![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
WTF.
Ok, it's probably a good thing I'm not registered at Kotaku to go making replies to fucking brain dead assholes, but I feel I must vent on a few tidbits. Also, before I start, I apologize to Kane right now as I know he tends to side with the other camp in this particular argument.
Anyhow, it starts with this:
"I do not understand how one can be against piracy but support used games. In much the same way as there are pirates who would never buy the game, there are people who flat out can't/won't buy new."
Here's the deal. Copyright Infringement ("Piracy" for those who like to use incorrect words) is illegal. Buying used games is LEGAL. Companies have their First Sale rights. That's ALL they have. Second Sale, Third Sale, etc is for whoever bought the damned copy off the previous owner. You get pissed seeing a company re-selling a used game for like 5 bucks cheaper than it new? So do I! SO I DON'T BUY IT. They sell it at a reasonable second-hand price like 20 or less, when the new is 50+? Fuck yes I'll consider buying it. Of course it depends on the condition the used goods are in. I can't WAIT until the automobile industry or housing industry tries to pull off this kind of shit.
You want people buying new, give them REASONS to want to buy it new. Atlus and NIS America have done this very well for me in the PS2 years with their bonus soundtrack discs and artbooks etc. Working Designs did this for me as well in the PS1 years with the Lunar games. There are games on those consoles I would love to buy but refuse to buy used because I WANT the limited edition. Not some simple used disc. I can't find it new anymore short of 100+ dollars, so I don't buy it (or play it) at all.
"I would support a hybrid of digital and physical copies. Maybe bring back CD keys but have them tied to your XBL or PSN account. Buy a game in store, register your code, have full access to your game. If you sell it used, the new owner will have to pay a reasonable fee to license the game. Maybe even have most of the game available but lock certain portions to requiring a license."
So basically this person is suggesting probably what the industry would LOVE to have! Charge them for the discs, charge them for the DLC, and charge secondary owners as well when they're done bleeding the original consumer dry. He essentially feels we should have the WORST of both systems. The added cost of the disc creation/transportation, non-returnable DLC, and required credit card use (you know that's how it'll be done if it was to be implemented) for buying a game used just to be able to use it.
I develop games (sloooowly, and mostly just as a hobby) but I don't understand where the fuck this sense of entitlement is coming from with game developers. You make a game. You sell it. If you did your job well, PEOPLE WILL WANT TO RETAIN THE DAMNED GAME. If you fucked up, they will dispose of the game when they are finished with it. This is their right. AND A LOT OF GAME DEVELOPERS ARE FUCKING UP THESE DAYS. If you, as a game developer, want to make a profit off of the secondary market for a game you create, you fucking well go through the effort of offering a buy-back policy for the games, and resell them yourself. But no. It's much easier, and profitable, to be an ass and whine to anyone who will listen that you deserve a cut of someone else's business.
Your business is making the initial product and selling it to the initial consumers. YOUR BUSINESS ENDS THERE. After that it's someone ELSE'S business.
Attacking the used game market is like shooting your own foot. Game Developers just can't seem to understand this. All the many millions (or thousands) of copies you sell right now are sold because the system is the way it is. The ability to sell the game back when the player is finished/bored with it is in place. If you take away that ability, a bunch of these gamers are going to have two responses:
1. Buy less games. They have no choice. They won't have as much money to get new games since a good deal of them will return games in order to get a discount on the Next Best Thing that's currently being released.
2. Buy even LESS games. In this instance however, it IS a choice. Because right now people can look at the 40-60 dollar game and be kinda on the fence with it. The hype says it's awesome. The reviews say it's awesome. And despite knowing that the hype can be wrong and the reviews bought and paid for, the gamer buys it because he knows he can probably sell it to a friend or back to the store to recover some of the costs when he sits down to play and realizes it's a POS game for his own tastes.
I plan on making cartridges of my Atari 2600 homebrews when (IF!) I finish them. I have absolutely no problem will people buying a copy of my game from me then flipping it on ebay for twice what I charged, even if they do it almost instantly. Means I priced it pretty low, or there are a lot of stupid people on ebay. Those now-used games could then in turn be sold and sold and sold again. I wouldn't give a damn. At most, given the limited supply I will probably be able to make, I might limit orders to try to get games to as many people as possible rather than 2-3 games for person A, 2-3 for person B, etc. After the initial run or two is done, I'd be more than willing to do take repeat customers.
Hell, I wouldn't give a damn about them playing the roms of the games. I regularly release updated roms of the games as I go anyway, and I fully expect to have the RC versions released for download as well. The copy on the carts might be a bit different here and there but they will otherwise be functionally intact. I will have no problem with people playing the games for free in a non-commercial way.
The ONLY thing that would piss me off is people taking the rom, assembling a brand new cart, and selling THAT. But wait. that's COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/COUNTERFEITING AND ALREADY ILLEGAL ANYWAY! (Tip: This includes the dumbfucks that "offer the services of making a cart if you provide the rom." These people know damned well that they shouldn't be doing that, but that's another rant for another day.)
Anyhow, it starts with this:
"I do not understand how one can be against piracy but support used games. In much the same way as there are pirates who would never buy the game, there are people who flat out can't/won't buy new."
Here's the deal. Copyright Infringement ("Piracy" for those who like to use incorrect words) is illegal. Buying used games is LEGAL. Companies have their First Sale rights. That's ALL they have. Second Sale, Third Sale, etc is for whoever bought the damned copy off the previous owner. You get pissed seeing a company re-selling a used game for like 5 bucks cheaper than it new? So do I! SO I DON'T BUY IT. They sell it at a reasonable second-hand price like 20 or less, when the new is 50+? Fuck yes I'll consider buying it. Of course it depends on the condition the used goods are in. I can't WAIT until the automobile industry or housing industry tries to pull off this kind of shit.
