When Does Piracy Become a Concern?

[IntvGene]

I've noticed that the newest games for the Xbox, both GTA and True Crime are already available for download on the net. Obviously, I won't mention where, but It seems like the Xbox is quickly becoming the pirate console of choice, especially due to its hackability.

Piracy has killed systems in the past, most notably the Atari 8-bit, where developers simply refused to port their games over to that system because of it. It's still early yet, but does anyone see that being a problem on any of the newer systems? Will piracy ever lead to the downfall of a system? Will it lead to the downfall of the PC? Perhaps it is the system most at risk.

It sure seems like attitudes have changed. People don't feel that piracy is stealing, and there are many talented hackers out there that crack PC games before their release. Are the consoles that safe from piracy?

[omnedon]

I really don't think it's as big as the big companies fear. Yes, the games are available prior to release, but the price of entry is pretty high, and it usually is.

I have a modded Xbox (modded myself), and am PC savvy enough to know how to get my hands on anything. I own ZERO copies of Xbox games. None. My desire to mod had nothing to do with piracy. When I get a DVD burner, I may make backups, but otherwise, who cares?

I guess what I'm trying to say, is the hacker/mod culture is full of braggarts who are doing things simply to see if they can do it. It's actually very educational for those involved. Just because some leet dood has downloaded and burned 60 copies of Xbox games, does not mean he would have bought a tenth of those titles otherwise.

The companies involved always inflate the numbers of lost sales to an illogical extreme. The music industry is VERY guilty of this.

All of that said, the cracking of the DC's boot code was the worst kind of crack imaginable for a system. No modchip required, just download and play. That had to be a few nails in the DC's coffin. It's mind blowing. The Saturn is still better protected than the DC was/is. :o

[§ Gideon §]

I'm probably going to be bashed for my opinion on this, but I think it would be nice if piracy put a nice ugly dent in Micro$oft's attempt at domineering the video game industry.

... But, that's just me: I don't think the fact that Microsoft has immense resources justifies their presence in the industry (or any industry for that matter). They've got the resources, but I doubt that a monster like Microsoft could even convincingly pretend to give a rats' ass about its product; they're a money machine and nothing more.

... Who are we kidding, though? Microsoft can't really be hurt by something like X-Box piracy.

[Rev. Link]

I don't think piracy is that big of a problem. All the people I know who download ROMs (myself included) only do so to see if a game is good. If it is, we go buy it.

[whoisKeel]

... But, that's just me: I don't think the fact that Microsoft has immense resources justifies their presence in the industry (or any industry for that matter).

Well, i wouldn't exactly call them out of place here. They've been making games for years for one. Game controllers...hell they made directX...the basis for practically every pc game on the market right now. They've been heavily involved in the gaming scene for years......why wouldn't they make a console? Sorry for the rant, i'm certainly no xbox fanboy as i don't even care for it really, but i hear alot of these comments....


as for piracy, i agree, i think it helped bring down the DC. Playstation is kinda smart tho, as it seems the more you use CDRs, the faster your lens crumbles into nothingness....that or they just made 2 crap systems :)

I think online gaming will cut down on alot of piracy in the future as it is easier to control it...sure they have cracks for Warcraft 3, etc...but i think it still helps.[/quote]

[§ Gideon §]

Well, i wouldn't exactly call them out of place here. They've been making games for years for one. Game controllers...hell they made directX...the basis for practically every pc game on the market right now. They've been heavily involved in the gaming scene for years......why wouldn't they make a console? Sorry for the rant, i'm certainly no xbox fanboy as i don't even care for it really, but i hear alot of these comments....
That's not what I was looking at, actually. I know that they've been in the industry, and they've made big choices (like DirectX). But, what gives them the right?

... Their money? Well, apparently yes. My opinion is simply that money doesn't make them any better or smarter than any other company. In fact, many would argue that they are worse off because of their extreme integration with the capitalist system: In other words, they're more of a company than a game-maker. That's why I consider them "out of place"; they're just a money machine.

