Civ V Cracked Already

[Blitz66]

Meh.

If someone pirates a game, it is my belief that in the majority of cases, they would have never of bought the game in the first place, thus no sales were lost.

On the contrary, for games which offer no free demo, a cracked game can lead to a sale when pirate cracks the game, finds he or she likes it, and then purchases it.

In my opinion, enhanced customer support is the best anti-piracy tool available to game software developers. Things like access to official forums, patch access (or early, beta patch access), and official multi-player support will get any "pirate" who truly enjoys the game to eventually cough up the dough for the game.

Generally this philosophy works best with developers and publishers that care about more than just the bottom line, and provide their customers with the incentive to want to support them by putting out solid games and listening to gamer feedback.

 

[fresca]

I have pirated software, and I am apalled. I like to believe current pirates are a bit like I was 20 years ago - poor, unemployed, or absolutely clueless about how the world works (or all of the above, in my case).

It's easy to steal from someone when you don't look the creator in the eye. It's easy to hang with a crowd that reinforces behavior with grandiose claims of a variation of "fighting the man". I wounder how many pirates would feel simarly self rightous walking into a store and stealing that software off a shelf ("....but dude, I don't agree with the DRM!")?

Then you get a job, and it dawns on you what would happen if all your customers got your work/product for free. It doesn't matter what their misguided motivations are, you don't get paid for your work.

I truly to make amends for my bad behavior by buying both the digital and boxed versions of games I really love, including Civ5. I have not pirated a game since I have been gainfully employed. I have learned that if I can't afford it, I don't play it.

Some realizations only come with maturity, not based on age, but realization of how your own actions effect others and on how the world works. Pirates are pirates because they haven't learned any better.

 

[Conditional Zenith]

Would people please stop confusing theft (a criminal act which involves taking something away from the original possessor) and copyright infringement (usually a civil law matter which leaves the original possessor with what they had).

Anyway, most pirates would never have bothered buying the game anyway, there's no lost sale there, and often there is a gained sale when someone who wasn't going to buy the game pirates a game and decides they like it, and then buys it (as I have sometimes done).

Essentially the core question which publishers need to ask when deciding whether/which DRM to use are:
* How much does it cost to implement the DRM
AND
* What will be the net gain/loss in sales. There will be a (from what I have seen) small number of people who will be thwarted in acquiring an unauthorised copy of the game by the DRM and will therefore buy it. There will be a larger group of people who decline to buy the game because of DRM and either go without or pirate it.

I just don't see how using DRM/Copy-Protection is a good idea for publishers, and it pisses of paying customers far more than pirates.

 

[AdamMorva]

Meh.

If someone pirates a game, it is my belief that in the majority of cases, they would have never of bought the game in the first place, thus no sales were lost.

Moderator Action: *snip*

In my opinion, enhanced customer support is the best anti-piracy tool available to game software developers. Things like access to official forums, patch access (or early, beta patch access), and official multi-player support will get any "pirate" who truly enjoys the game to eventually cough up the dough for the game.

Generally this philosophy works best with developers and publishers that care about more than just the bottom line, and provide their customers with the incentive to want to support them by putting out solid games and listening to gamer feedback.

Agreed.

 

[Degenx2]

Meh.

If someone pirates a game, it is my belief that in the majority of cases, they would have never of bought the game in the first place, thus no sales were lost.

On the contrary, for games which offer no free demo, a cracked game can lead to a sale when pirate cracks the game, finds he or she likes it, and then purchases it.

In my opinion, enhanced customer support is the best anti-piracy tool available to game software developers. Things like access to official forums, patch access (or early, beta patch access), and official multi-player support will get any "pirate" who truly enjoys the game to eventually cough up the dough for the game.

Generally this philosophy works best with developers and publishers that care about more than just the bottom line, and provide their customers with the incentive to want to support them by putting out solid games and listening to gamer feedback.

This man speaks the truth. As does Zenith. Look at the two most well known and respected PC developers, Valve and Blizzard. Both have fantastic customer service, neither use any invasive DRM whatsoever. Neither have complained ONCE about piracy. And yet they are still the most wealthy companies.

How do they do it? Simple. They don't piss off the customers, infact they do the opposite. Valve released a RIDICULOUS amount of free content patches for TF2, they cannot POSSIBLY have been making profit on that game any time 6 months after launch. This is a game that cost $20 at launch, and has been on sale for 99c (or $2.99, forgot which) more than twice. It has free weekends every other month, which put huge strain on the Steam servers etc. Now TF2 is a multiplayer game, so obviously it's fairly immune to piracy. But what about the Half Life games? They sold astronomically, why? Because a LOT of people consider them to be the best PC games of all time.

Companies throw away so much time and money trying to 'fight piracy' and it CLEARLY isn't working. If they'd spend as much time and effort on putting out quality products I can guarentee you they'd see an increase in profit.

 

[AdamMorva]

I just don't see how using DRM/Copy-Protection is a good idea for publishers, and it pisses of paying customers far more than pirates.

Aion European/NA release comes to mind.. The games official DRM kept a huge portion of purchasers from playing that ing game. That discouraged so many people from buying or playing the game.
DRMs are useless anyways. Most games are cracked fortnight.

