The Pirate Support Thread

[Hells Malice]

I think of piracy of a form of fighting against bloated prices. I think there are products that deserve being bought, and ones that aren't. It's hard to explain.
Example, if you download something and find it good, you should buy it to support it. Put some money on things you'd like to back up.

I have that attitude with console-priced PC games.
Like Dishonored. Had a ton of fun with it...never in a million years paying $60 for a PC game. Didn't even buy Skyrim and that game is easily worth $60 >_> but it's just the principle. PC games just don't cost that damn much.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

I have that attitude with console-priced PC games.
Like Dishonored. Had a ton of fun with it...never in a million years paying $60 for a PC game. Didn't even buy Skyrim and that game is easily worth $60 >_> but it's just the principle. PC games just don't cost that damn much.

I think if you enjoy it well, you should try to buy it soon. It's not easy if you don't have much money though.
I don't download new games though. The latest games I got were Minecraft and TF2, and I payed for Minecraft, and TF2 is obviously free. I think the only thing I'm getting are old games that if I buy at a used store, the company isn't even going to make money since it was already purchased and no further buying will obviously support them. Also a lot of games I get are ones I already own physical copies of.

 

[suppow]

I think of piracy of a form of fighting against bloated prices. I think there are products that deserve being bought, and ones that aren't. It's hard to explain.
Example, if you download something and find it good, you should buy it to support it. Put some money on things you'd like to back up.

i'd say there are three kind of things
a) the ones worth buying
b) the ones not worth the price / or worth buying but not accessible
c) the ones not worth buying

the C never gets pirated,
B always get pirated and it means there's intereste but it's too pricey or whatever
and A, well A always gets bought unless i turns into B.

so yeah, piracy is a form of showing interest, and saying the price is not agreed upon.
or maybe B needs better quality to deserve that price.
luckily it can turn B into A, and then people will buy it.

with C, well just make a better product lol

 

[suppow]

I have that attitude with console-priced PC games.
Like Dishonored. Had a ton of fun with it...never in a million years paying $60 for a PC game. Didn't even buy Skyrim and that game is easily worth $60 >_> but it's just the principle. PC games just don't cost that damn much.

one thing that utterly annoys me about that is the fact that
the principal behind the console game pricing was - and specially back in the day - the cost of manufacturing the physical copy of the game
i mean, the game itself doesnt take much to reproduce, what was expensive were the boxes, artwork, manuals, and cartridges back then,
then onto optical media, CDs/DVDs are infinitely cheaper to make, but you still have the box and manuals, still the price should have gone down.
thus, buying physical console OR PC games i have no problem with the average pricing (aside from it being too high)
but the fact that we're in an age where most of those purchases are for DIGITAL COPIES, and they still charge the same price as physical copies,
that's just an insult to the customer in an effort to gain more revenue.

that on one side,
the other is the bastardization of terms like indie, indie games were meant to be independent games just that,
then they caught on and became popular (they even started meaning small or cheap games, but that aside)
everyone wants to be indie now, and i puke when i see stuff like EA Indie Games Bundle, and priced really high
i mean wtf?
ugh, rant rant.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

i'd say there are three kind of things
a) the ones worth buying
b) the ones not worth the price / or worth buying but not accessible
c) the ones not worth buying

the C never gets pirated,
B always get pirated and it means there's intereste but it's too pricey or whatever
and A, well A always gets bought unless i turns into B.

so yeah, piracy is a form of showing interest, and saying the price is not agreed upon.
or maybe B needs better quality to deserve that price.
luckily it can turn B into A, and then people will buy it.

with C, well just make a better product lol

I had an idea for distributing my music. It's simply download with the option to donate. If the people want to donate they will, and if they like it hopefully they'll pay out how much they appreciate it. I think this tactic could help even out the sides of the piracy stuff.

 

[gamefan5]

I'm a shameless pirate. I can see the moral problems with it, but I'm quite frankly not that bothered by it. I could go on and try to justify this, but I don't think it would serve any purpose.

Says the one with a One piece avatar. LOL!!!

 

[suppow]

I had an idea for distributing my music. It's simply download with the option to donate. If the people want to donate they will, and if they like it hopefully they'll pay out how much they appreciate it. I think this tactic could help even out the sides of the piracy stuff.

my idea for distributing music has always been sorta like this
free download of 128kbps full songs - most people will just need that
and a fixed/variable-price/donate for higher quality version (192,320, flacc)
or just Free 128kbps, donate 192kbps+, and buy physical copy with artwork etc.
that and to mainly focus on live performances for profit, and digital copies just to get people to know you

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

my idea for distributing music has always been sorta like this
free download of 128kbps full songs - most people will just need that
and a fixed/variable-price/donate for higher quality version (192,320, flacc)
or just Free 128kbps, donate 192kbps+, and buy physical copy with artwork etc.
that and to mainly focus on live performances for profit, and digital copies just to get people to know you

Haha, I don't think I'm anywhere to live preforming for profit, in fact I'd think my live stuff would be the one that was free.
I set up equipment to be able to play live via a DAW and Virtual Audio Cable.

 

[suppow]

Haha, I don't think I'm anywhere to live preforming for profit, in fact I'd think my live stuff would be the one that was free.
I set up equipment to be able to play live via a DAW and Virtual Audio Cable.

in this day and age, i think live performance is the one thing they cant 'duplicate'
that's the most physical copy, or just like hardware

 

[Gahars]

I had an idea for distributing my music. It's simply download with the option to donate. If the people want to donate they will, and if they like it hopefully they'll pay out how much they appreciate it. I think this tactic could help even out the sides of the piracy stuff.

I think Jonathon Coulton has a similar system in place.

