Pirating games made me a better consumer

[Kuuri]

Growing up, I always had a PC that was at least somewhat capable of running current games, even if I had to run them pretty close to low settings later in the life cycle of my machine. Around the age of 10 or so my brother introduced me to SNES emulation, and from about then until I got my first job I pirated almost every single player game that piqued my interest.

Since around 2008 or so I've always had a part-time job, and I've almost completely ceased software piracy, but my consumer habits have either not changed or gotten worse. Despite having far less time to play games, I buy far more games now than I previously obtained through illegitimate methods, though admittedly that has a lot to do with increased bandwidth and availability.

To state my point plainly, I believe that pirating games throughout my youth set the pace and standard for my consumption habits, but whilst I have moved on from pirating due to the convenience and economic viability of digital platforms like steam, GOG and origin I am still buying games based upon the same criterion I would previously have used to determine whether or not I would pirate a game.

In other words, piracy trained me to be the best possible customer for games developers.
This is not an attempt to rationalise unethical behaviour, I'm just interested in seeing if others feel that they've experienced similar phenomena.

[DarkTZeratul]

This feels like a flimsy argument, at best; in fact, had you NOT pirated all those games, to me it seems like you'd be MORE likely to buy everything once you have the means to do so.

Let's call it what it is: a desperate attempt to justify to yourself not paying for things you wanted simply because you didn't have the money to do so.

[Grym]

Let's call it what it is: a desperate attempt to justify to yourself not paying for things you wanted simply because you didn't have the money to do so.

That is exactly what it sounded like to me as well.

If you have bought it, they would have got the revenue.

You didn't buy it, but not pirated it, you potentially may buy it at some point, or not.

You pirated it, you most likely won't buy it.

Pirating did not make you a better consumer, at all.

[Gouky]

Corporations try to give the finger to the MAN all the time. By using tax havens, slave labor, adding spyware to their products. But run back on their knees, when they need ridiculous patent laws enforced.
FUCK EM!!! I allow you all to pirate

Unapologetic PIRATE

[Blueobelisk]

Sorry, but your anecdotal tale doesn't seem to hold much merit to me. I could just as easily make a thread saying something like "I pirated when I was a kid and it continued when I was an adult even when I had the money since it was convenient and easy," and that would be as circumstantial as your story.

[Kuuri]

This feels like a flimsy argument, at best; in fact, had you NOT pirated all those games, to me it seems like you'd be MORE likely to buy everything once you have the means to do so.

Let's call it what it is: a desperate attempt to justify to yourself not paying for things you wanted simply because you didn't have the money to do so.

Not at all. I didn't have the means to buy the games as a kid so I pirated them. That's not right, but I did it anyway.

What I'm saying is that I now expect games as soon as they come out and I buy them even if I'm only curious what it's like. I buy every game that comes out just because. Why? Because I've been conditioned to fulfill my desires for a game based on a context where they were free, and now they're not but I continue to fulfill that standard set in my youth.

This isn't me justifying anything, this is a discussion of economics, not morality.

[Holtzmann]

Well, my experience with pirating stuff when I was younger (games were stupidly expensive here before Steam started doing business in the local currency) has taught me that I'd rather pay than have to deal with cracks, patches and all that crap now that I have the money. If there's one positive thing about it is that I've managed to hop as a child onto franchises I'd probably never even touch as an adult. XCOM, for example. If I hadn't played the original pirated version (way back in the heyday of the 3-1/4 inch floppy) of UFO: Enemy Unknown, I would have never bought Firaxis' remake, its DLCs and its expansion.

[Cranial]

The way I see pirating is not as lost revenue to the producer of the thing in question.

If you don't have the money which forced you to pirate something, you weren't going to buy it anyway. Therefore, its not really lost revenue.

I have pirated things before, I do not feel remorse or anything for it.

Now, going back to OP's topic.

The thing that pirating has done for me is made me appreciate non-pirated things actually. Its often a pain to get pirated stuff to work, or they are terrible quality. Also enjoying something bought with your own money gives a satisfaction that can't be found when pirating products.
It has improved my gamin consumerism a bit too I guess, since I came to realize that most AAA titles are shite. Nowadays I am mostly on the lookout for indie games. In that way I guess it has helped me refine my gaming habits.