[thegreatescape]

I was at my local games emporium one day and some lady comes in and asked if they sell copied x-box games. I was shocked- up until then i'd always thought that the current gen consoles could only be pirated by the leet.
Im sure microsoft has the resources to do something- a new copy protection or maybe a new x-box model thats even harder to mod. Weren't microsoft blacklisting modded x-boxes that went on x-box live at one point ?

As for microsoft being in the console industry- ill echo what keel said ;) Ive had my microsoft precision pro steering wheel for like 3 years now and i cant fault it.

[jonjandran]

As Omnedon said , it's not ever going to be a big problem.
It's to expensive and involved for the average person to get into.
And after you get into it , it's still a pain to keep up with the many copywrite protections that are put into newer games to defeat the newest mod-chips.
It becomes more of a hassle than it's worth.
And it becomes more of a doing it just to be doing it thing. Like the Gamecube. It's ridiculous what you have to do to hack it and then the games play like they're playing on an old emulator.
It will never get to the point where it hurts the industry.

[Half Japanese]

@Gideon: I'm sure that Sony, Sega, SNK and Nintendo are in the game market solely to see that smile on your face when you play a game of theirs X_X. Microsoft is in it for the money just like EVERYONE ELSE. And how did they get the millions to support their system? From past successes (Windows). Where did Nintendo, Sega and Sony get their funds? From the same place, NES, SNES, Genesis and PS1 and dozens of electronics.

I can't stand pirates and people who talk about it. Now modding to get by region lockouts isn't something I'm against, and it's something I am considering for my ps1.

[jonjandran]

I can't stand pirates and people who talk about it. Now modding to get by region lockouts isn't something I'm against, and it's something I am considering for my ps1.

But isn't that piracy. Technically you should by a jap PS1 to play import games. You are taking money from Sony if you mod your system to play these games instead of buying the machine it was meant to be played on. ;)

[Half Japanese]

I don't consider that piracy to disable a region lockout. Sony can eat my ass for not bringing more great Japanese games over.

[jonjandran]

That's my point. Piracy means something different to everyone.
And if a person wants something bad enough they find a way to justify it. :-P

[Half Japanese]

When comparing two evils:

1) Buying an import game and not being able to play it due to a region lockout, so modding console to play imports.

2) Burning countless dozens of games and warez off the 'net without paying for anything more than cd-r's and a mod chip.



I think one is the far less evil of the two.

But you're absolutely right about justifying things if need be, it's called a "necessary evil." :D

[jonjandran]

I wasn't implying anything towards you. :D
But your reasoning does raise the question. Is there a lesser of two evils or is wrong just plain wrong no matter what it is ? :hmm:

[bargora]

I wasn't implying anything towards you. :D
But your reasoning does raise the question. Is there a lesser of two evils or is wrong just plain wrong no matter what it is ? :hmm:
Man, you're getting all philosophical on me. In the criminal law, there is a distinction between malum in se, which is stuff that everybody should know is illegal, like murder, rape, etc., and malum prohibitum, which is stuff that was not illegal at common law (like, centuries ago), but is now illegal because a law was passed against it.

Mod chips weren't illegal in the U.S. until the DMCA passed. Slavery was legal in the U.S. until the Constitution was amended. My ST Key was illegal until last week when the Library of Congress exempted it from the DMCA (as a circumvention device for use in an obsolete video game system).

All I'm saying is that wrong and illegal are not necessarily identical, and legal does not necessarily mean right. But I think that burning r0mz for current systems is not only illegal but also wrong.

[Ed Oscuro]

Seems to me...

I can't see how DVD games can be effectively pirated by the average player, since they're just too big and need to be burned onto some sort of media or other. On the other hand, piracy of PC games is much easier (though download sizes are still pretty high, especially since we've gone from CDs with half the disc containing audio tracks to DVDs with MP3 type music) and I see that as a real problem.

Even more affected, though, are things like GameBoy Advance which use cartridges. With broadband or without, they don't take too long to download, the emulators are highly sophisticated and easy to use, and ROM downloads are easy to find.

