Bethesda tires of spending money to support pirates
- Thread starter Brother None
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aronsearle
Still Mildly Glowing
You know those little puzzle games you get of Yahoo?
Well alot of them let you play the full game for free, and after X hours of play it says "BUY ME BUY ME BUY ME".
Well alot of them let you play the full game for free, and after X hours of play it says "BUY ME BUY ME BUY ME".
aenemic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
aronsearle said:
yeah, I was just thinking about that. why not have something similar? let people download free versions of the games that will automatically lock down (but of course save all your save games etc) after X hours of play. obviously people will be able to hack this, but it at least gives honest people a chance to try games before they decide to buy them.
yeah, my question was actually more of a statement. renting is not an option for PC gamers.
Bernard Bumner
Still Mildly Glowing
aenemic said:
A distribution model that is quite common in independent roleplaying games, as a matter of fact.
Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure how this would dovetail into [iBethesda's[/i] idea of open world gaming. Given a limit, it is quite possible that casual gamers would rush to explore as much of the game world as possible, which would inevitably compromise the experience. The best way to implement this would be via a physical boundary, rather than a timer; let the player explore the vault and do a few minor vault-based quests (kill a few ants and whatnot...).
aenemic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
Bernard Bumner said:
well, then you simply have your common demo version of the game. they could very well put some physical boundries on the game, for example not allowing you to finish the main story line. but usually demos are very restrictive and the part of the game they put in the demo is often one of the more polished parts and don't always represent the whole game very well.
it'd rather see them allow us to play a big part of the game whatever way we like. and if we want the full experience we have to pay for it. but let us get a feel of actually playing the full version of the game.
Gothic III had a pretty good demo. Showed the first part of the game in full. Sadly it only came out after the game was released.
I still don't see why Bethesda couldn't 'just' release, say, the Vault as a demo.
I still don't see why Bethesda couldn't 'just' release, say, the Vault as a demo.
Bernard Bumner said:
I recall playing Avernum 3, and it had just about exactly what you're talking about. There were no time limits, and a hefty chunk of the world was open to you. You could go as far as you want and do whatever you please, until you hit the boundary they imposed on the unregistered game. It was pretty effective, I think. I got a good feel for the game, and decided that I wanted to pony up the $10 or whatever it was to play the whole thing. Pretty fun game, too, even with the very dated... everything.
jonnymstgt
First time out of the vault
aenemic said:
Blockbuster, for example.
But my question to you is simply...
You don't like FO3 and what Bethesda has done to the franchise? But I don't understand this...
You are willing to play it but not pay for it because you think Bethesda does not deserve to be payed for what they did but still you believe you deserve to play the game and see what they have done with the game.
Am I right?
aenemic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
jonnymstgt said:
dude, learn to fucking read! I've replied twice to you now, saying that I WILL PROBABLY BUY THE GAME! ffs.
jonnymstgt
First time out of the vault
aenemic said:
I can read alright. I have no idea why you need to make your point by cussing and so.
As far as I can remember you did say previously that you will play this game but now buy the game.
So spare me the whole outrage in regards to anything you will do.
It is not that I or others have read about it. So please spare your outrage ok. Not I or others have witnessed it.
If you want I can post where you said that this game is not worth buying but still yo will be playing it.
You want me to post this? You think that we never saw this?
No, he did not say that he wasn't going to buy the game, he said that he wasn't going to buy the collector's edition.
Also, not buying the game isn't the same as pirating it. There's rentals, borrowing from friends, second hand sales etc.
So, stop your trolling jonny and learn to read.
PS: I just read your big whine about oppressive Wooz. He never gave you the second strike, I did.
Also, not buying the game isn't the same as pirating it. There's rentals, borrowing from friends, second hand sales etc.
So, stop your trolling jonny and learn to read.
PS: I just read your big whine about oppressive Wooz. He never gave you the second strike, I did.