 

[KingYosef]

Steam sucks, and is just a thorn in the gamers side to enjoy a game unattached.

 

[PieceOfMind]

On a related note, does anyone know how to register two copies with steam? I purchased two copies so that we can play on two computers at the same time (and/or against each other) and Steam wont let me register the second copy. Do I HAVE TO create a second Steam account? Ugh.

To my knowledge, yes. A steam account is for the use of one person only, it's written somewhere in the Steam Subscriber Agreement IIRC.

At least you can still use the same email address for both accounts.

 

[Maniacal]

Steam sucks, and is just a thorn in the gamers side to enjoy a game unattached.

Millions of happy steam users disagree.

On a related note, does anyone know how to register two copies with steam? I purchased two copies so that we can play on two computers at the same time (and/or against each other) and Steam wont let me register the second copy. Do I HAVE TO create a second Steam account? Ugh.

Yes you will need a different account for the second copy.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Millions of happy steam users disagree.

What evidence do you have for such a statement? Or are you making the flawed assumption that if someone is using steam they are necessarily happy with it?

Especially considering that many games now make Steam compulsory (civ5, Modern Warfare 2, Fear 2, to name a few examples), it's pretty much impossible for all but the most passionate steam-haters to avoid having a steam account.

I don't hate steam, but I don't particularly like it either.

 

[Strumpet]

Meh.
If someone pirates a game, it is my belief that in the majority of cases, they would have never of bought the game in the first place, thus no sales were lost...

This entire post was pretty much spot-on.

There are game developers who have "earned" the right to not be pirated.

Blizzard, Bioware, Firaxis, and a few others are such devs. I will buy their product sight unseen just based on reputation and personal experience.

However, with most retailers refusing to accept returns, I really have very little issue with people who pirate with the intention of seeing if the game works.

Releasing a product that doesn't function properly is no different than someone stealing it for a test drive imo.

I personally love Civ5, and have zero regrets with my purchase. But I don't begrudge people who want to return it because it doesn't function as advertised. The industry at the moment doesn't allow them that option. Heck, if I buy a CAR I still have 30 days to return it no questions asked.

 

[Akka]

Doh, I misread, disreguard this post...

 

[anandus]

Steam sucks, and is just a thorn in the gamers side to enjoy a game unattached.

If one hates Steam so much, but likes a game, one could buy the game and use the pirated copy.
But for some reason I think the ones that do this are bar to none.

Moderator Action: This forum has a strict policy in regards to discussions on piracy. There is zero tolerance for posts that advocate piracy. Even if one owns the game, it is not legal to use pirated copies.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[cr0ws]

Spore isn't even worth pirating. That game sucks.

Arguably the biggest letdown in gaming history...

Here here, I got a "free" copy of Spore and after an hour of fiddling with it I felt personally insulted. It then immediately went into the oblivion route as I decided it just took up too much drive space which could be dedicated to my music samples and pr0n.

I feel MANY games are not pirate worthy as well...mostly those released by Electronic Arts.

 

[anandus]

Slightly offtopic:
Didn't the creator of Civ4 quit Firaxis to work on Spore?

 

[Jester Fool]

Steam is my savior. It does my dishes. It cleans my carpet. When I accidentally play frisbee with my game discs, I don't have to worry about re-installing my games cause Steam will do it for me. *sarc off* Seriously, forced Steam was a bad decision on 2K's part. Before you ask, I READ the Steam EULA. I perused Steam's forums. Steam + CiV = no sale ever. Too bad (for Firaxis) since I have bought EVERY Civ version (except for the first, which I never played), Pirates, Colonization, Alpha Centari and Alien Crossfire (almost every game they ever made). However, I will NEVER steal / pirate any game any time. I do hope interested third parties read my post. Maybe they might get a clue.

 

[cr0ws]

Slightly offtopic:
Didn't the creator of Civ4 quit Firaxis to work on Spore?

Yes and just like Civ 4 , Spore is pig crap unless it's modded by community. But unfortunately, spore cannot be modded like Civ 4 can.

 

[Nutteria]

Pardont the question but I hear that some of the pirated editions were from press release where the AI is told to handle it self way better.

True/falce?!

 

[Taan]

Bugged releases like Civ V are one reason why the pirate scene is growing and growing. If you pay 50 bucks for a game and it turns out it isn't even finished (but gaming magazins tell you its perfect, as well as demos that carefully hide the major flaws) you will feel cheated. So next time you will not spend the money until you are 100% sure (which forces you into two things: don't even try or pirate first, buy afterwards).

 

[mfie]

Any game will eventually be cracked by pirates. It's more interesting to note that with Civ5 it took several days for it to happen rather than on or before release date. No doubt this forced many pirates who were eagerly anticipating the game to break down and actually buy it. And I say, good

Although I don't like when software protection is onerous to the legitimate owners, I'm a software developer and I strongly believe the publishers have every right to protect their product, and earn the dollars they deserve. It's a shame that they have to go to such extreme lengths, but then again, so do the thieves.

We suffer because of the pirates, not because the software houses enjoy having to spend more money and development time on coming up with draconian protection methods.

Civ V was cracked in less than 12 hours and appeared on p2p network 2 days later (still not on piratebay atm tough)