why i pirate

Other Games General Discussion
1

theres 2 kinds of pirates out there

  1. the ones who just download and never do anything after that
  2. people who are feed up with sh*tty games, movies and music
    i dont know about Positech Games but The Movies (and its expansion) and the Sims Franchise i did buy
    cause they were great games

im fit into the 2nd category
i buy any game that deserves to have a sequel
that deserves my time to play
i downloaded Starcraft Brood Wars back in 2000 i played it for about 30 mins
then i went out and brought it that night

movies are the same way
i wont go to the theaters cause theyre noisy, seats are hard,and food and drinks are higher priced then the ticket to get in
the last 3 dvds i brought were HOT FUZZ, Borat, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
all 3 i downloaded and watch numerous times and when they came out on dvd i brought them day 1
my main reason why i get movies
i dont want to buy another Passion of the Christ
i started watching, watching, watching, watching, watch then say “that was a waste of money” and i cant get my money back
i cant take back the money that studio just got from me and that pisses me off

studios (game movies or music) needs to have a big pimp smack each time they release something that just isnt worth the money
they wouldnt care how many times they got hit
but if theyre profit is affected they cry “please dont pirate”
if piracy is against the law i think overcharging for properties should be against the law too
look at microsoft
Vista and Xbox 360
vista is the worst thing ive every seen

  1. all version come on the same disc so theyre only charging for the Windows Key the disc comes free
  2. it lags all the damn time and popups “are you sure you want to do this” every time you click on anything
  3. that defense popup never stops the installation of the programs its suppose to prevent

i love my 360 to death but i have brought 3 Xbox 360 every one of my games are legit, i play for xbox live, and i own like 60 XBLA games
i know how to hack my 360 but i chose not to cause they are making games that are worth my money

2

First, there are not two kinds of pirates, things are never that black and white, in fact you even contradict yourself. You claim you downloaded, and then bought starcraft. That doesn’t fit into either of your 2 ‘kinds’ of pirates.

Secondly, game studios do not deserve to die if they have a ‘miss’. If they develop a game that doesn’t sell well, doesn’t live up to hype or isn’t quite what you had in mind, is it right to simply deny them of any profit illegally so that they could not make a sequel? It’s all good business sense, if a product doesn’t sell, it will stop being created and there will be no sequel. There are only sequels because the previous one sold well. If not their focus is turned elsewhere, to new ideas. Without any profit, the studios will die, along with any ideas they might have created. Often leaving the people who founded them to go bankrupt or left in serious debt. We are not just talking about sequels, we are talking about peoples lives - and it can be seriously affected by piracy. Cliff, who is behind Positech has single handedly created a bunch of games that a good many people enjoy. It is definitely not right to say something isn’t ‘worth the money’ just because you personally don’t enjoy it. Lets take an example. You put a lot of effort into whatever it is you are good at, and someone comes along and doesn’t agree with your vision, should they give you ‘a big pimp smack’?

I admire what Cliff has done. Rather than complaining about the pirates, he is actively asking them what the problems are and how he can solve them. It is people like Cliff who will fix the industry, get rid of the ‘rubbish’ sequels that you speak of. I really hope, for the sake of the whole industry, that some of the bigger players prick their ears up to what is said and take note.

On another note, I have something else for you to download. I think you might find it useful.

Regards,

Ian

3

This post was edited as it added nothing to the discussion

4

heh heh…

Ha ha… HA HA HA HA HA!!

I fell out of my chair. =)

Is THAT what you were trying to communicate with? The English Language?
Too funny.

5

Heh I had a good laugh about that as well…

I’m a strong advocate for a ‘license’ to use the Internet much like required to drive a car. ‘Must be able to avoid being scammed’, ‘Must be able to communicate effectively in native language’, ‘Must be able to argue rationally to make a point’. Not that this has anything to do with the above quote. :wink:

Err, no. Have you ever tried to make a game? Here’s a challenge - go and make Pac Man. If you don’t want to, are too busy or are incapable of doing so then you have disproved your own point. Not everyone can. GTA4 took a team of over 100 very talented people four years to make, running in at about $100 million. I recreated a board game that I liked in 3D. That took me the best part of 9 months and I was nowhere near finished when I called it quits (I got a full time job). If you factor in that I could have had a job - even at minimum wage - during that period, then it would have cost me a minimum of £10800 (~$20,000) to make the game. (£5 an hour, 8 hours a week, for 9 months). Of course the real amount would be much higher because games developers don’t pay minimum wage.

