What is your relationship with cracked games?

[Noctosphere]

Hello world!

Just for fun, I'd like to know general opinion about cracked games. Why do you people actually download/pirate games
There must be a reason as to why you do it

I for example, i pirate games for one of these reason :
1- I'd like to test the game. I'm not sure with only trailers and reviews if i will like the game.

If I do like the game, then I'll buy it, but sometime, I'll keep the cracked version for one of the following reason :
2- The game is not worth its price in my opinion, I'll either wait for sales or watch site like Green man gaming for better price. But until then, I'll keep the cracked version
3- I don't have the money yet, but soon as i have the funds, i'll buy it.

I'd like you people of the Temp, to state reason to why you pirate games.
It can be very simple reasons like "I don't have a job/I'm at school, and I can't afford to buy any games" to more complex reasons that can be specific to one game like "I don't want to give one penny to J. K. Rowling by buying Hogwart's Legacy"

 

[Ryab]

Generally if the developer is providing me with a method to buy the game from them. I see no problem with buying it. But if the developer refuses to sell it or requires me to jump through many hoops to obtain it. Then I will not hesitate. If you want my money then let me easily buy it from you.

 

[Noctosphere]

Generally if the developer is providing me with a method to buy the game from them. I see no problem with buying it. But if the developer refuses to sell it or requires me to jump through many hoops to obtain it. Then I will not hesitate.

I dont really understand what you mean. what kind game developpers would refuse to sell you its game or make it difficult to buy???

 

[caipora]

Well, my first ever console (i mean, real console, i had a weird Famiclone on my home's DVD player tho) was a PS2. Where i live you must've been kinda of rich to have original tiles, so we all - and by all i mean almost ALL the kids had a PS2 'til 2014, then XBOX360 took its place - had pirate games, they came in those little plastic envelopes, with the game cover printed inside it with the CD between the faces.
We bought them on fairs and downtown, three for 10 bucks, and as the time passed it got cheaper and cheaper, to this day there's people selling these bad boys.
There were some hacked games with mods and shit, more famous one being BombaPatch, a modded Winning Eleven (still on development) with tons of national and international leagues and players. We had Neymar waaaay back before he got famous lol
There was some trauma too, like God of War 2 freezing on the bridge were you encounter Icarus as an antipiracy method.

I grow up with cracked games and PC emulation.

 

[Scarlet]

When I was younger I’d just pirate games as a means of playing them. Kids got no money and games were expensive.

I don’t really have any justification for piracy nowadays though. I have a stable income and games are more accessible than ever. Maybe I’ve even made up for pirating Harvest Moon DS with my 30+ copies

Edit:
Having reread the OP, I will add here that I don’t understand the moral high ground of people saying “I don’t want to support X person so I’m going to pirate it”. If you want to boycott something, I really do believe you shouldn’t engage with the media at all. Pirating it and pretending you’re doing something good is wildly stupid in my mind.

 

[caipora]

When I was younger I’d just pirate games as a means of playing them. Kids got no money and games were expensive.

I don’t really have any justification for piracy nowadays though. I have a stable income and games are more accessible than ever. Maybe I’ve even made up for pirating Harvest Moon DS with my 30+ copies

One of my friends at the time had a PC with two disc drivers, so he downloaded ISOs and burned into CDs with Nero Burning ROM (really fucking acid name i came to realize a few year past) as fast as a Windows XP could run.
I got to play Persona 4 for the first time in one of his copies, later i learned to make some too.

 

[Noctosphere]

One of my friends at the time had a PC with two disc drivers, so he downloaded ISOs and burned into CDs with Nero Burning ROM (really fucking acid name i came to realize a few year past) as fast as a Windows XP could run.
I got to play Persona 4 for the first time in one of his copies, later i learned to make some too.

I remember one of my cousin had two disc drive too
He would use one to read his games, and the other to make a copy for us

 

[caipora]

I remember one of my cousin had two disc drive too
He would use one to read his games, and the other to make a copy for us

Yeahh that was the deal it felt like Matrix

 

[Xzi]

Pretty much the only games I pirate now are EGS exclusives that I want to play at launch, or overpriced remasters when I already own the original. The former I'll usually get around to buying at a discount on PS5 or Steam, the latter is something Nintendo in particular is especially bad about, though they aren't the only culprit.

 

[Kwyjor]

There was a time when I might have gotten a little bent out of shape about it – back when people would say "The developers aren't selling this game anymore and this site put it up for download so it's FREE!"

These days I probably have enough perfectly-legitimate and entertaining titles on hand to keep me busy until the day I die, especially since I have no time to play them. Anything new that comes out can wait until it's fully-patched and being given away for free (or nearly free).

 

[Dust2dust]

Of all the warez I've downloaded in my life (goes way back to the 80's) I've probably actually used maybe 3%. So I can't say I've had a big impact on the publisher's lack of income. So why do I download those games? Probably just in case I ever find the time to try them.

