The Definitive Article on Piracy

[mutantmagnet]

Definitive for the time being.

Props to Ghazi for his hard work

Some choice excerpts.

There are several examples which cement the picture of both the scale of piracy being extremely high compared to legitimate sales, and the direct costs of piracy also being high due to their imposition on limited tech support resources. Mike Russell, QA Manager of Ritual Entertainment, makers of the SiN Episodes games, discusses the impact of the scale of piracy on tech support in this article:

Some recent calculations revealed that, last week, gamers with pirated copies of Emergence requesting support outnumbered gamers with legitimate copies of Emergence requesting support by a ratio of nearly five to one.

This is especially true in some countries where software can be almost prohibitively expensive. For example, in China and India, two huge markets with a great deal of piracy, the average salaries even for well-paid professionals is much, much lower than their western equivalents. This Mercer Survey shows that in 2007, someone at the 'IT Manager' level earned on average in US dollars: $25,000 in India, $33,700 in China, $88,000 in Australia and $107,500 in the US. Yet until recently, Microsoft would charge roughly the same price for Windows Vista in China as it did in the US.

[Unreal Engine 4.0] will exclusively target the next console generation, Microsoft's successor for the Xbox 360, Sony's successor for the Playstation 3 - and if Nintendo ships a machine with similar hardware specs, then that also. PCs will follow after that.

Similarly, Crytek has recently said that CryEngine 3, the next version of what was once a high-end PC-specific gaming engine, will now be targeted for the console, specifically the PlayStation 4 due out in 2011-12.

This is a long article so grab your tea and recline.

[rattran]

Really longwinded != definative.

It was a really long rehash. That is all.

[bhodi]

Yeah, this came up on some other site. Maybe slashdot?

It's pretty much a waste of time. There's nothing new in all of that text, and it also cites numbers without references.

[mutantmagnet]

Really longwinded != definative.

It was a really long rehash. That is all.

No article or forum discussion has consolidated this type of information so well. It is long winded but it isn't invalidated as one stop reading source on the matter.

Some stuff is new to me such as the intended plans for the unreal cry engines and the starforce debacle.

[Ratman_tf]

Oh cool. A piracy thread. I've been meaning to rant about how I've had to download no-CD cracks for a lot of my legitamatley purchased games because the DRM measures are breaking my computer. (As chronicled in the tech support thread here.)

Thank god for piracy. 

[Yegolev]

I don't have time to read the article.  Does it mention anything about China's navy moving against pirates off the coast of Sommalia?

[UnSub]

That was a fantastic article. Showed the size of the problem, compared consoles vs. PCs, looked at DRM and asked for some changes from both devs and players.

It gets a touch preachy in some places, but really, that's small stuff compared to the overall value of a thorough look at such a complex issue.

[Ragnoros]

People pirating software, then trying to get tech support.       

If i was in the CS business this would be first thing on my priority list to fix.

"Very well Sir, I understand you are having problems with your software. May I have the product code that came with the software? No? Oh, you downloaded our software from piratebay? Very well, in that case FUCK OFF! *click*"

[UnSub]

CS can't do that because pirates buy the games they like after pirating them. And you can't offend your customers.

[Ratman_tf]

CS can't do that because pirates buy the games they like after pirating them. And you can't offend your customers.

Well, you don't wanna get pissy on the phone with anybody. It's just bad consumer service.
They're fully justified in saying something like "You have an unauthorized copy of our game. We have no obligation or intent to support priacy of our software. Purchase a legitimate copy of the game and we'll be happy to help you further. Thank you and good day."

And then hang up and laugh at the dumbass.

[Triforcer]

CS can't do that because pirates buy the games they like after pirating them. And you can't offend your customers.

I thought that fighting piracy was useless because no pirate would buy a game that they couldn't pirate anyway (except for, ya know, the tiny bit of evidence that pirating a game means they are interested in playing said game)?  I can never keep my BS pro-pirate memes straight!

