I think paying to participate in beta's is okay. However the whole game's industry is over reacting to piracy. Seems like their using it as a way to slowly move from PC gaming to console gaming in such a gradual way we won't notice.
It's not overreacting, it's having a pretty normal reaction, just the one that makes it worse.
I think piracy can be drawn back big time by just a couple of simple, basic rules:
1.
Quality improvement, I'm not paying for something crap that I will enjoy half a weekend on LAN and then throw away.
2.
Free demos readily available.
For every game. You can cut out content
easily as a developer if you develop with making a demo in mind. If not, you might want to rethink your developing strategy, since you all seem to be able to
add content afterwards perfectly fine!
I like what Steam is doing, but maybe it should be even more prominent. "Try the demo!" links on every new release, right in your face.
Lure your clients in, people, don't just smack big prices on their foreheads and ask them to pay. We are geeks, we get scared when confronted directly
3.
A lot less games released. I can't make a choice, and that's not just because most games are crap nowadays. I won't spend €50,- each month when a new game hits the stores, I need that money to buy more prominent needs like food. By the time I know what game would be the best spent 50 bucks, next months' lineup is already added to the list, so I can start over again. I get confused, man!:shadedshu
4.
More content per game. This is a logical step following point 3. Though not all games are concerned here, I can get
hugely fed up with buying games that have only 4-6 hours of single player campaign. Final Fantasy 8 was worth my 50 bucks back in the day, since I spent way more than double the hours on playing it. Modern Warfare 2 lasted for <10 hours, and I'm not fast in FPS games.
To compare to a modern-age game I
do consider good: The initial campaign in Borderlands took me and 3 others almost 4 days straight to play through co-op.
