When is pirating ok? (discussion)

[BloodShed]

It's rather disappointing to see so many people that refuse to buy games. It's really kind of sad to see the ridiculous attempts to justify it.

I'm pretty much in the middle of the subject. As I said earlier, I personally think that it's not a big deal as long as you're still purchasing the products you can afford. But you people that flat out never purchase anything... do you seriously think that's okay? Do you honestly believe some of these excuses?

I mean, people claiming that they would never buy a single game if piracy wasn't an option? No, you'd be wrong. You enjoy gaming enough to spend a good deal of time and money on a game console. Yet, you're also saying that you would be fine with never gaming again? Come on. If you seriously believe that, I feel sorry for your obviously distorted sense of reality. It's a legitimate psychosis to be so self-diluted that you'll invent any lie to justify your actions.

 

[the_randomizer]

Companies implement strict DRM in their games and yet they have the balls to bitch about piracy. Double standard much?

That's like giving your car keys to a robber and then later hunt him down and ask why he stole your car.

What people do is their own business and I'm not going to tell people what to do, it's not my problem anyway.

 

[klim28]

My mind is telling me its bad. But my wallet says its ok.

 

[The Milkman]

Its illegal. if you think its OK then that's your thing. But without a doubt its illegal. I pirate. But I usually do it because I can't be bothered to do it legit. For example, Wii games. All the Wii games I'm interested in, I can't find. I got to a store and see nothing but Shovel ware and Mario. So I go home, and download it. Because they had a chance to take my money and lost it. End of story. I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying its justifiable, and I'm not saying its the devs fault. I'm just saying if its earlier for me to pirate then I will pirate. Its just like with the DS. I loved that thing, played it like crazy. Eventually I learned of the R4 and started getting shit free. loved it. Then one day, it got unreasonably hard. I had to stick patch after patch, remove multi player or cool features. Battle anti piracy, watch Romsites get shut down before my eyes. I got sick of it and realized it was easiler to just buy the damn game. Same thing with Steam. I downloaded shitloads of games off Steam all for free. Then Garry's Mod got AP. I said fuck it, and made a new account and just decided to buy my games. Most of the games I own I came to own in that way. No doubt I'll hack my 3DS when a hack is out. But I digerse.

My point is, I don't care if its morally right or wrong and I'm not going to let a bunch of hypocritical fans(Like anyone actually BUYS goddamn songs) tell me I'm wrong. If its easy, I DO IT.

 

[the_randomizer]

Its illegal. if you think its OK then that's your thing. But without a doubt its illegal. I pirate. But I usually do it because I can't be bothered to do it legit. For example, Wii games. All the Wii games I'm interested in, I can't find. I got to a store and see nothing but Shovel ware and Mario. So I go home, and download it. Because they had a chance to take my money and lost it. End of story. I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying its justifiable, and I'm not saying its the devs fault. I'm just saying if its earlier for me to pirate then I will pirate. Its just like with the DS. I loved that thing, played it like crazy. Eventually I learned of the R4 and started getting shit free. loved it. Then one day, it got unreasonably hard. I had to stick patch after patch, remove multi player or cool features. Battle anti piracy, watch Romsites get shut down before my eyes. I got sick of it and realized it was easiler to just buy the damn game. Same thing with Steam. I downloaded shitloads of games off Steam all for free. Then Garry's Mod got AP. I said fuck it, and made a new account and just decided to buy my games. Most of the games I own I came to own in that way. No doubt I'll hack my 3DS when a hack is out. But I digerse.

My point is, I don't care if its morally right or wrong and I'm not going to let a bunch of hypocritical fans(Like anyone actually BUYS goddamn songs) tell me I'm wrong. If its easy, I DO IT.

That's the scary thing about it, is that it's too easy to do. Even better if you have a proxy or VPN to give you complete anonymity. Do I download games? Perhaps, but ones no longer in production, preferably Gamecube games. Why? Used games are f***ing expensive. Am I saying it's right? No, I'm not, but I think it's just as bad to pay an arm and a leg to obtain either an overpriced mint condition disc or an unusable secondhand disc without a proper cover from some eBay shyster. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. What I won't download is music, movies, PC games or other games currently in production and generating revenue to companies.

 

[KidIce]

I'm a little surprised no one has brought his up, but a large part of my piracy is for archiving. I have as complete collections as I can manage for many past generation consoles and computers that I've ever had experience w/. Why? Because I think projects like SPS have merit (I was a contributor back when it was known as CAPS). I've lost tons of legitimately obtained software due to bit rot, leaking caps/batteries, corrosion, stupid parents and the other ravages of time or I've lost the physical copy protection (code wheel, dongle, etc).