 

[Latiodile]

case by case basis, if it's too complicated and i need to jump through too many hoops to pirate a game, like hacking the switch or installing a hardmod to an xbox 360, or going through a thousand shady mega links and adfly links through some website that has 90% of it's links leading to 404s, and other links that are "wait x amount of seconds to download at the slowest speed humanly possible" i won't bother

otherwise, i'm fine with it if the only way to get a copy of a game is to pirate it and it's the easiest option, like if it just costs an unreasonable amount of money for no reason, or if it's for an obscure platform

stuff like gamepass, fanatical and humble bundle make games cheap and easily accessible enough for pirating to not be my main go-to option

 

[lenoa]

i will buy when the price is "right"

 

[Noctosphere]

ok... guys... i need some explanation here...
Either it's a misunderstanding from me while reading, or its on you while you write using bad english
But some of you are literally saying that, in the case of some game, it can be really hard to legitely buy a game. That it would be easier to pirate it.
I don't get it at all, I mean, it's the opposite usually, no?
Like, when you want to pirate a game, you'll often end up on fake website, multiple ads, stuff like that... while legit buying a game is quite simple, you go on the official website and buy it...

Can someone explain me?

 

[Latiodile]

ok... guys... i need some explanation here...
Either it's a misunderstanding from me while reading, or its on you while you write using bad english
But some of you are literally saying that, in the case of some game, it can be really hard to legitely buy a game. That it would be easier to pirate it.
I don't get it at all, I mean, it's the opposite usually, no?
Like, when you want to pirate a game, you'll often end up on fake website, multiple ads, stuff like that... while legit buying a game is quite simple, you go on the official website and buy it...

Can someone explain me?

old nintendo games can cost up to thousands just for being nintendo games, i'm not going to pay $120 for a copy of wind waker when i can just pirate it

edit: there's also a lot of old pc games that are just... impossible to find due to being so obscure, yet there's "copies" of said games easily obtainable on places like abandonware sites

 

[The Catboy]

Piracy is based and cracking games is my favorite past time UωU

 

[Xzi]

But some of you are literally saying that, in the case of some game, it can be really hard to legitely buy a game. That it would be easier to pirate it.
I don't get it at all, I mean, it's the opposite usually, no?
Like, when you want to pirate a game, you'll often end up on fake website, multiple ads, stuff like that... while legit buying a game is quite simple, you go on the official website and buy it...

Some games are not available to buy digitally, some never have been. Some developers/publishers are defunct and no longer exist. Sometimes you want a specific version of a game that isn't the newest one, sometimes only by pirating can you get a DRM-free copy. Etc and so forth.

And I don't know about everyone else, but I've got a couple torrent sites and a couple HTTPS sites that I know I can trust and between them they will always have what I'm looking for. If they have any ads I've never seen them thanks to uBlock Origin.

old nintendo games can cost up to thousands just for being nintendo games, i'm not going to pay $120 for a copy of wind waker when i can just pirate it

edit: there's also a lot of old pc games that are just... impossible to find due to being so obscure, yet there's "copies" of said games easily obtainable on places like abandonware sites

Wait...are GCN copies of Wind Waker seriously going for $120 now? I got one for like $25 pre-COVID.

 

[Noctosphere]

Some games are not available to buy digitally, some never have been. Some developers/publishers are defunct and no longer exist. Sometimes you want a specific version of a game that isn't the newest one, sometimes only by pirating can you get a DRM-free copy. Etc and so forth.

And I don't know about everyone else, but I've got a couple torrent sites and a couple HTTPS sites that I know I can trust and between them they will always have what I'm looking for. If they have any ads I've never seen them thanks to uBlock Origin.


Wait...are GCN copies of Wind Waker seriously going for $120 now? I got one for like $25 pre-COVID.

Yea... Pre covid. I mean, at least here in quebec, used console market had their average price go skyrocket.
From what ive seen however, even though they raised, prices seemed still reasonable considering that the demands skyrocketed too with contingency
For exemple, a used switch would easily reach about 400$, considering that a new one at walmart would be sold 400+tx

 

[Latiodile]

Wait...are GCN copies of Wind Waker seriously going for $120 now? I got one for like $25 pre-COVID.

it was an exaggerated example, but on canadian ebay they go for like $80-ish, and older pokemon games can easily go up in the multiple hundreds, some copies of earthbound go anywhere between $500 to $3000, most of them around$400-500, with repros being like $40

 

[godreborn]

I'm ambivalent about piracy. I used to do it, still do with TV shows to streaming services I don't have. I don't really care if you pirate games though, but I think it's insulting when people try to glorify piracy or won't admit to piracy when they in fact do. I hate hypocrites more than anything.