Another stupid bug

[Jugurtha]

Why the useless rant ?
I DO buy every game I like. I consider that good creation MUST be rewarded.

But I fail to see the link with marketing garbage or the hypocrisy and lies of the publishers ("games are expensive because we're ruined by pirates *cries* We don't want to, but we're forced to recoup our losses due to evil, evil pirates", but funnily enough, the prices racks up when there is no piracy, and decrease when there is...).

I'm glad that we both agree on that then.

Exactly how are they supposed to get their money back with piracy rates that high? Of course the price will go down on a product like RTW, unlike Office or Windows it only has a very short shelf life and has to make as much money as possible as fast as possible. If there is loads of piracy they need to try and compete with that supply of free games, so prices go down.

You don't quite get the point about the marketing do you? If it wasn't for them the only people playing this game would be history nerds like us.
The game would have significantly worse production values and be a lot worse to play. You've got to get a wide audience playing the game for it to get the kind of resources RTW has had. It's also another cost to be recouped.

[Akka]

Exactly how are they supposed to get their money back with piracy rates that high? Of course the price will go down on a product like RTW, unlike Office or Windows it only has a very short shelf life and has to make as much money as possible as fast as possible. If there is loads of piracy they need to try and compete with that supply of free games, so prices go down.

If the publishers can lower their prices and sell a bit less games, and still make a load of benefits (I'm thinking particularly to EA and their crappy sport-license games), then it simply means they were selling overpriced when there was less piracy, and that they take a larger part of the pie they should (ripping off the actual designers of the game, who are the one who have the real credit of the creation...).
Don't expect me to give them (the publishers) the moral higher ground or to pity them, then.

You don't quite get the point about the marketing do you? If it wasn't for them the only people playing this game would be history nerds like us.
The game would have significantly worse production values and be a lot worse to play. You've got to get a wide audience playing the game for it to get the kind of resources RTW has had. It's also another cost to be recouped.

Oh, yes, I see the point of the marketing, sadly.
I know how marketing is necessary on an economic point of view. But more than anything, I see how marketing and "large audience" ruined the video game world.
And I don't buy the "the game would be worse to play". I have started to play on Amiga, Commodore 64, CPC and NES, in a time where a computer was something unknown to half the people, and when we barely had one guy in the classroom having one at home. The games of the time were shorter, ugly and overall lacked anything a big budget can get, but many of them had LOADS AND LOADS of inventivity, creativity and originality. They weren't in any way "worse to play". And there were DOZENS of them each months, because you did not required to have millions dollars to make one.
Look now. Jewels such as RTW are exceptionnal. Even good games, fit for being bought, appear only once every so many months. Sometimes only one or two a year. I remember a time where I was drooling on something like ten or fifteen game EACH MONTH, that made me dream. Now, I barely raise an eyebrow once a month, and I drool for a game once a year.

Marketting and large audience, simply raised the budget level to a point where games need to be sold in hundred of thousands to fund themselves, kicking out all but the biggest publishers, and transformed a mainly passion-based microcosm, in a money-driven macrocosm.

No, thank you. I know that's how economics work, but I certainly won't thank it for that.

[GFX707]

The ony REAL threat from piracy is stealing potential customers, i.e if someone was going to buy the game but instead chose to download it or buy a pirate version.

I am sure that not that many people fall into that category. Most of the people who get pirate versions are people who a) wouldn't have paid full price anyway or b) wouldn't have been interested otherwise

There are many cases of people not being interested in a game until they downloaded the pirate version and then bought the retail version because it got them into it! The publishers and fatcats use this stuff as excuses and for propaganda. As for me I like to buy the games that I feel are worth supporting.