Gaming [Q] Why do people pirate?

[zwang1208]

Because of region lock and no fucking Chinese support in almost every Game. It's fucking discrimination. Sony is more conscientious at this part.

 

[Drak0rex]

You've entered a very murky area, Lavanoid. There are plenty of reasons people have for piracy, and the effects aren't nearly as drastic as you've made them out to be. I'm sure several people have attempted to hand you your ass on the matter so far (10 pages, not gonna read them right now) but let me share with you my reasoning.

As a poor person who has more important things to spend money on than videogames, what difference will it make if I download a game for free that I most likely will not be able to afford anyway? The answer is none. I am not sucking monies out of Nintendo's bank account by doing so.

Then there is the question of what scale of piracy you are worried about. If you want to get technical, then downloading anything that is or ever was sold for profit is technically piracy. However where is the harm in downloading some ps1 and gamecube games for little Billy to play on his Wii? The companies that made the games have long since stopped seeing a profit for those games. The only ones who may be harmed are third party merchants who try to squeeze as much money as they can get away with out of the poor retro enthused consumers. $2000 for Little Sampson on the NES? No thank you.

Some people like to, and want their kids to experience gaming from all stages, from the 8 bit classics, as technology evolved, through the 16, 32 and 64 bit eras, all the way up to now, so they have a better appreciation for gaming as a whole. But to do that by legit means would cost a significant amount of money. Why should people be deprived of something they're passionate about just because they have less money or opportunity than somebody else? Alot of people would miss out on experiencing alot of great games. You make it seem like pirates are rolling in dough but just choose not to buy their games. This is more often than not, not the case. And the number of people that actually have the know-how and means to do so is far less than you make them out to be.

Then there is the matter of convenience. I would much rather have all my games on a single hard drive than have hundreds of game boxes littering my house. And if one of those games were to become scratched or damaged in some other way, then I, the consumer would be out money having to replace it. Physical games wear out over time, disc drives fail, cartridge slots begin to lose contact in the pins, etc. But with piracy, not so much.

When spending money on a video game, one must do their research. Some games look fun, but end up being a piece of shit for any number of reasons, whether it be the controls, graphical glitches, or just stale uninspired gameplay. Of course some people might still be curious and want to try them out anyway. There's no sense in spending big bucks on a game that you're only gonna play a few times on rare occasions. When piracy is an option, gamers can more rest assuredly make up their mind about which games they want to play.

 

[CreAtor135]

Pirate music:
"Well you still got a fair amount of money by touring, we're going to publish your next album for sure."

Pirate movie:
"Well it still had a great run on theaters, we're going to give it a sequel for sure.

Pirate a game:
"Well that sucks, guess we aren't publishing a sequel to your game. RIP franchise."

I have nothing against piracy - but people who try justifying it pisses me off. You can't compare videogame piracy to movies or music, as that's not their main way of getting paid. If a game doesn't sell? Well, too bad.

It sickens me when somebody goes out of their way to pirate a good indie game that needs every penny it gets, and often they're just $10 games. Come the fuck on.

If that were true Nintendo would've died out years ago. Piracy sells consoles. Look at the DS, look at the Wii. All heavy hitters, right? The 3DS will join them soon enough. If people realise they could get free games for buying a console, they'll buy more, right? And more people buying the console means they reached their goal. People are pirating? At least they paid for your system. Now, STEALING A 3DS. THAT'S taking it too far.

 

[Kioku]

I think we scared him away.

 

[HNKii]

Because of region lock and no fucking Chinese support in almost every Game. It's fucking discrimination. Sony is more conscientious at this part.

What you said is EXACTLY what thousands of 3DS users in China complained(and are still complaining). Such complaints can be seen everyday at the 3DS forum of Baidu Tieba.

 

[lampdemon]

There are also the people who "pirate" because of shitty DRM, to get a working version of the game they paid for.

Also, when you make a shitty product, don't blame piracy when it sells like shit.

 

[Ericthegreat]

.

I find myself having more fun setting up loaders, and getting stuff to work, then actually playing.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

After reading through this entire flamebaiting extravaganza (all 10 pages), I decided to buy 1 month of vpn access out of pure spite , just saying........

 

[Judas18]

I pirate because I don't have the luxury of buying every game that takes my fancy. So I can use that money to get something more useful, technically not murdering the economy that way lol.

 

[ov3rkill]

I pirate because... One Piece.

