Everyone and their mother is blogging about what some guy at Id said at GDC about how Piracy is killing PC Gaming.
I don’t know that piracy is any worse than it has ever been. In the 90′s you’d have to rely on someone to XCopy the disks for you. I don’t think I had a single legit disk with my Amiga 500, and I had like 200 games. I remember, even further back, copying games tape to tape for the Sinclair Spectrum.
The 360 handles this pretty well. You can get it chipped but you won’t be able to use XBox Live – which is like 90% of the fun. Problem Solved.
For me, being from the UK, one of the big motivations to pirate games is the staggered release dates. When Vice City came out for the PC I illegally downloaded it. I had it preordered but it was 2 weeks later until it came out in the UK – so I felt justified since I’d bought it anyway.
That was probably the last time I illegally downloaded a game. Between Steam, EA Link and Direct2Drive it’s just EASIER to buy them and download legitimately. And I think that’s what it comes down to most of the time. If it’s easier to buy it, and people can afford it, they will buy it.
People are pirating GMod. I know this. But I know it’s easier if you have paid for it. I know because the pirates email me every time I update, bitching that it broke and they need to find a new crack.
Oh yeah and just because a torrent has been downloaded 20,000 times, it doesn’t mean it’s 20,000 lost sales.
I saw on TV that Greece is the first country of PC Piracy :O
How would you respond to a mail from a pirate bitching?
It’s just like pinching an orange from the fruit shop on the corner and go back, just to bitch about the taste! :-P
Some people are plain stupid…
agree just buy its so cheap anyway:)
Enemy Territory is already leaked?
I couldn´t agree more.
Many people who download a Game wouldn´t have bought the game to beginn with anyway.
And many people who DO actually download a game and LIKE IT actually buy it after that. ITS FREE PUBLICITY
But most companys don´t seem to understand that
word!
I recently bought Dark Messiah of Whatever on Steam. Turned out that since I am German, my game is severely cut – effectively taking out 90% of the fun. I am 21 years old and do not exactly need anyone looking over what GAMES I play. Sadly I cant change this. (Except by buying stuff in France or UK or wherever. – But why should I have to do that hassle?)
Anyways. This is the last game that I gave my hard earned money for. “Yarrr” 4 life. From now on.
Those pirates are stupid, either way they have to lose the multiplayer part of it.
Yeah, I’ve downloaded less games since I started using Steam too.
You know, I never would’ve played games like Prey if I didn’t illegally download them, mostly because they run like crap on my ancient computer.
let them burn in the computer, HABBOG. I have nothing against piracy…
but I DO have something about Gmod piracy!
HABBOG deserves the money after he spent years of making gmod!
and he still makes updates FOR US!
So I bought gmod with pride :D and euh… euh… BUY GMOD! if you didn’t have it already OR downloaded illegally.
sorry had to say this
I illigally download music sometimes, after I’ve bought it from MSN though, my mp3 player doesn’t support the licenced .WMAs so I go and torrent the same album in .MP3 so I can listen to it on the go, I’ve done it with 2 albums, but whatever I get next, I’ll just get the physical CD, much easier.
Never got a game illigally though.
people who illegaly download games are stupid and lazy. if you don’t have enough money to buy a game then you need to get off your lazy butt and earn some money. i don’t about game prices in europe but after reading that article that was linked here, i read about people complaining about overpriced pc games. in the u.s. i think $20-$30 is pretty reasonable compared to the $60 price you have to pay for a X360 or ps3 game. I buy most of my console games used anyway because they’re a whole lot cheaper and most of the games i want to buy are older games that you can’t find new in any retail stores anymore.
Nice try. I know secretly you’re on the verge of bitching about losing your precious gmod10 sales. Your generic insight doesn’t fool me.
sorry for double posting but i just wanted to say one more thing. people who pirate gmod are even lazzier than because all you need is steam, which is free, some kind of game that runs off of source, which if you’ve ever heard of gmod you probably allready have hl2 or another source game, and ten dollars in credit card form. That’s not too much to ask is it? Besides after all of garry’s work on gmod he really deserves the money.
I definitely agree with your last point, Garry. Whenever piracy is talked about in the media, they always say something like “50,000 game sales were lost to piracy”. That’s completely ridiculous. A whole lot of people who pirate games do so because they probably would’ve never bought the game in the first place but since things like torrents allow them to play it for free, they might as well try it out.
A smaller (but still significant) amount of people download games and then buy them to get access to online features, updates, expansions, etc. I, for one, illegally acquired Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and then, after beating the game, went out and bought it because I had enjoyed the experience so much.
However, piracy IS a problem. No one can deny that developers lose hard-earned money when people don’t pay them for their games. It’s just not as huge of a problem as the media makes it out to be.
i did have half life 2 pirate for a while, but i eventually bought it
Just some guy: Prices of games in Europe (England at least) are almost double that.
Illegally downloading a game is not stupid or lazy, there are many reasons someone might want to download a game even when they have already bought it.
i tottaly agree with you
but its sad that people are so poor that they cant afford 10 misereble bucks to get gmod10 :\
Its stupid i tell you :\
and btw, keep updating GMOD, the best way to fuck the crackers heads
…yeah… especially when where i live the minimum wage is about 150$… piracy cannot be stopped. Hell, even Steam got cracked.
Well, obviously you can’t say that you can’t afford Gmod10, because it’s only $10, and you have to pay much more than that to buy a computer that could run it.
So, that leaves us with cheapskates (with the exception of Bob up there). Honestly, I only pirate things that are unavailible, Ergo DVDs of movies I can’t find, or old video games. If I saw tham in a store, heck I’d buy ‘em, but sometimes you can’t.
I download games quite often. I read a review for a game and see it has an ok review but not brilliant, so i download the game and see for myself if i like it (e.g. Dark Messiah got some pretty bad reviews but i loved it, only good review i read was from PC Gamer UK and they are normally correct but i wanted to make sure) Demos are often available but they most don’t give the correct feel of the game, they are short, normally the starting mission or even worse the tutorial and so your stuff with the boring parts.
Last time i downloaded a game was Dawn of War: Dark Crusade and that was because of that i got the game 1 month early (From US release to UK release) but i had already pre-ordered it. (Oh same for Supreme Commander but i only got that 2 days early as my pre-order came the day before release.)
This is a good read, thanks for that.
If a game doesn’t have a demo I’ll sometimes download the game over usenet just to see if it’ll run on my PC and see if the thing is any good before I hand over my money.
I’ve done this for most games which are only available in shops.
It used to be that games were easier to get via warez channels but the tides are definitely turning. Steam and other online distribution platforms are removing all the barriers gamers used to have in playing the games they want to play.
You no longer have to trapes to the shops in the rain, find the game you’re after, have some kid behind the counter try and sell you a load of shit you don’t want, go back home (in the rain), insert the cd, install the game, enter the cd code 3 times before you get it right, go online and download a crack so you don’t have to put the cd in the drive EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO PLAY THE GAME YOU JUST PAID FOR, run three types of spyware remover to remove all the porn popups you inadvertantly downloaded while looking for said crack.
Finally you can play the game.
But wait, first you must trawl the publishers website and download the latest patch so you can play online. This is probably a 500Mb download split into 3 files, one to patch from v1.001 to v1.002, one from 1.002 to 1.004 and another from 1.004 to 1.005.
But now your crack doesn’t work any more so you have to start putting the cd back in the drive every time you want to play the damn game.
Man, retail games suck so bad.
I remember that that’s why I couldn’t be assed to play PC games online, DEADBEEF.
Until AvP2, however.
I pirate games unashamedly, but I would say that probably 75% of the games I own I paid for. Usually, if a game is good, I’ll go out and buy a copy of it after having downloaded it. If it sucks, I just delete it. I never had to do with with Garry’s Mod cause I played Gmod 9 and knew ahead of time how much it rocked. But yeah, no-cd patches are a MUST for any game I own. I bought Supreme Commander recently, and the day after I got it they released an official patch that removed the Securom protection. Why? Because people who bought the game legally were using pirated versions to play online because they didn’t want to go through the hassle of putting the CD in. Make it easy, make it convenient, and we will pay gladly for our games.
I’ve got to admit. I dl:d GMod 10 to try it out. Mostly I don’t buy games i’ve already dl:d, but I felt that I had to support the GMod community!
GMod FTW!!!!
And running dl:d games dosn’t necessarily removes the mp part, just use a program like hamachi or something, it works fine, me and my friends use it.
BUT I WILL KEEP ON TRYING TO MAKE MY FRIENDS BUY GMOD!!!!!
L.O.L /bexhorn
I do pirate games occasionally, but only if they look like shit or are from developers I don’t respect. I really respect Valve, so I will not pirate a Steam game. Valve supports indie developers, and for that reason I buy their games. I bought Gmod 10, because I loved the mod, and it was free for that long. I’ve got roughly 40 hours of Gmod logged on my XFire, so I’d say that was worth 10 bucks. Especially seeing as though you took so many hours of your free time to develop the mod not asking for any money in the first place, that takes balls.
And: The reason ID Software isn’t getting good sales isn’t because of piracy, it’s because their games are shit and they focus on shiny graphics over gameplay. When you don’t have the money to upgrade your computer, you don’t want to pay for an upgrade and then the game too. You’re not going to buy a game that won’t run well on your system either.
you just admitted you have dled warez before, yet you still ban other people for admitting that?
I’ve downloaded a trailer from a site, is that Illegal?
@ “just some guy”
You’re a fuckin idiot. So you’re saying that everyone who has a job can afford to go out and buy new games? I think it’s pretty obvious from your posts that mommy/daddy pays your bills and does your laundry.
I know people that work 40-55 hour weeks and barely get by. What with paying rent, feeding kids, making sure there’s electricity/gas/water and much much more.
I love buying games and supporting developers, especially the likes of Garry, Charlie Cleveland (Natural-Selection + Zen Of Sudoku), Rizzuh @ CS-Nation and the guys at Red Versus Blue.
If I win tomorrow’s EuroMillion’s I will single-handedly fund the costs for G-Mod 6, Red Versus Blue Season 6 and Natural-Selection Source.
Bottom line: Lots of people download music, games and applications because it’s (sometimes) the only option. When we have the cash to treat ourselves to a title, we do so.
Lol i bought steam, but i illegaly distrbuted it at CS.RIN.RU xD
And garry banned 3 of my accounts… till i found a way fo him not to ban me.
ALL SCREAM AT ME BECAUSE I HOSTED GARRYS GCFs. Wich is not illegal to downlaod unless you havnt purchased that game… and i did so I’m in the good spot. muahahahaahah
Osirase, I am pretty sure it is illegal to redistribute anything you buy, so you probably were breaking the law. If not everything you buy, I know it says you can’t redistribute the whatever you bought in the EULA of most things.
People waste that much time getting no-CD cracks? Just rip and mount the CD, much easier and cleaner.
Unless you have a 200-meg hard drive.
when abouts is the ps3 coming out i have been waiting for it for months, i want to get my order in by august due to a birthday, can anyone offer me assistance?
>>Daveoh Mar 15th, 2007 at 11:31 am
>>
>>Those pirates are stupid, either way they have to lose the multiplayer part of it.
Actually, I have found many illegal servers while searching for a game to play in GMod. (I know it beacuse they had the word cracked with caps)
Get this Garry: I considered pirating your mod, then I decided that I liked Gmod a lot and you deserved some money for it, so I bought it. Then I fired it up and attempted to load a map, only to get the dreaded LUA STRINGTABLE ERROR. So that’s what you get when you do the right thing.
\”Hmmm,\” that shit got fixed, dog. Try to run it again. Exit steam and restart it to make sure you get updated.
I always pirate retail games. I just don\’t want to hastle myself with going out and getting it (Charlotte traffic sucks, so fuck driving), so if it cannot be obtained online, I just download and crack it.
Which is why I love Steam. I have bought all of my Steam games, which is in excess of at least $300 worth of games. The only games I have downloaded recently are Doom 3 (any online source to buy a legit copy? I really wanna play online) and FarCry (I\’ll be damned if I could find an old game like that in a store).
Most of the piracy is just kids who can\’t afford the games. It\’s not like they can get jobs, I know I couldn\’t at 15. Their parents usually can\’t afford it for them, so they see no other choice. And it\’s not like they would have bought it any way, they don\’t have the money, so it\’s not like the company lost a sale.
well according to most of the recent surveys, losses due to piracy are indistinguishable from zero.
so id are talking out their asses and just want a sob story to make more money.
i happily bought G-Mod 10 because its a badass piece of software. i also buy anything i think is great enough to warrant purchase.
Hmmmm, openly admitting you pirated games on a popular weblog. Smooth stuff. :P
“People are pirating GMod. I know this. But I know it’s easier if you have paid for it. I know because the pirates email me every time I update, bitching that it broke and they need to find a new crack.”
Thanks for that Garry, it’s not often that I read something that I find that funny xD
Actually, you can run pirated 360 games on live without being detected.
“Oh yeah and just because a torrent has been downloaded 20,000 times, it doesn’t mean it’s 20,000 lost sales.”
100% true, companies CONSTANTLY say “millions of dollars are lost due to online piracy”.
Well gee, if a person couldn’t download 8 adobe software apps, does that he’ll buy all 8 instead? Hell no…
I have to agree with you when you say that Steam makes it easier than pirating games. The few times I’ve pirated games it’s been nothing but a hassle. If I liked them, I ended up buying them from a shop anyway.
The hassle of pirating games is just a pain. The unreliable download speeds of torrents, the effort of finding a working crack, not being able to update, not being able to play online. It’s all just irritating.
With Steam, all I have to do is tap in my PayPal username and password, and instantly I have the game downloading at 200kb/s, ready to play online as soon as it’s downloaded.
I pirate games, for the same reason many above have pointed out, i want to find out if the fucking game i MAY buy is worth my time and money.
If i like it a lot i buy it, if i don’t i don’t, if i didn’t have the download in the first place, i wouldn’t have looked twice and wouldn’t have bought the game AT ALL, so in theory, PIRACY ACTUALLY HELPS SALES!.
IF companies want to get rid of free advertising, make the games so cheap that if it’s a waste of money, we don’t just never buy a game again because it was cheap anyway.
Well… I am a pyrate. But! I am not an asshole pyrate! The only game that I seriously downloaded back in the day was Halo. And the internet didn’t work and it sucked. Hmmm. Thats pritty much it. I just dl a song sometimes when i don’t feel like buying the cd. The dl speeds for torrents are shit most of the time and it is just easier to get it through steam. And how did people pirate gmod?
Oh hell yeh. I pirated Halo for PC, But I bought Halo & Halo 2 for my xbox. I don’t see why you should pay twice for the same content.
Actually, a 360 with modded DVD drive does play games perfectly on live. no ban.
If I think a game(developer) deserves my money they get it. Garry gets it. Valve gets it. Simbin mostly gets it. But If theres a game someone says is “the bomb digady” then I will get the demo or download the full game to find out instead of throwing my money away on something I can’t return to the store if it sucks.
It hurts me to see people shame themselves to PIRATE Garry’s Mod. It’s ten fucking dollars. I have that laying around scattered throughout my house in change.
Then again, I *did* have someone else buy it with THEIR money…
It was a belated Christmas gift, I swear D:
alright ive read the majority of these comments and i dont agree with half of them, but the one garry himself left was the most incorrect of all. he said that most people will buy games because its “easier” well the reason that its easier, is because non pirates are stupid and lazy. they dont want to devote the little bit of time it takes to learn the good places to get the games/movies/music/whatever. its like ….. having to hunt. i mean you cant afford to go out and buy your food but you gotta eat. so what do you do? you find what you need. its for neccesity.
