Some episodes were even pirated by more people than who legally streamed on HBO
At first this article reads like your typical anti-piracy screed. It rants about how 10x more people watched GoT illegally (confusing them with lost sales) and ends with how downloading movies can get your credit card stolen.
The middle of the article however, destroys the author’s case.
Time Warner (owning company of HBO) CEO Alan Bewkes stated in 2013 how becoming the most illegally streamed show in history was “better than an Emmy” and that torrenting ultimately led to more paid subscriptions.
“We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world and that’s better than an Emmy.”
The CEO of Time Warner, who knows more about the finances of his own show than ForeverGeek writer Tom Llewellyn, championed piracy and said that it brought them more subscribers rather than nearly destroying the show as the article claims.
Needless to say, Tom forwent a rebuttal in favor of writing how you can get malware from downloading it…
Can we say Gabe’s practice can translate to movies\shows? His products are at least 10hr worth (thus worth subscribing and enjoying an occasional sale), can be further promoted by having multiplayer, cloud saves, achievements…
It’s true this old blood can’t understand pirated MKVs are better than streaming-only DRMed shit. But is there anything they can really do to make their services work?
I think that it’s not a problem of a service itself if it’s not too shitty, but promotional campaign with memes like the one of Squid Games. One can be a Hitler of streaming platforms, but if this show is the new Lost, you’d make a bank anyway.
I was super into piracy when I was ~12, but as Netflix took over and you could get everything you want with 2-3 subscriptions totalling <$20 per month I eventually stopped because it was easier, a much better experience, and worth the money. Now that there are too many services to count guess who has an RPi BitTorrent/Plex server? I’d prefer to go back to the old Netflix way of things as it’s so much easier, but there isn’t any option more convenient than my current setup.
If I could pay $50 a month and get everything I want content-wise I would, but I cannot. Not counting that half the subscription services are awful to use, or are missing major portions of series,. I’ve even started pirating content I pay for access to because I don’t have to deal with DRM bullshit.
With Steam though I’ll pirate a game, and if I like it I’ll go buy it because it’s a better experience. Gaben is 100% correct that you have to provide a better experience than pirates, otherwise why would anyone pay for a worse experience?
is there anything they can really do to make their services work?
Once upon a time we had netflix. Almost everything you could want to watch was on there because they were just about the only show in town. During that time there was precious little reason to download most shows.
Now in order to have access to the thing you want to watch, you’re expected to pay for 5 or 6 separate streaming services, by which point you end up at the same insane price point as paying for the full package of cable/PayTV channels.
They had a good thing and they ruined it with greed, just like everything else under capitalism. Glorious state streaming network should be only show in town, comrade.
Sure, they just have to start thinking outside the box they built around themselves for once.
Here’s an easy one: watch parties. You and your friends can watch the show together far away. You have integrated voice and video chat maybe, and pausing pauses for everyone.
Free shows or free teasers for shows. Not paying for a sub? You can watch the first 2 episodes of Brooklyn 99 for free, and avatar the last Airbender is free to watch or whatever.
That’s not even scratching the surface. Netflix spent so much time building features that nobody uses (trivia and Minecraft story mode have almost good software behind them, why can’t you do it easily with friends?), They could do something good but won’t because God forbid they lose out on short term profit.
That dude is one in a billion. I am kinda scared what will become of valve once he retires or even dies. I swear to god if I lose access to my steam library I will never buy a single damn piece of media ever again.
Man it would be their own fault when it came to Australia, trying to watch it legally had to pay for pay TV and if you only payed for the service for the express purpose of watching GOT it worked out at $70 per episode. Fuck that.
There was a point in time when GOT was only available via an $80 a month pay tv subscription after the earlier seasons were aired on regular television.
Once again, piracy is an access issue - not a theft issue.
If it’s true that pircay nearly destroyed GoT, that means that we as pirates have power. We’re a counter balance against ridiculous payment schemes and arbitrary limiting of content.
I mean, theres more than a few reasons Martin hasn’t finished the books. A major one being that the style of writing doesn’t benefit from ending, its mostly a constant series of escalations without ever resolving anything. At a certain point no resolution will ever be satisfying.
Not saying the show ending couldn’t have been better, but like shows like Lost or Heroes, or all those shows like that, no ending could ever live up to the hype generated during its run.
But they make you click and engage by having a deceptive title. Which incites the rage comments, or people commenting to correct them. I also commented, so they got what they want from me too, but had to point it out at least once.
TIL 2.2bn in profit is basically poverty profit, not even worth doing it … and all because of them evil pirates who would have totally payed for Netflix if they couldn’t pirate it.
However, I really loved all the memes and r/freefolk, great stuff that got exponentially better with each season.
I wasn’t invested in the show (it’s just not my cup of soap fantasy) but I was really happy how the last two seasons turned out, my life was better for it (I was sorry for the fans but I was way too busy laughing - refreshing freefolk right after the episode aired was so much fun).
The correct way to put the title is “HBO’s Game of thrones was nearly destroyed by limiting access to it through high subscription costs for their platform.”
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Good.
Didn’t the FTC just post new rules about sponsored content.
Incredibly relevant: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
It’s been said a million times, but piracy is an accessibility issue. Chasing your favorite shows across streaming platforms is exhausting.
I’ve always lived by lord GabeN’s “piracy is a service issue. You have to offer a better experience than the pirates”
Can we say Gabe’s practice can translate to movies\shows? His products are at least 10hr worth (thus worth subscribing and enjoying an occasional sale), can be further promoted by having multiplayer, cloud saves, achievements…
It’s true this old blood can’t understand pirated MKVs are better than streaming-only DRMed shit. But is there anything they can really do to make their services work?
