Widescreen Gaming Forum

It's not exactly fair to call them out on BS that you think they are going to say. Besides, prices do drop over time, so high prices isn't going to be a valid excuse for pirating MW2.

it's not like he needs a crystal ball to see that
they always complain about piracy so it ain't going to change anyway...
whether or not they complain with reason is another subject ...


Also depends on what you imply by "valid excuse"
if a "valid excuse" is something that lets you avoid legal problems
then there is absolutely no "valid excuse" available at present

if a "valid excuse" is a moral standpoint then of course yes it is a valid excuse for those choosing to do that since a moral standpoint is rather personal and dependent on your own values or the ones you were taught... (for example in china, copying is a common practice which is not considered evil at all)

And prices do drop when they want it to drop, "The Sims" franchise is a perfect example of a license who never drops (or drops several years later)


Point is, in this world you have to not let companies step over one of your toes, otherwise they will start to trample both feet.
For example an uproar on forums might be taken seriously... or not
but a big sales hit talks to them
if people need to pirate it so as not to buy it and for the community to be heard then so be it!

if people need to pirate it so as not to buy it and for the community to be heard then so be it!

I think we're dangerously approaching a thread away from discussion of Activision's douchebaggery, and more about the morals/legal status of sharing, which as far as I remember, are not to be discussed as it'll lead to a neverending flamewar. It may be your opinion to say, support the community's standpoint that prices are indeed getting out of control, by pirating, but it's another to support the community's standpoint by encouraging more productive (and legal) boycotting, like L4D2 Boycott is trying to do. Rather than give the companies a reason to cry wolf, don't give them anything, and force their hand.

Now bringing us back on topic, I support a boycott of Activision's price hike by refusing to purchase any outrageously priced titles until they're in the bargain bin, thus sticking them out of $40+, while still getting the product I want a later time and date.

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Noone's had any problems with paying premium rates for console games. I don't really expect many changes to the sales numbers with a €10 higher price. Just a slight reduction maybe, but it'll be made up for by the price increase. I wonder which way the balance shall tip. Only time will tell.

Mind you, I wouldn't be getting the aforementioned game anyway, even if it went at €10.

I don't buy garbage, regardless of the price.

Noone's had any problems with paying premium rates for console games. I don't really expect many changes to the sales numbers with a €10 higher price. Just a slight reduction maybe, but it'll be made up for by the price increase. I wonder which way the balance shall tip. Only time will tell.

Mind you, I wouldn't be getting the aforementioned game anyway, even if it went at €10.

console games are a completely different issue

When you buy a console, the manufacturer (microsoft/sony...)
lose money (the first couple of years at the very least) and quite a bit
Then they win money with games that are done on their consoles ...
because of development kits & the like ...
The cost for said dev kits is reflected upon the games price which explains why console games are generally higher priced than PC games

Now the day that I can buy a PC knowing that the PC manufacturer lose money & sell a dev kit, I'll accept having the same prices as console games ..

Now the day that I can buy a PC knowing that the PC manufacturer lose money & sell a dev kit, I'll accept having the same prices as console games ..

The profitability for PC games are much smaller than that of consoles. It is the hardest to program for and support and has the smallest amont of paying customers despite having the largest base.

The biggest advatage for PC games is that they have the lower startup costs then their console cousins.

Most PC games released fail to make a profit.

it's not like he needs a crystal ball to see that
they always complain about piracy so it ain't going to change anyway...

It's still unfair to call someone out on what you think they are going to say. It doesn't matter how certain you are.

if a "valid excuse" is a moral standpoint then of course yes it is a valid excuse for those choosing to do that since a moral standpoint is rather personal and dependent on your own values or the ones you were taught

It's not so much a moral standpoint as it is rationalizing thievery. Saying you stole something because it was priced too high doesn't really hold water.

if people need to pirate it so as not to buy it

Nobody needs to pirate so as not to buy it. Pirating it and not buying it are two completely separate things. If we really want to drive the message that we don't approve of high prices, the best method is a legal boycott, or at least until the prices drop to what's reasonable. But the only message we're sending by piracy is that we're a bunch of freeloading ****s who won't pay a dime if we don't have to.

It is the hardest to program for

Actually, it's the easiest to program for. It's a common assumption that PC's infinity possible hardware and software configurations make programming games hard, but that's quite the opposite of the truth. There are all kinds of nice API's, SDK's, frameworks, and whatnot out there that help out immensely when programming for the PC. You don't really need to worry about handling multiple configurations - stuff like DirectX takes care of that for you. The only thing that really makes a fundamental difference is 32-bit vs. 64-bit, and even then you can just ignore 64-bit.

I think we're dangerously approaching a thread away from discussion of Activision's douchebaggery, and more about the morals/legal status of sharing, which as far as I remember, are not to be discussed as it'll lead to a neverending flamewar. It may be your opinion to say, support the community's standpoint that prices are indeed getting out of control, by pirating, but it's another to support the community's standpoint by encouraging more productive (and legal) boycotting, like L4D2 Boycott is trying to do. Rather than give the companies a reason to cry wolf, don't give them anything, and force their hand.

sorry about that, got a little carried away
my intend was not to start a neverending flamewar, I just like to confront my point of views while keeping good manners & the like.

That said, I agree 100% with you but some people can't restrain themselves which means a real boycott is quite difficult to make...

if people need to pirate it so as not to buy it

Nobody needs to pirate so as not to buy it. Pirating it and not buying it are two completely separate things. If we really want to drive the message that we don't approve of high prices, the best method is a legal boycott, or at least until the prices drop to what's reasonable. But the only message we're sending by piracy is that we're a bunch of freeloading ****s who won't pay a dime if we don't have to.

Sure some are going to think that no matter what ...
But I'm not quite sure it's the general opinion about it. Pirates & the underground scene in general made quite a bit of noise with "Spore" for example pointing the protection ....

The general opinion is going to be affected by the approach we take in response to decisions we don't like. If more copies of a game are pirated than sold (which happens disturbingly often in recent years), then the devs would be completely justified in blaming piracy for its failure. But if gamers simply didn't buy the game, and didn't turn to piracy, then the devs would not be able to blame piracy. They'd have to accept that they did something wrong. Take UT3, for example. Nobody bought it, but nobody pirated it either. Epic didn't blame piracy for the failure of UT3.

Spore probably isn't a great example. It's a Maxis game - it was a foregone conclusion that it would sell a zillion copies no matter how quickly its protection got broken.

well if my examples are not good enough don't know what I can do

if Modern Warfare 2 is as good as the first one it's probably going to sell no matter what the price which is why I say goodluck to anyone trying to build a boycott to it...


Still at some point I would like you to give me (preferably through PM, unless other people would like to know too, it seems it would be preferable to continue privately) the sources which say that it is more pirated than sold.
since this does not seem to concur with my thoughts & those of Brad Wardell