Game News The Witcher 2: BitTorrent Collector's Edition now only $1230

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Wow, the best shit on the Codex DOES happen whenever I sleep. :/

 

[Norfleet]

Dear Sir, have you ever created anything? You should try it, know the sweet feeling, when the stuff you spent countless insomniac night to create, pops up on pirate sites, being downloaded by thousands, while you manage to sell whooping twenty-odd licences.

Yes, yes, I have. And I *WISH* it would be downloaded by thousands. That'd be a significant improvement in audience over 20-odd. How am I going to sell the sequel if I only have 20-odd customers to begin with? Frankly, if you *CAN* be pirated in significant quantities, PEOPLE KNOW YOU ACTUALLY EXIST. Do you think Microsoft Windoze would have gotten anywhere without piracy? The massive install base is pretty much what sustains it!

I mean, imagine you're shopping for an OS. On one hand, you can pay $100+ for a single plastic coaster. On the other hand, you can install Linux. Why would you ever use Windoze if not for the massive preexisting install-base that means everything is made for it? If this advantage did not exist, Windoze would go nowhere. As it stands, even when you use a pirated copy, you're propping up Microsoft's domination of the market. This is why only hipsters and graphic designers use Macs. Apple used to entirely dominate the educational marketspace: People were exposed to Macs from their first computers encountered onwards.

They lost. Why? Because they tried their DAMNEDEST to make sure Macs and MacOS were as locked down as you could get it.

 

[Gord]

Frankly, if you *CAN* be pirated in significant quantities, PEOPLE KNOW YOU ACTUALLY EXIST.

You still have to pay the bills in the end. 5 million people that might know you exist but don't give shit about compensating you for the work you put into it won't help much with the bills.

Of course, if you aren't in it for the money it's different. There is a lot of great free and/or open source stuff out there, made by people in their free time. But unless we come up with something better than capitalism, something that finaly enables us to sit at home the whole day without doing shit and still don't starve, there will be people that try to earn money from their work.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

The fuck. All of my posts longer than a certain wordcount are ignored on the Codex, only the briefest snips are answered. How am I supposed to know if I enunciate whack theories?

 

[Shannow]

Frankly, if you *CAN* be pirated in significant quantities, PEOPLE KNOW YOU ACTUALLY EXIST.

You still have to pay the bills in the end. 5 million people that might know you exist but don't give shit about compensating you for the work you put into it won't help much with the bills.

Only, even if you consider pirates to be evil scum, you have to admit that chances are very high that at least some of those 5 mio will buy your product after trying it. And chances that you then have a potential customer base for a sequel are even higher. Even if only 1% pay for your product you end up far ahead from the initial 20 people we started the example with. Just consider the success of google, youtube, facebook, etc. All "free" services that never would have gotten anywhere if they'd started out as pay-to-use services.


Anyway, considering a 1000+ bucks fine (with many false accusations) justified for the act of supposedly "stealing" a 50 bucks game...great thread for inflating my ignore list

http://www.recht-hat.de/taetigkeitesber ... sanwaelte/

 

[dbx]

I say good job CD Project.

 

[el Supremo]

Dear Sir, have you ever created anything? You should try it, know the sweet feeling, when the stuff you spent countless insomniac night to create, pops up on pirate sites, being downloaded by thousands, while you manage to sell whooping twenty-odd licences.

Yes, yes, I have. (...)

And you never felt the urge to create some sort of virus, that will make the bastard's PCs explode? Killing them, their families and theirs pets?
I guess I am a bad person.

 

[Gord]

Only, even if you consider pirates to be evil scum, you have to admit that chances are very high that at least some of those 5 mio will buy your product after trying it. And chances that you then have a potential customer base for a sequel are even higher. Even if only 1% pay for your product you end up far ahead from the initial 20 people we started the example with. Just consider the success of google, youtube, facebook, etc. All "free" services that never would have gotten anywhere if they'd started out as pay-to-use services.

