EXCELLENT points! I am sitting here right now looking at a collection of ORIGINAL BOXED games that would make EB, Babbages, Circuit City, and a bunch of others all drool collectively with envy!!! I would estimate that I have in this room RIGHT NOW approximately $20,000.00 worth (cost at time of purchase) of computer games... Hot D@MN!!! I didn't even REALIZE that it was so much until I did a quick calculation for this post!!! It's about 650 games at an average cost of $30 to $40 each... ...Maybe I should have my head examined and get rid of em all and go buy a decent car!!!
Anyway, I digress... My point is that I do NOT purchase a game UNTIL there is a no-cd crack published for it! I recently purchased Sacred (a game I LONGED to have on my PC) after a crack was published for the most recent update.
And a game that I waited with MUCH anticipation for I have NOT yet purchased, and WILL NOT until such time as there is some form of ACCEPTABLE crack published for it - that game is HalfLife 2. I TOTALLY detest what Valve has done regarding the implementation of Steam in the installation and playing of that game.
IMHO, excessive obsession with copy protection can ONLY hurt PC game sales. As has been pointed out, no matter WHAT CP is devised, there will be someone out there to come up with a crack or work-around for it. And as is the case of these Mini image cracks, the only people who will be HURT by the CP will be those HONEST customers out there who, like myself, simply do not WISH to take the time to hunt up cd's whenever we want to play a game, or who simply want to make a safe backup of their game.
Oh, DON'T get me started on how the manufacturers will "replace" lost or defective cd's!!! THAT goes into the same file as most warranties on small purchases, like watches, etc. You spend almost as much (sometimes MORE!) on shipping and handling to get your "replacement cd" as if you just went out and BOUGHT a new copy of the game!!! And even THEN you have to wait weeks or even months to GET it!!!
No, I am sticking by my guns here! I simply REFUSE to purchase a game over which I do not have the control that I WANT, and that means that I will be able to play the game without having to hunt for the cd, and I will be able to make a back-up copy for myself.
Again, those people who are (supposedly) being targeted by all this copy protection will ALWAYS be able to clone/dupe/copy games at will and give them to their "friends".
So, I will continue to visit sites like GCW to get no-cd cracks, use Virtual Drive and other software, etc to play my games THE WAY I WANT. I am just saddened that when I go to the store to BUY a game that the price is artificially inflated because of the lameheads out there who PIRATE the games, get them and play/distribute them without paying ANYTHING for them. The money spent on copy protection by the game publishers is TOTALLY a waste, since it is what inflates the costs AND discourages many people from BUYING the game.
One other thing about the inflated prices... I have heard a number of people talk about pirating games SIMPLY BECAUSE of the often outrageous prices. If the cost could come DOWN a LITTLE (maybe by eliminating the expense of copy protecting the games???) I know at LEAST a dozen MORE people who would become PAYING CUSTOMERS and actually BUY games rather than go through the hassle of pirating them!
I do not CONDONE their actions, but in today's climate I can at least UNDERSTAND it.
