Why are so many Codexers like this?

[Endless]

 

[Morenatsu.]

well gee i dont know maybe i'd buy them if they were fucking good

 

[Fedora Master]

Because piracy was a huge deal back in 1998...

 

[Ismaul]

Which dev do you work for, Endless Crunch?

 

[Ghulgothas]

Piracy is a Service Problem.

 

[Humanophage]

Piracy actually saved decent games in Eastern Europe. This is why you get games like Pathfinder, Underrail, and ATOM.

Well-developed piracy meant that these regions were not a viable target for AAA trash or the console expansion. Good games were put on the same footing as games that received inordinate promotion. Something like KOTOR would be as available as something like King of Dragon Pass, and there was less novelty bias in games.

The problem is insufficient piracy in the US, which meant that companies could get rich from making AAA trash by promoting poor taste, and bad games got normalised. Now the US RPG is dead, but we still get plenty of great games from other regions.

 

[Cryomancer]

I pirated a LOT of games when I was a broke child/teenager, nowadays I don't pirate any game.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I've pirated troika games tens of thousands of times. Each time I pirate it, I cost them another sale. They'll never recover at this rate.

 

[Ghulgothas]

Looking Glass and Black Isle's shuttering was more due to their connections to Eidos and Interplay respectively than piracy.

Troika also had a very poor history with their publishers.

And why did Sir-tech go bankrupt?

 

[Sunri]

After I bought Baldurs Gate III I will never buy another game.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

After I bought Baldurs Gate III I will never buy another game.

The ultimate game, perfecting the genre to the point where nobody will want to buy or play another RPG.

 

[thesheeep]

I pirated a LOT of games when I was a broke child/teenager, nowadays I don't pirate any game.

I'd say that's probably the way it happened for most of us.
I bought the odd game as a kid/teenager/student, but most I... "found on a bus".

But nowadays I have income, so there's really no reason not to buy a game if I want to play it.
When you have the income but don't even want to spend the price of a meal on a game, you're a dick and should get your rectum cleaned with a mining drill for educational purposes.

 

[ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB]

The problem is insufficient piracy in the US, which meant that companies could get rich from making AAA trash by promoting poor taste, and bad games got normalised.

Yep. If we just pirate great adventure games and CRPGs even more, then we will very soon experience an absolutely unbelievable renaissance of these genres.

That said, every single person torrenting great quality games is a hero fighting the good fight. Firstly, if a development studio makes less money due to piracy, then they will be able to hire more employees. Secondly, making less money removes any incentive to dumb down games in order to improve sales. Thirdly, game developers that make good money are easily driven away from the games industry; making less money means they won't be enticed to get a better paying job at a software developer, for example.

 

[Orud]

I pirated a LOT of games when I was a broke child/teenager, nowadays I don't pirate any game.

If it was like me, the games I pirated weren't really lost revenue because I would've never been able to afford them otherwise. Once I got a job however, I paid for my games.

 

[Fedora Master]

After I bought Baldurs Gate III I will never buy another game.

The ultimate game, perfecting the genre to the point where nobody will want to buy or play another RPG.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

this thread sponsored by the kind folk at FBI

 

[quixotic]

Wojakposting and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

 

[Daedalos]

Codexers are not smart learning animals.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Codexers are not smart learning animals.

you are proof of this

 

[Nortar]

My conscience is clean after Fargo absolved sins of my "seafaring" youth.

 

[Fargus]

Eh, had no choice but to play bootleg versions of games back then, if it makes you feel better.

 

[Fedora Master]

Re: What? posters

Do you guys think torrenting was A Thing back in 2000? Back then we had to exchange CDs with the ripped game files on them. Saying that the companies in the meme were brought down by piracy is stupid.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Because piracy was a huge deal back in 1998...

Are you saying it wasn't? Because I'm willing to guess it was more of a deal back then than now (surprisingly hard to find stats, btw), but there wasn't cheap and convenient online distribution systems like Steam etc.

And if go a bit further back, piracy was rampant on 16-bit machines.

But that's a separate question from the viability of the said companies, and I agree, it is unlikely to be the reason of their downfall.

 

[Wunderbar]

Because piracy was a huge deal back in 1998...

Are you saying it wasn't? Because I'm willing to guess it was more of a deal back then than now (surprisingly hard to find stats, btw), but there wasn't cheap and convenient online distribution systems like Steam etc.

And if go a bit further back, piracy was rampant on 16-bit machines.

a lot of gamers didn't have a choice even if they got the money. Legit copies were hard to find, especially in Eastern Europe (and we know that half of the codexers are from Eastern Europe).

 

[Fedora Master]

Because piracy was a huge deal back in 1998...

Are you saying it wasn't? Because I'm willing to guess it was more of a deal back then than now (surprisingly hard to find stats, btw), but there wasn't cheap and convenient online distribution systems like Steam etc.

And if go a bit further back, piracy was rampant on 16-bit machines.

a lot of gamers didn't have a choice even if they got the money. Legit copies were hard to find, especially in Eastern Europe (and we know that half of the codexers are from Eastern Europe).

Slavs will steal things purely on principle.