Evil scum? Hardly. I don't care about most pirates.
Heck, I pirated most of my games while I still was at school, too. Although this was before torrents and such. You can't spend money you don't have (not that it is morally right)...
Same if you only pirate a game as a "demo" because there is no real one available, fine, go ahead. But I doubt that this is more than a minority of all cases. And from an ethical point of view, you either have to stop playing once you conclude that it's not worth your money or buy it if you find to like it enough. Also you wouldn't stand a chance in court.
The only "type" of pirate I can't stand are those that elevate pirating games to some sort of big revolutionary fight for freedom or try to justify it with token complaints like "I don't want the evil publishers to get any of my money, lol!".
Overall though I find the topic to be too complex to warrant an easy answer like "piracy is the satan, herpderp" or "piracy is cool, hurrdurr".

Anyway, considering a 1000+ bucks fine (with many false accusations) justified for the act of supposedly "stealing" a 50 bucks game

Yeah, but it's not so much for "stealing" something priced at 50 bucks, but for the automatic re-upload you do while torrenting it. This is what inflates the prices.

Also, as I've stated earlier, I consider the approach they took in that case to be abusive and not worthy of a constitutional democracy.

 

[Satan]

"piracy is the satan, herpderp"

But I buy all the games I like, even if I pirated them first to try. Most often I don't even 'demo' them before purchase. So please stop these accusations.

 

[RRRrrr]

Lol at people who think that buying AAA games supports art. Nope, it supports an industry that is called entertainment industry for a reason-it is there just to please the masses and it doesn't express anything in any way artistic or creative.

Not to mention that destroying piracy would do the exact opposite of improving the video game quality. Just following your "logical" and "rational" one dimensional argument that this would expand the video game market. Well, the video game market has been expanding for the last decade at extremely fast rates and that brought us the
The bigger the market the wider the target audience and dumbed down games would be.

The more pirates we have and the less one-dimensional gamers, the more games targeted at intelligent people with attention span bigger than 30 seconds.

Because, morons, it was the expansion of the market that destroyed RPGs, not the pirates, and the reason we got better games in the past was because talented people were not suppressed by greedy publishers. Buying an AAA title today is like buying a product manufactured in a third-world country -you know people were working in horrendous conditions and got their potential wasted because of greedy "modern-day slavers".
I refuse to support this injustice.

 

[sigma1932]

Crazy nazi lawyer law or not... almost makes me wanna go torrent Twitcher 2 just as a bird flip to CD Projekt.

Yeah, how dare they go after cunts pirating their hard work. Show your finger to the man. Become a douche you always wanted to be. Become a dragon.

- Dragon Age 3 plot

*shrug*

If they want my money so bad, maybe instead of charging $50-60 with no chance to return it if I'm not satisfied with their half-finished, spit-shined, mouse button stress-testing applications and put something respectable together.

I'll be damned if I'll ever buy another game without playing it extensively first, then rewarding the developer if they actually did a good job by buying a copy.

 

[hoopy]

Well here's another ideological enemy for you.


I'm betting that at least 95% (low ball estimate) of the people given these letters are more than guilty and deserve everything that's coming for them. They are parasites on the system, enjoying the fruits of IP investments while refusing to pay for it. They are the reason for the dearth in singleplayer RPG's, and the reason for the rise of facebook games and microtransaction games and of course MMORPG's. They should be treated like all lawbreakers, with fines adjusted to the severity of the broken law and the chance of getting caught, to maximize the risk in breaking the law. The only thing to regret here is that the catching of pirates is not efficient enough.

If I do buy a game it's most likely shit because the reviewers were paid to give it inflated scores, or it runs like shit even though I meet or exceed the recommended requirements, or it's got some bullshit going on with retailer or pre-order exclusive game content.

There's almost no reason to buy games these days unless they're really cheap.

 

[Gord]

Not to mention that destroying piracy would do the exact opposite of improving the video game quality. Just following your "logical" and "rational" one dimensional argument that this would expand the video game market. Well, the video game market has been expanding for the last decade at extremely fast rates and that brought us the decline
The bigger the market the wider the target audience and dumbed down games would be.

And by which logic did you arrive at the conclusion that pirates increase the quality of games?

