PC gaming and piracy in "out of the gaming market countries"

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

Same deal for me. I lived in Bosnia before moving here to the US and nearly everything over there is pirated because there are NO software companies producing anything over there. And if I wanted an oriignal copy I would have to pay a 200% markup for it, presumable IF I even found an original copy. I live in the US now so I don't have the problem anymore, but friends told me of seeing Vista Ultimate for about 5 Marks, roughly over a dolllar...

Game companies are complaining about piracy when they are really doing nothing to stop it. If US companies started producing and shipping their software to countries such as Bosnia there would be no reason not to get a pirated copy, as then the price would be fair and there would be an abundance of the product...

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

MachetazoZ

Ahh yes, how lovely you refer to a little dabble of mine! While some can press that piracy can be used to introduce new products before release, you do first need to understand certain.... circumstances, that may be prevailing, and how they compare to the ethics of this world. And by world, I mean the banks of New York and men and women inside, and the investors who take part.

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

MachetazoZ

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it 

[QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

mattisgod01

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it 

dont say "we" as you speak for no other then your selfe in here. or are you having a gathering at your computer and have this as a kind of group thing ? i for once dont mind reading whatever it is of lenght or sice as long as it is something worth reading. i dont think im the only one either, so drop the "we" thing, in here youre all alone as is all of us. and if you dont like to read a posting becourse its to long for you i cant see why you has to be rude about it and let us all know you dont. beleve me, WE are better off without knowing that fact :)

i appritate it but my forum was blocked and i was talking againt piracy so u should b a little careful  talking about piracy bcoz if ur with piracy or against piracy i think they will block the forum and charge you with some penalty

why do all of u gamers give me big favor and all of us ask that modrator the by which reason hi blocked my friend forum and i think that his LEVEL-10 is droped to LEVEL-1 thats not fair i think wat about you guysusman182000

i dont understand what you talk about actually

For the love of god, please repair the "enter" button on your keyboard. Fignewton50

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't.

I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...).

For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after.

The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me).

So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

MachetazoZ

spaced for all u paragraph lubbers 

C'mon dudes stop freaking out 'cause of my lacks of paragraphs or anything. I'm not here to make a thesis, just want to see if u guys have any ideas.

I'm not asking for judgement or compassion, I love to live here, but as u saw the gaming zone is fringe.I know there's direct to drive and stuff but the biggest problem is: 1 most games r not available 2 almost nobody has original copies (hence no local network, either in Brazil or South America) 3 must play FROM 2AM to 7AM to be on with American or European gamers, so it's not a good deal. I can play CSS, GW and used to play NVN (when there were servers here) and Warcraft 3 during daytime. So it's either largely popular games (that ppl play here) or games that require minimum internet activity. My points: is what could/should be done?

I know that mentioning piracy in Gamespot is illegal but my ideas r far from apologetic, and  in fact r against piracy. It's a big modern problem and I think it shouldn't be ignored or made illegal just to talk about it. In fact this is a serious issue much more important than "Wich u guys think is the best shooter" or "Which SIMS expansion should I get". So if u r a kid or a troll just keep out of here.

And for the guy complaining about the quality of the english here, if u haven't noticed lots of foreigners r posting here so don't judge this way. I could write perfect ellaborated english if I wanted to but that's not the point. (hope the paragraphs helped your short term memories (for the ones who said that), it's about substance not style).

[QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't.

I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...).

For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after.

The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me).

So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

bahdom

spaced for all u paragraph lubbers 

Thx man come home tomorrow to do the laundry.

C'mon dudes stop freaking out 'cause of my lacks of paragraphs or anything. I'm not here to make a thesis, just want to see if u guys have any ideas.

I'm not asking for judgement or compassion, I love to live here, but as u saw the gaming zone is fringe.I know there's direct to drive and stuff but the biggest problem is: 1 most games r not available 2 almost nobody has original copies (hence no local network, either in Brazil or South America) 3 must play FROM 2AM to 7AM to be on with American or European gamers, so it's not a good deal. I can play CSS, GW and used to play NVN (when there were servers here) and Warcraft 3 during daytime. So it's either largely popular games (that ppl play here) or games that require minimum internet activity. My points: is what could/should be done?

