TBH, I was inebriated and chatting on #lwjgl (good channel, btw) with Endolf and others when the idea for this one first struck me. After later talking to the GS editors about it, I went off and wrote this as a soapbox piece (hence the deliberately provocative and extremist tone). I thought you might find it interesting:
I agree with this.
I’m a firm proponent of the idea that most pirated game uses are by people who would not have bought the game anyway, so there is no immediate actual loss.
to be fair, I know a fair deal of people that dwl a game - play it for ~2 hours tops and then ditch 'em.
They would never had bought it, and if they had, it would be fair if they could have gotten their money back IMO. This could probably be avoided entirely by playing demos - but for some reason arent.
Another segment is avid gamers ageed 12-16, they consume 3-5 games a month, and they simply cant pay for it. Normally this would just mean that they would play less games, but since they CAN get a hold of these games for “free” they choose to do so.
One thing is for sure tho. All online games are bought, and even those same people that download cracked games buy them, and has no issue in doing so.
oh, and great article adam!
It’s nice to see someone with a positive view on P2P 
Another concern is the size of a fan base for a particular game.
If 1/2 of your gamers are using pirated copies - removing the piracy will instantly 1/2 your fan base.
While a free copy of a game makes you no direct income, indirect revenues driven by the overall success of a title do have real financial value. (even more so in the current era of on-line gaming.)
matzon - I wouldn’t totally agree with the statment at 16’ish year olds don’t have money. They do - its called their overindulgent parents. I see more parent’s plunking down cash for their kids than I care to, especially since they take no interest in what the game is.
I’ve wanted to whack some parents for blinding purchasing Resident Evil for their 7 year old or GTA for that matter.
Dr. A>
very nice article, which is very true, if a game is worth buying you should pay for it, sadly 90% or so games that come out aren’t!(IMO) and out of those that are worth buying some are just over priced for the content you get!