[Tebonas]

CS can't call them names, but they can certaily tell them they can't help because there are PAYING customers who need their help instead.

[Sluggo140]

CS can't do that because pirates buy the games they like after pirating them. And you can't offend your customers.

Well, you don't wanna get pissy on the phone with anybody. It's just bad consumer service.
They're fully justified in saying something like "You have an unauthorized copy of our game. We have no obligation or intent to support priacy of our software. Purchase a legitimate copy of the game and we'll be happy to help you further. Thank you and good day."

And then hang up and laugh at the dumbass.

There is a very simple solution to all of this. Hire Ninjas to work tech support.

[mutantmagnet]

I thought that fighting piracy was useless because no pirate would buy a game that they couldn't pirate anyway (except for, ya know, the tiny bit of evidence that pirating a game means they are interested in playing said game)?  I can never keep my BS pro-pirate memes straight!

No that's not accurate. Having a pirated game desensitizes your reasoning to try before you buy; but there are things that counter that.

Social factors actually discourage rampant piracy. Back when piracy was limited to rips to maintain harmony within my group of friends you HAD TO buy a couple of the games you pirated. It's obvious to me groups like Reloaded and The Scene are throwbacks to this type of culture. The viability of broadband allowed social groups to form too rapidly without any of the old social rules to encourage better behavior.


Piracy also made me feel comfortable in buying other games from the devs with a track record of making good games. It's how I ended up buying a bunch of Activision and Blizzard games.


If computer parts manufacturers ever do something that makes it very hard for someone to be anonymous on the internet the social factors might become viable.

In the meantime devs should also consider ways of leveraging goodwill among pirates with a conscious. They'll never get a pirate to buy anything if they aren't financially stable like teenagers, but older pirates can shell out money for at least a couple of games a year no matter how much money they think they should save for other purchases.

[Krakrok]

Don't provide 1 to 1 human tech support. Crowd source it and automate it as much as possible.

[nurtsi]

What kind of people actually contact customer support for a game? And why? I can understand MMOs if you have trouble with billing, but that's about how far my imagination goes.

[stray]

What kind of people actually contact customer support for a game? And why?

http://fagsupport.ytmnd.com/

[UnSub]

What kind of people actually contact customer support for a game? And why?

Those with problems. To fix those problems.

Part of me wants to send you to look at an official publisher forum to answer that question, but the reality is that it can be a good place to start if you are having tech problems, or want to ask an in-game question, or want mod information or something. From my experience, the bigger the publisher the more useless the board, but sometimes you can find people having exactly the same problems as you quickly and fix your issues.

But that's me going to a forum. I'm sure even more email in their issues or even pick up the phone where available.

I'm sure being CS in this point is like dealing with the absolute bottom of the barrel, especially if they've pirated the game and then feel CS should fix their errors.

[nurtsi]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't imagine how contacting CS could help me. If the game has bugs, I have to wait for a patch. If my hardware isn't compatible with the game, I need to wait for a patch (or change hardware). If I have crappy hardware that can't run the game, I need new hardware. For in-game questions, like tips & tricks I can go and check the forums, but I don't equate forums with CS. Practically always people who help on forums are other users and they do not work for the company.

As people seems to actually pirate a game and then contact CS with their problems, it must be because they are completely clueless (or malicious, but those have to be a tiny minority). I couldn't do it just because it would be so embarrassing when they find out how I obtained the software. Maybe some people don't actually know downloading their software from the internet is not legal? Take your average child in their early teens (I have no clue when kids learn to use computers these days), one that can turn on a computer, surf the web, download a torrent and click the next button in the installation wizard. Maybe he doesn't know what he's doing is wrong, but would he know how to contact CS either...

[apocrypha]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't imagine how contacting CS could help me. If the game has bugs, I have to wait for a patch. If my hardware isn't compatible with the game, I need to wait for a patch (or change hardware). If I have crappy hardware that can't run the game, I need new hardware. For in-game questions, like tips & tricks I can go and check the forums, but I don't equate forums with CS. Practically always people who help on forums are other users and they do not work for the company.

