Why People Pirate Video Games

[mzs_biteme]

stupid argument is stupid... why don't you ban libraries as they allow the poor to read books, listen to CDs, borrow DVDs and *gasp* computer games. What is the world coming to. I suppose that you are against free (outdoor) public swimming pools in the summer as well. Poor teens should be getting pregnant and living off of welfare instead of downloading games which does not equal a financial loss.

Again, you're somehow giving "gaming" a status of a "god given right"!!!! Access to games, or lack there of, due to your financial situation has NOTHING do do with public institutions you mentioned !!!! Access to library != "right" to pirate games....!!!

 

[H-street]

In addition since downloading = downloading and not theft most people don't expeirence a moral conflict. It's not like stealing a chocolate bar from a mom and pop corner shop. "No animals were harmed in the pirating of this game" Support that delevopers if you can afford to, enjoy the game for free if you can't.

LOL - I think you pretty much summed up the Lack of Morality nicely..

I don't think any comment has made me as sad as this one.. We are now to the point where someone has to label it as "theft" for us to feel bad about our Dis-Honesty..

 

[Ur_Mom]

I should run to the church to confess and get jerked off.

Whoa. What church is that? I'd like to convert!

 

[misfitsfiend]

I can definitely identify with this article. The only games I ever pirated were single player games to test out because the developers refused to release a demo. I've never felt "entitled" or that "I have a right to pirate" so I have no idea where that sentiment comes from. Sorry, but I refuse to drop $60 to beta test your 6 hour SP campaign.

Steam sales have all but obliterated this desire. Now, any game I remotely desire can be acquired cheaply through Steam sales, so I'll just wait it out.

Now, cue the anti-piracy, anti-fun, SJW bitching me out for not paying full price for your pre-alpha indie side scroller.

 

[Red Falcon]

The worst people I know identify as baptists. They believe in Jesus as god/son of god, heaven, hell, demons, angels and all that, and then go around getting drunk, getting into fights, going to the basement to get high while their under 10 year old kids watch tv upstairs, etc. So don't even try to talk about how a lack of religion is causing these problems.

Just because they identify as Christians doesn't mean they are or act like Christians.

 

[misfitsfiend]

This is what happens when we live in a world where religion is all but dead.
The irony I find is that this forum is very anti-religion, specifically anti-Christian, and then they act shocked when people act like this.

Not to get off topic on religion, but really, it is the lack there of which are causing all of these problems.

Congrats! After 10+ years on this site you've made it on this super exclusive, ultra-VIP list!

 

[silk186]

This is what happens when we live in a world where religion is all but dead.
The irony I find is that this forum is very anti-religion, specifically anti-Christian, and then they act shocked when people act like this.

Not to get off topic on religion, but really, it is the lack there of which are causing all of these problems.

I would rather religion died than all the crap done in the name of religion, and I'm not even talking about Islam.

 

[nilepez]

This is only true IF the piracy results in a lots sale and this is not the argument people are making. If you can't afford games you don't get games. Meaning that they would not have bought the game. This argument can be brought into the used game market. When I was a kid a bought all of my console games second hand except for the first few marios and a few games at Christmas. Second hand games do not generate any revenue for developers. Second hand sales are not illigal but by your logic they are immoral.

This is occasionally true, but not always. If you're in college, and all you do is go to class, study and occasionally play a game, then that holds up. But if you go to bars, parties, football games, movies, concerts etc, then if you couldn't pirate the game, you can afford a game...you just choose to spend your money on things you can't pirate.

This is more true for those who d/l music and movies, but it applies to games too.

Now if you stole Photoshop cs back then, I'd buy into the no sale. There's really little chance that someone would buy a $600 piece of S/W (though the advent of lower priced student versions might change the equation...especially if it's part of your major)...as does the availability of Creative Cloud.

 

[nilepez]

Congrats! After 10+ years on this site you've made it on this super exclusive, ultra-VIP list!

Lately Scrooge hasn't been as inflamatory. No idea how tazman is....that said, I didn't even know we could ignore people.

 

[NickJames]

 

[nilepez]

I'm glad you posted this because I think that most people, even if they do pirate games, will present themselves as not doing so and will also act disgusted at the idea of piracy. It's far worse to do that than it is to admit to doing it.

But with that said, I don't think unlimited Internet and higher downstream data rates really have a lot to do with piracy of software. They're really not related since, from what I read, people were burning CDs of games long before it was reasonable to get like an ISO copy of it because of dial up modems and junk. With copy protection and digital stores and stuff, I think that the tendency to pirate games is actually lower now than it ever was in spite of increased bandwidth and stuff like Steam has drastically reduced that kinda stuff.

