Piracy

[bjslim]

With the Economy down do you think people will resort to Piracy rather than buying games, if now why?

Also Do you Support Piracy?

[xxtackyx]

Yes

[Darknezz]

Should be in debates.

Piracy isn't as bad as most media and companies make it out to be. Most of the profits for things like music CDs go to the record company, the band makes their money through concerts and merch.

Now, if you're talking about video game piracy, I don't see it as a big deal for my self, and the other "smart" pirates out there that actually do go buy new copies of games once they've played them and think "Fuck yeah, this is awesome!" There are a lot of people that end up just pirating games and forgoing the purchase, especially "console pirates," but generally speaking, they make it up to the devs one way or another, be it through merch from the company or some other means. Lord knows that I've done so with many games that are no longer carried by retailers, or are being sold for extremely cheap.

When it comes to pricks that just steal everything and never give anything back to the devs, I just can't stand them. Now, granted, most of the people that do that are ten year olds who just figured out the magic of Bittorrent (EL OH EL), but it's still irritating that devs don't get their dues from these people.

Pirating PC games, for me and most other pirates I know, it all just boils down to a try-before-you-buy thing. Not a lot of games are getting PC demos, and the ones that do don't feature enough game play to actually give a fair estimate of whether or not it's actually a good game. And then there's the trouble with some retailers not having a game in stock, or a sever money shortage.

[moosechives]

I agree with Dark on this. If i decide to download a game or album, I usually give it a try/listen and delete it afterwards, either buying it or not afterwards if i like it. I also agree that companies make a bigger deal about this, especially that time when the RIAA tried to say it was illegal for people to rip music cds onto their computers or when they tried to sue people for pirating music when they didn't even own computers. >_>. It's getting out of hand.

Other times it's pretty hard to not pirate the games because of how rare they're getting. Games like Suikoden 2, Persona 1 and 2, and other ps1 rpgs. Those games are reaching upwards of $120 average on ebay so sometimes I can't help but download games like that due to lack of funds. :A

[PanchoJoshi]

Personally im for it. Begin a pirate my self of course im for it.

But like Dark said, if i like the game enough I will go out and buy it, especially if its from a little known dev and its actually a pretty good game. For example, Rise of The argonauts, that game was alright. Even though I pirated it I still went out and bought it.

And when it comes to people saying that pirating is going to "Ruin" dev's and the whole company... Thats just stupid, think about it. About roughly 30% gamer out there are familiar on what modding and piracy is. And out of that id say 10% know how to do it, and even 10% is an exaggeration.

I know that piracy is "Morally" wrong, and so is lying and cheating. but we all lie and cheat sometimes. No one is perfect.

Also one thing that really tugs at my sh*t is those STUPID F*CKING PIRACY ADS before you watch a DVD. There stupid, cheesy, and most of all UNSKIPABLE. Half the reason i pirate movies is so I DONT have to watch that ad before i watch the movie i wanted to see.

And honetly...."YOU WOULDNT STEAL A CAR WOULD YOU!?! THEN WHY PIRATE??!" Those are two VERY different laws your breaking. Thats like me saying "You wouldnt MURDER a human would you? Then why kill a bug?"



/rant

[evilplans]

Jan 27, 2009 23:25:40 GMT -5 PanchoJoshi said:

Also one thing that really tugs at my sh*t is those STUPID F*CKING PIRACY ADS before you watch a DVD. There stupid, cheesy, and most of all UNSKIPABLE. Half the reason i pirate movies is so I DONT have to watch that ad before i watch the movie i wanted to see.

anywho, i've never pirated a game before its release before..i want to though...

[PanchoJoshi]

Jan 27, 2009 23:38:18 GMT -5 @evilplans said:

anywho, i've never pirated a game before its release before..i want to though...

If i COULD download a drivable car, i WOULD download a car.

Also, you should have your 360 modded last year, Gears 2 Fable 2 Fallout 3 Saints Row 2, all leaked at LEAST a month early.

[Wednesday_R]

I think my favorite case of music industry BS was when they shut down 95% of sites where users would post guitar tabs that they figured out BY EAR.
Apparently learning to play a song is..... ugh.

[PanchoJoshi]

Jan 29, 2009 9:00:21 GMT -5 Wednesday_R said:

I think my favorite case of music industry BS was when they shut down 95% of sites where users would post guitar tabs that they figured out BY EAR.
Apparently learning to play a song is..... ugh.

I will truly miss the original MXtabs.

[Wednesday_R]

Jan 29, 2009 11:13:13 GMT -5 PanchoJoshi said:

Jan 29, 2009 9:00:21 GMT -5 Wednesday_R said:

I think my favorite case of music industry BS was when they shut down 95% of sites where users would post guitar tabs that they figured out BY EAR.
Apparently learning to play a song is..... ugh.

I will truly miss the original MXtabs.

Aye, these days if I need to I use Ultimate Guitar with GuitarPro (which I got via crack and keygen, but that's beside the point).

[davethezombie]

I have to disagree, piracy is terrible when it comes to recent games and movies. It harms people who actually buys the games all because of some greed from gamers. I've heard of people who buy the game, having to download patches for the game, because of the the CD locked DRM system. I don't see any game worth pirating THAT bad, because it's honestly not that necessary. Do you NEED to test that game that bad? No. Do you NEED to see that movie right away? No. So why go through so much effort?

