Abstract
The focus of this dissertation is about how developers tackles against players from pirating their games. The key research is to find out why people pirate games and how it affects game makers by looking at statistics over the years, and how developer’s punishment players get for pirating their games.
By doing this, showing how game developers combat against people from pirating their games. This should also show if their methods have actually worked or not. If not, what else they have done to prevent people from pirating. The three games that will be focused on are: Sims 4, Quantum Break and Serious Sam 3.
All research will be conducted by using reliable and trustworthy sites and also books relatives. Finding out each of the game developers has tried to stop players from pirating their games and what method they have come up with. Also, near to the end of the discussion, measuring how effective it was with their method of pirating prevention.
Introduction
Many people have at least tried to pirating a game or a movie, as it is a fast and free way of getting something new but for free to own forever without having to pay for the price tag. This can be done through installing ‘Torrent Client’ where the pirated games, music, programmes etc. can be downloaded. They will also need to find a pirating website for people to access or to find files they want to pirate. Games, music, TV shows, DVD has always been expensive especially when it just been released, not many people can afford the latest stuff right away and feel the need of wanting it, this is why pirating is becoming such a big thing in the market and many companies such as cinema and game industry is losing some amount of income due to pirating.
Back in 2010 they have worked out that there’s ‘53 billion visits a year on the pirate website.’ Meaning many jobs loses as well due to people pirating and affect the economy as well.
‘$12.5 billion in economic losses each year due to music industry piracy.’ (Infographic by GO-GULF 2011)
This is why game companies has now try it stop people from pirating their games. They cannot stop people pirating as they don’t have the power to, but they can try to prevent people from pirating their games through different methods such as adding mods into the game which stops the people who pirated the game to play through a certain level or, in the game the character will have to wear an eye-patch like a pirate due to pirating the game.
‘Quantum Break’s amusing approach to punishing pirates is more laid-back. If you steal the game (or simply sign out of your Microsoft Account before you play it), developer Remedy simply slaps a skull-and-crossbones-adorned eye patch on protagonist Jack Joyce. Shiver me timbers! The eye patch doesn’t imbue players with any ill effects, however… except maybe a nagging sense of shame.’ (pcworld.com 2016)
This is a small paragraph of the game character wearing an eye-patch to show that this is what you get for pirating the game. In game, it doesn’t affect the experience itself but it surely does show a sense of guiltiness for pirating the game which game developers are totally against about.
Literature Review
Sims has been around computer games generation for many years. Sims is a ‘life simulation’ video game series, developed by EA Maxis and published by EA. This game draws many players interests due to a life simulation game is different compare to the games out on the market. Numerous of people want to get their hands on this game but unable to due to not willing to pay the price so they download the pirated version, unfortunately EA has put a ‘censorship’ into the game basically making it very hard to visualise the game. Censorship can also be used in many other ways. Censorship nowadays mainly used on TV to cover up images that might be distressing to viewers, but it can also be used in films and games. An author called Anthony Slide wrote a book called ‘Banned in the USA – British Films in the United States and their Censorship, 1933-1960’ He mentioned about how cinema operate by using censorship:
“They provide the framework within which the cinema operated. They dictate the limits of what was permissible on the screen.” & “Anthony Slide is the first scholar to have studied the files of the Production Code Administration as they relate to the release of British films. His book is a major addition to our knowledge and understanding of the censorship process. His trawl of the files reveals the censors’ overwhelming concern with moral issues, violence, bad language and decorum.” (Slide, 1998, p. 1-5)
This book is can be used to help describe how censorships are used in movies and TV etc. It may not relate to games but it does certainly help to explain why censorships were castoff and what exactly it was used for. It explains how censorship was introduced to back in the days and now it can still relate to nowadays movies and TV. The sources from this book is reliable coming from a writer who has produced more than seventy books, mostly entertainment books such as movies etc.
The age rating was introduced in movies to help people identify the age group for what they are about to go and watch in the cinema. The rating also relates to the type of movie the audience will be watching. The rating was first purpose-built appeared in 1906 and ‘The British Board of Film Censors’ (BBFC) was in charge of creating the rating.
‘The BBFC decided to categorize films with either an ‘A’ (adult) or ‘U’ (universal) certificate (cut or uncut) or to withhold a certificate altogether. The award of a certificate denoted merely that a film was suitable for adults only (‘A’) or for both adults and children (‘U’). This was designed only as a guide to the local authorities which retained the statutory power either to allow a film which the BBFC had rejected or to ban a film which the BBFC had passed.’ (Robertson, 1993, p. 1-2)
By using the rating from the movies, it can be used to determine what kind of game/ movie it will be and also the censorship behind it. Censorship may not be shown in the films but it would have been cut by the director or BBFC if it’s too violent or extreme. Another great source coming from a journalist who has experience behind movies and also wrote different books related to film industry.
