I'm certainly more angry at PC gamers than anyone else at this point. Most of the people I know who play PC games have done so without actually paying for the games. They can drop $500 on a video card to play Crysis, but the game itself, that has to be free or they won't play it. Worse yet is that some of these cunts are so ignorant that they from time to time go into rants about the miserable state of PC gaming, and wonder aloud why developers have abandoned the platform.
You would be shocked at how things are where I live (Asia):
Stores sell you modded Wiis as a first option.
Stores sell you modded PS2s as a first option.
Stores sell you modded Xboxes as a first option.
Stores sell you modded Xbox 360s as a first option.
Stores sell you modded PSPs as a first option.
Stores sell you modded NDSs as a first option.
They are
expecting you to buy the modded version. These are perfectly legit game shops that completely pass under the radar even when customs officers raid the malls where these stores are located.
You want to know why the Gamecube sold so poorly over here when the console launched? It was a bitch to pirate the games (at least initially).
You want to know why the PS3 is selling so poorly over here? You can't pirate the games.
I'll tell you what: people look at me funny when I say I want to
buy Mario Kart Wii. "Just download it!" is what I hear. I'm blowing my money. This is from a guy in the office that has a hard drive with a little over
900 NDS roms on it.
The mainboard on my Wii burned out due to a short-circuit through no fault of the console. So here I am trying to repair it, and this other guy from the office tells me to not bother with replacing the mainboard when it costs 3/4 the price of a brand new Wii (I just want my saved games). "Just get a Wii and mod it, buy a few pirated games and you've recouped your investment." This is the same guy who goes every weekend to China and picks up a Wii game for five RMB - that's 65
cents. He gets bundled PSP CDs that come with assorted games for the same price.
All my recent PC games are purchased either off Steam or Direct2Drive. And honestly, when you have deals like the EIDOS pack or The Orange Box, there is really little incentive to pirate; the games come out for less than 10 bucks at times (by comparison, a pirated game here will sell for about 4USD, but by the time you factor in transportation and time it ends up costing about the same as "going legit"). Games don't cost that much on the PC. There are even free games to the caliber of Hitman, SC:CT or Far Cry if you are willing to put up with advertisements or being able to play the game for a limited period of time (not time-trials; you play the full game via a service, but you only have 1-2 months to play it). That, and abandonware: I just downloaded about 1,000 abandonware games via torrent; while 90% of those may be absolute shite or may not hold up well with time, I'll still have 100 free, legit games that I can play.
Besides, there is nothing wrong with the state of PC gaming. It's just going through its phase again, like a menstrual cycle. Every time a console cycle launches, there is this initial push by gamers to buy the latest consoles. The media goes into a frenzy, and euphoric gamers rush to buy the latest (pirated) games. Then in mid-cycle, the PC comes back with a vengeance.
It's been this way ever since the SNES days. Fact is, piracy has been rampant on both console and PC gaming since I can remember, and believe me, having lived in Asia for the greater part of my life, I've seen all there is to see about piracy - and then some. I'd even argue that piracy on consoles is much higher than it is with PC gaming, because most console gamers here will pirate console games, while PC users (not gamers) are not all into gaming, and may only pirate operating systems or applications.