[§ Gideon §]

@Gideon: I'm sure that Sony, Sega, SNK and Nintendo are in the game market solely to see that smile on your face when you play a game of theirs X_X. Microsoft is in it for the money just like EVERYONE ELSE. And how did they get the millions to support their system? From past successes (Windows). Where did Nintendo, Sega and Sony get their funds? From the same place, NES, SNES, Genesis and PS1 and dozens of electronics.
Heh. There's no reason to be patronizing.

Microsoft is just a company--a label--so, I can't be intrinsically against them. But, given what one knows about how a particular company structures itself, one can make judgements. And, I can easily see that Microsoft has to go through more "red tape" than most companies in order to get a game on the shelf. Bureaucratic decisions tend to water things down; we all see it: look at the major shifts in the video game industry in the past two decades as it moved to a broader demographic. Nowadays, people bitch about the lack of innovation, but it's no mystery.

But, it's just my opinion.

[Raedon]

Obviously I will just stay out of this conversation... just know it is nice to have 800 PSX games in your collection for $80.00 plus maybe some rental fees..

1) I never buy games new, only used (as most od Digital Press does).. therefore game developers never get paid threw me... period

2) Most of the games are so crappy the only reason I played them at all is because I had some extra DVD-Rs. *CHOUGH* Defender of the Crown - PS2 *CHOUGH*

3) The C64 "scene" didn't stop developers from making games for the system all the way into the 90's.. so all points about *INSERT SYSTEM* died due to piracy are just crop circle theories.

[Raedon]

Seems to me...

I can't see how DVD games can be effectively pirated by the average player, since they're just too big and need to be burned onto some sort of media or other.

All PS2 games can be directly copied with Nero (DVD Copy) except one.. Xenosaga. And I have a copy of Xenosaga where they compressed all the video to fit on a DVD-R. Same with PS2 CD games.. Most Xbox games are DVD-5 not DVD-9 (if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done.) In the last 2 months my PS2 collection went from 15 games to 210.. seems current media technology is effective, Ed.

[ddockery]

Had to throw my 2 cents in on this one...

No for profit company (every game company) out there is in it to make you smile. They might like that too, but they're in it for the $$$ too.

I really, really don't think piracy is at all responsible for the Dreamcast's demise. The PS2 was. Most of your average gamers didn't know you could get pirated games until they had already abandoned the platform.

And I agree that it's basically a non-factor for the current gen. Yes, there are people with no genuine games and stacks of burned ones, but they are few and far between.

Let's also remember the pirated numbers you see floating around are pointless. To some people, it's a completist game. Just because Joe Pirate downloaded 3 million dollars of warez in the last 5 years doesn't mean he would have bought it otherwise. Numbers like that make me want to puke. Same goes for movies and MP3s. I know a guy that had 3dsmax and every add-in you can think of, but didn't even know how to use the app. That's hardly a lost sale.

In short, I don't see it as a concern until it's easy. No hardware mod (most people are scared to open these things up), and DVD burners are the norm. Plus, they have to be easy to find. Most users haven't even heard of usenet or irc, and aside from there, it takes some effort (or connections) to find sites that actually have anything besides banner ads.

[Raedon]

It's to expensive and involved for the average person to get into.
And after you get into it , it's still a pain to keep up with the many copywrite protections that are put into newer games to defeat the newest mod-chips.
It becomes more of a hassle than it's worth.


Actually.. it only costs $4.95 to get a PSX to play pirated CD-R games.. it only costs $20.00 to get a PS2 to play both PS2 and PSX copies. and the Xbox.. the chip doesn't even need to be soldered in.. you just screw it down, twist it till the LED's light up right and that is it.

None of the newest games come with any mod defeating ability.. back with the PSX some companies could see the chip and you had to patch the game ISO for it to work.. Developers relized real quick that this type of protection FORCED people to copy the games to use the patch.

