April 20, 2009 at 21:00The Tale of Why Pirate Publishers Were Afraid
Hello, I'm Sheon and this is my first topic on this, as yet, a mysterious portal for me. The sponsor of this essay is kurokikaze , who sincerely kindly gave me an invite, for which he is very grateful. Immediately get down to business.
How many moans go on the Internet - piracy kills PCs, piracy kills games, developers' studios hang themselves right at the workplace, pirates sink the entire gaming industry to the bottom, rob ships, caravans and generally behave in a non-gentlemanly manner. Do you know what I think? I think this is pure nonsense.
Bonfire of persecution of pirates inflates 3 industry elephants - Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. First of all, it is beneficial for them to intimidate developers and gamers. Their goal is to sooner unsettle PC games. It’s so good to row money with a shovel, when the hottest fruits come out at your side, and the PC receives only scraps 2-3 months later. Money flows like a ringing river, and business goes uphill. However, game publishers refuse to admit that the cause of this massive piracy is not at all insidious corsairs with swords to the advantage, but insatiable distributors. They are ready to hang up barn locks on disks, install tracking drivers on our computers, and just forcefully climb into our virtual world, if only the profit rushes to unattainable heights. “Sell at all costs" is their motto. More amazing why are pirates so popular among the masses? Maybe because they allow anyone to play the game without suffering with complex body kits? So all the same - is it worth it to put all the pirates in, burn all the underground workshops and fine every one they cross and cross, or ... offer customers something more attractive than the pirated versions? Let's check.
The way the communist
factories are workers, bread for peasants, and games for gamers! It's no secret that games make the main profit in the first weeks of sales. Well, in the first month. Good - they sold, we collected the main profit and after a month the games are free for download. Oh how!
Pros: Why steal what is free? Those who want will not wait and buy, the rest will wait and download absolutely officially. Piracy was the death of the brave, buyers and freeloaders are dancing with happiness.
Cons : It is problematic to collect profit. Why buy what will soon be free? From the side of the publisher - “we threw such dibs into the project, and will we give out for free?”
Total:Buyers and gamers are bursting with happiness, and publishers incur losses and yell obscenely. The method is utopian, but sometimes I want to dream so much ...
The method is brutal
In fact, the method already works, and it works well. Take any MMO - the player receives the full content of the game on his computer, often absolutely free, but to play, he needs a paid account on the publisher’s server. The player profile is stored there. It turns out that it is impossible to play without connecting to the server and a licensed account. Of the more or less single-player games, fresh BattleForge first gained such protection. And quite successfully - I have not seen a single pirate on the network.
Pros: The publisher is absolutely calm about selling. Or a person will buy, or not buy. Making a pirated version of such a game is terribly difficult and costly.
Cons: Serious costs on the part of the publisher to start and support the server. Moreover, the server does not need one, but for each game. Servers must be supported for a very long time, because a person has the right to play after the purchase whenever he wants - at least 10 years later. Also, do not forget that there are no impenetrable defenses - many MMOs have acquired pirated server emulators. Piracy will not go anywhere, and if such a system is ubiquitous, it will still be bypassed sooner or later.
Bottom line: A very effective, very expensive and not very correct way. Not everyone, after all, has the Internet and the desire to connect somewhere every time to play 10 minutes. It looks like a situation when a company is so afraid of pirates that it is ready to discourage any desire to play with honest buyers. But it works, and it works well.
Method cunning We
come in from the other side. There is a game in which most people will play for free, with the kind help of pirates. Is it possible to get profit from those who are still not going to pay? It would seem a hopeless situation, but think about it - the attention of millions of people costs a lot. This is where advertisers come in. What comes out - we release games absolutely free for download, but we charge it with advertising and product placement. You can update ads from the Internet, you can even do commercials between missions. Are you tired of our advertising? There is nothing easier - buy a game, and there will be no trace of advertising.
Pros:Huge advertising platform. Millions of people are watching your ad. Money publishers flow fast and foamy river. Whoever wants to buy will buy and will enjoy the game without any advertising. And those who do not want to buy games - also pay with their attention. Games are absolutely free for everyone. No one remains in the loser.
Cons: Those who don’t want to pay for the game still get income. They would not pay anyway - the publisher does not lose anything. Those who buy - habitually bring money to a big piggy bank. You can bet that you won’t get the budget out of advertising, but think about it - now millions of people are playing pirates. Will they pay? I doubt it. Better so. But the method will work only if the entire game is fully, without any restrictions, will be available in the advertising version. Otherwise, it makes no sense.
Total:Everyone is happy and happy. Publishers have income from all players, and players have free games.
And here are three effective and fully applicable methods in front of you. The first is the dream of the players, the second is the dream of the publishers, and the third is a reasonable compromise. There is still a method in the form of OnLive and the like - but I do not believe in it. Too much cost, too much inconvenience. It reminds me of a situation where publishers are so afraid of pirates that they don’t even give players their honestly bought games, but offer to be content with interactive video from the other side of the planet. Sorry, but this is the extreme of pirate hysteria, which absolutely does not want to slide into. Defeating this hysteria is simple - instead of hiding games from customers behind seven locks, you need to turn to your face, not your backside. Our dear corporations, we have already been waiting.