When my copy of Paradroid died I was devastated. At that point almost all of the BBS's were gone, there wasn't a single retailer anywhere near me still selling C=64 software and almost no one had internet service (and the few that did were trying to get SLiRP running so they could use Mosaic from their shell accounts). eCommerce and proper search engines didn't really exist. It took me almost a decade before I could play that game again and that was only because some people were thoughtful enough dump it, archive it and to set up a site hosting it... And others were kind enough to make a C=64 emulator (my 1541 is long dead). And the fact of the matter is that if there hadn't been those sorts of people around I'm reasonably sure the game would have been lost forever. Do you really think EA or even Freefall (if they still existed) has a functioning copy of Archon or the source lying around that they could use to reproduce it?

Now I back-up/rip/dump everything I buy and download just about anything I can get my hands on so I can do the same as IPS/CAPS style projects. There are already tons of sites doing this, why should I? Those sites all have different levels of "completeness" and many of them disappear never to return or are still up but are no longer maintained. I've got several TB's of HD storage and limitless burnable DVD's, so why not? And when other sites are gone, know that I still have an IPF of Putty Squad* for UAE.

I'm no saint though when it comes to piracy, because beyond the above reason, I pirate for many of the same reasons everyone else has mentioned... None of which make it "OK" or legal. While I think some of the reasons put forward can be considered more ethical and maybe even justifiable to the public at large, it really just comes down to the individual deciding that they are OK w/ using commercial software that they didn't pay for.

Spoiler

*just the demo... No one has the full release. :-)

 

[stomp_442]

Game makers need to lower their prices. Lower prices = more sales. It don't take many brains to figure that out. A lot of people are out of a job, or their wages have not been keeping up with inflation or the cost of living. That means there is less money to spend on wants. Look at what happened when Nintendo lowered the price of the 3DS, sales went up. I'd go out today and buy a few Wii U games if they lowered the price on them, but that hasn't happened. Paying that high price is telling the manufacturer that you are fine with the price and that you support over priced games. I keep it to just a couple of new retail games a year. I'd buy more in a year if the price was lowered. Piracy is fine by me if the manufacturers keep the high prices going.

 

[The Milkman]

That's the scary thing about it, is that it's too easy to do. Even better if you have a proxy or VPN to give you complete anonymity. Do I download games? Perhaps, but ones no longer in production, preferably Gamecube games. Why? Used games are f***ing expensive. Am I saying it's right? No, I'm not, but I think it's just as bad to pay an arm and a leg to obtain either an overpriced mint condition disc or an unusable secondhand disc without a proper cover from some eBay shyster. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. What I won't download is music, movies, PC games or other games currently in production and generating revenue to companies.

It might be easy if your hell-bent on getting it, but I know for a fact it took me a far too unreasonable amount of time to find a working From the Abyss rom. Also, I actually disagree with you though, not in a sense you would think though, I think the only time its perfectly fine to pirate something is when its not making money. I don't think companies should even be allowed to actually have people pay for a GCN game once its made ridiculous amounts of cash like, a bazillion years ago! If they are REMAKING, not porting mind you, then its a whole other game if you ask me.

 

[The Milkman]

Game makers need to lower their prices. Lower prices = more sales. It don't take many brains to figure that out. A lot of people are out of a job, or their wages have not been keeping up with inflation or the cost of living. That means there is less money to spend on wants. Look at what happened when Nintendo lowered the price of the 3DS, sales went up. I'd go out today and buy a few Wii U games if they lowered the price on them, but that hasn't happened. Paying that high price is telling the manufacturer that you are fine with the price and that you support over priced games. I keep it to just a couple of new retail games a year. I'd buy more in a year if the price was lowered. Piracy is fine by me if the manufacturers keep the high prices going.

Sales don't mean shit if your not making a profit on each one.

 

[AudibleAdvent]

You really want to know why?

Because I'll be damned if I ever pay $60 + 12% in taxes for a disc. It's outrageous. The price deters potential buyers. In actuality, it's the source of the issue. I bet you half the people on GBAtemp who choose to pirate games would stop pirating altogether if only the games were a third of the cost that they're now. Sadly, they're not, and until that day comes, I will continue to pirate games that I can't afford. Sure, I'll buy the occasional COD title for my playstation, but that's when I have no other choice.

Publishers are greedy and they know it. They're churning as much as they can out of the typical consumer. They're making enough as it is, so I say let them be. Indie developers, on the other hand, deserve our support, especially when they price their games sensibly. For instance, I'd be happy to shell over $5-10 for Cave Story+, among other titles.

So there you have it.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

It's rather disappointing to see so many people that refuse to buy games. It's really kind of sad to see the ridiculous attempts to justify it.

I'm pretty much in the middle of the subject. As I said earlier, I personally think that it's not a big deal as long as you're still purchasing the products you can afford. But you people that flat out never purchase anything... do you seriously think that's okay? Do you honestly believe some of these excuses?

