Blog: On a day when CD Projekt cease legal threats against pirates, but remind gamers that piracy is a huge problem, Mark Ankucic presents another point of view: that piracy might be a dodgy practice, but it could force the games industry to shape up…
Yesterday, The Witcher 2 developers CD Projekt issued a public statement saying they would cease targeting alleged pirates with legal threats and fees. But they reiterated that they feel piracy is a real danger for the games industry.
I’d argue, however, that things aren’t as clear-cut as that. Piracy can be damaging, sure, but paradoxically it also has its up-sides.
My love of gaming is in part thanks to piracy. It’s not often that a ten-year-old has a hundred or more dollars to spend on a brand new release. The same, battered disc was passed around our group, and as each person played and finished the game we’d pass it on, until eventually the smelly kid (there’s always one) accidentally stepped on it, shattering the game and bringing a brief respite to whichever digital war was being waged at the time.
But we didn’t care. Why would we? The game was free and it served its purpose in entertaining us for a month or so. All that was left to do was wait until the next magical adult performed the spells necessary to produce yet another disk that would be passed around until its inevitable demise by careless feet or a cramped schoolbag.
This love of free entertainment has stayed with us, and really, for those in my generation we can remember little else. By the time I was busy not learning who Breaker Morant was in seventh grade, Napster provided me with all the music I could ever hope to listen to. And when I was finally able to learn to drive, all my movies came on a disk with their titles written in black permanent marker.
The Witcher 2: People pirated it, CD Projekt got angry.
I remember thinking at the time that my sister, only a few years older than me, was a complete idiot for purchasing music through retail outlets. Why on earth would you sacrifice money and convenience for something that was free? It made no sense.
Ban on boobs
In some ways, it still makes no sense to me. Being an Australian, any game that mentions that someone might get a boo-boo is banned for indecency, and I’m expected to pay anywhere between 90 and 120 dollars retail for a single title.
Thanks to the beauty of the internet, I can get games for about $60, but you can bank on the fact that if 120 was my only option, and there was no chance of seeing a pair of CGI breasts on my screen, I would be somewhere between Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow on the pirate scale.
That’s because a big part of the argument about piracy is whether the alternative is fair. For me, paying what is one day’s labour in the fleece mines (we mine for wool in Australia in what are charmingly known as the ‘killer spider caves’) falls directly into my ‘not fair’ and ‘go screw yourself’ categories. And it’s not just me who thinks this way.
Gabe Newell of Valve and Guillaume Rambourg from Good Old Games have both come to the conclusion that piracy is only a threat insofar that it is competition, just like any other business or provider might be. Both agree that the best way to beat piracy is to provide a better service with exclusive offers, little or no DRM and, as Gabe put it, ‘openness’. And who can argue with them, considering their success?
A media centre
Moreover, those who engage in a spot of piracy might even find themselves contributing more to the games industry further down the line.
Imagine the person who got their hands on a hacked PSP. Surely, this person could not be more in love with the machine. After the operation, they would have access to everything. Movies, TV series, games that only got released in Japan but with English mods and, most importantly, games that don’t take a full minute to load.
Hacking a PSP: A hypothetical case study
Instead of having a device that’s basically an unloved, unsupported 250 dollar paperweight, they now have a media centre.
What if this person now has more access to more games to try out, and so ultimately spends more on titles that they discover they like? What if they introduce the person to new series’ in which, when the next installment is released, they’ll rush out to the shop and buy it? What if the person with the hacked PSP loves the idea of this Sony media centre so much that they put in a pre-order for the PS Vita, when otherwise they wouldn’t have given it a second glance?
There are times I question whether I or my generation have an entitlement complex. Is piracy willingly damaging the gaming industry? I know that humans aren’t really designed to feel the impact of the hardships of people that are out of sight and mind, but are we supposed to acknowledge and try to empathise as a global community? Should I be a drop in the stream and push the river forward, or should I end up dry on the shore, while others gain from what is unlawful?
