Poll: Pirate or not?

[matrix3509]

Pretty much the only time I ever download games is if the game is associated with EA in some way, just because I think EA is a feces filled douche. Anything I can do to bring down that corporation is worth any hassel in the world.

I could also launch into a tirade about how I think the whole concept of intellectual property is a total load of wank, but I will refrain, partially because I think honest developers, that make good games deserve their due (except for EA devs, in which case they should work somewhere else).

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Not anymore. Too much hassle.

I have the opposite opinion. I feel as though we've got to a point where it's less work to pirate than buy legally (and I'm not just talking about dragging yourself to the store). For example, I bought a copy of Half Life 2 at a retail store, but had such problems with the "anti-piracy" measures of Steam that I promptly went to mininova and downloaded a Steam-less version and had no problems since.

This infuriates me, pirates complaining about copyright protection. Allow me to illustrate me point with a short dialogue:

Pirate: I hate SecurROM, I'm gonna pirate this game!
Me: I'm not much of a fan of SecuROM either, but let me ask you this, why does it exist?
Pirate: Well, to stop people stealing the game I suppose...
Me: And does it work?
Pirate: No, ha ha!
Me: So what do you think they'll do now?
Pirate: Well I suppose they'll try something else.... oh, I see what you're getting at.
Me: What, that this is all your fault and people who buy legitimate copies of games are suffering because of your selfish actions?
Pirate: Well, I wouldn't have phrased it like that...
Me: No, I didn't think you would have.

EDIT: We're also not keen on threads that endorse illegal activity.

 

[InsanityBaronOfAtrocity]

I pirate both 360 games and PC games. When they stop charging extortionate amounts for 360 games I'll buy them legally. £10 is a reasonable price (What I get them at).

PC games it depends on the game itself, if its good then yeah Ill buy it. Other factors come into this too like download size etc, Im not waiting all damn year for it.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

I pirate both 360 games and PC games. When they stop charging extortionate amounts for 360 games I'll buy them legally. £10 is a reasonable price (What I get them at).

I agree. After all, it's not like the games costs millions of dollars to make and subsidise the losses incurred on the hardware.

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Personally, I'll buy any game I plan on playing that's actively capable of being found. For example, I'll download a ROM for an SNES game I own/once owned/want to try to play it, since finding those things is impossible outside of ordering from obscure places/people. But for something like Spore or Crysis that are still easily accessible, I'll go out to a store and buy them.

Hell, I've deleted a few ROMs because I've found cartridges for them in random stores.

 

[memejoey]

I mostly download games because I dont have a job right now so can't really afford them. I don't find it a wrong thing to do, because if I wasn't downloading them I certainly wouldn't be buying them either would I?

As for when I DO have money - I generally download a game and play it for a bit, if I feel its worth the money then i'll buy it to support the developers. I would say I do buy 50% of my games. People tend to tell me "if a game is worth playing all the way through then its worth buying" but THAT isn't true. There are also plenty of games I play until the credits but never buy them, because I found many flaws on my play-through, but it was mildly enjoyable enough to not uninstall and throw the burned disk in the bin. That is certainly not something I should praise developers for anyway. I support truely good games that are worth the money.

I really don't like the idea of downloading everything and never buying a thing, if you have the money to buy some of it. But it is not something I will ever look down on or insult, because unlike some people I don't feel the need to throw nasty opinions around; and much prefer it when i'm on good terms with everyone. Its also not a big deal. At all.

For example, I bought a copy of Half Life 2 at a retail store, but had such problems with the "anti-piracy" measures of Steam that I promptly went to mininova and downloaded a Steam-less version and had no problems since.

LOL. Me too. Though actually it worked for me, but steam was so crap with so many bugs when HL2 first came out that I actually downloaded a pirate copy too. Thankfully steam is mostly good now.

The thing is that all this copy protection never actually works. I believe Starforce worked, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory wasn't cracked for about a year, but thats the only one I can actually think of that stopped pirates for a decent ammount of time.

Look at spore, all the stupid copy protection and install limits. It angered many of the people who paid for it. And for what? It was cracked THE SAME DAY it was released. Copy protection is largely pointless and ineffective anyway and just causes problems to people who buy the games anyway.. I'll never understand it. :/

 

[Hawgh]

I buy games if I feel they deserve to be paid for.