I'm guessing you've played more than one or two games. I'm guessing you're not over 50 years old. I'm guessing you find it hard to imagine life before the internet.

Hint: not everyone else in the world who might pick up a game is exactly like you.

Edit: Of course not everyone even has an internet connection. You're not being cynical, just extremely short-sighted.

[Murgos]

I worked AOL tech support around Y2K, I fully believe that there are large amounts of people who open Kazaa, or what ever the p2p flavor of the month is now, and do not understand that they aren't being auto-magically billed for the music/movies/games they download.  There is probably a much larger portion that does know something isn't right but think it's 'OKAY' anyway.

[pants]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't imagine how contacting CS could help me. If the game has bugs, I have to wait for a patch. If my hardware isn't compatible with the game, I need to wait for a patch (or change hardware). If I have crappy hardware that can't run the game, I need new hardware. For in-game questions, like tips & tricks I can go and check the forums, but I don't equate forums with CS. Practically always people who help on forums are other users and they do not work for the company.

I'm guessing you've played more than one or two games. I'm guessing you're not over 50 years old. I'm guessing you find it hard to imagine life before the internet.

Hint: not everyone else in the world who might pick up a game is exactly like you.

Edit: Of course not everyone even has an internet connection. You're not being cynical, just extremely short-sighted.

But hes got a point - if you are computer literate to be able to get a torrent program, go to the bay of pirates, get the warezed game, and burn it, then you should have some computer smarts.  Surely not all these people contacting CS are playing games that their children warezed for them...

[FatuousTwat]

Social factors actually discourage rampant piracy. Back when piracy was limited to rips to maintain harmony within my group of friends you HAD TO buy a couple of the games you pirated. It's obvious to me groups like Reloaded and The Scene are throwbacks to this type of culture. The viability of broadband allowed social groups to form too rapidly without any of the old social rules to encourage better behavior.

It's funny, if you read the .nfos, the groups don't want you to up their releases to any trackers. They want to keep it within "The Scene".

Of course, most people don't read the .nfos so you see a lot of "how does i install gaem?".

[UnSub]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't imagine how contacting CS could help me. If the game has bugs, I have to wait for a patch. If my hardware isn't compatible with the game, I need to wait for a patch (or change hardware). If I have crappy hardware that can't run the game, I need new hardware. For in-game questions, like tips & tricks I can go and check the forums, but I don't equate forums with CS. Practically always people who help on forums are other users and they do not work for the company.

I'm guessing you've played more than one or two games. I'm guessing you're not over 50 years old. I'm guessing you find it hard to imagine life before the internet.

Hint: not everyone else in the world who might pick up a game is exactly like you.

Edit: Of course not everyone even has an internet connection. You're not being cynical, just extremely short-sighted.

But hes got a point - if you are computer literate to be able to get a torrent program, go to the bay of pirates, get the warezed game, and burn it, then you should have some computer smarts.  Surely not all these people contacting CS are playing games that their children warezed for them...

My youngest brother ran up a $500 over-bandwidth limit charge on downloading pr0n and virused the laptop to hell and back. Just because you can find it, doesn't mean you understand it.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. All it takes is one guy in the playground who half knows his stuff and you have people googling 'kazaa' or 'limewire' and then downloading whatever they find on it.

[ajax34i]

Plus if the numbers in that article are correct, it's also a scale thing:  out of however many hundreds of thousands (or millions) of people pirating a game, a few (thousand) are bound to (be stupid enough to) call tech support when they have issues.

[apocrypha]

But hes got a point - if you are computer literate to be able to get a torrent program, go to the bay of pirates, get the warezed game, and burn it, then you should have some computer smarts.  Surely not all these people contacting CS are playing games that their children warezed for them...

I was referring to non-pirates contacting CS by phone for game support.

Agree totally that anyone contacting CS for support for a pirated game should just be pointed and laughed at.

[Ozzu]

I just wanted to post a pirate smiley and this seemed the appropriate thread. Please continue.