The Problem with Piracy...

[NeutralMunchHotel]

... is that it's incredibly hard to justify stopping.

Allow me to elaborate: for my birthday last year, I recieved a DS Lite and an R4. I got an R4 because my mum's nephews had one, and it came 'highly recommended' from her sister. Before this point, I'd heard about an R4, but never really considered using one because I never had a DS, nor did I particularly want one (I've played it for nearly a year now, and I can safely say that I was wrong to not want one!).

It turned out that by merely owning an R4, I only had one choice: to pirate games. This is from this simple fact, and the crux of my piracy arguement: one you have the means to free stuff, it is impossible to justify buying it. Well not impossible, but very, very hard. Let me put you into a situation: you can save up all your extra money for two weeks and purchase a copy of 'Scribblenauts', and you have an R4 and can download it immediately, for free. As with all piracy, there are no reprocussions (that may be about to change in the near future, however). Even worse though is the fact that you have to spend all your spare money (that could go towards anything else) on this game. That you could get for free. Easily.

I chose that hypothetical situation because it was one that I was in a year ago (change Scribblenauts to Professor Layton, but you have the idea). I contemplated buying the game. I even saved up for a week for it. But, in the end, the inevitable happened: I downloaded a ROM. I did what any sane person would do in that situation, and got a free copy rather than what would effectively be throwing away £25.

And that one anecdote is really it. The thing is, if you know you can get it (game, music, film, anything) for free, with absolutely no negative side effects, then why the hell shouldn't you do it? Because it's illegal. And it is, but so many people do it, why should you be the one chump who has to pay, especially when money is so tight now?

So, Escapists, my question is this: what is your view on my view?

Note:No-one on their high horses, saying how it's me who is ruining the world. Unless you have evidence to back up your claim, I will remove your comment from my reality and substitute my own.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

I do not really consider stealing to be the "sane man's option."

 

[CIA]

Its a good view. Seems about right.

 

[3rd rung]

I persona;;y chose to buy certain thing like move DVDs and music because I really like them. I have no problems giving my money to a band that i like I rather do it then steal there music. Certian movies yes I have no problem watching for free but others I want to buy it because of how much I like it

 

[Nevyrmoore]

And it is, but so many people do it, why should you be the one chump who has to pay, especially when money is so tight now?

Because by buying it, you are supporting the people who created the games. By pirating it, no money goes towards the game developers, and you may find in the future that genuinely great games will no longer be made, as more people appearing to be buying "Generic Shooty Guy #178".

 

[Xvito]

Piracy shouldn't be against the law.

The companies that whine, they need to come up with things that solve this problem (see. Blizzard). It's just a new way of transporting media... And it's free, as long as the companies don't capitalize on it that is. In my opinion they were fools not to do anything (creative) about it earlier.

 

[oppp7]

Ok, example (I think): When Demigod came out, it was so pirated that the servers couldn't handle it. Few people bought the game, but the servers were still full. I think they fixed the issue in a later update, though.

And it's not that it's destroying games, it's irritating the developers. They don't really have a reason for making a game if it's going to be pirated. Piracy can be a deterrent for game design (although that argument is hypothetical as of now). Or they could add retarded DRM into the games, such as Spore.

 

[iggyus]

Amen to that

 

[Jedamethis]

And it is, but so many people do it, why should you be the one chump who has to pay, especially when money is so tight now?

Because by buying it, you are supporting the people who created the games. By pirating it, no money goes towards the game developers, and you may find in the future that genuinely great games will no longer be made, as more people appearing to be buying "Generic Shooty Guy #178".

Well said, It destroys genuinely good games because 'nobody' buys them

 

[Avaholic03]

Hey, whatever you gotta tell yourself. You could always, you know, get a better job to subsidize your expensive habits. Or get better at budgeting the money you have. Don't claim that piracy is your only logical option...you're just greedy and want more stuff for less money.

 

[L4hlborg]

Think of it this way. If everybody pirated games (And i do mean every single gamer), there wouldnt be too many games. Yeah, why should you be the one who pays? Why should I? Why should anyone here? Why should anyone in the world?

You got logic in your statement, but you havent really thought of things in a larger scale. No, you wont ruin the world. But 6 billion yous will.

 

[firehawk259]

ive been doing all tht illegal stuff but now i am seeing the light...

im starting to get music more from albums and itunes now

think of it this way, when u buy it ur giving money to the band, so they may continue to make great music, they have to make their money, just like us

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Hey, whatever you gotta tell yourself. You could always, you know, get a better job to subsidize your expensive habits. Or get better at budgeting the money you have. Don't claim that piracy is your only logical option...you're just greedy and want more stuff for less money.

