I take issue with the argument that "all you have to do is make a good game and people will pay for it!" Tell that to System Shock 2, Psychonauts, the Freedom Force games and any other numbers of critically and player acclaimed commercial failures over the years. Minecraft is cool and its uniqueness (and the viral nature of it) combined with its low price certainly have made it the deserved runaway success that it is. But to say that this proves that piracy isn't a real problem is ridiculous. There are a lot of entitled people out there who will still steal a product no matter how much "reason to buy" is offered. I do believe a certain amount of this must be considered a cost of doing business and accepted and that's why I support the idea that things like DRM do nothing to solve the problem while hurting the true customers.
However, one guy making $350,000/day (a figure which is in dispute as others have already pointed out) and the success of the Humble Indie Bundle (a bunch of games that didn't sell nearly as well until the price was heavily discounted and which were still pirated to Hell and back) is not a sign that piracy is a non-issue and that just "make a good game" isn't the universal answer. Many also agree that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a fantastic game as well but the developer is on record as saying it was still heavily pirated and despite selling well, hasn't been enough to give them the stability they need.
You guys are so determined to prove that piracy is a non-issue that you will glom on to any success story (and the ones you cited are true but still the vast minority of cases) and say "See, it's not a problem if you just make good games!" Making good product is essential but to insinuate that it's all that is needed to guarantee success is ludicrous.
So one massive abberation of a success story means that piracy is no problem whatsoever? Please. I don't agree with how the game industry is trying to combat thieves and I am totally on board with the notion that DRM is not the answer. But c'mon Mike, this is a stretch even for you. There are plenty of universally renowned games that no one bought and that this guy is (deservedly) succeeding in this very unique way is not a sign of any kind of trend. Are thieves everything that's wrong with the game industry? Certainly not. But they are still a very big problem.
I'm not sure if they actually have the ability to ban people from a specific game. They're able to track what you're playing so I can't see why not and they definitely should add that functionality if they haven't. Personally, I'd say ban them until the title update is available. And I think instituting some kind of fine system into the Microsoft Certification process for glitches that enable this kind of game breaking behaviour would ensure better QA real damn fast.
You can use BS semantics all you want but yes, it is cheating. You are using something that falls outside the intended design of the game to give yourself an unintended and unfair advantage to the detriment of everyone else playing. That it is due to a bug in the game doesn't make it cheating, it's just a different form of cheating.
Just because you have no self-control and are falling into "human nature" isn't an excuse. I (and everyone else playing honestly) paid $60 for the game same as you and you've got no right to ruin it for us. As I said, IW gets their share of blame here too as this glitch apparently exists on all platforms. They have said it will be patched but it is being rolled into another title update that will include a bunch of other changes and has no announced release date. That's ludicrous and is a sign of this developer's continuing arrogance towards their community.
All that said, it does not justify ruining the game for others by taking advantage of this exploit and yeah, if you choose to be an idiot and do it, you damn well shouldn't be allowed to play with those of us who can use it but choose not to because we're more honest than you. I agree the ban should be temporary (as I believe it is) and that permanently kicking people off Xbox Live is going too far. You have the ability to be a racist, homophobic, threatening douchebag over the Xbox Live voice chat too but most people would agree that it isn't OK to be one just because the system allows you to be.
Just because you have the ability to exploit the game doesn't automatically make it right to do so. These glitchers completely ruin the balance of the game, artificially inflating their scores and creating a massive unfair advantage to teams who choose to play honestly. I agree that it is unacceptable that a glitch this obvious got through QA given MW2's budget but just because the game allows you to cheat doesn't mean you should. Play honestly or take your chances.
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Re: Re: Please
I take issue with the argument that "all you have to do is make a good game and people will pay for it!" Tell that to System Shock 2, Psychonauts, the Freedom Force games and any other numbers of critically and player acclaimed commercial failures over the years. Minecraft is cool and its uniqueness (and the viral nature of it) combined with its low price certainly have made it the deserved runaway success that it is. But to say that this proves that piracy isn't a real problem is ridiculous. There are a lot of entitled people out there who will still steal a product no matter how much "reason to buy" is offered. I do believe a certain amount of this must be considered a cost of doing business and accepted and that's why I support the idea that things like DRM do nothing to solve the problem while hurting the true customers.
However, one guy making $350,000/day (a figure which is in dispute as others have already pointed out) and the success of the Humble Indie Bundle (a bunch of games that didn't sell nearly as well until the price was heavily discounted and which were still pirated to Hell and back) is not a sign that piracy is a non-issue and that just "make a good game" isn't the universal answer. Many also agree that Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a fantastic game as well but the developer is on record as saying it was still heavily pirated and despite selling well, hasn't been enough to give them the stability they need.
You guys are so determined to prove that piracy is a non-issue that you will glom on to any success story (and the ones you cited are true but still the vast minority of cases) and say "See, it's not a problem if you just make good games!" Making good product is essential but to insinuate that it's all that is needed to guarantee success is ludicrous.
Please
So one massive abberation of a success story means that piracy is no problem whatsoever? Please. I don't agree with how the game industry is trying to combat thieves and I am totally on board with the notion that DRM is not the answer. But c'mon Mike, this is a stretch even for you. There are plenty of universally renowned games that no one bought and that this guy is (deservedly) succeeding in this very unique way is not a sign of any kind of trend. Are thieves everything that's wrong with the game industry? Certainly not. But they are still a very big problem.
Re:
I'm not sure if they actually have the ability to ban people from a specific game. They're able to track what you're playing so I can't see why not and they definitely should add that functionality if they haven't. Personally, I'd say ban them until the title update is available. And I think instituting some kind of fine system into the Microsoft Certification process for glitches that enable this kind of game breaking behaviour would ensure better QA real damn fast.
You can use BS semantics all you want but yes, it is cheating. You are using something that falls outside the intended design of the game to give yourself an unintended and unfair advantage to the detriment of everyone else playing. That it is due to a bug in the game doesn't make it cheating, it's just a different form of cheating.
Just because you have no self-control and are falling into "human nature" isn't an excuse. I (and everyone else playing honestly) paid $60 for the game same as you and you've got no right to ruin it for us. As I said, IW gets their share of blame here too as this glitch apparently exists on all platforms. They have said it will be patched but it is being rolled into another title update that will include a bunch of other changes and has no announced release date. That's ludicrous and is a sign of this developer's continuing arrogance towards their community.
All that said, it does not justify ruining the game for others by taking advantage of this exploit and yeah, if you choose to be an idiot and do it, you damn well shouldn't be allowed to play with those of us who can use it but choose not to because we're more honest than you. I agree the ban should be temporary (as I believe it is) and that permanently kicking people off Xbox Live is going too far. You have the ability to be a racist, homophobic, threatening douchebag over the Xbox Live voice chat too but most people would agree that it isn't OK to be one just because the system allows you to be.
Ban Them
Just because you have the ability to exploit the game doesn't automatically make it right to do so. These glitchers completely ruin the balance of the game, artificially inflating their scores and creating a massive unfair advantage to teams who choose to play honestly. I agree that it is unacceptable that a glitch this obvious got through QA given MW2's budget but just because the game allows you to cheat doesn't mean you should. Play honestly or take your chances.