Do you think game companies are being hard on the people that actually buy they're games? Putting stuff like StarForce on they're games. Seems like they're combating the customers instead of the problem at hand, people that download games. Why don't they introduce a system which is full proof? It can't be that hard? Can it?
Ok, ok maybe im just rambling. People on the internet have been saying things like "zomfg newb. get conzoles. tehy r ftw". I just got a new computer, do developers expect me to go out and buy a $600AU dollar console? Just so i can play different games? Just because they're system of control is inferior?
P0st thoughts pl0x.
-beavs
P.S
I don't rip games!
But you responded to my question without actually answering it. You said you had never illegally downloaded a game, in reply to my post, which is not the question i asked.
I use Steam and Impulse, and have purchased and downloaded games through them.
I have downloaded a game called "Enemy Nations" that the authors decided to release for free.
I'm proud to be a PC gamer. Console games are profitable, I'm sure, but my PC is plenty capable and a great platform for gaming.
I think you mean foolproof. Two o's, one word.
Truth be known, there is no way to completely protect against reverse engineering. The x86 architecture is an open architecture, and there are plenty of tools that are capable of helping with such tasks.
Reverse engineering of games also sometimes results in unofficial patches or backwards compatibility fixes long after developers have stopped updating. If you could foolproof them completely, that would be one sure way to accelerate their climb to the shelf in the long-term.
The only one I have downloaded is Carmageddon 2, and that is only since the CD got broke in the mega-box of games I have.
The only one I have ever downloaded is Castle of the Winds 2. Written back in the days of Windows 3.1.
i've downloaded emulated console games that i had owned at one point. i never resold them, i simply don't know what happened to them. it may have technically been illegal, but i don't think it was wrong "in spirit". i have also legally downloaded games, and like others illegally for the sake of evaluating them. it's not like you can rent PC games the way you can console.
mmm damn I forgot about emulated games. Chalk me up for some Sega/NES/Super Nintendo games....damn you Mario RPG!!!!!
did you ever play the secret boss, the one from FF2?
It's been too long, jog my memory of what it was like.
your mario characters get sucked into a parallel univ, er, game, and get to fight some of the bosses from Final Fantasy II. music and all! it was a really difficult battle.
I have never downloaded any game ilegally in my entire life, I believe that I have a the benefit from reading reviews and playing demos, if I like the game I will buy it. This is exactly how I got Sins of a Solar Empire, I read the Gamespot review, watched the IGN review and then played the demo. After that I loved it so much I went out and bought the game. I do not have any P2P software.
I will always buy games no matter what. If I don't not pay for a product, developers will not get their check on the kitchen table. They would eventually have no job, poor, depressed and angry that people did not buy their product they worked so hard on, but instead just pirated it and played it for free. I may only be 16, but I strive to be a doctor when I get through high school and University. What if the Canadian government just slapped me in the face and never paid me for all the patients I treat. I would feel exactly the same way as developers that lose jobs because of piracy. I think the problem is kids do not understand the fact that it affects people in the world. The mentality is "Oh, its free out there, so I'll just download it". When we grow up and experience a recession with job losses that affect our own personal pay check, they will finally understand. But, I'm afraid that is too late for the livelyhoods of game developers. Seriously teens spend over $50 on just random snacks and food in less then 2 week, the "I have no money" excuse its lame and has no merit.
I hope the developers at Ironclad continue to be happy and continue to make amazing games, and I am happy I have contributed to making your lives better, as you have given an amazing game with free updates that have exceeded the work of other game updates out there.
Thank you.
I "own" (in fact, my dad's credit card does!) a lot of games downloaded from Steam, StarDock, Gamer's Gate. The latter 2 have a great "business model" -- especially SD's Impulse.
I really wanted to "purchase" SPORE ... but the exxxtreme version of the SecuRom DRM-programme EA imposes is a big no-no (like Starforce). It potentially can (even if it doesn't always do it) cause deep, deep **** in a gamer's C:\ drive.
Also : EA Support is 99.9% useless ... whereas Stardock Support is an A+ class-act.
(No : I'm not a "fanboy", and not even a boy.)
