So, I look at all the threads and there are so many games that some people love and others hate, and we all love trying new games and such - I am wondering if it were legal - what would happen if we could treat the games like a "book" and be able to trade the game - rights and all... I think that the App store would be in trouble for a number of months. Sure new games would come out - but those would be traded as well for old favorites, or overlooked games... There would likely be a barter system before too long on what games were "worth" in the trade world and it would be funny that some of the piece of crap, short lived games might become collectible and worth quite a lot in trades... Ridiculous thinking I know - but maybe fun to discuss?
At the low cost that most of these games sell for, I really don't see the desire for a trading system between users. And, frankly, maybe I'm showing my age by stating this, but I think the whole "file sharing" stuff with regards to music, movies, games, and particularly books in digital formats is just complete crap if they are copyrighted material and the holders of said rights wish to exercise control over their works, as is their right. Frankly, there's a big difference in my view between loaning out that DVD movie you bought, or (archaic, I know) that album on CD or (even more archaic) on an actual record, or that book you bought in Barnes & Noble and "sharing" a digital copy. Why is it different? You buy a physical copy of something, you can only transfer that one physical copy. With digital copies, you can basically copy and trade to anyone you want, thousands of people at a time. And, quite honestly, no one has a thousand friends. Not even David Lee Roth, though he says otherwise at concerts. And redistributing your copy to many others is directly violating the copyright holders, well, copyright. I could see a day where there might be a true sharing system, whereby you temporarily give up rights to whatever copy of media product you bought for a specific amount of time to another user, who would then have a temporary window of opportunity to play said media (be it an e-book, movie, song, or game) and, at the end of which they would be prompted that consumer rights over the unique copy would be transferred back to the original purchaser, and that if they themselves wish to have their own copy they can choose to buy one. In this way the copy would be tied to your account, and only your account. You could only temporarily transfer that digital copy to another user, could not redistribute it to other individuals or multitudes of others, either for free or for profit, and in that way wouldn't be violating copyright. But that's probably never going to happen, tbqh. Very simple to explain, very complicated to get up and running. And used games in the digital download era...well, the reason producers of games are interested in digital downloads to begin with are to cut out the used game market. After all...they don't get any money from used game sales. So "game trading" meaning trading used games to other users won't happen. Ever. For free or for profit. Just won't fly.
App Store and the developers WON'T make any money because if someone just keeps trading games over and over (like everyone else), then how are people supposed to purchase them? I mean... Returning a game for the next 1 hour would be nice, but then there's no use for the Lite games.
So, in order for trading to work properly - you would need to have the digital rights transfer. I certainly don't advocate for being able to purchase a single copy, and then trade with thousands of people. But, what about if you could trade like the book, or vinyl album- the actual physical copy of what you purchased - it comes off your machine, on to their machine - (boy this is a really bad example perhaps - ) but like the kids trade pokemon - you trade it - its gone...
LOL. With most games available for under 2$ and even the few highly priced ones at 10$, I seriously dont think there should be any need for trading them. And its different in case of iphone games compared to physical copy ones as we get updates for the games which add more gameplay/enhancements. So even if I dont like a game for some reason there`s always a possibility that an update will make them better. Lemme quote one of hodapp`s comments which make perfect sense here ....
That would never happen, it's a good idea though but Apples not gonna let that happen. I just wish we were able to sell the ones we don't want anymore for half price or something like that. I have a bunch of games thatci don't play anymore. Food for thought but I doubt any changes in that manner are coming any time soon.
Yes they would go out of business, or at least most of them. The app store is incredibley crowded with apps, hundreds of new ones coming in each day. They are having a tough enough time competing for people's money. Although a trade system does sound appealing to us consumers.
It's like stocks: only the first time a business sells them do they make money, after that, it's simply trading between others and the company gets no revenue from it. In an already withering app store, a trading system definitely wouldn't work because one unit would go way farther, at the expense of the developer. Interesting to think about, but not realistic.
