Poll: Is Piracy Really That Bad?

[Candidus]

1 + 2) Allows a larger group of people to play the game, wouldn't have bought it anyway...

Yes, people who haven't paid to do so. This can never be a point in favour of piracy. You can argue that people who steal are unlikely to buy, but what you fail to realise is that it doesn't matter whether they would have or not. Every time someone boots up a developers' software without having paid the license (the "box" cost), it is a loss of revenue. It IS a loss of revenue, and a case of someone taking what they shouldn't have.

3) More and more, NO DRM as a positive is doubling up with COMPROMISED EXPERIENCE as a negative. Games are missing content, or you can't get patches, or you have to avoid developer-laid traps regarding data on item or NPC placement. This is a battle that pirates are gradually losing, fact. I couldn't be happier, even if it inconveniences me at times.

4) If I lived in Germany or Australia, I'd import or proxy to avoid draconian censorship of game content or availability. I sympathise with people who live in heavily regulated shit holes, I really do, but saying that it's fine for them to pirate is the same as saying "don't bother to challenge the censors, just go around them and hurt developers in the process". Nope.

5) Digital distribution offers you the same perks with none of the being a pirate asshole.

I think that covers everything.

 

[cgentero]

Piracy affects all forms of media and yet those industries are still around, why should it be so much more a problem for videogames?

 

[Peteron]

Its wrong. Game developers have the rights to the game. They intend to sell the game. People instead attempt to pirate the game, which does not give back to the company who worked so hard to produce said game. So, in reality, people's selfishness (in most cases) causes them to go against the wills of the producers who are just trying to earn something for their hard work. So, yes, piracy is bad. Game companies aren't giving out free samples. They expect and trust their fans will fairly purchase the game. Its more or less stealing.

 

[SonicKoala]

It's theft, pure and simple.

No, it isn't, you fucking moron.

How is it not?

 

[SonicKoala]

There ARE people who do it because they would never be able to afford gaming in the first place

I fail to see how this justifies stealing the game.

 

[DoubleTime]

I'm against pirating games for the same reason I'm against pirating movies and music. Just because you can "copy" something without having it cost tangible goods, that "copy" still costs money. Money that SHOULD be getting paid to all the people who helped make and distribute it. When you pirate, the money comes out of their paychecks, not the "Big Bad Evil Corporation." Even if they get paid, and the company loses profits, those profits would have been used to keep the corporation going by making new media, and when it tanks it takes out all the workers and the people who invested money into it.

The bottom line is someone has pay for these things, and if it's not the people benefiting from receiving the goods, then it's the people producing the goods and they're going to stop because they can't make a living doing that.

Sort of like this.

 

[Daverson]

I'd say the only time piracy could even be remotely justifiable is if you've already brought the game, but can't run the copy you've got (ie, the disk is damaged, or broken DRM (Starforce...) makes the game unplayable). Even then, questionably so...

I don't particularly agree with the idea that pirating games that aren't available in your region is acceptable... I mean, yeah, it is effectively the pub saying "we don't want your money", but there are other options, such as importing. (of course, with region-locked games, that opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of cracking and whatnot... I don't think I'll go into that...)

 

[SenseOfTumour]

There ARE people who do it because they would never be able to afford gaming in the first place

I fail to see how this justifies stealing the game.

Now I know what I'm going to say is legally and morally wrong, but at the same time it leads to a good thing, I'm not sure if the two sides balance out however.

Stephen Fry made a good point about piracy, and it reminded me of my schooldays, back then everyone was swapping home made tapes filled with games, because everything came on cassette for the ZX Spectrum, CPC and Commodore.

Of course, it was piracy plain and simple, and we were not paying for the games we were playing, and we did our part in sending some gaming companies to the wall, I imagine.

However, as children, we got our love of gaming from those times, and grew up, and got thru school, most of us doing quite well, and now the two best friends I know from school, and most of the ones I've lost contact with by now, are or were into gaming and had bought consoles or a gaming PC and were regularly buying games.

In the end, the losses of a few games, the losses of the small amount of a child's weekly allowance (and we DID buy games, you had to have something to copy FROM, right?), ended up growing into a huge, expensive habit being funded by full time careers and regular £40 purchases.

In the end, I think most people who CAN afford games will end up legally buying them, as it's just so much better to own the original, and, as my memories uphold, a real, saved up for and purchased game just gets played so much more, copying and piracy just horribly devalues games I think, when you got a tape filled with ten new games, you probably weren't going to devote a week to one of them. Buy a new game and you wanted to get every damn penny of pleasure out of it.

 

[T-004]

As far as I'm concerned the only dev to approach the issue of piracy in the most logical way is Rocksteady.

