To People who Pirated Bishoujo Games on IRC

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#81
quote:
Originally posted by Phibrizzo:
[...]

First thing - don't bother trying to shut the operation down. I knew a person (online) who is part of the "game ripping" community. The amount of talent they can muster is mindboggling. [...]

[...] As things currently stand, there is a snowball chance in hell that I'll fork over $50 for one of those g-collection cookie-cutter games.

PHI

To the first part I will simply say, it's because these people can often make more money doing that then they can going into work everyday and doing this they can also have more challenges and risks. Most often the best of the best are found in places that are not close to 100% legit because to be the best they cannot or will not conform to the rules of any organization. Not a justification for what is done, simply why I think the best are often found doing things like you mentioned.

As to the other part, I think the real trouble is if you simply go for the games that are not legit you are harming the growth of an industry that will hopefully reach the quality of games you look for currently. Nothing happens over night, even if I think they should take more risks, most will happen over time through growth of this industry. Just my opinion and at least to me these games are not, or most are not, cookie cutters of each other.

[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 04-19-2004).]

#82

Hmmm… I thought b-game piracy has been around since the 3 sister’s story era!? What’s up with the sudden interest in it? Many (not all) of you are reacting like you found life on Mars…

#83

I think the thing is it still exists and in some ways is growing in popularity. The more people that are on the internet the easier it is to find people to sell pirated goods too, if anything it is a larger problem now then before in some ways.

That is why I think people are reacting as if they have found life on Mars and invented the warp drive.

#84

http://www.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/04/22/us.piracy.swoop.reut/index.html

Interesting read, doubt it pertains really to bishoujo piracy but the fact that it was a multi country effort was intriguing.

Edit Posted the link I originally intended.

[This message has been edited by Bigdog (edited 04-23-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Bigdog (edited 04-23-2004).]

#85

Yeah but despite what they might say to the press, most people I know working for large corporations are expected to be there to work particular times even if they are sneezing and coughing every two seconds.

It would be ideal if companies would let people take off but at least in the U.S. that is not only discouraged but amazingly often counts against you because by taking off you are not a team player, a phrase I have come to loath.

The major problem too with piracy of games is what I said before, so long as it is a challenge you will have people engaging in that challenge. The more you due to stop it the bigger a challenge it becomes and the more it will draw people to find ways around the challenge. So it is a fine balance between stopping it and not making it a large enough challenge that those who are the best of the best cannot resist trying to get around the means of stopping it.

#86

I think the article posted by bigdog is humourously the best evidence of the futility in challenging these “warez” groups.

This operation cost the parties involved some serious time money and resources , but what effect has it had on the online piracy scene? well a couple groups were pretty annoyed fairlight in particular but they are still releasing games on schedule and the sf3(the protection to end warez for all time) was still cracked after 14 days. A few popular bittorent sites went down after a string of cease and desist orders for (and I timed it) 7 hours or so after which donations skyrocketed to aid in the purchase of new chinese servers, also I hear fairlight(secretive as ever) are shifting more of their operation into less vigilant countries.

In summary there has been next to no noticeable effect to your everyday leecher and until these guys start hurting nothing will change as their monika suggests they care little for the host(ers) and more for what they can get out of them … and that isnt changing anytime soon.

#87

The thing that peeves me off most about it is people selling bootlegs on ebay or soandso site on the net. Lots of people don’t know better and are suckered in do to the super super low prices. Who knows how much money the anime industry loses due to this.

#88
quote:
Originally posted by Laslow:
The thing that peeves me off most about it is people selling bootlegs on ebay or soandso site on the net. Lots of people don't know better and are suckered in do to the super super low prices. Who knows how much money the anime industry loses due to this.

I agree with that one. I can't help slapping my forehead every time I see someone posting that on a forum, how happy they were that they found that 10-episode-per-disk, 3 disk DVD box set for $20, and thinking they've made the deal of the century. Why are some people so stupid?

When the majority of the companies sell 1 DVD with 4 episodes per disk for 20$ each, why don't they get suspicious when some website suddenly sell 26 episodes on 2 disks at the cost of 1 regular DVD? It's like bumping into a guy on the street who wants to sell you (what looks like ) a Rolex for $5.

Common sense is rare these days, indeed.

... someone want to buy some of mine? $20, and I'll guarantee your IQ will increase by at least 20 points, from the sheer amount of common sense you'll get. Really. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img]

#89

I’ve bought some bootleg CDs, and I’m not proud of it. Gah, I wish I had known that they were bootleg. I had no clue at all. Here I have 2 bootleg CDs, and a 2CD package. All game music CDs. And I really didn’t know… :’(
But I will buy them legitly someday…

#90
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
I've bought some bootleg CDs, and I'm not proud of it. Gah, I wish I had known that they were bootleg. I had no clue at all. Here I have 2 bootleg CDs, and a 2CD package. All game music CDs. And I really didn't know... :'(
But I will buy them legitly someday...

