Yantelope

Just preordered it. I also downloaded and tried playing NBA Jam and I didn't really enjoy it. The freaking computer blocked all my shots and it's almost impossible to shove them back. Maybe I just suck at the game but it doesn't control quite as well as the arcade classic to me.

Marathon discussion continues!!! No, what I said was that if you promise someone (sign a contract with them) that you will give them a % of your profits and not give your game away then it's wrong to encourage people to pirate your game. I don't know where I'm making blanket statements. I'm trying to respond to your points directly. I'm not sure I'd call providing counter points "shooting down everything we say". If anything it seems to me you guys are intent on not acknowledging the points that I make, rather you keep slightly shifting your argument rather than responding to me. It seems to me the whole of the arguments that are coming to me are solely from the perspective of pirates and I understand why you are trying to defend your position but I'm simply trying to make you see it from the perspective of a content producer, publisher, marketer or retailer. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and decide what you would do. Maybe this helps, if publishers turn a blind eye to piracy in hopes that it helps their business then that's their choice. If they sue the pants off you as is their legal right then that's their business too. If you've made the decision to pirate their content, even just to demo, and you get sued I don't feel sorry for you at all. Monopolies are bad too. I am no fan of Apple. I also can't argue against the fact that they're great at making money.

Well, so far the only example I've gotten is that piracy might have spread anime and that demoers buy games they pirate. I know law isn't morality which is why I explained my position previously. I'm not trying to attach a statistic to it. I'm only making the statement that companies exist to make money and I find it reasonable to assume that they're going to pursue the course that they believe will make them the most money. Maybe you think that companies make more money by embracing piracy but the vast majority of software companies would beg to differ with you. I agree that there's not a ton of evidence either way but it seems to me the burden of proof is on the pirates to show that it's advantageous and not traditional business to prove that it's still successful.

No, piracy is a product of market forces not a force itself. If supply is low and demand is high piracy increases in order to meet demand. I don't believe piracy to be morally ambiguous and as such I don't agree that it's a grey area. I don't see anything grey about it. You're only saying it's grey because of this singular argument that piracy helped spread anime which I've also been rebutting. Copyright law is constantly being looked and and lobbied over as is patent law and the vast majority of companies are wanting the rules to be stricter and not more lax. They want the rules to be stricter because they can make more money that way. If piracy really helped them make money they'd be lobbying for it because the most powerful of all motives is the profit motive (this is my opinion but I think it's pretty clearly observable in human behavior).

Well they already had the first Xbox, so they can't exactly go that route. Why not?

While we're speculating you could just as easily say that without piracy the Anime industry wouldn't be struggling.

That's not really true because people knew what Anime was before pirates brought it over. Anime only began because Americans brought their cartoons over to Japan. At best your argument is that Piracy greases the wheels of the market but that's a tenuous argument and it's not to say that it doesn't do so at cost to the IP owners.

Or maybe it'll just be Xbox and people will have to give it a stupid nickname to separate it.

How is that the point? Piracy filled demand, it didn't create demand. Only content that people want to see can create the actual demand. You didn't enjoy anime because it was pirated. If what you saw was a legal copy you wouldn't have enjoyed it less. @MasterDex, if you're arguing that piracy may be cheaper than a marketing campaign then that's true. Clearly the Anime producers didn't want to risk their own capital bringing it to the west and they probably missed out on a lot of money that way.

Cars are a preferred mode of transportation for various reasons, not defecating all over the road for one, the demand for transportation existed before cars though. Also, you're right, people who had witnessed anime and showed it to friends created a demand for it. If Anime had been shown legally in America the demand would have grown too.

Boy, me too. I hate the new branding of game consoles. I miss the days when you used to wonder what the new Sega console would be called.

@MasterDex, Your story is that of an illegitimate business that went legit. If the desire was there to watch anime then it's commercial success could have grown equally as well without piracy as with. You're talking about an untapped market. To think that piracy somehow created the demand is not true. The content created the demand. The lack of supply created piracy.

@Rocky, but like I said, Tim Schaffer and Double Fine and musicians and other people sign agreements with publishers and producers to manufacture and sell their goods. Of course they'd love to profit more but it's a bit wrong of them to suggest pirating the game which other people have contributed actually bringing to market and then pocketing money off of gear. Valve may say piracy doesn't affect them but Steam has DRM built in right? Musicians is a great example. They don't make much money off of their CDs so they don't give a crap about if you buy those or not. They want you to come to their shows and buy their shirts. The problem is that the people who make them famous and get them radio time and invest money in producing their music, paying for studio time and marketing their albums do make money from the CD sales so for a band to benefit from all those services and then suggest that fans undercut the record label is ridiculous. If you want to give away your music go for it, just don't sign with a label saying you wont.

Very few units, small maps, only two factions and no Covenant campaign... Oh yeah, Rage, that's what thread this is.... RPS seemed to enjoy the game and they make a good point, what shooter has been better this year?

Halo Wars still felt like RTS Jr. It was such a small fraction of what RTS games are on the PC.

I plan on buying this today. I thought this should be an XBLA game to begin with. BOOOOMSHAKALA!

Oh yeah, I don't know what I'd do, I'm only speculating. Also, yeah, you can drink drinks in the supermarket and pay for them at checkout. I see it all the time. The shoplifting laws are such that until you actually try to leave the premises it's not stealing, which makes sense. Also, worst case scenario? Would I save my own life by shoplifting, maybe, but I'd do it knowing full well that I'd have to pay some sort of fine or do some minor jail time too? Sure. I'm not going to demand that the store owes me that knife.

Think about the fact that he died in the prime of the Apple cult. His death at the peak will elevate him to deity status now simply because he's avoided the inevitable downturn of all companies. People will now begin to speculate on all the amazing and incredible things he would have been had his death not been so untimely. It may be tragic for the person but it's actually quite advantageous for the now indelible cult of Jobs and Apple.

Man, I'd probably die just for the lack of wanting to stab myself. That being said, most store owners would likely do anything they could to aid you and that would probably include grabbing a knife off the shelf and draining your fluids for you. I'd also be happy to stab myself first and then purchase the knife later. It's not stealing until you leave the store with it right?

Assuming this is directed at me: I'm trying to think of an example where the ends would justify the means but I'm not really seeing it.

Yeah, that's the heart of the disagreement. You're arguing that the ends justify the means and I don't think that's true.

Yeah, I'm just going to nod and agree with TN an HH here. Cool, a turret avatar! I'll be there soon.