I think that it’s not a problem of a service itself if it’s not too shitty, but promotional campaign with memes like the one of Squid Games. One can be a Hitler of streaming platforms, but if this show is the new Lost, you’d make a bank anyway.
I was super into piracy when I was ~12, but as Netflix took over and you could get everything you want with 2-3 subscriptions totalling <$20 per month I eventually stopped because it was easier, a much better experience, and worth the money. Now that there are too many services to count guess who has an RPi BitTorrent/Plex server? I’d prefer to go back to the old Netflix way of things as it’s so much easier, but there isn’t any option more convenient than my current setup.
If I could pay $50 a month and get everything I want content-wise I would, but I cannot. Not counting that half the subscription services are awful to use, or are missing major portions of series,. I’ve even started pirating content I pay for access to because I don’t have to deal with DRM bullshit.
With Steam though I’ll pirate a game, and if I like it I’ll go buy it because it’s a better experience. Gaben is 100% correct that you have to provide a better experience than pirates, otherwise why would anyone pay for a worse experience?
Once upon a time we had netflix. Almost everything you could want to watch was on there because they were just about the only show in town. During that time there was precious little reason to download most shows.
Now in order to have access to the thing you want to watch, you’re expected to pay for 5 or 6 separate streaming services, by which point you end up at the same insane price point as paying for the full package of cable/PayTV channels.
They had a good thing and they ruined it with greed, just like everything else under capitalism. Glorious state streaming network should be only show in town, comrade.
Sure, they just have to start thinking outside the box they built around themselves for once.
Here’s an easy one: watch parties. You and your friends can watch the show together far away. You have integrated voice and video chat maybe, and pausing pauses for everyone.
Free shows or free teasers for shows. Not paying for a sub? You can watch the first 2 episodes of Brooklyn 99 for free, and avatar the last Airbender is free to watch or whatever.
That’s not even scratching the surface. Netflix spent so much time building features that nobody uses (trivia and Minecraft story mode have almost good software behind them, why can’t you do it easily with friends?), They could do something good but won’t because God forbid they lose out on short term profit.
That dude is one in a billion. I am kinda scared what will become of valve once he retires or even dies. I swear to god if I lose access to my steam library I will never buy a single damn piece of media ever again.
Man it would be their own fault when it came to Australia, trying to watch it legally had to pay for pay TV and if you only payed for the service for the express purpose of watching GOT it worked out at $70 per episode. Fuck that.
And that’s why we were the number 1 pirates of GoT by a mile!
There was a point in time when GOT was only available via an $80 a month pay tv subscription after the earlier seasons were aired on regular television. Once again, piracy is an access issue - not a theft issue.
Not only was it hard to get the subscription, but it was hard to get it in your country if you weren’t US
Canadian here. Cost us 10 or 20 bucks amonth as hbo was included in a package with other services.
Which as a canadian feels FUCKING WEIRD to brag about our telecoms for a change.
Crazy times
I don’t think that it’s reasonable to have to subscribe for one show. I know what you mean by your comment about Canadian telcos they’re dogshit.
I don’t think got was available in Australia iirc
I’d argue it was destroyed, in the last 2 seasons.
Right around when I stopped downloading it
Agreed. I’d also argue that it would have been better if pirates managed to do the job before that.
If it’s true that pircay nearly destroyed GoT, that means that we as pirates have power. We’re a counter balance against ridiculous payment schemes and arbitrary limiting of content.
Game of Thrones was destroyed by the writers lol
I mean, theres more than a few reasons Martin hasn’t finished the books. A major one being that the style of writing doesn’t benefit from ending, its mostly a constant series of escalations without ever resolving anything. At a certain point no resolution will ever be satisfying.
Not saying the show ending couldn’t have been better, but like shows like Lost or Heroes, or all those shows like that, no ending could ever live up to the hype generated during its run.
It was ruined before the ending.
Like Lost. They got me again!
The call came from inside the house!!!
The files are in the computer
Hollywood Accounting LOL
hot take: maybe Game of Thrones should have been destroyed
And I’ll fucking do it again
I couldn’t be paid to rewatch the last season of GoT
Classic bait post. Can we leave this bs on reddit?
Did you even read OP’s post? Don’t think so 😘
People only reading the headlines? That is the real typical Redditor BS here.
I read the article and it is clickbait.
Nobody is denying that the article is clickbait. The post itself isn’t though. This post refutes the article.
But they make you click and engage by having a deceptive title. Which incites the rage comments, or people commenting to correct them. I also commented, so they got what they want from me too, but had to point it out at least once.
Was OP trying to bait? They used the headline from the article and even wrote a summary that explained the article.
TIL 2.2bn in profit is basically poverty profit, not even worth doing it … and all because of them evil pirates who would have totally payed for Netflix if they couldn’t pirate it.
However, I really loved all the memes and r/freefolk, great stuff that got exponentially better with each season.
Hell, freefolk got best when the show really started shitting the bed.
Went from funny to straight up brutally hilarious.
The cup. That was a whole thing that I completely forgot about lol
the bitching was better than the ending, by a large margin.
Sure. Just ask Bobby B!
(RIP BOBBY B)
GODS I WAS STRONG THEN
Tell ‘em about Bessie’s tits, your magnificence!
God, I missed this.
That’s exactly right!
I wasn’t invested in the show (it’s just not my cup of soap fantasy) but I was really happy how the last two seasons turned out, my life was better for it (I was sorry for the fans but I was way too busy laughing - refreshing freefolk right after the episode aired was so much fun).
The correct way to put the title is “HBO’s Game of thrones was nearly destroyed by limiting access to it through high subscription costs for their platform.”
We were so close to saving the world from the travesty that was the last couple seasons… I weep for what shouldn’t have been.