Was Really looking forward to this game, unfortunately It has the same Drm as AC 2,
so theres no way I will buy it.

In the near future more and more games will start doing a DRM as Ubisoft does. The problem I think is people assume they do it just for greed. It is a business and need to protect their product. When enough people steal a product you have to do something to protect yourself so you do not lose money. I will never get turned off from a game that has any form of DRM on it because a company needs to make money. I can see where people get mad because they are honest gamers who work hard for their money and are the ones who suffer from it. The ones we should get mad at are the ones who pirate the games not the companies who need to protect their product.

Good read, love the pics man. Alaric has a way better beard though.

Statistics show that people who pirate games buy 3 or 4 times the number of games in a year that those who don’t. I would not be surprised if the same applied to music d/l. As far as DRM goes I won’t buy a game with the newest DRM on it. When I pay $60.00 for a game I expect a full, self-contained, product that works on all the computers of the family and not one that works on only one and needs to be connected on the internet all the time. Altough I respect the work involved in a product all the companies are the same: they squeeze the lemon of the employees until they bleed and get rid of them once the product is out on the market, to maximize profit. You respect that? Good for you…

I’d be interested in looking at the statistical data you mentioned. Where can I find it?

Here is an example of studies on the subject, but it’s in french. That study focus on ‘cultural goods’ in general but recent studies on games produces same result. If I translate freely some of the text: 17% of those who don’t pirate movies or music buy some (83% don’t) while 47% of those who use p2p software do, and 36% who use other technique (direct d/l from sites or newsgroups, etc…) do also. Some past sudies by the same searchers showed that P2P users are the greatest buyers of dvd by large.
http://www.gautrais.com/Les-Lois-anti-piratage
http://recherche.telecom-bretagne.eu/marsouin/IMG/pdf/NoteHadopix.pdf

Another interesting example. A study that shows no correlation between piracy (of music) and sales. I’ll find the links for games and post them when I do. In the meantime:
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf

Just another thing: DRM or no DRM… if the text appearing on walls cannot be turned off I’ll pass. I don’t need a game that holds me by the hand like a baby: turn left, turn right, get into that door, hide in the corner, save that prisonner, scrape your head, attach your laces, stand up, get on your knees… I want freedom, I want different solutions to a problem, I also want to forget that I’m in a game and not be reminded all the time by text on the wall that someone has decided what I should do.
I still miss quality games like Deus Ex…

Michel –

Of course the people who steal games buy more games because they have more money to spend.

“When I pay $60.00 for a game I expect a full, self-contained, product that works on all the computers of the family and not one that works on only one and needs to be connected on the internet all the time”

I agree. I think in the future most of the games will have a form of DRM.

“Good for you…”

Yes, good for me.

“Altough I respect the work involved in a product all the companies are the same: they squeeze the lemon of the employees until they bleed and get rid of them once the product is out on the market, to maximize profit.”

I do not think “all the companies” are the same. I sense that you and others feel that game companies are in the industry not to make money. They are in the industry to maximize profit any way they can. Wait…a company that wants to maximize profit is bad?

Well this makes $100 that UBI didn’t get from me. Congrats you stopped pirating and now losing cash from paying customers instead.

They blame pirating for everything though so I hardly view it as a valid excuse anymore. Games that just all around were short or sucky (Far Cry 2 / Mirrors Edge etc) they blamed pirating when they should have blamed the makers of the game for letting it be so boring and short.

Sure Mirrors Edge was cool but took me 5 hours to beat and I am casual.

Piracy is like sex: when you get more you want more. Wheter it’s games, music, serious applications, books, those who use piracy also buy more of what they get a high on. Free porno sites just feed the obsessions and bring customers to paying ones. Same goes for games, etc…

The question is this: if a game maker does $20 million more, 40, 60, or even an 100 more on a game will any of that money reach the pockets of the employees who did and created that game (on top of their usual paycheck, if they haven’t been fired once the game was finished)? I think anyone who has worked once in his life knows the answer to that.

Here’s another example on the music industry:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1600916/spotify-shafts-songwriters

Michel-

“Piracy is like sex: when you get more you want more. Wheter it’s games, music, serious applications, books, those who use piracy also buy more of what they get a high on. Free p***o sites just feed the obsessions and bring customers to paying ones. Same goes for games, etc…”

Let me get this straight…You compare piracy is like sex but wouldn’t that be rape? Also the free porno sites are like free game demos you try before you buy.

“The question is this: if a game maker does $20 million more, 40, 60, or even an 100 more on a game will any of that money reach the pockets of the employees who did and created that game (on top of their usual paycheck, if they haven’t been fired once the game was finished)? I think anyone who has worked once in his life knows the answer to that.”

The problem is it cost the company “$20 million more, 40, 60, or even an 100” to make the game. You think just because you work for a company that makes money you should get money. Let us say I work for Coca-Cola and I drive a delivery truck delivering Coca-Cola to stores. If I follow your logic then I should get paid a lot more than 30-40k a year just because Coca-Cola brings a lot of money in. Same goes for game companies. Game companies are not evil. If you want video game industry employees to get paid a lot more and have better job security then you will be paying for $100-150 a game rather than $60. It would be nice though if we lived in a make believe world and everyone got paid what they think they deserved to get paid.