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Well, in the UK that is?
You see, in this country we are forced to wait months for, often shody, conversitions of games that have elements missing. Add to that, the large amounts of poor games in production, and you can begin to see why people just can't be bothered to pay £40 for a game anymore.
You see, most people who buy piarted games do so for one of the following reasons:
*Games are too expensive
*They have bought so many poorly converted (or just plain bad) games that they feel cheated.
*The have to wait months for a game to come out over here.
*They can't be bothered to pay anyway!
Now, let's tackle these issues one-by-one, and see how publishers can fix their problems:
Well, there are two reasons that games in this country are more expensive than in the rest of the world- conversion costs and overpricing. So here's what I propose.
When developing a game, develop it in all language support and all region compatability from day one. This reduces game production costs enormously! Not only that, but games can be released around the world at the same time (meaning that you don't have to wait months for games). You'd also hope the conversions were excellent... ebcause the PAL code is no longer converted from NTSC- it's written from the ground up!
But this point can be further strengthened by completely removing regional lock outs from consoles! How about making just one copy of the games and consoles that would be sold worldwide. (If you wonder how to get around PAL, just make all the games support either TV setting, with the User picking which one... like the DC!).
So, under this system, you have universal launches of universally made games that run on any console. Seeing as a VAST majority of game profits go to retailers (developers get next to nothing!), retailers in this company will now directly compete with thoise in other countries, and prices will have to fall.
Now, another important point. How many bad games are there around? Too many considering that publishers are meant to monitor game development.
So, how about eliminating all those bad games by just stopping the games in early production, rather than making a second rate games and cashing in?
This would ensure a good quality of games, making people who pirate solely because they have been cheated in the past by second rate games, fell more willing to part with their cash.
So now we have eliminated high prices, long delays and poor games. Considering most piraters are the casual sort who just pick up a game for £5 down the market because it's cheap, this should bring them back to the industry.
OH, and because mod chip manufacturers can just say "we let people import", in the new system all consoles are multiregional, meaning any mod chip makers would be 100% responsible for piracy... destroying their market!
So now it's almost impossible to buy a mod chip anyway!
Finally, there will always be people who pirate because they can't be bothered to pay. However, these people are few at the moment, and will become even fewer when it becomes near impossible to buy a mod chip!
So, there's my argument... discuss.
Sonic
You see, in this country we are forced to wait months for, often shody, conversitions of games that have elements missing. Add to that, the large amounts of poor games in production, and you can begin to see why people just can't be bothered to pay £40 for a game anymore.
You see, most people who buy piarted games do so for one of the following reasons:
*Games are too expensive
*They have bought so many poorly converted (or just plain bad) games that they feel cheated.
*The have to wait months for a game to come out over here.
*They can't be bothered to pay anyway!
Now, let's tackle these issues one-by-one, and see how publishers can fix their problems:
Well, there are two reasons that games in this country are more expensive than in the rest of the world- conversion costs and overpricing. So here's what I propose.
When developing a game, develop it in all language support and all region compatability from day one. This reduces game production costs enormously! Not only that, but games can be released around the world at the same time (meaning that you don't have to wait months for games). You'd also hope the conversions were excellent... ebcause the PAL code is no longer converted from NTSC- it's written from the ground up!
But this point can be further strengthened by completely removing regional lock outs from consoles! How about making just one copy of the games and consoles that would be sold worldwide. (If you wonder how to get around PAL, just make all the games support either TV setting, with the User picking which one... like the DC!).
So, under this system, you have universal launches of universally made games that run on any console. Seeing as a VAST majority of game profits go to retailers (developers get next to nothing!), retailers in this company will now directly compete with thoise in other countries, and prices will have to fall.
Now, another important point. How many bad games are there around? Too many considering that publishers are meant to monitor game development.
So, how about eliminating all those bad games by just stopping the games in early production, rather than making a second rate games and cashing in?
This would ensure a good quality of games, making people who pirate solely because they have been cheated in the past by second rate games, fell more willing to part with their cash.
