Thursday, September 30, 2010

An interesting thing happened a while back!

So an interesting thing happened a while back, as the word of WarFace is spreading, most of the time I receive positive reviews. Then sometimes I receive bad ones too, it doesn’t bother me; that is the nature of the human condition.
Some people believe, some don't, some think this is an excellent idea, while
other dismiss without a second glance. All criticism are welcomed, and anything that can be used to learn from is a bonus.

So after checking several statistical bots, I found a link to a German overclocking site that had linked to my webpage. I followed it back, basically to see the opinions of WarFace.

http://www.overclockers.at/games_forum/warface_the_answer_to_pc_piracy_218962

Of course I wasn’t bother by any of the opinions expressed, in fact they have no idea of me or what I am trying to achieve. Why would they believe I am any different than any other soothe sayer? WarFace is a company “of getting results” through strange and unorthodox means, how do you describe that on paper? No that is something that has to be proven over time!




Spikx

quote:

[...] With all that said and done, however, piracy is always going to be an issue on the PC. So when I saw the tweets from a startup company known as WarFace, offering up a full “Anti-Piracy Strategy” and omitting the dreaded words of DRM from the aforementioned tweets, I had to find out more. So. I proceeded to get in touch with founder of WarFace, James Grimshaw and bombarded him with questions about the product.

http://ironhammers.org/?p=2367 http://www.warfaceaps.com/




TassDingo

http://www.warfaceaps.com/itworks.php

wenn ich das so durchlese kann ich nur schmunzeln, imho nicht ernst zu nehmen...

It makes me smile when reading, in my humble opinion not to be taken seriously...




22zaphod22

badass - supergeil - darauf hat die industrie gewartet

das it-works ist ja endgeil ... die verpflichten sicher den cast von the expendables um alle illegalen kopien aufzuspüren und dann mit shotguns zu erledigen

badass - super cool – this is what the industry has been waiting for


If it indeed works, its hot shit ... just like the cast of the expendables to track down the illegals with shotguns





Mr. Zet

I loled (als ich die FAQ gelesen habe)

I Loled (as I read the FAQ)




WarFace

Hello lads

TassDingo

laugh as much as you want.. but WarFace is able to track anything down. Even someone not man enough to insult warface to its face!

Help me fight piracy or shut up!

pwned!

James




Spikx

Awesome :D




sk/\r

:D




COLOSSUS

:-o




maXX

catfight!




daisho

Google is their tool, hate their motivation.

wtf? :D




thachriz

:D




GrOnD

weils dazu passt " :D "

Because it fits (Because it works?)




userohnenamen

muahahahhahaha :D

edit: jetzt is er sicher auf einer watchlist ;-)

muahahahhahaha


edit: Now he is safely on their watch list





thachriz

Herrlich:

What about file sharing?


File sharing Sites have one major weakness; the links has to be passed on to others. This is normally done in a forum, and that means people have to leave their details behind. WarFace has first hand information of these sites and the email addresses of the moderators.



na wenns so einfach is :D

Alle die " :D " gepostet haben sind bestimmt schon auf der Warface pöse user watschlist!


Marvelous:

What about file sharing?


File sharing Sites have one major weakness; the links has to be passed on to others. This is normally done in a forum, and that means people have to leave their details behind. WarFace has first hand information of these sites and the email addresses of the moderators.


Now if that’s so simple

All the posted users are already on the Warface watchlist!



COLOSSUS

Ich persoenlich finde

quote:

Will this work?

Yes!

noch viel ueberzeugender!


I personally think

Will this work?


Yes!


Much more convincing! (Unsure about this line? literal- “much convincing fool”)




GrOnD

das ganze Konzept passt einfach, jetzt habens alle pösen L33CH3R !!!11

The whole concept fits, now having people pose as L33CH3R !!!11




HaBa

quote:

Originally posted by thachriz

Herrlich:


What about file sharing?


File sharing Sites have one major weakness; the links has to be passed on to others. This is normally done in a forum, and that means people have to leave their details behind. WarFace has first hand information of these sites and the email addresses of the moderators.


na wenns so einfach is :D

Alle die " :D " gepostet haben sind bestimmt schon auf der Warface pöse user watschlist!


Marvelous:

What about file sharing?


File sharing Sites have one major weakness; the links has to be passed on to others. This is normally done in a forum, and that means people have to leave their details behind. WarFace has first hand information of these sites and the email addresses of the moderators.


