Poll: Torrenting Games

[Demonraiser]

I'm very anti-piracy and whatnot when it comes to movies, but IDGARA about torrenting games. I just don't do it too often.

I'm kinda surprised I worked out what that acronym meant.

I try to avoid it when the developer is still alive. I actually just recently bought Thief 3 to find out what The Cradle was all about. And I'm sure you can find a lot of the oldies you're looking for on GoG.com (or at least some)

You are one of very few to solve it despite it being a popular and common expression (assuming you got it right).

I figured it out right away

On Topic: If its a multiplayer game, I buy it. If its a single player game I will torrent it, and if it doesnt suck I will buy it to support the developers. My case in point is World Of Goo.

 

[CoziestPigeon]

You should add an option for if the game is now impossible to find.

 

[Whistler777]

When is it acceptable if ever? Where does the majority of the escapist morals, relating to this important issue regarding the future of the games industry, lie? Is there ever justifcation, or is it simply okay with you and more or less all your games are presents from China. Is there a special ring of hell for people who torrent games?

If you have an alternate argument or a different opinion, tell us!

My version of Dead Space can only be installed 5 times, and I'm on my third install now, so when my game becomes useless, i'm going to download it illegally and play it as I've paid for it.
I think that's completely justified. What say you, Escapists?
Also, IDGARA is I don't give Rat's arse.

That's perfectly fine.

I torrent games when they're simply not worth buying, which would explain why I have 200GB of ISOs on my WD Elements. To be fair, though, about 80GB of that is simply me backing up my own game discs.

 

[El Taco the Rogue]

I think if you cant get it, or if youve paid in some form its fine. I downloaded copies of all my bought psp games so I dont have to cart my umds around. I think thats acceptable.

 

[YuheJi]

It's never acceptable. It's essentially theft. If your disk is broken, return it for a new one. If you bought the game and lost it, too bad. If you lose your laptop, you cant just steal one, you have to replace it a proper way. It the same with games. Just because you owned a copy of the game does not entitle you to get other copies of it for life. If the game is no longer sold, then there is a good chance that it can be found somewhere on the internet from someone who is giving it out for free or at a minimal price. Seriously, this issue makes me mad.

Pirating games is nothing like theft. Pirating a game takes away the potential of a customer buying that game. It does not remove a boxed copy from a store, and that customer most likely pirated because he or she wouldn't have bought it in the first place. It isn't quite so easy to return a disk for a new one if, say, the publisher is now out of business. Lots of people, myself, included, feel that buying a game means buying the files that lets one play the games, not just buying the disk.

 

[Twilight_guy]

It's never acceptable. It's essentially theft. If your disk is broken, return it for a new one. If you bought the game and lost it, too bad. If you lose your laptop, you cant just steal one, you have to replace it a proper way. It the same with games. Just because you owned a copy of the game does not entitle you to get other copies of it for life. If the game is no longer sold, then there is a good chance that it can be found somewhere on the internet from someone who is giving it out for free or at a minimal price. Seriously, this issue makes me mad.

Pirating games is nothing like theft. Pirating a game takes away the potential of a customer buying that game. It does not remove a boxed copy from a store, and that customer most likely pirated because he or she wouldn't have bought it in the first place. It isn't quite so easy to return a disk for a new one if, say, the publisher is now out of business. Lots of people, myself, included, feel that buying a game means buying the files that lets one play the games, not just buying the disk.

Um... first, the company owns the game, which basically means that they own the code. If you download the game, you are copying that code. Since the company owns the code and it wants you to pay to copy it and you did not, you are stealing (or doing something illegal).

Second, yeah I'm sure some people wouldn't have bought it anyways, but I know for a fact that some people download the games just to not have to pay for them. No one can say the exact ratio of price-dodgers to not-play-otherwiser, but I'm sure more then a few bucks has been lost to people downloading to avoid paying.

Third, unless someone likes to keep their copies of games in boxes and look at them for long periods of time without playing them, I'm sure the company is not out of business when you first get a game. If it has been a while since the game has been out, then stores will most likely exchange it for a new copy (assuming that the store has a good return policy) or refund your money. If you buy the game from somewhere (like a garage sale) that is all sales final, then suck to be you. If you are playing a disk that you have had for a while and has broken, then once again, sucks to be you (usually a mishandling of the disk is the only thing that does this anyways). Old games can be re-bought for cheap.

I'm not sure how you can buy a disk and be stuck with it. Returns of retails copies are easy enough and digital download copies can be refunded with a call to the company (and some aggravation). Please give me an example of a time where someone bought a disk and was stuck with a broke disk that they couldn't get their money back for, please.

 

[Canadian Fodder]

I prefer to only torrent roms and old games where the devs are not making any more money off it. However I might get the odd new small game to play around but I've never downloaded something worth over 20$

 

[Flying-Emu]

The only time it's acceptable to torrent a game is if you purchased the game already and have a faulty copy/ruined disc or if purchasing the title would give nothing to the original developer (For example, it's perfectly acceptable to torrent Thief 1 and Thief 2: The Dark Age since Looking Glass Studios went under).

 

[blankedboy]

I lol'd, because I'm pirating Peggle right now. But this is the only time I've ever done it.

 

[ChocoFace]

It is acceptable if:

* You bought it, and the disc is gone and/or broken.
* The game is no longer published, and therefore almost impossible to get a hold of.
* The game is not being published in your region, nor will be.

