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Jan. 26th, 2010 06:49 pmDear 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 thefive 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.
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
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.