So now we have eliminated high prices, long delays and poor games. Considering most piraters are the casual sort who just pick up a game for £5 down the market because it's cheap, this should bring them back to the industry.
OH, and because mod chip manufacturers can just say "we let people import", in the new system all consoles are multiregional, meaning any mod chip makers would be 100% responsible for piracy... destroying their market!
So now it's almost impossible to buy a mod chip anyway!
Finally, there will always be people who pirate because they can't be bothered to pay. However, these people are few at the moment, and will become even fewer when it becomes near impossible to buy a mod chip!
So, there's my argument... discuss.
Sonic
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Well, the difference between what Aliboy and I am saying is that he wants simply to make piracy very hard/impossible, whereas I'm trying to make piracy harder, but at the same time make people less willing to want to buy pirated games anyway. (ie, making the products better by making them come out quicker, cheaper, and at better quality.)
Oh, and the idea about DNA/retinal scans won't take off, simply because people we see it as an infringment of their privacy. Essentially, anyone who works in a shop can find out exactly what games/DVDs/music you've bought, and from where... not a great comfort!
Sonic
Oh, and the idea about DNA/retinal scans won't take off, simply because people we see it as an infringment of their privacy. Essentially, anyone who works in a shop can find out exactly what games/DVDs/music you've bought, and from where... not a great comfort!
Sonic
I think that Sonic's idea is better as it means we get better conversions and games quicker.
If there were no regional lockouts and choosing between Pal/NSTC was a standard option, changing text from English to French would be relatively easy.
Ofcourse, they're not exactly going to listen to us...
If there were no regional lockouts and choosing between Pal/NSTC was a standard option, changing text from English to French would be relatively easy.
Ofcourse, they're not exactly going to listen to us...
Yet again piracy makes an appearance on these forums and for some reason I just have to reply in these. Now we all know the good, bad and ugly side to piracy. It is wrong and time something is done about it. I'm not going into details about piracy here as that would just be pointless as it has been done over and over and over.
What I will do though is share some ideas I have been thinking of lately of ways to solve this major problem for the industry.
Ok so now piracy isn't as bad as it has been in the past. For the moment DVD games can't be copied easily and to do so wouldn't be very cost effective. But in my view it is only a matter of time before the problem kicks up again.
The way I see it is that no matter what steps developers and console manufacturers take to try prevent piracy there is always going to be someone who can work there way around these obstacles. The trick is to make it very hard and expensive to get round these obstacles that the whole piracy industry just wouldn't make any profit from it.
So here are my ideas. They probably require a lot more thought and in the end probably may not work but I'll share them anyway. They are brief as I don't want to go into too much detail, saving that to make me rich. If anyone steals them and they go on to make a lot of cash then I want my share or there will be trouble. : )
Idea 1
As you all probably know if something is unique then you can't duplicate it in anyway. Assuming on-line gaming kicks of then as well as allowing on-line play they could also use it to check on games.
My idea is that with every game you get you are given a unique number, the disk also has an encrypted code built into it. When you buy a game you then take it home, go on-line and subscribe the game, this means that you enter your number and the encrypted number is also sent so that no other copy of the game with this built in number can be set up. If you don't subscribe then the disk doesn't run.
Sure there are problems with this idea but with a fair bit of thought it could be useful in the future.
Idea 2
This may seem a little farfetched but one day it may just be the way to stop piracy. As you all know everyone has a unique retina pattern, fingerprint and DNA. One of these could provide useful in sorting the problem out one and for all. When technology is available and at a reasonable price we could see a time where when you go into a shop to buy a game they first upload your retina scan or fingerprint onto the disk. Each time you play the game you must provide a valid finger print or retina scan.
Ok so this would mean only the person who purchased the game could load it and means they couldn't sell it on but it would be hard to pirate copy these games.