I know that mentioning piracy in Gamespot is illegal but my ideas r far from apologetic, and  in fact r against piracy. It's a big modern problem and I think it shouldn't be ignored or made illegal just to talk about it. In fact this is a serious issue much more important than "Wich u guys think is the best shooter" or "Which SIMS expansion should I get". So if u r a kid or a troll just keep out of here.

And for the guy complaining about the quality of the english here, if u haven't noticed lots of foreigners r posting here so don't judge this way. I could write perfect ellaborated english if I wanted to but that's not the point. (hope the paragraphs helped your short term memories (for the ones who said that), it's about substance not style).

MachetazoZ

hey MachetazoZ :) dont worry about your spelling its fine, no worries. i bet you a game or two that you can write English a heck of a lot better then that person can write your Brasilian Portugese :). 

Ive said it before and Ill say it again....

...steam...

...steam!...

...STEEEEEEEEAAAM!

Or, Steam-like programs.  Seriously, they cannot be too difficult to develop, and they are problably the most effective way to get games distributed worldwide.  In addition, these programs can incorporate whatever anti-piracy safeguards they want to, and while nothing can destroy piracy I feel having to log-in each time you want to play a game will seriously hamper any of the casual "sunday driver" pirates out there.

A program like Steam can literally go anywhere the internet can go, and it should be able to distribute a game in any language for a minimum of cost compared to making a boxed version that can get copied and then sold on the "black market".

A lot of people dont like Steam and I can emathize a bit with them, but I am calling it now: digital distribution programs (or whatever theyre called) are the key to saving the PC gaming market!  Not only do they cut out the middleman (which, imo, is responsible for ruining PC gaming) but they also make a pirate's life extremely difficult.

A lot of people dont like Steam and I can emathize a bit with them, but I am calling it now: digital distribution programs (or whatever theyre called) are the key to saving the PC gaming market! Not only do they cut out the middleman (which, imo, is responsible for ruining PC gaming) but they also make a pirate's life extremely difficult.mrbojangles25

[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"]A lot of people dont like Steam and I can emathize a bit with them, but I am calling it now: digital distribution programs (or whatever theyre called) are the key to saving the PC gaming market! Not only do they cut out the middleman (which, imo, is responsible for ruining PC gaming) but they also make a pirate's life extremely difficult.Makari

Ah I did not know that, thanks for bringing that up.

Out of curiosity, how does Steam know what country youre from?  Do they look at your IP address or your billing address or something?

C'mon dudes stop freaking out 'cause of my lacks of paragraphs or anything. I'm not here to make a thesis, just want to see if u guys have any ideas.MachetazoZ

In all seriousness, the use of paragraphs isn't about proper execution of rules; it just helps other members of the forum read your post with less difficulty. It will be easier for us all to discuss your topic if your thoughts come across more clearly.

MachetazoZ and other foreign gamers, your pain is understandable. It's easy for those of us who live in traditional gaming markets to insist that you not make a mockery of the western game industry--but clearly, that's not the whole picture. It doesn't make complete sense for western game publishers to kick and scream about foreign piracy if they don't, for instance, provide for a regular market in those countries. Doing so wouldn't stop foreign piracy (not by a longshot) but it would certainly change the nature of this debate.

Seems to me that the burden falls on the shoulders of foreign retailers, who should be working to develop ways to sell games in their countires legally. If there's a market for Hershey's chocolate in Peru, Peruvian shopkeepers stand to benefit from that. It's their job to negotiate a distribution channel with Hershey or Hershey's distribution/exportation partners and make it happen.

MachetazoZ, is it your responsibilty to get Brazillian retailers on board by raising some hell? That's up to you. Until the market does expand, though, you guys are stuck in a moral/ethical/economic dilemna, and I don't envy you. Sorry...

I remember when I went to Kiev, Ukraine I saw something very odd. I went to a market but this wasn't a regular market where you can buy vegetables and fruit. No, there was something seriously wrong with this market. It was a VERY large market full with... Guess what... Pirated software. And no, this wasn't some kind of underground scene. People were walking around, shopping for software. Kids were eating icecream. Cops were patrolling the street. It seemed like nobody cared that they were walking around pirated software worth tens of thousands, if not hunderds of thousands of euro's.