You want people buying new, give them REASONS to want to buy it new. Atlus and NIS America have done this very well for me in the PS2 years with their bonus soundtrack discs and artbooks etc. Working Designs did this for me as well in the PS1 years with the Lunar games. There are games on those consoles I would love to buy but refuse to buy used because I WANT the limited edition. Not some simple used disc. I can't find it new anymore short of 100+ dollars, so I don't buy it (or play it) at all.
"I would support a hybrid of digital and physical copies. Maybe bring back CD keys but have them tied to your XBL or PSN account. Buy a game in store, register your code, have full access to your game. If you sell it used, the new owner will have to pay a reasonable fee to license the game. Maybe even have most of the game available but lock certain portions to requiring a license."
So basically this person is suggesting probably what the industry would LOVE to have! Charge them for the discs, charge them for the DLC, and charge secondary owners as well when they're done bleeding the original consumer dry. He essentially feels we should have the WORST of both systems. The added cost of the disc creation/transportation, non-returnable DLC, and required credit card use (you know that's how it'll be done if it was to be implemented) for buying a game used just to be able to use it.
I develop games (sloooowly, and mostly just as a hobby) but I don't understand where the fuck this sense of entitlement is coming from with game developers. You make a game. You sell it. If you did your job well, PEOPLE WILL WANT TO RETAIN THE DAMNED GAME. If you fucked up, they will dispose of the game when they are finished with it. This is their right. AND A LOT OF GAME DEVELOPERS ARE FUCKING UP THESE DAYS. If you, as a game developer, want to make a profit off of the secondary market for a game you create, you fucking well go through the effort of offering a buy-back policy for the games, and resell them yourself. But no. It's much easier, and profitable, to be an ass and whine to anyone who will listen that you deserve a cut of someone else's business.
Your business is making the initial product and selling it to the initial consumers. YOUR BUSINESS ENDS THERE. After that it's someone ELSE'S business.
Attacking the used game market is like shooting your own foot. Game Developers just can't seem to understand this. All the many millions (or thousands) of copies you sell right now are sold because the system is the way it is. The ability to sell the game back when the player is finished/bored with it is in place. If you take away that ability, a bunch of these gamers are going to have two responses:
1. Buy less games. They have no choice. They won't have as much money to get new games since a good deal of them will return games in order to get a discount on the Next Best Thing that's currently being released.
2. Buy even LESS games. In this instance however, it IS a choice. Because right now people can look at the 40-60 dollar game and be kinda on the fence with it. The hype says it's awesome. The reviews say it's awesome. And despite knowing that the hype can be wrong and the reviews bought and paid for, the gamer buys it because he knows he can probably sell it to a friend or back to the store to recover some of the costs when he sits down to play and realizes it's a POS game for his own tastes.
I plan on making cartridges of my Atari 2600 homebrews when (IF!) I finish them. I have absolutely no problem will people buying a copy of my game from me then flipping it on ebay for twice what I charged, even if they do it almost instantly. Means I priced it pretty low, or there are a lot of stupid people on ebay. Those now-used games could then in turn be sold and sold and sold again. I wouldn't give a damn. At most, given the limited supply I will probably be able to make, I might limit orders to try to get games to as many people as possible rather than 2-3 games for person A, 2-3 for person B, etc. After the initial run or two is done, I'd be more than willing to do take repeat customers.
Hell, I wouldn't give a damn about them playing the roms of the games. I regularly release updated roms of the games as I go anyway, and I fully expect to have the RC versions released for download as well. The copy on the carts might be a bit different here and there but they will otherwise be functionally intact. I will have no problem with people playing the games for free in a non-commercial way.
The ONLY thing that would piss me off is people taking the rom, assembling a brand new cart, and selling THAT. But wait. that's COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT/COUNTERFEITING AND ALREADY ILLEGAL ANYWAY! (Tip: This includes the dumbfucks that "offer the services of making a cart if you provide the rom." These people know damned well that they shouldn't be doing that, but that's another rant for another day.)
no subject
no subject
The people who buy up shit for the sole purpose of reselling it on ebay for 2-3 times what they're worth are douchebags who deserve to be dropped into an active volcano, and the people who keep them in business for buying that shit are retarded and are more than welcome to pay the "retard tax" of 2-3 times the value of whatever they're buying. Got no problem with the guy who bought it, realized he didn't like it, and then wanted to recoup his losses (but not make a fucking 2-3 times profit).
ROM downloads are only okay if something is absolutely, literally not available in any other legit way. And I use the word "okay" there loosely, because even then it's not really okay. This is why GOG.com and even Steam are awesome, because they make old shit available that would otherwise be lost to the mists of time. Asshats who download games that haven't even been released yet for their retarded reasons of "wouldn't buy it anyway" or "just trying it out," however, can join their friends above in the active volcano. DRM is not a valid excuse to pirate shit. If you don't like it, don't buy it (and don't illegally download it).
Actual legit businesses who deal in used games are fine with me. I use them myself because often they're the only way to find old shit, outside of ROM hunting or whatever, and I prefer them to that if possible. It's kind of bullshit that they offer the guy selling the game a mere pittance, and then charge the guy buying it 2-3 times that amount, but it's a matter of scale, and at least they aren't charging 2-3 times what the first guy paid Wal-Mart for it. I think it's dumb to sell to GameStop or the like, but I have not problem buying from them.
DevelopersPublishers who think they deserve a piece of the resale pie can go suck a fat one. EA deserves as much of piece of GameStop's pie as Ford deserves a piece of Bubba's Used Cars's pie.This pisses me off because I had to shorten, and likely greatly dilute, the above in order to fit it into LJ's fucking character limit. Again, fuck you Livejournal.
no subject