Blizzard on Piracy

[Deleted]

Was reading through the interviews on the front page, and notice this line.

Warcraft 3 was pirated a lot in China, but it ended up raising awareness of the game and helped out later when World of Warcraft was launched.

This is the 1st time, i've seen a huge game company come out and actually say that piracy helped them. I've heard of a lot of smaller companies and independent game/movie/music makers say this, but for a huge company like Blizzard, you have to give them some credit on looking to the good side of a bad situation.

[Moradim]

piracy is arguably what made the original playstation as successful as it was, it isnt ALWAYS bad.

[Darsithis]

Piracy is a two-sided thing. On one side, you have people who will simply always pirate things. They're jerks. On the other side you get people who pirate stuff to get an idea of what it is, then purchase the real thing once they realize they really like it.

[Ghul]

uhm, actually its like this with many other things too :>

making something illegal is, most of the time, going to backfire hard. still pirating should stay illegal, because if it stops being illegal, then everybody is gonna do it :>

[Adramalech]

Piracy is a two-sided thing. On one side, you have people who will simply always pirate things. They're jerks. On the other side you get people who pirate stuff to get an idea of what it is, then purchase the real thing once they realize they really like it.

Ironically, I did this with Warcraft III. A friend got me into the game, which he loaned for me to install (pirated, of course). I later bought it and TFT, and never regretted it even though I had already seen the whole game and its expansion.

[Aquamonkey]

Piracy of WC2 at my middle school is what first brought me to Blizzard games. We pirated copies so we could LAN multiplayer in the computer lab. Since then, I've bought every one of their games.

[Deleted]

Piracy is a two-sided thing. On one side, you have people who will simply always pirate things. They're jerks. On the other side you get people who pirate stuff to get an idea of what it is, then purchase the real thing once they realize they really like it.

Yeah but it's the bad side which companies always see, and then end up screwing over legit customers over DRM, like having to be online and such. I know Blizzard is one for this, but it makes me wonder when triple A game companies will stop adding this and just accept that if people want to pirate a game, they will do it. It's a waste spending millions of dollars on DRM tech, when only the legit customer is effected by it.

[nightfalls]

Yeah but it's the bad side which companies always see, and then end up screwing over legit customers over DRM, like having to be online and such. I know Blizzard is one for this, but it makes me wonder when triple A game companies will stop adding this and just accept that if people want to pirate a game, they will do it. It's a waste spending millions of dollars on DRM tech, when only the legit customer is effected by it.

Blizzard making their games online doesn't seem to solely be for piracy reasons, if that at all. There's plenty of games that play offline yet require CD-Key/code verification on a server, meaning that it's difficult to pirate without a cracked version of the software. It seems more to be just integrating the game into their new battle.net.

Piracy does also hurt consumers, especially because it's a medium to distribute malware, and only serves to bring money to the pirates... there's not really that much "good" with piracy. It can definitely raise awareness of a product, but so can trial versions and limited versions (I know I got hooked onto Diablo from their Diablo II trial). At the end of the day, it's one of those things where companies try to prevent people from stealing their product even though it will probably happen 1 way or another anyway. What they definitely don't want is for the piracy to make the experience worse for actual paying customers.

[Deleted]

Yes, piracy. It's a controversial subject. On one side you get people who pirate games to check them out or because they simply can't afford them. Funny, but these actually help the industry, as many buy the game after or at least tell their friends about it, which is free publicity.

On the other hand however, you have people who never buy games, they just pirate them. These are jerks, these are the people that pay 1 cent for things like Humble Indie Bundle for example. These don't do it because they can't pay or because they want to test the product beforehand, these just do it to get free stuff by stealing them. And because of these people piracy is so hated. But some people are too greedy.

Ironically, I did this with Warcraft III. A friend got me into the game, which he loaned for me to install (pirated, of course). I later bought it and TFT, and never regretted it even though I had already seen the whole game and its expansion.

Same here. I get quite a few games to test them if they have no demos. I make sure to buy the good ones and tell my friends about them, so I think my pirating isn't hurting anyone as I do buy games I like and stop playing those I do not after little play.

[Aquamonkey]

Blizzard making their games online doesn't seem to solely be for piracy reasons, if that at all. There's plenty of games that play offline yet require CD-Key/code verification on a server, meaning that it's difficult to pirate without a cracked version of the software. It seems more to be just integrating the game into their new battle.net.

