Why Can't We Just Play The Games?

Companies spend a large chunk of change to protect their investment. And make no mistake about it; game consoles are investments to the companies that produce them, to the companies that write the software for them, down to the end user that purchases the products. Everyone takes a risk. The hardware manufacturer's risk in that they lose money on the console. That's right, each console produced costs more to make than what they sell it for. The people that buy the machine risk the possibility that the console could go under fairly quickly (Dreamcast anyone?). Lastly, the game makers risk a lot too. They spend years working on making the best game possible with the money and resources they have available to them. When it gets released, it is some time and many copies later before enough units are sold to the point where they actually start turning a profit.

The point is that piracies on consoles are commonplace. We all know they are out there, the PSX and DC was run rampant with them. Every console has numerous ways of protecting their product from being copied and distributed. Yet, somehow, someway, pirates find a way around the copy checks, and for what? So they can show the world they can do it? Do these people actually ever stop to think about what they are actually doing? Not only are they hurting the companies that worked so hard to bring the game to us, but also they are causing the said companies to spend less resources on actually making the game and more on new ways to prevent them from being pirated. Why do people pirate? Most common answer here is that Уgames are just too damned expensive.Ф Guess what people? More money spent on piracy protection means less money spent on making a game worth playing. So, most of your 50 bucks is spent paying for the technology to combat piracy. So, if you buy your games, like I do, you should be mad as hell that these people that make them for free are, in essence, having us pay for them. But, even with all these checks in place, people feel that they have nothing better to do than find a way around them. C'mon people, wake up will ya? I'm sick and tired of paying for your hobby.

Now this hits home on the Xbox as well, as there are rumored reports of people opening up their consoles and trying to interface their HD with a common PC. I don't know about you guys, but I work hard, and when I have free time I want to play the games that I buy with my hard earned mullah, not tinker with the systems insides. Also, a few people have found a way to simulate a LAN for Halo over the Internet. Now while I am not all that concerned with playing Halo online, that doesn't bother me. What does though, is that toying with stuff like that opens the Xbox up to things that Microsoft didn't contend on. What if someone finds a way to make a virus for the console? There is a reason that MS wanted the online to be restricted to websites that they control. Did you think it was just for their amusement? No, it's to protect the HD from viruses and other malicious code. A corrupted HD on a closed system with no interface to it is not a good thing people. In effect, an otherwise excellent feature on the Xbox is potentially damaged buy a few that just couldn't Уplay the gameФ. You want to mess up your system? That's fine by me. But for God sake's man, don't open everyone else's console up to un-necessary danger.

Closing Thoughts
I'll use a line that someone in the preorder line told me -- УAt $300, it is no longer a toy, it's an investment.Ф That statement has more truth to it than anything I have heard in a while. The Xbox is an investment, from the developers all the way down to the guy that plops down the dough for it. Piracy can kill a new system people. Look at the Dreamcast, probably one of the best of the next-gen consoles, yet it fell victim to piracy (among other things) because Sega simply didn't have the cash to back them up. Microsoft is a slightly different story, as they aren't exactly hurting for money. However, how am I going to play a highly refined Halo 2 if Bungie spends all its money on making it crack-proof to protect the investment they are making?