Quantum Break is an action-adventure third-person shooter video game. It is also based on the TV Series which is the same name as the game. This game was released on the April 5th, 2016. The game right now on the 23rd November is still priced at £23.30 at the lowest for PC – Quantum Break (Kinguin, 2016). In this situation, players will continue to pirating this game due to the expense of purchasing the game. Kevin Hedgpeth wrote a book called ‘Exploring Character Design’ and it is based on comic character and covers a lot of the character design points such as character concept, construction, expression and emotion etc. Hedgpeth is an award-winning artist and educator with more than 25 years working in the media industry. In his ‘Exploring Character Design’ book he mentioned about masks on a clown:
“Hidden Personality: Clowns hide behind masks, whether it is face paint or an invented persona that can play jokes or create chaos without revealing their true personality”. (Patmore, C. 2005, p. 106)
Even though this is referring to a clown hiding their personality, but it could also apply to the eye-patch as well as it is sort of a mask to cover up the face, and behind the eye-patch it could mean anything.
The book itself has many good factors on character design and how to make your character stand out, but it doesn’t cover what this dissertation title is looking for but the mask about the clown is the closest thing it can get. The book itself has a lot of interesting character designs from cartoons to more highly detailed characters, it also tells the reader why certain emotion of the character were used and why does the character always stands in this position etc.
There is another book called ‘Character Design Collection: A collection of characters and symbol marks from companies, organizations, products and events.’ This books is filled with character designs and a paragraph describing the character. On one of the page, it describes a character called ‘Donald Diesel’:
‘Donald is bright, always happy and smiling. Donald is a creator of positive emotions. He has a bright orange mohawk, and wears a red body suits, latex gloves and boots, and a business tie. Donald is the personification of a positive emotions as sponsored by Diesel. He is the brand mascot for Diesel’s colourful, fairground inspired Spring/ Summer 2002 collection.’ (Kondo, H. 2006, p. 44)
This books a lot of good character designs used in big companies for advertisements etc. It also mentions how they were designed and described in more details on what colour and attraction were used to help describe the character. The book describes the character very well and also the character helps the company to sell as it has a good unique use of colours and also the way the character looks.
Serious Sam 3 is a first person, action, indie prequel to the original indie fast action game. It was released back in 11th November 2011. The game right now from 23rd November 2016 is holds a very strong positive review from players. ‘88% of the 211-user review in the last 30 days are positive’ – Serious Sam 3: BFE (Steam, 2016). Serious Sam 3 is another game where developers didn’t want players to pirate their game, but they took it another level by allowing the players to play their game but with a catch. If players have pirated the game, they are allowed to play it but they will have troubling trying to complete it. This is a completely different way to deal with players trying to pirates games, by letting them play the game that developers have worked hard on but limiting them from the game experience almost like a game demo that PlayStation and Xbox magazines used to offer.
Recently, GAME store charges £15 for a half an hour session on the PlayStation VR demo:
‘The demos are intended to give our customers access to one of the most exciting new gaming technologies in 2016 and provide them with the opportunity to get a feel for VR before they commit to buy.’ (Batchelor, 2016)
Demo is also not used anymore and considered dead as no one uses them anymore. Consoles magazines don’t include demos as a bundle with the magazines which is a shame really as many people used to buy the magazines for the demos as well as reading up on reviews and latest game coming up.
‘The task of persuading a player that they\’ll like your game seems increasingly mercurial. Gone are the days of cover discs or shareware distribution, and even downloadable demos have metamorphosed into mass QA exercises rebranded as \’public betas.\’’ (Pearson, 2014)
GamesIndustry.biz is a useful site filled with information’s and journals written by profession editors. They will not get the facts wrong and always provided the most valuable sources to help readers, not by using just random authors as they could be saying anything on the website to get readers attention. By using GamesIndustry.biz, the resources gathered will be accurate and worth consuming for the use of discussion later on.
Methodology
Research was conducted from a book and also online resources for Sims 4, where it can be able to access it anytime of the day. Also, some books were used but couldn’t find anything related, internet had the best resource. The research took placed at University of South Wales library & room 119 on the computer. It took place on the 31st October 2016. Only one person was involved in the research all through internet and library. There were plenty of resources to use which helped to explain the point across. Another book was used to explain a bit more about the censorship used in film industry which can also relate to game industry. The book is called ‘The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972 (Cinema and Society).’. It was another reliable source which I can use explaining about censorship used and why, especially coming from writers as well instead of using online resources. We can learn that using censorship is a very serious way to block out an image of what not to show in the public. Another book was used for the research of censorship and that was called ‘The British Board of Film Censors’. This book was also borrowed from the USW library on 7th December 2016. This book has covered about the rating used back in 1906 and that was for movies. Age ratings were used to allow the audience to know what was to come into the movie such as violence, bad languages, drugs related etc. So, audience would know which film to choose and watch or suitable for people. This game was chosen due to the fact it had a lot of audience and players willing to buy to play this game but players not willing to buy but to pirating games. ‘The Sims 4 has been crowned Best Selling PC Game for 2014 and 2015 by the ESA’ – SimsVIP, 2016. This game is well-known to the public and players are willing to pirate this game. The other reason why this game was chosen for this dissertation is that the developers knew players would pirate their games so they decided it would be perfect for them to create something that would prevent players from pirating their games and came up with this idea, it so happens that it relates to this topic that’s why the game was chosen.
