Why do people think it's ok to pirate games?

[Flying-Emu]

The only time a support the illegal downloading of games is when the game is not available by any other means. And those games do exist. But the chances that said game is not for sale somewhere on the net are slim.

I agree with this. Until someone digitally distributes Thief II or I can find a new copy or remake in stores, I am perfectly fine stealing it.

 

[Cody211282]

Copying is not stealing. Did you steal from your parents as you mimicked them to learn how to communicate? You learn by copying others. It's our primary way of gaining knowledge. It's easy to dismiss the concern of the legality of a fundamental function of life.

It's stealing if you go into a store and take a game off the shelf and leave with it, without paying. There is no doubt about that because the store suffered a loss without any form of compensation. There is no loss involved in copying.

It's still stealing because it was made developed and distributed by other people who have put a monetary value on it. The company who made the game suffers a loss of sales because of this so I see it as the same thing.

However, businesses do require profits to continue to function. If people only copy and never contribute to the business, it will fail. It is for this reason and this reason only that it is important to buy a game rather than copy it. This sense of entitlement brought on by the copyright and patent systems is ruining the primary purpose of those very systems. They were created to reward creativity and innovation. They were not created to make people feel they are entitled to compensation for having an idea.

I would say they are entitled to compensation for having an idea that sells well and stealing the game cuts into that, there was all sorts of money put into the project to get to the point were they could sell it and people would buy it, they are also entitled to say if you want to play the game I made it's going to cost you X amount. If you don't feel the game is worth it then just plain out don't but it, stealing it from them is just wrong.

If you're the type to blindly follow something because it is the law then I have no interest in even having a discussion with you because you will never understand. Law does not equate to right or wrong.

Stealing is wrong, even if it was legal to I still wouldn't they put in time and money to make a product and I have no right to take if from them without paying how much they ask for it.

 

[ImprovizoR]

whoever is making Crysis 2

LOL, Why Crysis 2? Because it's not a PC exclusive anymore?

No, because of the writer acting like an ass. I'm a dual gamer, I play both console and PC, so I don't care about the whole exclusive thing. They just need to learn that insulting other companies is a bad idea. Especially when that company you are insulting is run by a bunch of Browncoats.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion man. One man is hardly an excuse to pirate a game.

Stealing is wrong, even if it was legal to I still wouldn't they put in time and money to make a product and I have no right to take if from them without paying how much they ask for it.

What if they ask too much?

 

[thatstheguy]

I'll only pirate the game if I'm not sure it'll run on my PC and need to test it, or if I ordered a game off Ebay or something and want to play it now.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

To save money, because I don't wanna buy a game for my PC only to find out upon installation that it doesn't work, and it's not like the system requirements help either because they don't mean shit. Also, I'd like to try the game before I buy it because a lot of games are fucking wank, but the developers release pretty, bug free trailers so that the game looks good, and they don't release a demo so nobody finds out it's shit until they've bought it.

Solution: Release a fucking demo.

 

[Cody211282]

Well...let me explain from an Arabian country's perspective.

Downloading an original game would cost zero thanks to the unlimited net connection, while buying an original game(100 bucks max) would cost what I used to pay to study one subject(local price) in the national University.

also, that is equal to a month's food costs for a person. So what to do when companies treat you like a golden goose? Pirate the game which you cant afford.

From meeting people in my high school and Uni....about 100% will pirate instead of depriving themselves from food. its either pirate or no game/movie/music. so it only makes sense for them to pirate. the mentality is "why pay for something when you can get it for free"

Practically every gamer I met so far pirates regularly. And yes its very beneficial to have those as friends. You dont feel any guilt...only a big sense of accomplishment.

Well here is a solution, just don't buy games, it's nothing more then entertainment, how the hell are you so entitled to it you would steal it from someone else?

 

[MagicMouse]

Pirating doesn't lose companies that much money.

I for example DO NOT BUY single-player games....ever....its just too much money for the time you play. And since you "can't" play pirated games online, IF I were to hypothetically pirate a game, then that company wouldn't lose money, as I wasn't going to buy the game, pirate option or not.

I am sure used game retailers like Game Stop lose publishers allot more money than pirates.

Also, If you bought a shirt, then made a replica of said shirt, then gave it to your friend, is that illegal?

 

[Claptrap]

Il say something i said in another thread (I think you also posted in the same thread),

"Okay then, il give a better example, Lets say your saveing money for whatever reason, You cant buy games so you pirate them, Would you also go out and steal someones tv/car/house/whatever, Then use "im saveing money so its okay to steal lolol" excuse? Pirateing = stealing."

It makes a little less sense here, But you still get my point.

 

[MagicMouse]

Il say something i said in another thread (I think you also posted in the same thread),

"Okay then, il give a better example, Lets say your saveing money for whatever reason, You cant buy games so you pirate them, Would you also go out and steal someones tv/car/house/whatever, Then use "im saveing money so its okay to steal lolol" excuse? Pirateing = stealing."

It makes a little less sense here, But you still get my point.

Ah, but the difference is that it makes a COPY of the game, no one is deprived of their property, just their right to not make it free.

 

[Captain Ninja]

i hate people who pirate games. when i see people who have pirated them i usually look at them with disgust.
the idea that a developer team spends X amount of years to create a game, its not right of fair that people get it for free.

Can I assume that you've never borrowed a CD, never watched a movie at your friends' places and never used public library? Cause it'd be wrong to take away from the artist for free.

thats twisting words -_- its obvious that i meant pirating.

 

[DancePuppets]

Yes I called you ninny muffins I don't care, take offence to it if you want but it pisses me the fuck off.

