Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Students, piracy and HITLER (yes really)

cliffski

I read about a law going through in the USA that attempts to cut down on student piracy on US college campuses.

One of the aspects of all this which makes me despair a bit is the attitude of the students that they are somehow entitled to free everything, music, movies, games etc… Be warned, I’m about to sound like an old man…

I think this is part of a general trend in the west, and I think it’s because of adolf hitler. Here is why…

My grandfathers generation, and to some extent my fathers, lived through World War 2. My Grandfather was a soldier fighting in Africa and Burma. They put up with a serious lack of everything. No cod during the war, no decent meat during the war, no bloody anything basically. You ate what you were given, and you were thankful. People put up with a lot, make-do-and-mend etc etc.

That kind of attitude sticks with you for life, and when that generation had kids, they drilled it into their kids too. The value of a hard days work, respect for the law, making do with what you have etc etc.

But that next generation grew up without any disasters or wars to speak of. They lived relatively happy, prosperous lives, without fear of invasion, war, or serious food shortages or poverty. People got used to enjoying entertainment without seeing it as a luxury, but part of life. When it was time for them to have kids, they stopped drilling the military drill-sergeant attitudes into their kids.

Those are the kids now at college.

I noticed it recently whilst food shopping. There was a woman with her young kid (maybe 6? 8?) accompanying her on the weekly grocery shop. The mother was constantly subservient to the child. “would you eat this?” “do you want one of these?” “what would you like to eat?”. I couldn’t help but want to vomit. Maybe *we was poor but honest* when I was young, but I never had all that crap. I ate the food that was available. My parents bought it, so it was up to them. The idea that everyone else would work around my desires, when *they* were paying would seem farcical.

Yet this is how families operate now. Kids are the decision makers. They get to eat what they like, watch what they like, play what games they want, listen to what they want, and it’s all paid for by someone else. If mommy has to get into credit card debt to buy little jimmys xbox 360, she does it. End result: Kids who know the value of nothing, and expect everything to be given to them.

Complete bollocks? Who knows, but I certainly think there is a grain of truth here. Part of me does worry that if and when the current generation gets a serious shock (world war 3, or severe climate disaster), we just aren’t cut out to deal with it. Rather than all coming together with ‘the blitz spirit’ we will become feral and confrontational, hating to consider even the tiniest sacrifice in our own standards, regardless of how much it is needed. Just looks at how people resist even changing a light-bulb to literally save the planet. We live amongst the ‘everything for nothing’ generation, and I’m pretty sure it’s a bad thing.

Cue summaries of this post that say “game developer links piracy to hitler”. Feel free, It’s all publicity for me :D

10 thoughts on Students, piracy and HITLER (yes really)

  1. You know I completely agree with your point of view. Is true that nowadays kids “rule the world”. And it’s really dangerous. But no worries, by this pace humanity will completely disappear from earth within 100 years :D

  2. Yes I am a college student so I may be biased at this. College students are no more likely to pirate than anybody else. In fact, in my experience, they are less likely to pirate because they everything get so much more cheaper. I’m in theatre so I temporarily get free drafting software for lighting plots as well as discounts on other necessary software, discounts on transportation etc…
    As a result, pirating is less necessary because they can afford so much more.
    You may say its part of this generation but cheaper software is necessary for college students because they are finally on their own, and without a job at that.

    The reason colleges are targeted in these laws is because it is so easy to catch the pirating students. The campus internet connection is strained by people pirating and the colleges therefore support it fully. Corporations are less likely to support such laws because they know they would lose customers if the piraters were forced to switch companies and their reputation would also suffer whereas colleges wont lose students if they catch them pirating even if the students are fined.

  3. I think you are right to a large extent about kids today expecting everything that a generation ago they just wouldn’t have had. Even I (and I’m 20) can remember a time where computers, for example, were somewhat of a luxury for many households… and now you get them for £200 and it’s more likely you’ll have one than not.
    Maybe it’s a bad idea to get into politics with this subject, but I think that governments in the UK, such as Margaret Thatcher’s government have had an influence in the current selfish attitudes among a lot of people in this country (you may have heard of the term “Thatcher’s Children”).

  4. From your arguement it seems that Hitler had the opposite effect to what you claim. He caused a generation of people who take what they were given and were grateful for it. Now we’re in the generation where people take what they want for free and yet there’s not a Hitler in sight. So how exactly did he cause a generation of pirates?

