What are people's views on piracy (of games)?

[GideonB]

I generally pirate games that are either:
A. Cannot be found in the UK or are just too expensive to even be worth purchasing
B. Are on consoles that I emulate e.g. NES, GBA, SNES etc.
C. I want to try out the game before I buy it.

But anyone who pirates just constantly is retarded, especially when it's an indie developer because those people need the money more than any big company and there games are generally better than most mainstream games, but piracy is generally good only for retro games and games that are just really fucking hard to get or are not in your region where you live and you can't import it in any way!

 

[Mekado]

If a fledgling studio puts out a bad game, but at least makes money, they can learn from their mistakes and grow and evolve to become a better studio.

If a game studio makes a shitty game and still makes money they'll go on making shitty games...

The only thing i "pirated" the last 5 years is Neverwinter nights 1 , for the (imo) good reason that my cd is cracked and atari wants to charge me 30$ to replace it (are you kidding, that's what i paid the game like 5 years ago???)

I don't consider this pirating, i paid for that game.

 

[A Weary Exile]

It's bad UNLESS and this is a big UNLESS the game is extremley old and the developers couldn't possibly make anymore signifigant money off of it and you only want to play it for nostalgia purposes.

 

[Pink_Pirate]

I download games, but only games that i would not otherwise pay for. i still buy games i want to play, especially if i want to play multiplayer (i cant stand private servers), but a lot of games i just want to try out, not really invested enough to fork over 45£ just to try something out. overall it doesent affect my buyign habits since im only downloading gmaes i would normally never buy

 

[Crapster]

I think it's all right if it's an old game that can't be found anymore unless you pay exorbitant prices on eBay ($100 for a DOS game!!?!?)

 

[CyberGenesis]

How do you think good game studios get to be good game studios? If a fledgling studio puts out a bad game, but at least makes money, they can learn from their mistakes and grow and evolve to become a better studio. You can't be the judge of the price of game... "oh that game sucks so it should be free". It still cost money to make. Besides, if it sucks, why are you playing it? Don't even bother stealing it then.

And how can you know if a game sucks without playing it first? Not everything has a demo, and considering some demos (IE Mirror's Edge) are basically only a shining bit of glory because you didn't know until AFTER you were suckered into buying the game that the ENTIRE GAME was just a longer version of the demo without anything new or interesting.

If a game company fails to sell units because the game sucks that's one thing, it will tell them that it sucks. But if a game company has bad sales because douchebags like you stole their work, You're just jeopardizing the industry. Kind of like how stealing music has watered down the music industry to the point where record labels aren't willing to gamble on artists that they don't think are a sure thing.

Your argument runs close to the 'renting is killing the industry' crap. Stop making a game 5-10 hours long, and people will need or want to buy it. 99% of FPS can be finished in a day with little to no replay value. Why would ANYONE want to pay $60+ for that?

Yes, because we so needed American Idol and other bullshit tv shows running the music industry's idea of who is worth it or not.

If you keep stealing games, games will become more and more alike in every way to meet a bankable formula until we're playing Halo 39 and God of War 26.

The lack of variety in a genre is and always HAS been based on the "if it isnt broken dont fix it" mentality. Has anything really changed in FPS games since Doom? Adding persistent collection objectives isnt a gameplay mechanic revolution (Halo skulls, etc) it's an arbitrary gameplay lengthener.

And again, most of what i pirate is 5 or more years old. Find me a legal way to buy my old favorites that gets the money to the developers, not the shmuck that scratched the hell out of the CD, and i'll pay for them...now excuse me, i need to go unpack my XCom iso (yes i know its on steam, but i also bought a copy of it when it came out. Now i also need an XP crack for it...oh the saddness of retro-gaming)

 

[Bratzzzzzz]

:-(

 

[Cid Silverwing]

It needs to be legalized for games that are officially no longer sold anymore.

 

[TurkMafia]

Well when does it technically become illegal if I download the game in a country the developer hasn't released it in yet? Living in Turkey we get a lot of releases late, if ever. And when the game is released is it fair that retailers hike games up to ludicrous prices due to popularity? WoW WotLK for 3 months after its release here was 95 USD, now I quit WoW before the first expansion but you gotta call bullshit right there. Also look at the looming release of Modern Warfare 2, Activision is trying to ram a rod up your ass over in Britain and the EU with price hikes.

The newest in stores release for a PC game here is Sims 3, so is me downloading say the new Red Faction or Need for Speed Shift actually illegal? Or wrong what so ever?

Microsoft also hasn't gotten off its lazy ass to release Xbox 360 here so I would imagine me downloading games for it wouldn't be illegal here because the media has no rights in my country yet?

In any case I download games because I'm paying for college and can't afford them right now, but the moment I can I certainly will start forking over money for new releases.