Depends on your age, but people downloaded games before CD's. I have no idea if they did that with CD media before broadband.

However, it's obvious that broadband increased piracy. Before that, you had to know someone who had the disk or dedicate tie up your phone for a long time to d/l hundreds of MB of data. With BB, you could d/l the game in no more than a few hours without tying up your phone even if you knew nobody with the game.

 

[Converge]

I don't pirate, I demo these worthless piece of shit games. Helps me determine if it's worth spending my hard earned money on their unfinished product. If it is then I'll buy it. 9 times out of 10 I don't buy the game.

Now you know why they don't release demo's for most games any more. What publisher would actually demo a turd and expect people to still buy it?

Damn straight, I miss the day when demos were expected and delivered.

 

[Manaknight]

This is what happens when we live in a world where religion is all but dead.
The irony I find is that this forum is very anti-religion, specifically anti-Christian, and then they act shocked when people act like this.

Not to get off topic on religion, but really, it is the lack there of which are causing all of these problems.

Jesus would have pirated games from the Romans


also, I fall into the used to pirate but don't bother anymore...other than the aforementioned unreleased in the US or otherwise unavailable content. digital downloads and sales make it not worth the assache to download shit. by the time i get around to playing something with my backlog it's on sale anyway. I got burned way too many times by buying a day 1 game and not getting a chance to play it until it was going on sale for 15 bucks

 

[djc5166]

Don't copy that floppy, or do, no one -really- cares, they just like to argue.

 

[Booyaah]

Although I'm not really a fan of Jim Sterling. I remember he summed up the problem with piracy quite simply and elegantly.

He said ppl will pay for convenience. People want to 'hit button, get stuff'. A lot of times you can't get that with a lot of media, or they force you to go to a theater, or buy a copy on DVD, etc. Or you gotta setup a new account and purchase some virtual currency etc...

 

[NickJames]

Depends on your age, but people downloaded games before CD's. I have no idea if they did that with CD media before broadband.

However, it's obvious that broadband increased piracy. Before that, you had to know someone who had the disk or dedicate tie up your phone for a long time to d/l hundreds of MB of data. With BB, you could d/l the game in no more than a few hours without tying up your phone even if you knew nobody with the game.

I think file size and network speeds scaled to a point. Back in my day games were barely over 100MB and could be downloaded in almost a day or multiple days on 56K. Around 1998-2000 was when I noticed most games were becoming too large to download. I remember it took me a week just to download Half-Life. I didn't get DSL till about 2002 and it literally opened up a whole new world. Then games got too big once again around '04 with Half-Life 2/CSS which took me about 2-3 days to download. We started seeing more DVD-DL games that were 8GB+ and again it took days to download on my 512kbs connection. Eventually internet speed started catching up with file size and I jumped to 1mbps in 2004, 10mbps in 2006, 50mps in 2009 and finally im sitting at 120mbps today. Even games at 50GB file sizes are easily downloaded within 3-4 hours. I think as technology evolved and more people learned how to use it and how easily accessible it became is the reason piracy rates skyrocketed. That and the cable company refusing to give us legitimate means of streaming shows.

 

[silk186]

This is occasionally true, but not always. If you're in college, and all you do is go to class, study and occasionally play a game, then that holds up. But if you go to bars, parties, football games, movies, concerts etc, then if you couldn't pirate the game, you can afford a game...you just choose to spend your money on things you can't pirate.

This is more true for those who d/l music and movies, but it applies to games too.

Now if you stole Photoshop cs back then, I'd buy into the no sale. There's really little chance that someone would buy a $600 piece of S/W (though the advent of lower priced student versions might change the equation...especially if it's part of your major)...as does the availability of Creative Cloud.

I agree, however I think that pirates with a disposable income are a minority. As many have said above, they stopped pirating after they started working. I personally am a grad student and have limited funds. I would work more if I could but my student visa restricts me from doing so. When I have more money I buy more games.

 

[Red Falcon]

Congrats! After 10+ years on this site you've made it on this super exclusive, ultra-VIP list!

I haven't been here for 10+ years.
I will make sure to do the same for you, though.

Lately Scrooge hasn't been as inflamatory. No idea how tazman is....that said, I didn't even know we could ignore people.

What did I say that was wrong or inflammatory?
The mention of religion?

 

[fuzzylogik]

When I was a kid we didn't pirate games - it was all about Shareware.

If you didn't want to take a day downloading the shareware version of the game from some BBS then you went to a local store where you could get the physical copy for less than a buck. If you really liked the game then you'd work your butt off mowing lawns and cleaning gutters for the 20$-40$ game.

And of course... that was when the "demo" version was nearly 1/3rd of the entire game (one "chapter" out of three or whatnot).