I'd like to add one more and that is downloading the game before it's sold in your region, and buying the physical copy of the game once it is.
Some people get their games way later than others *sob*

 

[IxionIndustries]

It's annoying. Everytime I try to, it takes so long, I have to leave my computer on through the night and while I'm in class. Which take sup so much electricity the bills overtake the cost of buying the game in the first place.

That's why you do it En masse...
{EDIT: Scratch that. Lots of downloads really clogs up the tubes..}


I do torrent a lot, generally because, since I move a lot, nearly all of my game manuals are gone, taking the CD-keys with em. I don't bother to write them down, because then I forget where I wrote them down at.

......I don't care anyways, so I'll torrent whatever I want, whenever.

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

It's against the law. Simple as that.

That's why I find it acceptable.

Touche.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

It's never acceptable. It's essentially theft. If your disk is broken, return it for a new one. If you bought the game and lost it, too bad. If you lose your laptop, you cant just steal one, you have to replace it a proper way. It the same with games. Just because you owned a copy of the game does not entitle you to get other copies of it for life. If the game is no longer sold, then there is a good chance that it can be found somewhere on the internet from someone who is giving it out for free or at a minimal price. Seriously, this issue makes me mad.

Pirating games is nothing like theft. Pirating a game takes away the potential of a customer buying that game. It does not remove a boxed copy from a store, and that customer most likely pirated because he or she wouldn't have bought it in the first place. It isn't quite so easy to return a disk for a new one if, say, the publisher is now out of business. Lots of people, myself, included, feel that buying a game means buying the files that lets one play the games, not just buying the disk.

Um... first, the company owns the game, which basically means that they own the code. If you download the game, you are copying that code. Since the company owns the code and it wants you to pay to copy it and you did not, you are stealing (or doing something illegal).

Second, yeah I'm sure some people wouldn't have bought it anyways, but I know for a fact that some people download the games just to not have to pay for them. No one can say the exact ratio of price-dodgers to not-play-otherwiser, but I'm sure more then a few bucks has been lost to people downloading to avoid paying.

Third, unless someone likes to keep their copies of games in boxes and look at them for long periods of time without playing them, I'm sure the company is not out of business when you first get a game. If it has been a while since the game has been out, then stores will most likely exchange it for a new copy (assuming that the store has a good return policy) or refund your money. If you buy the game from somewhere (like a garage sale) that is all sales final, then suck to be you. If you are playing a disk that you have had for a while and has broken, then once again, sucks to be you (usually a mishandling of the disk is the only thing that does this anyways). Old games can be re-bought for cheap.

I'm not sure how you can buy a disk and be stuck with it. Returns of retails copies are easy enough and digital download copies can be refunded with a call to the company (and some aggravation). Please give me an example of a time where someone bought a disk and was stuck with a broke disk that they couldn't get their money back for, please.

Really, don't waste your breath YuheJi.

"If you have bought the game, but the disc has broken"

If you bought a car and it broke, is it legal to steal a new car that is the same model? No. Only legal case I've seen for torrenting games was with America's Army, where the game was [legally] free and one of the ways they distributed it was through torrents...

Wow, totally not an overused and un-apt analogy there.

Piracy is not theft. It is infringement of copyright. You do not deprive the owner of the original. The worst you are doing is depriving them of the potential to sell it to you, something you also do by choosing not to buy the game.

I'm not gonna debate the legality/morality of torrenting, but it is NOT theft. Stop comparing them.

He says it better than I(can be assed to)can. Just chalk this "experience" upto another ignorant person on their moral high horse and continue on. Like someone else said earlier on, IDGARA to be honest either. I torrent games, what will you do about that? The right answer is nothing, cause you can't.

 

[AngloDoom]

It's never okay, although I admit I'd do it if I wanted a game and could get it for free.

Hypocritical? You bet, but I hate buying a game and thinking "this took me seven hours to earn."

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

It's not acceptable, really. But I just don't care.

I feel the same, my friend recreates PSX games by recompiling them for chipped consoles. I don't give a monkies left eyelid. I did have an N64 emulator, but I've deleted it now simply because it is boring, and I don't want it. People who copy games are people who don't buy them, that's how I see it, but I like buying games, because I know that I'm keeping the developers that I like in the money. Buying games is like giving to charity, you only give to charity because you agree with what they're doing, and I agree with game developers.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

I'm perfectly fine with torrenting, because I hate capitalism and if the game is shit it doesn't matter, I spent nothing.

 

[zooloo99]

I used to download all my games, then stopped when I discovered the wonders of disposible income
I usually torrent if the game is Abandonware, Banned in Australia, Too old to buy anywhere or if the game seems to be really crap but everyone is going on about it like it's the second coming.
I usually buy my games if they're cheap, are a special collectors edition or have multiplayer.

I also sometimes buy legit copies of games I downloaded, to support the developers for NOT making a generic Halo clone.

 

[Eleuthera]

I used to download all my games, then stopped when I discovered the wonders of disposible income

This.

Also torrenting is not (always) pirating and there is no such thing as illegal downloading where I live (uploading is illegal though).

And downloading backups is completely fina as well, I've bought (usually) the right to play the game, how I get that game should not matter.

 

[Epitome]

i just find it amusing seeing my mates with a downloaded game that still has the copywrite warning opening scene

I love that , "You wouldnt steal a movie!" - shows what you know

Honest though i dont download THAT much, like i have emulators for snes and sega classics but thats in the interest of historical preservation. I replace games i once had but the discs are long broke or teh codes long missing. Way i see it if im paying for the licence and not the game then I should still have that licence after my disc is broken.