They were going to get £55 from me but now they’re getting nothing!

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    1 day ago

    Show me the data that proves piracy actually causes a tangible loss for the developer for DRM to actually be needed.

    (hint: it doesn’t exist. It instead shows most pirates weren’t going to buy the thing anyway, so they don’t make any more money by adding garbage like Denuvo)

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      The only way to do this accurately would require the same game to release twice on two planet Earths. It gets harder when pirates are not the types to offer up their purchase data honestly and willingly, for somewhat expectable reasons.

      BUT, the closest we got is an old version of FIFA (we’ll assume it was FIFA. This is an old article, and unfortunately I’m only recalling details from memory until I can locate a very old bookmark) Those games sell each year, generally just to update the roster. You’ll see many college dorms where people just stack up each year’s edition they bought because that trend doesn’t change. In the year that the publisher added Denuvo encryption, the PC sales jumped significantly. The only reasonable explanation most analysts could come to is that many PC gamers found they couldn’t pirate the game, and bought it.

      It’s not perfect data, not least because I don’t have a link right now. The other murky point is that the people who need to be convinced are not gamers, but publishers. Whatever arguments we make in forums, Denuvo makes its own arguments to them behind closed doors. So far, their arguments have been convincing, enough for publishers to burn money on licenses, and it may be because they have some very valuable, and non-public, figures that make the case. The games industry is not always obligated to release full numbers to its fanbase.

      I’m not trying to suggest anyone should shut up and accept Denuvo, I think a lot of the frustration is valid. But I do think it can be more nuanced than you reali3z

    • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Lmao…. Show you the data that would otherwise be impossible to show you?

      There is no tangible way to prove who would or wouldn’t buy a thing if the parameters were different other than polling them.

      And how exactly do you think polling dishonest people will turn out?

          • Nelots@piefed.zip
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            15 hours ago

            Shame. It’s a more nuanced discussion than you seem to believe.

            • monkeyjoe@lemmy.world
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              12 hours ago

              But Rhoeri said they always use nuance in discussions, they couldn’t be defending companies that don’t care about them.

            • Rhoeri@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              You think game developers don’t deserve to be paid for their work.

              There is no nuance in this argument, therefore there’s no merit in debating it.

              • Nelots@piefed.zip
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                12 hours ago

                You think game developers don’t deserve to be paid for their work.

                I literally do not think that though. This is that nuance I was talking about that you’re afraid to engage with. Not everybody pirates games and then never buys them.

                I’m very tight on money and cannot buy every game I’m interested in. So I pirate games and treat them as demos. If I dislike the game, I stop playing it, and no harm is done since I would have either never bought it or refunded it regardless. If I like the game, I’ll buy it at the first opportunity.

                Esoteric Ebb is the most recent example of that, I played it for a few hours and it immediately jumped to the #2 spot on my wishlist. I haven’t bought it yet, but I plan to soon. It’s also recently happened with Schedule I, and this one I actually got. Me pirating the game has literally earned them a sale they otherwise would not have gotten.

                  • Nelots@piefed.zip
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                    8 hours ago

                    Truly, when I went into that argument, I wasn’t expecting so much nuance, subtleties, and unique perspectives. They really showed me. I’m a changed man, from this point forward I will never buy games I’ve pirated because Rhoeri says I don’t do that!

                  • Nelots@piefed.zip
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                    8 hours ago

                    You know, I had a bunch of screenshots ready of me talking to a friend about pirating the game on discord, talking about my thoughts on the game after doing so, and then screenshots of me getting the game on steam the very next day. But this is already way too much effort put into a discussion with somebody as unserious as you. So I’m going to respect my own privacy and just not do that. Have fun living your life without nuance I guess.