I occasionally download a game if there aren't any meaningful demos or likewise around.

 

[Flour]

I download any game and if I like it, I'll buy it.
I also refuse to pay 60 euros(currently about 90 USD or 105 AUD) for a game that's 4-6 hours long. Serious Sam on the Gamecube was about 8-9 hours long and that game cost 30 euros when it was new so there's no excuse for a game to have half the playtime and be twice as expensive.

 

[Limos]

I bought Spore, but I am currently downloading Bioshock. The thing is that I'm not sure whether I actually want bioshock, and I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a game that I might get bored with in five minutes.

 

[Avenant]

I buy games if I think they're worth the money. For us here in South Africa they are very expensive - I'll buy titles which look good to me or ones I've pirated but really loved (eg. KOTOR, Deus Ex, Bioshock... LOVE those games!)

I really think people should buy games if they truly enjoy them and play them a lot. Developers need money to survive too! But there're a lot of games (mostly EA stuff) which I don't really like, and I'll pirate, play a little bit, and delete.

 

[kateatsmouse]

I'm petrified of filling the family computer with viruses or getting caught by my mom. So I buy the games I think look worth the money and borrow the rest from friends. Or I just camp at their houses for like, two weeks, while I play said game.

 

[Sayvara]

Buy, buy and buy. I have been buying my games for over 20 years now. Well ok, so my mum and dad were the ones actually buying them but at least I requersted them to. I used to pirate too but that was before shoddy pirated games pointed out to me how much they suck and how much work they are and that I'm actually better off just coughing up the cash which I do have enough off.

The only pirated games I have left is in my Amiga diskette box and some of my old ZX Spectrum tapes. But just for the sake of it I still carry my original box of Elite in my games collection... and yes, that is the ZX Spectrum version. The only thing that buggers me about it is that I lost my "The Dark Wheel" novella that came with it.

[http://blackthorn.dk/images/sayvara/games.jpg]
Clicky for bigger.

In fact my entire computer is free of pirated software since I'm not even keeping a copy of MS Office on it any more. I even have paid licences for all my shareware, including the WinZip clone.

/S

 

[Cyborg_Incognito]

dunno where i read this, but there was an arguement for pirating games...

The Main (well, most talked about) problem with pirating is the fact that hard working developer elves get nothing in return, so it is infact "stealing, since the people who made it gain nothing from you pirating it. but isn't that the same for second hand game shops? The second hand bin at "Game Station" ect. is full of titles that developers are losing money out on, but the fat cats that run the shops are getting paid for someone elses work. so pirating is just like a seond hand bin, but the people who dont deserve the money arent getting it, so in a round a bout way, Pirating is a fairer way of game sharing.

my main point is when shops get rid of pre-owned games, we'll talk but until then, viva la pirating


any views? or should i just got back to pokemon?

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

dunno where i read this, but there was an arguement for pirating games...

The Main (well, most talked about) problem with pirating is the fact that hard working developer elves get nothing in return, so it is infact "stealing, since the people who made it gain nothing from you pirating it. but isn't that the same for second hand game shops? The second hand bin at "Game Station" ect. is full of titles that developers are losing money out on, but the fat cats that run the shops are getting paid for someone elses work. so pirating is just like a seond hand bin, but the people who dont deserve the money arent getting it, so in a round a bout way, Pirating is a fairer way of game sharing.

my main point is when shops get rid of pre-owned games, we'll talk but until then, viva la pirating


any views? or should i just got back to pokemon?

When they're pre-owned they're getting money from the original purchase price. When pirating, especially where leaks are concerned, no money is made. And only one person can buy a pre-owned game at a time. Look up the amount of downloads of a popular pirated game, that's several hundred thousand purchases that they did not have. Per game.

At least with pre-owned, they're only losing out on 18-20 purchases.

 

[Altorin]

I don't pirate games (except spore)

I do download TV shows

and I do download music

IM A MONSTER

 

[Cyborg_Incognito]

When they're pre-owned they're getting money from the original purchase price. When pirating, especially where leaks are concerned, no money is made. And only one person can buy a pre-owned game at a time. Look up the amount of downloads of a popular pirated game, that's several hundred thousand purchases that they did not have. Per game.

At least with pre-owned, they're only losing out on 18-20 purchases.

aaah I see, I don't really know about business,just an amatuer's view. was looking for opinions because im quite interested in the subject.

