News

Macrovision, a company which specializes in copy protection, has conducted a poll of PC gamers concerning software piracy. Of the 2,219 gamers who answered the polls, 52 percent admitted to having had used a crack (generally a file that is used to break copy protection) in order to pirate software. Furthermore, 33 percent confessed to having downloaded an ISO (a full copy of a CD image). 15 percent of those polled did not stop after pirating one or two games either. This group admits to have downloading/copying fifteen or more games in the past two years.

The Electronic Software Association estimates that piracy has cost the PC gaming industry over three billion worldwide. Marcovision believes that estimate to be even higher.

Macrovision believes the way to lessen is the financial impact of piracy is lengthen the time that it takes for a title's copy protection to be cracked. Every day counts. The company cites numbers from the poll in which two-thirds of the admitted pirates said that they would not have the patience to wait six weeks for a game to appear as warez. Instead, they would purchase it legitimately.

Source: Gamespot

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I'm not sure how much I trust a poll about software piracy that is conducted by a copy protection company, but I think the latter part of the article is pretty much common sense. The casual gamer is not going to want to wait long periods of time and go through complicated procedures in order to pirate a game. As it stands right now, there are numerous outlets where one can easily pirate a game.

The only problem I have with copy protection is when it breaks computers (for example, the copy protection the RIAA used on CDs that broke Macs) or when it renders the software unusable.

Djibriel has once again submitted a fanfic for the Final Fantasy VI section, called The White Cloaks.

Using a character that is often ignored, his fanfiction is a skewed look at an event that happened in-game, with very damaging results to many. Short and creative.

Those of you who follow our affiliates, or have even come to join us from one of them, should take note of two changes to the list effective today.

First, we've added a new affiliate, FF Spirit. FF Spirit came to us seeking affiliation last week, and we're proud to say that we've accepted them. Their site is attractive and nicely built, and though their webmaster has a nick from FF8, we won't hold that against them.

Also, now that Corda is back on board, we have re-added Fierce Legends back into the mix. FLS is now hosted on the CoN server, so spreading the word that they are back is great publicity for both FLS and your favorite FF site. (CoN, in case you weren't sure.)

Let's welcome these two sites into our fold!

Officials at Nintendo have reinforced all of their previous statements concerning the company's future in the home console market. Nintendo will unveil the successor to the GameCube at E3 2005.

Yoshihiro Mori, Nintendo's Senior Managing Director, was quoted,"[We] plan to unveil the next-generation console [that will be] succeeding the GameCube at next year's E3 during the spring." Mori continued, "This won't be a continuation, but rather something entirely different."

The console will be worked on under the codename "Revolution."

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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It's good to see that Nintendo is not letting any doubt enter into the question of whether or not it will continue to stick it out in the home console market. Sadly, it appears from Mori's second quote that this "Revolution" will not be backwards compatible with the GameCube. That's just speculation though. Hopefully, it is wrong as backwards compatibility was one the PS2's strongest selling points for me.

In what looks to be a record for us at the Caves of Narshe for the most fanfics up in one week, we have another fanfic up in the Final Fantasy VI section. It's called But... I Don't Have the Answer, and is written by forum member Djibriel.

This fanfiction takes place after the end of the game, but isn't your typical after-death fanfic. It focuses on Terra for the latter part, and is a very interesting look at what humanity is dangerously close to ending up as.

Our FF6 Fanfiction section has yet again grown, with a new addition called The Essence of Mimicry.

This gem is by forum member Mr Thou, and is about Daryl and her encounter with the being that is Gogo. It's an excellent fanfic with a great ending to it.