I mean, people claiming that they would never buy a single game if piracy wasn't an option? No, you'd be wrong. You enjoy gaming enough to spend a good deal of time and money on a game console. Yet, you're also saying that you would be fine with never gaming again? Come on. If you seriously believe that, I feel sorry for your obviously distorted sense of reality. It's a legitimate psychosis to be so self-diluted that you'll invent any lie to justify your actions.

I speak from experience, pirates doesn't think of the moral/ethics issues of downloading and playing backups. Just like smokers don't think of how non-smokers may be annoyed by their smoking or people playing really loud music don't think about how annoyed their neighboors must be with the music. Humans are self-centered by nature, it's just what they do.

I find your post to be quite judgemental... Be careful, sometimes you do shit and other will judge you the same way you judge them.

 

[Just Another Gamer]

It's rather disappointing to see so many people that refuse to buy games. It's really kind of sad to see the ridiculous attempts to justify it.

I'm pretty much in the middle of the subject. As I said earlier, I personally think that it's not a big deal as long as you're still purchasing the products you can afford. But you people that flat out never purchase anything... do you seriously think that's okay? Do you honestly believe some of these excuses?

I mean, people claiming that they would never buy a single game if piracy wasn't an option? No, you'd be wrong. You enjoy gaming enough to spend a good deal of time and money on a game console. Yet, you're also saying that you would be fine with never gaming again? Come on. If you seriously believe that, I feel sorry for your obviously distorted sense of reality. It's a legitimate psychosis to be so self-diluted that you'll invent any lie to justify your actions.

Well if you spent $300+ on a console and the games cost around $70 then it does feel like a massive rip off considering the money spent on the console in the first place so its obvious the consumer would feel entitled to a few free games, its the devs that don't think like that and only think how to enlarge their already big wallet. If we are all made of money then i'm sure we would all buy as much games as we want but it doesn't work like that, I pirate older gen games because I do want to have money to buy newer games for my Vita and 3DS and I do buy games since I have 3 Vita games i'm planning on buying.

Also not gaming related but I found that even normal PC software to be a huge rip off I mean Photoshop CS6 is selling for around what $200+ and its just a photo editing software that should've been $20 and somehow i'm expected to pay for that when getting it for free is a high money saver.

 

[jimskeet2002]

Exactly, so why should you be entitled to play them if it's just amusement? You don't need the internet but yet you pay for that.

You see the problem is that I can play the games for free and so I do

 

[ShadowSoldier]

You see the problem is that I can play the games for free and so I do

i actually severely hope you get caught so someone will knock you off your high horse.

 

[jimskeet2002]

i actually severely hope you get caught so someone will knock you off your high horse.

You can hope for that but this will never happen here in Greece . I still remember back in the day when I was still on junior school me buying from local stores burned PS copies for 3 euro per CD. The owner of the store was never arrested. You think they will arrest me for downloading games? They don't even arrest corrupt politicians here that sell the country to fucking Germans. So enjoy your money wasted on games while I will play the same games with you and enjoy my money on something else

 

[Senbei Norimaki]

You can hope for that but this will never happen here in Greece . I still remember back in the day when I was still on junior school me buying from local stores burned PS copies for 3 euro per CD. The owner of the store was never arrested. You think they will arrest me for downloading games? They don't even arrest corrupt politicians here that sell the country to fucking Germans. So enjoy your money wasted on games while I will play the same games with you and enjoy my money on something else

I remember those days when I use to import bootleg copies of Playstation games from Thailand for $5 each. Good times.

 

[jimskeet2002]

I remember those days when I use to import bootleg copies of Playstation games from Thailand for $5 each. Good times.

Yeah!!! good old times Now hail rapidshare but now rapidshare is broken too so we switched to easybytez

 

[Just Another Gamer]

Exactly, so why should you be entitled to play them if it's just amusement? You don't need the internet but yet you pay for that.

So apparently playing and enjoying gaming is only for the rich and not everyone, way to enforce class equality.

Is it that wrong to not let everyone be involved regardless of how they obtained their game, when someone else pirates does someone magically appear and punch you in the face? no that doesn't happen, it doesn't affect you personally so why bother standing on that high horse yourself and dictate what others should and shouldn't do because it doesn't fit in your perfect little world. If somebody pirates then who really cares cause i'm sure they have their own reasons why they do it.

 

[jimskeet2002]

So apparently playing and enjoying gaming is only for the rich and not everyone, way to enforce class equality.

Everything is always for the rich Oh and I do not consider my self poor. But if i am gonna spend say 1.000 dollars this year for my gaming hobby i prefer to spend them on a new I5 processor, a new motherboard, new ram and a gtx670 for my pc and enjoy any game out there, than to waste them on buying the games and struggle to play them on my previous core2duo and gtx295

 

[Senbei Norimaki]

Boo hoo, the executives sitting on the boards at the video games companies will have a smaller bonus this quarter and not be able to buy there mistress a new fur coat because some nerds pirated their games.