How many moans go on the Internet - piracy kills PCs, piracy kills games, developers' studios hang themselves right at the workplace, pirates sink the entire gaming industry to the bottom, rob ships, caravans and generally behave in a non-gentlemanly manner. Do you know what I think? I think this is pure nonsense.
Bonfire of persecution of pirates inflates 3 industry elephants - Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. First of all, it is beneficial for them to intimidate developers and gamers. Their goal is to sooner unsettle PC games. It’s so good to row money with a shovel, when the hottest fruits come out at your side, and the PC receives only scraps 2-3 months later. Money flows like a ringing river, and business goes uphill. However, game publishers refuse to admit that the cause of this massive piracy is not at all insidious corsairs with swords to the advantage, but insatiable distributors. They are ready to hang up barn locks on disks, install tracking drivers on our computers, and just forcefully climb into our virtual world, if only the profit rushes to unattainable heights. “Sell at all costs" is their motto. More amazing why are pirates so popular among the masses? Maybe because they allow anyone to play the game without suffering with complex body kits? So all the same - is it worth it to put all the pirates in, burn all the underground workshops and fine every one they cross and cross, or ... offer customers something more attractive than the pirated versions? Let's check.
The way the communist
factories are workers, bread for peasants, and games for gamers! It's no secret that games make the main profit in the first weeks of sales. Well, in the first month. Good - they sold, we collected the main profit and after a month the games are free for download. Oh how!
Pros: Why steal what is free? Those who want will not wait and buy, the rest will wait and download absolutely officially. Piracy was the death of the brave, buyers and freeloaders are dancing with happiness.
Cons : It is problematic to collect profit. Why buy what will soon be free? From the side of the publisher - “we threw such dibs into the project, and will we give out for free?”
Total:Buyers and gamers are bursting with happiness, and publishers incur losses and yell obscenely. The method is utopian, but sometimes I want to dream so much ...
The method is brutal
In fact, the method already works, and it works well. Take any MMO - the player receives the full content of the game on his computer, often absolutely free, but to play, he needs a paid account on the publisher’s server. The player profile is stored there. It turns out that it is impossible to play without connecting to the server and a licensed account. Of the more or less single-player games, fresh BattleForge first gained such protection. And quite successfully - I have not seen a single pirate on the network.
Pros: The publisher is absolutely calm about selling. Or a person will buy, or not buy. Making a pirated version of such a game is terribly difficult and costly.
Cons: Serious costs on the part of the publisher to start and support the server. Moreover, the server does not need one, but for each game. Servers must be supported for a very long time, because a person has the right to play after the purchase whenever he wants - at least 10 years later. Also, do not forget that there are no impenetrable defenses - many MMOs have acquired pirated server emulators. Piracy will not go anywhere, and if such a system is ubiquitous, it will still be bypassed sooner or later.
Bottom line: A very effective, very expensive and not very correct way. Not everyone, after all, has the Internet and the desire to connect somewhere every time to play 10 minutes. It looks like a situation when a company is so afraid of pirates that it is ready to discourage any desire to play with honest buyers. But it works, and it works well.
Method cunning We
come in from the other side. There is a game in which most people will play for free, with the kind help of pirates. Is it possible to get profit from those who are still not going to pay? It would seem a hopeless situation, but think about it - the attention of millions of people costs a lot. This is where advertisers come in. What comes out - we release games absolutely free for download, but we charge it with advertising and product placement. You can update ads from the Internet, you can even do commercials between missions. Are you tired of our advertising? There is nothing easier - buy a game, and there will be no trace of advertising.
Pros:Huge advertising platform. Millions of people are watching your ad. Money publishers flow fast and foamy river. Whoever wants to buy will buy and will enjoy the game without any advertising. And those who do not want to buy games - also pay with their attention. Games are absolutely free for everyone. No one remains in the loser.
Cons: Those who don’t want to pay for the game still get income. They would not pay anyway - the publisher does not lose anything. Those who buy - habitually bring money to a big piggy bank. You can bet that you won’t get the budget out of advertising, but think about it - now millions of people are playing pirates. Will they pay? I doubt it. Better so. But the method will work only if the entire game is fully, without any restrictions, will be available in the advertising version. Otherwise, it makes no sense.
Total:Everyone is happy and happy. Publishers have income from all players, and players have free games.
And here are three effective and fully applicable methods in front of you. The first is the dream of the players, the second is the dream of the publishers, and the third is a reasonable compromise. There is still a method in the form of OnLive and the like - but I do not believe in it. Too much cost, too much inconvenience. It reminds me of a situation where publishers are so afraid of pirates that they don’t even give players their honestly bought games, but offer to be content with interactive video from the other side of the planet. Sorry, but this is the extreme of pirate hysteria, which absolutely does not want to slide into. Defeating this hysteria is simple - instead of hiding games from customers behind seven locks, you need to turn to your face, not your backside. Our dear corporations, we have already been waiting.