Well said. Most people pirate games because there are no consequences. Hence, people think piracy is not stealing which it is. Until the people are punished for their actions, piracy will not stop.
Also, people should understand that game piracy is different than movie or music piracy. Movies and music have multiple sources of revenue to make money (that doesn't mean you should pirate them), but games have only one source of revenue i.e. retail sales. Hence, piracy hurts the game industry more than other entertainment industry.
Like i said before, if you can't afford to buy games skip them, wait till price drops to your comfort level or buy games second hand which are also cheaper. Don't give lame excuses like high price, will buy original later etc.
Is playing games a compulsion or a necessity like food or water?
iPhone is priced 3 times the US price in India, will you steal it if you can't buy it?
I agree that COD was priced way too high but that's an exception. But what about other games, most of the console games are priced at 2500(approx 50 dollars) which you can get around 2200 Rs (approx 45 dollars). How low do you want ? Also, you can get the games at much lower prices second hand on various forums.
The price you are referring for Crysis 2 is a promotional price from Flipkart, not all game vendors are offering it.
Though this post quotes a particular post it is not directed at that particular person. The post is only quoted because it has all the points that I want to talk about. I am not talking for or against piracy and am just giving points from a particular viewpoint
First the points on which I agree with:
1. People pirate because there usually are no consequences.
2. Gaming is not a necessity.
3. Gaming is more hard hit than other industries due to piracy.
But now some points that do not seem to be right when we are talking in terms of 1+1=2 without attaching any emotions or moral stuff to the points.
Firstly, yes piracy would come under stealing but it should not be compared to stealing cars, iphones, pencils or whatever. Because they are physical entities. If you steal a car, one product that was produced disappears. It is not the case with games. Stealing an original game disk and pirating a game are two different things. Yes, both ARE stealing and doing both IS wrong, but putting forward this point during these kind of debates is not correct because of the difference in the nature of products. But this point is the most used point in such kind of debates. There are better points to put forward.
Next, we need to be clear what is our interest-
1. Not wanting production houses to lose money or incur losses.
or
2. Not wanting people to have stuff for free.
If our interest is the first point, then it is justified because we being gamers donot want companies to lose money so that they would give us better games.
But if it is the second point it is actually none of our business.
People often are asked to skip the game if they are not able to buy it- but,
The production house doesnt get money if a person skips the game.
The production house doesnt get money if a person pirates the game.
So here the interest seems to be on the second point.
People feel and think that buying second hand games is ok but it obviously is the same thing as piracy on a lesser scale.
The production house doesnt get money if a person buys a second hand game.
The production house doesnt get money if a person pirates a game.
Are you just happy that the person is paying and buying a second hand game? Here too the interest definitely is in the second point.
Asking people to wait for the prices to reduce is a good thing to do and has its interest in the first point.
Now, PSN is owned and operated by SONY and it takes money to keep it running. I dont think anyone ever said in this thread or any thread on the internet that people who are playing a pirated game should be allowed on PSN, because that argument is meaningless.
The 1+1=2 statements end here.
But banning consoles because they are jailbroken is not a good thing to do, not because SONY doesnt have the right to as it does but
Game disks can come with a particular identification using which they can be authenticated and PSN access should be provided to people with legit copies of the game even if they are on a jailbroken console. And online access shouldnt be given for a particular game if it is pirated. This is because the money that is generated from the sale of a particular game is utilized in the online expenditures of that game normally. This will keep everyone happy. Moreover if they are completely banned people who want to stay on jailbreak for whatever reason will have no reason to buy an original ever again as they anyway cannot go online.
but I didnt say that piracy is not stealing:hap5:
). People will try games from smaller/unheard of companies which they normally wouldnt. This helps them build their business.