 

[Gruntzer]

pirating is illegal and immoral, though i still do it

1) i pirate games that i don't really like but wonna try or play for a couple of hours
2) i pirate games that have micro-transactions ( recent EA , Ubisoft games )
3) i pirate old games that i want to play but can't buy due to unavailability
4) i pirate region locked games
5) i pirate games that only have like 10 hours campaign and no online


other than that i buy the games that i really like playing and end up spending at-least 30 hours + on

EDIT: as you can see from my flag i live in Libya , we DO NOT have a single official retailer of any of the mentioned console/game makers , so shit is absolutely expensive.

 

[PagaN]

I pirate because... Software must be free.

 

[Gruntzer]

I pirate because... Software must be free.

typical communist ,people pay millions in developing games and put their sweat & tears then you expect them to hand it for you for free -.-

"I steal from your house because ....... we must share everything"

 

[TehCupcakes]

I only pirate games that fall into one of these categories...

1. I am not interested enough to actually buy the game. The developers are losing no money, because I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
2. The game is only available in another region. Again, I can't afford to buy a foreign console just for a few games; I would never spend my money on that. Thus, the developers have still lost no sales to me.
3. The game is old and hard/impossible to find. These games are out of production and are only sold by third parties, so if anybody was hurt, it would be used game stores. However, I would never justify spending $50 on a Gamecube game. Once again, no sale is lost because I wouldn't have bought it.
4. Games that I only intend on playing once or twice. Say I have a friend coming over who really likes a certain game, but I do not own said game. There is no way in the world I will purchase the game just so we can play it once or twice- rather, I would simply tell them, "sorry, I don't have it." By pirating this game, there is no damage to the company because I would never have bought the game anyway.
5. I am interested in a game, but I'm not sure if I would like it, and no demo is available. I am an informed buyer, so if I am uncertain about whether I would like a game or not, I usually do not buy it. (This one can be a little murky though, as I might buy a game if it is < $10 and/or on sale.) In this situation, I play the game much like a demo. If I don't like it enough to justify the price, its fate is the same as all the other games, or I might even delete it. If I do like it, I buy the game. In this case, piracy generates a sale because I was on the fence, and it was pirating that convinced me it was worth buying.

Notice a trend? Believe it or not, most people who pirate games still believe there is a line between ethical and unethical piracy. They pirate games primarily to play games they otherwise would not, rather than to dodge the purchase price of something they can afford. In some cases, it may even result in boosting sales for a game. While I make no claim that the majority of piracy cases turn into sales, I do believe that the effect it has on sales is relatively minimal, because most of the time pirates would not buy the game if it was impossible to pirate. They would simply do without.

 

[Kioku]

typical communist ,people pay millions in developing games and put their sweat & tears then you expect them to hand it for you for free -.-

"I steal from your house because ....... we must share everything"

Not sure if troll?... Or?

 

[Gruntzer]

Not sure if troll?... Or?

not trolling
same concept with different circumstances

 

[Kioku]

not trolling
same concept with different circumstances

Compare what piracy actually is to what you just said. Now if you had something along the lines of duplicating everything in your house, and taking only the duplicates? Then yeah, same concept. You want to say piracy is stealing? Fine. However, product doesn't go missing... Sales are just lost.

It's not like I'm hijacking a truck with the games and giving them away for free.

 

[Koldur]

Compare what piracy actually is to what you just said. Now if you had something along the lines of duplicating everything in your house, and taking only the duplicates? Then yeah, same concept. You want to say piracy is stealing? Fine. However, product doesn't go missing... Sales are just lost.

It's not like I'm hijacking a truck with the games and giving them away for free.

If you would have bought the game if you couldn't pirate the game and still pirated the game, you just stole income of the publishers, so in that situation it definitely is stealing.

 

[Kioku]

If you would have bought the game if you couldn't pirate the game and still pirated the game, you just stole income of the publishers, so in that situation it definitely is stealing.

I know. You can call it stealing. However it doesn't compare to taking the actual item. Two different concepts.

 

[Gruntzer]

Compare what piracy actually is to what you just said. Now if you had something along the lines of duplicating everything in your house, and taking only the duplicates? Then yeah, same concept. You want to say piracy is stealing? Fine. However, product doesn't go missing... Sales are just lost.

It's not like I'm hijacking a truck with the games and giving them away for free.

you are just dividing intellectual theft/"stealing" with the physical act of stealing
they are both the same

there is also the act of pirating movies / mp3's / books / other digital goods which are all a sort of (intellectual theft/"stealing") you are basically stealing their creativity , time , scripting knowledge ( as i said earlier i also pirate stuff but just making things clear, i do not sugar coat things -.- )