Now if that’s so simple

All the posted users are already on the Warface watchlist


8-) :D

“Haba is reposting expressing agreement with thachriz!”




Turrican

lol, was für ein joke :D

lol, what a joke




SaxoVtsMike

quote:

Originally posted by thachriz




Alle die " :D " gepostet haben sind bestimmt schon auf der Warface pöse user watschlist!

Wenn das dann so ist schaun ma mal.

" :D "

Hab mir das auch durchgelesen, Wäre aber mal ein interessanter ansatz das eine firma aktiv versucht torrents zu stören, bzw. gabs da nicht mal ne geschichte (zu napster zeiten <== oops pöses wort) das da mit absicht lieder in umlauf gebracht haben die irgendwo störungen hatten ?

naja mal sehen, von all den kopierschützen ist mir steam immer noch am sympatischsten

All the posted users are already on the Warface watchlist


If so then this is the times we live in. (?literal- If so then the show of the times)

I have also read, it would be an interesting approach for a company to actively disrupt torrent, or. Was there not a story (In Napster times <== oops ?pöses -post? word) where songs in circulation are used for intentional interference? Well let’s see, of all the copy protections Steam is still the most likeable.




Turrican

quote:

Originally posted by SaxoVtsMike

<strong
Wenn das dann so ist schaun ma mal.

" :D "

Hab mir das auch durchgelesen, Wäre aber mal ein interessanter ansatz das eine firma aktiv versucht torrents zu stören, bzw. gabs da nicht mal ne geschichte (zu napster zeiten <== oops pöses wort) das da mit absicht lieder in umlauf gebracht haben die irgendwo störungen hatten ?


naja mal sehen, von all den kopierschützen ist mir steam immer noch am sympatischsten

ja, da waren damals iirc einige "fakesongs" im umlauf.

If so then this is the times we live in. (?If so then the show of the times)

I have also read, it would be an interesting approach for a company to actively disrupt torrent, or. Was there not a story (In Napster times <== oops pöses word) where songs in circulation used for intentional interference? Well let’s see, of all the copy protections Steam is still the most likeable.


Yes, as there were some “fakesongs” in circulation back then. (? iirc is either “in my recollection” or maybe means IRC?)





d3cod3

da will wohl wer schnell förderungen abstauben bevor das unternehmen ex geht
:-p

Who wants to help themselves to some quick downloads before the company starts (?Total guess work, my German is rubbish!)




Rektal

I only believe it when I see it, i.e. a game said to have that "thing" and being not available illegally.




Excuse my translation, and if anyone wants to point out any corrections, just leave a comment. I think the best thing it to take a general meaning of what the sentence is implying. For example Turrican says “lol, was für ein joke” which translates as “lol, what a joke”. But I don’t think it means the same in English. I would like to think that it means that the whole
nature of the thread is a funny joke! Unless the joke is actually on me! :)

I bear no ill will towards any of the guys here, I am sure they are all good people that have no dealings with illegal downloading. I think we were all having a little fun and all in the spirit of things.
Though, I never did hear again from TassDingo! But does he have a point? No and yes, based on the failings of others over the years and the whole mess that has now become piracy. I don’t blame anyone for making snap judgements and laughing at the whole topic that is piracy!

Something has to be done! If nothing more than to give gamers a reassurance that positive steps are being taken! WarFace is here to walk those steps. We are the middle ground; we cater for both gamers and publishers, not just protecting copy infringement rights, but protecting the PC platform.

Now these guys are all worried about WarFace tracking the names of illegal downloaders, we aren’t interested in that, though I didn’t say it. What we are interested in is removing illegal torrents or file sharing. Trying to track someone through the internet is worse than a needle in 20 haystacks. It’s a waste of time and resources! We are more interested in getting results, not wasting time.

Anyone who uploads PC games, they are fair game. We are not after the crackers, because they are a separate entity to the people that share games. Crackers are in it for the challenge of breaking something, while they make the whole anti-piracy process more difficult, we do respect them. (But that’s for another post!) It’s the uploader, who is at fault, they are the ones killing this industry, and yes we maintain that it is dying!

But don’t worry, WarFace is here to solve everyone’s problems!

Just the piracy issues first!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

How to download like a pirate!

The first thing that amazes me; there is honour amongst pirates. Well most of the time!