Bad Apple?
Ultimately, the answer lies with the likes of Apple and Amazon. Despite the myriad access we have to free music, literature and movies, these companies have made it more easy, efficient and consumer-friendly to use their services.
They might occasionally get a bad rap for a host of reasons. But through their low price points, their range of products and their lack of regional restrictions, these companies are creating the same effect as that teenager’s hacked PSP: they’re acting as media of discovery, and of excitement for future releases.
With any luck, piracy will not be the force that breaks our industry. It will be the force that makes it evolve.
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“That’s because a big part of the argument about piracy is whether the alternative is fair. For me, paying what is one day’s labour in the fleece mines (we mine for wool in Australia in what are charmingly known as the ‘killer spider caves’) falls directly into my ‘not fair’ and ‘go screw yourself’ categories. And it’s not just me who thinks this way.”
Well perhaps things are different in Australia, but here in the states some of us still have respect for others works. If you are not happy with the pricing of your software in Australia that likely has to do more with the way your country operates via the international marketplace. I know some of the Pac Rim countries get screwed by Exchange Rates. But then again, perhaps that means Australia needs more local development talent.
No matter what way you slice it, it is stealing. I don’t care what Gabe Newell has to say about it. If someone creates something and you take it without paying for it that is stealing. Between used game sales and piracy something has to give, we can’t keep biting the hands that feed us and expect them to be there for the next meal. Many people in the gaming industry have talents that would be useful in other industries, so if push comes to shove they have places to go.
“There are times I question whether I or my generation have an entitlement complex. Is piracy willingly damaging the gaming industry? I know that humans aren’t really designed to feel the impact of the hardships of people that are out of sight and mind, but are we supposed to acknowledge and try to empathise as a global community? Should I be a drop in the stream and push the river forward, or should I end up dry on the shore, while others gain from what is unlawful?”
As someone who routinely is exposed to your generation I would say your initial analysis is spot on. Your generation has a MAJOR ENTITLEMENT issue. The fact that Piracy (theft) is being discussed so openly in this manner is a demonstration of the lack of boundaries that your generation exhibits. I am not saying this discussion doesn’t have ANY merits, just trying to make a case for theft of intellectual property by saying Piracy is a glorified demo program is laughable. Most of the people I know that pirate stuff, PIRATE EVERYTHING! Movies, Music, Smartphone Unlocked with Free Apps. They do not see the relationship between paying for things that you like in order to support the people who make them. I really feel this boils down to family upbringing and I have no idea who is raising children these days that don’t seem to know basic morals.
“Ultimately, the answer lies with the likes of Apple and Amazon. Despite the myriad access we have to free music, literature and movies, these companies have made it more easy, efficient and consumer-friendly to use their services.”
I have heard people compare game piracy to the early Napster days and free MP3s. The big difference with gaming and music is gaming has no way to perform live. Musicans these days make money when they tour, but game companies do not have this option. Even a writer has ways to monetize their talents beyond their books, Movies have various steps in their process to generate profits. Gaming does not. If you don’t buy the game there really is no other way for the company to yield the profits they deserve.
One thing I would like to see going into the next generation of gaming would be a larger spread on the pricing. This myopic price point of $60USD certainly doesn’t help someone in Australia. Why devs can’t publish on a DVD for $40USD and a CDROM for $20USD is beyond me.
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darthdiggler (January 13th, 2012)
“No matter what way you slice it, it is stealing”
It’s not exactly the same as stealing though is it? I don’t really agree with Mark on every point, but pirating a game/movie/album means you are making a copy of that, ergo the company producing it is not necessarily losing out on anything. This doesn’t mean that pirating is right, but it does mean that it may not be hurting the industry as much as some might think – if someone pirates a game that they were never going to buy in the first place, is it really hurting anyone? As Mark says, it might actually help the product if the person then decides to buy it/talk about it to friends.
Also: “I really feel this boils down to family upbringing and I have no idea who is raising children these days that don’t seem to know basic morals.”
