Question. Ok, you have one example. Now count the number of games that you have pirated, and played for at least a couple of hours (which means that you at least derived some enjoyment out of it). Would you say that you did this for all the games in that count?
No, but i dont play that much games anymore these days as i dont have that much spare time. Still i did it for the games i just had to come back to from time to time. (Knights Of The Old Republic 1, Knights Of The Old Republic 2, Black Mirror (had Starforce but Dev removed it later), Gabriel Knight (had Part 1 copied on a Floppy once, bought the complete Series now), Swat 4, Sanatarium (bought later after having it lended by a friend), Phantasmagoria (bought later after having it lended by a friend), Monkey Island, Indiana Jones just to name a some ...) I´m proud to have them on my shelf, as they are good and classic games all around.
I will buy sequels to Black Mirror, Knights Of The Old Republic, Gabriel Knight probably on spot, because i trust in the good quality of those games. I was a bit disappointed by Monkey Island 4, i bought this game without trying it first.
Other than starforce, I don't know of any copy protection which is nasty enough to avoid the game.
Well, Tagés digs itself deep into Windows aswell. Copy Protections have to get more intrusive to the system to be harder to crack. Yet i dont understand it, almost every game gets cracked sooner or later, so why the hassle in the first place? While i understand it from a certain point of view, all it does in the end is stopping piracy for some rather short time, and playing the Ass Card against honest Customers. For "
Titan Quest"
it was kind of an desaster, as according to Mike the Crack was broken due to their custom protection they used. But it hasnt stopped piracy, it has given the game a bad reputation. Now imagine "
Titan Quest"
to be released without any protection. Do you think there would have been more illegal copies around? While we can argue over that, the reputation of the game would have stayed intact. Honest customers dont like to spend their hard earned money on buggy games.
You see, both Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Elder Scrolls Oblivion have been released without any form of copy protection. All they had was a simple check for the CD to be in the drive, no driver, nothing. Elder Scrolls Titles are major titles, still they sold pretty well without any copy protection applied on it. Another Example would be Galactic Civilizations II: No Copy Protection at all, only a Serial which allowes customers to download Patches in a secured area on their website. It sold pretty good and still does. Both of these Titles have a pretty strong community attached to it. I believe that having a strong, honest and donating community is more vital for a game to be a success then any copy protection in the world. But to have this, the game has to attract gamers in the first place, something not every game on the planet manages. A strong Copy Protection won´t help those games either.
While alienating the customers isn't a good idea, I can imagine the frustration. I mean christ, fair enough that you want to copy the game, but then abuse the customer support on that game for issues which may just be your own damn fault? When I used to pirate, at least I kept in mind that if anything stuffed up, the last person to blame was the developer. Usually it was to do with the way the copy protection was broken anyway.
I understand the frustration aswell. Customer Support shouldnt have to deal with pirated games, and they tried to avoid that with their pretty harsh comment i guess. Still, i think you could express that in some other manner.
[Last edited by Stoney at 03-28-2008 02:09 PM]
It has nothing to do with evilness.