If you don’t know how the torrent system works, then this is a quick run down! Basically you look for an illegal torrent file; this is a pointer to the latest movie/game/music/whatever. You double click, and it loads into your torrent client and away you go! It starts downloading, when you reach 100%, you can stop the torrent and you have the latest film on your hard drive.

It sound so simple, and it is. Basically the program is split into pieces and downloaded to the hundreds of people who want it. These people are called Leechers or Peers. Then there are people who have the file but share pieces out to those that don’t have it, Seeders. If everyone shares these pieces around, you can imagine how quickly the file would be downloaded.

Once you have gotten all the pieces from the internet there is no need for you to seed. It seems silly that illegal downloaders, who are fundamentally stealing a program, would hang around giving pieces of the files to others so they can steal it too! No it would seem more plausible that they would download and go, too play the latest game without being tracked! But it doesn’t work like that, and where the honour among thieves comes in.

This is what a lot of people don’t realise! That your information is logged, and I am not talking about your IP address because that really is not as important as you might think. But what is important, and often understated, is what kind of pirate you are!

On some sites, in the comments section, you'll see:

How do you install the program? (noob!)
Or:
Please Seed!
Or:
Plz Seed..! (for coolness!)

These people don’t realise it, but they have just become a part of the unwitting joke of the P2P networks. And they are probably noobs too!

If someone seeds a program, they start getting a score which reflects that they share. The same with a person that doesn’t share, they become known as a leecher. Computers track this information and start shutting off seeders and peers on the network. Your connection gets slower and slower, but because it’s a gradual process and you won’t notice it. Even if there are thousands on the network, you’ll be scratching your head wondering why you have a 1kb download rate!

So what kind of pirate are you?

If you are constantly asking for people to seed, I think you have your answer!

So there are two types of illegal downloaders, the honest and dishonest! Who would have guessed there could be such a thing? Well its true, and even better, the sub groups within the P2P networks get even more complex. It’s almost like a community of people! For example there can’t be any more dishonest than a dishonest illegal downloader, can there? Can a woodchuck chuck wood?

You’d be wrong, for any action in life, there is always a reaction. So if people are going to start tracking your Leecher or Seeder life style, and if you are going to be a leech; then wouldn’t it be clever to have some kind of program to counter this. Of course there is, tonnes of them! From programs that directly edit the statistics file of your torrent client. So you edit the uploaded and download amounts. To programs that intercept packets, giving out a fake ratio. So it looks like you are constantly seeding, but in fact you aren’t.

Then there is the other side of the coin, the sharing illegal downloader, where people who seed can be invited to special groups. Called private torrents, these are almost exclusive clubs, which eliminate the riffraff from the P2P networks. So we have the elitist, the common man, and even the criminals! The more you look into the whole community, the more you realise, this world of computers is a human thing.


This stuff is all fascinating, and it seems odd that an anti-piracy group is talking so openly about it. But that’s the point, no one is! People, on the anti-piracy side of the fence, are blindly investing in products. They have no idea why the problem is there in the first place. WarFace is looking at illegal downloading and studying it, because to win a war, it’s as simple as the cliché, to know your enemy!

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Most Childish of Arguments

What annoys me the most about Pro-Pirate arguments, and please, I was born in Hong Kong, so I have heard them all! Is that in essence they are very childish! I know the scene very well, and the only justification I have heard, that has any credit; is the following:

A customer buys the product, but is so fed up with the DRM, that they illegally download to enjoy the experience.

This isn’t the fault of the publisher wanting a DRM, because in this chicken/egg question, piracy certainly came first! Now you can easily sit there and say that a publisher shouldn’t have DRMs that imposes restrictions on Gamers. But you cannot as easily justify this; if it was your product or if you where the Publisher.

Still, the above argument has a valid point, WarFace accepts this, and strives to make the illegal markets a better place. The other excuses, the ones I would call childish, when you really study what is being said. Are so silly that my mother would clip my ear if I dare say that to her, and this is a 4 foot 5, Chinese woman, talking to her 6 foot son! I don’t have the courage and I wouldn’t dare!

Pirates are poor, and wouldn’t buy the game anyway!
Wow! Really, has anyone ever done a survey to find this out, or are we just name calling here?
Please don’t start calling out third world countries, and ones just recently coming out of the second world, because they have a valid case. Why does it feel almost like a justification for the illegal downloaders of rich countries to do this and get away with it?

