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I Don't Have to Be Right
12 years ago
Okay, so this is really bothering me, but because of the hour, there's not many others to talk to about this, so I'm just posting it up here to get it out there.
A short bit ago, I was talking with a good friend over IMs. We dick around, laugh it up, and sometimes talk about things that bother us, like politics or religion or big business, etc, etc. As far as I'm aware, we've never had a 'shouting match' and are open-minded enough to accept each other's viewpoints if we happen to disagree. Tonight, I think I made my friend angry, and I have no idea why.
It concerns that new game, Game Dev Tycoon, and its developer's way of discouraging piracy by having in-game pirates cause you to lose money, but only if you downloaded the game for free. In my opinion, I thought it was clever. My friend was one of the people that had downloaded this version of the game, though, and was angered with the developers when I let them know what would happen. My friend said that they were only playing the game for free to see if it was worth paying money for, but was now discouraged by what they felt was a dick move on the developer's part.
While I'm glad to know there are people out there who will drop money for something they've already played for free, I let my friend know that there's probably just as many people who wouldn't bother, because hey, free game, right? You can't be sure if someone will pay for a game or not after they've already played through it, so why not only give them enough of the game experience to make that decision without giving them everything? Of course, the companies should be pumping out quality games worth the money anyway, but sometimes they don't, and round and round it goes.
I'll be honest: I'm one of those dick people who, if I were to be given a free movie or video game and was able to experience it in its entirety, I'd see no reason to want to spend money on it after the fact. Now, I don't actively go out of my way to get things for free, mind you (except chocolate, maybe, but that's a different story). I pay for my movies and games and books and everything else like most consumers do, in the hope that what I'm paying will be worth the experience. Sometimes I'm disappointed, other times not. It really sucks when I'm out sixty bucks for a game I thought would be awesome and it turns out to be garbage, but I learn my lesson and pay more attention to reviews for that next game I wanna buy.
My dad is an animator and cartoon show director, and also votes for the Academy Awards. Because of that, he gets sent tons of free movies to review and screen. Sometimes, as a family, we'll all sit down together to watch one of the latest movies that hasn't come out on DVD yet. And after watching one of those movies, I usually have no desire to actually pay money to see it in the theater or buy the DVD afterward. Why bother, if I've already experienced it? That's why I have no problems with gaming companies putting in glitches or programs that only let you experience part of the game in hopes you'll pay for it to see the whole thing. Heck, gaming demos are perfect for that, aren't they?
Anyway, when I mentioned that not everyone pirating a video game was intending to pay money for it afterward, my friend felt I was taking a verbose potshot at them and disconnected. I'm not sure if my friend was hurt that I didn't take their side, or if they thought I felt they weren't actually going to pay for the game if they had been able to play the whole thing (which I don't! I'm sure they would have!), but it's driving me nuts now because I wasn't trying to hurt their feelings, but I can't be sure I'm not some moron who 's got a skewed viewpoint of the world and I've been spouting nonsense.
I really hope it was just a misunderstanding. I like having friends. Losing one of them because of something stupid I said will keep me up all night.
A short bit ago, I was talking with a good friend over IMs. We dick around, laugh it up, and sometimes talk about things that bother us, like politics or religion or big business, etc, etc. As far as I'm aware, we've never had a 'shouting match' and are open-minded enough to accept each other's viewpoints if we happen to disagree. Tonight, I think I made my friend angry, and I have no idea why.
It concerns that new game, Game Dev Tycoon, and its developer's way of discouraging piracy by having in-game pirates cause you to lose money, but only if you downloaded the game for free. In my opinion, I thought it was clever. My friend was one of the people that had downloaded this version of the game, though, and was angered with the developers when I let them know what would happen. My friend said that they were only playing the game for free to see if it was worth paying money for, but was now discouraged by what they felt was a dick move on the developer's part.
