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I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

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Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#61

Post by mikecane »

mikecane wrote: post #6

I think it's time for some people to admit that when it comes to certain things, they have become addicts. This is not a condemnation. I was there with Forbrydelsen III (which at least was never going to be shown in the US as-is, and DK had the sense to open the stream worldwide due to ex-pat outrage, and which I not only watched streaming in Danish without subtitles but then also downloaded later when fansubs were a…

And I get downvoted by people who don't want to admit to an addiction? Rule one of addiction: Denial.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#62

Post by mikecane »

Svip wrote: post #9
mikecane wrote: post #6

I think it's time for some people to admit that when it comes to certain things, they have become addicts. This is not a condemnation. I was there with Forbrydelsen III (which at least was never going to be shown in the US as-is, and DK had the sense to open the stream worldwide due to ex-pat outrage, and which I not only watched streaming in Danish without subtitles but then also downloaded later when fansubs were a…

Fansubs of Danish programming? Now I've heard that as well!

Forbrydelsen was a worldwide phenomenon. Surprised you never heard of it. AMC in the US re-did it (badly) as The Killing.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#63

Post by Samuel_Michon »

edent wrote: post #51
calinet6 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much people would pay for advertising-free television?

In the UK we pay £145 per year [0] - call that US$250. For that we get 3 HD channels, 2 SD channels, 2 kids channels, a 24 hour news channel, a dozen national radio stations, and a bunch of local stations. All FTA via your aerial. Oh, and you get the BBC websites. All without adverts. Totally worth it. [0] http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/tv...

Most countries have public service broadcasters. However, the UK has the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, with arguably the highest quality programming. PBS in the US and CBC in Canada have far smaller budgets, which is weird given population size of their respective countries. Perhaps if tax payers would ask to pay more for public broadcasting, we wouldn’t even need commercial stations.

EDIT: I just found out that most of the funding for public broadcasters in the US doesn’t even come from taxes. Canada's CBC receives two-thirds of its funding from taxes.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#64

Post by noptic »

Nursie wrote: post #7

I don't really care about a delay of a day or so, and now I know that sky atlantic show some of this stuff that quickly I might even subscribe. Of course the ideal would be ad-free, on-demand and not geographically restricted, but that doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone.

Thanks to piracy thinks are getting better. now most us series are translated within weeks. Supernatural had a 3 years(!) delay in germany.

There will allways be people who want everything for free but there REALLY are people like me who want to pay but get rejected because of "licensing issues" aka "wait till it is published in your country even if you hate the voice over and want to watch the original anyway"

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#65

Post by Nursie »

pc86 wrote: post #43
marknutter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And so are you suggesting that if it had DRM it wouldn't have seen such a high piracy rate? The fact is, there's going to be some level of piracy no matter what you do. There will always be people out there who will obtain the game but would have never otherwise bought the game. There will always be people out there for whom $20 is a reasonable price and will gladly pay it to obtain the game. It's up to the game auth…

Does 80% really qualify as "some level of piracy?" Clearly there is a group of people who will always pirate what they want, regardless of the price or what it is (movies, TV shows, games, Photoshop). If that's the case, then I think it's also fair to say that there is a certain group of people for whom even the smallest bit of DRM would cause them to either go without the movie/show/program (I think the most likely)…

"I think it's also fair to say that there is a certain group of people for whom even the smallest bit of DRM would cause them to either go without the movie/show/program"

Really?

Because the pirate 'products' I've seen tend not to come with any DRM. DRM only affects the legit versions.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#66

Post by mhaymo »

claudius wrote: post #2

If Sky doesn’t offer the service you expect, why do you keep paying for that insufficient service? They will hardly listen to someone saying ‘I don’t like the way you do things, but I’ll pay you anyways for not doing anything’ – on the other hand, were they only paid if they actually delivered the expected service, they at least might consider doing so. (Also the link is currently a little broken with duplicate http-…

How else can he support the creators of the show?

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#67

Post by PeterisP »

citricsquid wrote: post #57
PeterisP wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares about % of piracy? The only value that matters is the absolute number of sales, not what the non-customers did or didn't do with that game. DRM hurts sales of many products. If one more extra customer pays for your movie because the DRM-free service is better, then it outweighs a billion of freeloaders.

The percentage of piracy demonstrates that there is a demand for the product but the consumers don't want to pay for it. World of Goo is the example I used because it's a "perfect" product under the check list provided in the article: great product (90/100) affordable ($20 for a game that takes >10 hours to complete) same price in all markets, unrestricted, same availability everywhere.

Actually, statement "consumers don't want to pay for it" by definition means lack of demand; demand is the # of people that want the product at that price.

A pirated copy demonstrates a wish for the product but does not neccessarily demonstrate a real market with a real demand for it at that price point.

For example, if you look globally, there are huge populations that have the capability to play pirated games but (a) can't consider $20 as affordable; and (b) can't use western payment infrastructures such as credit card payments.

