Todd Hollenshead on piracy

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Gameguru Mania News - Mar,10 2007 -

Todd Hollenshead on piracy - briefly
(hx) 02:10 AM CET - Mar,10 2007 - Post a comment / read (39)
This article on NextGen Generation recaps Todd Hollenshead's thoughts about the impact of piracy on the game industry. Pirates have stolen copies of his company's games from hardware vendors. They've used holes in Id's company firewall to download preview copies of software. A journalist once made a copy of Hexen II while he was being shown a prerelease copy of the game. Currently, he's dealing with the fact that someone out there has an unauthorized copy of Enemy Territory Quake Wars: Hollenshead suggested numerous solutions, but suggested that none of them were perfect: subscription-based games, titles requiring an Internet connection to play, the abandonment of PC development and focus on console games, where piracy is not as prevalent. The problem, Hollenshead said, is largely one of perception: people don't see piracy as a trermendous problem. Hackers are looked up to, to an extent. Even developers are accountable to a point, he suggested, when they allow their employees to share music and copies of TV shows on their servers. Increased government involvement, better physical protection for games, and a change in consumer attitudes will help combat piracy, Hollenshead said.

last 10 comments:

ykazka	(06:36 AM CET - Mar,10 2007 )
Enemy Territory Quake Wars leaked. Lol.Check out e-mule.Lol again

Sabot

(12:51 PM CET - Mar,10 2007 )

Sure piracy isn't as big a problem on console.............What planet is he on?
No one can keep tabs on the sheer volume of pirated PS2 games for eg out there, so it's easy to just say 'not a problem on console'.
I don't know anyone that *hasn't* got pirated games on a console.

Internet game downloads -who's bright secure idea was that? VALVE enjoyed that experience for sure. :lol:

Maybe if they bring back hanging for piracy, they may stop it :wink:

(09:58 PM CET - Mar,10 2007 )

If these guys were industry veterans, they'd understand what's happening here. People aren't buying games because of piracy, but because of the high percentage the game they buy is bad :!:

Also, I wonder if they've considered this: after spending $500 on a video card, people don't have any money left for games. I'm not incredibly rich. I can't afford to spend $50 - $60 on random mediocre games on top of the ridiculous amount of money it takes to maintain a decent gaming PC.

I'll only pay for absolutely amazing games such as F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2, Titan Quest, Tron, C&C, Syberia, Fahrenheit, Painkiller and so on.

lmer

(01:44 PM CET - Mar,11 2007 )

Yeah, another thing. An example would be Test Drive Unlimited. Why isn't there an option to lower the graphic detail in the PC version to the level of PS2 (and there is a PS2 version available)? Since there is no demo for the game i used a pirate copy to discover that; I need extra 200$ to play the game. No worries Atari, the pirate copy is no longer on my hard drive.

There seems to be less and less demos. But the ones that do come out usually don't represent the final product in any way. The stability of the code you get in a demo of a game and in the final product differs greatly. Usually, a demo packs a pretty level which is in retail copy packed with a load of mediocre crap. And when you do buy the actuall game, you are to wait for the first patch to come out so you can actually play it.

I'm giving up lately. I have some cash gathered and i need some more to assemble an absolute beast of a machine. But I'm having second thoughts about getting a new PC or buying a PS3 and wait for GT4 and GTA4. What do you think? :)

Sawnoff

(02:02 PM CET - Mar,11 2007 )

heretic> If these guys were industry veterans, they'd understand what's happening here. People aren't buying games because of piracy, but because of the high percentage the game they buy is bad :!:

Also, I wonder if they've considered this: after spending $500 on a video card, people don't have any money left for games. I'm not incredibly rich. I can't afford to spend $50 - $60 on random mediocre games on top of the ridiculous amount of money it takes to maintain a decent gaming PC.