He still sells his music, but he also has a donate button on his website. His message to pirates has basically been, "Hey, you're listening to my music, that's great. If you download my stuff and like it, could you donate a few bucks so I can continue making more?"

It's worked out pretty well for him so far.

 

[JulietStMoon]

If I'm going to buy games, it will either be from a company like Nintendo, and not some douche on eBay charging 100 dollars for a used copy of Chrono Trigger. I know two wrongs don't make a right, but I personally have no ill/moral guilt from having legacy Snes ROMs that aren't on the Virtual Console.

Oh, I see what you mean. I thought you meant from GameStop and stuff. But if it's stuff that's not even available new, then yeah I agree. I see no problem with downloading legacy games when there's no way to even pay the original company (like you said, earthbound is a great example, as are Pokemon Red/Blue, which aren't even available on virtual console).

 

[suppow]

Oh, I see what you mean. I thought you meant from GameStop and stuff. But if it's stuff that's not even available new, then yeah I agree. I see no problem with downloading legacy games when there's no way to even pay the original company (like you said, earthbound is a great example, as are Pokemon Red/Blue, which aren't even available on virtual console).

VC would have been badass, if only it wasnt half-assed.
there are like 10 or so games, and most of the good ones arent there, not to mention japan gets 100x more games lol.
look at the N64 VC for example.

 

[JulietStMoon]

VC would have been badass, if only it wasnt half-assed.
there are like 10 or so games, and most of the good ones arent there, not to mention japan gets 100x more games lol.
look at the N64 VC for example.

Don't even get me started on N64 VC... There's only like 21 games in America.

 

[DJPlace]

i would of loved to see the wii VC games have wi-fi... but they only made one and it was a sega game....

 

[suppow]

Don't even get me started on N64 VC... There's only like 21 games in America.

must.... not... comment..... cant.... resist....

i would of loved to see the wii VC games have wi-fi... but they only made one and it was a sega game....

did that even happen?

bitching mode ON:
if it wasnt for 'pirates' downloading roms in the early 2000s, they wouldnt even have made the VC.
anyhow, on VC titles i hate their double standard,
for example, you can get Super Mario World, but cant get Super Mario World 2 AKA Yoshi's Island,
supposedly because it's on GBA and 3DS VC - wtf?
and of course, you get no GB/GBC/GBA games on WiiVC,
but on 3DS you get NES and SNES VC games,
wtf? double standard fail
bitching mode OFF.

 

[DJPlace]

must.... not... comment..... cant.... resist....



did that even happen?

bitching mode ON:
if it wasnt for 'pirates' downloading roms in the early 2000s, they wouldnt even have made the VC.
anyhow, on VC titles i hate their double standard,
for example, you can get Super Mario World, but cant get Super Mario World 2 AKA Yoshi's Island,
supposedly because it's on GBA and 3DS VC - wtf?
and of course, you get no GB/GBC/GBA games on WiiVC,
but on 3DS you get NES and SNES VC games,
wtf? double standard fail
bitching mode OFF.

super street fighter 2 was the only game... and when you start it up it ask if you would like to play offline or online.

 

[suppow]

super street fighter 2 was the only game... and when you start it up it ask if you would like to play offline or online.

at least that exists, was it any good? or perhaps i should ask - was anyone ever online?

 

[DJPlace]

at least that exists, was it any good? or perhaps i should ask - was anyone ever online?

i never tried it... there was also a the arcade version of puyo puyo 2 for the japansese wii VC with online... i almost forget about that...

 

[Taleweaver]

one thing that utterly annoys me about that is the fact that
the principal behind the console game pricing was - and specially back in the day - the cost of manufacturing the physical copy of the game
i mean, the game itself doesnt take much to reproduce, what was expensive were the boxes, artwork, manuals, and cartridges back then,
then onto optical media, CDs/DVDs are infinitely cheaper to make, but you still have the box and manuals, still the price should have gone down.
thus, buying physical console OR PC games i have no problem with the average pricing (aside from it being too high)
but the fact that we're in an age where most of those purchases are for DIGITAL COPIES, and they still charge the same price as physical copies,
that's just an insult to the customer in an effort to gain more revenue.

You're pulling shit out of your ass here.

Sure, back in the days, the physical cost was relatively high compared to production cost. On one hand, you had huge boxes, manuals of easily ten times as large as modern games, sometimes a fancy map, a bunch of floppies...quite a lot compared to the fysical stuff nowadays. On the other hand, game creating teams were small. Just take a look at game credits of those games and compare them to today's games.

With prices remaining more or less the same, despite these changes, it doesn't take a genius to see that the cost shifted towards the actual CREATING of the game, right?

You're calling it an insult to the customer when physical copies cost the same as digital ones. Have you even considered the other side of that argument? If they weren't the same...it would mean that people without large internet connections would be discriminated against. And putting the blame on the game developers is also stupid: they already pay for all the physical copies, whether they're bought or not. Putting the internet copy up for cheaper means that less people will buy the phyisical one...which makes it a cost for the company (as said: they have to pay manufacturing costs).


But even then...that's not really correct, is it? I was going to say "have you never heard of steam? Or indie games?"... but you rant about the latter in the rest of the post. Anyway: steam often IS cheaper than the physical copy. Not straight from the start, since it would hurt the sales of the physical copies. But there are plenty of sales so you can beat physical prices.
As for indie games...they do exactly what you want. They have a comparable team size as to "back in the day", and they charge less because there's no manufacturing cost. So I don't really get your rant at all.

Do you want AAA games to be made with a team as small as indie games or something?

 

[potato3334]

I started pirating around 3 or 4 years ago, and I never felt bad about it once.

Although I still buy games I truly love, like Zelda or Pokemon