Repeat, none of the newest consoles need game patches to work.. just DVD copy and play.



And it becomes more of a doing it just to be doing it thing. Like the Gamecube. It's ridiculous what you have to do to hack it and then the games play like they're playing on an old emulator.
It will never get to the point where it hurts the industry.

No one is hacking the Gamecube.. The numbers (of systems) are to low for anyone to bother and the media type is unusual. I once heard of a 68 wire chip in HK.

[Darth Sensei]

Seems to me...

I can't see how DVD games can be effectively pirated by the average player, since they're just too big and need to be burned onto some sort of media or other.

All PS2 games can be directly copied with Nero (DVD Copy) except one.. Xenosaga. And I have a copy of Xenosaga where they compressed all the video to fit on a DVD-R. Same with PS2 CD games.. Most Xbox games are DVD-5 not DVD-9 (if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done.) In the last 2 months my PS2 collection went from 15 games to 210.. seems current media technology is effective, Ed.

Do you hear that..... It's the sound of a thread lock coming... LOL

D

[Chunky]

When Does Piracy Become a Concern?

When the FBI is at your door. I recommend barricading your self in and disabling the doorbell, never going outside. Then maybe it's not a problem

[Ed Oscuro]

All PS2 games can be directly copied with Nero (DVD Copy) except one.. Xenosaga. And I have a copy of Xenosaga where they compressed all the video to fit on a DVD-R. Same with PS2 CD games.. Most Xbox games are DVD-5 not DVD-9 (if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done.) In the last 2 months my PS2 collection went from 15 games to 210.. seems current media technology is effective, Ed.

That doesn't invalidates my comments or even address them. I know that certain people with very good internet connections can download all the games they like, and I don't doubt that you can easily burn DVDs with the correct hardware. What I'm doubtful of is that the number of people who actually have these prerequisites and furthermore actually take the time to burn them is high enough to cause significant harm to software companies.

Reading comprehension, Raedon. Two clues that I thought made it obvious that I wasn't stating it is impossible to burn DVDs:


I can't see how DVD games can be effectively pirated by the average player...

Effectively, which is essentially a synonym for efficiently as I use it here.

and slightly further on:


...piracy of PC games is much easier...

Something cannot be "much easier" than something which is impossible, because then it would not be impossible but rather much harder--my arguments are that it takes much more time (and therefore is more difficult) to download and burn a DVD game than a CD-ROM game.

You wholly missed the point of my--well, not an argument, rather stating what I admit to be just my take on the state of things--and you even managed to get terribly snide about it ("if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done"). Furthermore, I have never pirated a CD or DVD game and I say damn you for being rude with me about this when you don't have the decency to buy legitimate copies of games.

I'm sticking to this unless somebody can give me a credible estimate saying that revenue lost through this form of game piracy (and I do believe it's climbing a great deal, especially with "backup" dealers) is nearly as harmful or as rampant as that done to developers for the GameBoy Advance and other cartridge based systems and plain CD based media.

With people like Raedon around, though, I suppose that it could eventually become a large problem for game developers.

I'm not stating all this to be condescending or any other thing--I'm just going to make sure that your obtuse and self-serving comments don't ruin the flow of this article.

[Ed Oscuro]

Do you hear that..... It's the sound of a thread lock coming... LOL

That sums up why I'm angry. I want to see what sort of figures on DVD based piracy are out there, not give people reasons to mislead everybody about what I wrote/asked.

[jonjandran]

Repeat, none of the newest consoles need game patches to work.. just DVD copy and play.

No one is hacking the Gamecube.. The numbers (of systems) are to low for anyone to bother and the media type is unusual. I once heard of a 68 wire chip in HK.

Wrong on both.

You can't just copy and play . Most mod-chips require the use of Swap Magic, Game Shark or Action Replay to work. And a lot of newer games that are copied straight to dvd-r won't work on these mod-chips even with swap magic , etc. Thats why Swap Magic, Action Replay, etc are always coming out with newer versions. And that is why the mod-chip companies continually make new mod-chips. :roll: To allow people to play the newer copied games.

