3 ms·

You're missing a 4th group: people who would enjoy watching content X, but simply won't bother if it's too annoying. The alternative isn't piracy, it's just do

by feoren 3y ago

You're missing a 4th group: people who would enjoy watching content X, but simply won't bother if it's too annoying. The alternative isn't piracy, it's just doing something else with your time. There's not that many shows or movies that I care enough about to keep one subscription open for it. I had an HBO subscription for Game of Thrones, but I also enjoyed Succession, Last Week Tonight, and some other random stuff. After Game of Thrones shit the bed, I canceled HBO and simply don't watch those other shows. I never finished Succession; I'd like to one day, but it's not worth either the subscription or pirating. This just shows that the availability of piracy is NOT the problem. It shouldn't matter to HBO whether I've pirated it or not: I could be a paying customer if their prices matched their catalog's value, but it doesn't, so they get nothing, piracy or no.

WWLink 3y ago
I support your move, it's better than piracy. The problem with piracy is if you become a fan of a series and gossip with your friends about it, now you're marketing that company's crappy service. It's a weird way to go about things.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  It's weird because TV is also culture. Game of Thrones isn't just some random piece of personal, single-player entertainment: it was, and is, an important cultural phenomenon for at least half of the planet. That's what makes the dynamics so weird: it's not just, or even primarily, about your personal entertainment - there are social aspects involved, from wanting to belong with your peer group (e.g. talk about latest GoT episode with your cow-orkers at the water cooler), to all kinds of rituals (e.g. watching romantic comedies with a date/spouse). Same applies to books and musics, to a lesser degree to magazines/news media. For some reason, it mostly doesn't apply to videogames; I used to think it was because they're a new thing, but these days, I think it's rather because the experience is much more individualized and requires much more effort (and time), making it a poor social object.
  - riwsky 3y ago
    games are culture—shared, social culture—you just need better friends and coworkers.
  - dasyatidprime 3y ago
    I do observe it applying to video games in many circles. This is more true for social (cooperative or competitive) games and in game-adjacent social contexts like Twitch streaming, but it's also applicable to recognizing references and plot beats from widely-known classics or having similar experiences over particular moments or levels, even in single-player. Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Minecraft…
  - masklinn 3y ago
    > Same applies to books and musics, to a lesser degree to magazines/news media. For some reason, it mostly doesn't apply to videogames It absolutely does, but apparently not for your peer group.
  - prmoustache 3y ago
    > It's weird because TV is also culture. Game of Thrones isn't just some random piece of personal, single-player entertainment: it was, and is, an important cultural phenomenon for at least half of the planet. > > That's what makes the dynamics so weird: it's not just, or even primarily, about your personal entertainment - there are social aspects involved, from wanting to belong with your peer group (e.g. talk about latest GoT episode with your cow-orkers at the water cooler) OTOH if you don't have that in common with other people, you just talk about other things. It is the same thing with soccer for example which is the #1 subject around coffee machines for men (and now increasingly women).
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Yes. However, attention is finite, the intersection of topics any one in the group is willing to talk about is narrow, and my point is that TV shows occupy significant fraction of it - that's why they have this weird dynamic where seemingly extraneous entertainment product is treated by many as basic human right. Because in some sense, it is: it's a big component of the shared experience, which itself is the glue that holds society together.
- int_19h 3y ago
  You're not marketing the company service if you explicitly say that you pirated X, and offer help to anyone who would like to do the same.
vineyardmike 3y ago
The 4th group is important because they didn’t compete well throughout most of Cable’s tenure. Now, YouTube, TikTok, etc eat away at people’s video diet. Video games are now fully mainstream too. Normal social media (Twitter, Reddit, Meta) take even more. I’m in group 4. I’ll pay for streaming services to avoid ads, but never linear TV. TV is largely superior content - it’s professionally made and generally high quality. But if I get sick of jumping through hoops, I have plenty of other things to do.

by feoren 3y ago

WWLink 3y ago

I support your move, it's better than piracy. The problem with piracy is if you become a fan of a series and gossip with your friends about it, now you're marketing that company's crappy service. It's a weird way to go about things.

TeMPOraL 3y ago
It's weird because TV is also culture. Game of Thrones isn't just some random piece of personal, single-player entertainment: it was, and is, an important cultural phenomenon for at least half of the planet. That's what makes the dynamics so weird: it's not just, or even primarily, about your personal entertainment - there are social aspects involved, from wanting to belong with your peer group (e.g. talk about latest GoT episode with your cow-orkers at the water cooler), to all kinds of rituals (e.g. watching romantic comedies with a date/spouse). Same applies to books and musics, to a lesser degree to magazines/news media. For some reason, it mostly doesn't apply to videogames; I used to think it was because they're a new thing, but these days, I think it's rather because the experience is much more individualized and requires much more effort (and time), making it a poor social object.
- riwsky 3y ago
  games are culture—shared, social culture—you just need better friends and coworkers.
- dasyatidprime 3y ago
  I do observe it applying to video games in many circles. This is more true for social (cooperative or competitive) games and in game-adjacent social contexts like Twitch streaming, but it's also applicable to recognizing references and plot beats from widely-known classics or having similar experiences over particular moments or levels, even in single-player. Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Minecraft…
- masklinn 3y ago
  > Same applies to books and musics, to a lesser degree to magazines/news media. For some reason, it mostly doesn't apply to videogames It absolutely does, but apparently not for your peer group.
- prmoustache 3y ago
  > It's weird because TV is also culture. Game of Thrones isn't just some random piece of personal, single-player entertainment: it was, and is, an important cultural phenomenon for at least half of the planet. > > That's what makes the dynamics so weird: it's not just, or even primarily, about your personal entertainment - there are social aspects involved, from wanting to belong with your peer group (e.g. talk about latest GoT episode with your cow-orkers at the water cooler) OTOH if you don't have that in common with other people, you just talk about other things. It is the same thing with soccer for example which is the #1 subject around coffee machines for men (and now increasingly women).
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Yes. However, attention is finite, the intersection of topics any one in the group is willing to talk about is narrow, and my point is that TV shows occupy significant fraction of it - that's why they have this weird dynamic where seemingly extraneous entertainment product is treated by many as basic human right. Because in some sense, it is: it's a big component of the shared experience, which itself is the glue that holds society together.
int_19h 3y ago
You're not marketing the company service if you explicitly say that you pirated X, and offer help to anyone who would like to do the same.

vineyardmike 3y ago

The 4th group is important because they didn’t compete well throughout most of Cable’s tenure. Now, YouTube, TikTok, etc eat away at people’s video diet. Video games are now fully mainstream too. Normal social media (Twitter, Reddit, Meta) take even more. I’m in group 4. I’ll pay for streaming services to avoid ads, but never linear TV. TV is largely superior content - it’s professionally made and generally high quality. But if I get sick of jumping through hoops, I have plenty of other things to do.