[sub]Yes I changed certain words after thinking it through[/sub]

Ninny Muffins is officially the best insult ever, I shall have to find more usage for it!

 

[Blatherscythe]

Copying is not stealing. Did you steal from your parents as you mimicked them to learn how to communicate? You learn by copying others. It's our primary way of gaining knowledge. It's easy to dismiss the concern of the legality of a fundamental function of life.

It's stealing if you go into a store and take a game off the shelf and leave with it, without paying. There is no doubt about that because the store suffered a loss without any form of compensation. There is no loss involved in copying.

However, businesses do require profits to continue to function. If people only copy and never contribute to the business, it will fail. It is for this reason and this reason only that it is important to buy a game rather than copy it. This sense of entitlement brought on by the copyright and patent systems is ruining the primary purpose of those very systems. They were created to reward creativity and innovation. They were not created to make people feel they are entitled to compensation for having an idea.

If you're the type to blindly follow something because it is the law then I have no interest in even having a discussion with you because you will never understand. Law does not equate to right or wrong.

Something tells me that your a pirate trying to justify his/her actions. Also if you don't contribute to the company it fails, it is not just an idea, it is data and more importantly their data, you may not be taking it off the shelf but your still stealing it.

Don't try to justify it by saying your strapped for cash, just wanted to test the game,don't want to buy it, or your pirating to stick it to the game developers DRM. Because in those cases you don't have money? Then you can't buy it. Wanted to test it? There's either a demo or your rent the game. Don't want to buy it? Get off your ass. DRM pisses you off? Stop stealing their data and pay for your things like everyone else you lazy piece of shit, then they wouldn't need a DRM.

Law sets boundries on people, it's their for our saftey, it is also there to keep things fair. You are making it harder for people to earn a living, it's not just the big wigs at the top of the game studios either, people depend on these companies because they work there. Whenever you pirate a game your are sucking money out of someone elses pocket.

Though this probably won't change your way of thinking about piracy in general, and so I eagerly wait for the day when they can find you cheap bastards easily and see you and your kind get sued for being thieves.

Also borrowing from a friend is not stealing or pirating, your friend usually won't just give you the item and if you like something enough you will buy it. Your not supposed to present these items for public display (ie showing a movie off of a wall in a park), they said nothing about loaning them to other people.

 

[Cody211282]

My line of thinking is since you didn't pay for it your stealing, and well stealing is wrong and a criminal action thus don't pirate game.

And your line of thinking is incorrect. If Piracy was stealing, it would be classed as theft, and so if you got caught you'd face the same penalty as if you'd lifted a game from a shop. It's not. That's why there's a law against what's called "Copyright infringement". It's a different crime, therefore there is a different definition and it is dealt with by a different law. But no, it is not stealing.

The difference (because I know you're crying that question out) is this: If I steal a car, I remove the possibility of the showroom selling that car to someone else, and so I cost them that sale. If (strictly as an example, not encouraging, endorsing or supporting piracy, Mrs Moderator) I decide to pirate say... The Saboteur for PC. If I didn't intend to pay for it in the first place, the company hasn't LOST any money, they never stood to gain it in the first place. They can still go out and sell it to people, I've not removed that from them.

To put it in perspective, if you could found someone who could take apart cars, find out how they worked, then put them back together and created exact copies of them (except say, for example, without the automatic braking system that kicks in if you drive over 40mph), then offered you one for free, would you seriously be standing there going "Oh noes, I can't possibly do that!"?

To be honest, Pokemon probably has one of the best DRM features- R4 Flashcarts are rampant with DS owners, and you know how they made sure people bought the game? You can't use the Pokewalker or the trading system unless you've got the IR chip that's in the top of the card.

I would still classify it as stealing, you are taking something that's not your and not paying for it easy enough. And for your description of the car scenario if I didn't want the breaking feature I would buy the car then modify it myself, or go and find another car that didn't have that feature, see how easy that is. Still the morels behind pirating a game doesn't exist, your doing it to be self serving and because you think you deserve something without having to work for it.

 

[WorkerMurphey]

Perhaps I'm unaware of a service that allows me this - but I know of no way to "rent" a PC game as I would a PS3 game from Blockbuster or whatever. If I could do this I would be less inclined to download games which I typically play for less than a week. If I like them enough to play beyond that I'll buy them. I don't pretend that it's a viable reason or excuse, meh.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Well here is a solution, just don't buy games, it's nothing more then entertainment, how the hell are you so entitled to it you would steal it from someone else?

Because people have this huge sense of etitlement and think the world should revolve around them being cheapskates.

"I wasn't going to buy it anyways, so they're not missing out on any money". Wrong. If you're too much of a tightarse to pay for it, than don't fucking play it. It's as simple as that. If you believe otherwise I hope that when you finally get the job of your dreams it gets outsourced to cheap asian labour and you end up living on the streets.

If you didn't pay for it, you don't get to fucking play it.

 

[Claptrap]

Il say something i said in another thread (I think you also posted in the same thread),

"Okay then, il give a better example, Lets say your saveing money for whatever reason, You cant buy games so you pirate them, Would you also go out and steal someones tv/car/house/whatever, Then use "im saveing money so its okay to steal lolol" excuse? Pirateing = stealing."

It makes a little less sense here, But you still get my point.

Ah, but the difference is that it makes a COPY of the game, no one is deprived of their property, just their right to not make it free.

Yes, But in my viewpoint i still see it as wrong to take something companys (Most the time) spend years on, And just download it for free, Just my opinion on it.