Ok so both those ideas are probably only for the future. So what about now? Well these days piracy isn't as big as it was. It is hard to copy PS2 and X-Box games and due to the optical disks on the Gamecube it will be a while before there are pirate games for it. Also due to the Gamecubes size and "chips" could cause it easily to overheat.
The architecture of the consoles is carefully designed these days to ensure that if extra chips intended to be used to run pirated software are added then it could damage your console.
The developers do there bit with adding code to try stop the problem but if you ask me there is a lot more they could do if they really tried.
The main problem of piracy is to do with everyday people like you and me. To some piracy is the way they earn there living, to others it damages theirs. If piracy was addressed properly and people new the dangers and consequences then I think it would die down a little.
Piracy wouldn't be such a big problem if it wasn't so easy to do, and now the internet has made it a lot easier, download patches to over-ride the software techniques used by developers, download emulators, how to chip consoles, where to buy "cheap" games from etc.
It wouldn't be such a big problem if they made it harder to do.
So anyone else got any ideas as to how to tackle the problem?
What I will do though is share some ideas I have been thinking of lately of ways to solve this major problem for the industry.
Ok so now piracy isn't as bad as it has been in the past. For the moment DVD games can't be copied easily and to do so wouldn't be very cost effective. But in my view it is only a matter of time before the problem kicks up again.
The way I see it is that no matter what steps developers and console manufacturers take to try prevent piracy there is always going to be someone who can work there way around these obstacles. The trick is to make it very hard and expensive to get round these obstacles that the whole piracy industry just wouldn't make any profit from it.
So here are my ideas. They probably require a lot more thought and in the end probably may not work but I'll share them anyway. They are brief as I don't want to go into too much detail, saving that to make me rich. If anyone steals them and they go on to make a lot of cash then I want my share or there will be trouble. : )
Idea 1
As you all probably know if something is unique then you can't duplicate it in anyway. Assuming on-line gaming kicks of then as well as allowing on-line play they could also use it to check on games.
My idea is that with every game you get you are given a unique number, the disk also has an encrypted code built into it. When you buy a game you then take it home, go on-line and subscribe the game, this means that you enter your number and the encrypted number is also sent so that no other copy of the game with this built in number can be set up. If you don't subscribe then the disk doesn't run.
Sure there are problems with this idea but with a fair bit of thought it could be useful in the future.
Idea 2
This may seem a little farfetched but one day it may just be the way to stop piracy. As you all know everyone has a unique retina pattern, fingerprint and DNA. One of these could provide useful in sorting the problem out one and for all. When technology is available and at a reasonable price we could see a time where when you go into a shop to buy a game they first upload your retina scan or fingerprint onto the disk. Each time you play the game you must provide a valid finger print or retina scan.
Ok so this would mean only the person who purchased the game could load it and means they couldn't sell it on but it would be hard to pirate copy these games.
Ok so both those ideas are probably only for the future. So what about now? Well these days piracy isn't as big as it was. It is hard to copy PS2 and X-Box games and due to the optical disks on the Gamecube it will be a while before there are pirate games for it. Also due to the Gamecubes size and "chips" could cause it easily to overheat.
The architecture of the consoles is carefully designed these days to ensure that if extra chips intended to be used to run pirated software are added then it could damage your console.
The developers do there bit with adding code to try stop the problem but if you ask me there is a lot more they could do if they really tried.
The main problem of piracy is to do with everyday people like you and me. To some piracy is the way they earn there living, to others it damages theirs. If piracy was addressed properly and people new the dangers and consequences then I think it would die down a little.
Piracy wouldn't be such a big problem if it wasn't so easy to do, and now the internet has made it a lot easier, download patches to over-ride the software techniques used by developers, download emulators, how to chip consoles, where to buy "cheap" games from etc.
It wouldn't be such a big problem if they made it harder to do.
So anyone else got any ideas as to how to tackle the problem?
Strafex wrote:
> Still, if it wasn't for the PAL/NSTC difference, we could be included alongside
> America for game releases.
Also, PAL/NSTC is the reason for shoddy
> conversions.
