World of Goo has 90% piracy rate

Same here. Proud to say I bought this off steam.

I take back what i said about piracy not hurting the industry. I love this game and i will pay for it tonight.

This is what I was talking about yesterday. Oh sure you aren't hurting EA when you pirate Madden, but if you pirate something like World of Goo, you are seriously screwing the developer over. I'm not particularly interested in this game (The so-so review on the Totally Rad Show convinced me that I don't need to waste the money) but it's a good example of when piracy literally can send a developer out of business, which hopefully won't happen in this case.

If you pirated this, you better man up and buy it....or it will come back to bite you in the ass...probably......Karma is a bitch I'm told.

And how do you support your claim? Oh right, by pulling it out of your ass.

They're the devs and have sales figures and probably other forms of information to back their claims - you're just a troll.

You're probably one of the douche's that pirated it.

Is that going to be your new (and lame) reason to pirate games?

Probably the same place the World of Goo guy got his.

They compared the number of sales to the number of unique IP addresses connecting to the leaderboards. The latter greatly outweighs the former.

While SOME IPs could be explained by dynamic IPs, or people using their bought copy on multiple PCs... There's no way that makes up for the vast difference.

Hardly what I'd call making up piracy figures.

Just did a quite isohunt search - he's not lying.

torrents make about 70% of all the piracy on the internet. Looking at that makes a good estimate, if not lower that what's really happening.

I'm glad to have bought the game on Wiiware. It's fucking amazing and deserves a sequel.

Hear hear. I'd have been on this earlier, were it not for the enormous number of games I have yet to finish. (Cave Story is going to be a day-one pickup for me, too, though.)

Ditto. I'm quite keen on playing the game too, but I had enough Wii points to get two games (MM2 & MM9) or it. I chose to get two games. Ain't gonna be getting anymore Wii points for a while too, since the cards are hard for me to get.

Shame they didn't go with the usual 10 buck pricing.

I don't think it's bogus because nearly everyone I know pirates games and doesn't see anything wrong with it. I'm the only one who refuses to. But it is worth mentioning that probably 80% of the people who pirated it wouldn't have bought it at all anyways.

I agree lots of people pirate but because of things like that 80% of people probably wouldn't have bought the game anyway, it's hard to quantify the rate of piracy. I think he threw out a number like 90% just to generate some buzz for his game.

I love how no one flaming the comments recognizes the difference between "piracy rate" and "lost sales" and how the developer isn't making claims like every pirated copy is a lost sale.

Indeed. Crysis sold about 1-2 million copies, yet they claimed that the piracy rate was about 1:30.

So if nobody had come up with the idea of internet piracy, Crysis would have sold 60 million copies?

So are you saying that if they wouldn't have bought the game, it's okay for them to pirate it, because it's not a lost sale? How do you know they wouldn't have bought it, because they said so? If they hadn't bought it, what other game might they have bought?

While it's true that you can't necessarily assume all those pirated copies are lost sales, it doesn't make it acceptable to pirate games you weren't planning to purchase.

It's funny how every time piracy comes up people start acting holier-than-thou and can't have a legitimate discourse about it. No one is saying that it's ok to pirate; they're simply stating that it's not valid for publishers/producers of the content to count all of those people as lost revenue.
How many times have you d/led music, movies, or tv shows only to not have time to watch them?

It's coming in Spring.

While a "solution" is coming, it's not very good. Nintendo said that you'll be able to download games DIRECTLY to an SD card, but they said you still have to shuffle stuff around to play them. It's actually pretty lame. :(

You're not giving it to me! Give it to me faster!

"Don't give me that whole "Well, I never would have bought it in the first place" spiel. If you wouldn't have bought it in the first place -- you're not entitled to play it."

I don't think anybody who pirates games feels like they're entitled to play them. They just don't care.

"We bitch and moan about companies putting in draconian DRM features... failing to realize that the reason they have to do this is not because they want to, but instead because we keep stealing their shit."