While I'm glad to know there are people out there who will drop money for something they've already played for free, I let my friend know that there's probably just as many people who wouldn't bother, because hey, free game, right? You can't be sure if someone will pay for a game or not after they've already played through it, so why not only give them enough of the game experience to make that decision without giving them everything? Of course, the companies should be pumping out quality games worth the money anyway, but sometimes they don't, and round and round it goes.
I'll be honest: I'm one of those dick people who, if I were to be given a free movie or video game and was able to experience it in its entirety, I'd see no reason to want to spend money on it after the fact. Now, I don't actively go out of my way to get things for free, mind you (except chocolate, maybe, but that's a different story). I pay for my movies and games and books and everything else like most consumers do, in the hope that what I'm paying will be worth the experience. Sometimes I'm disappointed, other times not. It really sucks when I'm out sixty bucks for a game I thought would be awesome and it turns out to be garbage, but I learn my lesson and pay more attention to reviews for that next game I wanna buy.
My dad is an animator and cartoon show director, and also votes for the Academy Awards. Because of that, he gets sent tons of free movies to review and screen. Sometimes, as a family, we'll all sit down together to watch one of the latest movies that hasn't come out on DVD yet. And after watching one of those movies, I usually have no desire to actually pay money to see it in the theater or buy the DVD afterward. Why bother, if I've already experienced it? That's why I have no problems with gaming companies putting in glitches or programs that only let you experience part of the game in hopes you'll pay for it to see the whole thing. Heck, gaming demos are perfect for that, aren't they?
Anyway, when I mentioned that not everyone pirating a video game was intending to pay money for it afterward, my friend felt I was taking a verbose potshot at them and disconnected. I'm not sure if my friend was hurt that I didn't take their side, or if they thought I felt they weren't actually going to pay for the game if they had been able to play the whole thing (which I don't! I'm sure they would have!), but it's driving me nuts now because I wasn't trying to hurt their feelings, but I can't be sure I'm not some moron who 's got a skewed viewpoint of the world and I've been spouting nonsense.
I really hope it was just a misunderstanding. I like having friends. Losing one of them because of something stupid I said will keep me up all night.
1. Reconsider your position. Honestly. Reconsider it. Try to see it through the eyes of your friend. Extricate yourself from your emotions and ask, "what if I believed like my friend did".
2. Ask your friend to see things from your point of view and help them divorce themselves from their emotions, if only for a moment, to better understand where you are coming from.
Neither of these guarantees anything. You don't have to change to see success; neither does your friend. But at least if you both try this, you can better accept the outcome. If you drift apart and both of you have assessed where you stand, fully understanding where the other is coming from; if you are willing to accept you may be wrong and your friend may be right, you will at least be able to say that you tried to find middle ground. You will be able to say you made the best, good-faith effort to understand each other. That, after the fact, can help alleviate some of the regret of having such a dispute.
And if one of you comes to understand the other, if one of your viewpoints changes, then growth has occurred. No matter which person is willing to say, "I accept I could be in the wrong" or "I've never thought of it that way, before", someone has grown as an individual.
I think the worst thing someone can do is just brush it off and try not to think or talk about it. Open discussion, even uncomfortable discussion, is crucial to any friendship. And, really, the two diametrically opposed outcomes listed above, are rare. Usually, during disputes, both people find some middle ground and the whole argument fades into the background of a re-discovered, re-evaluated relationship.
A more accurate depiction would be to have some random stranger give you gold at random simply because you have a certain object, then steal that gold back from you, not five seconds later.
See, they are counting their chickens before they are hatched. They have no idea how many of those people who downloaded the game would have purchased it otherwise, but they assume that they ALL could have, which is clearly incorrect. They are not out anything. They still have their game, they still can sell licenses to play the game. It's akin to sailing along, being boarded by pirates, having them make exact copies of all your treasure, and then sailing off, leaving you with everything you had before. The only thing they have lost is possible potential customers. Nothing more.
This is why when I see the warning that says that Piracy Is NOT A Victimless Crime I have to laugh. Exactly who is the victim, and how is he or she a victim?
