Bethesda: "50% of tech support inquiries are from those with pirated copies."

EvaUnit02 on 25/10/2008 at 04:19

(http://tinyurl.com/6yqebj)

Wow, this claim just blows me away. Some scumbags do have some balls to try shit like this.

Muzman on 25/10/2008 at 04:41

I'd like to know how they know for sure. There would be some I'm sure, but given how many false positives with bad serials etc, it's probably tough.

june gloom on 25/10/2008 at 05:48

I have to seriously wonder exactly how an issue a pirated copy has that's identical to an issue a legit copy has is somehow the pirated copy's fault.

Let me put it this way:

Say there's a game. It's got a known bug that causes problems- regardless of whether the game is pirated or not. Someone who has a pirated copy runs into this bug, unaware that it's well known, and asks for help.

Unless he specifically says it's a pirated copy, who would know? It's not limited to just pirated copies, so yelling at him to buy the game solves nothing. His only other recourse is to wait for someone with a legit copy to ask for help on the same problem, very likely getting yelled at and told to buy the game when he's already bought it, and then when someone finally bothers to help the legit player the pirate player can read the response, if it's public.

I dunno, unless it's a problem specific to a pirated copy (which is rare nowadays as far as I can tell) I don't see any difference.

gunsmoke on 25/10/2008 at 06:12

I was thinking damn near the same thing.

icemann on 25/10/2008 at 07:49

Well a pirated copy would have slight differences to the original, which could in theory cause issues.

jtr7 on 25/10/2008 at 07:59

Maybe tech support asks for information that exposes the piracy.

addink on 25/10/2008 at 08:11

Quote Posted by dethtoll

I have to seriously wonder exactly how an issue a pirated copy has that's identical to an issue a legit copy has is somehow the pirated copy's fault.

Please point out where in the article they state that the issues have to do with the copy being pirated.
Hint: they don't; They have issues with non-paying customers asking for support.

Quote Posted by dethtoll

Let me put it this way:

Say there's a game. It's got a known bug that causes problems- regardless of whether the game is pirated or not. Someone who has a pirated copy runs into this bug, unaware that it's well known, and asks for help.

Unless he specifically says it's a pirated copy, who would know? It's not limited to just pirated copies, so yelling at him to buy the game solves nothing. His only other recourse is to wait for someone with a legit copy to ask for help on the same problem, very likely getting yelled at and told to buy the game when he's already bought it, and then when someone finally bothers to help the legit player the pirate player can read the response, if it's public.

I dunno, unless it's a problem specific to a pirated copy (which is rare nowadays as far as I can tell) I don't see any difference.

Let me put it like this. Say you, being/wanting to be a journalist, wrote an article and you agreed with a publisher that you'd get a 10% share of the ads placed next to the article, ie some revenue.

Then some other publisher places your exact article online, without you getting any of the revenue of your time spend writing the thing. And he then calls you to check references and to inform of a typo. What do you do?
[indent]A. You don't give the references.
B. Take note of the supposed typo.
C. You call the other publisher on his illegal use of your copyrighted material.
D. All of the above.[/indent]

As for recognizing pirated copies: They don't come with a manual, don't have a serial number, they all have the same serial number or (in case of a serial number-generator) they have serial numbers that weren't released.

EDIT:
And, I expect, some of the pirates plead ignorance, "they got it from this friend, how were they supposed to know the disk with 'game' written on in in marker was illegal. They thought it was his personal copy."

june gloom on 25/10/2008 at 09:08

Try a better analogy, please, because yours is fatally flawed.

addink on 25/10/2008 at 09:22

No, it isn't.

If A makes and sells a product and supports it.
And B who illegitimately acquires said product, requests support from A.

Then A has the right to point out to B that he is being a thief.
And A has the right to complain publicly about B being a thief.

EDIT:
You're point is only valid if indeed it is hard to distinguish between legal and illegal copies.
The thing is, it is not hard to distinguish between the two.

june gloom on 25/10/2008 at 10:09

Quote Posted by addink

No, it isn't.

Sorry, but simply disagreeing does not make it so.

First of all I never said A had no right to complain about B being a thief. My entire point was, how would they know?

If some publisher I did not authorize to publish my article called me up, obviously I would know that they were attempting to get cash off my work precisely because they called me.

But only an idiot would tell a game developer (or tech support forum, etc.) that their copy is pirated. If asked for a CD key or serial number (which are, of course, increasingly rare thanks to the way copy protection's been going) and the pirate either cannot provide one or provides one that is in use elsewhere, then yes he's busted, but as I said, keys/serials are becoming less common and are obviously not used at all in console games. On top of that no reliable company would ever ask for keys or serials because that's a good way to incite fraud.

So how would they know? Are they psychic? They can't see that the person doesn't have a box or manual. Hell, the person could even download the manual off replacementdocs. So how would they know? I doubt they could somehow use the internet to see what the problem was- on top of being a potential majour security issue I'm not entirely sure such a maneuverhas ever been put into use at all, not even on Steam. So how would they know?

Fallout 3 is a special case because the game's not even out yet- of course all copies are going to be pirated- so instead of talking about Fallout 3, let's talk about typical cases instead. Tech support questions with gaming typically involves one of three things: "will this game work on my rig?" "this game doesn't work on my rig" "this game should work but isn't, what's going on?" Unless there's some specific issue common to warez copies but not to legit copies (for example, Deus Ex was often warez released without the sound files, but the days of warez groups releasing only part of the game are long over) how would anyone offering tech support know that the copy that help is being sought for was pirated?