I'll only pay for absolutely amazing games such as F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2, Titan Quest, Tron, C&C, Syberia, Fahrenheit, Painkiller and so on.
I agree 100%, the times i have gone out excited to get a new game, spent my $50....and gone home and wanted to cry after loading it, pretty bad for a 40 year old construction worker :cry:
These developers are all following Bill Gates business model, Push it out the door and figure out how to make it work later....
I know this is not news to anyone, but Paradox's OEM bios emulator is still passing windows WGA, but only 32 bit Vista. Still it comes in all 32 bit flavours, errrrr i would suggest Ultimate though. :lol:

Safer	(03:43 PM CET - Mar,11 2007 )
The irony is that they instead release tons of demos for the consoles instead. :)

ykazka	(06:33 PM CET - Mar,11 2007 )
I wonder if anybody can sue them for false advertizing? You have seen it in game trailers at E3, fancy-looking screen shots and date release promises and so on. When I go to a car dealership I don't see a sign saying "actual driving may differ from a test drive":) Somebody should kick their ass, at least try to...

devilhood

(10:58 PM CET - Mar,11 2007 )

The only three games I'm going to be playing on my PC which I have actually pre-ordered are: UT2007, Crysis and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
There are quite a lot of great games coming out that have persuaded people to fork out cash, but with the whole Hamachi generation taking off, bypassing online cd-key checks wont be such an issue anymore when it comes to playing multiplayer through LAN hacks.
I didn't really want to restrict myself this time round though, so I thought I'd take the risk and actually buy these three hyped games *gasps*
Alan Wake and the new Penumbra have also taken my fancy, so I'll probably grab those too... but it does depend on my financial situation.

UT2007 was going for a bargain pre-order price on Amazon for quite some time, so I thought I'd save myself a few bob by doing it that way.
Pre-ordering early has definitely kept the 'warez0rz' attitude at bay for a little bit, but I'm not exactly saving a HUGE amount.

I just recently managed to sell my tired old 7950 GX2 for a little over £230, and by a complete fluke, managed to pick up the XFX 8800 GTX XXX card for a rock bottom £308 off eBay! that's £180 off the retail price :lol:
That's the hardware side of things taken care of for a while I hope.

It's crazy how much money is being dealt about though, and the price of graphics cards these days are going up and down like a bunch of badly blown up bouncy castles.
The only thing that can be done is to do the whole sell and upgrade hardware routine quite early, so you're saving yourself a huge amount in the long-run.
I suppose that is one way to make games more affordable.
God knows why I bother so much with all of this when most of the time I'm caught playing with my Nintendo DS instead :D

lmer: don't waste your time with the PS3; get yourself a new PC and buy the PS3 in a year or two when there are good games out and it has an established homebrew/mod scene.

xxxx

(02:52 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

Bah I had a response about your creative story behind your 8800 upgrade, but who cares? It's your money your story that can't be substantiated. But I will say, Hamachi isn't just taking off recently, it's been ongoing for 5 years man. You're just behind I guess if you think it's only just taking off. Everyone I know or met in the gaming community knows and has been using Hamachi for a long long time.

I think it's funny ur telling people to save their money when you bought a card that's gonna take a $200+ price dump in a few months...

(sorry couldn't resist)

devilhood

(04:25 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

Hardware always takes a price dump, news to me and everyone else here?

quote:
I think it's funny ur telling people to save their money when you bought a card that's gonna take a $200+ price dump in a few months...
After selling my card, I essentially only spent £80 on the 8800 GTX upgrade. I fail to notice how your optimistically mentioned price drop holds that much of a significance?
What's the point in waiting a few months? so my old 7950 GX2 can de-value even more? and the next range of graphics cards are out on the block with an even higher price tag? At least now with the 8800 GTX I can't complain that my CPU is bottlenecking anything.
I couldn't care less whether you believe me or not, so there is no need for me to substantiate any of my transactions.

