Poll: Your feelings of game pirating.

[auronvi]

Now I have been a gamer for a while. Pirating has been around almost as long as file sharing on the internet has been widely available. Whether it was napster and downloading music or now we have torrents and pretty much any digital media available to download whenever we want.

PSP pirating, NDS flash carts and pirating, hacking of xboxes and wiis. These are all done by a lot of people and I know some of you escapist are doing some form of it. How do you feel about it?

I know it's wrong, but gaming is an expensive hobby. That doesn't make it not illegal but that is a reason to pirate. I remember reading a poll somewhere that the people who actually did pirate video games were among the people who also spent the most on video games per year. Would they spend more money on games if they couldn't pirate? Probably not. Most people have fixed incomes.

My opinion is that no one should go to jail over downloading NES roms, old arcade games or stuff like that. Basically things that are over 10 years old and the companies are not even making that much money off of anymore. If you are a hardcore pirate and just download everything for the sake of having it and redistributing it to people. That is wrong. Also if you ever pirate something and then turn around and sell it to someone. That is flat out wrong and if caught should do time or pay hefty fines.

What do you guys think?

 

[BlumiereBleck]

wheres the "meh" option? but if your that nerdy to hack a game, and now pirate(YAAAAAR) one then a no life for ye scurvy ker

 

[auronvi]

Sorry, hit enter and accidentally posted too soon! FIXXED!

 

[The Rockerfly]

Pirating is stealing a recreational good, it is never a good thing

 

[Snotnarok]

Pirating is such a touchy subject, you can't always call people out on it which I think is much of the comedy I see in discussions like this.

I got someone yelling at me one time because I downloaded a rom from a oooold game that I don't even recall anymore. The developer/publisher were no longer in business, they had no collections which I could buy the game on, so what do I do? Buy it off ebay so some PERSON can get money and not the developers? That makes no sense in any fashion.

The last time I pirated a game it was Gears of War, because I wanted to see if my system could handle it at the time, and lo, it did and I now own Gears of War. Do I feel like that counts as pirating? No, because there's no demo, I knew no one with it and you cannot return opened PC games, so how can I see if it works besides a test?

Do I agree with pirating? No, I like supporting the developer so they keep making the games I like. Have I pirated? Do you count the above as pirating?

 

[Avaholic03]

Pirating is one option to try out the game before buying a real copy (especially since Game Fly doesn't do PC games). I think game developers should quit spending money on anti-piracy measures. It's enough that pirated games can't access online servers, so multiplayer isn't an option. That removes enough functionality that, if someone loves the game that much, they'll probably buy the real thing.

I don't like modding consoles for any reason, especially piracy. You have no reason to...just rent games if you want to try them out. That, IMO, is where piracy crosses the line.

 

[Olrod]

I may consider acquiring a pirated copy of a game if it's a game that's no longer available in the shops, because it's old and out of circulation.

This also applies to games that are for sale in other countries, but will never be given a release in my country of residence, such as Grandia III only ever being released in Japan & America and not the EU/AU. If I had the opportunity, I'd have absolutely no qualms about getting a pirated copy of that.

 

[rokkolpo]

i have pirated music.

no games yet.
nor do i care, a friend of mine has about 300 games all pirated.

 

[kampori]

I have never, and will NEVER EVER partake in piracy of movies, video games, music, tv shows.. nothing. Piracy is wrong, illegal and RIDICULOUSLY STUPID. Because of people who do piracy.. the music industry & especially films, are doomed.
I feel no sympathy to those who do it, and do not feel bad about saying so. Its wrong of you, and that's that. Be it crap games, old games, new games (music/movies/tv shows etc).. its wrong. Stop it. Please. For the sake of us who enjoy going to a cinema to see movies, or picking up the newest video game.

 

[gostchiken]

Feels good man.

 

[Snotnarok]

I have never, and will NEVER EVER partake in piracy of movies, video games, music, tv shows.. nothing. Piracy is wrong, illegal and RIDICULOUSLY STUPID. Because of people who do piracy.. the music industry & especially films, are doomed.
I feel no sympathy to those who do it, and do not feel bad about saying so. Its wrong of you, and that's that. Be it crap games, old games, new games (music/movies/tv shows etc).. its wrong. Stop it. Please. For the sake of us who enjoy going to a cinema to see movies, or picking up the newest video game.

