The Official "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU PLAYING!!!?" Thread

[Ibn Battuta 127]

I dump most of my free time playing Civ 4.

 

Yea, I know Civ 5 is out. But I really didn't like it. The publisher is scum too, trying to charge extra for civilizations that were always included.

[Ibn Battuta 127]

And PC gaming is being held back by piracy 5000x more than it's being held back by consoles, because piracy eats into their profits so badly that they have to make console versions. It makes sense: console versions are substantially harder to pirate, and game companies need to recoup their investment.

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying that PC gaming is dying because of piracy? Or are you just comparing the relative ease of pirating? In any event, PC gaming is actually very strong; it grew 15% last year from 2010 to $18.6b.

 

http://www.forbes.co...illion-in-2011/

 

Valve doesn't share its sales figures so that's sans Steam sales. In general, I think platforms like Steam, Direct2drive, greenmangaming, EA Origins, etc. are doing a fabulous job of competitively pricing their products. The console market OTOH...

[Emory889 353]

I just beat LA Noire and now I'm playing Arkham Asylum.

 

Yeah, I'm that far behind.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying that PC gaming is dying because of piracy? Or are you just comparing the relative ease of pirating? In any event, PC gaming is actually very strong; it grew 15% last year from 2010 to $18.6b.

 

http://www.forbes.co...illion-in-2011/

 

I was speaking specifically on the idea that piracy was forcing major game developers to make games available for consoles to maximize profits, though I admittedly didn't explain it very well.

 

It also needs to be said that what I'm referring to as "the PC game market" isn't the same as what Forbes is referring to, even if there is some level of overlap.

 

I don't have a problem with something like Farmville or Bejeweled existing, and casual games are incredibly profitable, but when I say "PC Games", they're not really what I'm referring to.

 

But piracy is a serious issue for what I guess we'll call "Serious PC Gaming". The Witcher 2 was a commercially successful game that wanted to prove that gamers wouldn't pirate a game if there was no DRM, because that's a typical pro-piracy line: DRM is an invasion of consumer rights, and I pirate because of that as a protest. So The Witcher 2 was released with no DRM, and it's sold somewhere around 1.5 million copies between physical and digital sales. That's a hugely successful game.

 

It was also pirated around 4.5 times for every one copy it sold. That's a problem, and outside of moving all PC gaming to the cloud, no one really knows what to do about it.

[Ibn Battuta 127]

I was speaking specifically on the idea that piracy was forcing major game developers to make games available for consoles to maximize profits, though I admittedly didn't explain it very well.

I guess so, but even if there wasn't piracy consoles outnumber pc gamers by like, 10 to 1 (at least the potential audience). That's reason enough to develop for consoles.

 

 

It also needs to be said that what I'm referring to as "the PC game market" isn't the same as what Forbes is referring to, even if there is some level of overlap.

 

I don't have a problem with something like Farmville or Bejeweled existing, and casual games are incredibly profitable, but when I say "PC Games", they're not really what I'm referring to.

 

But piracy is a serious issue for what I guess we'll call "Serious PC Gaming". The Witcher 2 was a commercially successful game that wanted to prove that gamers wouldn't pirate a game if there was no DRM, because that's a typical pro-piracy line: DRM is an invasion of consumer rights, and I pirate because of that as a protest. So The Witcher 2 was released with no DRM, and it's sold somewhere around 1.5 million copies between physical and digital sales. That's a hugely successful game.

 

It was also pirated around 4.5 times for every one copy it sold. That's a problem, and outside of moving all PC gaming to the cloud, no one really knows what to do about it.

 

that's really interesting about Witcher 2. Because I remember seeing the game on sale for like, $5 or so (and only a few months from release). You really have to be a cheapskate to not fork over the equivalent of a subway sandwich for hours of entertainment.

 

but, what do you think of this view:

 

Those 4.5 million illegal copies can’t really be counted, as the people downloading them wouldn’t have bought the game. They are simply not lost sales. GOG is also proof no DRM works with 6 million legitimate game sales in 4 years.

 

from the geek.com article

because that same logic is applied to music and movie piracy, and i'm not sure I buy it. You're still stealing it; it's the equivalent of going to a store and stealing something, then maybe putting it back where you found it.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

The logic is something like this:

 

"It's not stealing, because the person I copied it from didn't lose anything. They still have their copy."

 

And it's absolute bull****.

 

If I go into work, work my ass off for 18 hours, and my company comes to me at the end of my shift and says: "Hate to break this to you, but we've decided we don't really want to pay you," they haven't taken anything physically from me either. I have the exact same amount of things that I had when I started working. But they've still clearly stolen from me.

 

What they've stolen is my time and effort, and those things may not be physical, but they absolutely have a value, and it's up to me to dictate what those values are. The same logic applies: if someone or a group of someones spends thousands of man-hours creating something, they have a right to tell you what the value on the fruit of those man-hours is.

 

Not to mention, really, you ARE stealing something physical from them: you're stealing their startup and production costs. On ANY product, there is always increased cost up front for development and marketing that greatly exceeds the cost of individual units in mass production: by stealing the final product(or at least "copying it and denying them the ability to sell it to you" which is functionally the same goddamn thing), you're taking their ability to recoup their investment away. How could that be anything other than theft?

 

As for GOG, I'm glad that service is doing well, but at the same time: The original Humble Indie Bundle(total value of 60+ dollars) was put up on a "Pay what you want" plan to raise money for a *****ing charity, and the average downloader payed around 8 dollars for it, with over a quarter of them stealing the game outright.

[Noreaga30 15]

I just beat LA Noire and now I'm playing Arkham Asylum.

 

Yeah, I'm that far behind.

 

After you beat Arkham Asylum get Arkham City. Another great batman game. Its like Arkham Asylum mixed with Assassin's Creed. You can do missions out of order and explore Arkham city. LA Noire was a good game too. Im lazy so I used to let my partner do all the driving to different crime scenes.

[Ibn Battuta 127]

After you beat Arkham Asylum get Arkham City. Another great batman game. Its like Arkham Asylum mixed with Assassin's Creed. You can do missions out of order and explore Arkham city. LA Noire was a good game too. Im lazy so I used to let my partner do all the driving to different crime scenes.

 

speaking of Arkham Asylum it's $5 today at gamestop (PC version, GOTY). Grab it if you haven't.

[magicflow 0]

Madden is about the only game I play these days.

[Ryan the Magic Fan 253]

speaking of Arkham Asylum it's $5 today at gamestop (PC version, GOTY). Grab it if you haven't.

 

Yep. And soon Arkham City is releasing a GOTY version with new story content.

[VCplusD12 91]

The new Hitman game looks AMAZING

 

Probably the best graphics I've ever seen (in game and cut-scenes are both awesome)

[barnettej 263]

Played:

- City of Heros "50.Caliber"

 

-City of Villians "Spade of Death"

 

-EVE

 

Play:

 

Madden, NBA Live, COD, Batman... whenever I get some free time.

 

Other:

 

-People with random jokes and off the cuff comments that are just simply crazy....

 

Person "How are you doing today sir?"...... My Reply "Well I had a muffler shoved up my a-- this morning and im spitting out black lung, other than that im doing dandy"...... Their reply.... none.