Companies make sequels because they like milking their cash cows. They keep making them because people keep buying them. The Sims ‘Ikea Furniture Pack’ (really, it exists…), The Sims ‘Yet another load of crap’ exist because people are stupid enough to buy them.

I can’t help but agree with you on some games. Madden really has had too many versions. But if we didn’t have sequels we wouldn’t have gems like Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV), GTA4 or Metal Gear Solid 4.

…

Not sure how this even remotely relevant.

I shouldn’t feed the trolls, I really shouldn’t but its just oh so much fun!

6

I almost bit but I think all this deserves is a :smiley:

With that, English…work on it…punctuations…work harder on it, making any kind of sense of your justifications, well I don’t think there is much hope there. More school, play fewer games, get a job, and realize the value of money and hard work. If and when you ever own a car, and someone steals it? Remember piracy is good :smiley:

7

The only excuse for pirating a game in my eyes is if you bought a game but could never get it back if you lost it. LIKE if you lost the cd for something like risk i have nothing against pirating. Its just when someone pirates a 50 dollar game it bothers me. Or a 20 buck game that’s new.

8

what do you think game demos and movie trailers are for?

9

Here is my view on piracy:
If you have a job, you expect to be paid. You expect that the work you do will in turn make a profit for the company you work for, then they will give you raises for a job well done. If it is ok for you to make money, why is it wrong for someone making music, movies, or games to make money? They are greedy for doing a job to provide you entertainment? Nobody forces you to buy their product, but there are laws preventing you from STEALING their property.

I do feel we have fallen into this category that it is ok to take from these people and companies because they have released crappy work at one time. So, your quality of work is great every time?

If I go into a store and buy a bottle of soda, I am allowed to now take as much as I want because I already paid the first time? Or, how about the service from the cashier was bad once, so, I am going to just walk out with the product because their service sucks?

Everyone I hear discuss piracy complains about how much the people they are pirating from makes. So what? Really, I do not care how much you make, why should you care what I make? If I was a programmer, and someone is pirating from me, I would track them down, and sue them till I had everything they owned. If you want to see me lose my income to provide for my family, I want to do the same to you. See, that is what people do not get, these are JOBS. Let me repeat that:
THESE ARE JOBS

Last time I checked, the economy is not doing too well. So, lets destroy more jobs. I say, if people are caught pirating anything, put them in jail, and ban all internet access for life. Good luck finding a job.

10

Lots of people pirate games because DEMOS are worthless nowadays. You can’t trust a demo, neither a game reviewer. I pirate games because I need to try out before I buy it (I have a job, and still can’t afford to waste money into games that turn out not that great). Pirating, as long a you buy the games if you like them (that’s what I do, and please don’t call me a liar) is not killing any job. I WOULD NOT BUY THE GAMES I PIRATE, TRY, AND DELETE AFTER A COUPLE HOURS ANYWAY. I’m saying this to you shoe1985, who think that pirating a game means you would have bought it because you’re interested in it.
No, I would not buy it, just like the way I would not buy a game if the demo (back in that time, when demos were still depicting the full game) didn’t get me hooked. You can be interested in a game, and find out it’s not at all what you were looking for.

I pirated most of the games I bought, and those I didn’t buy didn’t last long on my hard drive obviously.

[/quote]
Were you bullied at home when you were a kid or something?

11

So, you would pirate a game you showed some interest in? What if you couldn’t pirate it? Would you have purchased it? More than likely the response would have been yes.

See, what will happen, it always does, is that you begin with games. Then you will walk into a store and be like, “I wasn’t going to buy this item, so, I am going to take it without paying for it.” It becomes a habit.

