Your opinion on Video Game Piracy.

[Daginni]

Video Game Piracy. The act of downloading a game illegally. What is your opinion on it?

I also placed a pole up to for pure curiosity.


I personally think downloading a video game illegally is no different than walking into a store and stealing the game from the shelf, except you didn't have the balls to face someone in the face to do it. I also think its counter productive in the long run. Why would a developer put millions of dollars into producing a game like Crisis 2 if the game is simply going to be placed on some Torrent Website for free downloads. Then you got companies like Ubisoft who are taking a extreme measures to fight piracy, and requires everyone to CONSTANTLY be connected to the Internet to even play the Single Player version of a game.

[Drexxil]

To be honest, if games didn't end up sucking, I wouldn't have to pirate them to see if it's a bad game or not. If it's a good game, I buy a regular copy like regular customer would, if turns out to be a piece of shit, I'm not wasting 60 dollars on it. I show my appreciation where it's due.

[Spurmwhale]

I think cheap people would be cheap either way. lots of people don't have money to spend out there and get by with piracy. Most of them use lack of demos as a excuse but i think thats just a cover. I personally have never pirated but i don't do the whole file sharing whatever its called either for taht stuff. I've gone through my fair share of horrible game purchases(see Aion/WAR/AoC/etc) too where you can't return them for sucking but thats what i get buying stuff when it just comes out. I hate that i get penalized for the piraters tho. Battle for Middle Earth 2 had one of the dumbest anti pirate mechanics that completely screwed me over.

[Deleted]

I don´t know if you can really compare the two sectors, but although the music and film industries claim that they suffer a lot because of piracy, but both sectors continue to break revenue records every single year, there are more music albums released every year and there are more artists every year.

So no, I don´t think the internet community - including piracy/filesharing as part of that deal - hurts artists in any way, be it video games, movies or music. Quality products will always sell and people that download something would likely never buy it even if they couldn´t download it. And even for the part where this is true, piracy basically works as free PR and some people buy it only because someone downloaded it illegally somewhere.. A lot of people rather buy something if they know it is good (or that the company made good products before).

I think piracy only hurts big companies that sell bad products because they sell mainly because of big names and expensive PR and not because of quality.

[Benitora]

I don't mind pirating games that you cannot get where you live, IE Japanese games while you live in America.
I don't mind Pirating games that are OLD, which the company who made the game is either dead or simply wont make any money since it's on the "used" shelf.
I don't mind pirating games, test them for 3 hours, then buying or deleting the game depending on wherever it was good or bad.

I do however mind pirating just for the sake of it.
If you can afford a good PC to pirate the latest games coming on the market, then you can afford the game itself.

I personally pirate newer games for 3 hours, buy the game if i like it and delete if I did not.
Demo's isn't a reliable source now a days to get real insight of how the game works, nor do I trust Game reviewers, as they have far to many times mislead me.

[Keller]

I think cheap people would be cheap either way. lots of people don't have money to spend out there and get by with piracy. Most of them use lack of demos as a excuse but i think thats just a cover. I personally have never pirated but i don't do the whole file sharing whatever its called either for taht stuff. I've gone through my fair share of horrible game purchases(see Aion/WAR/AoC/etc) too where you can't return them for sucking but thats what i get buying stuff when it just comes out. I hate that i get penalized for the piraters tho. Battle for Middle Earth 2 had one of the dumbest anti pirate mechanics that completely screwed me over.

And what's funnier is that the anti-piracy mechanic the games use is ripped straight out of the game, so technically pirates get a better product.

[Drexxil]

I don´t know if you can really compare the two sectors, but although the music and film industries claim that they suffer a lot because of piracy, but both sectors continue to break revenue records every single year, there are more music albums released every year and there are more artists every year.

So no, I don´t think the internet community - including piracy/filesharing as part of that deal - hurts artists in any way, be it video games, movies or music. Quality products will always sell and people that download something would likely never buy it even if they couldn´t download it. And even for the part where this is true, piracy basically works as free PR and some people buy it only because someone downloaded it illegally somewhere.. A lot of people rather buy something if they know it is good (or that the company made good products before).

I think piracy only hurts big companies that sell bad products because they sell mainly because of big names and expensive PR and not because of quality.

To elaborate further, on the music bit. Artists make very little from the money you give when you purchase an album from the store, or on itunes or something. They make most of their money doing tours, and selling t shirts. When you pirate an album, you're only hurting the record company that milks the artists for what they're worth, not the artist themselves. In fact, Radiohead made a lot of money offering up one of their albums for free on their site for a limited time, and they threw in a donation button stating "Pay what you think the album is worth".

[Arcilux]

I have downloaded game torrents only under two circumstances:

I want to try the game and don't know anybody with a copy I can try out. In this case I never keep the game for more than a week, if I like it I buy it, if not, I just delete it.

If I bought the game but lost the CDs, then I will torrent it or get a no-CD crack. As far as I am concerned I bought the game, I can play it, even if I lost the CD.

