How do you feel about illegal game downloads?

[Wargamer]

My view is that illegal downloading is perfectly acceptable in the following situations:

1) The game is no longer obtainable by reasonable Legal means.
- This means that it's okay to download a ROM of Bomberman 2 for the SNES, because the odds of finding one via trawling every auction site and second-hand game store and finding it are close to zero.

2) The game has SECUROM or similar destructive elements.
- If the game company is out to damage my computer and hamper my rights as a consumer, they've lost the right to protect their merchandise.


So, it is not wrong to Pirate Spore, as doing so will in fact protect your computer. It would not be wrong to Pirate Spore if Spore was released eight years ago. It would be wrong to Pirate Spore if EA got their fucking act together and stopped installing malicious programs on our computers.

 

[mintsauce]

A better question to ask is wether or not people enjoy Emulator ROMs, as all ROMs are obtained illegaly and I'm sure that quite a few people on here use such things.

I'm completely fine with it, and have a massive collection of them for the purposes of preservation. It's a bit like a photo album - it brings back memories, and it keeps a record of where you've come from. If it weren't for emulators, a large number of games I played many years ago would be lost forever.

 

[trlkly]

I hate it when people refer to it as stealing. To steal something, I have to have taken something from you. If there is no loss to you, I did not steal.

The only way to say it is stealing is to say that I stole money from you. Which is why people say "I wouldn't have paid for it anyway." If they are telling the truth, then no one has lost anything. Thus, no harm, no foul.

 

[tikiwargod]

I will admit, I have piarted games. These games where, however, games that I played once or twice and decided it wasn't worth my money and promptly DELETED IT, I will not play fable because I don't enjoy it, Therefore I don't play, same with Madden '06 a good game but not for me. I also torrented deus ex and Doom 1 and 2 because I can't find them, these are my two rules. If I enjoy the game I actually buy it (F.E.A.R.) if not I delete it (Fable, Madden) the only time I will torrent a game and keep it is if I can't find it in any of the three EB games/gamestop within walking distance of my house.

Anyone who is not ready to pay for a game obviously doesn't know what it takes to make a game and doesn't believe that the game is good, refusing to pay for a game and still claiming that the game is amazing is a giant "Suck it" to the game compagny, I can't stand people who will claim a game is amazing and yet still not pay for it, it is really pathetic and, dispite what you might think, is killing this industry. If nobody pirated, we would have no DRM arguments, therefore people would not decide to skip on a game because of DRM and the games would make more money, insiting them to make better games. Piracy IS killing our industry, music can survive past piracy because all the money is in merchandise and touring but video games depend on their product selling, without an audience that is willing to pay developpers will go find themselves a high-paying low-stress job, and then where is our hobby, our passtime, our lives left? I personnally want to go into the game industry and because of that I would never think of stealing from the people who are paving the road before me, I would expect fans to pay for my games and therefore I, the fan, pay for their games.

 

[tikiwargod]

If everyone believed that you shouldn't have to pay for your games then no one would make games because they would get no money from it., your arguement is so flawed.

 

[almo]

I work in games, and it really annoys me to find other game company employees that copy games. Their salary is paid by people who buy games, and they still copy them.

I do download games to test them out if there's no demo. But that's a pretty rare occurance these days.

 

[mike1921]

b) If you take a cake out of a shop without paying for it and you realise you don't like the jam, you have still stolen it.

Cake is a tangable product where work and ingredients are in every last one, costing money. In a game I'm pretty sure it's more like a factory for putting data in disks and covers. making a copy of a game costs no one money nor loses them something they spent money making. There's just one more available. This is the equivelant of buying a dog and cloning it for your friends.

 

[Axolotl]

I'm all for it. The companies that are victims of this are going to make millions regardless of whatever we do so why not continue. I feel the same about music. Its trying to put a price on art which is despicable.

People like you disgust me, if you truly believed games were an artform then you would support the people who make them. Good games cost millions to make with current gen technology. Why is it despicable that people seek to make a return for such an investment? Or do you feel everybody should spend they're time and effort and pour their soul into a project for free just so that it doesn't mean that you have to trouble yourself to pay for it.

 

[Typhusoid]

I'm all for it. The companies that are victims of this are going to make millions regardless of whatever we do so why not continue. I feel the same about music. Its trying to put a price on art which is despicable.

People like you disgust me, if you truly believed games were an artform then you would support the people who make them. Good games cost millions to make with current gen technology. Why is it despicable that people seek to make a return for such an investment? Or do you feel everybody should spend they're time and effort and pour their soul into a project for free just so that it doesn't mean that you have to trouble yourself to pay for it.[/quote

Ok,Ok no need to make this personal, I was just expressing me opinion. Anyway, surely you are not so naive as to beleive this money actually goes to the great creative minds and hardworking individuals who actually make the games. When you buy a game your money is funneled straight into the pockets of morally ambigous giant faceless corporations owned by even bigger morally ambigous giant faceless corporations, and if the don't worm their 20-40 pounds out of me then in my mind thats a good thing.

 

[Nimbus]

I can't stand downloading, I hate people who do it. I have never done it and I don't intend too. It is the exact same thing as stealing and anyone who does it is a thief end of story.