 

[racofer]

I don't think I'll buy any CD-Project game again.

Good idea. Less sales mean they might go bankrupt. We don't need good RPG developers anyway, when we have Bioware.

What... you think Cdproject is a good RPG developer? hahaa... are you completely retarded on turpentine?

And you think they removed DRM because they care about their customers? For fuck sake...
They removed it (only in some cases) 1. because they cannot make their own engine work with it without ending up in a pile of shit effects 2....

eh... hehehehe

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

There's no point in pretending that there's any justice here going on. It's not a question of whenever piracy is good or bad or whenever laws are broken or not. It's a question of justice which involves proportion and equal treatment. They simply bought up some politicians so that they would be able to make lots of money on this way. That's all. As I have said, children can't get any fines from their abandoning, alimony-dodging parents because there's no massive child lobby that would be able to buy up politicians despite that abandoning a child with which the parent is bound by procreating it and not supporting it financially is a great evil, which makes torrenting a game incomparably smaller.
There must be justice and equality. By their bribing and lobbying they are creating a corrupt state that isn't about justice and equality but about supporting strong interest groups that can bribe and lobby and discriminating the weak vulnerable groups. By creating a situation where a violation of right results in a fine exceeding its value 50 times, they are putting themselves above everyone else whose rights were violated and who can't receive such amounts of money - they are destroying justice, proportion and equality. By the copyrightfag logic, they are stealing from them as the value of right violations increases tens of times but money aren't paid to those who were hurt. That's why they need to be destroyed.

Justice Prevails .

 

[someone else]

I think we should just share everything and eliminate money, you know like in Star Trek.

 

[visions]

I don't see why anyone should financially (or in any other way) support shit that they don't think deserves supporting, the law can go fuck itself in this instance. Mediocre things deserve to die. Think something's mediocre and doesn't meet your standards? Then let it die, instead of supporting its existence (not talking about Witcher 2 here specifically, since I haven't played it, but in general terms). The fact that people are willing to pay for all kinds of shit, is what's supporting the industry, ie shit/"DECLINE".

For the record, I rarely pirate games, but if I'd be a more perfect human being without an irrational need to legally own the games I play, this is the approach I should apply to games (yes, I engage in "mental gymnastics", to explain to myself the fact that I BUY nearly all the games I want to play, since in most cases it is ultimately irrational).

Think that's sociopathic? The people who benefit from the current state are "sociopathic" as well, who care more for their own benefits than laws/ethics/whatever (hello starforce, borderline illegal EULA terms etc). So I don't see why a sane, rational (as in, not some retard going IS ILLEGAL, MUST BE BAD THEN) person shouldn't opt a similar mindset regarding them and their interests. You think some corporate asshole gives a shit about your rights, laws and ethics, as long as he can get away with exploiting the shit out of you, without getting punished? Right.

So ideally why should I give a shit about laws and ethics pertaining to them and their rights, if I can get away with violating them, given that this is their mindset as well? (Again, I do not have specifically CDProjekt in mind) Of course, should I violate a law and get caught, this would be what I've deserved for getting caught, so I wouldn't be whining about it (unless whining about it would be to my benefit, since I should pursue my interests with all available means, and if publically whining about it despite the fact that I would internally know that I deserved it by getting caught, could benefit me, I'd probably do it).

Although I do buy my games, every time I see vehemently anti-piracy arguments, my hate for the anti-pirates increases.

 

[SCO]

Laws are made to be selectively enforced. If you are older than 15 and haven't figured this out, well...

Bribe more

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I think we should just share everything and eliminate money, you know like in Star Trek.

We'd need replicators and completely automated energy-production systems, though.

 

[MetalCraze]

They are fucking non-customers, thats a beauty of it.

Really? A customer:
- Download the game
- Download some spyware bullshit that lets you run it after bothering with activation that isn't always smooth
- Upgraded your PC? More tough luck bitch, you had only 2 activations - but hey you can buy the game again!
- Stay online forever if you want to play it. If you get disconnected from the internet and the last checkpoint was... 30 mins ago - tough luck bitch
- The studio got closed down/their game isn't supported anymore? Tough luck bitch, can't play it anymore at all!