I only told my story in the hopes that it would inspire others with high-end cards to take a similar route. What's wrong with that? if people aren't interested they can just ignore what I have to say. It's not like my aim was to provoke anybody or cause grief.
You spend more time pointlessly bitching at people and moaning on this forum than actually saying anything mildly constructive.

In regards to Hamachi, I admit I hadn't got round to properly using it until Supreme Commander came out, but I had heard of it from a couple of my old clan-mates.
A lot of online gamers I've played with told me that not everyone seems to know about it.
Oh noes, that makes me behind the times :lol:
Honestly XXXX, are you starting to get lonely now that you haven't got Stumpus to argue with every few minutes or so?

xxxx

(07:17 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

quote:
but with the whole Hamachi generation taking off, bypassing online cd-key checks wont be such an issue anymore when it comes to playing multiplayer through LAN hacks.

You go out making claims that Hamachi is really taking off but it's old news which shows how much you know and now trying to cover up your obvious tech-lacking-knowledge skills by putting me down. Clever. Stumpus-idious? lmao...

About your video card, much like your story. I honestly, really couldn't give a $hit. Good for you, you bought a 7950, obviously had lots of value that you dumped it for an 8800 shortly after... You truly know your stuff or your wallet is thick! Yehaw.

I'll consider a 8800 at the right time, when games necessitate their requirement and when prices are realistic. I don't just go buy a new video card so I can be cool around my buddies and I don't recycle them in my computer like you do. I have my 7600 and right now, not a game I have thrown at it has given me a problem and I already finished Vegas at high detail minus the lousy blur.

Alan Wake = DX9 doesn't need a 8800 either neither do any of the other games you mentioned. The only game that can substantiate your need for a 8800 is Crysis...based on your experience and knowledge I doubt you will ever know just when your bus is bottlenecked. At the rate you upgrade, I wouldn't worry. lmfao.

Another sheep joins the herd...

devilhood

(07:26 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

xxxx, as far as I am concerned, you can take your over-zealous judgmental, arrogant attitude and shove it where the sun don't shine.
You proved my point entirely, you're only capable of criticizing people rather than actually conversing in a positively constructive manner.
My wallet is definitely not thick, but I try to manage my hardware related purchases as best as I can.
Also, in-case you haven't noticed, different people have different sums of money that they are able to spend on different things, and just because someone else can fork out on something expensive, does not make them a sheep.

Tech-lacking-knowledge? stop trying to compare the size of your balls with everyone else dude. Who cares how much tech knowledge someone has, and since when does Hamachi determine how much skillz someone has? stop being so irrational and teenage, this isn't somethingawful.com
I haven't even needed to do a LAN hack for ages because 99% of the games I play online I actually buy. The last time I can remember using anything like that was with BattleNET.
Why is that such a big deal to you?
You say that you don't care, but you keep bringing up all this sh£$ all the time.

I have always kept a cool attitude with you, because I was hoping that there was a part of you that 'was' able to socialize and have respect for other people (key word there xxxx, it's called respect), but that has since gone out of the window with your last response.
What a joke!

ykazka	(07:49 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!! I laughed my ass off! U guys are the best! Its like "hey-FCK YOU!!" ---- "hey, I am sorry, sir, but FCK YOU too!!" That forum has never been better.lol. p.s.by the way,this e-mule image,it seems that it can't be mounted.I tried deamon and ISO.any ideas anybody?please?

devilhood	(07:59 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
Yeah, there is a funny déjà vu side to it. It's more in the range of 'frustrating' for me, especially when all I did was post something harmless. I bet the reason we don't see a great deal of people posting here is because xxxx scares most of the lurkers away :lol: ykazka, e-mule image? maybe it's a fake. Have you also tried mounting it in Alcohol 120% or checking it with UltraISO?

