(no subject)

[yagathai]

Dear producers, distributors and retailers of consumable media:

It is cheaper (in that free is very cheap indeed), safer and above all easier and more convenient for me to acquire pirate copies of your products from the internet than it is for me to buy them. Right now the only thing keeping me -- and millions like me -- paying any money at all for your stuff is my innate sense of fair play. Any impediments you place in the way of me giving you money make it that much less likely that you'll see a penny, and make it that much more likely that not only will I take your product free of charge, but also make it that much easier for others to acquire it (because the same sense of fair play that makes me want to give you money makes me a seeder, not a leecher).

Today is the official release of a major video game product, one of the most highly anticipated since the last extremely highly anticipated product. This product hit the torrents several days ago, but being of sagacious mien and virtuous character, I refrained from acquiring it RIGHT THEN FOR FREE and instead resolved to purchase it via so-called "legitimate" channels when I was financially solvent.

Yesterday I discovered that I had failed to cash last year's tax return cheque, and it was (in a happy coincidence) almost exactly what a copy of this game would cost. Not wishing to ignore such a message from Lady Fortuna, I took the hint and cashed the check this morning.

This game is very possibly the biggest video game release of the year. Certainly it's the largest release in the action RPG genre. Can you guess how many stores in downtown Philadelphia -- one of the five six biggest cities in the United States -- carry it?

Go ahead, guess.

One.

One store. In all of downtown.

Upon heading there straight from work, do you know how many copies of your game they had for sale to "walk-ins"?

Go ahead, guess again.

Zero.

Zero copies for "walk ins".

Now the idiotic practices of ths particular retailer have been chronicled by those (nominally) greater than I, so I don't really think it's necessary for me to shovel more coal into the boiler, but I will say this: You have failed at making it possible for you to give me money for your product, and ensured that the only way that I can immediately acquire a version of your product not tainted by revokable DRM (and that's another rant entirely) is by illicit means.

If you had reasonable distribution channels, you'd have sixty of my dollars in your pocket, and I'd be playing Mass Effect 2 right now. But you don't, and you don't, and I'm not.

Go ahead and guess what I'm doing instead.

Congratufuckinglations.

Comments

[stegoking.livejournal.com]

Signed.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Last year, TSR/Wizards Of The Coast pulled all online sales for PDFs of their out of print products. For over 5 years, I'd been paying them (via resellers) to download replicable PDFs, and would have continued to do so.

Since they took that choice away from me, I found a bit torrent with almost every AD&D first and second edition product ever, and nabbed it just to get at the one $4.99 PDF I'd been wanting.

I find myself wondering why I'd taken so long to turn to the dark side.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

I had the exact same experience.

[odiedragon.livejournal.com]

Sadly, this is why we pre-ordered ours last week.

*hides Rusty's copy from an avenging Yags*

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

A couple of my friends pre-ordered the more expensive Collector's Edition from Amazon, which promised release day delivery, but apparently it's now "out of stock" and they won't get it before the end of the week at the earliest. They are decidedly displeased.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

The sad part is that this has been SOP for decades, and only now have we seen the technology to bypass the bullshit. One of the main reasons why I laugh at the implosion of the big music store chains is because of the number of times I'd ask for something that wasn't in huge piles in the aisles and be lied to, over and over, about its availability. I could list album name, musician, label, and even SKU in some cases, and I'd be told "It'll be in next week" for a month before the clerk would finally sneer "We're not going to order it because it's not on a major label."

Since those first experiences, I've actually been having fun watching the implosion of businesses that used to go out of their way to piss all over customers and expect the customers to thank them for the privilege. The bookstore where the owner might put down her book in an hour when you're standing right in front of her with a question or a purchase? The gaming shop run by the Cat Piss Man who's sharing his extensive porn collection with his unemployable buddies during the lunch rush? The comic shop with the clerk who openly mocks why anybody would want what you're offering perfectly green money to acquire? The magazine shop that's only open two days a week, and that's when the owner didn't decide to sleep in? The magazine that deliberately hires frustrated and bitter journalism majors to handle subscriber complaints? They're all getting smashed, and their cries about "customer loyalty" are music to me. Oh, gee, your customers are migrating to Amazon and filesharing sites? Had you considered, even for a moment, that blaming your customers for your failures is almost as bad as masturbating in their faces in the first place?

The good news is that for every one of these uintatheres, you have about three or four online venues that are glad to take business away from them. I'm watching this happen in horticulture right now, and let me tell you, it's glorious.