[lordjust]

What are those criteria you had to pirate a game? I mean when pirating a game you don't spend money and just wait until the download is done. Most people I know that do or did pirate game just downloaded everything that popped up, tried it and deleted everything they didn't like.

So what exactly did pirating games teach you so that you're now a better consumer? For corporations and developers you'd be a better consumer by just buying everything they have to offer. As the other people said it is an attempt to justify to yourself that what you did wasn't that bad.

[Raiju]

So what exactly did pirating games teach you so that you're now a better consumer? For corporations and developers you'd be a better consumer by just buying everything they have to offer. As the other people said it is an attempt to justify to yourself that what you did wasn't that bad.

What he's getting at is that by pirating a new game whenever you felt like a new game you got into this habit of picking up games on a whim - rather than considering them as the investment they may be in $$ vs time spent. Now they (and myself infact) are in a position to pay for those games - we both opt for that due to the convenience, and indeed for some reason actually end up spending more (possibly due to the less time meaning a feeling that a game should pick you up faster)

It's not a justification - merely an observation. While in most other aspects of life I am very frugal, when it comes to games I will buy them because they look nice and often never even play them - or not get past tutorial or similar. I tell myself I'll play them someday but most likely not. I can definitely believe that the most likely reason for this (as my parents were not the type to give me stuff just because I wanted it) that the act of pirating games likely became a habit and now I feel the need to buy a game every few days. I always buy collectors editions / deluxe packs /dlc of games I'm interested in, etc.

In WoW I've bought most of the store mounts and pets, and gifted many of them 2-3x over (it fits the habit). I'm the guy who buys cosmetic DLC's sometimes just because it looks cool, etc. Pirating setup an expectation that my wallet probably didn't quite understand it was getting itself into at the time

[Kuuri]

The way I see pirating is not as lost revenue to the producer of the thing in question.

If you don't have the money which forced you to pirate something, you weren't going to buy it anyway. Therefore, its not really lost revenue.

I have pirated things before, I do not feel remorse or anything for it.

Now, going back to OP's topic.

The thing that pirating has done for me is made me appreciate non-pirated things actually. Its often a pain to get pirated stuff to work, or they are terrible quality. Also enjoying something bought with your own money gives a satisfaction that can't be found when pirating products.
It has improved my gamin consumerism a bit too I guess, since I came to realize that most AAA titles are shite. Nowadays I am mostly on the lookout for indie games. In that way I guess it has helped me refine my gaming habits.

Yeah this is very much what I'm talking about - I like buying games, it's just plain easier, and you're supporting the developers.

What are those criteria you had to pirate a game? I mean when pirating a game you don't spend money and just wait until the download is done. Most people I know that do or did pirate game just downloaded everything that popped up, tried it and deleted everything they didn't like.

So what exactly did pirating games teach you so that you're now a better consumer? For corporations and developers you'd be a better consumer by just buying everything they have to offer. As the other people said it is an attempt to justify to yourself that what you did wasn't that bad.

That's exactly it; I set myself very low standards for consumption because there was no risk - shit or not, the game was free. Now I can afford to buy games and I still buy shit games - I think pirating games has made me behave this way.

I cannot reiterate this any more clearly - I don't NEED TO JUSTIFY my prior actions. I couldn't care less, I had fun and I played games I wouldn't have been able to play otherwise. This is not about morality, and it's not necessarily a positive benefit either. I spend far more on games than I should, and play most games that I buy for less than an hour, if at all.
Anyone who uses steam will attest to the fact that half the games you buy on sale you probably don't even install.

EDIT:

What he's getting at is that by pirating a new game whenever you felt like a new game you got into this habit of picking up games on a whim - rather than considering them as the investment they may be in $$ vs time spent. Now they (and myself infact) are in a position to pay for those games - we both opt for that due to the convenience, and indeed for some reason actually end up spending more (possibly due to the less time meaning a feeling that a game should pick you up faster)

It's not a justification - merely an observation. While in most other aspects of life I am very frugal, when it comes to games I will buy them because they look nice and often never even play them - or not get past tutorial or similar. I tell myself I'll play them someday but most likely not. I can definitely believe that the most likely reason for this (as my parents were not the type to give me stuff just because I wanted it) that the act of pirating games likely became a habit and now I feel the need to buy a game every few days.

Nailed it.

