Poll: A Question on Piracy !

[Bertylicious]

Seductive as that argument is, it is akin to saying; "I am starving and the cost of a loaf of bread is too much, therefore I shall steal from the bakery."

Except those two things aren't remotely similar. A better example would be a baker who throws away old stock that didn't sell and someone comes in and takes whatever they want from that pile of thrown out food. The food is still perfectly edible, but the baker will not make money off of it whether you take it or not. Not only that, but they have willingly let it go without tryin to resell it at a later date. They technically own the stuff, but they have given up on it.

I hope you won't go into fighting over what example best describes the situation, as things around here tend to do. And that bakery one sucked hard.

Yeah, arguments from analogy are always inherently flawed but that one was a particularly sucky effort on my part.

Hell I don't even know what kind of position I'm even taking here. I'm just going to stick with people want to get things and other people want to give things to other people. It seems best to have as few barriers between the parties as possible, be they fiscal, physical or legal.

 

[evilneko]

Um, it's kinda against the rules to advocate piracy here, so anyone answering anything other than "I don't support piracy" or close to it risks mod wrath. >.>

Thus there's not much discussion value in such a thread as this.

 

[savageoblivi0n]

Price isn't an excuse for piracy - if you don't like something then you don't have to buy and play it. That said, I think games with very high prices are probably more prone to piracy than something that costs £10.

I really think it's ok.

I mean, if I want to play Contra 3 or Earthbound I would have to pay about 2x more than a normal retail release at least. Paying £80-100+ for a decade old used game isn't right and I won't pay it.

just saw your post about earthbound and thought you'd get a kick out of this...it certainly got a rofl out of me..

http://www.amazon.com/Earthbound-super-nintendo/dp/B002CT1RA4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339460510&sr=8-1

 

[5ilver]

The price is entirely subjective- some people can afford dozens of AAA titles every week, others can't afford a single 5$ game.

As far as whether to pirate or not- we're not allowed to have this discussion here (afaik) so there you go.

 

[Xorph]

I only pirate stuff that I've already bought for one of my consoles (For example, I bought Fallout 3, and all it's DLC, on the Xbox 360 well before getting my gaming PC), or abandonware, like Planescape: Torment (I know it's available on GoG, but as Black Isle is defunct that money just goes to Cd Projekt, who had nothing to do with the game itself, thus its basically equivalent to buying used). The only time I would ever otherwise consider pirating would be because the devs were jerkasses and totally deserved it. Had I a copy of Risen 2, for example, I would have totally used the console commands to get the DLC. Also, I nearly pirated Mass Effect 3 because of all the BS with Bioware, but ultimately decided against it and just never got the game.

 

[Imthatguy]

On the other hand, it seems a lot of piracy is determined by how hard is it to get the thing legally, and indie stuff might no be distributed that well, so I dunno.

Go to the pirate bay and hit the top 100 in video games and repeat that statement.

Also while I don't support piracy how the battle turns out could very well determine how our world works if we ever go post-scarcity.

 

[Sidiron]

One has to chuckle, at how silly the Escapist forums are becoming, take this issue for example:
Firstly you have "You shouldn't condone piracy, especially here, or you can/will get banned." This is one of the few places I would expect an open and frank discussion of piracy, as soon as you start saying 'you can't say this or we'll ban you' that is censorship and stamps on open and meaningful discussion;
Secondly, "I despise piracy, except for abandonware/obsolete support/price" either you despise it or you don't, words like despise have rather extreme or hyperbolic definitions for a reason. For example, I despise people mis-using hyperbole (I actually do hence this comment. )
Thirdly, while people are bringing in the "Stealing Bread" metaphor, I merely want to ask are people (I assume) in America so brainwashed against socialism/communism/sharing that they think that people with no food, shelter, or income are immoral for stealing bread??

In my own opinion, and I will stand by it, there is nothing morally wrong with pirating games that are no longer available from the developers, this doesn't mean I do it, (I bought Klingon Academy for PC off Amazon for £25 twice as my first copy ended up being scratched) but I wouldn't condemn people for doing so. The same with this recent witch-hunt regarding people who buy used games, when a game is no longer available *in shops* new, and it only exist in the used section why shouldn't people buy it there. It isn't the consumers duty to search out the last new copy of SoulReaver 2 in existence if they want to play it, when there is a plethora of used copies available. Do people go out and buy second hand books/comics/films/pictures/music (inluding vinyl LP's)?? Of course they do, in fact whole collector industries have grown up around them, but no one gets aerated about those killing off the publishers/artists etc do they?
Also the vast majority of gamers/publishers/developers who are clamering to get away from and disolve the whole brick-and-mortar game industry is failing to appreciate one new phenomenom that is emerging in these austere times, the "un-banked" that is people who have not got a bank account is rising, due to the distrust of banks people are resorting to doing everything in cash transactions, so much so that the FBI and CIA have called these people who either can't or won't use a bank account, "subversive" and possible terrorists. I, myself, have at this present time no access to a bank account because of the rise in charges and fees imposed on anyone that does, this means all my games are bought in stores with cash. In turn this means I can't use Steam/Xbox Live Arcade/Amazon etc so can easily miss out on the ability to actually purchase a game, so I will go to the store and if I have to will buy a preowned game.
This isn't as evil as many think though as if people without the means to buy them legitimately, either due to limited funds or limited access, keep buying used it will keep the demand for used games higher so those with the means will still buy the games, and then trade them in, knowing full well they will get trade in value for them. Supply and Demand. I admit that developers aren't getting the funds from my purchase, and I apologise for that whole-heartedly, but if we collapse the preowned market then there is a possibility that the sale of new physical copies would also decrease and lead to a significant swathe of income disappearing.

Remember what some of the more intelligent people have said before me, many of the 'problems' we face are all inter-linked, they feed one another and trying to reduce them to nice white and black areas is silly, futile and ridiculous.

Let's see if this incurs the wrath of censorship? I hope it doesn't...