No idea what generation you’re from, or what generation you’re talking about (U25s, U15s?), but I’m fairly certain every generation has said that about the next one since humanity evolved the ability to pass judgement and it’s a thoughtless and nonconstructive argument.
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Jamie Donnelly (January 13th, 2012)
Every piece of content be it digital, broadcast or print always has some sort of caveat warning the user that this property doesn’t belong to them they are allowed personal use. That does not include the ability to reproduce the content. When you make a copy of someone else’s work you are in effect becoming an unauthorized distributor. In the old days before computers this was called Plagiarism. I highly doubt the author of this article would appreciate if I started a website called http://www.BeefJackPlus.com and cut and pasted their entire work and passed it off as my own. The reason why they wouldn’t like this is because I would be stealing (via plagiarism) the work they did.
You are bring up one of Mark’s points as a strong point for this argument but again you back right into the false nature of this logic…
“This doesn’t mean that pirating is right, but it does mean that it may not be hurting the industry as much as some might think – if someone pirates a game that they were never going to buy in the first place, is it really hurting anyone? As Mark says, it might actually help the product if the person then decides to buy it/talk about it to friends.”
So now you are advocating that software pirates do the heavy lifting of marketing a game. This is ridiculous, how can anyone be helping out a company remain profitable when they are stealing their products and giving them to their friends? If you have friends that will give you stuff for free where is your motivation to go out an buy the next time? Think about what you are suggesting, where are these perfect angels that will have some guilt that will motivate them to buy the sequel? What happens when the dev house’s game fails and there is no sequel? In these word of mouth conversations you speak of like Marketing Gold, why wouldn’t the party without the game just ask “hey where did you get that?” then the pirate responds “I got it off BitTorrent, want a copy”.
Why would anyone take a trip to the store or bother with Digital Distribution when the game you want is only a DVD Burn away?
While my comments about family upbringing may have been a tad strong, I still think they are relevant. I have been exposed to other generations in my work and some personal pursuits and I find there seems to be much less that motivates them. There is a lack of ambition that seems to be driven by “what have you done for me lately”. In terms of gainful employment (or even working together in an endeavor) there doesn’t seem to be much vision beyond what it is they can get for themselves. I find this to be the rule more often than the exception, but that doesn’t mean I judge the entire generation based on that template. I just find my anecdotal evidence of this to be very worrisome. And it is the same attitude that I think feeds into the Piracy crowd.
“I’m fairly certain every generation has said that about the next one since humanity evolved the ability to pass judgement and it’s a thoughtless and nonconstructive argument.”
I think generational attitudes are very relevant when talking about cultural evolutions like this. I am free to observe my fellow man and report on what I see (regardless of age). So for you to say that I don’t have the right to make any calls on these things is a tad presumptuous. It is the lack of judgement on many peoples part which has made piracy the issue it is now.
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darthdiggler (January 13th, 2012)
Again, it’s not the same as plagiarism. Nobody who pirates a game is then claiming that they made the game and passing it off as their own work. It’s a completely different thing.
I’m not saying word of mouth is a fantastic marketing tool, but let’s use a worst case example of what might happen:
Person A sees a game that they think they might like, but not enough to warrant spending money on it. They pirate it. They enjoy it and tell Person B, who has never heard of the game, how good it is. Person B pirates it and also enjoys it.
Now let’s assume that Person A decides not to pirate it:
Person A sees a game that they think they might like, but not enough to warrant spending money on it. They don’t buy it, or pirate it. Person B never finds out about the game.
In both scenarios, zero games are getting bought, but in the first one at least a positive buzz (no matter how small) is being created for the game that might encourage others to buy it, or Person A/B to go back and buy it. Even if the latter doesn’t happening, it’s still the case that the games company has not lost out on any sales – they didn’t exist to begin with.
I realise it’s a trite example, and once again I’m not defending piracy entirely, but it’s not as bad as some doomsayers make out.