xxxx	(08:23 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
Aww cry me a river. Maybe if you stop spewwing BS, you wouldn't have that problem. Again, I could and would have sat here correcting your last post. But I don't want you to cry more, so I'll give you a break... :roll:

devilhood

(08:49 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

xxxx, for some unknown reason, I know you find it almost impossible to believe anything someone says, but I am not talking BS.
You thrive on all these little pointless arguments and childish banter, to what end? What is the actual point in anything you have said thus far?
You continuously place yourself in this stance of mis-trust with everyone else and the only thing it does is isolate yourself.
It's like you've already turned senile and can't see past your own reflection. "Oh those pesky kids don't know anything, I'll just stick with my bigoted views and never admit when I'm wrong"

Your predicable response in an argument ALWAYS ends up with "You're talking BS", or "Don't make me correct you because I know it makes you cry", basically the kind of responses you would expect from a teenage with far too much testosterone.
There is no substance in any of your responses because you spend more time picking at what other people say instead of actually saying anything relevant, interesting and new.

You've said it all before dude, many times, and it's getting old fast.
It's funny, you haven't really changed since the last time I told you "Oh it's xxxx living up to his reputation again"
Go play with your 7600 dude and live in peace, just don't take your shi%^ and put it on anyone else.

ykazka

(09:31 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

I always thought that piracy was a hot issue, but this one makes me horny,lol.

p.s.I didn't try Alcohol yet,i gotta install it again.Man, QW makes it hard already. I hope it is good as they say it is. I think it might be a fake,but there are 2 cds out there looking legit. the only problem is the size, 693 mb each. Like a movie or smthing. Yeah,must be a fake. But its o.k. I can be patient if I can save 50 bucks or so..

devilhood	(09:42 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
You can try renaming it to .avi and load it in WMP, if you see a porn movie then it's definitely a fake :D eMule is full of fakes like that, but you can prevent yourself from accidentally downloading them by using the MorphXT eMule client. It has an updated fake list and a lot of cool features to help speed up downloads and prioritize your uploads properly.

xxxx

(10:09 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

You left out relevant details about your card such as HOW MUCH IT COST WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT. Then HOW MUCH DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT AND WHEN YOU SOLD IT. You only told us, what made the deal sound good. Then you left out what you had before you got the 7950. You left out most of the math, calculated what you got for your old one and matched it to what you paid for the new one. However there is money lost period because you didn't get what you paid for your 7950 or the fact you had a previous card thats more money lost for the overall difference/gain/loss. I am 7600 here dude, I have no plans to go 8800 and when I do it will be a lot lower than you paid now. Thus any deal you got, I will kill you for every dollar you spent. To say you are wise about your upgrades, from your post. You are only wise in the fact you leave out relevant details. There isn't even a point to have an 8800 and the games you mentioned are mostly DX9 games NOT DX10, which substantiates even less the meaning of getting rid of a perfectly good 7950 card that can still have a long life.

If you had more than a peanut on your shoulder you would have figured out what I was insinuating, but your like Stumpus, too dunce to figure it out.

Clarify your past cards and I don't have an issue, go romping on your horse like you are just so wise upgrading I'll come all over you. You left out relevant details and that's why I'm coming down on you.

When I'm wrong on something, than you have all rights to come down on me. However, I am rarely wrong and as a matter of fact nearly ALWAYS right.

You talk shit, you get shit back. That's a fact of life and obviously your too young to realize it yet. Sorry I'm not like everyone else, I don't sit there and swallow. I substantiate and think of the logic. Your upgrade makes no financial or logical sense.

Just another sheep joining the herd. At least now you can sit and be proud when you go on forums and you can solicity you're another sheep that got suckered for a 1st generation DX10 card. lmfao.

devilhood

(10:24 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

xxxx, I'm sorry if I left out those details. Wow, you actually made my purchase sound like some kind of conspiracy that was meant to brainwash people into buying an 8800 GTX by only spending a few pence.
That wasn't what I intended.

