See children capitalism is bad
If you don't believe me ask your dad

*Violins start playing*

Hey at least I make sense :)

Also your violins aren't quite fitting... Maybe a tuba would be better.

Whining always makes sense to the person doing the whining. Or so I've heard.

How was that whining? ... It was in fact not whining. You were whining with your "Boohoo pepul dont get moneh for their hard work". Now that's whining.

I was just presenting an interesting case, saying "What IF the money doesn't go to the people" essentially.


I think it's an interesting question, and hearing some opinions would be nice.
But calling it whining is easy if you want to 'win' the argument easily, even though there isn't any argument to begin with =)


Oh well maybe I was whining about EA ruining westwood :( It is in fact sad. *whines about it*

I would love to get money for my hard, being a male escort has always been a secret dream of mine.

Whut are you talking about :monster:

Baby, I'm talkin' bout me and you.

Me, you and your editpenis.

I'll carve out your soul and eat it!

Troll! Troll! Help someone I'm being trolled!

No, it's a matter of going with the times. This is the next step in PC gaming. Developers will want you to log in to their game, offer you all sorts of goodies and achievement systems in return for buying the game legally.

It's only going to be a matter of time before most developers see that this DRM method is almost 100% foolproof. You can't log in without a valid code, and you can only buy a valid code legally. The catch is that you need internet, big deal. It's 2010, every teenager these days grew up with internet and almost every household has at least some form of internet.

To be honest I think it's largely just a huge collective whine coming from the people who have pirated for years and now realize that soon downloading PC games for free might not be possible anymore. Too bad, but that's how it goes. You must have been pretty naive to think this would go on forever.

And to make it clear, this has nothing to do with the prices of certain games. There are plenty of games that are not worth their initial price. So just buy it later when it's cheaper if you want to try it out that bad.

OK, sorry

I don't think pirates are worried though

I don't think so. I think a lot of people are mad over the fact that yet another requirements(which actually costs extra) is thrown into their head. And not everyone has Internet, despite what you think.

But yea... It's naive to think it'd go on forever. I knew at least that there'd be a time when things will get harder to get illegally.
I don't think that this is it however. Not without a fight anyway, because a lot of people are opposed to this.


Edit: Then again... Apathy is a common trait in humanity and this may actually be accepted without much of a fight. Either way I don't care. I'm just not buying these games.

no don't fucking apologise. BLUDGEON HIM

I thought I'd given up on the post before that with 'Yeah, thats the solution I guess' and 'thats the way things are', the latter being the epitome of concession,

but then Havoc said 'No' which left me confused :p

Havoc leaves everyone confused. therefore bludgeon him.

things we don't understand, must be destroyed.

I don't understand lesbians and straight men :(

destroy them. IF YOU CAN.

I don't understand how you're number one, when it was just a fling before
I feel dirty now

I don't get it; what's stopping you from sharing your code with your mates?

Well if I make a game, to play you'll need a broadband internet connection, a webcam for face recognition, a fingerprint reader for fingerprint identification, and a valid driver's license, passport or birth certificate. HAW HAW HAW THAT'LL FIX THOSE CHEATIN' SONS OF BITCHES

Maybe they'd tie it to one single PC through ip/mac/whatever <.< .... or the cd?

Hey, here's my retort:

You are so unbelievably wrong.

The underground key market is huge, whether they do it by going into shops cracking open boxes and stealing them or working out the algorithm people will always find a way to get keys. Also; what's to stop someone decompiling the game and removing the server check or at least making it redirect to a private server for pirated folk.

I get the distinct impression Havoc, you have very little idea of what you are talking about.

I think this is most likely to happen.
But what if some key files for the game are only on the game developers' servers? In which case the game wouldn't work at all without them. Like say graphic files or something like that.

Because keys that are checked online do not work with an algorithm (smart ones don't, anyway) like the serial numbers on older games. You print 20.000 copies so there are 20.000 valid keys, period. When you install the game you have to validate the key, server checks if it's listed in the list of 20.000 known keys and if it is you are allowed to register the code to your name.

And taking a game apart takes a long damn time, especially when someone is doing in their spare time. Often it takes a couple of weeks after the initial release before such a cracked version comes out. Those first few weeks is when most games are sold the most. So the damage is considerably less.

Not to mention that certain games need online activation to begin with. Remember Half-Life 2 and it's episodes? The game needed to download files before it could start.

The year is 2200 API (After Permanent Internet)
Only a small rebel alliance of free gamers remain. Their onslaught against the tyrannical reign of big-name publishers is a battle of epic proportions.
Living underground in seclusion, connected only by the channels provided by online RTS's and RPG's, the rebels conspire against the dreaded publishers and train themselves in the art of DeCSS, known to the ancient order of SlashDot as "The Force". The preemptive strike will be a stalwart attempt at uninstalling and reinstalling Bioshock 2 over 150 times.

The future is bleak, but there is hope.

Do you comprehend what I said? Here, let me post it again.

Steam is a special case, and an effective countermeasure.(but not 100%, private servers do exist)

Steam is good. Everyone listen to Steam.

Steam tends to have fair prices.

my kettle makes Steam. this is good.

I had steamed, pork-filled buns some days ago. They were super-delicious :D

If someone doesn't make that into a sex joke, I'll lose my faith in humanity.

Well... Why don't you? It's your chance to shine, babeh!

And I never said the problem would go away entirely. But in the case of unique keys you can never steal enough keys from stores or whatever to satisfy demand for the entire underground community. Retail stores mostly keep the discs and booklets behind the counter for that very reason. So short of actually robbing a delivery truck shipping a few thousand copies of a game, I can't imagine stolen keys are a big dent in any game developer's bottom line.

Also, please explain to me why someone would go through the trouble of stealing dozens of legal keys? Do they sell them for a lower price or are they actually distributed freely in underground communities?

Which, as far as I can see, is the only truly effective piracy countermeasure.

Yea... Really. In my mind, if the prices were affordable... Only like really stubborn/lazy people would keep pirating the games.
Specially if they somehow could make a trend out of owning the original box.

Personally, I always feel a satisfaction out of owning the original CD case to my games or music.

Yeah same, also I always have this slight fear in the back of my mind that society is going to collapse tomorrow, and when I'm the last surviving human fighing off the zombies I'll need the discs as I won't be able to install L4D from Steam anymore

Seems to me that Steam prices are mostly the same for any big game. They have the $10 and $5 thing but almost every new game that comes out on Steam is the same as the retail price, at least over here.

Had that for a long time, but I tend to lose or misplace stuff like that so I decided to just get my games through Steam where possible. I buy special edition or steel case editions for certain franchises, but not many.

If you're buying at release, yes, but Steam prices go down very quickly. Also, if you're like me and you don't care about waiting six months after the game is released, you often can't even get them in stores by then, but they're available on Steam and dirt cheap.