[Bodom]

I have pirated A LOT in the past. I pirated movies, tv shows, music and games. I'm not pirating games anymore because of Steam. I'm not pirating music anymore because of Spotify. Now if Netflix was anything like Spotify I'd stop pirating movies and tv shows too.

Has it made me a better customer? Hell yes. I bought a HBO Nordic subscription and all the books after pirating the first two seasons of Game of Thrones, I got a WoW subscription in 2005 after pirating Warcraft 3, I've seen every Marvel movie in the cinema after I pirated the first Iron Man movie and the list goes on. Now what I never want to happen is me paying the full price for a ticket at the cinema for something like Godzilla and Transformers. Pirating helps me filter out where I put my money, which is a lot because I don't have any other hobbies outside of gaming, music and watching movies and tv shows.

[Deleted]

Steam made me a better consumer. Or a worse. Which one is it ?

EDIT : to be clearer. I've never pirated any game, didn't buy that much when I was younger and now I'm a whore on steam sales and to a minor extent humblebundle. So while I think piracy can be good especially when you're a kid with not much money at hand, I also think today's way of consuming games has a lot to do with what you're describing.

[Iamanerd]

Honestly most people pirate at one point or another in their life and it might continue for a long time. The way I look at it is pirating promotes awareness of the product and awareness promotes sales and support for the product. Why do you think many companies these days don't complain or go after pirates as much as they used to? Mainly because there's bigger targets like the uploading teams and many developers don't care about people pirating because once again it promotes awareness.

I used to pirate movies/anime a lot but now that I'm older and have a better job etc. I buy anime and support studios I like and I've only ever pirated emulators for old games, I've always bought games I wanted and unfortunately been burned by shitty products but you live and learn. People on these boards will treat you like shit because I'm sure none of them ever pirated before.

[Tech614]

I only pirate something when it is preordered and paid off already, but it's leaked early to pirate.(I don't consider emulating pirating, because I only emulate something I 100% own in physical form)

That is it, and that is all. I certainly would never cancel an order and not buy something I pirated even if I didn't like my initial look at it.

The bullshit excuses of "I will buy it if I like it" are simply bullshit. Either you have the money for it at the time or you shouldn't be touching it, simple as that.

[Bodom]

The bullshit excuses of "I will buy it if I like it" are simply bullshit. Either you have the money for it at the time or you shouldn't be touching it, simple as that.

It's free advertisement for whatever they're giving out next. If you can't afford to watch a movie at the cinema and you pirate it maybe you'll like it enough to spend money on the sequels later.

[Tech614]

It's free advertisement for whatever they're giving out next. If you can't afford to watch a movie at the cinema and you pirate it maybe you'll like it enough to spend money on the sequels later.

Or maybe you'll come up with a bullshit excuse to not give the studio their money for consuming their content.

The decision of you want to spend money on their content or not should be made BEFORE you consume it, not after. But keep using your backwards ass logic to try and justify your actions.

[moremana]

Not at all. I didn't have the means to buy the games as a kid so I pirated them. That's not right, but I did it anyway.

What I'm saying is that I now expect games as soon as they come out and I buy them even if I'm only curious what it's like. I buy every game that comes out just because. Why? Because I've been conditioned to fulfill my desires for a game based on a context where they were free, and now they're not but I continue to fulfill that standard set in my youth.

This isn't me justifying anything, this is a discussion of economics, not morality.

So what happens if you lose your income?...

You basicaly trained yourself to steal things you cant afford?

Yes, this all makes perfect sense, stealing is ok as long as you don't have the money to pay for it.

Pirating didnt make you a better consumer.

[Bodom]

Or maybe you'll come up with a bullshit excuse to not give the studio their money for consuming their content.

The decision of you want to spend money on their content or not should be made BEFORE you consume it, not after. But keep using your backwards ass logic to try and justify your actions.

Scenario 1: The first movie in a new trilogy is screening, you have already spent enough on movies this month so you're not watching it, but you're still a bit curious so you pirate it. You love it. Next year when the sequel comes out you're definitely going to watch it, and the year after that. Watching the first movie for free made you spend money on the two sequels. It's a win for the company.

Scenario 2: The first movie in a new trilogy is screening, you have already spent enough on movies this month so you're not watching it. You're a bit curious but if you can't afford it then you can't see it. You never saw the first one so you're not interested in the sequels either. No money earned for the company.

[Njtobknets]

Should I have to pay for music when I only like 20 seconds of the song?