After walking around for a while, and slapping myself a couple of times because I thought I was dreaming, I decided to buy something. Hell, I was bored and I needed a game to kill some time. I found some stalls that had lots of games, atleast 100. But then I saw another stall which looked more interesting. I saw a guy standing behind a counter, infront of him were like 500 games. So I figured he's the man to talk to. I asked my friend who speaks Russian (I can only understand it, I don't speak it) to ask the guy what new games he got. The guy answered:

"I just recieved GTR2! A very realistic, blablablabla.... You can have it for just (price translated) 4 euro's."

What?! That game was just out for like 2 days. As much as I wanted to play GTR2, I decided not to get it because I didn't had a steering wheel where I was staying and racing sims are crap without a steering wheel. I was in the mood to play some older games anyway so I asked:

"Do you got freelancer?"

"Umm... That's a very old game. I don't have it here but I got it on my server. You want it in Russian or English?"

"English"

"Give me (price translated) 50 euro cents and an empty CD and I will burn it for you."

Great I thought. There was another stall that sold empty CD's like 10 meters away so I went there and bought 1 empty CD for 10 euro cents then I went back to the guy that sold games and gave him the CD.

"You can pick it up tomorow."

So the next day I went with my friend to the market again. I pick up the game and I went back to the place where I was staying. I insert the CD and a custom autorun starts. This wasn't the normal freelancer autorun, this was custom made and there was a name of a company inside the autorun (I forgot the name). My friend explained to me that this company customizes games with custom autoruns, installers, cracks, they translate games and then they sell them. 99% of the games you buy are customized by that company. The thing is that there are different laws in that country and nobody gives a crap about software piracy. They got better things to do, I guess. You can also buy retail copies at some shops but they got insane prices (90 euro's) and usually don't have that many games or the latest.

Anyway, I installed the game without any problems. I removed the CD and gave it to my friend. Then I started up the game and "BOOM" My PC exploded!

Nah, I'm just joking. It started without any problems and I got something to do for a couple of days. Not a bad deal for 60 cents.

     I never understand this....  Companies try to punish the pirates while some times hurt the customer as well.. What companies need to do is REWARD the real purchasers... 

    You would think they would realize this with numerous failed methods from piracy in music to the War on Drugs...  That no matter how steep or heavily monitored it is, it will never stop and will alot of times not solve a single thing..

   Even Steam can be pirated..  And alot of people just don't like steam and refuse to buy games from it..  So in the end it is still punishing the customer while not stopping hackers and pirates.

iam from india and a game dvd here costs around 1200 rupees to 2000rupees(thats like 5 times more than the money required to buy a comp in us i guess)it is impossible for a college student like me to buy these dvds...i can still try and save up cash but the problem is that there are hardly any games on the shelves...in india u can only find doom 3 and san andreas sometimes maybe gun or call of duty....thats the most u can get here...now i dont wana buy pirated dvds but i have no other option a pirated dvd costs around 25 to 50 rs!!!!and i can play anything i want to...the only online games available here are cs and ut...so when people talk about antipiracy and how it shouldnt take place well i totally agree with you guys in the US shouldnt really bother buying pirated stuff but here we have no other option...a game like FEAR hasnt been launched here yet...and its not just pc gaming thats costly..xbox 360 costs 30,000 rs and its dvds cost around 3000 rs,ps3 cost around 50.000 rs and those daming blue ray discs cost around 4000 rs so frankly speaking gaming hre in my country is for the rich people...students like me have to manage with pirated stuff...so go ahead judge me...biswajit90210

 No dude you are seriously wrong ... atleast in bangalore you can get the latest games and I have bought a lot of them and their price is also not greater than those in US or Europe. 

[QUOTE="mattisgod01"][QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

knut-am

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it

dont say "we" as you speak for no other then your selfe in here

 he speaks on my behalf aswell. Reading that much text without open spaces is bad for your eyes and brain. 

That was a very interesting story about the Russian 'market'.  It sort of leads me to believe that if developers and publishers dont want to distribute games to that area due to piracy concerns, they really shouldnt have to.  I think those countries need to develop their own laws concerning piracy and stuff like that.

If a market like that existed in the US, it would literally get shut down in a matter of hours.  First, it would lack a license, and second, some good samaritan would problably notify the Better Business Bureau or even the police.

