How PC gamers can be heard (hint: not by threats of piracy)

PC gamers are outspoken... to a fault. Every bit of news about the industry is followed by shrill threats of piracy and ineffective boycotts. Ars Technica speaks to those in the industry whose job it is to deal with complaints, and explains how to get your voice heard in a way that actually leads to action.

[Elven6]

The only thing that is killing PC gaming for me personally is DRM, and not just your traditional DRM either. Its gotten to a point where certain forms of DRM will send information about your PC to the creators of the DRM, the publishers, etc. How much information? Who knows, the EULA's usually claim your IP address and stuff that you have loaded onto your RAM, but the fact that publishers are willing to go to such extreme lengths to stop piracy is insane. This is mostly for MMO games but some regular games have it as well.

While piracy isn't the answer to any of this, DRM such as the aforementioned isn't either. Maybe the Gamers Bill of Rights should be given another "consideratory" look?

[Jamescagney]

I agree, the only people that suffer from DRM are the people that actually buy the games.

Piracy is a serious issue, and DRM isn't the answer. The thing is I'm not sure what they can do tbh.

[FantasyStar]

@James

There is a simple answer to combat piracy. "Just make good games."

If a developer makes a good game that pleases the audience and is priced right. People will buy it. The sales will reflect that. The losses from piracy is heavily outweighed by everyone who bought it. MW2 is a shining example of that.

Instead of developers fighting piracy, appease the pirates instead and guilt-trip them into buying your games because your game is so awesome, loaded with content, and a bang for the buck. It will make the pirates want to buy the game just to show support.

[ZedoMann]

If you remove the really bad DRM, such as machine limits, sending info to devs, etc. I'm sure that would cut down on Piracy a lot. Also if the games were priced a little lower, you wouldn't get as many greedy people trying to get free games.

I don't believe piracy will completely die off, since there will always be thieves in the world, however a lot of it could be avoided.

[Jamescagney]

Yeah you make a good point, there have been several games in the past that have had no protection whatsoever and they have gone on to sell well. Which shows that a lot of companies just don't see that a lot of their anti-piracy methods are neither wanted or needed.

Having said that, there have been games that have deserved to sell like hotcakes and been hit very badly by piracy. Look at Crysis, one of the best games in recent years on the pc and also one of the most downloaded. It still sold well if I remember correctly, but the fact that a huge amount of people chose not to buy and support the devs sickens me really.

EDIT:Hmm, thinking about it maybe Crysis wasn't the best of examples when you factor in the spec requirements, at the time anyway. Well you get my point :P

[FantasyStar]

Crysis is a personal example for me.

I downloaded it hoping to bench my rig. After playing it a bunch, I realized how good this game is and how much effort went into it. When the Maximum Edition came out. I bought it within the day. I can proudly say that I support Crytek and all they do for our PC industry.

As for those. I'm sure many people want to support a dev, but there's always that small little detail that's preventing them from putting their foot forward. My example being MW2. We all know the history behind the PC version, but the SP is still loads of fun to me.I would definitely like to buy it, but I cannot condone my dollars to IW and Acti shafting the PC community. It's those things where you know the game is good, but you do not like the developers and publishers behind the game so you don't buy it. I'm sure many people did the same as me.

If developers and publishers went to the effort of supporting their products by offering lengthy demos that truly represent a product, then we wouldn't need to download a game just to "try it out". Hell...if Borderlands had a PC Demo, I can almost see the sales for PC just soar upward. Gearbox really deserves the support.

[kaveti6616]

You said, all they have to do is make good games, and then you clarified that they have to make a good game and price it right.

Now, who decides which price is fair? I know some people who think games should cost only 10 or 15 bucks, and others who will keep buying games without questioning how much they can cost.

And I also know that for some, any price is wrong, and the only thing they can commit to is "Free games." A friend of mine modded his 360 a long time ago and must have downloaded 50 torrented games off the net to play on his console. I have no word on whether he's been banned, but he sure got his moneys worth, don't you think?

I'm not sure piracy will ever be stopped or if there's an "effective" way of reducing it. Valve has a half-way decent method with Steam, although some don't like Steam.

If there is a free way of obtaining something, and it is within easy reach of everyone in the world, what makes you think that you can lower the price and convince people to pay for it? Whenever I want to listen to a song, I just go to youtube and type it in and listen to it. Some people might download it and pay for it off Amazong, others from iTunes, but why would I waste a buck on a song I can listen to for free?