Because I am guessing that the majority of illegal downloaders are going to need some kind of high bandwidth internet connection, and a half decent computer to play these games. If they have money for those two items..Then it not fair to assume that they can pay for a game?

I am trying before I buy!
Apart from the fact that demo games are released before games come out, and are generally freely available. To justify this as a sensible argument has to be one of the cheekiest excuses I have ever heard. I don’t know of any real world product that allows you the same liberties. Say if you went into GameStop, and took the game off the shelf, stating clearly that you are trying before you buy! I wonder how far you would get before 3 big security guards tried to play Aussie rules with you?

I wouldn’t have bought the game in the first place! (The old - One illegal download does not equal one illegal sale!)
This almost seems to suggest that the pirate is doing the Game Publisher a favour! And on that note, I ask how?
Is the pirate filling in some kind of questionnaire, perhaps some feedback for the publisher? Is he going to do some review, improving the product in the long run? It there any kind of added value going into it? Is there any kind of contribution?


Let us be honest with one another...
Piracy is a huge problem killing the PC industry. If you don’t think so then I suggest you take a look, things are changing! Games aren’t being released on the PC any more, or being delayed.
When was Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 released for the PC?
If you said September 3 (2010), No! I recently had to go to GameStop, and ask when, the guy said he didn’t know exactly but it was in October. (In Europe, he said that it would probably be the 15th!) I bet that on the first, I’ll find a torrent that allows me to play it 15 days before someone buys it here!

To the illegal downloaders I say this is a sad thing...
Perhaps from your point of view it might not be ... but in the long run. But when you are my age, you might turn back and wish things had turned out a little different!  

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sales Figures of PC Games

It is always with a great hesitancy that I publish any results that prove something about the PC. It is so hard to get any kind of statistics on the subject, and even harder to know if it’s from a trustworthy source. In this case publisher companies don’t often release results for PC game sales. What they tend to do is to release a combine sale figure, if they do it at all. A combine result of consoles and PC makes it difficult to know how well/badly the PC games are doing in the fight against piracy!

Mass Effect 2 Week One Sales Top 2 Million
Bioware's sci-fi sequel comes out swinging during its launch week.
By Dustin Quillen, 01/29/2010
www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3177757

Wondering how Mass Effect 2 is selling just three days out from its January 26 release date? If EA's internal figures are to be believed, things are going just fine over at Bioware. The publisher announced that Commander Shepard's spacefaring sequel has moved over 2 million copies this week.




BioShock 2 Ships 3 Million, GTA IV Sales Top 15 Million
http://www.n4g.com/pc/News-485636.aspx

Take-Two announced new sales figures today during its fiscal 2010 first quarter results. The company's first major title in 2010, BioShock 2, has shipped 3 million copies.

Assassin's Creed II sales soar over 6 million
January 14, 2010 in News
http://www.gamegrep.com/news/28696-assassins_creed_ii_sales_soar_over_6_million/

Despite being threatened by several other titles back in Novemeber 2009, Ubisoft today confirmed that Assassin's Creed II has surpassed 6 million units sold.


I spent many days searching the internet for news articles, reports, and whitepapers. I was lucky to come across the next two pieces. While these are not definitive by any means they do go a long way in proving trends.

PC Games 14% of 2007 Retail Games Sales; World of Warcraft and Sims Top PC Sales Charts
by Aaron Linde Jan 24, 2008 5:16pm CST
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50939

Data from the sales-tracking firm NPD reveals that retailers sold 267.8 million games in 2007, 36.4 million of which were PC titles. Console games brought in $6.6 billion, selling 153.9 million units total, while portable software hauled a record $2 billion in revenue with 77.5 million units sold.

1 World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade 2.25 million
2 World of Warcraft 914,000
3 The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack 433,000
4 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 383,000
5 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars 343,000
6 Sim City 4 Deluxe 284,000
7 The Sims 2 281,000
8 The Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion Pack 271,000
9 Age of Empires III 259,000
10 The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack 236,000
Table Edited




NPD: Record Year for Industry Totals $17.94 Billion; Halo 3, Nintendo Consoles Dominate
by Nick Breckon Jan 17, 2008 7:01pm
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50809

The top ten software titles follow, listed in order of units sold:

1 Halo 3 X360 4.82 million
2 Wii Play with Wii Remote Wii 4.12 million
3 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare X360 3.04 million
4 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock PS2 2.72 million
5 Super Mario Galaxy Wii 2.52 million
6 Pokemon Diamond Version DS 2.48 million
7 Madden NFL 08 PS2 1.90 million
8 Guitar Hero II PS2 1.89 million
9 Assassin's Creed X360 1.87 million
10 Mario Party 8 Wii 1.82 million
Table Edited

Normally the Top 10 Charts will only tell you what games are the current favourites. Revealing the position they hold, what their previous position was, but no sales figures or units. What is so good about these two charts are the clear differences, though again I state clearly that this is by far definitive, and only allows us to draw some generalisations!

