically with BitTorrent users in mind. Besides using the pre-configured client, users can also set up their own client to work with BTGuard. It works with all clients that support "Socks V5″ proxies including uTorrent and Vuze. In addition, BTGuard also includes encryption tunnel software for the real security purists.
After these words of praise we're obligated to disclose that BTGuard is operated by friends of TorrentFreak, but we think that should be interpreted as a recommendation.
TorrentPrivacy
Torrentprivacy is another proxy service for BitTorrent users, very similar to that of BTGuard.
It offers a modified uTorrent client that has all the necessary settings pre-configured.
The downside to this approach is that it is limited to users on Windows platforms.
TorrentPrivacy is operated by the TorrentReactor.net team and has been in business for more than two years.
Anomos
"Anomos is a pseudonymous, encrypted multi-peer-to-peer file distribution protocol."
It is based on the peer/tracker concept of BitTorrent in combination with an onion routing anonymization layer, with the added benefit of end-to-end encryption," is how the Anomos team describes its project.
Anomos is one of the few free multi-platform solutions for BitTorrent users to hide their IP-addresses.
The downside is that it's not fully compatible with regular torrent files as Anomos uses its own atorrent format.
Another drawback is that the download speeds are generally lower than regular BitTorrent transfers.
On the uTorrent Idea Bank, more than 1,600 people have asked for the Anomos protocol to be built in to a future uTorrent build, making it the second most-popular suggestion overall.
Seedbox
A seedbox is BitTorrent jargon for a dedicated high-speed server, used exclusively for torrent transfers.
With a seedbox users generally get very high download speeds while their IP-addresses are not shared with the public.
Once a download is finished users can download the files to their PC through a fast http connection. FileShareFreak periodically reviews several good seedbox providers.
Shhht
And then there's Usenet.
Even though this is a 8 year old thread, I couldn't agree more since most of the time developers tend to try so hard to make games playable just to appease the fans just for a quick buck. Take the infamous crapcom for instance (or at least one of the infamous company who didn't take their time and tries so hard to make games great which obviously isn't and decides to release it extremely early) since they tend to refuse to give fans what they want and has a habit of butchering the franchise and not sticking to their original roots on how it all began. (referencing the resident evil franchise that's been longed fucked up since the 5th sequel and 6th game is just an insult to injury). Then ask myself, why the hell would I want to pay 30 to 40 dollars on a broken piece of unplayable, uninteresting, bland storytelling piece of shit that is no more worth then at least 10 to 15 bucks, better off getting the pirated version. You probably might call it stealing from another thief, but I pretty much call it scamming the scammers.