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[omg]

(i was playing with an old 300mhz trying to get it to accept NT and i wrote this while i watied for the disk to format, thought i would share it with you guys , i might even finish it and put it up somewhere, who knows)


why do the authorities badger the abandonware scene?
fear = the market fears that sales of current software is on a downwards slump and sees abandonware partially to blame. so in (*partial) response they set themselfs quota reductions in the amount of older versions of there software that is available for people to freely download.

the whole problem is in fact the markets reaction to a downwards trend in sales of distributed media. but the overuse of credit cards is making people thrifty and that has to be taken into account as well as the general availability of distributed free media

so to deal with the distributed media theft they
a: attack warez sites
well u can see there point really (please dont nuke me warez guys) in terms of getting the latest software for free down the wires is gonna harm sales
b: put fake files on p2p
see above
c: try to track down people who are mass duplicating
see above
d: home copying/sharing
they spend lots of money on protecting the latest games from piracy and people will always find a way of copying. but the fact is that this level of sharing has gone on scince a tape drive was hi tech.

abandonware sites
the arguements are varied for why they tackle these sites. one of the markets fears is that a
previos version of the software being available will *devalue the intellectual property*
ok
lets limit this to games
so for example someone wants to trade on older title of a game for redev the older version of it being available for free will devalue the new version.....
so lets take an example here
moonstone. a game that is Riiipe for redev
people playing the dos and amiga versions for free wont want to buy the all singing all dancing online mmporg or whatever hacky slashy, all modern blood fx and things, wont rush out to buy this because he/she already has this old version on there computer?
i personally think they should put like a five year limit on this reosen, mb more or less but definatly a limit. i think people checking out the old version of a game are actually going to be more likely to purchase later installments of the franchise. so it should actually have a slight stimulatory effect on the games market.

(do they fear people with 486's and pentium 2's because they dont have a constant need to buy games and software becuse they are not catered for?)

also i personaly havnt bought a new game for ages. this because i dont want to. its because i have no urgent need to spend money on upgrading my system.
and i refuse to be caught in the forced upgrade path.

also i like old games and retro things, the newest console i posess is a dreamcast, my faveorate thing for games at the moment is a cheapski neo geo pocket. my largest collection of games for any platform is my collection of zx spectrum tape images.. when i buy a pc game it tends to be released by sold out..

so why dont they release big compilations of old games with windows fixes very often, the thing is if i walked into a shop and saw moonstone bundled with a load of simarly themed games with windows fixes and mb even *gasp* modern graphics card intergration i would have bought it.
normally when old games are re released you ony here about it word of text..

how would someone downloading doom harm the sales of doom 3??

[Blood-Pigggy]

Originally posted by omg@Oct 17 2005, 04:17 PM
how would someone downloading doom harm the sales of doom 3??

Because the human mind works like this.
1st person : "It wouldn't hurt if I just download one copy of Doom 3 myself."
2nd person : "It wouldn't hurt if I just download one copy of Doom 3 myself."
3rd person : "It wouldn't hurt if I just download one copy of Doom 3 myself."
4rth person : "It wouldn't hurt if I just download one copy of Doom 3 myself."
....
17364 person : "It wouldn't hurt if I just download one copy of Doom 3 myself."

It really does hurt, and this only adds to such problems as Half Life 2's source code theft.
Piracy is a severe problem, and many companies have been going bankrupt because of their games being pirated.
All problems lead to another, and Doom could cause penalties to Doom 3.

[omg]

doom. as in original doom. as in the old dos game. im not like incredibly dumb. im not saying doom 3 should be for free download.
the original being out for free gives people an opurtunity to check out the franchise before buying the latest installment.

[Blood-Pigggy]

Originally posted by Blood-Pigggy@Oct 17 2005, 04:32 PM
All problems lead to another, and Doom could cause penalties to Doom 3.

It's a cycle of production.
They're still selling Doom, and all those manufactured copies being pirated instead of bought means they're losing money spent making those games.

P.S. This is probably one of the many reasons we don't download ESA protected games on this site.

[omg]

ok i had temporarily forgotten that doom 1 is still available to buy.
fair enuff was the wrong game to use as an example.
but what about a game like moonstone.
or spellcross
if people are still playing the oldies, when the new version comes out you mean to tell me that they arnt going to buy the new version because they still have the old version...
thats like saying sequals to games never sell...

[Blood-Pigggy]

Originally posted by omg@Oct 17 2005, 04:41 PM
ok i had temporarily forgotten that doom 1 is still available to buy.
fair enuff was the wrong game to use as an example.
but what about a game like moonstone.
or spellcross
if people are still playing the oldies, when the new version comes out you mean to tell me that they arnt going to buy the new version because they still have the old version...
thats like saying sequals to games never sell...

Well people just don't like their games being downloaded.
That's why they're protected.
It's not always about sales, sometimes people like their games for personal reason, and don't want their children abused, it's kinda more like someone distributing your favorite home movie across the net that had become famous years before as you sold it.

[Evad]

The lynchpin of your argument, that human nature will always opt for free-bees is a broad generalization. Let me explain. I personally am sick and tired of shelling out my hard earned cash, just to find out that the game is either unplayable due to bug ridden code, or bad design. So, in responce to the many times that this has happened to me(even after sampling a demo version) I have decided not to buy a game untill I try the full version. If I like it, I will buy; if I don't, I will uninstall it(of course) and move on to bigger and better things. In my humble opinion, the only market that abandonware and warez impare is below-par development. I know that there are a lot of people who don't go out and buy the game afterwards, but if they read the liner notes in the directions to run their pirated software, I'm sure they wold see a request from the "crackers" to go out and buy the game if they enjoy it. This is the same in regards to movies as well. If you download and enjoy a movie, then get off your behind and go payfor it and experience it in the theater where it really shines. Just my two cents.

[omg]

@blood piggy

get your tounge out from the corperations behind kid.
if years after i had made my cash from a homemovie people are ditributing it for free i wouldent actually be fussed.
or to put it another way.
the only people whose games get protected are those that can afford to pay an orginisation to protect them.
its like enforcing copywrite tax, you want your intellectual property to be defended , you have to pay them.
seems like a teeny bit unfair really.
the people who cant afford to pay for protection of there intellectual copywrite are the ones who really need protection.
and heres another thing..
do you actually know oh blood piggy who sees himself as somewhat of an intellectual heavyweight and writing critic (i saw what you did to strangelove and i am not impressed) what kind of rights most develepors retain on games they have made?
its not like authors.
they actually have no say a lot of the time over what happens to there game once they have sold it.
a lot of them actually want there old babys to be out there for people but as they have sold em to the companys they become the companys property, to be defended or buried forever at the companys whim.

@evad
im the same with music. i buy a lot of things i already have as mp3's.

[Lonely Vazdru]

I think the main reason behind preventing download of old games is preventing kids from getting bad habbits. As in "let's download and explore all those great 80's games when we feel like playing" and not "let's go to the nearest store and buy that fancy and expensive 3D $hit, and all those fantastiic graphic cards, memory, processors that are needed to play those fancy 3D $hits"

[omg]

they fear this retro games trend that is building.