And a lot of people are hacking the Cube now, I've hacked mine. Do a little research before you post. All you need is a bba and a copy of PSo and A few loader files and there you go. Look it up if you don't understand .

[NE146]

Raedon, I think what Ed was saying is that to your average Joe Customer which are the majority of the users, it's a little out of reach. So in other words, the people out there with the ability and gumption to copy modern games is by far the MINORITY of the typical ps2/xbox/GC users.. so it shouldn't really be worried about :P (unlike say in the Atari 400/800 days when the MAJORITY of the users were by default pretty much in that league) LOL)



None of the newest games come with any mod defeating ability.. back with the PSX some companies could see the chip and you had to patch the game ISO for it to work.. Developers relized real quick that this type of protection FORCED people to copy the games to use the patch. Repeat, none of the newest consoles need game patches to work.. just DVD copy and play.

Well, the last couple batches of Xbox games over the past few months have a media check on them. So you just can't direct copy onto the hard drive or dvdr. They do need a patch and that's the norm now pretty much. Some of them even when patched won't run on xbox's modded with older chips. PS2 however like you said is pretty much status quo.


No one is hacking the Gamecube.. The numbers (of systems) are to low for anyone to bother and the media type is unusual.

Actually a lot of people do. Unfortunately you need Phantasy Star Online and a BBA which are rare birds to find nowadays. The GC iso's are regularly posted. Matter o' fact my pal is almost done with Zelda Windwalker. And yeah it plays just fine. Only thing is sometimes the Save is wonky so you have to learn a trick for it. http://www.maxconsole.com/?mode=comments&newsid=1090

[SpasticFuctard]

I am too lazy to pirate anything at all these days. Takes frikkin forever to download anything, and I don't even have to mod my most often used gaming rig (my PC) to play pirated games. I used to be a pirate, and play all the hawt pirate games. but then I got a job and discovered girls, and discovered that I simply don't have the time and inclination to download anything anymore. The timesaving device in going to gamestop down the street and buying what I want is well worth the 45$. I think most of the US agrees. The piracy community is as ever constrained to some 2-3000 guys who don't have the cash to buy the games anyway (college students with nothing better to do) so it's not as though they're really impacting the real revenue the games would have generated.

SF

[Ed Oscuro]

Raedon, I think what Ed was saying is that to your average Joe Customer which are the majority of the users, it's a little out of reach. So in other words, the people out there with the ability and gumption to copy modern games is by far the MINORITY of the typical ps2/xbox/GC users.. so it shouldn't really be worried about :P (unlike say in the Atari 400/800 days when the MAJORITY of the users were by default pretty much in that league) LOL)

By Gum, somebody gots it!

I do fear the number's gonna climb steadily over the next few years, and in 20 years do you think we'll be able to download PS2 games as easily as we do NES ROMs now? I think so.

[Half Japanese]

Hey Raedon, I wouldn't consider your burned WAREZ a "collection." I don't think many others here would either.

[Raedon]

All PS2 games can be directly copied with Nero (DVD Copy) except one.. Xenosaga. And I have a copy of Xenosaga where they compressed all the video to fit on a DVD-R. Same with PS2 CD games.. Most Xbox games are DVD-5 not DVD-9 (if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done.) In the last 2 months my PS2 collection went from 15 games to 210.. seems current media technology is effective, Ed.

That doesn't invalidates my comments or even address them. I know that certain people with very good internet connections can download all the games they like, and I don't doubt that you can easily burn DVDs with the correct hardware. What I'm doubtful of is that the number of people who actually have these prerequisites and furthermore actually take the time to burn them is high enough to cause significant harm to software companies.

Reading comprehension, Raedon. Two clues that I thought made it obvious that I wasn't stating it is impossible to burn DVDs:


I can't see how DVD games can be effectively pirated by the average player...

Effectively, which is essentially a synonym for efficiently as I use it here.

and slightly further on:


...piracy of PC games is much easier...

