🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael M. Eilers wrote in article ...

>In article <34448505...@news.erols.com>, iDl...@Juno.com wrote:
>
>> >Actually they are anything but free.  By STEALING these games you drive
the
>> >prices up in the long run for those of us who PAY for our games.  If you
>> >must STEAL please do so in a place where PROSECUTION is possible.  Maybe
if
>>
>> Not that I endorse Piracy or anything, but why do you say it's
>> 'anything but free'?
>>
>> The people that Pirate software will most likely continue pirating
>> software.  Price doesn't effect them.
>
>Actually, it is pretty funny, but piracy is extremely expensive--in many
>way more expensive than buying the actual software. If you consider that
>the really hardcore WaReZ traders usually have dual-channel ISDN, a CD-ROM
>burner and 8 gigs of hard drive space, these costs add up. Even a
>small-timer that just grabs stuff off hotline sites will spend more money
>on online time and disk space than they would have on games. Putting
>WarCraft II on my hard drive takes up $60 worth of space in cost per
>megabyte, VS. $40 for the game itself--and this gets even worse with
>video-intensive games like Wing IV and C & C.

Usually the pirates strip all the FMV. Once you strip the FMV out of games
like Wing 4 and C&C, the game itself is at most 120 megs or so. Since I can
get a 2GB disk drive for $200 (actually somewhat less and declining every
day), that's 10 cents per megabyte. The cost of storing the game is now
$12.00. Furthermore, the cost of a blank CD-R disc is under $5.00 now.

However, it's a pain in the ass to pirate games.. you miss all the CD-AUDIO
which is sometimes quite good (Outlaws), you don't get the FMV (some would
say this is a plus), the pirates sometimes screw up the game and make it
crash, you can't patch the game like you could if you bought the real
version, takes forever to download unless you have full ISDN, etc.

Now that games companies typically release playable demos there should be
much less incentive to pirate games. You can try the demo first.

The *only* benefit of pirates as I see it is they manage to get the game
before anyone else. If you are dying to have a certain game, I can guarantee
that the pirates will have it before the stores. I hear Jedi Knight will be
available tomorrow from pirates, but not until Oct 9th from stores.


> I finally talked a friend of
>mine out of prating when he realized that he had bought 3 Jaz cartidges
>(+$300) just to hold a half-dozen games that would have cost him $220 to
>pay cash for.
>

Yeah, I like to support the game industry.. the more we support the industry
by buying great games, the more great games we get. That's how I look at it.

Jeff

>michael
>
>--
>
>"I will never again look at an Apple design and not think, 'Power
[Computing] would have had this 4 months ago for $1,000 less.'"
>--Steve Fuchs, programmer, Apple user since 1986
>
>"Are the gods imaginary companions to console you for the possbility of
dying?"
>         --Greg Bear, _Eternity_
>
>Michael M. Eilers * Fearful Symmetry Designs