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Illegal Music Downloader's Spend "The Most on Music"

Justin Kerr — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:56:45 -0600

Measuring the impact of illegal downloading on the music industry is a nearly impossible task that only seems to make the lawyers rich, but a new UK based study has concluded that illegal downloader's not only don't hurt music sales, they help. According to the survey which looked at the buying habits of about 1,000 16 to 50 year-old computer users, those that regularly downloaded music illegally also spent nearly 43% more per year through official channels than their legitimate counterparts. According to the UK Secretary of State for Business Peter Mandelson, this proves the shortsightedness of the new "Digital Economy Bill" set to become law next April which aims to boot any user off the Internet accused of downloading copyrighted material three times or more.

Peter Bradwell, from the think-tank Demos who commissioned the Ipsos Mori study agrees and claims, "The latest approach from the Government will not help prop up an ailing music industry. Politicians and music companies need to recognize that the nature of music consumption has changed, and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access." The UK music industry however remains unconvinced, and insisted that the figures cited in the study show a skewed picture. It turns out in fact, that nearly 61% of all illegal downloader's surveyed claim they would stop downloading illegitimate tracks if they were threatened with losing internet service for a month.

So will illegal downloader’s spend even more money on digital tracks if they get cut off from Bit Torrent's? Or does it help to create fans who would have otherwise spent less on music using traditional discovery methods. It’s an interesting debate, where do you fall on the issue?

(Image Credit: Methodshop.com)

Electronic Arts Unfazed by Mind-Blowing Amounts of Sims 3 Pirating

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:12:51 -0500

Having your main moneymaker relentlessly plundered roughly 200,000 times weeks before its release should be no laughing matter, but that’s not stopping Sims 3 publisher EA from having the last laugh while ostensibly losing thousands of dollars.

"You identified our secret marketing campaign!" EA boss John Riccitiello said jokingly of Sims 3’s recent theft. "That was a very large scale – concentrated on Poland and China – demo program."

"In the game that was pirated there's [only] one city [out of two]... and Sims 3 has a massive amount of content, and a lot of it is downloaded once you register with EA... and join the online community" he explained. "So you get that content in addition to the second city [which is downloadable for people who register], and that's a major component... A huge amount of the gameplay is an overlay for the community, where you are sampling assets created by other people".

The hope, then, is that pirates will chomp onto EA’s lure and get hooked into spending money on the features they’re missing. So basically, it’s like a bigger demo.

Not a bad idea, either – and not unlike the moneymaking strategies free-to-play MMOs tend to employ, where the game costs jack, but the good content costs George, Abe, and a bunch of other presidents. Also, some unsolicited advice for EA -- Let pirates’ Sims live as kings, with the exception of two items: swimming pools and swimming pool ladders. Or just remove the ability for things to catch on fire. We don’t know about you, but those features alone would make us drop the full 50 bones.

The Top Five Zombie Timewasting Games!

David Murphy — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:30:36 -0600

Left 4 What? If you're not one of the legions to be playing Valve's newest zombie shoot-em' up, fear not. Just because you aren't killing the undead with your friends doesn't mean that you can't partake in the best open-source and freeware zombie titles! Better yet, fire up some of these games while waiting for your big Steam download to finish. Because nothing gets one in the mood to kill zombies like, well, killing zombies.

Facewound

Why it rocks: This 2D side-scroller is full of blood and guts. Enjoy battling the legions of the undead using all sorts of colorful weaponry. The game's beautiful particle effects and "unfunny 'in' jokes" will keep you coming back for more -- especially helpful, given that zombie hordes never really stop... coming. The only bummer about Facewound is that its a title that will never actually be finished -- you're playing a build of the game, not the imaginary final product.

Black Shades

Murrgh: Is it a zombie game? No. But this title, which pits you as a psychic bodyguard tasked with protecting VIPs each level, does come with a super-special zombie mode after subsequent levels of gameplay. Just what you need when you've finished protecting the imaginary president from assassins: Protecting the imaginary president from zombie assassins.

Election Year: Zombies versus Pirates

Urhrhhgh: No, this is not a joke. In this independent title, you're going to be mashing the spacebar to raise support for your Zombie senate candidate over the dastardly Senator Birdbeard. We only include this game on the list as its hilarious story (and suggestion of a Zombie/Pirate governmental system) totally outweighs any other flaws the game might have. It's up to you to do you undead civic duty and install this immediately!

Zombie Smashers

Braaaains: With three successive iterations under its belt, this 2D side-scroller is barbaric in its zombie bloodletting. The premise is simple: Use a bunch of weapons to bash zombie brains in. The weapons themselves can consist of anything from the mundane (trash can lids) to the creative (frying pans) to the squishy (severed spinal cords). And your character grows the more you kill, earning tattoos as upgrades to increase the power of you undead pulverization. You can even cast magic spells, including one that summons a fully-loaded Uzi to your hands--not exactly the D&D wizardry we're used to, but hilarious nonetheless.