What is going to happen is that nobody is going to see any reason to purchase anything. What is the point if you can just take it? What happens when these industries finally go under because nobody is buying their products?

What you forget is that these are JOBS that people do. You say you have a job, how about telling your boss not to pay you because you feel your work should be given away. I bet that would never happen.

Why is it ok for you to take something you did not pay for from someone who worked hours and hours, days, months, sometimes even years on for free?

Was I bullied? Nope, I got along with most people. Maybe I understand what it means to work, and expecting to receive money for that work. Tell your boss not to pay you anymore because you are a supporter of pirating. Then tell the bill collectors you are not paying your bills because you don’t have too.

I hope you get caught pirating something, then you have to face the courts. I hope you have the money to pay the fines.

Also, if you really had a job, you would probably be more respectful of someone that is an independent programmer trying to make it off of his/her games. This is far from an easy business. Costs are high, and when you lose sales because some teenager with acne that will never get laid unless it is with a hooker sees no reason to pay for something he/she has stolen, well that could put you and your family on the streets.

12

That’s were lies the problem. I’m not STEALING, I’m not taking anything from anyone. I’m COPYING something and giving money as charity to those I think deserve it (AKA who made a game I had loads of fun with).
As to whether I’d buy games if I couldn’t pirate them, I’m not sure you read what I wrote. Sure, I would still buy games, but I wouldn’t spend MORE than I currently do, simply because I COULDN’T. I don’t go to the movie, I don’t spend my money on drinks, I’m spending the few I have on games. I would still buy them and I’d be damn angry cause more than half those games I would eventually HATE because I couldn’t try them before throwing in the money.

I’m a student, and have no choice but to work every night to pay the bill every month, so I pretty much know what working means thank you.

Btw: I pirated cliffski’s GSB, and guess what? I BOUGHT IT RIGHT AWAY. See, so much for killing jobs.

13

Boo hoo, most of us had to work in college and high school to earn a little extra money. The funny thing is that if I could not afford something, like a game or crap like that, I went without it. If I had extra money, I would treat myself to a game, a CD of music, just something I could not afford before. Today, people just take, and wonder why things like the economy is in the crapper. How does the economy work? People buy products, creating a demand, which then forces companies to hire people to keep up with the demand by creating a supply. If nobody buys, but rather takes, or as you put it “Copies,” why would anyone want to create a product if they will not be rewarded for their work?

You have a job, why should you be paid? I could probably just take whatever it is you make/do for free. You know what you would do then? You would call the cops, and have me arrested.

So, just because you bought the game you pirated, how many people actually do that? How many people that enjoy an album, movie, or game they pirated actually go back and pay for it? I would guess close to 1%, maybe less. Why would someone go back and pay when they already have the item they want?

What incentive do you have to work at your job? If you do not do it to earn money, you can’t pay your bills every month, correct? Well, how is that any different than what Cliff does? What incentive does he or any company have if people will not buy their games, but make copies of them and give to everyone else?

People expect everything for free, and earn the big bucks in return. It will be interesting to see how our economy recovers in the coming years because face it, what jobs are there for anyone to do?

I have an idea. Lets blame all those high paid corporate people who provide us high paying jobs. Then, we will take from them because they have taken our money for years. Then, we will wonder why they are laying off so many workers, and wages have not really risen in years. It can’t be from everyone “copying” their property and not buying it. You know, not creating a real demand for it.

14

That’s where I guess lies our misunderstanding. I’m pretty sure more and more people act that way, way more than 1%. Of course, we have no figures, and I’m not sure there’s been any survey about it.
For a start, all my friends do that. We all pirated stuff when we were teens, cause of course it was fun, and it was free. Then we got jobs, we got money, and we started buying games whenever we could. And we pirate when we can’t yet. What if I don’t pirate? They still don’t get my money. I’m not killing any more jobs by pirating. Piracy is a non issue IMO, sure it must impact sales, but not all that much. I don’t know how it is at your place, but most people I know still know the value of work, and would sure rather buy than steal.