I don't mind all of piracy however.
For older games, I don't mind since the companies are just no longer profiting off those games. Not really harming the companies.

Same for music. Those artists don't necessarily need that extra small amount of money. They should just be glad people listen to their music at all.

[Darknezz]

Jan 30, 2009 2:56:58 GMT -5 davethezombie said:

I have to disagree, piracy is terrible when it comes to recent games and movies. It harms people who actually buys the games all because of some greed from gamers. I've heard of people who buy the game, having to download patches for the game, because of the the CD locked DRM system. I don't see any game worth pirating THAT bad, because it's honestly not that necessary. Do you NEED to test that game that bad? No. Do you NEED to see that movie right away? No. So why go through so much effort?

Give me ONE documented story of someone who bought a game having to get a patch, and the disc wasn't scratched or damaged in any way. Give me ONE.

I fail to see how it "hurts" gamers who bought the game at all. It might hurt the company, if it's someone who just says "LAWL I GET STUFF FOR FREE," but those people are the ones who are going to end up selling kidneys for crack money anyway.

And yes, I do need to test out games before I buy them, especially in this day and age when games are on a downfall of mediocrity, except from indie games, and even then, I need to make sure the game isn't f*cking stupid before I fire my $60 at the developers.

[molagbal]

I think the current problem is the used games market.
Publishers and developers aren't gaining from it but the stores almost rely on it for profit. But the prices of pre-owned games are ridiculous.. I've seen plenty of games that are only £2-5 cheaper than thier new counterparts. Said games also are put on shelves nearby or on the very same shelves as new games to try and confuse customers.

When even pre-owned games cost alot people are going to look for alternatives to save money, some just goto a site like ebay some others resort to.. you guessed it. Piracy.

I don't support Piracy and I don't get how people can (try to) justify it, you're breaking the law and getting away with it, you're getting something for free (With no right to) while others are paying out. Why do you get to "try" the game and not others? What makes you so special?

To say "Well if it's good I'll go and buy it" is a silly excuse, if you steal from a store then go back and pay for it later you'd still get punished for stealing it. Yet you're getting away with it. So what makes you better than them?

[Darknezz]

Jan 30, 2009 8:41:16 GMT -5 molagbal said:

I think the current problem is the used games market.
Publishers and developers aren't gaining from it but the stores almost rely on it for profit. But the prices of pre-owned games are ridiculous.. I've seen plenty of games that are only £2-5 cheaper than thier new counterparts. Said games also are put on shelves nearby or on the very same shelves as new games to try and confuse customers.

It's not to confuse customers. Developers don't get ANY of the money from used games, used titles are what generate money for most retailers like Gamestop. Gamestop makes next to nothing on new titles, that's where the devs get their money.

And what does this have to do with piracy?

When even pre-owned games cost alot people are going to look for alternatives to save money, some just goto a site like ebay some others resort to.. you guessed it. Piracy.

Again, preowned games are where retailers make their money. They sell them for such a high cost because most people are happy with just 5 dollars off. Preowned games costing a lot from retailers doesn't contribute to piracy, and I would like for you to clearly demonstrate your logic on getting to that conclusion.

I don't support Piracy and I don't get how people can (try to) justify it, you're breaking the law and getting away with it, you're getting something for free (With no right to) while others are paying out. Why do you get to "try" the game and not others? What makes you so special?

Please, read above. I've already addressed this. Twice.

To say "Well if it's good I'll go and buy it" is a silly excuse, if you steal from a store then go back and pay for it later you'd still get punished for stealing it. Yet you're getting away with it. So what makes you better than them?

The difference is that there is no way for us to know if a product is going to be good or not.

People who use consoles have a way to tell; It's called renting a game. Those of us on the PC, however, have no way to know if a game will be good or not except by playing it. Reviews from places like Gamespot are biased by companies paying them and peer-reviews like from gamefaqs are completely off on what they discredit games for and completely inconsistent.

As for piracy on consoles, it's not always bad. There are some people like David who will mod their console to play games that will never be released in the U.S. Granted, modding a console isn't technically piracy, but whatever.

One could also make the argument, as was stated above, that hardly anyone pirates games as it is, and if a company makes a good game, it won't really matter if two or three hundred people stole the game without buying some merch to balance out, because they already made hundreds of thousands off of legit copies.

[molagbal]

The point is that there's a tug-of-war for money between the game companies and the stores, If you buy new the companies gain the stores lose out. If you buy used the stores gain and the company lose out. They need to find a means to balance it out more. What has it got to do with anything? I'm just saying that it's currently more of an issue than Piracy is. (or atleast, in the gaming industry)

The prices for used games are high and if you want to save money you need to look elsewhere, if the stores don't offer that then what can you do? The obvious options are either "trading" (Ebay) and Piracy.

Renting games on consoles costs money, Pirating games doesn't. For PC theres demo's, if there isn't any then thats just how it is, live with it. It doesn't make breaking the law fine.

Its more than just a hundred or so people doing it and even if the companies are gaining enough money to be set for life it doesn't make stealing right or ok.
You need to take responsibility for your actions, not blame it on something else. Such as the quality of games. (Which is very argueable)