I bought the 7950 GX2 as part of a pre-built system deal for only £285 from the ACMW Group off eBay. The system set me back around £1000.
I actually know one of the owners, Alan, from the company quite well as he personally dealt with my purchase because they actually sent me the wrong computer to begin with, so I managed to get a few extras out of it.
So I lost out on £55 and spent £80 on-top of that, leaving a realistic total of £135 for the 8800 GTX upgrade.
Compared to selling it for around £150 in a few months time and losing out even more, I'd say it's still a very good deal, considering the fact that the 8800 GTX I grabbed currently retails at £480.
Whenever people upgrade their system, they lose money, yes, this is all simpleton.

XXXX, no one ever knows what you are insinuating half the time, because you're always so hostile.
You just continuously criticize and call people names to no end, blah blah this, you're too young that, you're talking BS this, a never ending cycle.
Come on, you know I would have GLADLY explained the entire process for you if you had actually asked properly in the first place, but your first sentence was
quote:
Bah I had a response about your creative story behind your 8800 upgrade, but who cares?
Why on earth that makes you think I should explain anything to you I have no idea :roll:
Also, your logic regarding when you are wrong, actually sounds more like "When I decide that I am wrong, based on careful deliberation and a minimum of 5 argumentative posts, I will let you come down on me"
To say that I have been talking shit is almost as crazy as saying that you have an IQ higher than an ape that can use a type-writer; you seriously need a reality check.

Very amusing.

ykazka	(10:28 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
xxxx,dude, u gotta stay off crack

devilhood	(10:52 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
quote: I am rarely wrong and as a matter of fact nearly ALWAYS right That says it all really. Pure arrogance. If anyone needs to summarize XXXX, they should just use that quote and instill everyone with the darkest fear imaginable to man-kind.

ykazka	(11:21 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
hey,since we got a nice fight going on, can we take it on a Battlefield server where we can kick each other's asses? I like "insomnia" servers. You guys're talking and talking about how u like your pc configs and so on. Well, it looks like we got time to chat, may be we can shoot each other on-line instead? let me know if u wanna play.

devilhood	(11:24 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
No, no ykazka, I'm a pacifist :P BF2? I'd love to hit up a game, but I don't actually have it installed anymore since I rebuilt my system. I'm only here chatting because I'm in the middle of doing my Uni Masters degree course-work.

ykazka	(11:30 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
I hear u. I got couple papers due as well for my individ. BA. I hate typing.

devilhood

(11:38 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

Yeah, I have a bunch of project proposals to do for next week, and then the bulk of the work will hit me full-on.
It's an Audio Technology MA, but they have included some object orientated programming for synthesis which is actually pretty tough.
I'll need to set aside some time to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. single player at least though.
I did a BA for three years prior to my current course.
What are you studying for your BA?

lmer

(11:44 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

Man, you two kids always get into a fight :).

BTW i checked those images on eMule; it's actually "Rear Entry 3" :lol:

And WTH is Mr. Todd crapping about. QW on PS3 and 360 also because of piracy? Didn't he say in the very article/session that one of the ways to stop it is to have a online component in a game that requires a CD-Key? And weren't Wolf and Q3 historical blockbusters for those very reasons? In my opinion, if you make a game worth playing you have a game worth buying. Selling crap certainly won't stop piracy.

ykazka	(11:48 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
Business ethics so far. By the way, I re-named the file into .avi as you told me to. It is a porn!! And a good one."Full anal access#3" i believe.ha-ha-ha. Thank God it wasn't gay porn. I remember the time when i was looking for "Men in black II" and I found it on e-mule. It turned out it was a movie about two black dudes doing some nasty $hit.lol

devilhood

(11:49 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )

ykazka> Business ethics so far.
By the way, I re-named the file into .avi as you told me to. It is a porn!!
And a good one."Full anal access#3" i believe.ha-ha-ha. Thank God it wasn't gay porn. I remember the time when i was looking for "Men in black II" and I found it on e-mule. It turned out it was a movie about two black dudes doing some nasty $hit.lol

I knew it, hahahahaha the beauty of eMule :lol:

ykazka	(11:53 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
I think we gonna need a chat room on this site soon:)

devilhood	(11:58 PM CET - Mar,12 2007 )
Ohh, a phpBB chat module, Heretic? haha, that will probably never happen.