I'm not disagreeing with you here/questioning your firm stance on this but you said old games and I felt the need to ask.

What about games that are no longer in circulation the company is gone and are not available by any means other than buying it from someone on ebay, because that does not support the developer and helps no one but the ebay guy.

 

[AvsJoe]

I've pirated before.
I don't do it anymore.
It's against my morals so to speak.
I, for one, am not a thief.
But I don't care enough to
Alert the authorities of you.
This means that I am part
Of the problems facing this art.

...

Oh well.

- I don't care, a poem by The Escapist AvsJoe.

 

[auronvi]

Feels good man.

So... you are all for pirating?

I have never, and will NEVER EVER partake in piracy of movies, video games, music, tv shows.. nothing. Piracy is wrong, illegal and RIDICULOUSLY STUPID. Because of people who do piracy.. the music industry & especially films, are doomed.
I feel no sympathy to those who do it, and do not feel bad about saying so. Its wrong of you, and that's that. Be it crap games, old games, new games (music/movies/tv shows etc).. its wrong. Stop it. Please. For the sake of us who enjoy going to a cinema to see movies, or picking up the newest video game.

Oh c'mon? Not even abandonware? This is software where the company has gone under, no one owns the rights to the game anymore and is actually LEGAL to download and distribute! This accounts for over half the nes, snes, genesis and older games. I guess that technically isn't pirating but w/e.

 

[kampori]

I have never, and will NEVER EVER partake in piracy of movies, video games, music, tv shows.. nothing. Piracy is wrong, illegal and RIDICULOUSLY STUPID. Because of people who do piracy.. the music industry & especially films, are doomed.
I feel no sympathy to those who do it, and do not feel bad about saying so. Its wrong of you, and that's that. Be it crap games, old games, new games (music/movies/tv shows etc).. its wrong. Stop it. Please. For the sake of us who enjoy going to a cinema to see movies, or picking up the newest video game.

I'm not disagreeing with you here/questioning your firm stance on this but you said old games and I felt the need to ask.

What about games that are no longer in circulation the company is gone and are not available by any means other than buying it from someone on ebay, because that does not support the developer and helps no one but the ebay guy.

Ok, I see what you mean here, and I bit my bullet a little bit.. but IMHO, game developers that have gone under, I no longer consider downloading these movies/games as piracy. Because as you said, the developers/makers/owners get nothing out of it.. it now no longer belongs to them. Therefore, in this situation FOR ME AT LEAST, I do not consider it piracy.

Kind of contradictory, but you see where I'm coming from, kind of?

 

[Kaymish]

well i use to but not anymore and even when i did it was games from the 90's that i didnt feel warranted the full retail price of a more modern AAA title and besides now days the $100 for a new PC game is not that much when you look at it and i just cant be bothered pirating though the new DRM systems scare me a little bit

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I have never personally pirated a game, but I have no real qualms with it. Now if you're doing it with new games to avoid the cost, well you're a douche. But if you're doing it because the game is hard to find or is just old, then who really cares (other than the developer I guess)?

 

[Chris Sharka]

Eh, I've not found a reason to do it myself, but I don't care about "piracy" if you own the game in question. Why pirate then? Well if your game for some reason unplayable i.e. the disc became scratched somehow.

Also, I guess I never though about people pirating old games. If there's absolutely no way for you to get a game otherwise, I guess I don't care.

Lawyers and courts may disagree. I wouldn't know.

 

[Lidrial]

I download pirated games, movies and music mainly because I'm lacking in money. I do also buy games, movies and music when I want to.
I download nds games 'cause then I can play whatever games I want without haveing it spend money on them when I may not even like them very much (eg. Viva Pinata). Also I'll download games if they aren't released in Australia yet or never will be (eg. Downloading the jap version of Pokemon heart gold and patching it so I didn't have to wait for the english version to come out).
Most of the movies I download are ones that arn't sold in Australia (eg. Dr Horribles sing-a-long blog) or are very hard to find (eg. Repo! The Genetic Opera) or subbed animes which haven't been released with dubs (or that have crappy 4Kids dubbs).