[Jalatiphra]

To be honest, if games didn't end up sucking, I wouldn't have to pirate them to see if it's a bad game or not. If it's a good game, I buy a regular copy like regular customer would, if turns out to be a piece of shit, I'm not wasting 60 dollars on it. I show my appreciation where it's due.

to state an example

if have bought C&C the first decade ( had red alert and tiberian sun before)
i didnt buy (but played) c&c red alert 2

i bought every single blizzard game except warcraft 1
i bought no EA game at all - but i played mirrors edge - too short for the money
i bought black & white, i didnt buy black & white 2 nor did i download it
i bought sacred 2 because i downloaded sacred 1 and it was great
i bought an eve online account after 15 trial to get to know the game better which isnt possible in 15 days due to its complexity
i downloaded 90% of the shooters i played in solo player, but i own a steam account with 22 licences too
i downloaded every single bethesda game and up to today iam sorry for it.
i downloaded every single need for speed and up to today i laugh about it

[Riathy]

Your way of thinking is quite odd. You are not stealing it, the chance that one has bought the game and uploaded it is also possible.
He would've paid for the copy so...

My opinion on the matter lies differently;
I've bought many many games, and to be fair many of those games weren't worth the money I paid for them.
The only reason I might download a game is because to try it out myself, to see if it is worth it. If it is I will buy it without any hassle. You know back in the day, demo's used to be really really common. you could get them on (almost) any game magazine.

However times changed, maybe demo's weren't as profitable as they might have thought, who knows. I certainly don't.
If there is no demo, and the game is (in my opinion) "overpriced" then yes, I would download the game. (To try, if it is my money worth)

Other reasons I have downloaded a game is because mine was in mail order and I couldn't stand not playing (HoMM3, awesome game. :P)
But, I talk about at least 5-6 years ago, I have steam now, and let's be honest, the specials they have tend to be a nice deal.

[StendhalSyndrom]

I personally pirate newer games for 3 hours, buy the game if i like it and delete if I did not. A Demo isn't a reliable source now a days to get real insight of how the game works, nor do I trust Game reviewers, as they have far to many times mislead me.

Soo true, programmers and artists get paid by their record labels and owning co.s long before the product hits the shelves the only thing you may be affecting is their bonuses and what ever post production $ they will get based on how big said project gets. And like the person I quoted said, "if it's good I will buy it" I say if a software developer is soo behind their game let people try it for free for a trial period if its as good as they claim people will buy it. Otherwise its a case of pretty packaging or demos tricking you into buying an otherwise crappy game. Can anyone think of a huge movie or game or even band who got screwed out of success by piracy but who everyone still listens to/plays/watches? I know I can't...

[Drexxil]

Your way of thinking is quite odd. You are not stealing it, the chance that one has bought the game and uploaded it is also possible.
He would've paid for the copy so...

A lot of game leaks come from employees who work at retail stores.

[homerunhomer]

In my youth I've had games that people have burned onto CDs and given me. I've downloaded ROMs and stuff for Emulators.

However haven't done that for years, not even with music. Don't use emulators, don't download MP3s I haven't paid for.

[Deleted]

Mr. Seth Godin (Marketing Guru) and Mr. I recall what is/used to be a Swedish Politician, who supported pirate bay (forgot about his name), very simple point out that the problem lies with the media industry (Movie, Music, Games).

When these forms of entertainment were first released on film, LP & CD they were quite expensive to make. There are production costs, allocation costs, overhead costs, logistic costs, the shop owner takes a margin. This made films, LP's & CDs quite expensive - but not extremely high priced.

Now a days thanks to the internet you are able to lifestream movies, download music from Itunes and pre-load games from steam. All those costs mentioned above are gone - yet the prices of these media have skyrocketed, where you would have expected them to be lowered. It has become clear to the common user that his products are overpriced, and I find it very fair that people decide not to pay for it if there is a cheap (free) alternative within a few clicks.

Furthermore a study was held in the UK that showed if everyone payed a small extra yearly tax for their internet usages, (I recall it was about 15.- per year, per person living in the UK in total) this tax would equal the royalties that were needed to pay to the artists/movie makers. Essentially saying that everyone could download without restriction for only 15.- per year - which is not even the price of a regular cd/dvd, again pointing out that prices are way to high.

Additionally for some reason these industries continue to break revenue records every single year, there are more music albums released every year and there are more artists every year. There is also claimed to be more piracy every year.

Now back to Mr. Godin - he points out that a smart artist does not work via any big label, since they will cut in heavily on his revenue. Instead the artist should give away his music for free, or almost free (and you see a lot of artists doing this now), and instead actually have a good fan base, make contact with your fans, and make sure they are crazy enough to follow you around the globe while you are doing a world tour, while paying for all your concert.

The major problem is, is that the media industry does not see that the status-quo has changed. The market of the 21st century is not the same as the market in between 1970-2000. Now they are spending billions fighting piracy, while they in fact should embrace piracy - look at the opportunities (such as easily spreading brand awareness, getting new customers, earn money via promotion (spotify?)), and turn it into a new form of revenue.

[llDemonll]

Not happening, sorry.

This thread quickly turned into discussing piracy, etc., etc., and we don't do that here.