And forget about my method because at least my way is legitimate. Other people want to burn the songs on CDs and bump tracks in their cars. Do you think there's any way for the RIAA to convince the general population that they should pay 15 to 20 bucks for an album when they can just get the songs off Limewire for free and burn their own disc for a few cents?

So, it comes back to your statement. "Make a good game and price it right."

It's not really gonna make a difference. The real price might actually be 20 bucks for a game, for all I know. That's how much it might cost if the publisher wants to recoup its costs and make some profit. OR maybe it does cost 60 bucks. Maybe there shouldn't be a standard price for games. When did people decided that every game should have a standard MSRP of $59.99 or $49.99 last gen? I think most of us would agree that some games should be priced lower based on how much content they contain. An RPG might be worth 65 bucks, but a single player, medium-length campaign like Assassin's Creed 2 might only be worth 40 bucks.

[mundooposto]

PC gamers = personality. Yeah ... they care about what can do in a game ..... and, most of all . they KNOW what are doing. btw, were ALWAYS be in the frontline of thechnology. thats enought.
Console gamers = casual gamers
Pc gamers = real gamers = pro gamers

[Barragan]

in pcs little box of tech that is

[MetalGearRising]

PC gaming is a dying breed get out while u have time and purchae a xbox360.

[evrfighter]

lol pc gamers don't buy shoddy hardware. I hate saying it because I hate ps3 fanboys but pc gamers if they own a console usually end up buying a ps3.

[CaptainMarvelQ8]

so that they have their console die on them instead ...?

[Nihilism]

I don't pirate and I buy all my games retail. Being restricted to using a third party app to play your games is just as bad as DRM. I will continue to buy games until third party apps become mandatory and DRM is included in all games I buy, then the gaming industry and hardware manufacturers will lose themselves about $2000 a year from me, you can't screw over legit customers to stop a few pirates.

If they don't want their games being pirated, make the worth a buy.

[mastiffchild]

Exactly,dchalfont. If my mate wants to see what a game's like that he's not really sure about he'll pirate it(if there's no demo or if the demo is crappy/misleading etcor if the last one wasn't too great or wasn't to his tastes)to see what it's really like and if it's good he'll buy it. If it's bad it's deleted right away. Personally I don't even do that these days as over the platforms I don't hjave the time for the games I definitely want to buy from the minute they're announced! However, like you Dchalfont if the games are good my mate will buy them after "pirating" a little taste for himself(not that you do the same thing but if they're OK you get them anyway!)and like those above us you could say that some piracy actually helps sales and helps word of mouth about some games. Saying DRM stops piracy or helpd lefit gaming is a muddy area and so is claiming particular issues like piracy are always bd for the industry when they aren't that black and white at all.

SAme as console devs moaning about people trasing their games second hand-make them worth keeping for good, collecting and replaying. Probklem solved-just like it ios in other industries. When a Van Gogh is sold do we get Vincent's corpse hauling his ass round demanding his cut from the millions? Do we see musicians moaning about resale of their music? No and no so why are devs so special? Yet we gamers stick up for them so often rather than trying to keep one of the few rights we still have in pgysical media axcross the platforms.

Ars basically say thjat PC gamers are too quick to anger and get all shouty way too early and don't follow their words with any meaningful action. Anyone who DID sign the petition and then BUY MW2 SHOUKLD be ashamed, really, and very ashamed. It's this lack of backbone and also a lack of gamer unity across the playforms that is really to blame for the industry getting away with every bit of greed they can dream up. If we stuck to our word over wanting dedicated servers(over all platforms as well so console gaming moves forwards as well-it isn't like consoles haven't had great performance from online servers in games like KZ2 already now is it?)ands wweren't rude over it but merely ionsistent and firm in not [putting hands top pockets we'd often get them to listen when the demands are fair. Be honest, how oftn do gamers make truly unreasonable demands? The dedicated servers thing with IW was the tip of the iceberg with that game where console gamers should have sided with PC gamersas PC gamers needed them to with MW2 getting a great deal of income on copnsole. They needed to make console heads understand that this is the thin end of a wedge with P2P neing outdated and only brought back to PC for DLC control with no mods allowed. Needed to show that IW weren't acting either like gamers anymore(who woulc want the game they had to play as well as possible on and offline)or even like true creatives(who'd want the game to run as close to their original vision as possible-and I doubt that P2P and a sh1tload of lag was what they drew up!)and that this was bad for GAMERS rather than just PC gamers. As it ios the weakness of the boycott was down to it being PC only and the Acti divide and rule trick working to a tee. They new that by reducing the features but upping the price of the PC game(and by sneaking in an EU hike too which the US gamer wouldn' care about yet even if it means more expense in future)they'd split the community with too many PC gamers saying "you console gamers don't know any better" and console gamers saying "serves you right for piracy and besides where are you guys when we're constantly getting shafted?" and Acti win easily.