The main difference between music bootlegs and, say, anime DVD bootlegs, is the difference in content on each disk compared to the legit version. Whereas the anime DVD with 10-15 episodes per disk should trigger an alarm in the "common sense area" of the brain, music bootlegs are sometimes harder to recognize. That doesn't necessarily mean that bootleg music CDs are of a higher quality than bootleg DVDs (both can be downright terrible), just that they can't cram as much on each disk by lowering quality.

Otherwise legitimate stores will sometimes sell bootleg game music CDs, because they are fairly rare in the western world. Those who DO get here legit tend to be very expensive. Whether legit shops sell them due to ignorance or turning a blind eye, it's bad business all around to buy them.

Word-of-mouth and a scrutinizing eye when dealing with such products are your friends.

[This message has been edited by AG3 (edited 04-25-2004).]

#91

A very interesting thread, sorry for coming in in the middle.

Yes, software piracy does break my heart – mine more than anyone else’s since it’s often a game that I personally worked on for hundreds of hours that is getting downloaded. I try to not let it get to me – going overboard on the subject is just not good for anyone, as Satoshi Kizu (owner of the copyright for Russian busty model Yulia Nova, whose DVD we are publishing) can tell you.

Still. While we are an actual corporation, it’s laughable that anyone could think we were a giant, faceless entity that could be stolen from without diminishing the industry to the point where it’s no longer for us to make games. While we’re not at that point, the lack of growth is a problem for the industry – if we’re making games for the same 1000-1500 faithful, energetic and dedicated fans (all of you guys basically), then things will become impossible for us at some point. We’re focusing on that problem and are seeing some headway, although it’s hard since America is a very funny place – virtually no software shop would even consider carrying an adult product, although most people would agree that adults should have the right to determine what they want to buy and view.

#92

My manga shop does carry the games. :slight_smile:
But David (the main guy of the management there) says it doesn’t sell.
My guess is that because not many people know the genre.

#93
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Payne:

Still. While we are an actual corporation, it's laughable that anyone could think we were a giant, faceless entity that could be stolen from without diminishing the industry to the point where it's no longer for us to make games. While we're not at that point, the lack of growth is a problem for the industry -- if we're making games for the same 1000-1500 faithful, energetic and dedicated fans (all of you guys basically), then things will become impossible for us at some point. We're focusing on that problem and are seeing some headway, although it's hard since America is a very funny place -- virtually no software shop would even consider carrying an adult product, although most people would agree that adults should have the right to determine what they want to buy and view.

It's really too bad that more copies of the games aren't sold. Of course, you have the people who get what they can for free an that's it. But there are also plenty of people who could enjoy these games but they might not know much about them. I never see any bishoujo game ads in Newtype magazine except for Hirameki games which are all very edited. Of course, I can find plenty of information about bishoujo games if I go looking for them on the internet, but it's not something that you won't see if you don't go out of your way. I'm sure that there are lots of possible fans out there. I can remember when nobody knew what anime was, and now there are "anime" sections in "normal" stores like Best Buy. And I have yet to see any adult anime games for sale in an actual store. What a shame.

#94

That’s why I think every game should have a message displayed for some seconds before starting up, stating how small the industry is and how piracy really affects it.

#95

While I don’t bring anything new to this conversation, and downloading is wrong but I leave the legal issues to the lawyers who want to protect the rights of intellectual property holders, I got this email evidently from someone who read my review of x-change 2:

quote:

Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 23:09:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [Censored]
To: yeouhsu@Princeton.EDU
Subject: x-change
Parts/Attachments:
1 OK 9 lines Text
2 Shown ~16 lines Text
----------------------------------------





hi i am tom and pleas i want to play x-change 2 the following
of x-change
you see i played x-change and i want to play part 2 pleas send me the
game fast
as you can Tank you.

#96

Why hide the email address? I mean, you are not protecting the innocent here!

#97

I honestly cannot believe someone asked for the game like that, takes all kinds I guess, just strange to ask someone reviewing the game for a copy of the game.

#98
quote:
Originally posted by fxho:
Why hide the email address? I mean, you are not protecting the innocent here!

Considering how poor the spelling of the email was, I figured the kid was still being potty trained so I felt sorry for him.

#99

This is very sad… The world’s going downhill.

#100

@ EVERYBODY I.E.Whoever has pirated games using Kazaa or E-Donkey.

Get ready to be tracked, guys.

Italian Police arrested an egiptyan who used these programs to get new matrix for masterizing illegal copies.

All of those who were in contact HAVE BEEN TRACKED AN DENOUNCED.

Well done Poly, way to go!!!