PirateHead wrote:
the developers make money by selling in-game items, advertisement, and other things. To further the comparison between a game developer and a musician, you can call the in-game ad service a live concert. After all, playing a pirated copy online is pretty much like sneaking past the guards at the front gate of a concert. | |
I say it's sorta stealing but its nowhere near car theft or to a higher extent, murder. I for instance download mixtapes (they're supposedly illegal despite being put out by the artists themselves for $ or free) on a consistent basis and of course I hear new artists every now and then. If I like their work, I eventually buy their cd once it becomes available in the store.
Now after I've bought that cd and 'supported' that artist, I say that I should be able to do with my property as seen fit including ripping and put it on my mp3 player. I myself wouldn't rip the cd and give it to others for free, but SOMEONE paid for a copy if it exists for download so I don't see much of a problem. If anything, having downloadable music is helping artists. Personally if the one cd I decide to purchase is crap, I'd be tempted not to buy any more form them ever again. But on the other hand if I downloaded some of their music and liked it, I could just simply be sure that I'd be satisfied with the physical product. As for movies, I go to the theater on a pretty much daily basis and more often times than no I actually buy it on DVD when it comes out. Once again, I say I should be able to do anything I want with it but according to the RIAA, I can't which is bull. As this is the case, I choose to fully disobey the law if just ripping a CD that I actually purchased is illegal. Seriously, I haven't seen any artist that supposedly suffered due to illegal downloads starve, go bankrupt, or anything. AT the most, they would be unable to afford their 30th tropical island, which is truly unnecessary and greedy compared to what else they could spend the money on. | |
PirateHead wrote:
World of Warcraft, where the games are free but you pay for service. World of Warcraft isn't free. You have to buy the game, then buy the expansion. | |
DarkView wrote:
PirateHead wrote: Hmm, I didn't realize that. I got the game for free, but perhaps it was part of a promotion. | |
You can download the software for free, but once your free trial runs out, you have to pay to have a software key sent to you, so you can register your account. Once you do that, it unlocks all the features in the game. You also get a free month of extended play when you unlock your account from demo to full retail. A month of WoW is like what, $15.00? And if it is $20.00, really you are paying like $5 to register for a key and play the full game.
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Games, too, are headed to an end of simple digital distribution. In the Asian games market, this has already happened - most games are cheap or free, and the developers make money by selling in-game items, advertisement, and other things.
Perhaps the biggest example of this in the West is Second Life and World of Warcraft, where the games are free but you pay for service.
So... no contradiction there. It's impossible to keep people from copying and distributing games, so game developers are realizing that they can make money with other business models.