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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Phat Lute" data-source="post: 5454557" data-attributes="member: 84524">The Escapist's Extra Credits video series recently had one of the best, most informed takes on the issue of piracy:<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2653-Piracy" target="_blank">The Escapist : Video Galleries : Extra Credits : Piracy</a>When I have to think about why I stopped gaming on computers, though, it had very little to do with piracy:1) My computers had gone from large gaming-friendly desktops into portable laptops.  Laptops today are not only more powerful than the computers we had five or more years ago... they're competitive with most pre-built desktops as well.  Hell, the new phone I'm looking at is almost more powerful in some ways than my computer from five to ten years ago.  But while you can game on a laptop, laptop computers are not as comfortable for mouse-and-keyboard style play.2) Consoles are now gaming computers.  I think the moment when I finally realized I had almost as much gaming potential on my console as I did on my computer was when I made my first character for Oblivion on the 360.  The controller is sometimes easier than a mouse and keyboard, once you get used to it, and you are generally in a more comfortable seating position than you are sitting in front of a computer.3) I spent eight or nine hours a day in front of a computer with two screens for work now.Now, I'll consume the hell out of tabletop roleplaying games... but even at that, my purchasing has slowed down because:1a) It's always been hard to find a group, and we're a diverse subculture... just because we all like to roleplay or rollplay doesn't mean that we'll necessarily get along.  I'd say it's much harder than say, having bowling as your social game hobby.  You would just have to show up and bowl.  If you don't like someone on your team, you just sit on the other side of the bench, wait your turn, and chat with those people you do like.  Tabletop gamers have to sit around a table and stare at one another for hours on end, talk to each other, and cooperate in and out of character.1b) The culture is split amongst dozens upon dozens of excellent games (and dozens more games that are objectively probably just not that good.)  And between editions of those games.2a) There's limited time in which to play all of those great games I already have.2b)  I'm getting to the point where I want to start expanding the material I have for some other games I (or members of the group I'm in) already own.3) There's an opportunity cost with every purchase.  If I buy X supplement, then I have less money to invest in A game, which a lot of people in my area may play or people in my group might be interested in.  If I buy Y new game, then I might have to wait to buy B board game or card game expansion, which really helps to fill in those afternoons when no one has the attention span for an RPG or wants to run one, or half the group doesn't show up.  And so on.While my reasons for not buying more don't have much to do with piracy, you're right that industry responses to piracy don't help.  For instance, I messed around with a demo for Spore as a time-waster when there weren't any console games I wanted to play (I like to create things whether they are characters or strange little alien creatures), but declined to check out the computer game because I learned I would only be able to install (or re-install) it five times before my key would stop working for the game.  No way!  I could easily have to reformat my hard drive a couple of times on the computer that I owned at the time, and now I have a new one... it would've been a waste.</blockquote>

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