If You Pirate Grand Theft Auto IV, God Kills a Kitten
So don't, okay? Because the news is that Rockstar's imminent blockbuster leaked early to the newsgroups and torrent sites, and that Microsoft's sales in particular are going to take a hit because DVDs are a snap to dupe while Blu-ray discs aren't (yet). That's too bad, even granting the cynical reaction that it was bound to happen anyway.
Why? Technology lets us to do things that confound convention. The speed of silicon isn't stepwise, it's logarithmic, and that tendency for "tech" to outpace "tenet" has inarguably challenged the relationship we have to the things we consume, along with the creators of those things.
But just because we today have tools that allow us to circumvent convention doesn't give us the right to do whatever we want. No one in a free society is ever entitled to do "whatever they can get away with." It's not that something like piracy's objectively right or wrong, it's not even that it's patently illegal (though it's certainly largely that), it's that -- as far as I'm concerned -- it's just plain selfish. It's someone saying "Screw the social contract, I want what I want and everyone else can go hang."
Talent isn't free. Van Gogh didn't put food on the table by giving away paintings. (In a different world and time and society maybe, but not this one.) And whether claims of PC piracy rates as high as 70-85% are true or not, it's almost certainly the case that piracy's contributed to the demise of plenty of independent developers, who've either gone buh-bye entirely or been swallowed by exactly the sort of creativity-stifling corporate monoliths pirates are always claiming to be railing against.
Let me disabuse anyone who thinks piracy is about some nobler-than-thou quest to free information (because information "just wants to be free!" etc.). The guys ripping games like Grand Theft Auto IV and passing them along to newsgroups and torrent sites aren't a clan of benign free-info advocates. They're not part of some ethical underground movement to wrestle art back from the Evil Kung Fu Grip of stultifying corporations. No...they're nothing more than macho thieves, whether out to profit monetarily by reselling the software in an underdeveloped market, or to build social cachet in an admittedly talented but fatally shortsighted online creature culture.
And still people pirate, at a rate of 22 percent in the U.S. according to the BSA, all the way into the high 60s when you look at Central and Eastern Europe.
During a walk around Gellert Hill here in Budapest earlier today, I saw a guy hunkered down on the balls of his feet shifting tiny cups on the ground as a couple of betting tourists egged him on with handfuls of cash. A little further down the path I encountered a sign that read: "Games of chance played in this park aren't -- You cannot win! Don't play!"
There's a sucker born every minute. When I was in Lithuania and Russia seven years ago you couldn't swing a cat without hitting a pirate stand crammed with burned and color-labeled copies of the latest PC game releases. At the time the big news was Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, the expansion pack to BioWare's award-winning D&D spinpoff. I picked one up for a couple bucks, then ended up using it in a feature on PC piracy I wrote for Computer Games Magazine. It sure looked legit.
Don't be a sucker. Wait a few more days. Plan to finish something else you've been meaning to this weekend. And if it's a money thing, remember there's nothing wrong with giving Rockstar their full due (or any other developer, for that matter). We spend enough time griping about all the disappointing games that cross our desks. Here's one that -- if all the media crowing's even remotely on point -- may turn out to be worth patronizing several times over.
Update: This just in...beware false messengers bearing "official" statements about the game's release date. Stories are popping up (and thankfully, disappearing) that suggest Rockstar's okayed early sales of GTA IV. All of these are 100% false. According to Rockstar, "The official April 29th release date will not change." Why not, if some people are illicitly playing it early? Because -- Rockstar deserves a legitimate day-one sales number, which it forfeits if it changes the date this close to sell day.
Re-Play
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[slow clap]
Matt, agree with you two billion percent. One thing I'd like to add is an example of a real studio that felt the sting of piracy: Iron Lore studios. here, these guys created a brilliant and fun action-RPG (TitanQuest). Yeah, yeah, it was little more than a -highly- polished Diablo II tribute, but it was an AWESOME, highly polished D2 tribute. It won critics over and yet, because of rampant piracy, the developer folded because they couldn't recoup costs. I'll spare the lecture at this point, but there are plenty of places to get free games if you want em.
This was done to stop the EA take over. This was an inside job. That is a FACT!!!
This is a situation where I think Microsoft and Take Two should go ahead and reward those who intend to purchase the game legally by releasing it early. If the game has shipped to stores...just release it.
The music industry has already started engaging in this practice when high profile albums are leaked to torrent sites. Why not do the same thing for a high profile game? If you put it on sale...you'll remove a huge chunk of temptation from fans who are eager to get their hands on a long-delayed title.
Watching others play it illegally makes those of us who have done the right thing and pre-ordered it...feel like fools.
Re: UPDATE
So they're basically willing to give their legitimate supporters the middle finger and ask us to sit around watching other people play their game for the next week?! Lame.
@jjgard
Someone call the waaaaaahmbulance. Don't be a dope. How is anyone "giving you the middle finger"? You have known for weeks what the release date was going to be and that hasn't changed. If anyone is giving you the middle finger, it's the pirates, so report 'em if you know who they are.
People that are pirating the game are highly unlikely to be purchasers anyway so I doubt it will hurt sales figures in the long run.
My point is simply that since GTAIV is sitting at retailers in boxes marked "Do Not Sell Until 4/29"...it would be just as easy for Take Two to reward people who want to actually give them money for the game.
It's not as if I said "F**K 'em...if they don't release it early, I'm not buying it."
If you don't want to pay for GTA IV it's simple: wait for a demo.
If you pirate video games, please don't complain when the next Grand Theft Auto, Supreme Commander, World in Conflict, etc. get cancelled because the developers have to get new jobs so they can support themselves.
Very good & spot-on, if you don't or won't pay, don't PLAY!!!!!!!!!! We all pay more for our games & other software because of lazy patetic people, who beleive it is their given right to steal what cannot be seen, or so they think. We all get off our bum's and work to pay the costs of doing things legally & morally correct, then have to pay exorbitant prices on items because oters are ripping it off, while they are usually home receiving un-employment benefits. It is no different to shop lifting, embezzlement or plain out robbery!!! Hopefully one day there might be a way to rid our selves of it but i doubt it. Anyway i'm off to grab a LEGAL copy tomorrow which has been paid for from going to a real job, not being a society bludger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe if companies wanted to lower there game prices they would and could, wether people are pirating games or not. I personally wont play or touch a pirate game or any pirate soft ware, and up till a few months back i was un-employed but still purchase legal software, the main thing i want to say to "Xtal84" is dont go blaming or making out that its only un-employed people who rippoff, shop lift, embezzlement, robbery and are lazy patetic people. lots off people are un-employed because they cant find the right job for them or there just is not a job to get, if you dont believe me then walk out of your job and try get another straight away.
And do me and many others a favour "KEEP... your moans about un-employed people out of your equations about games companies and Software pirates".
P.S Cant wait till GTA IV comes out on PC " As i will buy a LEGAL copy as alway wether EN-EMPLOYED or UN-EMPLOYED". ; )
I posted a coment about "AJMAG" post and put in the wrong username, i do apologize to "xtal84". my comment is not aimed at you its aimed at ..."AJMAG"...