	(12:06 AM CET - Mar,13 2007 )
devilhood> Ohh, a phpBB chat module, Heretic? haha, that will probably never happen. I will install very sweet chat here. Now I'm waiting for new server hardware...

devilhood	(12:08 AM CET - Mar,13 2007 )
What a surprise, Nice :twisted:

Genoism

(02:08 AM CET - Mar,13 2007 )

its rather sad to see you guys arguing about gfx cards. The majority of new games out there can be played on a huge variety of pc's with a ton of dif hardware rigs.

What the original post was about was that people like you who steal games are hurting developers like me.

Everyone thinks, "everyone does it so why would one more person make the difference", and thats only speaking for the people who would otherwise buy the game. But that very mind set is like a plague, if those people who said something like "dude support the devs and buy the damn game if you like it at least" that would in itself act as a 'vaccine' to the plague. I haven't even touched on those who don't give it a 2nd thought before ripping the game. You guys have no frikkin clue how many people those hackers have screwed over. A game that might have been a hit had everyone bought it(rather then stealing) instead is a flop, no sequels if any were planned, the staff usually gets downsized and people always lose jobs when that happens.

I wish you guys knew how much effort and sleepless nights some really talented devs out there have spent so you could have fun and they could have bread on the table.

Places like EA force (or you quit) you to work 80-90 hour weeks and you get paid for a wooping 40 hours. Meh but most of you guys aren't even out of school so you probably wouldn't care/understand.

You whine about gfx card prices and then you whine about better gfx. Dev's aren't blind or stupid, the only reason you ever see crap in a game or a just stupid shit is cuz the dev's ran out of money - because they know the majority of their sales will be hi-jacked by theives they don't spend as much time as they could have.

Well anyways, thats my 2 cents.

ykazka

(04:12 AM CET - Mar,13 2007 )

"I haven't even touched on those who don't give it a 2nd thought before ripping the game. You guys have no frikkin clue how many people those hackers have screwed over. A game that might have been a hit had everyone bought it(rather then stealing) instead is a flop, no sequels if any were planned, the staff usually gets downsized and people always lose jobs when that happens"--??????????????
Give us an example!!!Prove it!!
if a game is a hit--NO MATTER WHAT there will be a a sequel!
We gto no idea -- i guess u r right

lmer	(11:35 AM CET - Mar,13 2007 )
Oh COME ON Genoism! You're telling me that you never ever downloaded/"borrowed from a friend" a DVD/DivX/Video game? WTF? Yeah I have originals, and yes i have some pirates too. And yes i do understand that games bring food to the table for developers. The sad thing is that we can pretty much see when the developers are really really hungry.

devilhood

(12:40 PM CET - Mar,13 2007 )

Genoism> its rather sad to see you guys arguing about gfx cards. The majority of new games out there can be played on a huge variety of pc's with a ton of dif hardware rigs.

What the original post was about was that people like you who steal games are hurting developers like me.

Everyone thinks, "everyone does it so why would one more person make the difference", and thats only speaking for the people who would otherwise buy the game. But that very mind set is like a plague, if those people who said something like "dude support the devs and buy the damn game if you like it at least" that would in itself act as a 'vaccine' to the plague. I haven't even touched on those who don't give it a 2nd thought before ripping the game. You guys have no frikkin clue how many people those hackers have screwed over. A game that might have been a hit had everyone bought it(rather then stealing) instead is a flop, no sequels if any were planned, the staff usually gets downsized and people always lose jobs when that happens.