I dont want to sound dramatic or anything, but its almost sickening to think that some countries allow (yes, allow is a proper word if cops are present!) this kind of behavior.  Think of it this way:

-There is a market for PC games in a foreign country
-It cost money to develop, copy, and distribute games (from a legal publishers standpoint) to this country
-This country has no copyright laws or anything of that sort concerning video games
-Piracy is therefore a practical means of consumers getting games
-Publishers market games in this country and sell them for 50 dollars equivlent, yet consumers can get the same game of equal quality for 1 dollar at a market
-Publishers revoke legal copies of game from market because its a waste of money

This, to me atleast, is a 100% legitimate business practice.  In addition, while it concerns the developer and publisher of the game, it is entirely up to the country to create laws and enforce them.  In other words, its ENTIRELY out of the developers and publishers hands.

This is not to be mean or anything, but consumers in countries that have these "markets" have no reason to be upset with the developers and publishers and should instead focus their energy towards criticizing and improving their own government.  It is 100% their problem.

[QUOTE="mattisgod01"][QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

knut-am

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it 

dont say "we" as you speak for no other then your selfe in here. or are you having a gathering at your computer and have this as a kind of group thing ? i for once dont mind reading whatever it is of lenght or sice as long as it is something worth reading. i dont think im the only one either, so drop the "we" thing, in here youre all alone as is all of us. and if you dont like to read a posting becourse its to long for you i cant see why you has to be rude about it and let us all know you dont. beleve me, WE are better off without knowing that fact :)

  Well your definitly the minority.

Hey guys, thx for the posts (and for the dudes who really bothered about the lack of paragraphs in my first post, some good soul went to the trouble of properly spacing it, so read his version instead), and for the ideas.

Here's my feedback:Ya, I like STEAM and I've had it for a long time (played CS 1.6 and now I currently play CSS, and it's very popular here, hence ppl to play with. The problem is that the only game we play is CSS he, because digital downloads r not very popular here and u must have an international credit card to be billed.

So why is CSS so popular? Because Eletronic Arts bothered to launch it here, and as I said EA and MS r the only devs/publishers that make their games available here. If there's no physical product on a shelf (in a country that is used to it) it's harder to gather a large number of players, and an average size community. So, I recognize the flaws of  the Brazilian law that surely could support it more, but I think its a distributor problem too, if Sierra/VALVE licensed EA to distribute CSS here why wouldn't Relic (or whoever distributes WH 40K), make such a partnership with EA or other company?

Ah, at least I have some good news: one company has licensed NCSoft games and is selling them online inside Brazil (no international credit card required) , so u guys can expect the number of Brazilian GW players to increase, I for example had been waiting to play GW for almost 2 years, but now I'm finally enjoying it. This was a nice initiative from a company that is really interested about it's products reaching the final consumer. Lets hope it gives profit and other companies become interested in this too.

[QUOTE="knut-am"][QUOTE="mattisgod01"][QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

sSubZerOo

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it 

dont say "we" as you speak for no other then your selfe in here. or are you having a gathering at your computer and have this as a kind of group thing ? i for once dont mind reading whatever it is of lenght or sice as long as it is something worth reading. i dont think im the only one either, so drop the "we" thing, in here youre all alone as is all of us. and if you dont like to read a posting becourse its to long for you i cant see why you has to be rude about it and let us all know you dont. beleve me, WE are better off without knowing that fact :)

  Well your definitly the minority.

LOL so it seem's. i have taken the consequence of that and are hereby anounce that all over the Gamespot forums. :D but dont you dare think im gonna crawl to the majority. he he

[QUOTE="knut-am"][QUOTE="mattisgod01"][QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

_Pedro_

Dude, we realy dont like looking at a huge wall of text...we are not soldiers...when we see a wall we dont like to climb over it we usualy look for a door or a way around it

dont say "we" as you speak for no other then your selfe in here

 he speaks on my behalf aswell. Reading that much text without open spaces is bad for your eyes and brain. 

LMAO Bad for the eyes and brain hugh ? there are a good reason why it stand to read on Tobacco products that it can seriously damage your health, but i think it has to be a book of jokes to have it stamped that reading it can seriously damage your eyes and brain. and compared to any wich book you choose, this little article on perfectly understandable english, could comonly be called a drop in the occean compared to any normal bookwork. if youre serious about your wiews lol i cant say what i think. but i AM thinking it.. :P

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

MachetazoZ

Exactly, this is the kind of topic ive been waitin for, for example, I live in Peru and I have few original games, mostly because they are the only ones i could get. Piracy is a big market here in peru, you can even see locals and shops selling pirated (downloaded) games for prices really low. I have just pirated games that are nowhere to be found in my country and i wanted so much.