Noone will fault your call on SD's effort in support. I'll sing their praises on that account to all who will listen, I had an MV error about 12 months ago and the effort Support and Carielf put into getting me back on track was fantastic.
Where the effort is huge so should be the praise....i don't think that makes anyone a fanboy...or fangirl.
Lets all just admit it. Although I personally enjoy having a hardcopy (and thus buy at stores), there are justifiable reasons for downloading games illegally:
1.) This game ain't worth 50 bucks but you still want to play that cool beachhead level. Well, that level sure is worth a 2 day download at least!
2.) I have no idea if this is going to work on my computer and there isn't a demo and i don't want to buy the damn thing so I will get it for free and try it out!
3.) This game is freaking old and I can't find it anywhere...except for...that one place....
4.) It is never in stock at a local store and you hate using a credit card in fear of another form of pirate...
5.) The disk got scratched up and it won't work and I don't current have the game loaded on my computer...i suppose downloading it off of a Torrent site wouldn't really be stealing since you DID buy the game before!
6.) The economy is going to hell in a handbasket and I have gone from gamingly stable to "OMG I AM SO SICK OF THIS GAME I NEED TO HAVE SOMETHING NEW!!!!" yet I have no cash!! I know the place to go! So I go buy an ol' game that I know the producers aren't getting much cash flow from anyway.
That is all i can think of at the moment. Feel free to add. Point is, this piracy thing isn't near as bad as game producers think it is. Stardock honestly understands it and i stand behind that company. The thing about Stardock is they don't fit any of the above criteria so i would never have any reason to download their games. I bet the vast majority of people getting these pirated copies are simply trying them out or wouldn't have bought the game anyways. It is a seriously common thing to hear the justification that little Timmy doesnt want to buy the game at all, but hell i will download it for free. It just doesn't seem all that bad looking at it that way. It is just taken too far out of text.
Video game producers should be utilizing other methods of funding, such as advertisements. If i can download any game for free, at any time from all kinds of locations at top download speed all because there is a Coca-Cola sign in the street where a gunfight is taking place...THAN HELL YEAH!!! Even lowering the price to 10 bucks would just be wonderful. I think most people here would agree with me. The video game industry, after over 20 years, is in desperate need of a reform. We need change. I feel that Stardock is at the forefront of this change. Oh and sorry about the Obama political nods there, lol. Don't yell at me, I'm independant.
Yeah, I've always been happy with the support from Stardock. It's nice to get the feeling that they're actually considering your problems, rather than just sending back a form letter.
This is one of the main reasons I'll use Impulse for purchases; I feel confident that they'll do their best to help me out if there are any problems. It isn't a frustrating exercise dealing with them.
You forgot another "justifiable" reason, in your list :
7. A game's installation programme installs deep into your C:\ drive, sometimes without your knowledge & consent, a piece of DRM malware (such as the SPORE form of SecuRom) which can screw up the normal operation of your computer (outside of the protected game) and which (sometimes) cannot be uninstalled when one uninstall the protected game.
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I've been playing PC games since 1994 (when I was 7) ... and the one & only « non-ethical » (I'm not saying "illegal") download of a game I've done has been a bit-torrent download of the very recent S**** game --- and only because of its (potentially) nasty form of DRM protection.
I really wanted to purchase that game (despite its limited number of allowed "activations"), but I'm very protective of my very clean & stable computer, and I'm not going to take the chance that I'll be one of the unlucky ones who have seen their PC seriously damaged by the very intrusive form of DRM protection the Behemoth publisher imposed upon its unwary customers.
StarDock's no-DRM "business model" is the ideal : it respects its customers, and does not punish them for actually paying for a game.
"Dad ... where's your Visa card ?"
I've downloaded a few games that are either unavailable for sale, or are out of production and so only available by ebayers and the like charging multiples of the original value. With the current rise of obnoxious DRM, it's quite possible I'll start downloading new titles as well (which I will also buy, just not use the box copy). Bit reluctant to do this, though, because it'll be contributing to the "piracy" figures companies use to justify their draconian licenses.
