For anyone who thinks online activations aren't a problem

[Anthropoid]

Well one man's irrationality is another man's calculated risk! [;)]

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Well one man's irrationality is another man's calculated risk! [;)]

"Two things are limitless: the universe, and human stupidity. About the universe, I am not quite sure."
- Albert Einstein.

[sapper_astro]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

ORIGINAL: sapper_astro

What exactly do you suggest we do about pirates? Apart from not pirating ourselves, there isn't much else we can do. What have you done so far?

What should we do? First off, dont' do it, EVER. Second off, speak out against it clearly, and whenever appropriate.

What have I done? Speak out explicitly against piracy in this thread!

Dont' blow it off. If some guy is making statements that border on implicit sanctioning for piracy, or convey the idea that piracy is not a big deal, step up and confront it. Query what the person is saying, and when you can pin down what it is they mean, if what they mean is blase about piracy, then state a tough anti-piracy position.

I'll be quite frank with you guys: any of you who engage in piracy of games, I consider to be major _insert dirtiest derogatory label you can imagine here that conveys dishonesty, selfishness, petty self-importance, and shortsighted ignorance_. That is honestly how I feel if you are a pirate. You are not "one of us," you are not my friend, and you are not "okay." You're a cheating little punk who steals from me and my friends, the guys who ALWAYS pay for their games. If you are a pirate, you should be ashamed of yourself, not because you are hurting a big company, but because you are hurting your fellow gamers.

There, I did it again. I spoke out quite explicitly and forcefully AGAINST piracy of computer games.

If even 10% of you join me in this, cumulatively, gradually, it will change things. Why? Because probably some people reading this ARE pirates, or were leaning toward thinking it was "okay." Maybe I've just now made them feel antagonized, or self-conscious, maybe even ashamed or guilty. Maybe they just won't log on t Matrix again, but what if they eventually encounter the same anti-piracy rant someplace else?

The same. I do this myself, even though it mostly turns into a fracas of kids and morons laughing and saying how it isn't stealing.

In spite of this attitude I have had and in spite of the fact I have spoken out against it, I still feel like the idiot at times when I am the one who has to put up with the DRM's I have spoken about. Other people I have known, who vented in the same way previously, have largely given up buying PC games in disgust, or even turned to downloading the pirated game themselves so they could use it without the "thanks for buying it, but we really think you could be a pirate, so..." attitude on the part of publishers and developers.

As for myself, as stated previously, I just don't buy said games, even though this has forced me to miss out on some games I really, really wanted to play. I feel insulted each and every time I read about some mongrel enjoying the game, without any of the hassles, after heading out to sea and pirating the same game.

Since I do take the same attitude as yourself, and uphold similar reactions to pirates, my one, and only, beef at the moment is to get rid of draconian DRM systems that rob me of easily enjoying my hobby. I am the paying customer, and I am the one being punished for others actions. Not on.

[SS Hauptsturmfuhrer]

Maybe fighting pirates with ever increasing draconian online activating 'solutions' is not a solution at all.  And I doubt lecturing people about the evils of piracy will ever have a positive effect.   Better to try and get people interested in supporting good games developers like SSG and Matrix.  I know how it feels all this piracy stuff cause I know one guy who pirates everything and then brags about making 50k or 100k a year (I forget exactly) but won't even pay 50 bucks for a game struggling to survive in the market so the bunghole pirates it instead so he can buy more gold to horde.  He only bought like two games over 10 years, both crappy paradox games he only played once or twice and they sell millions of copies anyways.  I tried to get him to buy some Matrix games but he's too stingy and arrogant, hates real strategy games that make players think, and keeps on pirating stuff.  That's why I always fire a burst of 9mm at pirates walking past my apartment window.

[knilli]

look the way i see it,
i buy my games, i buy now less because less good games are on the market (at least my opinion).  i work as a volunteer for a community radio station as a broadcaster/producer (1 man show [:D]) and because it is a community radio station it is quite underfunded. the problem i face is simple. i produce segments of my radio program on my computer at home (the same machine runs the games too). i need certain software programs to do so. some of these programs are now detected as "no no's" by the copy protection mechanism of some games. result: i can not play them, in one case not even install them [:@].
there is only a limited (no) chance to get my money back, at least not easily...for me the result was, that i started to look for no cd cracks.  and funny as it is...suddenly i have no problems anymore [&o]  .
but the joke  goes further. i do not like to but original cd's in my cars cd player (sorry do not have a mp3 player there). it is quite hot here...so i make a copy of my originals. no longer legal. according to the law, i am allowed to have a private copy, but i am not allowed to get around a copy protection (which does not work because my copy program copys most of the cd's and i have only a normal one, like nero)