Gaming is really hard and expensive in this kind of countries, consoles, games, hardware are really overpriced, to give you an idea, we have to pay 3 times the price you (america, europe) pay for this things. So the reason of piracy here isnt a mistery.

i appritate it but my forum was blocked and i was talking againt piracy so u should b a little careful talking about piracy bcoz if ur with piracy or against piracy i think they will block the forum and charge you with some penalty

godlessgamer

I second that since I posted in godlessgamer's thread to try and help him and they deleted my post and hit me with a TOS violation for supplying people with illegal software when I did no such thing. The Mod's and Admin's are real nazi's about the whole piracy topic, which is stupid because just sweeping it under the rug isn't going to do anything. The problem isn't going to go away if you just ignore it and brush it aside. The only way the problem will go away is by having dialogue and talking about it so as to find a meaningful solution that fixes it.

to TC: I sympathize with you. Many of my friends are from Bosnia, Albania, and Vietnam. The things they tell me about the software market over there are terrible, and quite honestly, I don't blame the people over there for buying the pirated goods when the real thing is so expensive that it's unreasonable. I think it's sad that US Publishers don't tap those markets, because as you said they hold a lot of potential and it would fix the problem.

[QUOTE="MachetazoZ"]

Hi all. Sometime ago there was a topic on this forum called Kill the pirates: an anti piracy brainstorming session, and after some posts and I said that this should be a topic for americans only (by americans I meant ppl "in" the gaming market, not only americans but also european, chinese, japanese. Ppl that have devs and distributors actively working in theirs countries), 'cause the reality about gaming is totally different in countries that have active software companies and countries that don't. I also read today the topic from our friend from Pakistan, that asked what should he do to get original game copies, his problem is very alike mine, but instead of asking what should to get legal copies I'm going to ask u guys what u think that developers and distributors should do to lessen this problem ( that's why I created a new topic). But before that some background: I live in Brazil and here piracy is the word of the day, to be honest I know about 5 ppl that have original games (all counter strike he) because either the products dont get here or r extremely taxed and overpriced (to get an idea MS has released the X-360 here for 3000 reais, 1500 dollars...). For me the most fun part of gaming is online gaming so I have original copies of PC games, and I could say that 99% of my gaming time is spent with those, so I'm not so enthusiastic about downloading torrents. But here is a real example so u guys can give an opinion: when WH 40K DC was released i saw the reviews and wanted it very much so i downloaded ( a torrent) of WH 40K and the expansions, played the single player campaign had some fun for 2 weeks and erased and forgot the game soon after. The point is I didn't want to forget the game, I wanted to play it online, but buying an original copy is very expensive and pointless(if I live in a country without active soft companies), because I would pay at least 100 dollars for the game (that if I smuggled it, if I had to pay tax fees it would be more) and the worst part: I would only be able to play online from 2am to 7am since the servers r in north america or europe and the lag would be massive during dayhours. Well I can say that if the distributor bothered to release Warhammer in Brazil and put up a server for Brazil or latin america (lessening the lag this way) thousands of ppl here would buy it (including me). So I think that soft comps should look more carefully at this slice of the market, there r millions of potential gamers in these countries, who can only find pirated/overpriced products and would love to be able to buy legal copies that could be played online from their homes. Some companies (I know most of u guys hate 'em, he) like EA and MS do release games here, but only the blockbusters/overhyped ones, thats a beginning. K guys I said a lot already, plz tell me what u think that could be done about this issue (hopefully some soft representative reads this and gets ideas). Sry for any typos and thx in advanced.

astor47

Gaming is really hard and expensive in this kind of countries, consoles, games, hardware are really overpriced, to give you an idea, we have to pay 3 times the price you (america, europe) pay for this things. So the reason of piracy here isnt a mistery.

Same reason here in Argentina. And the illegal DVD markets are commonplace here as well. Once in a while, one of those places gets raided by the police, but the true is that later the police keeps those to themselves or sell it again instead of destroying it...