If the language was all that had to be changed then the whole
> process would be smoother and there wouldn't be the need for re-coding, hence
> the slower game and ugly borders.
Well, as I pointed out, there's no need for this regionalisation... it van be got rid of, therefore removing the need for mod chips to import games. Thus all mod ships would be illegal, and gamers would find it hard to get them.
Oh, and the Hong Kong piracy scene is aweful... something like 60% of games sold are fakes!
Sonic
> Still, if it wasn't for the PAL/NSTC difference, we could be included alongside
> America for game releases.
Also, PAL/NSTC is the reason for shoddy
> conversions.
If the language was all that had to be changed then the whole
> process would be smoother and there wouldn't be the need for re-coding, hence
> the slower game and ugly borders.
Well, as I pointed out, there's no need for this regionalisation... it van be got rid of, therefore removing the need for mod chips to import games. Thus all mod ships would be illegal, and gamers would find it hard to get them.
Oh, and the Hong Kong piracy scene is aweful... something like 60% of games sold are fakes!
Sonic
Tony_Blair wrote:
> i mean i see it like wildfire in Hong Kong one real copy is needed and there
> would be like 500 copies ( $100- $10 for a copy) i have like 40% of pirated
> games
So they do most of the pirating and us at Europe have to pay the high prices to cover the costs.
> i mean i see it like wildfire in Hong Kong one real copy is needed and there
> would be like 500 copies ( $100- $10 for a copy) i have like 40% of pirated
> games
So they do most of the pirating and us at Europe have to pay the high prices to cover the costs.
i mean i see it like wildfire in Hong Kong one real copy is needed and there would be like 500 copies ( $100- $10 for a copy) i have like 40% of pirated games
Still, if it wasn't for the PAL/NSTC difference, we could be included alongside America for game releases.
Also, PAL/NSTC is the reason for shoddy conversions.
If the language was all that had to be changed then the whole process would be smoother and there wouldn't be the need for re-coding, hence the slower game and ugly borders.
Also, PAL/NSTC is the reason for shoddy conversions.
If the language was all that had to be changed then the whole process would be smoother and there wouldn't be the need for re-coding, hence the slower game and ugly borders.
Strafex wrote:
> So it's all down to the fact that we use better PAL TV's than their substandard
> NSTC ones?
Not at all!
Although the indusrty says that delays are due to PAL TVs, and the need to code for German, Spanish, French etc for European games, as I've shown, this is all one big lie.
The real reason is that the mark-up on European games is pathetically high! Otherwise there would be no lock outs!
Sonic
> So it's all down to the fact that we use better PAL TV's than their substandard
> NSTC ones?
Not at all!
Although the indusrty says that delays are due to PAL TVs, and the need to code for German, Spanish, French etc for European games, as I've shown, this is all one big lie.
The real reason is that the mark-up on European games is pathetically high! Otherwise there would be no lock outs!
Sonic
So it's all down to the fact that we use better PAL TV's than their substandard NSTC ones?
Well that's just unfair!
Maybe they just don't like us after all...
Well that's just unfair!
Maybe they just don't like us after all...
Strafex wrote:
> ===SONICRAV---> wrote:
Now, seeing as Europe is the biggest market (in
>
> terms of profit),
Are you SURE about that?
Isn't America the biggest
> market for games?
Aliboy is right...
But I'm talking about Europe... not just the UK.
Oh, and in terms of profit alone, Europe has been top for the last 2 fiscal years. But seeing sa we pay far, far more for our games, I wouldn't be suprised if the US had higher sales figures.
Sonic
> ===SONICRAV---> wrote:
Now, seeing as Europe is the biggest market (in
>
> terms of profit),
Are you SURE about that?
Isn't America the biggest
> market for games?
Aliboy is right...
But I'm talking about Europe... not just the UK.
Oh, and in terms of profit alone, Europe has been top for the last 2 fiscal years. But seeing sa we pay far, far more for our games, I wouldn't be suprised if the US had higher sales figures.
Sonic
Page: