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Recently there has been a lot of talk about how to stop piracy, and why it happens. I thought I'd just post my completely radical views on this issue (should lead to a lengthy debate!)...
When you are buying games what do you get for your money? Answer: A group of 1s and 0s. Nothing more. For £50? IS that really worth it? Answer: No! Most of this money goes to games retailers, with little actually going to developers.
And this is the cause of most piracy! The average Joe Bloggs can't be bothered to pay £50 for a new game so decides to buy a pirate copy. To add to this, most new games are poor, and people often feel cheated when shelling out £50 for what is a piece of rubbish... thus leading them into pirating games.
There are, of course, the "hardcore" piartes who will copy anything and everything whether it is good or bad.. but I will not discuss these, instead featuring on the average Joe Bloggs pirate.
**************
Now, how can you stop piracy?
Well, most people seem to think that the best way to do it is to make it harder to copy games (using the ROM thing on LMA manager, or using proprietry formatts for example). However, I think that this isn't the answer. The answer is that it is the publisher's faults that games are pirated... read on.
Why is it the publisher's faults? Basically because of the following reasons:
1) Most published games are aweful. If bad games were never published I believe more people would be happy to buy proper copies
2) Games cost too much. If they were lower then more people would see an incentive to buy original copies.
3) All you get is a group of 1s and 0s. If there was more to games than this then people would be more keen to get the originals
So, my solution. To begin, when developing games, do so with all language support right from the start. This will save huge amounts of money, and would allow more universal releases. In addition, how about developing PAL and NTSC system support from day one... thus allowing universal releases dates for all games, and making sure the PAL conversions are of better quality.
In addition, publishers should be responsible for only letting good games come out. If they checked developers' ideas from the start and reviewed projects (as they are meant to) then they could put an end to bad games being made.
So, now we have good quality, cheap games that have universal release dates and don't suffer from PAL slowdown.
Now all that is left is to make games more than a collection of 1s and 0s. To give you an example of what I mean, I recently bought the Daft Punk album. In the CD case comes a card with a unique number on that allows access to the web site which has several unique features. Without a real card you cannot get to the web site (in theory). Thus the customer has bought more than just a 60 min album.
Why can't all games do the same. How about including a code with games. Only real games come with the code, and this allows you to enter competitions on the web. Oh, and make these competitions good! Like in a fifa game, u might only be allowed to play online against someone if you have got a code from the game. And when you first register, the web server saves the code AND the IP address of the computer you are on (or console), so people cannot just use your code.
There are so many things that can be done to prevent casual piracy. Can anyone think of any more? Anyone have differing views? If so please mention them!
Sonic
When you are buying games what do you get for your money? Answer: A group of 1s and 0s. Nothing more. For £50? IS that really worth it? Answer: No! Most of this money goes to games retailers, with little actually going to developers.
And this is the cause of most piracy! The average Joe Bloggs can't be bothered to pay £50 for a new game so decides to buy a pirate copy. To add to this, most new games are poor, and people often feel cheated when shelling out £50 for what is a piece of rubbish... thus leading them into pirating games.
There are, of course, the "hardcore" piartes who will copy anything and everything whether it is good or bad.. but I will not discuss these, instead featuring on the average Joe Bloggs pirate.
**************
Now, how can you stop piracy?
Well, most people seem to think that the best way to do it is to make it harder to copy games (using the ROM thing on LMA manager, or using proprietry formatts for example). However, I think that this isn't the answer. The answer is that it is the publisher's faults that games are pirated... read on.
Why is it the publisher's faults? Basically because of the following reasons:
1) Most published games are aweful. If bad games were never published I believe more people would be happy to buy proper copies
2) Games cost too much. If they were lower then more people would see an incentive to buy original copies.
3) All you get is a group of 1s and 0s. If there was more to games than this then people would be more keen to get the originals
So, my solution. To begin, when developing games, do so with all language support right from the start. This will save huge amounts of money, and would allow more universal releases. In addition, how about developing PAL and NTSC system support from day one... thus allowing universal releases dates for all games, and making sure the PAL conversions are of better quality.
In addition, publishers should be responsible for only letting good games come out. If they checked developers' ideas from the start and reviewed projects (as they are meant to) then they could put an end to bad games being made.
So, now we have good quality, cheap games that have universal release dates and don't suffer from PAL slowdown.
Now all that is left is to make games more than a collection of 1s and 0s. To give you an example of what I mean, I recently bought the Daft Punk album. In the CD case comes a card with a unique number on that allows access to the web site which has several unique features. Without a real card you cannot get to the web site (in theory). Thus the customer has bought more than just a 60 min album.
Why can't all games do the same. How about including a code with games. Only real games come with the code, and this allows you to enter competitions on the web. Oh, and make these competitions good! Like in a fifa game, u might only be allowed to play online against someone if you have got a code from the game. And when you first register, the web server saves the code AND the IP address of the computer you are on (or console), so people cannot just use your code.
There are so many things that can be done to prevent casual piracy. Can anyone think of any more? Anyone have differing views? If so please mention them!
Sonic
Page:
SonicRav wrote:
> Recently there has been a lot of talk about how to stop piracy, and
> why it happens.
Yes, all started by YOU Rav...
> Recently there has been a lot of talk about how to stop piracy, and
> why it happens.
Yes, all started by YOU Rav...
If you are paying £50 you are not doing it right! Have a word with Tony.
Firstly, if the quality of all games went up, people wouldn't have more of an incentive to buy original copies, their standards of 'what is a good game' would just go up.
Making games cheaper can work in some instances, but it's really not going to have much effect until prices can compete with the pirates - a situation whihc is economically totally unfeasable.
