"The only reason I think a person w/ the $$ that can afford a game might actually pirate a game is if the game is protected by nasty copyright protection and they decide to get a pirated version of the game b/c the ripped version is w/out the nasty copyright protection all over it."
You're underestimating the very large proportion of people who can afford the game and want to play it but just don't want to pay for it. The ease of pirating and the low risk factor of it makes it very attractive to many who would otherwise buy.
Well, no, I'm not. I just didn't mention it. There's
of course that, too.
When I was in college, I actually knew a few people who'd actually buy an expensive say $300+ video card, yet not buy one PC game in the actual stores. Though, they'd
have every game that is out there on the market.
If we want to go further even, there is always the person that'll go pirate the game for whatever reason -- maybe b/c the game's not even out yet in retail stores, but it somehow got leaked onto the Net, full version and all, yet got impatient and had to have it.
Though, I wonder of how many that actually download a full copy of a game actually go out and buy the real deal in the store b/c they love the game "that" much. Probably a low number, I'd guess, but that would be an interesting factoid.
Oh, and I wonder if they actually "open" their real copy or just throw it aside to just collect it, too....hehe....Hmmmm....
Hell, hmmm, I dunno...
Yeah, the average person doesnt care about copy protection unless it screws up and doesnt let them play.
I understand companies wanting to protect their games and all -- that is fine. I really have no problem w/ that.
It's the copyright protection that is nasty i.e. StarForce and goes to ridiculously extreme measures that bothers me.
Most pirates just want a free game.
That is a problem, of course. There will always be that problem, with or without copyright protection.
I think the "piracy issue" has gotten worse over the years b/c of extreme measures taken by copyright protection for screwing the legit users over. You might stop a lot of pirates w/ copyright protection like StarForce, but you weren't getting their sales in the first place, anyways -- like you said, those probably wouldn't buy the game, anyways. Now, w/ the usage of nasty copyright protection i.e, StarForce, the publisher/developer has the potential of not getting sales from what probably would've been legit customers you would've likely already had....