If you look at the figures between the two tables, one thing is very clear; that Console sales outstrip PC game sales many times over. The differences are huge, so huge there has to be a good reason for this. As you can see the largest percentage increase is 873%, and the average is 655%. So straight away I am more likely to sell 6 times more on the console than the PC.

Rank PC Retail Sales Console Sales Percentage increase!
1 2,250,000 4,820,000 214%
2 914,000 4,120,000 451%
3 433,000 3,040,000 702%
4 383,000 2,720,000 710%
5 343,000 2,520,000 735%
6 284,000 2,480,000 873%
7 281,000 1,900,000 676%
8 271,000 1,890,000 697%
9 259,000 1,870,000 722%
10 236,000 1,820,000 771%


Now there are probably a number of reasons why people prefer to play games on the console. Some people prefer a big screen TV, and PC machine specifications can confuse a lot of people. But personally I believe the biggest reason why console sales are 6 times higher than PC, is because console games are harder to pirate.

The other note worthy thing about the PC table, the results are very gradual until they hit the top two spots, where the results suddenly start to double.






This isn’t a coincidence, and I believe it is because of the special nature of the top 2 games. World of Warcraft games are purely online server games, which means they have a pretty unique protection system. Anyone who disobeys the rules, yet alone tries to play the game illegally can be met with severe punishment, like being kicked off the server for good. So anyone caught with a duplicate serial key, a unique identifier, will lose their game and makes it almost impossible to pirate.

What does this say for the sales of PC games?
WarFace is setting to find this question out! While it will be almost impossible to rule out piracy, we are going to account for it. By taking results of both illegal downloaders and customers, we can find the ratio. WarFace will once and for all answer one of the biggest questions of the modern age!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Pirate Bay ... Away from keyboard!

If you don’t know already ... there is a man (Simon Klose) who once talked to another man (Brokep). The first man was a director and the second man was one of the founders of Pirate Bay. As they began chatting, so began the story of the pirate bay, the founders of that site, and how the white house threatened the Swedish government.

The documentary is about how the three founding member have been convicted, order to serve one year of jail time, and pay damages of 4 million dollars for having 'assisted in making copyrighted content available'.

The Pirate Bay, are they assisting?

“No action (except ridiculing the senders) has been taken by us because of these. :-)
Nice graphs for the law firms who don't get the hint above:
(we used to have a nice graph here, but it's simpler to just say: 0 torrents has been removed, and 0 torrents will ever be removed.)”

Sourced from http://thepiratebay.org/legal

Currently they are appealing this decision, and where the documentary follows them. Because what happens to them, could set a worldwide precedent to all the other file-sharing sites.

The documentary is a funny story in itself, has finished but needs funding for the last step. It has used the method of Crowd Funding, at Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tpbafk/tpb-afk-the-pirate-bay-away-from-keyboard), to gain means to finish the project. Simon requires someone to give him $25,000 to finish his project.

I am happy to say that they have reached their target and then some, so hopefully it will be in the cyberstores soon.

I can’t resist though, I wonder if it will be pirated?

I am sure; the director knows this already and will not ask for money. I’d say he will give it away free, perhaps asking for donations?

Monday, September 6, 2010

It was like a million voices ... suddenly silenced!

"A great disturbance in the Force. It was like a million voices crying out in unison, then suddenly silenced."
Yes Star Wars, uttered by the famous Alec Guinness, as Obi-Wan Kenobi. And the reason why I am mentioning this?

http://www.ripten.com/2008/02/28/gaming-trends-part-2-the-state-of-pc-gaming/

I think this document says a lot about PC Gaming and the state of Piracy! It’s not about customers having to jump through humiliating loops in order to perform, and they are. It’s not about how illegal downloaders are laughing all the way to the bank, and they are. It’s not about the pure frustration the game publishers as they desperately try anything, and they are! It’s about the will of change, continuing to do something until they find a solution!

