Sidewinder: This is one of those threads that really doesn't need to exist but here's my take on the whole situation. I am by no means innocent of pirating a slew of games, like most of my friends, that said the primary reason myelf and teh large majority of my firneds have done so is becaue the Gaming market has been labotomized adn nerfed into oblivion, where a "long lasting" game has maybe 40 hours of real game play, and is often a bad port from a console or soemthign designed for both simultaneously and thuse been designed for the lowest common denomintor, that being the console.

The primary reason piracy is so blatantly commonplaceis that because PC games are targeted at the same audience as cosnole gamers that games are pieces substandard fecal matter and not worth the $70 shelf prices. Once a title comes along that is worth the sticker price we as a group usually purchase iten masse. If a game has easily 100+ hours of gameplay, good humour, in depth gameplay and varied yet smooth control schemes then it will sell in numbers that truly make the piracy irrelivent.

Lesson make a game worthwhile paying for and it will sell, but don't waste time making dumbed down games that are easily played on consoles.

archaven: There is NOTHING much CDPR can do about pirates.. OH waitt.. they have... Abandon all PC games altogether and we are screwed :S

Shorack: You have to realise that the large majority of gamers does not need a long game.
Some of those may think they want it, but reality is that only a small group actually finishes long games.

The gamers segment with the most spending power has only a very limited time each week to spend on games, making it harder to keep track of very long story archs.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/the-incredible-shrinking-game-the-truth-of-game-length-in-the-modern-industry.ars

Actually, taking that into account, packed games that are not extremely long for one playthrough but who have tremendous replay value, are the most bang for your bucks. (or however the saying goes)

Shorack: You have to realise that the large majority of gamers does not need a long game.
Some of those may think they want it, but reality is that only a small group actually finishes long games.

The gamers segment with the most spending power has only a very limited time each week to spend on games, making it harder to keep track of very long story archs.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/the-incredible-shrinking-game-the-truth-of-game-length-in-the-modern-industry.ars

Actually, taking that into account, packed games that are not extremely long for one playthrough but who have tremendous replay value, are the most bang for your bucks. (or however the saying goes)

Meigod: bring back the days of games made on pcs with the pc in mind and the large cardboard game box with jewel cd case inside and a manual so think it had a secondary use as self defence weapon....are the 90s

i remember games being more challenging then too..but heard that w2 is catching people out so great.

yayodeanno: I wonder if it has been cracked modifying the 50mb patch from the polish CE or they managed to crack it without it. Anyways it was bound to happen, pity it's this early :(

Sidewinder: Replayability factors into the triple digit gameplay hours, but most short games lack even that. It's been a decade since a truly non-linear game came out, and the fact remains that a significant portion of the new games are rehashed, dumbed down, shallow excrement that aren't worth $70, and a significant cause behind the proliferation of piracy.

MADPADDY: The problem with statistics is they are always wrong ,i love it when you read they asked 800 gamers what they buy or want, how is 800 or 10000 meant to represent what billions want,its there way of brain washing people into thinking that is what people want,its bullshit.Its Corporate PR tactics,they want you to finish a shorter game so they can sell you another sooner and shorter games take less resources to make so they make more money and so on and so on.