A non-customer:
- Download
- Play
- Optionally: all the retarded bullshit with titles of studios nobody gives a shit about gets cut out and you don't have to wait for 3 minutes until the game starts

So being a pirate is much better than paying and devs/publishers do everything they can to make sure it stays that way. Good thing that in their blind greed CDP will now do the same - maybe their sales will indeed get fucked up like Ubi's.
Because apparently getting $30 mln of profit while game costs $3-5 mln to develop is not enough.

Dear Sir, have you ever created anything? You should try it, know the sweet feeling, when the stuff you spent countless insomniac night to create, pops up on pirate sites, being downloaded by thousands, while you manage to sell whooping twenty-odd licences.

So what? What exactly does this so called "creator" lose? He may not spend all the time making his shit and people will not bother with paying him either. No moneys either way.
What?! People like his work while not making a single bit of profit from it themselves?! How dare they?!

 

[mondblut]

ITT, a lot of idiots are apparently thinking people would actually buy games if they wouldn't be able to pirate them. News at 11, no, they wouldn't. This shit is only tolerable as timewaster as long as it's free. When it's not, booze and whores make a much better investment.

It's a win win situation.

A company that makes terrible games destroys its reputation and costs itself many future sales.

And people with terrible taste in games also suffer.

The only way it could get better is if the lawyers also somehow got cancer.

best post in the thread.

 

[Mrowak]

They are fucking non-customers, thats a beauty of it.

Really? A customer:
- Download the game
- Download some spyware bullshit that lets you run it after bothering with activation that isn't always smooth
- Upgraded your PC? More tough luck bitch, you had only 2 activations - but hey you can buy the game again!
- Stay online forever if you want to play it. If you get disconnected from the internet and the last checkpoint was... 30 mins ago - tough luck bitch
- The studio got closed down/their game isn't supported anymore? Tough luck bitch, can't play it anymore at all!

A non-customer:
- Download
- Play
- Optionally: all the retarded bullshit with titles of studios nobody gives a shit about gets cut out and you don't have to wait for 3 minutes until the game starts

Internet ninja to the rescue!! "Paying for shit is for the weak. If you don't pay, you are BRO. If you pay - go fuck yourself."

Except that you fully know that none of the negatives you mentioned apply in this case. What activations? What spyware? What staying online forever? What DRM? Eh... it's just you again Skyway - making shit up to back up your feeble reasoning.

But those greedy bastards at CD Projekt. For all the evil they inflicted on the gaming industry and community, they shall justly suffer. MUHAHAHAHA!!

So being a pirate is much better than paying and devs/publishers do everything they can to make sure it stays that way. Good thing that in their blind greed CDP will now do the same - maybe their sales will indeed get fucked up like Ubi's.
Because apparently getting $30 mln of profit while game costs $3-5 mln to develop is not enough.

The cost was over $10 million - and that's making the game. There are also people like publishers that get significant part of your profit, logistic costs, making the actual DVDs, boxes and frills, and FREE DLC. I am starting to doubt the investment was returned.

 

[circ]

Woah, full stop. What happened CDP? I thought you didn't give a shit about pirating and said shit happens whatever. Now you want frosting on the shitcake too? I'M SORRY IF I DON'T SEEM TO GIVE A SHIT BUT MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE I DOUBT YOU'VE FIXED GLARING DESIGN ERRORS WITH A SHIT CAMERA, SHIT COMBAT AND SHIT INVENTORY ETC. Maybe you need to be a potato to appreciate this too, but atleast I could finish DA 1 and almost DA 2 because the camera was functional and combat consisted of press A for awesome. Or mousebutton. I wrote AWESOME on it just to heighten the experience.

 

[DalekFlay]

I like the idea of going after actual pirates rather than harassing actual customers with DRM and shit.

The legal system is never 100% accurate, so I don't really see that as a big deal. If you erroneously get a letter, reply that it is inaccurate and why. If they STILL harass you, THEN I have a problem.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I hope that most of the people who got the letters are those who downloaded it for a test ride and then bought it.