Something cannot be "much easier" than something which is impossible, because then it would not be impossible but rather much harder--my arguments are that it takes much more time (and therefore is more difficult) to download and burn a DVD game than a CD-ROM game.

You wholly missed the point of my--well, not an argument, rather stating what I admit to be just my take on the state of things--and you even managed to get terribly snide about it ("if you don't know the difference in what a DVD-5 and DVD-9 is you shouldn't comment on what can and can't be done"). Furthermore, I have never pirated a CD or DVD game and I say damn you for being rude with me about this when you don't have the decency to buy legitimate copies of games.

I'm sticking to this unless somebody can give me a credible estimate saying that revenue lost through this form of game piracy (and I do believe it's climbing a great deal, especially with "backup" dealers) is nearly as harmful or as rampant as that done to developers for the GameBoy Advance and other cartridge based systems and plain CD based media.

With people like Raedon around, though, I suppose that it could eventually become a large problem for game developers.

I'm not stating all this to be condescending or any other thing--I'm just going to make sure that your obtuse and self-serving comments don't ruin the flow of this article.


wha wha wha wha wha who gives a fuck if the general population is to stupid to stop buying supersized cheeseburgers and doesn't know what CPU they have in their system..

I always assume I'm talking to tech heads in DP forums, but every once in a while you get an Ed talking about grandma Sims player and her ability to plug in an AV cable.

[jonjandran]

wha wha wha wha wha who gives a fuck if the general population is to stupid to stop buying supersized cheeseburgers and doesn't know what CPU they have in their system..

I always assume I'm talking to tech heads in DP forums, but every once in a while you get an Ed talking about grandma Sims player and her ability to plug in an AV cable.

LOL LOL LOL LOL

I gotta say, Raedon that you do have a way with words. :D

Hey if you ever want to e-mail or pm me about some of this Next Gen tech head stuff, feel free.
I'm always interested in new stuff , etc , etc.....

[Ed Oscuro]

wha wha wha wha wha who gives a fuck if the general population is to stupid to stop buying supersized cheeseburgers and doesn't know what CPU they have in their system..

I always assume I'm talking to tech heads in DP forums, but every once in a while you get an Ed talking about grandma Sims player and her ability to plug in an AV cable.

What did you say???

Anyhow, if you assume you're talking to tech heads, I assume you actually read posts to see what they're on about. Is that fair?

Don't quite see how a...grandma sims (or is that a Sims Player? Never heard of a dedicated console for The Sims)...and her player's AV functionality (?)isn't technical, either. Maybe it's not as jargon heavy as PC stuff, but there's still some knowledge required.

Are you drunk or something? O_o

[Raedon]

Hey Raedon, I wouldn't consider your burned WAREZ a "collection." I don't think many others here would either.

This was adressed in a huge thread about a year ago.. I know you are new to DP and all..

I'll repeat this again for everyone..

I consider all disc based consoles junk and uncollectable for. Cart based systems will last langer then me but any of these "moving parts" consoles will be dead well before we hit 50. I am a classic collector but a gamer at heart..

I collect cart based systems only (except for CDZ and GC $5-9 games)

I don't CARE what anyone here (excluding those who I have met IRL) thinks when it comes to me burning games, movies, etc.. Your opinion means nothing to me.. I am the happy little center of my fucking world so don't get to upset when I laugh and say, "fuck you!"

Also, someone assumed that all trading of PS2 games happens over the internet and in fact.. sorry! I get 90% of my games from friends and rentals. About once every month I throw a game-on party (we usually just play NHL 95 on the Genesis in the end) This is also a lan/copyparty.

[Raedon]

Are you drunk or something? O_o

I am at work.. just got done with an Impart Longview shoot and made $800.. So no, I'm not drunk.. just don't respect your thoughts on this subject.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm only a communist when it benefits me to get stuff for free. The rest of the time I'm spending money to make sure I'm more equal than the rest!

