quote:
Originally posted by Noirbo:
But, for people who already "bought" the games using their own money, there shouldn't be any reason for them to pirate the games and make them available to people they don't even know.
[This message has been edited by Noirbo (edited 03-23-2004).]
I am going to play Devil's Advocate here for a minute. The US b-game industry has been heavily hindered by piracy - this is undeniable. So don't take what I have to say next too seriously - it's only food for thought.
You're missing one key point here - piracy can actually be beneficial. Most of this board's regulars started in b-games based off some form of pirated copies. Personally I did myself. Eventually, I became a true fan of these games and decided I should pay for them. Here I am today.
Would I have given any bishoujo game a second glance had I not tried it out illegal copies of early titles? No. A b-game is like $50 - a significant expense - and I had never tried the genre before. It would have been a rather large risk for unknown rewards. But now that I had pirated the games, I knew I liked them.
In short, piracy can actually be a potent market expansion tool. It is kind of like word of mouth, except one person can spread the word to a great many all at once.