Piracy crisis "overblown" according to Tom Jubert

[DarkUnderlord]

Sure we do. It's the same proportion of pirates as the proportion of buyers that would still pay if you doubled the price of video games. All that would happen is raising the price of the product by X amount.

I'm not entirely sure quite what you're saying but I can tell you, you double the price of games and you'll find a marked drop-off in sales. People who buy games don't just buy games regardless of price. I buy games. I don't do it without taking the price into consideration.

If you doubled the price of video games, there's this whole thing in economics called supply and demand and price points that explain why that happens. It's fun stuff.

Also, find me a product costing over 50$ you can't return within a few days that isn't disposable.

The electric shaver I bought a few weeks ago. The store was quite clear on that. If you start getting into the fuzzy realm of stuff that's more similar to software than actual products, then you'd introduce movie tickets (non-refundable unless you walk out within the first few minutes) and getting out of a mobile phone or ISP contract. If you want a product, then TRY RETURNING A CAR BITCH (entirely at the discretion of the dealer and most will only offer you credit on another car at their dealership if you do manage to wrangle it out of them).

A number of stores also clearly state in their returns policy that "change of mind" returns are not accepted. You can only return if the product clearly does not do what it said it would or is faulty and even then, whether they accept your return or not is entirely at the store's discretion. If you actually bought real stuff, you'd know that.

Oh wait, there are none

Fail. Why is it pirates all seem to be people who've never actually lived in the real world?

If the sampling of Gameshadow users is any indication then the numbers were ridiculously off the mark. Again keep in mind the Gameshadow numbers only show those with a modified exe so some of them could simply be legal owners with a no-cd.

As was pointed out earlier, the GameShadow numbers also seem to rely on users who sign up voluntarily. Maybe pirates are stupid morons who like playing really shit games without putting any thought into it but I'd suspect if you're pirating a game, you don't sign up to the data tracking and auto-patch update site voluntarily.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Ok, so shavers and dildos are non refundable. Gee, I wonder why. Maybe because people don't want fucked up second hand products you rubbed on your crotch? Same with a car or a house. Theres no way the dealer can guarantee it hasn't been fucked with in some way to just give you a total rebate. On the other hand, you can return damned near pretty much ANYTHING you buy from a place like walmart, even if you broke it yourself. Why? Because they give the consumer the benefit of the doubt that the product malfunctioned. What do game companies offer? "Lulz, you likel, totally have drivers we've never heard of, lulz, install themz." Brand new cars don't tend to implode 5 feet off the lot like games do eithe, and if they did, it'd be covered by the warranty. If you were referring to used cars, well then yeah, 2nd hand products aren't the same as new ones. Games have a habit of being hyped beyond recognition, sold, playing well for about 30 minutes of their advertised 40 hours, then decomposing into whack-a-mole with lights.

What is really amusing about this is that the only likely reason returns aren't accepted for pc games is the fact that then they'd fall into the same pawn shop shithole console games are in, where half their sales are lost to resales. At this point it'd be more effort to buy, crack and return a game then it would be to just torrent it.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Maybe because people don't want fucked up second hand products you rubbed on your crotch? Same with a car or a house.

Yeah. Everyone's fucked with their car. That must be it. Funnily enough I believe WalMart will even accept underpants back.

Theres no way the dealer can guarantee it hasn't been fucked with in some way to just give you a total rebate.

By the same token, nobody can guarantee you didn't fuck with the game by posting the CD key on the internet for everyone to use or like, totally scratching the disc and shit.

Funny how pirates so easily dismiss everything else that can't be returned but when it comes to games, it's an outrage!

On the other hand, you can return damned near pretty much ANYTHING you buy from a place like walmart, even if you broke it yourself.

That's a WalMart policy. Not a manufacturer's policy. Incidentally, does WalMart let you return games?

"Lulz, you likel, totally have drivers we've never heard of, lulz, install themz." Brand new cars don't tend to implode 5 feet off the lot like games do eithe, and if they did, it'd be covered by the warranty.

Cars used to. They do so less and less today and yet you still can't return them. Given your argument so far has been that "games are shitty" that seems to be your problem discerning your own taste, not the dealers.

Games have a habit of being hyped beyond recognition, sold, playing well for about 30 minutes of their advertised 40 hours, then decomposing into whack-a-mole with lights.

When you grow up and start buying wine (decent wine, not that $20 bottle shit) I can see you're going to have a lot of fun. Pro-tip: You can't return it when you find out it's a shit bottle. Buy carefully. You're going to be so upset when you realise you can't even get a demo before hand either and - shock horror - have to rely on reviews and word of mouth.

What is really amusing about this is that the only likely reason returns aren't accepted for pc games is the fact that then they'd fall into the same pawn shop shithole console games are in, where half their sales are lost to resales.

Which is funny considering we're constantly told console games outsell PC games and developers are moving more and more to the console to prevent piracy.

At this point it'd be more effort to buy, crack and return a game then it would be to just torrent it.

So what you're really saying is you can't be assed paying for something.

You're talking about a subjective "change your mind" decision. "All games are shitty, yeah that must be it" doesn't work when just as many people seem to be able to play the same games and enjoy them. That appears to be a problem with you as the consumer not thinking about your purchase properly before-hand. ADD sufferers who find thinking hard seem to have to play the entire game from start to finish before deciding they didn't like it and it was shit anyway. But they'll download the next one too... because they're morons.

How about taking some responsibility for your decisions in the first place? Caveat emptor.