Pirating games made me a better consumer

[Vankrys]

It doesn't even matter whether you would buy a game otherwise or not. It is your money, it is your business how you are going to spend your money, and the developer doesn't have any claims to your money. Appealing to "stealing" is one of the stupidest arguments anti-pirates tend to use every time. It is as much "stealing" as borrowing a DVD from my friend to watch it once "stealing".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement

Video games are like books, music, movie, any of this type.
it's not about stealing a physical DVD per se, but using, distributing, consuming the content (image, sound, dialogue) without authorization.

it only meants to protect author, when their works can be easily stolen, since it's not a physical object.

[May90]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement

Video games are like books, music, movie, any of this type.
it's not about stealing a physical DVD per se, but using, distributing, consuming the content (image, sound, dialogue) without authorization.

it only meants to protect author, when their works can be easily stolen, since it's not a physical object.

Well, in older times, when Torrents weren't so popular, software, games and movies would often get uploaded on so called "warez" websites from which you can just download them with your browser. This way, you don't share them with anyone else as you are not uploading anything, unlike P2P networks. Still though it is illegal, as you use a copyrighted content without an appropriate license to it - much like you would live in a house without paying anything to your landlord and without him knowing. And I don't think one should really consider possibility of it being distributed illegally by a third party: as long as you take care of your computer and don't let other people wander there without you being aware, plus use an appropriate antivirus software. But it is not "stealing" by definition, unlike what many anti-pirates like to claim. Stealing means you take something away from other people, and the essential part is that they lose something they have right now. Losing a potential income in the future doesn't qualify to be "stealing". "Fraud" - maybe, "copyright violation" - definitely, but not "stealing", as long as you do not distribute it under your name - but even then you don't actually steal the content, you illegally assume the right to distribute it.

[Zoldor]

If I still pirated games I'd play more games, but not necessarily like those games. I buy less games than ever because I find less and less developers are creating things that are a bang for the buck especially in the console world. Steam gets me to buy shit I normally wouldn't buy because they'll give it to me dirt cheap and can catch me any time of day that I happen to be on steam.

The difference between games and all other entertainment media is I can't loan my game to anyone. Thanks to steam that is becoming possible, but it isn't completely the same. If I buy a game 100%, for PC especially and the consoles are starting to attempt to make this a reality, I can't loan that game to a friend like I can a book, dvd, cd even if I own a physical copy. This leasing a license BS is the annoying part. I technically lease a license when I buy a DVD but I can still take it to a friends and watch it or loan it to them, which with digital this is all going away as well. It is a downfall to the digital world for the consumer and major boon to the creator. With digital properties you won't be able to loan or borrow things which was a pretty darn handy way to learn about new things or get people interested in something you like without them having to pass an entry fee to find out they didn't like it. Thankfully steam is pretty good about helping out with mutliple licenses especially with smaller games, indie games, and their bundles. The major players don't want anything to do with it sadly and are looking for more and more ways to eliminate game trading, reselling, etc which sucks for a consumer. We'd all rather feel bad for the developer though for some reason.

[Deleted]

I disagree or at least it doesn't apply that much to me.

Growing up I also pirated games. When I started getting the means to buy them, I actually did. I had a list of games I really really wanted which I bought. Now, I won't lie, my Steam archive has about 120 games in it... yet I've played around 60 of them already. That's the whole thing, after buying the initial batch of games I realized that some games, though they look nice, are not worth their price. So, more and more I started considering each game and reading reviews, by whom it is made etc. So, while indeed I bought the first 25 or so games without thinking (which might explain why 10 of those are in the "will never play again" hidden section now), from then on I bought games after thinking more about the content, taking in mind sales and waiting for them (I really wanted Wolfenstein the new one, but until the Winter Steam sale I did not buy it for it cost too much, but during the Steam sale I could get it for 15 euros, which was an awesome price for its content). Now the problem I have actually is that some games offer me so much content and fun(like GW2) that I can't even finish it all!

That being said, I do intend to play all the games I own at one point in time. Sure I might not finish them all, but I will play them for I did carefully consider which games to buy (well, except for those I got in bundles with games I truly wanted... those I don't really intend to finish or play for I never actually wanted them).

[xenogear3]

I start to have some faith about humanity when I learned that consumers can beat evil corporation Microsoft !

[Terahertz]

Buying games and me not finishing them has made me a wary customer. Therefore I don't want to shell out 50-60 bucks on a game that looks remotely interesting just to have it collect dust on my steam account.

Not only that, but lately many games haven't really had great PC ports either, which only made me more wary.