Another anti pirate thread. Bethesda speaks.

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by CCIP

One of the really dumb, ironic problem with invasive copy protection is that much of it (especially Starforce of course) came out of the Russian market where many legit publishers actually competed (successfully) with pirates by driving down the prices of legit games to a level where they only cost a bit more than the pirated copy, with the pricetag certainly justifying owning a license to a game. Note - I said owning a license. When games cost what they do in a place like Russia (i.e. several times cheaper than in Europe or the US), it's certainly understandable and excusable to be paying a modest amount for a restricted form of "ownership" of a game copy and putting up with some inconveniences for their system.

The really stupid thing is that Europe and the US pretty well adopted Russia's fiercely competitive copy protection system without adopting Russia's likewise competitive pricing. Most of the time the pricetags on new games here are around $60, which is completely ludicrous and has no justification given the way copy protection and user control over the game copy are treated. There are a few niche exceptions to that I am happy to put up with, where an unusual game by a small publisher and for a special audience needs to be priced higher to make a profit and keep up development. But most of the time, the pricing is unjustified.

I would not be so displeased with a certain level of copy protection if the average new game cost $15-20. At $50-70 however, publishers are making a huge mistake - blaming piracy for what is actually a problem caused by a combination of invasive copy protection, overblown and unreasonable pricing, and of course poor quality of many of the products marketed for this price. Publishers are getting into all sorts of posturing about losing trust in gamers, but in fact it's they who are losing the gamers' trust. And for good reasons.

I buy very few new games nowadays. Most of the games I do buy new come from smaller publishers. Otherwise I just don't feel it's worth the price and cost (two different things in this case) at release.

CCIP you forget Publishers are gods and can not do wrong... Everybody else is wrong and must be punished by gods hand.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Wolfehunter

CCIP you forget Dev's are gods and can not do wrong... Everybody else is wrong and must be punished by gods hand.

You mean publishers. While devs (like in this case) do speak up on the issue, 99.9% of game developers anywhere really have no direct involvement in the publication, copy protection and marketing decisions for a game. The remaining 0.1% are small-time, independent developers who publish their own games, which really is not the norm in the industry. The norms are set by the likes of Ubi and EA, which so far has proved to be a fairly bad thing for everyone (including, ironically, Ubi and EA themselves).

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by CCIP

You mean publishers. While devs (like in this case) do speak up on the issue, 99.9% of game developers anywhere really have no direct involvement in the publication, copy protection and marketing decisions for a game. The remaining 0.1% are small-time, independent developers who publish their own games, which really is not the norm in the industry. The norms are set by the likes of Ubi and EA, which so far has proved to be a fairly bad thing for everyone (including, ironically, Ubi and EA themselves).

Ya your right publisher... I was about to correct myself but you where faster.

[SUBMAN1]

I will buy their deluxe copy for the simple fact they aren't including any real copy protection. Oblivion is one of the best selling PC games of all time, and it it used almost no copy protection as well.

Bethesda seems to have learned form this, but the support call thing is crazy. A simple fix for this is to require a serial number before every call.

Support this game. i will be come Tuesday.

-S

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

I will buy their deluxe copy for the simple fact they aren't including any real copy protection. Oblivion is one of the best selling PC games of all time, and it it used almost no copy protection as well.

Bethesda seems to have learned form this, but the support call thing is crazy. A simple fix for this is to require a serial number before every call.

Support this game. i will be come Tuesday.

-S

Sorry Subman I will not support Bethesda ever again. Well Unless they change the publishers.. Then maybe...:hmm:

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Wolfehunter

Sorry Subman I will not support Bethesda ever again. Well Unless they change the publishers.. Then maybe...:hmm:

Why?

And Bethesda is a publisher by the way, not the game company. So i don't follow you. Did some game company pull a fast one on you that was published by Bethesda?

-S

[Wolfehunter]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Why?

And Bethesda is a publisher by the way, not the game company. So i don't follow you. Did some game company pull a fast one on you that was published by Bethesda?

-S

I don't like what their doing to fallout dude. I didn't like what they did to Oblivion too but it was too late and I gave them a shot then. I have all there updates and expansions and it still sucks compared to what was proposed before its release.

I like morrowind even though it was a fraction of daggersfall and arena but hey thats just me.

If you like it thats cool dude.

I know Bethesda is their own publisher which explains why they need to change... themselves...

But again thats just me talking. I won't fall sucker again Subman. I saw the change with them years ago dude.