Maybe it doesn't work everywhere. But in Poland, in early 90s, almost everybody was a pirate. Mostly because games costed like 15% of average salary.

I was among them. I rather bought 20 PLN game from a pirate (yeah, there was a time where you paid them for games) instead of 200 PLN original game.

But now, I believe I bought 5 times more game than I ever pirated, and my financial status isn't that great. And it's common. Mature people like to pay for the real thing. They enjoy the sole fact they have something legit.

As I've said, the same thing goes with knockoffs. People buy armani and gucci knockoffs, but they bought the real thing as soon as they can afford it, not only because of the better quality, but they simply like the fact it's the real thing. Spending money on your hobby gives you satisfaction. For example, you could borrow that amazing fishing pole from your uncle, but you feel much better when you buy it yourself.

I think that if pirating games wouldn't be possible at all, less people would buy games in general.

Of course, many of them will pirate just because they can, but these guys are not reformable, and nothing will change their stance. They just want shit for free. But I'm not sure if that's a majority.

And for mobile apps, I think many people just hasn't grown up yet. Some of my friends are still in "paying for games? whaaat?" stage, and many more are in "paying for mobile apps? you crazy?!" stage. They don't want to pay for that, because they think it has no value.
I don't think it's reformable, it simply requires more time. Especially on low income markets.

Damn, I wish steam had regional prices for Poland. We're not that different from Russia, especially in terms of average salary.

Good post Keeveek.

Well said keeveek. +1

No, a release in Germany is unlikely because the developer dont want to make a cut version. But this does not mean that the game is banned.

To make one thing clear, unlike in other countrys the complete rating stuff for movies and games in Germany is optional. You are not forced to get a rating to sell and offer games in Germany. But the huge retailers (Media Markt/Saturn) dont sell unrated stuff and the publisher must sell the games via smaller Online and retail traders after an age verification with less profit. And you risk the indexing (ban of advertising and only selling after age verification) and maybe the very small danger of confiscation (complete ban) after a court decision.

The first Dead Island is indexed in Germany, but not banned. It is legal to sell and buy the game after a age certification, but the retailer is not allowed to display and promote the game in a part of the store which is viewable to minors. He can display the indexed games in an adult section of his store or keep them under the desk and show them if someone adult asks for them.

The second one is just an unrated unreleased games. It is not indexed at the moment and it can not be indexed or banned without playing the game, so the game release is April 2013 - there is no way to ban the game before release...

http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/dead-island-riptide-dev-you-can-buy-gears-war-germany-not-dead-island-whats-difference

PS: Clive Barkers Jericho was denied a rating. The Publisher Codemasters dont want to make a cut version and released the game without a rating. After the release the game was reviewed by the BPjM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Department_for_Media_Harmful_to_Young_Persons) and NOT indexed and the game was rated for Adults after that decision.

Thanks for the explanation .

No, but it would be easy. THe SPIO/JK is not a rating. It is just a expertise from lawyers, that the movie is not against criminal law (mainly §131 StGB). This protects the Publisher from a criminal case and maybe jail if a judge has an other opinion and confiscates(?) the movie, this is called "Verbotsirrtum" in Germany, because a lawyer told them that the movie content was not against the law.

BIU or the game publishers could make a similar thing...

Just for the record, if keeveek and I agree on something, shit gets serious (I'm fairly certain he has a list somewhere of everytime I was wrong. *Note to self: Get admin rights to edit posts. ).

Regional pricing and regional restrictions on games can, and will open up completely new markets. Just think of South America, India, SEA, the (non-EU) South - Eastern Europe.

The best thing is, all those markets are on top of the already existing markets. Creating a digital copy literally costs nothing and the running costs are very low if broken down to each copy. We can't sell Volkswagens manufactured in Germany in Russia, because the production costs of each unit is higher than what the target group of the car earns in a year. But with software the development is (usually and hopefully) paid by the primary market, making all those other HUGE untapped markets goldmines.

But you need to avoid the exploitation of this by people like me. Hence regional restricting DRM. And it doesn't even have to be foolproof. You just need to make it difficult enough so that fat f'cks like me from Germany can't be bothered in running those versions.

And I know that this does not have only benefits. I'm German for f'cks sake. Not only am I in the highest tier of prices, I'm also plagued most by an overzealous rating board. I'm in the group that can loose the most with such a system. Yet even for me, the benefits far outweigh the (often only potential) drawbacks.

And even if you don't care about social justice, opening up new markets is also very important and good for gaming in general. All things considered, eastern European and Russian developers have been a massive benefit to gaming as a whole. Who knows what else is out there waiting for us in the untapped regions. Games like Zeno Clash have already shown how great games from South America can be.

The "real thing" is a marketing trick completely empty of substance: As for games, adults can and do pay for the service. SimonG likes Steam because of the patches. I hate the client interface and especially the achievements more than I like patching; GOG's installer hosting is awesome though. It simply takes more of my time, and is thus more expensive, to look for a pirate version and then try to get it to run.

But kids' time is cheap. They can farm stuff in TF2 for a week, sell it for peanuts and feel awesome about themselves. "Hey, mommy, I earned $5 this week!" What an idiot.

The market hasn't grown up yet. Mobile apps DRM is bullshit. Connection lost, blam, apps don't fucking work. Subway? Fuck no. Weekly commute? Fuck no. I have wasted about $100 on mobile apps, and I still can't use the phone. Ooh, nice free app! Works great! Ooh, there's a paid upgrade! Shut up and take my money! ...DAFUQ IS THIS 3-MINUTE DRM CHECK EVERY LAUNCH

The only reason I haven't deleted everything and reinstalled a pirate version of every app is that, again, my time is worth more than that, so I don't use the phone at all.

Not bothered to read, because my reading skills just aren't up to it. ;B
As I said, I'm out.

I have NEVER EVER claimed that. At all.

Edit:

I should also say that Jeff Rosen did NOT make any distinction with regard to "Indie" or not.

Oh good god, not you too.

Because two years ago there wasn't any.

How selfish and egoistical can you get. One time the Humble guys do something you don't like and you act as if the world goes down.

Damn, am I glad I left the DRM free train when it was still in sanityville ...

Indeed the amount of misunderstanding is puzzling. His or her comments are very clear.

Yes, but his the effects he's talking about can't be quantified, as you'll never know the "on edge" cases that will drop on either side of the fence. So what I'm proposing is quantifying the near/immediate effects of this bundle.

You're not ok with that? Great, no problem, then propose a different way to measure/quantify the effect so that I can bet on the outcome.