Legally speaking, piracy is not theft. Get off your damn high horse, or at least use correct terms.

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

I think its stupid because I think the other people should have to wait like the rest of us

 

[MurderousToaster]

I find it annoying. If a game developer has poured their heart and soul into a game, why should some 11-year-old kid be able to pirate it for free? For example, if you made a game, would you like irritating pre-pubescent wankers stealing it off of the internet?

 

[Slayer_2]

I hate all douche-bags who think piracy is stealing. If it was, they would call it "stealing" not "pirating". Yes you may be depriving a big-wig company of a few bucks, but some pirates have reasons. There's no way to dodge the fact that you're pirating, but sometimes you have no choice if you wanna play the game.

For example: when I was 12, before I ever knew about pirating games, I walked into EB Games and bought UT2004, no problems or questions asked. Now I'm 16 and I can't go in and buy UT3. Tell me how this makes sense? So I pirate it.

I'm a peaceful person (at least in real life, maybe not so much in Quake 4 ) unlike many of my non-gamer friends, I never resort to solving problems with my fists unless the other guys throws the first punch, but these idiots at EB Games tell me I need to be 17+ to play the sequel to a game I've enjoyed for 4 years. Don't even get me started on Quake 4, I played Quake 2 almost religously since I was 10. It was all I played for 2 years until UT2004. My parents deemed me mature enough to play M games. But nooooo, apparently ERSB knows me, and if I'm mature enough to play M games, better than my own goddamn parents.

Back to my point, we all have reasons for pirating, I know mine will be gone when I'm 17. I will never pirate a game then. Yes, being cheap is a reason for pirating a game, whether its a good reason or not depends. Some pirate because of DRM (never had issues with it), some pirate to play-test, etc. You know what, being an indie game dev, I wouldn't care if 82%, 90% or 92% of the owners of my games had pirated it. All I need is 200 bucks to pay off what I spent making it. As for the time spent, that matters not as I ENJOYED making it. If you view making games or music as a chore, get a better paying and more stable job and stop bitching about piracy. Since I was 12, I always dreamed of making a game, now that I have a chance, I'm not going to waste time worrying about piracy, I'm gonna sit down and enjoy making my fucking game.

P.S.

I find it annoying. If a game developer has poured their heart and soul into a game, why should some 11-year-old kid be able to pirate it for free? For example, if you made a game, would you like irritating pre-pubescent wankers stealing it off of the internet?

So is it better if the pirate isn't a "pre-pubescent wanker"? If he/she is 22 then its ok to pirate in your eyes?

 

[Jamash]

Ironically, the only game I've pirated recently is Sid Meier's Pirates! just because I love that game so much & have done for the last 20 years. But even that I bought properly when I saw it cheap in a shop.

In my formative day's of gaming, back in the 1990's when I had an Amiga, everyone I knew at school used to swap floppies like they were trading cards & 95% of the games I had were illegal copies, but it didn't seem as bad back then...ah the good old days.

I'm not even sure if I'd be the gamer I am today if I hadn't had access to such a vast library of different games when I was younger. If I'd owned a console & had to pay £40(?) per cartridge then I think I would have got bored with gaming, since I would only get about 2 games a year.

It would be hypocritical for me to criticise pirates too much since I owe so much of my gaming history to piracy, but maybe it's different now with actually downloading as opposed to physical disc swapping at school.

 

[Nimbus]

Legally speaking, piracy is not theft. Get off your damn high horse, or at least use correct terms.

Well you are still stealing from some one or some organization, its still not right. What is piracy if it is not a theft than?

Copyright infringement. Duh.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

J) Aren't convincing anyone when they say they are trying it to see if they want to buy it.

Whether you are convinced or not it's perfectly true. Games these days just don't work as they used too. You can't slap it in the CD drive, click install, type a CD key, then go have a cup of tea while it installs, then come back and play your game later. We are talking about unbelievably steep system requirements [http://www.crysisdemo.com/crysis-system-requirements.htm]. We are talking huge, game-breaking glitches [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158631] that make it not even worth downloading for free, never mind paying for it. We are talking DRM malware that installs itself into Ring 0 of your PC and monitors everything you do, not even letting you operate Microsoft Process Explorer [http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_closed.asp] as you play your game.

So yeah, I have pirated the odd PC game just to see if it works. There is an easy way for game companies to stop this practice though.

1. Make games that actually work.

2. Give us full refunds if the games don't work.

If they want to institute a "buyer beware" policy in their business model then they should not be suprised when people want to try before they buy.

 

[RhinoTuna]

Does everyone hate me now?

Are you worth the effort?

Hater.

I'll take that as a 'no', then.

So i pirate games that i want to play single-player? Immediately i'm labeled as a douchebag. I don't see what the big deal is, any game i want to play online i'll buy, other than that i'm not wasting what little money i actually have (Uni student).

 

[ragestreet]

I pirate games with a smile on my face and cramps in my fingers. Personally i couldn't care less if the rest of u hate me. It's your opinion. It may be wrong but you're still entitled to it.