When they released Arkham Asylum with a bug that would only kick in if you were playing an illegitimate copy, but still let you try out a portion of the game (Even though demos were released for it, not sure if one was released for the PC though)it was a very intelligent move as it avoided the main issue with DRM (annoying the legitimate customer)and made sure that if people wanted to play the game then they had to buy it.

As far as I am concerned anyone who jumps on the "Piracy takes money away from the Developers and loses people jobs" is pretty much full of crap. The Developers are paid for the game before release by the publishers, who through the massive push toward digital distribution (I'm looking at you Valve, EA) are pretty much trying to force Brick and mortar stores out of business. I've lost count of the amount of small games stores who have closed down due to a massive loss of business since the advent of modern Digital Distribution and it isn't smooth sailing for the larger outfits either (Blockbuster being a good case in point), as these high street stores are having to rely more and more on the used games market, which is a bloody cutthroat trade and in some cases (Blockbuster)standing on the very edge of bankruptcy.

Don't even get me started on the utter farce that is EULA's.

My point is made thusly, in some cases piracy is truly the only avenue by which someone who is in a low paid job/unemployed or lives in a country in which the game/film/book they want is unavailable is able to access it. And saying that "If they can't afford it then they don't deserve it" is downright bloody offensive and elitist! In addition has anyone noticed the increasing trend in which games don't actually drop in price even after 1.5 - 2 years after release.

The simple fact is that if piracy is ever going to be reduced it is going to be through the reduction in day one price. Not through the application of ass backwards DRM or the proliferation of Online passes.

Think of the children!!!

 

[Qitz]

-Snipped

Here's the thing with every point you brought up. You can find all this information out yourself. Don't know if a game will play on your computer? You can look up the specs, compare them and find out. Don't know that much? Use the "Can You Run It" thing for a general bench mark or ask someone computer savy. Want to know what the next Fable game is about? You've got a myriad of websites you can browse whose sole purpose is to inform people about a game. Use them. Don't want to be burned by BF4 and it's claim of having a "Super Awesome" single player campaign? Do some research then.

Pirating a game with the excuse that "If I like it I'll just buy it later" is a weak excuse and just used to help reinforce your (not you personally, but pirates) decision

It's not exactly that black-and-white.

No, it really is. You use a torrent website to download a game? You stole it. Unless it's a torrent put up there by the developers themselves it is pirated.

I wont sit here and act as though I've never pirated anything. I have, but I didn't lie to myself about it with some poor excuse of "Well if I like this one I'll buy the next!" I knew full well that there was the same chance of me pirating the next one as the current.

Does it suck that games don't offer demos? Sure, I often want to try a game and when I see it doesn't have a demo I am disappointed but that doesn't justify stealing it. Sure you can argue that once you've tried it you'll quit out, go to a legit source (Steam, GamersGate) but A, that doesn't change the fact that you still stole it in the first place and B, your probably in the 1% in that case.

All that said, make no mistakes, I have no disillusion that anyone's going to stop pirating or that piracy itself is just going to up and go, nor do I really mind it. Pirating things has been active in the software industries since its conception (Remember Blank VHS's? Or VHS Recorders?) but don't try to sugar coat your actions with some excuse like "I'm just demoing it" because that doesn't hold water for me.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Not as bad as the anti-piracy PSAs about it.

 

[The Cheshire]

Oh God, this video is so over-the-top sentimentalist bullshit it makes me want never to buy anything legally. Ever. Again. And I'll have lots of children and I will teach them how to download illegal films just because this video insulted my intelligence.

 

[C95J]

I also hate it when pirates use the excuse "It's just a copy" to try and justify stealing. There is no two ways around it, it is stealing plain and simple. just because you have the means, and access to steal something, doesn't mean you should. It takes away profit from the game company, how would you feel if you spent years working on something, then thousands of people stole it, just because it is easier than say, walking into a shop and robbing the cash register, or stealing a game. And again, the whole "It's just a copy" argument is pure bullshit.

 

[Grant Hobba]

I really don't care about the whole piracy thing. Doesn't really bother me.

will it bother you when there are no more games, music or movies ?

 

[C95J]

There ARE people who do it because they would never be able to afford gaming in the first place

I fail to see how this justifies stealing the game.

Piracy =/= Stealing

People such as that do not equal lost sales. It could even be argued that they help a game, I.E publicity, word of mouth, and the fact that if they were to secure a stable income, there would be a chance that they would actually purchase games.

Well, if publishers stop with these idiotic anti-pirating measures, and instead try focusing on giving pirates better incentives to buy new, that is.

So basically what you are saying is, if I can't afford something, you should be entitled to steal it. Right?

 

[Bruenin]

I really don't care about the whole piracy thing. Doesn't really bother me.

will it bother you when there are no more games, music or movies ?

Well if it ever got that far I'll take a stand against it, send me a message when the apocalypse starts up. =P... i like my emote better