Newduck said:
I'm pretty disapointed MS didnt really live up to their promise of no region lockout on games too, but thats just plain nuts.
Outside of like, the dreamcast, due to sega being inept at console security its usually pretty damn hard to get different region games going, especially when you're talking about online play too.
What are you even complaining about? Why do you have to import it?
You'll get banned for throwing around ISO claims like that.
Being my initial post a slighty off topic rant, I prefear to avoid a long discussion over it on this thread.
So, just read it this way: the game looks potentially interesting, enough for me to eventually buy it, but MS marketing succesfully managed to make the purchase enough a chore to discourage me.
Not aapprecciating regional lockouts to exploit market pricing, or "encouraging" retailers to not sell me a certain product, Ill congratulate them for the accomplishment. They won, wanted to not sell me their game, and succeded, WTG.
As for my alternatives, be them buying a PS2 game instead, not buying anything, or going Teh Unspeakable Way, it matters little: common factor remains, MS doesnt get the cash.
Nothing against them specifically, either. Stopped buying Nintendo in the N64 era, and didnt buy a PS2 for a year after release, for similiar reasons.
The piracy issue is one Id like to tackle in another topic. Some thoughts.
Piracy is illegal. Royaltyes, regional lockouts, software approvation processes are largely legal.
Do they have the moral ground to be legal, or are so just because is convenient to someone?
Piracy is believed a reason for high games prices. The industry seem to like to defining it so, shelling inflated figures of piracy losses, based on the absurd assumption that every pirated piece of sofware is equivalent to a lost sale - which may be true the day that original software has the same price of pirated one, not now.
But how often and gladly do they mention how much of your 50$ of a game purchase goes to the hardware manufacturer, rather than the people who actually worked on it?
How happens that PC games, the most pirated and often worst selling, are 10$ cheaper than console versions? And GCN games, almost never pirated, are often more expensive even compared to the more pirated PS2?
How happened that many people point to piracy as a big factor influencing prices? Listening too much marketspeak?
What about viral marketing, fixed review scores, forbidding reviews until the game is on the shelves? They apparently are mostly legal. In forums as this, frequented by people in the industry, such pratices even get defended a great deal. For a company to use low tactics to give customers an incorrect perception of a game, encourage them in making an unthought purchase that may disappoint, is all right.
While pirating to try a game before purchase, often the only way to know its real quality and truly know if meets your needs, is wrong? Or maybe considering it so, in such cases, is a form of fanatism?
At the end of the day, the same people frowning upon piracy in certain forms, also on this forum, take good advantage of it in others - whenever they think the official price of something is too high for their interest on the item. DCforums? MP3s? MAME? Old Neo Geo carts and arcade boards?
A nice look to the argument from a different perspective than that promoted from the industry, might be interesting. Sure is good and fair to reward the devs work, but when you consider a number of other factors, got to wonder...
Oh well, thats getting off topic like crazy, and I didnt want to derail this thread. Sorry about it.