I think it's sad that US Publishers don't tap those markets, because as you said they hold a lot of potential and it would fix the problem.Cerza

[QUOTE="Cerza"]I think it's sad that US Publishers don't tap those markets, because as you said they hold a lot of potential and it would fix the problem.Makari

Ya, it's a dual edged blade, if the ppl r not used to buying original products the distributors will loose money, but if they don't get in the market, this mentality will never go away. So prolly thes solution would be a kind of agreement between governments and distributors to make the products available and in the price range existing in North America, Europe or Asia. But this is pretty topic.

After reading these posts and thinking a little I think thats up to the distributors to try to release it's products (in the conditions mentioned above) and change the piracy oriented line of thought from these societies. As far as most of u guys hate EA they r trying that, but i know they r a big company and can handle a little loss (if they're loosing any money nowadays with the Brazilian market), but their games are popular and have been in Brazil for some time, so ppl buy it.

 This same public would buy more titles instead of pirating them and with more titles available the broader is the public range, so more ppl buying, the more ppl with an original game more ppl online, more ppl online more ppl buying the game again... and then profit.... Surely they will face losses in the begining, but in a long term it's a pretty profitable market. Plz RELIC release WarHammer 40K in Brazil!!!!!,

here in Malaysia, the games' prices for the pc, have dropped significantly, from a staggering RM229, to just a mere RM79,just to curb the overwhelming threat of piracy here. Its still kinda expensive for a college student like me, but its a welcome price drop. Have been savin up money to get my hands on Supreme Commander.(sweet)

 I love my country. 

  Lets also not forget people that quite a few people just plane out can not afford games.  Specially for consoles which are far easier to attain.   Lets not forget that the majority of the population in the world is poverty stricken..  Thus alot of times I tend to question some of these piracy read outs as realistic.sSubZerOo

So people living in poverty can afford gaming consoles and PCs, two extremely expensive hobbies?

Ya, I dont buy that for a second.  Its the privelaged people of the world, not the poverty-stricken, doing piracy.  You think poor people have time to make cracks, install games, etc?  No, theyre too busy working.  And this "majority of the world" you speak of has problably never seen the internet before, let alone a computer built within the past ten years.

Ahhh funny images coming to mind:
-African malnourished baby (the ones with the big stomachs, iodine deficieny, and the flys on their eyes) downloading Supreme Commander to play on their Alienware
-South Pacific rice farmer coming back from a 14 hour day with parasitic worms attached to his feet, checking the download status on his pirated Call of Jaurez game.
-Inuit coming back from clubbing baby seals to feed his tribe and making sure his ethernet connection is still securely plugged into his igloo so his download doesnt get disrupted.
-Vietnam vet with mental issues who lives on the street (thanks Reagan) comes back from foraging the dumpster and loads up his 99 cent copy of C&C3: Kane Edition.

Let me tell you how the situation is in Bulgaria which is where I live (I am Bulgarian). For those of you who doesn't know, this is part of the European Union now. We had markets like the one in Ukraine everywhere but they disappeared. Why? Because they did something about distributing legal software? No. The average download speed in the capital here is 5MB/sec and there are dozens of sites where you can download anything! From games and movies (from titles that are decades old to full versions that are due to come out in the coming weeks) to all sorts of applications and porn. Nothing is required. You just have to create an account and you are all set. Those sites even have statistics and ranking who is downloading and uploading most and those who upload enough even have access to benefits like on-line TV and stuff. There is some kind of competition who is the best pirate and it's even like a prestigue thing here. All is free of charge of course.

Well, the country attacked the owners of many of those sites, they sued the government and won. Nobody can touch them here.

On the other hand we have just ONE company that imports original games, consoles and accessories and they are monopolists. A new original game here costs like $80-$100 and even a PS2 was $500 here until recently. Not to mention PS3 and X-BOX 360 and their titles. Then again the average MONTHLY salary in my country is $386. Now tell me, how could ANYONE here possibly choose legal copies (which despite all misinformation, are exactly the same copies like the originals, just need a legal key to play online but not SP) over pirated ones? Legal ones are simply not affordable while pirated ones are too easy to get.

Let me tell you how the situation is in Bulgaria which is where I live (I am Bulgarian). For those of you who doesn't know, this is part of the European Union now. We had markets like the one in Ukraine everywhere but they disappeared. Why? Because they did something about distributing legal software? No. The average download speed in the capital here is 5MB/sec and there are dozens of sites where you can download anything! From games and movies (from titles that are decades old to full versions that are due to come out in the coming weeks) to all sorts of applications and porn. Nothing is required. You just have to create an account and you are all set. Those sites even have statistics and ranking who is downloading and uploading most and those who upload enough even have access to benefits like on-line TV and stuff. There is some kind of competition who is the best pirate and it's even like a prestigue thing here. All is free of charge of course.