[stegoking.livejournal.com]

I like you.

[txtriffidranch.livejournal.com]

It's not like I haven't had extensive experience with all of these situations, is it?

[thealiwoman.livejournal.com]

I agree, I like you. :)

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

You guys can make out at ReaderCon. It will be hot disgusting.

[spyderqueen.livejournal.com]

This is why I just order shit from amazon now. Or wait two weeks and get it from Target.


And the DRM is why I'm not playing either Bioshock even though I hear they're really good.

*whistles loudly to cover the sounds of ME2 in the background*

[terioncalling.livejournal.com]

One store? That...that is insane. I'm in bumfuck Mississippi and the closest town has at least three stores carrying it for certain. And whoever didn't order enough for walk-ins should be shot. With a cannon. Full of cheese.

Though if you still want to buy a copy oddkitty offered to do so for you (well, with money sent down here) and then mail it back to you since she works at one of the local GameStops. Piracy is perfectly acceptable means to get it though if no go on that. ;D

[hyperiate.livejournal.com]

I like Steam. I am happy to trade the DRM with the ability to download and play any game I own anywhere I want any time. DRM sucks when it's used for evil, but when it makes use of its potential as a critical element of a new way of managing licensed content, I'm very excited to support that. I haven't bought a new game in the store in years.

Yes, I'm tying my fortunes to Steam's continued existence and its intention to operate like a business that has customers with options. I'm also tying my fortunes to the idea that North Korea isn't sneaking a nuke in a suitcase into Chicago in the near future. Over the time I expect to use them, I think my purchased licenses are threatened roughly equally by either likelihood.

Can you point to a situation in which a company has used DRM to revoke (and not just due to technical issues or potential false positives re: cheat detection) legitimate users ability to play a game? The only case I can think of is Amazon pulling electronic copies of 1984 off the Kindle -- after which it came to its senses.

TB

[thealiwoman.livejournal.com]

Can I just say, your rants always fill my day with such gleeful rhetoric as to make me fit to burst with sarcastic monologues that my coworkers view as "strange" and possibly "degenerate". But I care not, for I am filled with beautiful prose on such topics as the idiocy of the masses (and corporations specifically). My heart soars with your words, and I feel my spirit uplifted. As such, I remain, your ever loyal reader.

[muridae.livejournal.com]

Oh, we're only the sixth-largest city now. We're a tiny backwater town nowadays, full of hicks and hillbillies who don't play video games! Clearly.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

Sixth? Oh, well that changes everything!

[glamour-junkie.livejournal.com]

I get what you're saying bud, but honestly, that's a weak justification for stealing it. It really is. It was available everywhere for pre-order. You could've ordered it from a variety of stores online cheaper than buying it retail, and had it delivered to your office.

Companies are gravitating towards the "fill orders" model because it's advantageous to them to do so, and with a little forethought, pretty much anyone can participate easily. If you're buying something on a whim or refuse to pre-order something on principle, what do you expect with anything as hotly anticipated as "the biggest video game release of the year"? Our parents stood in 4am Toys-R-Us lines for Cabbage Patch kids and Ataris when they were released... that's life.

The pre-order system is BETTER than how it was before, because it just would've been sold out to the 200 people who showed up before you or waited outside the store since 4 am for it. Pre-ordering it prevents people from having to do that.

Also, Target wasn't carrying it? Aren't there a few Targets around you? They're listing it as available for pickup in-store on their site.

I pre-ordered it from Amazon for Scott's birthday, and got the delay some people are experiencing. It's supposed to be delivered today or tomorrow. Neither of us are too crushed, because it's a video game. In the hunter-gather sense, it's not really high on our "pyramid of needs". :)

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

I'm not justifying anything. I'm merely explaining. If they make it hard for me to buy it, then I simply won't buy it. Obviously the pre-order model isn't advantageous, because what would be advantageous to them would be to sell more copies. If you're out of copies by the end of release day, that's bad planning and bad business.

If I want to buy the latest Steven King book or Metallica album on release day, I go to the store and buy it. They don't run out because they're not idiots and they order enough stock. The scarcity/luxury model works with things like iPods, but it doesn't work with things that can be photocopied and handed out for free on virtual street corners.

The closest Target is a 1 hour bus ride or a 30 minute drive away, much worse in rush hour.

[saltedpin.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. Also, if you are either not going to release the thing I want in my country, or you are, but with such ludicrous markups as to make it totally unaffordable, then pbbt to you.