I can't help but feel you misunderstood my point.

The thing is, it's impossible to justify buying games once you have the means to get them for free. Try this: get a game for your birthday, then save up to buy it again. It's quite hard to do.

 

[Nincompoop]

Your view is sound.

Most of what I pirate I wouldn't buy anyways. So although it is morally and ethically questionable, I'm not doing any damage. That is mostly not doing any damage.

 

[Avaholic03]

Hey, whatever you gotta tell yourself. You could always, you know, get a better job to subsidize your expensive habits. Or get better at budgeting the money you have. Don't claim that piracy is your only logical option...you're just greedy and want more stuff for less money.

I can't help but feel you misunderstood my point.

The thing is, it's impossible to justify buying games once you have the means to get them for free. Try this: get a game for your birthday, then save up to buy it again. It's quite hard to do.

I understood you perfectly. You could also steal cars and TVs and every other item you "need". Does that mean you shouldn't pay for them? Absolutely not. Stealing is stealing...you're just trying to find weak justification to make yourself feel better about it. I'm pretty sure bank robbers tell themselves "why should I work for money when I can just take it"? It doesn't make it right. Getting a gift is not the same as stealing/pirating, so your example is moot.

 

[UkibyTheMaid]

If the game/movie/cd is REEEEEALLY good, I buy it. Hell, I have acollection of over 20 original DS games, and I have an R4, but that's mostly because I'm a retard who wants to pretty cover and the nicety nice instructions booklet that comes with the game (like when I bought my copy of Pikmin 2 for the GameCube).

I mean, if want, I could buy all the games that I have on my r4 card, but I really don't feel like buying all versions of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon or all of the Phoenix Wright series (specially because the second one is a pain to find here in my country).

But, I agree with your opinion. If the thing is at hand, and for free, why would you pay for it? Also, some of the games I bought I only did because I had the copied version in the first place (after all, I only bought my Metroid Prime Trilogy box because I had played the copied version of 2 and 3 and I loved them).

In the end, for me, 'piracy' end up being a type of advertisemente and test run.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Hey, whatever you gotta tell yourself. You could always, you know, get a better job to subsidize your expensive habits. Or get better at budgeting the money you have. Don't claim that piracy is your only logical option...you're just greedy and want more stuff for less money.

I can't help but feel you misunderstood my point.

The thing is, it's impossible to justify buying games once you have the means to get them for free. Try this: get a game for your birthday, then save up to buy it again. It's quite hard to do.

I understood you perfectly. You could also steal cars and TVs and every other item you "need". Does that mean you shouldn't pay for them? Absolutely not. Stealing is stealing...you're just trying to find weak justification to make yourself feel better about it. I'm pretty sure bank robbers tell themselves "why should I work for money when I can just take it"? It doesn't make it right. Getting a gift is not the same as stealing/pirating, so your example is moot.

If that's the kind of view you want to take, then I accept it.

 

[Vordark]

Speaking as someone who knows a bit about the industry, I'll give you some background.

The mainstream games you see (for example, Bioshock) cost an average of twenty to thirty million dollars to create. This is the cost that the developers pay. The publishers of the games, with whom the developers have a contract, usually give the devs of such things an advance of a few million. This is a loan.

Using this loan, venture capital (more loans) and proper loans from banks, the developers put the game together and turn it over to the publisher to ship it when it's done. All of these loans have to be paid back through royalties which are contracted payments from the publisher to the developer based directly on the copies sold. Once the loans are paid, the developer gets the royalties as profits and/or invests them to help pay for the next game.

So we have a fact: Every copy of the game sold means money to pay off loans or put in the pockets of the people who made the game. If someone doesn't buy the game, but downloads and plays it anyway, the developers don't get any money from that copy.

Argue philosophy or your "rights" all you want, these are the facts. You'll have to determine for yourself whether it is morally acceptable for you to benefit from someone else's work without compensating them.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Argue philosophy or your "rights" all you want, these are the facts. You'll have to determine for yourself whether it is morally acceptable for you to benefit from someone else's work without compensating them.

It's not. I fully admit that, it's not.

I would put something here, but I've said it all in detail in my full post.

But just so you know, I'm not in any way justifying that. I am, after all, only human, who has other needs as well as entertainment.

 

[Low Key]

If you pirate a game and you like it, you should do what you can to buy it.