If you look locally, a person who would play World of Goo for free but if offered it at $20 would choose some other entertainment - that's not a potential customer, that's shouldn't be counted in demand.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#68

Post by laumars »

jmduke wrote: post #15

The argument of "I paid for it so I can pirate it" is especially funny when coupled with "Too many ads!" When you watch a show on cable, you're not just paying with your subscription but with your eyeballs. Advertisements, shockingly, aren't designed merely to irritate the viewer but to bring in more revenues. (What do you think is going to happen when Sky realizes that their viewership is down even if their membersh…

You do realise that Sky offers a number of services that allow viewers to skip those adds entirely: fast forwarding in a a few different modes (live buffers or previously recorded shows like any conventional DVR) as well as advertless shows on Anytime?

Barring the odd show that demands real-time viewing (eg sports matches) most people I know deliberately watch their shows 15/20 minutes later from the Sky+ DVR just fast forward adverts.

However even without such features, many people just channel hop or walk out of the room to make a cup of tea / go to the toilet.

Then to top all that off, most people have become desensitised to adverts on TV; we avoid making purchasing decisions based upon then and even learn to block adverts out entirely.

The practical upshot of all this is adverts on TV have now become about as effective a marketing tool as ads on the internet.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#69

Post by PeterisP »

citricsquid wrote: post #46
marknutter wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And so are you suggesting that if it had DRM it wouldn't have seen such a high piracy rate? The fact is, there's going to be some level of piracy no matter what you do. There will always be people out there who will obtain the game but would have never otherwise bought the game. There will always be people out there for whom $20 is a reasonable price and will gladly pay it to obtain the game. It's up to the game auth…

The blog post presented a supposed solution: make it easy for people to acquire something legally and they will acquire it legally. However World of Goo is a perfect example that this is just not the case, even if the product is literally perfect piracy will remain rampant. Why would a company bother investing huge amounts of money into creating a "perfect" tv/movie distribution platform if it's going to make barely…

The solution is a bit different - "make it easy for people to acquire something legally and they will acquire it legally." means that there will be a lot of people (group A) who will acquire it legally and you'll get a lot of money from that market.

It doesn't say anything about the group B who'll pirate it anyways, no matter what you do with DRM.

Re: I pirated Game of Thrones season premiere

#70

Post by deelowe »

citricsquid wrote: post #13

People have always been, and always will be, willing to pay for good products. We have always understood Return on Investment, even if we don’t call it that. Which is why World Of Goo[0], a fantastic indie game that was priced at $20, that has a 90 / 100 Metacritic score[1], that has absolutely no DRM is a game that had over 80% piracy rate at launch? The "People want to pay it's just the companies stopping them" arg…

Umm... It was $20 for what was essentially a cell phone game. Once it got lowered to a few bucks and was sold during the steam sales/humble bundles, it did quite well.

As a counter example, what about super meatboy? It did extremely well IIRC.

There are several issues in the entertainment industry and they all result in decreased sales(which is the real issue, right? I mean, should anyone really care about piracy as long as sales are good?)

1. Price point. Video games shouldn't be $60, movies shouldn't be $30, and music shouldn't be >$1 per song. As a consumer, this is just too much for the value I get out of these things. Sorry, that's just the way it is and yes, the internet is a big reason for this b/c there's tons of free stuff on the net that provide as good or better value for the money. This was the problem with WoG btw.

2. Barrier to entry. Simply having to drive to a store to buy a movie is too much effort these days. This is why steam and netflix are doing so well. Make it dead simple for me to get access to the content and sales will increase.

3. DRM. This breaks games. I think twice about buying any game with DRM, because I'm afraid it won't work when I upgrade my pc or the host company shuts down servers. I have NES games that still work from my childhood. It sucks when new games don't get the same level of treatment. If I didn't have principles, I could see myself pirating these games so that I can have a non-broken copy, but I don't pirate.

4. Publishing companies. Lately, these guys seem hell bent on ruining franchises. As an example, I bought battlefield 3. It had origin, the colors were terrible, and it was unclear exactly how much had improved from BF2(there was certainly a lot that was missing), but I still bought it, because I've always been a huge fan of the franchise(desert combat was the greatest mod ever). And.... it is terrible in comparison. I won't be buying battlefield 4. Now, I've been a fan of dice since the first battlefield came out. I watch their dev videos and follow their work. I was ecstatic when they picked up the DC team. These are a great group of guys. But this is not dice's game, it's EA's. They ruined that franchise. Maybe bf4 will sell well, who knows, but it will die just like call of duty has and it's not because of piracy. The same thing applies to movies, tv shows, and popular music these days. The people running the show don't care about the content.

I'm sorry, but piracy doesn't cause lost sales. The above does. The issue is industry wide and the cracks are showing. There's been plenty of indie games that have sold very well recently and have no drm. Piracy isn't the issue, the internet is. People are more informed now and expect better value for their money. Everyone just needs to accept that and move on(and stop scapegoating piracy as the root cause).

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