“Software Piracy” is the new “Lack of Creativity in Games”
It sucks for consumers and it sucks for those who toil away in the home offices and/or the giant corporations whatever the industry.
However, it’s not a new thing. I’m sure before Lord British’s first commercial game Akalabeth was put on the shelf in ziploc baggies, the store clerk already had his 5 1/4 floppy drive going hog wild with “copy *.* a: b:”.
However I’m in agreement with Joe Indie in which there are many other factors involved in a company going under…(most recently Ironlore Entertainment).
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t celebrate or relish any company closing its doors, and so I wish everyone involved the best in picking up the pieces and moving on. Hopefully lessons were learned to prevent the same thing happening in a future venture.
Their publisher, THQ, went on a rampage against pretty much everyone to place the blame of Ironlore’s closure on them. From game reviewers who didn’t share the same vision, to insulting the customers who actually did buy a copy of their games (go figure). Who knows? Maybe THQ’s Michael Fitch went to the same school as the RIAA enthusiasts and believe the best way to punish piracy is not to improve shitty music that was crafted in a market research lab, but to put your customers behind bars or in homeless shelters. Makes perfect sense to me!
But I’m sure because of its emotional, explosive nature, “Piracy” will be the new game media buzzword this year, for no real reason other than to cash in on the situation and try to throw C4 on things in the hopes of driving up subscriptions.
A few years ago, the buzzword was “creativity”. The industry saw explosive growth and market upswing, but everyone in the inner circles of game development were crying about a lack of creativity in the industry. (Oh I see…so after 15 years of Sim.* titles, there was a sudden “problem” with creavitity….riiighhttt..)
I think no matter what the technology used, there’s going to be a percentage base who will never buy the software they use. (By coincidence, these are also usually just about the same group of people who are against concepts like DRM but that’s another issue entirely *wink*).
I don’t have the answers, but I somehow don’t think insulting your only allies is the way to go…
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