Is there still no solution to PC game piracy?

[Wolvo7]

AnyDvD is a Blu-ray ripping software that's been out for a long time. I mean what other use than piracy does this have.

Features Blu-Ray
Same features as regular AnyDVD
Removes restrictions from Blu-ray media.
Makes Blu-ray media playable with every player software.
Removes region codes from Blu-ray media.
Watch movies over digital display connection, without HDCP-compliant graphics card and without HDCP-compliant display.
Removes annoyances.
Can disable BD-Live to protect your privacy.
Allows playback of discs requiring a 3D monitor on 2D displays.
The "must have" utility for the serious home theater enthusiast using a media center / home theater PC.
Provides its own Universal Disk Format (UDF) reader, no need to install 3rd party filesystem. Discs which cannot be read by Windows can be backed up when using AnyDVD HD.

You know what's the ironic thing about that? Since you have to pay for this software you end up pirating it to be able to pirate other things with it

I think I mentioned that before but until the legal alternatives get to the same level of "service" as torrent sites then torrents will always be not only easier but also the only way to get your content when you want it. I'm thinking specifically of US TV shows, which are the only ones I watch. Until services like Netflix find a way to get all TV shows online just after they've aired, I'll continue getting them like I've always done. I'm not gonna wait for months for them to be on TV in the UK or for the whole season to finish for it to be (potentially) available on Netflix when I can get my show the day after it's aired by clicking 2 buttons. Simple. And yes you can use american proxies to watch them online but you still bypass international copyright laws.

I don't really agree with pirating games tho, as they are not plagued by the same restrictions as the TV shows I mentioned above and services like Steam make them really affordable. I will question the sanity of some shops though which still sell AC3 for PS3 at £45 *cough* Tesco *cough* when I just got it for £25 online from GAME. And then they wonder why high street retailing is going bust...

 

[sted]

Something I find funny, yet not always the case, people who chip their consoles and use illegal copies (this moreso affects games for the most part) you can end up spending more in the long run, especially with games people are likely to play over and over. In many cases I've heard of people buying these copies and having to replace their favourites multiple times due to excessive use resulting in burning holes in the cheap disks used and often making them go beyond repair, forcing them to buy another if they want it enough or even go as far as buying a retail version, but I doubt they'd go that far. They probably don't always see they are wasting more in that instance as opposed to just getting a real copy, it being tough enough to last and saving in the long run.

And where making console games exclusively downloads is no doubt an effective measure in preventing privacy, it also puts people who have no interest I piracy any way in a bit of a nightmare, regarding slow Internet access. I for one live in an area where regardless of ISP you're not likely to get above 10MB/ps, it's annoying downloading a file of 1 GB for me and I've even gone as far as things with 6GB and not only does it take a long time, often kills my will to use the download and quite often feels excruciating.

I agree with you Wolvo, on the point about ridiculous pricing from certain shops like you mentioned. It annoys me to no end even moreso when the game has been released a while and no doubt met a good enough purchase rate that they can afford to make a nice reduction in its price. If they realised that sometimes dropping the price of things can entice more custom on top of what they got when the game was first released then it'd be an effective way to ideally gain a nice bit in addition to all that.

Further edit:

This reminds me of something I recall on COD world at war, on zombies. Not sure how they did it but someone had hacked one of the games, invited my brother to the match, when he got in to it he was able to do just about anything, almost literally.

It was made possible to exit the windows where the zombies come from, not only that though you could use weapons that aren't available any other way that I know of, the points were something like 1264836465747 for each player you could even be a zombie and attack the other players. There were other things too but I can't remember them all.

 

[Narcotics]

There was a mod on COD if you joined the game you would get top rank & unlock all the gear and guns it sort of rendered the game useless in a way.

 

[Tom DWC]

I pay for my movies (Blu-Ray) and I listen to my music by legal means (Spotify).

I don't really game much anymore but I absolutely detest the way the games industry approaches anti-piracy. I still firmly believe many single player games offer the user a better experience when pirated. For example, I have a copy of Far Cry 3 on my Steam that I have paid for. That isn't the version I have installed though... I supported the developer, and always do, but I refuse to have both Steam and the abhorrent uPlay client running in the background at the same time. The implementation is a mess.