And apologies if you thought I was being presumptuous, wasn’t my intention – just thought that point was a bit negative in the context of the discussion.
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Jamie Donnelly (January 13th, 2012)
“Again, it’s not the same as plagiarism. Nobody who pirates a game is then claiming that they made the game and passing it off as their own work. It’s a completely different thing.”
Its by no means a completely different thing, although the nuance you mention is noted. Still doesn’t provide any validity to the argument that Piracy is some valued service. So appreciate you trying to point out my Syntax faux pas, but doesn’t add to the discussion here.
“I realise it’s a trite example, and once again I’m not defending piracy entirely, but it’s not as bad as some doomsayers make out.”
This example you point out is trite and honestly I don’t think you are going to actually point to that scenario and call it the norm. Like I said the people I know in my life that pirate, pirate everything. It’s like an income enhancer to them, they steal everything digital so they can further enrich their physical lives.
It’s not as bad as doomsayers make out? Where have you been the past 5 years man? This financial mess we are in has only exasperated this issue. In the past few years there have been MANY of developers that have went under. I have been seeing news of development houses going under on a near monthly basis. You don’t think the combination of Game Stop and Piracy has anything to do with this? Developers left the PlayStation Portable in droves because the platform had an abundant support from the Piracy Community. How many games have we heard that have been shelved?
I am not saying that piracy is to blame for all this but it plays a major role. When a company can’t count on a profit return on the goods and services they sell because of an alternate unauthorized “sales” channel that throws a monkey wrench into the entire operation.
You point out that these pirates would not have bought the game anyway. But if they continue to play a stolen game, they are not using Pirated software as an unofficial Demo program like you suggest.
Is it really that hard for people to call a spade a spade these days? You take something that doesn’t belong to you, or you copy some one else’s work it is stealing.
If I go into Wallmart and take a box of tampons (I am a guy) I can’t exactly tell the judge that it was OK for me to take the tampons because I would have never bought them anyways.
You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.
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darthdiggler (January 13th, 2012)
We’re going in circles, so this will be my last post (and it’s a brief one).
“If I go into Wallmart and take a box of tampons (I am a guy) I can’t exactly tell the judge that it was OK for me to take the tampons because I would have never bought them anyways.”
That example doesn’t work. In that example, Wallmart (or the producer of the product) have lost one physical unit. With piracy, they haven’t actually lost anything, they’ve simply not gained it. It’s a small, but important, distinction.
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Jamie Donnelly (January 13th, 2012)
Physical products are produced not only with raw materials but there is a human factor involved that you are completely omitting from this discussion. That is why Piracy is bad because it affects someone like you that wants to make money with their talents, be that a women’s product factory operator, Wallmart Owner or a software developer. The medium of the product does not denigrate it’s value because without humans that value would not be there. Even with a product or service that exists completely in cyberspace everything that is in place rides on the backs of human talent more or less. Automation still requires human expertise to keep things humming.
The small but important distinction you speak of is the most important thing. The whole point for companies to bring things into the marketplace is for a profit (financial gain). This of and in itself is by no means evil. Profits provide a framework for growth and growth provides a framework for more humans to have opportunities that result in financial gain.
Companies that provide a more abstract service are especially vulnerable as often physical assets can have insurance policies in place to protect the companies from loss. With Piracy we have no such devices in place and to double down on the issue any user has the potential to near effortlessly become a mass producer. So you are competing with your own product, but your competitor sells it for free.
If anyone could do this with physical products, how long do you think it would take before your local grocery store shut down?
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darthdiggler (January 14th, 2012)
G’day mate, love your line of logic and reasoning! A pig with lipstick is still a pig, indeed, albeit slightly more attractive.
I do indeed come from the entitlement generation, but really it was our parents who brought us here. A music CD collection may have cost them thousands, then napster made it free. My generation was taught by the previous, and that’s what we’ve come to expect. Stealing? Of course it is. Unfortunately, it is the companies who have to change to battle it. If you want to rely on the decency of people, then you will be waiting for a long time.
