Team Meat on Piracy

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Team Meat thinks that piracy is good for business:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1184546p1.html

My two cents:

-Their argument seems to be that the people who pirate their games will eventually buy them or somehow lead to a sale. Color me skeptical: I've seen that happen before (and done it myself once or twice) but the general sentiment I see on the internet is usually more along the lines of "fuck y'all, I just got a free game!" I also can't really imagine that pc devs are putting all of these excessive copy protection programs on their games because they're concerned that they'll have to buy the 100 foot yacht this year instead of the 120 footer.

-I feel like the "piracy is not the same as shoplifting" comment pops up alot. Clearly they are not the same as far as one is a tangible object and the other is intangible, but IMO it doesn't really change the fact that the intangible object still costs money to make, and every copy pirated is one more copy the developer could've been paid for.

-Is there some sort of "rule of nerd doubles" which requires that one half of the duo must be bald with glasses? Team Meat, the Penny Arcade Guys, the Collider/Slashfilm guys, the Mythbusters, the Wachoskis... what's going on?
 
Personally, I think the only time piracy can really be good for product sales is when the retail product has more to offer than the pirated version. If it's the same exact game either way, there's not really any incentive to buy the game other than to support the developers. If buying the game gives you access to other features that are otherwise unavailable, there are going to be a lot more people who are willing to go out and buy a copy to get the full experience.
 
[quote name='pippin']Personally, I think the only time piracy can really be good for product sales is when the retail product has more to offer than the pirated version. If it's the same exact game either way, there's not really any incentive to buy the game other than to support the developers. If buying the game gives you access to other features that are otherwise unavailable, there are going to be a lot more people who are willing to go out and buy a copy to get the full experience.[/QUOTE]

That's a good point, and it might be why free-to-play will become so prevalent.
 
Everyone I know (in real life and the Internet) whose pirated, tend to only do it because of either insane prices (music) or insane DRM. Sometimes I feel like certain companies, because of the decisions they make to help themselves and screw the consumer, drive the forces behind piracy.
 
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