No I have never downloaded a game illegeally. However I have played tons of demos (Seems to me there releaseing fewer and fewer demos for games these days) and I ALWAYS read up on games before buying them. When I do get a stiff of a game (Frontlines: Fuel of War for example) it really pisses me off and makes me feel cheated.
Honestly I hate pirating software, but developers these days constantly release buggy, unfinished games that often don't work or run poorly on certain systems.
I'll almost always pirate a game before I buy it just to make sure it's going to work. Even then I still get screwed; my pirated version of Spore never crashed once but the legit version crashes every few hours.
I tried a lot to download the games from internet..but most of the times..i never find the free download sites..if any body had those sites..send it..
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Compra navigatori gps
Transgender Surgery
[Allow me to reproduce a post that I recently made on a Civ 4 forum, in a thread which concerned SPORE. Here, as stated in my reply #41, it concerns the fact that if people perceive that a radical form of DRM could interfere with their computer's operations, they will be tempted to download a game in an "alternate" form.]
There are non-damaging forms of DRM programmes, and on the other hand, potentially very damaging forms of DRM programmes.I have a lot of games & music-files in my computer which are protected by DRM. I don't mind.The issue, here, is the very intrusive & (potentially) damaging form of SecuRom that EA has inflicted on its customers -- specifically for the SPORE game.You & your friends might be in the lucky majority who have not suffered from that form of SecuRom's nasty interference with normal operations of a PC (outside of the protected game).For the past 4 weeks, I've read hundreds of posts on 3 major forums dedicated to SPORE (two of them being officially linked to EA). A "big" minority of EA customers have noticed that since installing SPORE, their computers have sometimes become dysfunctional in their game-related & non-game operations -- some customers even complaining that the erratic & chaotic problems are really nightmarish.I'm NOT at all refering here to the limited number of SPORE "activations", which SecuRom keeps track of. I'm precisely targeting the "advanced" type of "deep" SecuRom that EA has imposed with the SPORE installation. That specific type of DRM programme is potentially very dangerous -- according to dozens of forum posters who have been its victims.Even if it is only a "potential" threat that might only affect less than 10% of the people who purchased SPORE, I don't intend to put my whole PC at risk to play any game.I really wanted to buy SPORE. There is only one reason I've not done it (and possibly won't ever do it) : its SecuRom malware.StarDock games have no DRM protection whatsoever, and that developer & publisher has seen its sales strongly rising in 2007 & 2008 ... whereas EA doesn't trust its paying customers and punishes them -- without being able to stop pirates, anyway ! (In September, SPORE has been illegally downloaded well over ½ million times, according to websites which track bit-torrent stats !)In conclusion, I don't mind legitimate, non-abusive forms of DRM ... as long as they are not of a root-kit type of malware which cannot be uninstalled (requiring one to format the C:\ drive to get rid of it & to re-establish the healthy operation of one's PC).
Yes. A lot. Local pirates are incredible, but their servers are usually well-hidden and password protected. Not only do they do no-CD cracks, but local pirates also usually clean up the code as well, and they respond to problems with a game with patches long before the Western gaming industry caught on. For a long time, you bought a game, but downloaded the pirated version anyway because the pirated version was better in many ways.
There are other reasons as well. In particular, Sid's Pirates! is nowhere to be found anywhere in the Philippines. I've looked high and low for it, even gone to the web for a local secondhand seller. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I could order from Amazon I suppose, but the last time I did that, the product never came and Amazon couldn't be bothered to send a replacement. To think that I risked identity theft by putting my credit card information online for that!
Long story short, outside the US and the Western hemisphere, company support for gamers is noncommittal, at best. You purchase a game at your own risk. When the gaming world is the Wild West, it's best to know where the local bandit is and get friendly with him.
Of course I have downloaded a game. Dark Avatar... from SDC right after paying for it. And guess what, I intend to do it again, right after I received the authorisation to DL Twilight.
On a side note though, I once had a DLed Version of Castle Wolfenstein coz it was forbidden to sell it here.
Otherwise: No! Never did, never will. I even had a cop baffled by how many bought games I had. *grin*
I'm not ashamed to admit that sometimes, I pirate games out of good old-fashioned spite.
It has happened to me on occasion. And now that I have found stardock I have downloaded a few times from their sites.
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