Poll: Your feelings of game pirating.

[PhunkyPhazon]

I'm not for pirating a newer game simply because you're too damn lazy to buy it, but there are times where it can be a good thing. When people pirate to demo a game or see if it will work properly on their system, then it can actually help sales. (Unless the game sucks, but if that's the case then why should we care whether or not a crappy game sold well?) As for pirating older games, it depends for me. Sometimes old games are hard to find or so rare that they're ridiculously overpriced. And since the developers aren't going to see a cent of that anyways, then there really isn't any harm in pirating it. (And before someone chimes in and says the seller is a victim, there is ALWAYS another buyer. Trust me, I've had experience in the used games market) But if they're still being sold through compilation packs or a downloading service, then I say buy it.

Spoiler: I always get into debates with this subject, so I went ahead and just typed my arguments here. I know I will be anyways, so I'm just doing it now to get it over with =P

So yes, I think pirating can be justified. And yes, I've heard the counter-arguments, and I still find them to be (mostly) bullshit. The two most common ones I hear is that pirating is a crime and is therefore wrong no matter what you do, and that developers have a right to protect their software, which means you should buy it. Both ring true, but that doesn't make them argument stoppers. In regards to the first, there's a reason pirating is so rampant. It's because hardly anyone cares that it's a crime. If the FBI were to seriously start prosecuting everyone who pirates, there would be millions upon millions in jail. Yeah, they occasionally bust someone to try to scare everyone else, but the reality is that it rarely happens and the scare tactic doesn't work. Yeah, it's a crime, albeit an extremely petty one and in a lot of cases, victimless.

As for developers having a right to defend their property, I simply say we consumers also have a right to defend our money. I have always said that PC developers should always put out a demo. People can see if they like it and test it out to see if it will run properly on their system. After all, if you buy a PC game, you can't really return it. You can get some of your money back perhaps, but basically you've wasted money. While it is true you need to know your specs before you buy a game, you can't always get a good picture of how the game will run just by looking at the chart on the back of the box. For those of you with high end systems, fine. But I've seen plenty of gamers who have specs that are relatively mixed. For example, I have a high quality processor, a good sound card, and tons of RAM, but my video card is a little unreliable. (And no, I won't "just upgrade it." The computer was a gift and I'm not made of money) Some current games work great, others work like crap. If I'm not sure how it will run, then I look for a torrent. If it runs fine, I buy the game. If it doesn't, I delete all data and never look at it again. And don't give me the "You're just justifying this heinous crime" argument. Save that argument for someone who pirates truly just because they're too lazy to buy it. Or would you rather I let developers make me their ***** and rip me off since they didn't put out a demo?

Oh, and in light of the Ubisoft controversy, I'm not sure where I stand on pirating out of protest. I'm gonna have to wait and see what happens with that. Either Ubi clamps down harder on piracy, or they learn their lesson and drop this retarded DRM. We should find out in about a month or so, I think.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I think it's justifiable if you already have the game and the disc gets scratched up or if it's a "I will never EVER pay money to play this game, but I at leat want to try it out" kind of thing. Or if a game has extremely little content when compated to the retail price. I'm looking at you Honda civic vs capcom.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I don't have ethical issues with certain limited applications of software piracy, but personally I've never engaged in it, and unlike music, where I greatly prefer purchasing things but will download at the drop of a hat if thwarted in my attempts to give them my money [small](thwarted in this case meaning "not available electronically from a reputable distribution source", as anything I'm looking for that isn't is either an import, out of circulation, or otherwise unavailable new)[/small], it never even occurs to me to resort to piracy with video games.

It's just not something I do.

 

[AWAR]

I do visit torrent sites quite a lot. The attitude of 'OOOOH PIRACY IS BAD BECUZ ITS GUNNA MESS UP THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND COOPERATIN' is created by propaganda and lies.

I see nothing wrong in pirating a game.If you like it then buy it
Pirating music is actually beneficial to the music industry.