No, it's because DRM keeps people from selling games second hand. Anyone who would buy the game would have to buy it new. DRM is completely and totally useless at stopping or even hindering piracy. DRM has never caused anyone to buy a game instead of pirating it, but it certainly has caused people to pirate games instead of buying them.

"steal"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steal

Well it is really up to the company to make sure the game is not pirated. I "pirate" stuff all the time online. Streaming movies from sites, audio, e-books, watching free PPV events and even downloading PSP & DS ISO files.

I fall into that category of people who pirate that end up buying the product if it's good. I understand I am not entitled to anything for free but if I like a movie I see online I will usually purchase it. I buy allot of stuff from TV shows, Blu-Rays, games, books and music. Having the ability to test run the product is what I use the pirating for. Not saying it's right or even trying to justify it but I do fit into that small minority of people who pirate things for a test run before purchasing them.

The only way to put a dent into piracy is to have draconian protections and restrictions on the content. In most cases if something is good it will sell.

I think that 90% number was pulled out of thin air in this case.

From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steal

"Steal, pilfer, filch and purloin mean to take from another without right or without detection. Steal may apply to any surreptitious taking of something and differs from the other terms by commonly applying to intangibles as well as material things ."

So pirating=stealing.

But when the draconian locks are put in place, suddenly everyone makes it an issue to attack said safeguard mechanism, forgetting that it's there to try and protect something that took significant effort to make.

The mindset that 'pirating is OK/has little consequences' is what needs to change. People that've bought games regularly in the past hopefully realize the impact these have on the devs even if they are pirating (and putting up thin claims to legitimize their actions), but what about those just starting and coming into the hobby thinking that all games are free?

Japanimation is currently being supported by a small base of rabid fans willing to plunk down huge amounts of cash for DVDs. If the industry doesn't find a more effective way of getting money from viewers, once the paying base decreases to irrecoverable levels the industry as a whole is going to crash, screwing over both the paying and non-paying fanbase. Gaming has much more options for safeguards at its disposal, but left untouched I believe it'll eventually follow the same route.

Protip: When you pirate something, you're not taking it, you're copying it. It's like saying if I go into the Louvre and take a picture of the Mona Lisa, I'm an art thief.

Your down votes give me power! Your avoidance of the truth amuses me! More! MORE!

Robo, cmon dont be stupid. You pirate the game, and that takes out one sale they could of have. That's stealing

Roto, your analogy is false

If you go to a museum and copy the mona lisa, you did work to paint an exact replica. You own your own work that happens to be a copy of another piece of work. Same if you took a picture.

When you copy a game you are stealing because you are not doing work to recreate the object. You are taking the actual object. Software may not have a single physical state like a painting, but it is still the result of labor and creativity. Taking that without permission is still stealing.

So you're saying the pirating groups have the right to pirate games, because they have to go through all the work to crack them? Metaphors don't work with pirating.

Yes, taking things without permission is stealing. When you copy something, though, you're not taking it, so it's not stealing.

I'm not saying it's not illegal or wrong, but it's not stealing.

BUNCH OF FREAKING BUTT pirates is more like it.

i love how johnny for example says he hates gears 2 cheaters and the leaderboard cheat problems that were fixed, but then he says how he pirates and downloads media all the time... go figure.

you cant be a part of the problem and then later act as if you care about any solution.
so its ok to pirate bad media but not gears 2??

roto you are an idiot straight up, unless you live in a european state that doesn't have copyright laws...
copying copyrighted materials is illegal its in the language of the law regarding copyrighted materials and media.

So it may be true that DRM is not the best way to stop pirating, but it seems to be the only viable option.
With other forms of stealing, or really anything that society considers criminal and wishes to deter, there are two main ways of trying to hinder said action.

1. Prevent the action: This is what DRM attempts to do. Its a hassle for everyone who just wants to go about their lives honestly , and frankly, anyone that wants to steal something will eventually find a way in anyways.

2.Punish the criminals: This is arguably a much more effective deterrent. What is it that keeps your average criminally-minded fellow from just breaking into your house and taking your crap? No, it's not because your house is all that hard to get into, and it's not because they know you would be real sad. It's because they are likely to get caught and are likely to face jail time.

The problem with this deterrent is that it is so difficult to do. Firstly, it is tough to make the punishment fit; you can't just walk into a kid's house and drag him by the ear back to a store where he stole the game and make him return it - because he stole it online and he can't "return" it.

Second, pirating is so accepted now that people would cry foul if you started enforcing it in the same way as stealing... being as you would have to prosecute almost everyone. And even to identify pirates consistently would likely require a creepy Big Brother-type program wherein some legal entity is constantly monitoring your download activity.

With that in mind, DRM, while ridiculous at times, seems like it is just about the best anyone can come up with.

gst- whats a fair punishment though?
jail.. no..
we dont have enough jails in the US as it is and we are starting to release drug dealers early and etc...

fines and ruining credit if not paid is a good start.
percentage of fines paid goto the source of the stolen goods.

@ Roto13: it's not like copying the Mona Lisa

A fairer equivalent is riding the bus/train/plane and pirates are the ticket dodgers, "hey it's going there anyway" they say, but the rest of us pay for our tickets. Not only that, but they are also ripping off the devs, without whom there would be no games.

Pirates should be honest about what they are -- the excuses are pathetic and juvenile -- they are simply people who does not pay for things they use. Cheap cnuts.

World of Goo is a great game though.

So what exactly is someone who rides a train without paying stealing? What are they taking away from anyone?

I'm gonna throw in with Roto on this one.

Bring on the downvotes!!!

Roto13: perfect. Thank you for proving my point!

toward Roto and others:

You're accessing content without compensating the artist. You are a thief, stealing an experience you hadn't paid for. It's like xeroxing a book, sure you've paid for access to the xerox machine and the paper but you aren't compensating the creator. You are essentially stealing a work.

You can argue semantics all you like but this is the true meaning of copyright: you should compensate the artist to own a copy of the work. By doing so you are encouraging others to create more works and enrich society; by not compensating the artist you are reducing the incentive to produce future goods. Also you're analogy of taking a photo of the Mona Lisa falls flat with digital media. You have an exact replica not a diminished reproduction of the work meaning your copy has the same value as the original.

YES PIRATES ARE KILLING THE INDUSTRY JUST AS MUCH AS ANYTHING ELSE!!!!

And for anyone trying to argue "Well they're trying to spread an experience so even pirated software helps them achieve this goal" No, they are trying to earn money by doing something they enjoy. Sure games would exist if they were just trying to spread an experience but not as the rich multimedia experience we call video games today.

If you want to "try before you buy" download the demo here: http://www.worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo . That's what demos are for, the 'trial' argument may work with other media but not here.

You can't steal an experience. That's dumb. That's not even a thing.

if you mean that an experience is intangible: yes you're correct but a lot of other "things" are also intangible and considering that one of the definitions of "thing" is "a special situation" that could also be interpreted as an experience for example a concert which is an experience and a special situation yeah I'd say it is a "thing"

What about an idea? An idea is also intangible but is also a "thing," but you are a jackass so I'm not going to continue arguing with you on this so hopefully someone will just start jacking your shit w/e there's no moral objection you have to theft so you clearly won't cry foul.

Way to have a temper tantrum.

I'm saying you can't steal something you can take away from someone else, and that's a fact. It's not theft and that's all there is to it. And if you'll rub the tears and snot off your face and look up a bit, you'll see that I never said piracy was ok or legal. In fact, I explicitly stated otherwise.

Also:

"hopefully someone will just start jacking your shit w/e there's no moral objection you have to theft so you clearly won't cry foul."

If someone stole my stuff, I'd be pretty pissed off. But I'll tell you what, if you know anyone capable of copying my things and keeping the copies for themselves without taking my originals, they're welcome to do so.