 

[Fronken]

You may find some interesting discourse on the subject here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.71679

 

[The Lyre]

Not anymore. Too much hassle.

I have the opposite opinion. I feel as though we've got to a point where it's less work to pirate than buy legally (and I'm not just talking about dragging yourself to the store). For example, I bought a copy of Half Life 2 at a retail store, but had such problems with the "anti-piracy" measures of Steam that I promptly went to mininova and downloaded a Steam-less version and had no problems since.

This infuriates me, pirates complaining about copyright protection. Allow me to illustrate me point with a short dialogue:

Pirate: I hate SecurROM, I'm gonna pirate this game!
Me: I'm not much of a fan of SecuROM either, but let me ask you this, why does it exist?
Pirate: Well, to stop people stealing the game I suppose...
Me: And does it work?
Pirate: No, ha ha!
Me: So what do you think they'll do now?
Pirate: Well I suppose they'll try something else.... oh, I see what you're getting at.
Me: What, that this is all your fault and people who buy legitimate copies of games are suffering because of your selfish actions?
Pirate: Well, I wouldn't have phrased it like that...
Me: No, I didn't think you would have.

EDIT: We're also not keen on threads that endorse illegal activity.

As slippery ground as this is (these discussions always end up as flame wars), I feel I need to argue this, mainly because it is worded in a fairly inflammatory way;

So, the purpose of an ineffective, inconveniant security measure is to...fail to stop piracy? If they thought that it would do nothing, then they wouldn't bother with it at all - the fact that these things are still used is evidence enough that it has some worthwhile effect on how often it is pirated.

The most successful one recently was Alone in the Dark, partially because of the whole "if this game gets pirated we'll go bankrupt" line, but also because of the protection used. It was cracked eventually, but it must have had a positive effect on sales. Therefore I have an initial problem with the idea that this protection is useless.

My second problem is that people are suffering; who exactly has experienced true suffering from this? In the worse case scenario, you have to quickly download a no-cd crack for your game, which I myself have had to do a few times, but it was not as if I 'suffered' in the slightest. I was pissed, but it was not as if the internet pirates took all my monies and foods and left me to die.

So no, those lucky enough to be able to support EA and their constant rehash of sequels by forking out pound after pound are not 'suffering'. Even if I could do so, I would not want to support the gaming industry - mainstream gaming has no creativity, initiative or self-respect these days, meaning that I'd be paying 40 pounds for an average 7 hours of gameplay...I don't call that value for money.

There are of course exceptions to the rule - I was very happy to purchase things off Steam such as the Orange Box, as that was actually value for money; I still play Team Fortress 2 and I didn't have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for it.

I also feel that your 'dialogue' is pretty childish, as the pirate is portrayed as a bumbling idiot even before the point is made - it isn't a fair, balanced, intelligent or respectful way to make your point.

And as this poll is heavily in the favour of people buying their games legally (which I too would do if I didn't have an awesome setup), it is not really endorsing piracy.

 

[Altorin]

I don't feel like quoting such a huge post, but I have to say

despite the absolutely draconian DRM EA put into Spore

it was cracked the day it came out.

heck, it was cracked and released before it came out.

So where there's a will, in piracy, there's a way, and no amount of morality attacks are going to affect the immoral.

You don't like that other people pirate, and make companies attempt to combat it with DRM? well, I don't generally do PC gaming except for WoW and older games like IWD, so I don't really care.

But the Pirates REALLY don't care. DRM just makes pirating a more popular option. And to say that every download is a lost sale is silly. Because it's simply not the case. Career Pirates don't buy games. They wouldn't buy the game if for some reason they were unable to pirate it.

I know that there's a counter argument for that, but I'm not really too invested in this thread to banter back and forth about it. Enough people buy good games for them to be successful. DRM should have some other terrific feature that makes you WANT to buy the game. Blizzard's Battle.net for instance is a great example. To join Battle.net, you need to buy the games. and because of that, I did. Many many times. Everytime I got a friend that I wanted to play Diablo 2 with for instance, I would give them my CD key and buy another one. I went through about 8 legit copies of Diablo 2, because there was a reason to want to buy the game legit over cracking it.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Aw... Couldn't you at least have made the title "video game pirate or not?"
Now you've gotten my hopes up. Although I suppose that's my fault for assuming thread with a poll about pirates made it to two pages.