I was thinking of getting back into Guild Wars - I finished Prophecies (almost, I just couldnt get groups to take out the titans), but then never really bothered with the others. I dont really wanna skip straight to Eye of the North either.

So I was wondering if there are still tonnes of people milling around Factions and Nightfall so I can play them first. I just hate coming back to things to find out no-one is playing them.

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It is true however that we are all suffering horrible, horrible inconveniences because of pirates - register this, register that, CD-Key the other. Games such as Bioshock and services such as Steam are guilty of this, as well as M$'s GFWL rubbish. It's just plain annoying and inconvenient.

TeamR

Uhh.....steam is pretty darn convienient actually.

There are no CD keys. It's all tied into your account. Very streamlined and quick to purchase a game and get it running because it also makes installing a thing of the past.

I agree with your statement but steam does not belong in there

Well, it's just the concept of account-tying really that makes them guilty. The same annoying thing everyone else is using to fight the pirate war.

Ahhh geez. I had a ncie post written up but I closed my browser by mistake!

Anyway, i'll try to recap it quickly

My stance is as follows:

1. Piracy is bad. bad bad bad

2. Piracy will never go away. As long as humans have free will, people will steal. You can't stop piracy any more than you can stop crime

Because we all agree that piracy is wrong, and because it will never go away, I'm simply proposing that we experiment with alternate payment methods and distribution models that reward people for playing/buying rather than trying (failing) to prevent illegal activity (and pissing off legit customers in the process). See stardock games for a working example.

I'd also like to highlight two other upcoming titles. Battlefield Heroes and Quake Live. Both games will be completely free, and will generate their revenue from advertising and other extra features. Those are two prime examples of companies innovating. Their strategy is: If you can't beat em, join em! They want as many people playing as possible so they give them away for free, then generate money from that by selling ad space. Brilliant!

All i'm saying is that instead of crying and complaining about something you have no control over, use that energy to outsmart pirates. Be creative. Be like valve, blizzard, EA, Id, stardock and all the other companies that have figured this out already.

TeamR

That's also a good point - advertising. I, personally, don't mind seeing adverts in games so long as they are pretty inconspicuous. I don't like the idea of having anything like "ad-breaks" in games though (and yes, this has been talked about) or unskippable adverts during the splash screens at the start. Hell - I can't even stand not being able to skip the dev names/titles/logos/copyright crap, nvm ads.

The problem is that in most cases it will cost more in legal fees to bust a few pirates (or even a small ring) than the companies will ever get back for it. Another is that PC games have been playing second fiddle to consoles for a while now in mainstream gaming stores - meaning they are generally viewed as less valuable. Go to stardock.com and read what theyve written about piracy and system specs as well - that's another problem.

It is true however that we are all suffering horrible, horrible inconveniences because of pirates - register this, register that, CD-Key the other. Games such as Bioshock and services such as Steam are guilty of this, as well as M$'s GFWL rubbish. It's just plain annoying and inconvenient.
What this also stops is trade-ins though at stores, maybe piracy would be lessen if developers stopped doing this so people could trade more PC games in knowing theyll get a few quid off.

Definitely PC Games/other format games, I watch about 4 things on TV: Old British comedies, Torchwood, Doctor Who and Family Guy (oh and the simpsons at tea time).