WitchKing Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 Basically they want to combat the tendencies towards a 1984-style surveillance society, and instead open the way for realising the productive and creative potential of modern information technology. They argue that non-commercial filesharing stimulates both cultural expression and economic growth, as well as the general well-being of people, whereas artificially restricting the natural distribution of ideas and culture will stifle society - especially considering that in the end it can't be done without effectively allowing the police to come to your home and search your computer and your desk drawers. It's also about making law catch up with reality. Five hundred years ago it was illegal to say that the world was round. Besides, I'm a game developer and it's the publisher who's gonna cash in on my hard work, not me. And they are not productive, they have just managed to work a system which requires a old-fashioned physical distribution chain, thereby profiting on other people's (mine!) creative work. Valve is sort of being more modern with Steam - but the day every developer sells their games on download without letting publishers walk away with over half the profits, that's when this industry will have modernised more. One question: If I tell you something interesting from the book I'm reading and you don't pay the publisher for it - is that immoral?
WitchKing Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 By the way - this with the copyright/piracy issues is not just about a few progressive modern-day crazy vikings. It's a HUGE and growing discussion worldwide, which is much too complex and extensive to summarize here Check it out, it's very interesting.
FrieChamp Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 I think you need to seperate between a police state that is suppressing its citizens to avoid free thinking to uphold its reign for its own sake AND police raids in order to protect other citizen's rights, their right to decide on their own what's meant to happen with their creative labour. Now you may think these rights/laws are outdated or not needed, which scares me even more, because that reminds me of communist regimes. Anyway, as you said, the topic is probably to extensive to discuss here in detail, but I still don't understand why you would rather not earn anything at all from your work than share the profits with a publisher. I mean I understand the motives, but this is either very idealistic or simply not well thought through. Moving forward here is an article on gamasutra about game personalization in order to create additional motivation for consumers to buy the game over pirating it: So what would it mean to build a game *for a specific customer*? I'm not sure. But I'm not talking about binding it to the user's machine with DRM. No, people will find a way to strip it out anyway. No, the personalization has to add value in some way. DRM doesn’t add value for the customer, it adds inconvenience at best and outrage and resentment at worst (one need only to look as far as the numerous postings about the PC release of the otherwise-wonderful BioShock for an example). This kind of ties in with the idea that has been mentioned before about customizing your game and only buy the parts that you want to play. This idea goes even further though, in the way that the developer adds a personal value to the game for the consumer by shipping a customized version of the game to him. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=16790
WitchKing Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 I'm not whining about the publishers. I'm just saying that there's no special reason why it's good for the industry to protect their copyright as it is defined now. I do agree with those advocating reform that current copyright laws usually rest on some pretty arbitrary preconceptions, and that it would be better for the industry to adapt with new business models instead of supporting expensive and intrusive surveillance of private citizens' communications. The whole issue does make me think of communist regimes, we agree there I am a professional and I want to be paid (lots) for my work. I just don't think my profits will go up from new and oppressive laws trying to artificially keep an antiquated intellectual property system barely alive. If anything that whole expensive surveillance system will make taxes go up and I will make LESS money As I said - new business models! I don't see Blizzard whining about WoW piracy.
WitchKing Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 Anyway - pirating games is the easiest thing in the world - and still sales are huge for the really good games out there. So I wouldn't worry too much about our profits. I guess that a lot of us just like paying for a good product.
Sindwiller Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 Now you may think these rights/laws are outdated or not needed, which scares me even more, because that reminds me of communist regimes. *sigh* Let's face it. It's the digital age. Music gets pirated en masse. Games get pirated en masse (not as much as music though). If you really want to criminalize thousands and thousands people, support surveillance over the citizens, help to suppress a libre, digital culture and set a base for totalitarian structures inside democracies and market economies, go for it. I can understand that it's hard to know that many people pirate your game or illegally make money out of it - and you don't even get a penny for that. It must be indeed frustrating. But instead of whining or pleading to the masses to do the morally right thing (although you know it's not going to work), why don't you think of ways to encourage people to buy stuff instead of pirating it? I quote: Now PIRATING is an effect of easy access (read: modern technology) and way too high sales prices on games. You're all on the same boat after all.
FrieChamp Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 why don't you think of ways to encourage people to buy stuff instead of pirating it? What do you think I am doing, have you read my last post till the end? Moving forward here is an article on gamasutra about game personalization in order to create additional motivation for consumers to buy the game over pirating it: (...)
zaphod Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow?
Quakis Posted January 28, 2008 Report Posted January 28, 2008 Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? I see what you did there.
e-freak Posted January 29, 2008 Report Posted January 29, 2008 VALVE UNVEILS STEAMWORKS Complete Suite of Publishing Tools Available Free of Charge January 29, 2008 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announce Steamworks, a complete suite of publishing and development tools - ranging from copy protection to social networking services to server browsing - is now available free of charge to developers and publishers worldwide. Steamworks, the same suite of tools used in best-selling PC titles Half-Life 2 and The Orange Box, is available for all PC games distributed via retail and leading online platforms such as Steam. The services included in Steamworks may be used a la carte or in any combination. Specifically, Steamworks offers: · Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Login into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data. · State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it's released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released. · Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region. · Auto updating: Insures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games. · Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game. · Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world. · Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world's best professional and amateur players of your game. · Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies. "Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today's market," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Steamworks puts all those tools and systems together in one free package, liberating publishers and developers to concentrate on the game instead of the plumbing." "As more developers and publishers have embraced Steam as a leading digital distribution channel, we've heard a growing number of inquiries regarding the availability of the platform's services and tools," said Jason Holtman, director business development at Valve. "Offering Steamworks is part of our ongoing efforts to support the needs of game developers and our publishing partners." Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content. With over 13 million active accounts and more than 250 games, plus hundreds of movie files and game demos available, Steam has become a frequent destination for millions of gamers around the world. For more information regarding Steamworks, please visit jasonh@valvesoftware.com About Valve Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington with offices in Irvine, CA. The company's portfolio of entertainment properties includes Half-Life®, Counter-Strike®, Day of Defeat®, Team Fortress®, PortalTM and Left 4 DeadTM. Valve's catalog of products accounts for over 20 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 80% of PC online action gameplay. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit http://www.valvesoftware.com. Frie - Get Crysis some Steam-Features. Now! Seems like Steam can do a huge step in saving the PC-Games Market. All kind of security measurments against piracy and a complete system like windows live without paying and without any direct contracts to valve needed.
Psyshokiller Posted January 29, 2008 Report Posted January 29, 2008 Great way to establish steam further.
Thrik Posted January 29, 2008 Report Posted January 29, 2008 Yeah, that's brilliant. Looks like games can make use of Valve's server browser, which alone is excellent! Also great for anti-piracy while keeping prices decent.
FrieChamp Posted January 30, 2008 Report Posted January 30, 2008 Smart move! Has anyone here got information on the prices involved in Valve's licensing scheme for Steam? Or are those only handed out as response to formal business enquiries and need to be kept confidential?
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