We'd "borrow" games too from friends, but we'd usually end up buying our own copy so we could play online. Cracking games came into play when we started to get annoying when your CD's started to wear out or you got tired of always having to have the CD's/Floppy inserted (or swapping them out)

Now... it's all about Steam sales and used console games.

 

[CreepyUncleGoogle]

Mwa ha ha! My evil powers are UNMATCHED!

Well, I guess Red Birdie has similar powers. *fist bumps Red Birdie* Good job with that one. You freaked someone out to the point of hiding from you and weren't even trying. That's like more awesome than even me since I usually have to try really hard to scare away the occasional sensitive forum resident.

 

[Red Falcon]

I would rather religion died than all the crap done in the name of religion, and I'm not even talking about Islam.

Well, you have your wish granted.
The world is a great place and I'm sure we will have lots more threads about topics like this.

But have fun trying to "figure out" why no one has any of those silly things like "morals" or "character", and why they don't care about anyone or anything since they aren't "held accountable".
I guess it's just a big mystery.

 

[Master_shake_]

When I was a kid we didn't pirate games - it was all about Shareware.

If you didn't want to take a day downloading the shareware version of the game from some BBS then you went to a local store where you could get the physical copy for less than a buck. If you really liked the game then you'd work your butt off mowing lawns and cleaning gutters for the 20$-40$ game.

And of course... that was when the "demo" version was nearly 1/3rd of the entire game (one "chapter" out of three or whatnot).

We'd "borrow" games too from friends, but we'd usually end up buying our own copy so we could play online. Cracking games came into play when we started to get annoying when your CD's started to wear out or you got tired of always having to have the CD's/Floppy inserted (or swapping them out)

Now... it's all about Steam sales and used console games.

i;m sure if publishers had their way the used console game market would be done away with.

in fact IIRC EA had cd keys on some of their console games.

 

[NickJames]

Mwa ha ha! My evil powers are UNMATCHED!

Well, I guess Red Birdie has similar powers. *fist bumps Red Birdie* Good job with that one. You freaked someone out to the point of hiding from you and weren't even trying. That's like more awesome than even me since I usually have to try really hard to scare away the occasional sensitive forum resident.

It's easier to put up with trolls than religious zealots.

 

[Red Falcon]

Mwa ha ha! My evil powers are UNMATCHED!

Well, I guess Red Birdie has similar powers. *fist bumps Red Birdie* Good job with that one. You freaked someone out to the point of hiding from you and weren't even trying. That's like more awesome than even me since I usually have to try really hard to scare away the occasional sensitive forum resident.

*fist bump right back*
I know, right, and I wasn't even talking to him or trying!

rf: "Hey, misfitsfiend, I found this cross and wanted you to take a look at..."
misfit: "HHHSSSSSSSS, GET IT AWAY, YOU VILE HUMAN!!!! PERMA-BLOCK! PERMAAA-BLOCK!!!1"

 

[Kelby]

I used to steal comic books when I was a kid. Not a lot, maybe 10 total. Then I tried to steal Ozzy Osborn's No More Tears. I got caught, banned from K-Mart, paid a $21 fine and had to do 12 hours of community service.

If you get caught stealing stuff online now days, good luck. The fees are so high, you might as well have had your hand cut off.

Kids steal. Thats nothing new. All that has happened is the media has changed.

 

[kbrickley]

Well, you have your wish granted.
The world is a great place and I'm sure we will have lots more threads about topics like this.

But have fun trying to "figure out" why no one has any of those silly things like "morals" or "character", and why they don't care about anyone or anything since they aren't "held accountable".
I guess it's just a big mystery.

Although religion can be one way to a morality system it isn't the only one ... there are also plenty of so called religious people with little if any moral compass ... I think the lack of morality is more driven by the poor structure and guidance most kids have today ... I was lucky that my wife was a stay at home mom so my kids always had guidance from an authority figure ... with some of the dual working families the kids spend most of their time alone, with friends, or online (very bad places to get an effective moral compass) ... it is also easy to rationalize piracy (I certainly did when I was young), but ultimately the ones who only pirate and never buy (regardless of the reason) are killing the thing they profess to love (quality gaming)

 

[Red Falcon]

It's easier to put up with trolls than religious zealots.

...even though I didn't troll anyone, at least not intentionally, and was just making a statement.
Or, this forum is filled with anti-relgious zealots, whom sometimes don't realize what they are, just saying.

 

[Master_shake_]

Well, you have your wish granted.
The world is a great place and I'm sure we will have lots more threads about topics like this.