Just insulting me accomplishes absolutely nothing.
This is a capitalist economy. We haven't gotten to the point of Star Trek yet where everything is free. If you can't afford a game and you download it because you can't afford it, you are getting it without paying for it. That's called stealing.
"They are not out anything."
They are out 8 bucks. If you can afford to download Game Dev Tycoon, you can probably afford the 8 bucks to buy it.
"It's akin to sailing along, being boarded by pirates, having them make exact copies of all your treasure, and then sailing off, leaving you with everything you had before."
No, it's akin to someone standing in line for a pizza, stealing 3 slices from the counter, then leaving, saying they'll be back another time if they like it.
"The only thing they have lost is possible potential customers. Nothing more."
If 10,000 people pirated the game, then the two game developers are out 80,000 dollars, which they need to pay rent.
"This is why when I see the warning that says that Piracy Is NOT A Victimless Crime I have to laugh. Exactly who is the victim, and how is he or she a victim?"
The developers, who are out money they need to make rent. The people who work at EA, who don't make EA's crappy decisions, they just make games. The players of video games, who have to suffer because more and more complex DRM systems are invented. And the genre of movies and video games in general, where because of the easier state of piracy, large companies take less chances with interesting and daring games/movies and stick in general with AAA titles.
What is the marginal cost of the pirated game? ZIP! ZERO! NADA!! Yet, they chalk up the retail price as their loss.
That's not good bookkeeping.
They also DON'T count the number of people who buy the regular version after trying the downloaded version, and count the, effectively, trial version as a theft, when it isn't.
When you can't determine how much your loss is, and assume it is ALL loss, I'm sorry, you get no sympathy from me, and I do not call you a victim.
Perhaps German has the right words.
That's not a shout match. You have never had a shout match if you think that was one. This was totally tame, and your friend apparently only went offline because of criticism, which any friend should be able to take within reasonable boundaries. Him just going offline because you didn't agree with him was the only dick move I could see.
The idea of the devs was ingenious, and was lauded from everyone - apart from pirates. "I just want to test it" is a bullshit argument. You're playing it, and unless you run away screaming the very first five to ten seconds, you have been entertained and the game has been worth it's money. "I just want to test it" enables everyone to play a game, enjoy it, find a point to nag about (and there's always one) and say "Nah, not worth it.". It's bullshit, it's hypocricy and it's a sickening amount of self-righteousness. There is no such thing as a perfect game. There will always be someone not liking some part of it.
The "counting chickens before they hatched" argument is completely irrational as well. The whole world economy is based on that concept. Researching, conceptualizing, developing and publishing a product is an incredibly cost intensive process, and during all that time, all the devs have are "potential customers" that will translate into paying customers. Crowdfunding is trying to change that by making customers pay before they receive a product, but the moment the first multi-million projects release and undoubtedly fall short of the heightened expectations of customers that already paid, that concept will lose a lot of force.
And doing that to an indie developement project, while all the world is crying about the unimaginative copycat approaches by EA, Activision and co., that simply release part 20 of whatever successful series they have, is the pinnacle of douchebaggery. "I just want to test this $8 project" - my ass. Anyone saying that and believing it themselves is beyond help.
The ONLY exception I am willing to make is when a product is not released in your home market, as it often happens with Anime/Manga, Series, etc. - but even then, in times when series like Game of Thrones and Defiance get broadcast in all the major markets with less than 24h time difference, they have record shares on torrents only hours after their US broadcast. "I don't want to pay €10 extra per month to watch a series" - then shut the hell up and wait for the BluRay release if you still think you need to watch it.
But in the fandom, where art packs get "leaked" to image boards in no time and people point and actually laugh at the artist that has spent countless hours creating the art, I'm somehow not really surprised by that mindset being expressed.
Bottom line:
Piracy is wrong. People do not want to pay and think they are entitled to play what they want and pay only if they deem the product worthy.
I know THAT feeling, I can't really think of any advice to offer that's better than the ones above, but I do hope things work out between you and your freind.