Using researches from character design books for Quantum Break as it shows how characters were designed and based on the eye-patch, that’s part of the character’s design. The book was called ‘Character Design: Creating Cartoon figures for comic books, computer games and graphic novels’. The book was borrowed so only able to access it from 31st October 2016 till 28th November 16. By using sources from the internet did help but not as much as having character design books to support. The research took placed at University of South Wales library & room 119 on the computer. It took place on the 31st October 2016. Only one person was involved in the research through internet and library. There was another book that was used to help support this dissertation, the book is called ‘Character Design Collection: A collection of characters and symbol marks from companies, organizations, products and events.’. It mentions how characters from companies were used and describe to get audience’s attention by the use of colours and how the characters were dressed. This book was also borrowed from the USW library on 7th December 2016. Quantum Break is another game that developer has chosen to try and interactive with the players who has pirated their game, the game is based on a well-known TV show called “Quantum Break”. The reason why this game was chosen in the context of this dissertation is that the developers didn’t really put a harsh punishment on the players if that have pirated the game, instead they have made it more of a witticism as an alternative. This is why it was an interesting choice to choose something a bit different.
For the research of Serious Sam 3, it was conducted by using online resource to back up the facts. Finding the books for anything related about demo was difficult but online sources from GamesIndustry.biz was very supportive towards what needed to be backed up for the source. It is definitely a reliable source to use for this dissertation, without using the same website more than twice. The source can be able to access at any time. It was accessed on the 7th December 2016. The research took placed at University of South Wales in room 119 on the laptop. Serious Sam 3 is another game that has developed their own strategy to try and tackle people from pirating games, but they have done it in a complete different way. Turning their game into a demo which is surprising working very well for them. The reason of choosing this game is due to how the developers have chosen this way to interact with their players with their pirating prevention.
Discussion
Sims 4 developers are using censorship in their gameplay to make it seem like a media you get from watching TV news or movies etc.
This shows Sims 4 is using censorship to block out game pirates. The blurry pixels used in the game are intentional, and they will only appear if you are using an unlawful version of the game.
Nowadays, censorship is used in media to block out some scenes of the images or video which may be distressing for view to see or anytime where media thinks people at a younger age could be view it on TV or online etc. Censorships are used to block out blood, nudity, offensive object/ images etc. The way it was used in the game means EA are seriously about people pirating their games, and by doing this censorship means it would be hardly playable for the players to interact in the pirated copy of the game, and also a feel of dishonour for pirating the game. This is why what EA has done to prevent people from pirating is a serious matter, they want people to enjoy their game and not pirate other it would be unplayable.
On the other hand, this game is still playable besides the censor blockage in the way. EA hasn’t completely made the game un-playable but almost giving the player a chance to kind of see what the game plays and referring to a demo almost. Sims 4 has an age restriction of 12+ and above, from the Pegi.info, age 12+ means:
“Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non-graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad languages in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.” (Pegi.info)
The legitimate copy of the game has already got censorship in some part of the game built in such as when the character is having a shower, it will blur the
‘Character Design: Creating Cartoon figures for comic books, computer games and graphic novels’ is another great book which describe different characters’ way of creation and why some have a different attitude etc, explaining the colour and details of the character to help back up on the Quantum Break character and to understand more why the developers has used character design to influence pirating games.
Although Serious Sam 3 resources was based on online journals, they were reliable ones due to coming from journalist which has worked in that field for a long time and well known. The source was also very useful and wasn’t made up at all, for example about the CD demo selection, this is very true. Hardly any magazines now offer CD demo but only push public betas for player to try out the game before the release.
Overall, game developers have tried to use different method in games to try and stop players from pirating game, but that could never be enough. Many people are still pirating games and it could never be stopped unless game developers take serious action against it. Serious Sam 3 is the best method compare to Sims 4 and Quantum Break, it stops players from completing a level making it a demo like. Players will eventually give up on the game as they will not be able to finish it due to an AI which is completely unbeatable. If Serious Sam developers could implant a method like this into their game, can’t see why any other game companies out there wouldn’t to the same to stop players from pirating their games and their main concern is losing income from it.