Sites like Good Old Game get really good traffic from torrents, though I’ll be damned that I can’t find the article now, so take it as you will.
Living in Australia is not hard with all the beaches and sunshine and whatnot, but it is expensive, and for many if the option is there, why not pirate? For most of us, pirating is far more hassle than going to buy a reasonably priced game.
It’s about ease of access and understanding your market. Making it as easy and as reasonably priced as possible leads to better sales. Ask Gabe Newell.
Australia has a tonne of development talent. You can thank us for Bioshock and LA Noire. But, our studios are forced into shutdown because they are expensive to run comparitive to the rest of the world. So these developers have gone where the market is good, iOS and Android, which represents what gamers are wanting more and more – cheap or free games which are infinitely easy to obtain.
I understand your point, but when faced with what is best for himself and for others, you will find most people will tend for numero uno. The trick is to become that thing that serves the individual best.
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Mark Ankucic (January 14th, 2012)
I am not trying to stand here and say I never used any pirated software in my day, but at least back then much of it was hush hush and underground. You had to dial into someone else’s computer with yours with a phone. Sometimes you knew a kid in the neighborhood with a C64 and boxes of discs. Back then no one really knew any better and it was all a cottage industry anyways. There was tons of shareware and freeware going around too.
I never had the racks of games. I mostly used shareware and freeware. Believe it or not most of the music and movies I own I have purchased. The music and movie industry came really late in the game IMHO. An earlier official appearance on the net would have resulted in less losses. Purely on the convenience standpoint.
To clarify my beliefs, I do agree with Gabe Newell in principle. Companies should strive to provide a product free of complexities that people are happy to pay for and want to have. As I stated originally (see original comment) I think that Game Companies and Console Makers could allow for a greater flexibility in the pricing scheme. Movies could do the same thing to be honest. I wouldn’t mind paying $15 for a movie I knew cost $150,000,000 to make, but $15 for a Romantic Comedy?
Well you bring up many valid points about the locale of Australia. I don’t know a ton about their government or monetary value. I would be very curious to find out how much localization is done to Australasian games. At the end of the day, if there are any additional costs to bring products to your region (be it government of international money values) those costs have to be spread over 25 Million people, and that is assuming everyone in your country plays games.
I know Australia has local talent, maybe they need more in terms of publishing and distribution. If companies are shutting their doors and moving to other nations that is likely because it is more cost effective to operate there. It’s a shame things are like that for the moment, but every other global slowdown has turned around with time. Maybe some of those studios will find their way back there when the economies start moving again.
I know it must be a rough life seeing all those hot chicks in bikinis. All that money going into sun tan lotion and beach cocktails doesn’t leave much room for gaming. ROFL
I completely understand someone that pirates on a scale where they just have every game, every song, every movie, they don’t even have enough hours in their lifetime to enjoy all that media (so one could make the argument that nothing was taken). But at the same time, they have a near limitless library available to them. They will spend a good amount of time with various items they did not pay for. When any user can become the mass producer that provides a serious sales channel challenge.
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darthdiggler (January 14th, 2012)
I have a feeling that we are actually agreeing…basically, I’m with you. I don’t support piracy, but it is a a condition that needs to be addressed in order for the industry to evolve.
And romcoms should be free aas far as I’m concerned. Unless they involve Hugh Grant.
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Mark Ankucic (January 14th, 2012)
LOL @ Free RomComs, but I think Hugh Grant should be paying his audience.
I do hope the next generation sees more control in the hands of the developers and publishers for pricing schemes, but at the same time, I would like to see some judicial tools available for content creators to assist in protecting their assets. I am not sure if SOPA is the right way to go about this. There just seems to be a rise in the level of entitlement out there that is really disturbing to anyone that generates products or content using their talents. No one is obligated to keep producing games especially when many of their talents could be used elsewhere in other industries that have more protection for their talents.
I would be curious to find data on how much talent has left the game industry for other industries.
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darthdiggler (January 17th, 2012)