  5. yes true :D I guess I’m saying it’s linked to Hitler, not caused by him. If anything it’s churchills fault for helping defeat him.
    Bloody Churchill!

  6. Valid points, but what would college kids of the 40’s pirate? Food, Cigarettes? Technology is just modern day theft made easy. Value should be instilled by parents as i intend to do with my children. If people want free games, etc, i would give them a couple of extra freebies with them, namely viruses.

  7. I think it is more complex then that. I see it with my grandparents. Having lived trough the war, they are quite obsessed with taking every opportunity to consume because they fear the abundance may be over soon. So they will buy the larger packs in the supermarket (“It’s cheaper by the dozen”), cook large portions and nag if you refuse to eat it up. I think in a way, they cause the consumerism today.

    Also, consider this: if things would change and people would start refusing to consume so much entertainment, it would be even harder to sell games then nowadays with piracy, wouldn’t it? In a way, this attitude makes a job like yours possible in the first place.

    You seen to talk a lot about piracy anyway. Do you really think this is a limiting factor for the sales of Positech games?

  8. I think people expect things to be cheaper, more easily accessible and many times, free. Especially things that are on the internet. Think about the net in general. For the most part, you can access anything on it for absolutely free. No library card needed. No need to buy PDF software to read a document. No need to research. No need to leave your house at all. The net makes things easier, easier for them and yes, easier for you.

    Where would you be without the net? Probably having a very difficult time in getting customers. You would have no way of advertising, no search engine that people with like interests could find your product, no sales mechanism, and likely no publisher. The net has given you and your product a voice and at the same time allowed for easier piracy. I say, deal with it. Most of the time, there is bad with anything good. I would think you would agree that the net has changed the world for the better despite the increase accessibility of copyrighted information. Then again, maybe you wouldn’t.

    My view on the whole issue is that despite anyone’s best efforts, piracy will not go away. It is simply too easy and the accessibility will always lead to people that are intelligent, poor, with various levels of ethics (read: college students) to download things that they don’t own. No law or reprimand or developer’s outcry will stop that. Cliff, you obviously make some neat games that warrant a purchase from people. And when you have bugs you fix your games. What is your policy on returns? What if there was say a huge, multi-billion dollar publisher who released a game that they charged $60 for and it had a ton of bugs. Bugs they had no intention of fixing. Would it be fair to allow the unsuspecting consumer to return that game for the full purchased amount? That answer should be a definitive yes, but in the real world the answer is always no. Give consumers the same rights that they have with any other purchase they make and maybe there will be less stealing (pirating) of software.

  9. Cliff I ultimately fail to see why you are so determined to piss into the wind with regards to piracy. Times have changed and the Internet has revolutionised the way in which business is conducted on a daily basis, for both yourself, others and me.

    Your assumptions are more ignorant than anything else with brash sweeping statements. Parents don’t have a metaphorical gun held to their heads with regards to whether or not they purchase their children this and that, you seem so out of touch with the rest of the world it’s absurd. The majority of parents know the true value of what is around them, and effectively instill the same values into their children. However, convince anyone not on a stable income that they should spend £25 on a game when they could receive a very similar product through less-legal means. Explain how a 14-year old that they can’t purchase a game because they don’t have a debit card. Morals don’t exist – you might not like it, and I certainly wouldn’t if in your position, but then it’s up to YOU to adapt your business model to accommodate the consumer.

    Your concerns of piracy are more than warranted, and I am by no means saying accept and embrace it, however it’s a fact and reality that every developer/publishers faces. However, as rightly pointed out by the poster above you wouldn’t be anywhere with regards to Positech without vast investment without the Internet.

    Society is a dynamic entity, it changes – however you seem very much stuck in what appears to be an old-fashioned way of thinking.

  10. People are no more or less selfish today than they were 30some years ago (when I was born). There were always a bunch of entitled brats (even during WW2 and the GD– my grandfather rants about them on occasion when his dementia is bad) who think the world is owed to them. It’s no different now than it was 20 / 50 / 100 / 200 years ago… the items may change, the available quantities may change, but the idiots remain perpetually the same. Much like forum and blog posts being a vocal minority that seems larger than it is, noticing the idiots like that when you’re out is much the same effect. Purely psychological.

Comments are currently closed.