Video Game piracy: Good or Bad?

[Ketsueki]

Yes you're right, but the world is evolving, this last is now very expensive because more and more of things (paradoxical, is not ? ) are less expensive consequently we consummate more of those things. Also, the problem is not the makers, but the BIG profit margin of the producer and other high degree people...

But many things are more and more expensive now (look at previous reply...)


PS : please said me if i really incomprehensible...

[sharonlover]

I agree K, the margin and mark up between the retailers and suppliers is absolutely ridiculous. I believe there should be a law that prevents the sale of an item that is marked up beyond a certain percentage. If the market was not so expensive I believe the media industry as a whole would do so much better.

I mean, I understand that technology isn't cheap, but mass production of something is, minus game consoles . You know, blu-ray discs and HD stuff is all great for consoles and such, but if you are willing to throw such expensive gear into a console, take the risk to make the media cheaper so that more people can afford to buy it. Hoping that the people who make money are going to buy a game versus anyone with a decent allowance could buy the game would make all the difference in the world...in my opinion

[No eye deer]

Isnt using ROMs perfectly legal if you give all rights to the game's creators and do not sell them??? If not why do computers have the ability to download songs and such to burn onto CD's???

[AMetroidGuy]

Isnt using ROMs perfectly legal if you give all rights to the game's creators and do not sell them??? If not why do computers have the ability to download songs and such to burn onto CD's???

Nope, not legal. Computers have these abilities in order to download legal stuff in the same formats.

[Naner]

Computers have these abilities in order to download legal stuff in the same formats.

Which very few people do.

[Road]

Call me a hypocrite, but I would endorse music and anime piracy. While at the same time cracking down on Video Game Piracy.

Call me a hypocrite, but I would endorse music and anime piracy. While at the same time cracking down on Video Game Piracy.

?

Theres nothing wrong with it if the games old nes ect, and you could argue VC covers this feild but some people cant afford Wii, so like anything it has its ups and downs. I dont mind it considerin prices of games There just way to expensive!

[Road]

Theres nothing wrong with it if the games old nes ect, and you could argue VC covers this feild but some people cant afford Wii, so like anything it has its ups and downs. I dont mind it considerin prices of games There just way to expensive!

You think thats bad? If you don't pirate music you have to pay 20 dollars and all you get to do is listen to it.

[sharonlover]

anime is a completely different type of piracy though, in the eyes of fans that is. Being an anime fan, I download anime all of the time. There are multiple reasons for that.

1. American V/A's suck 95% of the time.
2. Anime that I wanna see hasn't been licensed in the US yet and could take years or never to make it over here. Thus many fans are forced to download fansubs to watch their anime. There was actually an article on AnimeNewsNetwork.com that stated that the head of Funimation uses the amount of illegal downloads of anime to determine what they are going to release in the US. Most anime fans (at least those of the ole days where I herald from) often buy the anime once its been liscence and released to help support them.

That's changed in this new era of anime. I remember back in the day when the anime world was a very small and secluded world of underground fansubbers and scanlators.

Most everything else in the world of piracy is readily available to a consumer and there is really no reason to pirate something readily available. That ROM that you are playing may only be five bucks at a gamestop but every one of us who uses ROM's or pirates music, movies, ect has now taken money out of a legitimate business' pocket because you decided five bucks was too much. I'm by no means innocent of this which I have explained a couple of times.

Right now I'm bittorrenting "Gone in 60 Seconds" in BluRay quality. I already own the DVD but that does not make it right for me to be downloading said BR versionn. (I'm actually downloading it to see if its really worth the hype, BR that is).

Music wise - Most of the music I pirate is Japanese import CD's not available in the US though I do pirate US music, just no where near the large quantities of import.

Movies (-anime) - I love going to movie theatres and stuffing my face with popcorn. When people offer me a pirated movie to get a "sneak peak" at. I turn it down, because I know that pirating that one movie just took $9 bucks from my theatre where I would be sitting.

Video Game/Software - I have ROM's on my machine. They are for games that I currently own or "patches" to games that I own. I don't support the piracy of Video Games because, again I'm a gamer and it affects the video game market.

It may be hypocritical to pirate one thing and not the other and support one but not the other, but that's my view on it.

In regards to music piracy, think about this:

"Each year, according to the study, global piracy produces the following effects:

* The recording industry loses $1.6 billion to bootlegged CDs and $3.7 billion to illegal downloads and file-sharing; related businesses, including music retail outlets, lose an additional $7.2 billion, bringing the total loss of potential revenue to $12.5 billion.

* Some 22,860 new jobs are not created in the music industry, and an additional 44,200 are not created in related industries, totaling 71,060 unrealized jobs in the U.S.