Bernard Bumner
Still Mildly Glowing
jonnymstgt said:
Really? Not in any I've used in the UK.
jonnymstgt said:
It is just common courtesy to quote anything you're refering to, so that the other person can reply to the specific accusation.
aenemic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
jonnymstgt said:
oh my god, you are dense. if you read my reply to your post earlier in this thread, I said that it felt like you were talking about my post. so obviously I realize you (and others) read that post. and twice now I've tried to explain to you what I meant. I can do it again, but I'm not going to waste my time on that because you probably will ignore it this time as well.
good luck on your righteous path to smite all pirates (and accuse innocent people for pirating). don't bother replying to me ever again.
Sorrow
So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
Behemoth and Vader gave booklets and still sold the albums for less than 30PGP and they sell less albums than mainstream bands because they have a smaller audience. Behemoth has its albums with high quality illustrated booklets and additional cardboard covers on CD case. Also, their last album came with a small poster printed on thick glossy paper. I bought a day after it's release. So, it has quality of something worth 6 hours of hard work (after counting costs of living, it increases to about five days of hard work).scypior said:
As for the CDs without booklets - Metallica's album was without lyrics, which sucks because I didn't like the music until I've read the lyrics on internet. Also, they don't really feel like a luxury they should be for that price - I can have a lovely thick manga or a book with a pretty cover for ~30 PGP. I would pay max. 10 PGP for them.
Actually, "piracy" has mostly cultural advantages. I would rather call losing time playing a game a material disadvantageTycn said:
.As for the advantages - they are the same for artists (mainly small artists and developers as the big ones can probably afford to buy any cultural good they want at any time they want.) as for any hard working person in society (it's not like people with normal jobs are paid enough and aren't struggling to survive where I live - 90% of adult people in Poland don't have any savings and 80% of adult people are in debt). For example it's obviously better to have a small but growing collection of bought music CDs and 3 GB of mp3s on HDD than having a small but growing collection of bought CDs and nothing else to listen beside radio.
Similarly, it's better to be able to buy 1 or two books every month and borrow 10 than being stuck with only one two books. Last I worked, I used up 10 books each month during 1 hour bus-rides to my workplace.
If it were downloaded things I would be an evil thief that stole 300 PGP worth of books and I got the same advantage .
I remember reading Stephen King's guide to becoming a writer and he wrote about how he started to hate libraries after he started to make money off his books.
I think that the "devoid of good content" is a pretty stupid argument - it's like going to library and borrowing books because books are "devoid of good content". Then why read them anyway? Is it some kind of masochism or what?Tycn said:
Who do you mean by "people"? Again, it's a false dualism - most of people I know are both downloaders and buyers out of principle. Note that it doesn't translate into statistics - it's impossible - simply, if one has money to buy only one thing then it's obvious, that he won't buy other things.Tycn said:
IMO the best way would be to legalize non-commercial "piracy" (i.e. no selling "pirated" copies, no using "pirated" programs in business) and promoting more open discussion about advantages and ethics of "piracy".Tycn said:
Generally, law doesn't stop people from downloading stuff and it isn't law that makes people buy stuff they downloaded before, so it's all about one's ethical system.
And bonuses like customer support should require registration and entering a password.
Anxion
First time out of the vault
Do like bioshock. Put CD keys on it but you need a online connection (most people have internet on their computers today) and then it registers the cd key to their servers. If the key is already in use bam! you just can't play the game.
Bernard Bumner
Still Mildly Glowing
Anxion said:
Bioshock was cracked within hours of release.
Seeking technological solutions only prevents a certain amount of casual piracy, and for some is a positive enticement to beat the protection. Of course it helps to some degree, but making piracy socially unacceptable and incentivizing game buying is a more effective strategy.
aenemic
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
agreed, or else we will finally come to the point where buying and playing a game legally is a hassle. hell, we're almost there as it is.
These things only impede the actual paying consumers. If done well it might delay the release of a cracked copy for a few days at most.Anxion said:
Falloutvet
First time out of the vault
I like the Steam distribution method a lot. It's convenient and seems to curb piracy a little better than your typical methods. although sometimes services (im looking at you EA!) can lag up your machine when they force you to run programs along with the game