Piracy does also hurt consumers, especially because it's a medium to distribute malware, and only serves to bring money to the pirates... there's not really that much "good" with piracy. It can definitely raise awareness of a product, but so can trial versions and limited versions (I know I got hooked onto Diablo from their Diablo II trial). At the end of the day, it's one of those things where companies try to prevent people from stealing their product even though it will probably happen 1 way or another anyway. What they definitely don't want is for the piracy to make the experience worse for actual paying customers.

I haven't verified the information, but I believe them to be a credible source.

[Mexa]

On the other side you get people who pirate stuff to get an idea of what it is, then purchase the real thing once they realize they really like it.

ppl say they do this, but its a load of bullshit. And before you say you do it/have done so before, ask yourself; have you ? Because why ? why would you pirate a movie and then buy it ? Or a game for that matter ? you first pirate it, win it and then buy it ?

[Darsithis]

ppl say they do this, but its a load of bullshit. And before you say you do it/have done so before, ask yourself; have you ? Because why ? why would you pirate a movie and then buy it ? Or a game for that matter ? you first pirate it, win it and then buy it ?

For a few reasons:

- Some people feel good supporting something they really like
- Cracked games can be difficult to store and keep long-term, and if you lose it sometimes you'll just buy it to get it again easily
- Sometimes cracked games are missing content or are broken in some way and you want the best, full experience

[Baelic]

Another perceived problem with piracy is the notion that 1 pirated copy = 1 lost sale.

WRONG! There is no way to guarantee that said pirate would purchase the game had the option to pirate it not be available.

More on the topic though, I'm totally in the crowd that have pirated games only to buy them later (usually due to wanting to play online). Probably my first case of this would be Starcraft, then Warcraft 3.

[Deleted]

ppl say they do this, but its a load of bullshit. And before you say you do it/have done so before, ask yourself; have you ? Because why ? why would you pirate a movie and then buy it ? Or a game for that matter ? you first pirate it, win it and then buy it ?

Multiplayer? Support to the developers?

[Deleted]

Let's not kid ourselves, Blizzard is the worst DRM nazi on the market. Right next to old ubisoft. Take Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 for example.

[Shiny212]

"Pirates" are the ones that buy the most video games and films, music etc, the "war" on piracy is quite pointless

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Diablo spawning like a boss to get all my friends hooked in to buying the game.

[Kivimetsan]

The only reason the movie and music industry act like its such a huge problem (which it isn't, they're making record profits) is because they know they can't compete with the free music/movie industry that is coming alive online. These companies therefore are trying to bring in laws (through lobbying politicians) that will take effect GLOBALLY to shut down piracy. This will target torrent sites. For example if a site has 1 pirated song/movie/whatever the police (or whoever will regulate the net) will take down there entire site, even if 99.99% of the content is free. This shuts down the emerging industries, thus the current monopoly will remain intact.

[Scummer]

"Pirates" are the ones that buy the most video games and films, music etc, the "war" on piracy is quite pointless

How do you know that first point?
I do agree that this war on piracy in the end is stupid though.

While as Darsithis pointed out it's a double edged sword which is absolutely right the problem is that there's almost no way to tell how many people actually buy games after they are pirated.

[Deleted]

I haven't verified the information, but I believe them to be a credible source.

They are an incredibly reliable source, and a lot of wise words said on that show.

---------- Post added 2012-12-17 at 12:04 AM ----------

Piracy does also hurt consumers, especially because it's a medium to distribute malware, and only serves to bring money to the pirates... there's not really that much "good" with piracy. It can definitely raise awareness of a product, but so can trial versions and limited versions (I know I got hooked onto Diablo from their Diablo II trial). At the end of the day, it's one of those things where companies try to prevent people from stealing their product even though it will probably happen 1 way or another anyway. What they definitely don't want is for the piracy to make the experience worse for actual paying customers.

You do know that "pirates" are consumers, right? Pirates are not a sect... A hidden group of people with the sole purpose to GET RICH on somebody other's work... They are people like you and me, and I'll cut my right hand off that most of people here pirated something at one point in time.

EDIT: I had to run because my pancake was burning...

Pirates are an organized crime mob, they are children who don't have access to the games / songs/ movies / any other media. They are people who want to enjoy the product, not sell them. For the love of god, they are giving them away for free, how exactly do they profit from it?