I wish you guys knew how much effort and sleepless nights some really talented devs out there have spent so you could have fun and they could have bread on the table.

Places like EA force (or you quit) you to work 80-90 hour weeks and you get paid for a wooping 40 hours. Meh but most of you guys aren't even out of school so you probably wouldn't care/understand.

You whine about gfx card prices and then you whine about better gfx. Dev's aren't blind or stupid, the only reason you ever see crap in a game or a just stupid shit is cuz the dev's ran out of money - because they know the majority of their sales will be hi-jacked by theives they don't spend as much time as they could have.

Well anyways, thats my 2 cents.

Firstly, regarding xxxx, we settled the matter and the whole discussion was essentially pointless.

Secondly, so you're saying dev's never milk the market with sequal after sequal? they never get lazy? they never have a bunch of useless untalented people from time to time?
It's not like they're doing slave labour to put out a game.
If a company can't manage itself and its employees properly to create the kind of environment to inspire and produce good games, then they should not be making games in the first place, or in other words, its a recipe for disaster.

Good games can be made at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time as long as they focus more on playability and originality; a good example would be the kind of titles you're seeing on the Nintendo Wii and DS. It's the creative industry we're talking about here, not tech-demo's r' us.
To me personally, it seems like there is very little balancing of production, where-as you can see in many games, it feels like they focus on one side of the development (graphics and sound) and leave the other (plot, depth and interaction) to somehow piece together in the end.

I personally buy more PC games than I actually copy them, because I wanted to give something back to these guys, yes, I have a rather large stack of DVD's since about 3 years ago, but it's not really all about that isn't it? piracy could never possibly explain why the 'next' game ends up being a load of rubbish, it's more of a convenient excuse.
In saying that, there have been some absolutely brilliant games, and it's not like the whole gaming industry is turning into a massively convoluted mess.
Well, maybe it is :lol:

Genoism

(07:12 PM CET - Mar,15 2007 )

i never said anything was set in stone, I said what might have been a hit was a flop. Not every flop would be a hit. If you want an example, look at advent rising, it was supposed to be a trilogy. I played the game and it was amazing. It had some annoying bugs but they were so few that they certainly could have been fixed had the company not been shutdown. That game was fun, awesome story, some totally original ideas....its a shame they'll never finish it.

YES companies milk games, they don't have time or the money to risk anything else when their game is a hit. Why make a new game when you can make half life 3 and make tons of money just cuz of the title. Ya some gaming companies abuse it like....the majority of EA. But some people out there want to make a sequel not only to make money(after all the point of the company IS to make money, not some people happy) If you don't make money people lose jobs and can't support themselves/families. Some people hate how stuff gets milked, heck im one of those people, but it gets milked because some people like that stuff. If it gives people a job, makes others happy, why really care about how much they milk it ya know? No one is forcing you to buy starwars game #203498203948 but there are people out there who drool at the thought lol.

You know what YES i have stolen shit before but after I got into the whole business of game development and saw how terrible it really is I never stole anything after that again. I watch all my movies in the theater and I never buy them cuz I don't need dead space in my house. If I want to watch something again I'll rent it but that really never happens w. me. I buy my games and im too poor to buy music so i get the free kind from artists who can't afford a cd. You'd be suprised at how good some of that stuff is. Also if you think the gaming industry has it bad with theft you have no idea how bad the music industry is doing. Every sound designed out there(the people who make the music sound as best as it can when played back) that i've ever met, and I've met a lot, they all tell me to run from that industry cuz its just so bad that there's no more money to be made.

Anyway, if i got at least 1 person to stop stealing after reading all this I'm happy enough.

Anonymous	(04:40 PM CET - Mar,21 2007 )
ykazka> A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!! p.s.by the way,this e-mule image,it seems that it can't be mounted.I tried deamon and ISO.any ideas anybody?please? Try use magiciso to mount iso file as virtual cd. It works fine. http://www.magiciso.com/