 

[Karma Ninja]

I can understand perfectly well why some people pirate games. I myself have pirated games, but only ones I couldn't find anywhere else (One exception).
I can count on 1 hand the games I've pirated; BG(+ exp), BGII(+ exp), Planescape: Torment, Diablo 1. (Diablo being the exception, but I plan on buying full box set of Diablo 1-3 plus expansions, if it ever comes out which it better!!).
I've also bought PC games as well. About a 1:1 ratio of pirated games and bought games. So I guess you can balance it out and say I just never bought any games. (This is for PC only, I buy all my console games.)
But I can also understand why people are against it.

 

[Booze Zombie]

"If you like the game, pay for it, if you don't, don't play the game."

That said, some people do actually pirate games so they can try them out before actually paying for the game.
Perhaps if modern games had "trial versions" which operated for 6 hours so as to give the player a taste of the game?

Might remove otherwise well-meaning consumers from the crosshairs of companies trying to stop pirating.

 

[Sakash]

I do visit torrent sites quite a lot. The attitude of 'OOOOH PIRACY IS BAD BECUZ ITS GUNNA MESS UP THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND COOPERATIN' is created by propaganda and lies.

I see nothing wrong in pirating a game.If you like it then buy it
Pirating music is actually beneficial to the music industry.

The biggest mistake the industry makes is assuming that everyone that has pirated their product would have actually bought it to begin with

 

[reg42]

I have pirated in the past, due to the fact that I'm 16 and not made of cash, but I can't do it anymore. I stopped a while back, because:
A. I started feeling pretty guilty
B. I get more from a game if I actually own it. Same with CD's.

 

[Rangergord]

idk It does depend. are we strictly speaking copy current games with possible good revenue streams that directly influence the current game market.

AS far as I'm concerned good game need be purchased, it hopefully tells some nimrod market dept that yes we want more.
I understand wanting to protect new games and intellectual property. The veiw of most companies of things like "we're juist testing , not really priating" from tens of thousands of people sounds more like this: I'm not stealing your car, just be testing it for the night, so don't panic, and your insurance company won't mind at all if it happens 3.5 million times in the next week when my friends come over too. We're good right?

>BUT< if you don't actually give me the opt of paying to play b/c your marketing dept said the numbers might be bad, someone forgot it existed, or just does not care that the license rots in limnbo. Well guess what...a pirates emerges.

IF you are no longer gaining no revenue stream on a product is there a reason for the distribution copyright at all? You are literally protecting no vested interests for the purpose of just pure control...In these cases Many copyrights seem less about protection, and more you shall obey:consumer freedom and individual taste is up to us, and anyhting we don't want you to see is a lie and federal offense. sounds like soviet information control in the vail of capitalism.

And in this case I do understand and have not probelms with privateers.

Not just games but other things like movies or TV...Disney and their fucking vault of stuff...we have the copyright for 20 years, but have no plans to release this title or even attempt to garner profit from it..ever.
Will guess what, if your seeking no profit b/c you refuse to distrubte its easy to see how copyight starts to look more like censorship that needs to be taken down.

One last thing, What about a game that is considered abandonware now and becomes licensed again....does that mean the abandonware I had for say 3 or 4 years for private legal use is now illegal? IF so this demonstrates just how the industry is trying to alter basic concept of ownership to favor themsevles at the cost of comsumer rights.


BTW classic X-men arcade, AVP arcade,Simpson arcade, Narc acrade DLCs for consoles (NOT Portables)...I'm waiting and would pay!!!

