I have to admit that even after owning a DS for a couple of years now, I don't own one of those flash cartridges. They seem pretty convenient, Kors has shown me a whole bunch of weird looking games that I would never even have heard of if he hadn't downloaded it and showed it to me, plus, it's so much cheaper than buying games (new games usually retail at about AU$69.95), you get to play games that aren't going to be released in Australia (or released 6 months behind the release date in other countries ~_~), not to mention the other funky things you can do with it, e.g. Merc uses his DS as a music player. So why don't I get one? Mostly it's the principle of it. I'm a software engineering student. If people are just going to pirate software, then where am I going to be once I graduate, and companies decide that they need to downsize to cover the losses they're making from people who aren't buying their products? Plus, I see it as support of their product.
I also have to admit, that I had Auto hack my PSP so that I could play games I don't own. Well, it wasn't the entire reason, but now that he has done it, I can. I feel a little like a hypocrite, because of what I just said about pirating DS games, and have mostly stopped playing Harvest Moon on my PSP, and gone back to playing Crisis Core, which I do actually own a legit copy of. Despite the games that are out there for PSP, I wanted it more for the development side, and also so that I could listen to music and watch movies. Here's where I think I'm stepping into a grey area. The PSP has movies you can buy on UMDs to watch for PSP. The downside is, the spinning disk causes a lot of noise which gets in the way of you watching your movie (it's starting to get a little annoying for Crisis Core, but at least I know something is happening while the screen is blank). I also happen to love movies quite a lot, and own a lot of DVDs. So in a way, I own a copy of the movie, so would it be wrong for me to download it for my PSP, or even make a rip of the DVD for my PSP? I think there's some law out there about not ripping DVDs, but there is also a provision that lets you burn games for "back up" purposes - though I think in most cases, people store their "back ups" at friend's houses for "safety reasons". *cough, cough*
I came across this post on Slashdot, "What Modern Games Are DRM-Free?" which talks about whether Digital Rights Management (DRM) affects your game purchases. I haven't bought a copy of Spore yet (and from what Graham has been saying, I'm not sure that I want one now), but apparently it has some built-in thing where you have to register to be able to play your game, but you are only allowed to register three times before you have to talk to customer service (and I'm sure we all know what a pain it is talking to customer service for anything). In the first 8 days of its release, EA reported that 1% of its customers had already tried to register the game more than three times. There's more stuff in the Slashdot post if you want to read it.
Anyway, I think I've mentioned before how Zoltan talks about how DRM only affects the people that don't pirate, as the DRM has been removed in pirated copies. The bad thing is, DRM can be annoying - like that stupid, "You wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a movie" ad that is at the start of every DVD, or the warnings that you can't skip past saying, "This is intended for private use only, and copying it is bad". It was so awesome when Blizzard released a patch that made it so you didn't require a CD to play Warcraft III. It's such a pain in the ass looking around for a CD to play a game.
On a sort of related point, I think things should be try before you buy. It's like with clothes, you can look at how they look sitting on a rack in a store, but it's not until you try it on for yourself that you see whether it really suits you. It kinda sucks that you can't get demo games for hand helds (although there was a guitar hero demo for the DS), and demos for PC games are slowly being replaced by trailers instead. My decision to buy World of Warcraft was based on seeing how Cousin Andrew was playing it, not buy watching some flashy movie (note: there is a trial version of WoW), and the same for Guild Wars - I got a trial version from Goaty and started playing it and found I liked it (although still... OMG, you cannot jump!). The same goes for movies now, I prefer not to judge a movie by its trailer, but by the reviews that it gets or its plot (or in some cases the cast - I know, I'm a terrible person). They usually just cram the best bits into a 30 second ad, and if they're the only good bits in the movie, then it really isn't worth paying $14 to sit through an hour and a half movie only to wait for 30 seconds of entertainment.
I've never really based a purchase decision on whether something has DRM content or not, but if it's going to be retarded as to stop you from playing, then that is pretty bad. I own a legit copy of Diablo II, but it's so old that the CD-key has worn off, and I have no proof of purchase for the game. The sucky thing is, I can't prove that I bought it, so they have no reason to give me a new CD-key, and the only way I'll be able to play a game that I own is if I download a CD-key generator or something. Or I could buy another copy.