* Workers in the music industry and related industries do not see an additional $2.7 billion in income.

* Accordingly, federal, state and local governments do not realize an additional $422 million in tax revenues." (http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797 ... =1009&cs=1)

That's just a quick glance on the music industry, imagine how much more video game/software and movie losses are. Do you think the economy would be slightly better if piracy of all sorts was taken out of the equation and people actually spent money for there stuff? I'm not talking about save us from the recession amount but that is a lot of money that people are missing out on.

Just some food for thought ^_^

[CapCom]

Actually, those numbers aren't entirely correct. The music industry (and actually all industries that report piracy) claim that they are losing all that money due to piracy (it's all data manipulation, particularly when they don't tell you exactly WHICH albums were downloaded). However, many of these people would never have bought half this stuff anyway. That's because there are basically three kinds of people: those who download because they want to sample it; those who download because it's out of print; those who download who wouldn't have bought it anyway.

I suppose another factor would be that it just costs too damn much. I remember when people over here were whining about how the average CD costs $14-$18 and that they'd give you $5 back if you bought one in the past six months. Well, I don't listen to this music: I order my game music albums from Japan where it costs $18-$36 FOR A SINGLE ALBUM. And that's not including shipping. If VGM cost $14 an album, you know I'd buy a shitload more of it. Twice as much, actually

I'm not saying piracy is a good thing, though the way that the industry is set up, it's almost necessary. Their insistence on relying on CDs to distribute their music and strongarming the public with lawsuits for illegal downloads does not paint a pretty picture of them. Apparently, they'll even sue you if you copy a disc you bought in the store just to put on your own iPod. The CD industry is a dinosaur that necessarily has to scale back in the wake of digital music like it did for vinyl and it's the RIAA's own damn fault for failing to adapt. I'm not saying the CD will completely go away as that's idiotic. But the CD will no longer be the bread and butter of the industry - that's what digital music sales should be and eventually will be, but not before the RIAA has finished its pissing and moaning.

As you say with the anime: people want something that is high-quality and in the form they want it in. Right now that's digital (and actually mail-out rental services like Netflix and Gamefly). It's quick, it's convenient (less storage space), technically cheaper (i.e. no manufacturing costs), and it's technically permanent (no need to maintain stockroom space). All of this makes it 'ideal' to anyone but materialists This and the public library - your tax dollars at work!

[ProjectLeaderGuy]

The radio has a lot of disposable music not worth purchasing by and large. However, if people want disposable radio music bad enough to pirate it, then it obviously has value. Apparently not enough to pay for it, so there seems to be this kind of double-standard going on. People in favor of stealing can't seem to understand that if EVERYONE steals, then none of the product they are stealing gets created, period.

However, it's a real shame that people pirate high quality independent artists with actual talent.

It's not easy to get things done while holding down a day job, because music is a full-time life pursuit, a 24/7 job. People who say artists make big money on live shows are full of crap. There is very little money to be made touring. It's survival money at best (living on ramen and sleeping in the van). And that leaves composers who aren't performing pop stars with zero money. There is still money to be made at "event" type gigs, weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc, although the whole "DJ" thing (I'm talking "party" DJ's who simply push 'play' on a CD and stand there, not actual musician DJ's) has cut deeply into that market and pushed live performers further and further out. Symphony Orchestras on the other hand only survive by charity, donating, trust funds, etc.

When pirating gets overwhelming, composers (who write the soundtrack, and who write the hit songs... you didn't think _____ wrote her own music, did you? ;-P) lose out on royalty income. For a composer that's often the difference between surviving on ramen for another week and dying in the gutter.

That leaves broadcast royalties for us lowly composers. This is one of the few ways a composer can earn a trickle of income, but the jobs are much fewer these days, as more productions simply use music libraries (a blanket license to a pile of pre-made generic music) or automatic-music programs like Cinescore. Plus, as the writers strike can attest to, the powers that be are trying to avoid paying ANYONE royalties for "online" broadcast.

Personally I VALUE art/music/writing/videogames/film/etc, it's the MOST valuable stuff us miserable humans have achieved. I wouldn't pay $18 for a CD of conformist radio drivel (or listen to it, period), but I certainly would for pay that much for a piece of music that has a profound impact on the rest of my life and brings endless meaning to existence.

[CapCom]

I wouldn't pay $18 for a CD of conformist radio drivel (or listen to it, period), but I certainly would for pay that much for a piece of music that has a profound impact on the rest of my life and brings endless meaning to existence.

Exactly. That's why I only import the albums that are most important to me or that are by artists whose work I like.