 

[invitationofchaos]

I am both a pirater and a piratee. As such i don't see the point of saying the piracy is evil and destroying the future of the entertainment industry. the torrent isn't illegal nor is the site hosting the torrent. what is illegal is whatever the torrent is linking to. Most of the time these links do lead to half-life 2, or painkiller, or mass effect( just adding a few of the games i've put torrents for.), but then there are indie developers and artists who use such sites as a way to get their name out, grow a fan base, and become successful hopefully. Take, for example call of duty MW2 for pc, if you want to torrent it, oh it's there for your enjoyment of the single player story, but to get to the core of the game you need to be online and valve has made damn sure that cracked patches are fixed within weeks or days. so your alternative would be to actually buy the fucking game to have the full enjoyment of it. not only that most games are under that aggravating games for windows moniker and as suck, for those who have a 360 must go through the hassle of installing the key and making or linking a 360 account to the bastard. so instead of dealing with the pointless shenanigans of microsoft's annoying game system, get the leaked copy and play offline, mission complete, but if you want to hear the annoying 13-year-old, screaming-into-headset demographic that is the Games for windows/ Xbox online "experience"(i call it a hassle, but i digress), you'd have to own the game and have the key to get online.

sorry about the lil'tangent i went on about microsoft, but it justifies the point of torrenting. to an extent, you'll need the game in it's physical form to enjoy the full experience of said game at hand. as for me, ill stick with walking in the gray with this topic. it'll never truly be settled because of the finger-waving imbeciles dogmatism to only see the evil and not even turn their heads 180 degrees to see that there's more to it than that, and people like jack thompson exist.

 

[Brad Shepard]

No stealing, it just hurts people, and then people complain about DRMs, and right when a game doesent have stuff like that (Demigod anyone?) people steal the ever loving shit out of it to the point where they shut it down (Or just limit it, i dont know) so its wrong, end of story.

 

[Samcanuck]

I remember a year and back before the Wii got started. I used to always download Rom's with the old Zsnes. And then the Wii came out and I couldn't find any Roms from my old sites. Emu emulator for instance. And thats a real shame.

Not saying its right or not, but I'm so used to free Snes download that it seems kinda wrong that Rom's arent free any longer.

 

[Pegghead]

I tend to look at game pirating the same way I look at sneaking into a movie. You're only being a cheap git by breaking the law to avoid paying the pittance of a price admission is compared to the budget of the film and so you have no right to complain in ANY way shape or form when someone points out the flaws of what you're doing.

 

[MrWhippeh]

I don't think it's right but in the past if I was very bored I'd pirate a PC game that I wouldn't ever consider worth buying. If proved wrong and it is good I'd buy it before getting too far into it, which has been the case with 2 games so far. I couldn't rent them since they're on PC and would need a registration and at the time I only had a Wii as far as console's went (if they can even be called a console anymore, damn my zelda fanboy needs for making me get one!).

I do still pirate the occasional anime series since the DVD's are so overpriced for someone who really isn't that into them (except fullmetal alchemist). All music I get is through iTunes and it will stay that way as it's well worth it.

 

[Nvv]

I have to admit I do pirate, but mostly old games or unavailable ones (unavailable for me).
I like to buy the games of developers I feel do a really good job, like Bethesda, Bioware or Valve. Something that many of my friends laugh at, and say that I'm wasting my money etc.

So I guess I'm a Pirate so to speak, but not a very bad one...

 

[snow]

piracy of games released in this day in age are the reason why companies are shitting bricks and legal buyers have to deal with Steam... And that makes me a saaaaad Panda...Fox...

 

[AndyRock]

I'm a little low on money so any games I buy, I test them first to make sure that they are any good, as a result I have never bought a game I don't like (and I have about 30 games)

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Well... I've never pirated a game, and I don't plan on doing so...
So I suppose I am against game piracy.
Although there was this one really old game which can be downloaded... so tempting, but not sure if it is legal... So I won't risk it.

 

[deadagain33]

the amount of people on here admitting to piracy makes it a hot topic for the FBI
I see piracy as okay if you would have never brought the item , this means no money is lost on the developers, and more people enjoy or dislike the game

 

[AngloDoom]

I don't think it's right, yet I'll admit to doing it.