I honestly don't care if you respect my views, especially since I'm quite aware that my posts in the past haven't exactly been the vision of clarity or respectfulness myself. That said, it would have helped if you [i]actually knew what you were disrespecting.[i] I was simply asking how bad DVD based piracy was, and I'm still not sure you really understand that. I can't say if you would've backed me because it seems you want the game industry to fall (yet...for some reason your anarchist tendencies don't preclude you from playing current generation consoles?)

[SoulBlazer]

Raedon, I think you're in the minorty and I can point to numerous examples to support it. But I'm due for a nap before I go in for my third shift job. LOL

I'd also tone down your language, buddy, unless you want a mod coming in here.

And whoever said that the majorty of people either don't know or don't care to know how to pirate modern games, that ARE true gaming systems:

RIGHT ON, MAN! :D

[Raedon]

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/trailer/10000450/JayandSilentBobStrikeBack-trailer_02.jpg

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Mother mother fuck. Mother mother fuck fuck. Mother fuck mother fuck.
Noise noise noise.
1 2 1 2 3 4
Noise noise noise.
Smokin weed, smokin weed.
Doin' coke, drinkin beers.
Drinkin beers, beers beers.
Rollin' fatties, smokin blunts.
Who smokes the blunts? We smoke the blunts.
Rollin' blunts and smokin um'




....



15 bucks, little man, put that shit in my hand.
If that money doesn't show then you owe me owe me owe.
My jungle love.
Oh e oh e oh.
I think I wanna know ya know ya ... yeah, what.

[Darth Sensei]

In the words of Jagdiesel,

Get in da zone, Battlezone.

Seriously tho, Raedon, you're an intelligent person. Why do you have to freak out and spew profanities?

Also, if you didn't care at all what people on the board thought, you wouldn't take the time posting and reading here.

D

[portnoyd]

I am too lazy to pirate anything at all these days. Takes frikkin forever to download anything, and I don't even have to mod my most often used gaming rig (my PC) to play pirated games. I used to be a pirate, and play all the hawt pirate games. but then I got a job and discovered girls, and discovered that I simply don't have the time and inclination to download anything anymore. The timesaving device in going to gamestop down the street and buying what I want is well worth the 45$. I think most of the US agrees. The piracy community is as ever constrained to some 2-3000 guys who don't have the cash to buy the games anyway (college students with nothing better to do) so it's not as though they're really impacting the real revenue the games would have generated.

SF

Ding ding ding!

Piracy will never kill the PC. It's been around longer than I've been on the net (9 years), and the PC is stil going strong. Like Spastic said, key pirate demographic - bolded. At school, I downloaded about 100 DC games.... would I have bought all of them? No. Maybe 3. (Power Stone 1&2 and SF3 Third Strike). All 3 of which I eventually ended up buying!

And like Spastic said, Raedon, where did you find the time to DL and burn 200 PS2 games?!

dave

[Raedon]

And like Spastic said, Raedon, where did you find the time to DL and burn 200 PS2 games?!

dave

I didn't, I trade among local friends and atm have a Blockbuster gamepass ($20 all the games you can rent in a month.. no late fees) Only PS2 games I've downloaded were JAP only or out now.. Like I have a JAP version of SC2 and I couldn't resist downloading the JAP version of FF X-2 (which I just burned to a DVD-RW.. Just wanted to see the opening and first hour of the game..

I do own some real PS2 games.. Like GTAIII, FF X, and Kingdom Hearts..

I have a lot of real Gamecube games though.. Anyone else notice you can get Gamecube games cheaper then N64 games at flee markets? Like this guy was selling N64 games for 13 each but sold me Metroid Prime for $8..

[CitizenWhite]

Not that anyone asked, or anyone cares, but I just wanna make my opinion known.

I disagree strongly with piracy, be it VG piracy or music or software. I have done my share of the latter two, but have cut back to almost none recently. Also, I would only ever download a song to listen at my computer only, not to burn for a cd player.

But pirating for consoles, just shell out the cash. Keep the developers in business, keep the games coming.