Pirating isn't good, but neither is punishing the people who don't pirate. :(
I also have to admit, that I had Auto hack my PSP so that I could play games I don't own. Well, it wasn't the entire reason, but now that he has done it, I can. I feel a little like a hypocrite, because of what I just said about pirating DS games, and have mostly stopped playing Harvest Moon on my PSP, and gone back to playing Crisis Core, which I do actually own a legit copy of. Despite the games that are out there for PSP, I wanted it more for the development side, and also so that I could listen to music and watch movies. Here's where I think I'm stepping into a grey area. The PSP has movies you can buy on UMDs to watch for PSP. The downside is, the spinning disk causes a lot of noise which gets in the way of you watching your movie (it's starting to get a little annoying for Crisis Core, but at least I know something is happening while the screen is blank). I also happen to love movies quite a lot, and own a lot of DVDs. So in a way, I own a copy of the movie, so would it be wrong for me to download it for my PSP, or even make a rip of the DVD for my PSP? I think there's some law out there about not ripping DVDs, but there is also a provision that lets you burn games for "back up" purposes - though I think in most cases, people store their "back ups" at friend's houses for "safety reasons". *cough, cough*
I came across this post on Slashdot, "What Modern Games Are DRM-Free?" which talks about whether Digital Rights Management (DRM) affects your game purchases. I haven't bought a copy of Spore yet (and from what Graham has been saying, I'm not sure that I want one now), but apparently it has some built-in thing where you have to register to be able to play your game, but you are only allowed to register three times before you have to talk to customer service (and I'm sure we all know what a pain it is talking to customer service for anything). In the first 8 days of its release, EA reported that 1% of its customers had already tried to register the game more than three times. There's more stuff in the Slashdot post if you want to read it.
Anyway, I think I've mentioned before how Zoltan talks about how DRM only affects the people that don't pirate, as the DRM has been removed in pirated copies. The bad thing is, DRM can be annoying - like that stupid, "You wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a movie" ad that is at the start of every DVD, or the warnings that you can't skip past saying, "This is intended for private use only, and copying it is bad". It was so awesome when Blizzard released a patch that made it so you didn't require a CD to play Warcraft III. It's such a pain in the ass looking around for a CD to play a game.
On a sort of related point, I think things should be try before you buy. It's like with clothes, you can look at how they look sitting on a rack in a store, but it's not until you try it on for yourself that you see whether it really suits you. It kinda sucks that you can't get demo games for hand helds (although there was a guitar hero demo for the DS), and demos for PC games are slowly being replaced by trailers instead. My decision to buy World of Warcraft was based on seeing how Cousin Andrew was playing it, not buy watching some flashy movie (note: there is a trial version of WoW), and the same for Guild Wars - I got a trial version from Goaty and started playing it and found I liked it (although still... OMG, you cannot jump!). The same goes for movies now, I prefer not to judge a movie by its trailer, but by the reviews that it gets or its plot (or in some cases the cast - I know, I'm a terrible person). They usually just cram the best bits into a 30 second ad, and if they're the only good bits in the movie, then it really isn't worth paying $14 to sit through an hour and a half movie only to wait for 30 seconds of entertainment.
I've never really based a purchase decision on whether something has DRM content or not, but if it's going to be retarded as to stop you from playing, then that is pretty bad. I own a legit copy of Diablo II, but it's so old that the CD-key has worn off, and I have no proof of purchase for the game. The sucky thing is, I can't prove that I bought it, so they have no reason to give me a new CD-key, and the only way I'll be able to play a game that I own is if I download a CD-key generator or something. Or I could buy another copy.
Pirating isn't good, but neither is punishing the people who don't pirate. :(
5 comments:
I'd steal a handbag if I could get away with it.
YC is such a girl.
You can reproduce a computer game for the purpose of making a backup copy. There are also exceptions to copyright infringement for private use format shifting, although It is more commonly limited to shifting CDs to MP3s.
Software pirating will never stop, but you would think in this day and age that companies would know this, and therefore take it into account, so that they wouldn't have to lose such awesome employees :P.
If you're annoyed about the noise from the UMD, you could always rip your game, and because you own it therefore it shouldn't place any guilt on your conscience. Also, just at a guess, I don't think you tried googling PSP demos. If you did, you would have seen that there are a lot of them.
Companies who find themselves needing to fire employees because they are sticking to outdated business models are pathetic. They are the ones who are at fault - they don't take into consideration modern technologies or changing markets and conditions.
I'm not just talking about IT/technology companies... Look at Ford, especially in the US. They've been hemorrhaging money for ages because they failed to plan ahead and thought they could keep selling SUVs forever.
I have no sympathy for companies who either don't plan ahead, sell bad products, or treat their customers as though they are criminals by default.
I don't game anymore, but DRM would certainly turn me off buying a game especially any Sony game...
LOLHAI ROOTKIT
Auto: I always think of DS when I think of handhelds. >_>
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