Quite happy to pay for games on the odd occasion when I do still get them but I've reached the stage now where I just don't buy a game if the DRM or bundled software is too intrusive. It doesn't work, it's a complete waste of time and all it does is punish the end user. And completely not the fault of the developers, it's the publishers that are to blame.

I could rant for another half hour but I can't be arsed.

 

[Target Practice]

You're never going to stop it completely, but there ARE ways of reducing it. One I've always been surprised that publishers haven't used more is uploading broken copies of the game onto file-sharing websites. Get loads and loads and loads of copies out there that are all broken in some difficult-to-spot instantly, but absolutely impassable way.
I'm sure it wouldn't be hard - disable a key elevator here, remove a key door there - the idea behind it being you make it so hard for the pirate to effectively tell which copies are real cracks and which are high-functioning but ultimately broken wastes of time that you end up frustrating them.

 

[steaky360]

It's a good idea, but I'm not 100% convinced it would work effectively in the mid-long term. Short term yeah totally but once a few copies have been downloaded people will be able to tell which copies are broken and will likely stop sharing those. Then again, I'm not convinced pirates don't do that stuff to some games themselves just to mess with the people downloading them!

 

[RS2OOO]

Don't forget that pirating is no more of a problem now, probably less of a problem than it was 25 Years ago.

25 Years ago everyone had a double tape player and everyone copied each others tapes whether it was music or computer games. My 2nd hand Commodore Vic 20 (Google it if you've not seen one before) came with over 100 titles, and only about 5 of them were original copies.

If you really wanted a new album or new computer game, you could walk into Woolworths and steal it.... no security guards or security cameras. That's no different to downloading something off Youtube today.

In some ways pirating has advantages for all of us in that the research to counter it often (sometimes accidentally) spawns new technologies that benefit all of us, kind of in the same way that development in Formula One has made modern family cars so much safer.

Whilst all these things are morally and legally wrong and cost us more money, in other ways they keep more of us in jobs working on technology to help counteract the pirates, in the same way that if there was no crime all the Police Officers would end up on the dole.

So although most of us don't condone piracy, you can see that its one of many things (good and bad) that helps to shape the world we live in today and in the future.

I certainly don't support piracy though, so don't take my post as an opinion, its just me thinking out loud.

 

[tom_gr7]

I once asked a young person (about 20 years old) why he was a knock of Nigel. He said, "why should I pay when I can get it for free online?"

Enough said really, people will often choose the free option than paying for it.

 

[Karnor00]

You're never going to stop it completely, but there ARE ways of reducing it. One I've always been surprised that publishers haven't used more is uploading broken copies of the game onto file-sharing websites. Get loads and loads and loads of copies out there that are all broken in some difficult-to-spot instantly, but absolutely impassable way.
I'm sure it wouldn't be hard - disable a key elevator here, remove a key door there - the idea behind it being you make it so hard for the pirate to effectively tell which copies are real cracks and which are high-functioning but ultimately broken wastes of time that you end up frustrating them.

I remember that they tried doing that with TitanQuest. The pirated copy of the game worked fine for a while and then crashed halfway through Act 1.

Problem was that it led to many people giving the game really bad reviews because it kept crashing for them. Which in turn led to the game not being very successful.

 

[Karnor00]

25 Years ago everyone had a double tape player and everyone copied each others tapes whether it was music or computer games. My 2nd hand Commodore Vic 20 (Google it if you've not seen one before) came with over 100 titles, and only about 5 of them were original copies.

I didn't know there even were that many tape games out for the Vic 20! I remember having a few games but they were on cartridges (I remember Rat Race, The Count, Jelly Monsters - ironically this was later withdrawn for being a blatant copy of Pacman (which to be fair it was)).

 

[Chaotic Entropy]

If you'll note, despite all the restrictions and hoops placed for valid customers to jump, climb and crawl through, piracy is still rampant.
Quite frankly, pirates get a better quality of gaming life than valid customers do a lot of the time.