Well, the country attacked the owners of many of those sites, they sued the government and won. Nobody can touch them here.

On the other hand we have just ONE company that imports original games, consoles and accessories and they are monopolists. A new original game here costs like $80-$100 and even a PS2 was $500 here until recently. Not to mention PS3 and X-BOX 360 and their titles. Then again the average MONTHLY salary in my country is $386. Now tell me, how could ANYONE here possibly choose legal copies (which despite all misinformation, are exactly the same copies like the originals, just need a legal key to play online but not SP) over pirated ones? Legal ones are simply not affordable while pirated ones are too easy to get.

Warpld

THats very interesting, and also fascinating that your country banded together to take down the pirate sites and whatnot.

I wonder if now they can do the same thing to break the monopoly of that one company, or perhaps form a co-op of some sort to help import games at a reduced cost.

::EDIT::

did I misunderstand you?  Did another country (not Bulgaria) sue your government and fail to shut down the sites, is that what you said?  Sorry.

1st of all, I agree with the "wall of text" theory:) I had to convince myself 1st to read through... glad I did though...

I agree 100% with our friend from Brazil, I am a South African, and even though the gaming industry picked up over here over the years (whe even have EA here:)), I still have great problems getting originals when it comes to older games and games that are not "good sellers"...

South Africa also has serious bandwidth issues with old technologies and only one provider (called Telkom) that can charge what they want and are in no hurry to upgrade their systems becuase they have NO competition... I mean, I (and many others here) still have a dial-up 56K modem at home:(

This bandwidth restriction also makes it difficult to download games (both legit digital titles and the "Not-so" legit games), but I still had to torrent a few older games to have it in my collection... which I hate. I can either import the game or buy it from questionable sources...

Importing games cost to much (due to exchange rates and import taxes) so I bought a game recently (Jagged Alliance 2 Gold) from Bid or Buy, which is our version of E-Bay... whether I will actually ever get it... I don't know... I hope that it works out. JA2 also cost me about as much as a new game would have!

There are many older titles (like Wizardry 8) that I really want to own, but they are just impossible to find in South Africa. Some older games get re-released (like the Space Quest games:)), but many don't ever get here becuase the retailers don't think it will make them money...

So, yes! I agree... if the developers and publishers want to curve piracy more... then they should make it their mission in life to make sure that their games (old and new) are availeble as boxed products at reasonable prices in countries like Brazil and South Africa...

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]  Lets also not forget people that quite a few people just plane out can not afford games.  Specially for consoles which are far easier to attain.   Lets not forget that the majority of the population in the world is poverty stricken..  Thus alot of times I tend to question some of these piracy read outs as realistic.mrbojangles25

So people living in poverty can afford gaming consoles and PCs, two extremely expensive hobbies?

Ya, I dont buy that for a second.  Its the privelaged people of the world, not the poverty-stricken, doing piracy.  You think poor people have time to make cracks, install games, etc?  No, theyre too busy working.  And this "majority of the world" you speak of has problably never seen the internet before, let alone a computer built within the past ten years.

Ahhh funny images coming to mind:
-African malnourished baby (the ones with the big stomachs, iodine deficieny, and the flys on their eyes) downloading Supreme Commander to play on their Alienware
-South Pacific rice farmer coming back from a 14 hour day with parasitic worms attached to his feet, checking the download status on his pirated Call of Jaurez game.
-Inuit coming back from clubbing baby seals to feed his tribe and making sure his ethernet connection is still securely plugged into his igloo so his download doesnt get disrupted.
-Vietnam vet with mental issues who lives on the street (thanks Reagan) comes back from foraging the dumpster and loads up his 99 cent copy of C&C3: Kane Edition.

I don't think he ment that poor... I live in Africa (South Africa) and what was said is true... it took me years to save up money to just upgrade my PC and I got myslef in debt in the process as well... I cannot buy every game that I want becuase I don't earn enough, thankfully, I have no kids, but I still have bills and rent... I don't even own a car as I earn about a 1/3 of what I should! (I am in IT, system administrator).

Your "images" are funny though:) SupCom! I love that game funny enough...