For the Pirates that are laughing, know this, piracy has forced a change in PC Gaming.

This change could go either way, after many times of losing sales and control of their products. Something had to give, and there are two choices, Stream Gaming, or something fair to both sides of the coin.

If the Game Publisher only released games on Streaming Platforms, they could charge what they liked and they will never lose control of their products. Since the conception of the computer, that has been the dream of any software developer, and others will follow suit. Do you seriously think that Microsoft will keep releasing MS Word 2003, 2007, 2010? No, but what if they had a cloud computing model where you buy a license for Word online, and they could charge you a flat fee, per month. Instead of encouraging you to buy newer versions, that looks just like the last one, they already have you paying for a monthly subscription.

Cloud computing! They wouldn’t dare do that for the PC Gaming industry! Would they? There are tonnes of negatives with this system, but from the publisher point of view there are none, the elimination of piracy and second hand sales. Are honest gamers taking the brunt because of the action of the few?

Perhaps Gamers have a point, Games are expensive, and DRM’s have been getting increasingly more restrictive! But piracy has done nothing except make Publishers angry, and gamers went about the complaint process the wrong way. We should not steal, and use justifications like the prices are too high, or because we don’t like the way things have been done! But gamers have made their bed, and it’s time to lie in it!

It should always be the customers who have the final voice, but this time, I fear that Publishers will win out. But I can’t disapprove of Publishers for wanting the Stream model, as it is a constant cash source.

Will the Publishers listen to the cry of the customer?
I think more to the point; did the customer listen to the cry of the Publisher

Friday, September 3, 2010

What is the need for Games?

Seriously ...
Why do we have to play games?
Is it acceptable, to pirate software?
And, has software become worthless?


My Dad always sighed with a heavy groan, “Son, broaden your horizons! Don’t be so narrow minded!”

There has to be some addiction to games, I don’t like to think of it, as I was once a gamer. But in the same light that last sentence also debunks it too. Because while I still play games, it is a fraction of the level it once was. Dare I say those immortal words, I could stop at anytime! And yet I have to heed my father’s warning, because at times I can realise how addictive it can be!

Software has to be the most unique product in the world! From the millions of real worldwide products, I can’t think of any another that is so justifiably copyable. Even a book, which is similar to software, just in a physical way, is not as acceptable when copied. If I was to photocopy the latest best seller out there, not many friends of mine would easily pick it up and start reading away.

However if that same novel was scanned into a computer, it suddenly becomes “less of a crime”. Why is that? I am even wondering if the little voice inside, even bothers to speak when intellectual property theft is breached. I also know there is also a certain amount of ease and convenience that comes with an eBook.

This made me realise something, about software, Piracy and Humans in general! We are creatures of laziness. And I don’t mean this in any disrespect, as I count myself as a human too! We have to be pushed to get things done, and generally it’s someone else doing the pushing! I suspect the main reasons why a book is not photocopied anymore, is that you actually have to physically stand at a photocopier with a fist full of dollars.

Of course scanning it is simple, and makes it far easier to distribute afterwards. But this also makes things kind of worthless. Taking effort out of things, while allowing you to do more things in a day, also means you really don’t get a sense of worth. For something’s that’s ok, I mean who really wants to hand wash clothes? But on the other hand, books, I know many people that just cherish the smell of them. (Seriously, to me it is a little odd, going into book stores, the older the better, and sniffing them. We have words for that!) If you are young, and if you’re a gamer you probably are, you’ll not understand what I am talking about. But when you get older, yes I am old, you start to realise that worth was far more important than you may think!

Things, games especially, are so worthless these days, or should I say so disposable! Good or bad we have lost the time to cherish things. Gamers suffering probably more than anyone else, wanting to complete games in 6 hours or less. (It used to be 8 in my day!) Granted this all sounds a little cheesy, but there is a slight ringing in the ears, that’s the truth!

Which leads back to piracy; it has become a vicious loop! We need to play games, which leads us to trying to get more games. Some try piracy, showing others how easy and may even pass on copies. It’s relatively inexpensive and very easy, decreasing the value. Those that have tried piracy, now see its benefits and how easy it is. Allowing them to get more games, because we need to play games...!

Though you may not believe it, or even refuse to. Piracy is suffocating the PC Gaming industry! As a young gamer you may not even care. But let me tell you, as an old gamer, with many years of nostalgia, the very thought makes me sad!