Gabe Newell was/is right about piracy.

[🍹🌞🍉2001 SUMMER vibes]

He made a comment years ago saying piracy isn't a money issue - but a service issue. People who spend thousands on a gaming-rig who choose to pirate aren't doing so for money-related reasons. Tonight I discovered he is right.

In addition to Steam - I'm on Game Pass (for PC). Been there for a long time. There is a game I wanted to mod - called Crackdown 3. I was able to find the game's location on my hard drive - which is WAY more obscure than the simple Steam where you just go to Steamapps and choose the game.

Anyway - so I find folders for the game's videos which I actually enjoyed a lot and I thought wow that's so cool I don't even need a tool to extract them they're just all sitting right there in two folders.

Turns out those folders are 100% locked for any kind of editing - so even though I'm admin on my computer - and even though I pay for Game Pass.....I can't access the files. That blows my mind - and it also proves what he said years ago is true - because now I'm thinking about sailing the black seas in hope of finding someone who found a way around this issue. Again - not for money reasons - but for service reasons.

[Tiberius]

Yea that explains why piracy is dead. Oh wait... it isnt

[Donald Trump]

Spoiler alert: Gabe Newell is always right

[nohuman]

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Yea that explains why piracy is dead. Oh wait... it isnt

It just seems bigger because more people are online, but it's true, online stores as well as movie streaming services took a gargantuan bite out of the piracy scene. It's nothing like it was.

I went to a giant lan party back in the late 90s and had a AAA dev team sitting like 2 tables away from me. They watched me and everyone around pirate our filthy guts out that entire weekend. heh.

[talemore]

Bank paid the expenses of production.
They're entrepreneurs. State paid the game.
This is why the idea of 10 000 employees is contradicting if there are 1000 companies and why videogame industry is a closed society.

[Tiberius]

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Yea that explains why piracy is dead. Oh wait... it isnt

It just seems bigger because more people are online, but it's true, online stores as well as movie streaming services took a gargantuan bite out of the piracy scene. It's nothing like it was.

I went to a giant lan party back in the late 90s and had a AAA dev team sitting like 2 tables away from me. They watched me and everyone around pirate our filthy guts out that entire weekend. heh.

Until you understand that free stuff is free stuff, theres no point in further discussion

[nohuman]

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

It just seems bigger because more people are online, but it's true, online stores as well as movie streaming services took a gargantuan bite out of the piracy scene. It's nothing like it was.

I went to a giant lan party back in the late 90s and had a AAA dev team sitting like 2 tables away from me. They watched me and everyone around pirate our filthy guts out that entire weekend. heh.

Until you understand that free stuff is free stuff, theres no point in further discussion

uhhh ok? I never said it doesn't happen anymore.

[nohuman]

hmm maybe I read into this wrong. Though I'm not sure this is a 'piracy' issue as much as a 'cracking' issue.
Tons of games had 'locked' files or some proprietary format. Didn't stop people from modding them though. In many cases, a retail copy vs. a pirated copy would make no difference for this as the files will still be in the same format.

[Tiberius]

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Until you understand that free stuff is free stuff, theres no point in further discussion

uhhh ok? I never said it doesn't happen anymore.

What stops piracy greatly was mostly govt intervention. Many sites were taken down and ppl were sent to jail.

And denuvo actually works. These days, only one site has managed to crack denuvo. Not to mention, more and more games require online connection which ultimately prevents any attempt to pirate the game.

And the funniest thing is even after we have netflix or steam or kindle, piracy STILL takes more than 20% of internet total bandwidth. Accessibility barely make a dent on piracy

[Candyy]

I mean everybody does this for different reasons... There is some becuase of the money, others becuase is not available v:

[nohuman]

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

uhhh ok? I never said it doesn't happen anymore.

What stops piracy greatly was mostly govt intervention. Many sites were taken down and ppl were sent to jail.

And denuvo actually works. These days, only one site has managed to crack denuvo. Not to mention, more and more games require online connection which ultimately prevents any attempt to pirate the game.

And the funniest thing is even after we have netflix or steam or kindle, piracy STILL takes more than 20% of internet total bandwidth. Accessibility barely make a dent on piracy

Yeah. You obviously missed the old days. lol. It was more like 80%. Everyone did it.

Everyone and their dog had a warez ftp on their network.

[HistoricKombat]

Origineel geplaatst door Mlal Ji'q Na Hpa:

He made a comment years ago saying piracy isn't a money issue - but a service issue. People who spend thousands on a gaming-rig who choose to pirate aren't doing so for money-related reasons. Tonight I discovered he is right.

In addition to Steam - I'm on Game Pass (for PC). Been there for a long time. There is a game I wanted to mod - called Crackdown 3. I was able to find the game's location on my hard drive - which is WAY more obscure than the simple Steam where you just go to Steamapps and choose the game.

Anyway - so I find folders for the game's videos which I actually enjoyed a lot and I thought wow that's so cool I don't even need a tool to extract them they're just all sitting right there in two folders.

Turns out those folders are 100% locked for any kind of editing - so even though I'm admin on my computer - and even though I pay for Game Pass.....I can't access the files. That blows my mind - and it also proves what he said years ago is true - because now I'm thinking about sailing the black seas in hope of finding someone who found a way around this issue. Again - not for money reasons - but for service reasons.

It is not just Game Pass. If you buy & download any game from the Microsoft Store, those games are locked as well.

[Tiberius]

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

What stops piracy greatly was mostly govt intervention. Many sites were taken down and ppl were sent to jail.

And denuvo actually works. These days, only one site has managed to crack denuvo. Not to mention, more and more games require online connection which ultimately prevents any attempt to pirate the game.

And the funniest thing is even after we have netflix or steam or kindle, piracy STILL takes more than 20% of internet total bandwidth. Accessibility barely make a dent on piracy

Yeah. You obviously missed the old days. lol. It was more like 80%. Everyone did it.

Everyone and their dog had a warez ftp on their network.

Its always fun to talk abt anecdotal evidence like the world revolves around you

[secuda]

Yea he was right, provide a better service then piracy and they will buy it. infact they provided so much better service at the time it ended the small physicall sales that existed for PC gamers.

[nohuman]

Origineel geplaatst door Tiberius:

Origineel geplaatst door EnÐΩGeÑe§¡§:

Yeah. You obviously missed the old days. lol. It was more like 80%. Everyone did it.

Everyone and their dog had a warez ftp on their network.

Its always fun to talk abt anecdotal evidence like the world revolves around you

Well, to be fair, the 'world' was a lot smaller back then. Pirating on dial-up was not fun. lol.

I remember watching parts of this world come online. Then I would meet them in game and shoot them. Good times. ;)

[Paratech2008]

I find it ironic publishers "lock" / add drm to emulated games so that paying customers have worse gaming experiences than pirates.

I'm glad some emulated games on Steam and GOG don't encrypt ROMs.

I still pay money to get "encrypted ROMs."

But I know I'm in the minority.