Cottage of Doom

Jamboree: Board up the doors. Zombies are attacking your little cottage, and it's up to you to keep them at bay! But we're serious: Board up the doors, the windows, and stack anything you can against the entrances of your little hut! This game gives you a lot of creative leeway in protecting your domain from the undead, reminding us a lot of our favorite desktop time-waster, Tower Defense. This should give you a lot of practice for the strategic elements of Left4Dead

Super-Secret Zombie Flash Game Bonus

Huh: Zombie Baseball. 'nuff said.

Pirates Selling Fake Blu-ray Movies on DVDs

Andy Salisbury — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:54:44 -0600

It’s an all to common story; boy gets Blu-ray player, boy wants Blu-ray movies, boy doesn’t want to pay full price for said movies so boy goes to China to snag bootlegs – we’ve all been there. But should you find yourself caught in this conundrum wait a moment before you do anything. Those fancy new Blu-ray movies you just got could very well be DVDs.

High-end movie pirates in China are ripping the legitimate Blu-ray movies (which use 1,080 lines of resolution) and then burning them onto writeable DVDs (which only support 720 lines of resolution). The swindlers are reportedly making roughly $7 a pop per movie.

Reports say none of the movies have made their way out of China yet.

Image Credit: UberGizmo

The Ship

Norman Chan — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:04:43 -0600

Finally, here’s a fresh first-person shooter that doesn’t rely on twitchy trigger fingers or overdramatic stealth sequences. The Ship trades in quick reflexes and steady aim for an emphasis on sly cunning and novel intrigue. Originally developed as a Half-Life mod, this UK-produced multiplayer game has been remade on the Source engine and released at retail and over Steam as another indie-dev-goes-commercial success story.

The Ship invites players to embark on one of six multiplayer cruises, courtesy of a mysterious Mr. X. Once onboard an online server, you begin a truly innovative cat and mouse game, where you must hunt down an assigned target for cash. The genius in the design is that you have to eliminate your mark without getting caught—by either security cameras or nosy observers. While you’re trying to eliminate your mark, someone else is trying to eliminate you. Because the vessel is occupied by both NPCs and real players, we found that a great tactic is to mimic NPC movements while stalking targets, until they take required bathroom and meal breaks. Then we make our move.

This new style of gameplay creates high tension anytime you’re in an unpopulated area of the ship, and a sense of amusing role-playing as you partake in the various social activities aboard the ships. We found it helpful to explore the various ships before moving online, as each features a unique layout and tons of hidden goodies. Picking up a hefty axe off the wall or butcher knife from the kitchen is OK in a pinch, but the best weapons are secreted away in stateroom cabinets and behind hidden passageways. Not only will you want to learn where the weapons are concealed, you’ll also need to learn the location of new outfits, which you can change into to throw your stalker off your scent.

You’ll also dig the delightful art deco aesthetic of the different ships and characters, which is a throwback to the lavish lifestyle of 1920s flappers. The developers take full advantage of the diverse color palette accommodated by the Source engine, and litter the maps with subtle nuances to enhance the stylistic atmosphere. We found ourselves wandering into rooms just to listen to speakeasy tunes on the radio. Too bad these fanciful strolls frequently ended with our beheading!

Even if you’re killed, there’s plenty for you to do while you wait for the next round. After we find an ideal weapon (the flare gun is our favorite), we usually try to sabotage other players by tracking their movements and catching them in the act of murder. Players caught with unconcealed weapons are fined and thrown in the brig, which puts them out of play for 30 seconds.

There are two game modes: the Hunt and Elimination. In the Hunt players are ranked by how much money they’ve made killing opponents. In Elimination, you’re assigned one player to kill; after you succeed, you inherit your victim’s target, and so on. The intensity ramps up as players vie to be the last passenger afloat.

We encountered some animation glitches while playing the game—models sliding around corridors in sleeping or sitting positions. Other players online have reported this bug, as well, but we couldn’t replicate it on other test machines. We also felt that the needs system—which controls when you need to eat, rest, and go to the bathroom—could use some tweaking. It’s annoying to have to eat, sleep, and excrete every five minutes while you’re on the prowl. And as with all multiplayer games, The Ship plays best with packed servers and gamers who play by the rules—the single-player mode is outright boring. For $20, The Ship is a worthwhile diversion—we just hope the dev team decides to release new maps in the future. All aboard!

Month Reviewed: November 2006
+ QUEEN MARY 2: Innovative and nail-biting gameplay with delightful art style.
- TITANIC: Animation bugs and balancing follies mar the admirable effort.
Verdict: 7
URL: www.theshiponline.com