So, yead, PC gamers need to use the power of their wallets but, I'd say, they need(overall) to be more friendly to console gamers and vice versa-show understanding of why each set game on what they do and stop the snipiong and realise that we act together and things get better for us all. We showed over the MW2 boycott mess that the community isn't strong enough yet but it needs to be as the inductry is getting way more corporate and we need to stop being pushovers and thinking devs are just like us. They aren't but our fellow gamers are whatever they game opn and we need to use our ultimate buying power to endure we all get value and gaming doesn't slip backwards-whioch we saldy allowed it to do over MW2 just because we gave in to Acti and IW's greed rather than looking out for ourselves. Had we done so we'd all be able top play MW2 online, right now on dedicated servers on each platform, imo. It wasn't too much too ask but what Acti asked should have been but we were too eager jumping through their "I hate other gamers" hoops that we didn't notice in our rush to preorder the onlune game of the year 2009(on P2P FFS!)all we needed to do was sit on our wallets for a week or two of being ,like, a real community. Or just a proper group of consumers after some damn value froma behemoth game like MW2. If Warhawk offers dedicated servers on the PS3 in 2007 why the hell isn't MW2 doing it as market leader two and a bit years afterwards?

Sure, PC gamers need to be less jumppy and more polite about what they want but, more importantly, we all need to see ourselves as gamers over anything else(no labels like Console, PC or "hardcore" gamer)so we care what happens to all of us and are more likely to see it out when we feel an industry action is propelled solely by greed, no? Then we might see some decent treatment of gamers and more respect from the mainstream as we stop the fanboyism that's rife even among the developers so no wonder a few forumites fall foul of iot too! We gotta look after ourselves a little more or as the industry gets more and more JKotick fuelled we'll be eaten alive on a daily basis. We're a great, loyal, passionate crowd(whatever we game on)-and we owe ourselves a lot more, imo.

[Nihilism]

My DRM concern is not an overt sense of entitlement. It is the fact that I still have pc games from 10 years ago, and they work as they did on day 1. With DRM, the chances of you having the same game working in 10 years are slim. I would not call a game with an install limit ( limited lifespan) a purchase, i would call it a rental. If they wish to implement DRM, they should charge at a lesser price with 1 or 2 install limits, but for people who buy a game, with the intention of using it as often and wherever they please ( as is the right of all paying consumers with the products they have purchased). With console's though, it is very likely that the new console's won't support backwards compatibility or that the consoles will fail. By that time they will have stopped manufacturing them. So console games automatically have a limited lifespan, it comes with the territory. But DRM is screwing pc gamers out of something they have always had. Longevity. I prefer to call it stealing. If I were to pirate, that would be my perfect justification for myself. They steal from me. I steal from them.

But all is well for now, Dragon Age and ME2 both have a disk check only, so I can install, crack the exe. Then put the game back on it's shelf until the next install. So when insane hardware comes along, I will be able to play them at 120frames on a 120hz monitor with insane levels of AA forced, and enjoy the games I payed for even more in years to come. That is what I call a worthwhile purchase.

I have been stung by DRM before. A game I bought- Sacred 2 ( collectors edition $119aus), no longer works, I have had it for a year, I have revoked my installs each time. They f-ed up, not me. Like I said, they stole my money.

[BabyStomper5000]

Do you ever make a post that's less than 3 pages long? Lol, I'm not hatin' I just noticed every one of your posts I've seen on here were really, really long. I usually read them, but sometimes I'm lazy and just skip em :)

[cpuchess]

I love that, "Just make good games" and piracy will stop. That's like the bank robber who once he sees how good it is to have money will decide to go get a job.