 

[mishra]

This whole idea of being legal is worth bag of rats in some cases!
I needed to get licence for Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard the other day and Microsoft told me.. that they are sorry but product was replaced by Windows Server 2012 and for that reason there are no more licenses available ?! Same happened to Microsoft Office 2010... you simply cannot buy this any more in UK!!! They will sell you Office 2013 happily. The same will happen to OEM Windows 7 on new computers/laptops super soon.

I mean seriously??? How can a software product be "sold out"? It's a freaking copy of the disc with random generated number... it simply cannot be sold out!!!! If there is a need they should generate some more licences and job done. But no God almighty Microsoft knows better what user wants... and will make fantastic products obsolete to replace them with this modern crap - that nobody wants to use - at least not in production environment!

Sorry for rant, I know this thread was about gaming piracy... but I'm fuming here... they made my sysadmin life a nightmare recently. That's just because I need to be legal - ehh...

 

[mishra]

Quite frankly, pirates get a better quality of gaming life than valid customers do a lot of the time.

You couldn't be more right. I do know when Diablo 3 was out... some friends were playing on pirated servers for free... yet I purchased the whole game and was not able to connect for almost a week! joke isn't?
OK. I will not say a word more as I will regret it later...

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

Just because its easier and perceived better quality, doesnt make it right.

Its easier to steal a loaf of bread than stand in a queue for 5 minutes AND have to pay for it...clearly isn't right.

For instance with the Diablo III example; its is Blizzard's property, therefore it is up to them to offer it. The early service was rubbish (i do own it and know full well the problems we had). That in no way makes playing on a pirate server justified, because it was Blizzard's product to cock-up.

Ok, I will keep saying all sorts of stuff because i'll never regret trying to bang into people's heads that digital thievery is no different from shoplifting...you just get away with it more

 

[woah]

I hate piracy. I've never had piracy game. I prefer to spend some money and have full access and legal. And by the way - there is so many online stores now that games aren't that expensive.

 

[steaky360]

I hate piracy. I've never had piracy game. I prefer to spend some money and have full access and legal. And by the way - there is so many online stores now that games aren't that expensive.

I don't think the expense is the prohibitive thing that's pushing some people towards piracy (as you say, even new games are often discounted well at launch or sold with freebies). It's the hoops legitimate gamers often have to jump through to get their games to work, whereas the equivalent pirated copy seems to be far easier to get to work.

Of course, not that the above makes piracy 'ok'. As DED pointed out, it is essentially the same as stealing a loaf of bread.

 

[SmokeDarKnight]

I think people also personally get a kick out of getting pirated materials, i think it could be a form of addiction, i know more than one person who loves to be the guy that has everything and he passes it round work, there's films, music and games he says he never plays but its as if he has an OCD for being like RED from Shawshank or something.

There are people out there who if they can get something for free they will no matter what the repercussions to the industries.

I've always seen Music, Gaming and Movies like art to be honest, the artists deserve our credit and the best way to show our appreciation is to pay for it.

 

[Tom DWC]

Sure there are people that will always pirate regardless of price point and any other factors (DRM) but I think the industry likes to ignore the still sizable minority that do do it for those reasons. I'm not justifying it but it does and can happen because of those reasons. That's why there's such a strong argument that DRM does more harm than good, it can drive people towards and not away from piracy.

As I've said already on this thread while I pay for my games about 50% of the time now I end up installing a different version, or applying a downloaded modification, to remove myself of any DRM software that's bundled (FC3 being my most recent example). Why? Better experience. And that's just wrong that that's the case. I've done no wrong by doing that in my book, the devs have been supported, it's only when people have the same argument but don't pay for the games that it falls apart.

Personally I hate the "you wouldn't steal a movie" argument, it's completely different. It's the same in that it's theft, but that's where all comparison ends. Any form of digital media can be infinitely duplicated and unlike a physical object you aren't depriving the owner of a quantifiable item, you're creating a copy. In turn it's similar to copying a cassette, VHS or DVD. It's illegal but it's always happened and while it is wrong, it isn't the same thing as walking into your local store and taking a disc right off the shelf. It just isn't.