As for the ones and zeros, and codes and things, that's not really going to change anything. If people wanted the submission codes, they could look them up from somewhere. Software can also be cracked so the codes aren't needed. PC software is cracked all the time. It really wouldn't make much difference.
Making games cheaper can work in some instances, but it's really not going to have much effect until prices can compete with the pirates - a situation whihc is economically totally unfeasable.
As for the ones and zeros, and codes and things, that's not really going to change anything. If people wanted the submission codes, they could look them up from somewhere. Software can also be cracked so the codes aren't needed. PC software is cracked all the time. It really wouldn't make much difference.
Recently there has been a lot of talk about how to stop piracy, and why it happens. I thought I'd just post my completely radical views on this issue (should lead to a lengthy debate!)...
When you are buying games what do you get for your money? Answer: A group of 1s and 0s. Nothing more. For £50? IS that really worth it? Answer: No! Most of this money goes to games retailers, with little actually going to developers.
And this is the cause of most piracy! The average Joe Bloggs can't be bothered to pay £50 for a new game so decides to buy a pirate copy. To add to this, most new games are poor, and people often feel cheated when shelling out £50 for what is a piece of rubbish... thus leading them into pirating games.
There are, of course, the "hardcore" piartes who will copy anything and everything whether it is good or bad.. but I will not discuss these, instead featuring on the average Joe Bloggs pirate.
**************
Now, how can you stop piracy?
Well, most people seem to think that the best way to do it is to make it harder to copy games (using the ROM thing on LMA manager, or using proprietry formatts for example). However, I think that this isn't the answer. The answer is that it is the publisher's faults that games are pirated... read on.
Why is it the publisher's faults? Basically because of the following reasons:
1) Most published games are aweful. If bad games were never published I believe more people would be happy to buy proper copies
2) Games cost too much. If they were lower then more people would see an incentive to buy original copies.
3) All you get is a group of 1s and 0s. If there was more to games than this then people would be more keen to get the originals
So, my solution. To begin, when developing games, do so with all language support right from the start. This will save huge amounts of money, and would allow more universal releases. In addition, how about developing PAL and NTSC system support from day one... thus allowing universal releases dates for all games, and making sure the PAL conversions are of better quality.
In addition, publishers should be responsible for only letting good games come out. If they checked developers' ideas from the start and reviewed projects (as they are meant to) then they could put an end to bad games being made.
So, now we have good quality, cheap games that have universal release dates and don't suffer from PAL slowdown.
Now all that is left is to make games more than a collection of 1s and 0s. To give you an example of what I mean, I recently bought the Daft Punk album. In the CD case comes a card with a unique number on that allows access to the web site which has several unique features. Without a real card you cannot get to the web site (in theory). Thus the customer has bought more than just a 60 min album.
Why can't all games do the same. How about including a code with games. Only real games come with the code, and this allows you to enter competitions on the web. Oh, and make these competitions good! Like in a fifa game, u might only be allowed to play online against someone if you have got a code from the game. And when you first register, the web server saves the code AND the IP address of the computer you are on (or console), so people cannot just use your code.
There are so many things that can be done to prevent casual piracy. Can anyone think of any more? Anyone have differing views? If so please mention them!
Sonic
When you are buying games what do you get for your money? Answer: A group of 1s and 0s. Nothing more. For £50? IS that really worth it? Answer: No! Most of this money goes to games retailers, with little actually going to developers.
And this is the cause of most piracy! The average Joe Bloggs can't be bothered to pay £50 for a new game so decides to buy a pirate copy. To add to this, most new games are poor, and people often feel cheated when shelling out £50 for what is a piece of rubbish... thus leading them into pirating games.
There are, of course, the "hardcore" piartes who will copy anything and everything whether it is good or bad.. but I will not discuss these, instead featuring on the average Joe Bloggs pirate.
**************
Now, how can you stop piracy?
Well, most people seem to think that the best way to do it is to make it harder to copy games (using the ROM thing on LMA manager, or using proprietry formatts for example). However, I think that this isn't the answer. The answer is that it is the publisher's faults that games are pirated... read on.
Why is it the publisher's faults? Basically because of the following reasons:
1) Most published games are aweful. If bad games were never published I believe more people would be happy to buy proper copies
2) Games cost too much. If they were lower then more people would see an incentive to buy original copies.
3) All you get is a group of 1s and 0s. If there was more to games than this then people would be more keen to get the originals
So, my solution. To begin, when developing games, do so with all language support right from the start. This will save huge amounts of money, and would allow more universal releases. In addition, how about developing PAL and NTSC system support from day one... thus allowing universal releases dates for all games, and making sure the PAL conversions are of better quality.
In addition, publishers should be responsible for only letting good games come out. If they checked developers' ideas from the start and reviewed projects (as they are meant to) then they could put an end to bad games being made.
So, now we have good quality, cheap games that have universal release dates and don't suffer from PAL slowdown.
Now all that is left is to make games more than a collection of 1s and 0s. To give you an example of what I mean, I recently bought the Daft Punk album. In the CD case comes a card with a unique number on that allows access to the web site which has several unique features. Without a real card you cannot get to the web site (in theory). Thus the customer has bought more than just a 60 min album.
Why can't all games do the same. How about including a code with games. Only real games come with the code, and this allows you to enter competitions on the web. Oh, and make these competitions good! Like in a fifa game, u might only be allowed to play online against someone if you have got a code from the game. And when you first register, the web server saves the code AND the IP address of the computer you are on (or console), so people cannot just use your code.
There are so many things that can be done to prevent casual piracy. Can anyone think of any more? Anyone have differing views? If so please mention them!
Sonic
Page: