Wednesday, December 29, 2004
11:45 by FoxTwo Ok this is starting to get annoying.
We all know piracy is rampant. Well, at least in the software world anyway. As soon as some new piece of software is released, be it games, utilities or whatever, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be pirated soon enough. Apparently there are a lot of genius crackers in Asia that are able to do this with their eyes closed and two hands tied behind their backs.
So what do software companies do to combat this? They piss off their legitimate customers, ie people like me who buys original software. I have had this principle of buying only original software for years - but soon it may change. Why? Because I am getting sick and tired of being inconvenienced.
Ok, in the early days, simpler protections were used. Passwords, serial numbers, even CD Keys. Those I can handle. In addition, I think CD-Keys work incredibly well when the game is online - you can only have ONE such key in use, as such, legit owners would not want to part with their keys to their l337 friends to make pirate copies. Heck, I can even handle these "Secure ROMS" and "SafeDisc" protections too.... I am only inconvenienced slightly if I wanted to copy the CD for safekeeping, but then again most times I don't. If I can't, I just deal with it and try to take better care of them than other CDs.
Fast forward to 2004. Half Life 2 is launched, and guess what? Valve has invented the ultimate screw-the-customer-over anti-piracy measure. It requires people to get online, register the game ONLINE, and not only that, requires the customer who paid for the boxed version to download a frigging 10MB "unlocking" file for an offline game!
As if that's not enough, if you forget to set some options in the launcher, you have to be online to "log in" to the servers to "authenticate" yourself before you are able to play offline. Ok this is going too far.
Not only do I have to do that, now the game requires me to install an additional piece of software which I do NOT want - STEAM. STEAM is the engine that powers the "anti-piracy" effort. I don't like it, hence I have never bothered to install it on my own. Now, Half Life 2 will not run without it. What's more, Valve has said that all future games they release will be in the same mold - requiring STEAM.
Ok I have had enough. Once I beat Half Life 2, I am going to uninstall it and never, ever, buy another game from Valve again. Or if I do, I certainly won't get the original version. Why? Because I just want to friggin play the game, man! I don't want to jump through hoops to do that. Instead of abating piracy with this measure, Valve is indirectly encouraging it. It pisses people off by making them do too many non-related things just to run a game they want to play.
And what if, by some chance, that sometime in the future, Valve were to shut down? Or perhaps declare STEAM as being obsolete and putting in place a "newer and better" method? So what happens to the game which I have bought? Am I suddenly up the creek with a spoon for a paddle? How am I going to "authenticate" if they shut STEAM down in favour of their new and better system? How am I going to "authenticate" if Valve is no longer in business?
So in order to keep playing this game I have to keep them in business?
Like I said, I have had enough. The next time a game requires me to get online to authenticate before playing, I am not buying it. I already have enough junk on my harddisk as it is, and I don't need more just to play a game.
User-friendly? HAH!
The best way, I think, to fight piracy is to go the opposite direction - price the games (and software in general) DOWNWARDS. Yes, you read it right - lower the prices. Yes I have seen the "dollars lost due to piracy" argument many times. If your software costs $100 to buy legitimately, and someone buys a pirated copy for $20, you just lost $100. Very simple (for those who may not quite get it, the company never got the payment of the $20 - it went to the pirates. The company WOULD HAVE earned $100 if the customer had bought the original version).
BUT, do you know WHY people buy pirated versions instead of your original versions? Exactly - because it costs $100.
The way to entice people to buy original and shun the pirated ones is to LOWER THE PRICE. Assuming now you lower the price of the legitimate one to say, $50. So now the customer, me, is faced with a choice - buy the $20 pirated version and take my chances with viruses, lack of support, needing cracks which may or may not destabilise my PC, or spend $30 more to get the legitimate one and not worry about those stuff?
Chances are, I'd spend the extra $30. But if you keep the price at $100, I wouldn't even give the legitimate version a second thought. $80 is too much of a difference, and I'd rather take my chances with all the dangers of viruses etc.
Once people start to buy originals because they WANT TO as opposed to because they HAVE TO, the pirates will soon find their customer base getting smaller and smaller and may even go out of business. By forcing your customers to jump through hoops just to make your software work every time they want to use it, people will stop buying your software and opt for pirated versions. Reason? For the same amount of hoops I need to jump through (installing cracks etc) I get to make the software work, and I only need to do it ONCE, and it's cheaper to buy too! With all these pluses on my side, why would I want to buy your original version?
So, lower your prices, make your software easier to access. You may be surprised at the results.
11:45 by FoxTwo Ok this is starting to get annoying.
We all know piracy is rampant. Well, at least in the software world anyway. As soon as some new piece of software is released, be it games, utilities or whatever, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be pirated soon enough. Apparently there are a lot of genius crackers in Asia that are able to do this with their eyes closed and two hands tied behind their backs.
So what do software companies do to combat this? They piss off their legitimate customers, ie people like me who buys original software. I have had this principle of buying only original software for years - but soon it may change. Why? Because I am getting sick and tired of being inconvenienced.
Ok, in the early days, simpler protections were used. Passwords, serial numbers, even CD Keys. Those I can handle. In addition, I think CD-Keys work incredibly well when the game is online - you can only have ONE such key in use, as such, legit owners would not want to part with their keys to their l337 friends to make pirate copies. Heck, I can even handle these "Secure ROMS" and "SafeDisc" protections too.... I am only inconvenienced slightly if I wanted to copy the CD for safekeeping, but then again most times I don't. If I can't, I just deal with it and try to take better care of them than other CDs.
Fast forward to 2004. Half Life 2 is launched, and guess what? Valve has invented the ultimate screw-the-customer-over anti-piracy measure. It requires people to get online, register the game ONLINE, and not only that, requires the customer who paid for the boxed version to download a frigging 10MB "unlocking" file for an offline game!
As if that's not enough, if you forget to set some options in the launcher, you have to be online to "log in" to the servers to "authenticate" yourself before you are able to play offline. Ok this is going too far.
Not only do I have to do that, now the game requires me to install an additional piece of software which I do NOT want - STEAM. STEAM is the engine that powers the "anti-piracy" effort. I don't like it, hence I have never bothered to install it on my own. Now, Half Life 2 will not run without it. What's more, Valve has said that all future games they release will be in the same mold - requiring STEAM.
Ok I have had enough. Once I beat Half Life 2, I am going to uninstall it and never, ever, buy another game from Valve again. Or if I do, I certainly won't get the original version. Why? Because I just want to friggin play the game, man! I don't want to jump through hoops to do that. Instead of abating piracy with this measure, Valve is indirectly encouraging it. It pisses people off by making them do too many non-related things just to run a game they want to play.
And what if, by some chance, that sometime in the future, Valve were to shut down? Or perhaps declare STEAM as being obsolete and putting in place a "newer and better" method? So what happens to the game which I have bought? Am I suddenly up the creek with a spoon for a paddle? How am I going to "authenticate" if they shut STEAM down in favour of their new and better system? How am I going to "authenticate" if Valve is no longer in business?
So in order to keep playing this game I have to keep them in business?
Like I said, I have had enough. The next time a game requires me to get online to authenticate before playing, I am not buying it. I already have enough junk on my harddisk as it is, and I don't need more just to play a game.
User-friendly? HAH!
The best way, I think, to fight piracy is to go the opposite direction - price the games (and software in general) DOWNWARDS. Yes, you read it right - lower the prices. Yes I have seen the "dollars lost due to piracy" argument many times. If your software costs $100 to buy legitimately, and someone buys a pirated copy for $20, you just lost $100. Very simple (for those who may not quite get it, the company never got the payment of the $20 - it went to the pirates. The company WOULD HAVE earned $100 if the customer had bought the original version).
BUT, do you know WHY people buy pirated versions instead of your original versions? Exactly - because it costs $100.
The way to entice people to buy original and shun the pirated ones is to LOWER THE PRICE. Assuming now you lower the price of the legitimate one to say, $50. So now the customer, me, is faced with a choice - buy the $20 pirated version and take my chances with viruses, lack of support, needing cracks which may or may not destabilise my PC, or spend $30 more to get the legitimate one and not worry about those stuff?
Chances are, I'd spend the extra $30. But if you keep the price at $100, I wouldn't even give the legitimate version a second thought. $80 is too much of a difference, and I'd rather take my chances with all the dangers of viruses etc.
Once people start to buy originals because they WANT TO as opposed to because they HAVE TO, the pirates will soon find their customer base getting smaller and smaller and may even go out of business. By forcing your customers to jump through hoops just to make your software work every time they want to use it, people will stop buying your software and opt for pirated versions. Reason? For the same amount of hoops I need to jump through (installing cracks etc) I get to make the software work, and I only need to do it ONCE, and it's cheaper to buy too! With all these pluses on my side, why would I want to buy your original version?
So, lower your prices, make your software easier to access. You may be surprised at the results.