Hey,
You got everything down except for the 360 thing. Whether or not it’s firmware or a chip, you can still play on Xbox live with no problems. I have several friends with chips and firmware, all of them play burnt copies online with no problems and I have not heard of anyone outside of Europe getting banned on Xbox live for pirating.
I pirate big name games because EA and the like just sell us rushed, shitty games anyway. If a game is really solid, and the developer needs the cash, I will buy it and I will pay retail for it. And I pay attention to publishers, as well. If a publisher consistently screws over a developer that deserves to be respected; I will pirate the hell out of that publisher and give all my friends, relatives, and random people on the street copies. Power to the consumer!
i used to download games but originally i played Gmod NINE on half life 2.
it ruled i wasn’t downloading games illegaly.
it wasn’t my itention to buy gmod 10.
but i playrd it at a steam cafe.
AND I DON’T HAVE A VISA!!!!!!!!!!
this sucks so hard.
i’m searching everyday for gmod 10 movies i’m an addict!
I remember the good ol` days when pirates were young fellows, they didn’t want to kill any industries, they just wanted some gold. Just a little gold. Not too much to ask. These pirates weren’t lazy either. They travel across the world just to dig up a chest full of gold. Ah, those young buggers, they were oblivious to the world. the good old days.
Howcome today’s pirates can’t wear eyepatches and sail across the world with a kick-ass crew and digging up gold.
Besides, with gold you could buy more video games than could fit on your computer.
From your friendly neighboorhood Risingstar =)
Hmm. Pay a huge fine for hording $50 or just pay the small $50. Pretty
obvious. BUY IT!!!!
To all who think pirating is lazy, or “stupid,” there are plenty of reasons. Including scratched disks, your disks being stolen, try before buy, and protest. Personally, I’m about to download The Sims 2 because the disks no-longer work.
i played hacked gmod before and only for a week after that i bought the damn thing because i could not play online and the updates where not coming…
you people are dumbshits who say you should get of ur lazy ases!im 14 and many of the gamers are my age or below,where the hel do you think im going to get a credit card,rob one!my dad dosent trust the internet and i cant get it from there!i would gladly pay but cant thats why most people pirate games,becous thay have no way of paying!no ofence but gary newmen is a dumbass!at least have a postmail to send the money!!!!
sry but for dubble post but my comp keyboard was screay last time i typed,
if there is a way i can pay plz tell me,becous this is a type of mod that i dont really want to pirate but i had to ,you know,so if theres a way to pay plz tell me.
(give me gmod10,! or give me gmod10 files to make a gmod!)
lol.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title s Blog 5.0. Thanks for informative article
I want gmod 10 badddd i have gmod 9 and ilov it but i cant get gmod 10 unless i have a credit card which i dont so wat do i do now??
Very informative. In reply to Garry and the *Clever* people who replied, Piracy is a crime, and it is stealing. If you’re too cheap or you can’t get hold of a credit card then thats your tough luck, go and play gmod 9 because Garry isn’t just going to give you Gmod10 or the goddamn files to make your own gmod 10 because you’re too damn stupid to spell his name right.
gtfo 14year old
I pirate 90% of the games I play regardless of when they where released. Because…
I don’t wish to pay for them.
I pirate most of my games to, but usualy because the game shop here doesn’t have it (anymore). Didn’t pirate any game on steam though, Gmod was cheap anyways. Looking at my games list, of the 2gig+ games I pirated 9, bought 1 and 2 of them are free games. Sue me :o But if you think about it, games like Star Wars: Jedi Knight Jedi Acadamy. I’d have to search for years before I would find one, as it’s old. Same with the shop here which doesn’t sell Virtua Tennis 3 and Jade Empire. Enough reasons to pirate ;)
I admit to pirating garry’s mod just to see it (really? 10 dollars for a MOD?) but I liked it so much I bought it! :) worth it.