But have fun trying to "figure out" why no one has any of those silly things like "morals" or "character", and why they don't care about anyone or anything since they aren't "held accountable".
I guess it's just a big mystery.

but hey who needs to explore space or cure diseases.

we have morality!

 

[Red Falcon]

Although religion can be one way to a morality system it isn't the only one ... there are also plenty of so called religious people with little if any moral compass ... I think the lack of morality is more driven by the poor structure and guidance most kids have today ... I was lucky that my wife was a stay at home mom so my kids always had guidance from an authority figure ... with some of the dual working families the kids spend most of their time alone, with friends, or online (very bad places to get an effective moral compass) ... it is also easy to rationalize piracy (I certainly did when I was young), but ultimately the ones who only pirate and never buy (regardless of the reason) are killing the thing they profess to love (quality gaming)

That is definitely a huge part of it (but, at that, what is causing the poor structure and guidance kids have today?), and the irony of what is happening, you stated best in your last sentence.

 

[NickJames]

...even though I didn't troll anyone, at least not intentionally, and was just making a statement.
Or, this forum is filled with anti-relgious zealots, whom sometimes don't realize what they are, just saying.

I come from a rather religious family so I am used to putting up with peoples trying their push their ideals and agenda on me. Unfortunately for some people they can snap easily at the suggestion. Sadly even with the amount of patience I have ignoring them can still set them off into a rage. So it really does go both ways.

 

[Red Falcon]

http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Christian_600890_2786287.jpg[IMG]

but hey who needs to explore space or cure diseases.

[B]we have morality![/B][/QUOTE]

Actually, we don't.
I don't remember God coming down and telling people to not make cures or stay the hell out of space.

That does sound an awful lot like a government regime or two I can think of.

 

[Red Falcon]

I come from a rather religious family so I am used to putting up with peoples trying their push their ideals and agenda on me. Unfortunately for some people they can snap easily at the suggestion. Sadly even with the amount of patience I have ignoring them can still set them off into a rage. So it really does go both ways.

What ideals or agenda did I push?
I was just making a statement, an opinion from what I've seen, if you will.

Looks like that persecution the bible talked about is actually coming true, and in a friendly thread discussion, no less. :S

 

[NickJames]

What ideals or agenda did I push?
I was just making a statement, an opinion from what I've seen, if you will.

Looks like that persecution the bible talked about is actually coming true, and in a friendly thread discussion, no less. :S

Eh? I wasn't talking about you directly.. just saying why it's not worth getting into religious debated.

 

[Ur_Mom]

no one -really- cares,

That's my philosophy. I don't do it anymore. But, I really don't give two shits if anyone else does. Nothing I say or do will change their mind. I enjoyed it while I did it, I played a ton of games and learned a lot about cracks and copy protection. Now? I play a lot less games, but I also just pay for them (usually on sale). I would probably attribute it more to less time to play games than any moral judgement call.

 

[R3ckless]

I think the way publishers are making out on DLC and not giving people content that used to be part of a game purchase is the issue these days. Why should i pay for your grab ass unfinished game when you want to nickel and dime me for a few hours of extra content you took from the main game.

I would pirate but now my income allows me to pay for what i want and lately its not been from anything new. I did pirate alot back in the day. I will say for music that i will check out a cd or two then go back and buy the good cds if its worth it.Its like a full feature demo witch you dont see anymore.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Which to me begs the question: If you can't afford the game, how the hell did you even afford the computer to play it on?

It's actually very simple. A computer is a reliable, multipurpose workstation. And you don't need a particularly amazing one to simply play games (something a lot us Hardforum people, with 2-3k$--well in my case anyway--enthusiast gaming computers, tend to forget). I can build a competent one for probably 200-300$. Even someone working minimum wage can afford a computer, and it's practically required for college (which probably accounts for a lot of the pirate crowd). My Surface Pro could play games, and I got it for 500$. My friend got one for like 350 off Ebay. It's a one time purchase.

On the other hand, compare this to video games. They're practically like expensive candy bars (that can last a long time, though that's not true of many modern titles). They're generally gone after one use, and if you get a flavor you don't like (or if there's some licorice in the middle as a plot twist) your only option is to usually throw it away. It's like gambling. Many people don't have the money for that when they're trying to afford food (and sometimes books and lab gear). Hardware is a more reliable investment than a game. On some level almost everyone works off of risk vs reward.

TL;DR You can play thousands of games with one computer. There is no vice-versa.

Anyway I already made a longer post as to what the nature of probably many pirates (and a brief write up on the nature of piracy itself) here:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041241925&postcount=56

I won't reiterate. Plus this topic has already gone quite to hell either way.

This is what happens when we live in a world where religion is all but dead.
The irony I find is that this forum is very anti-religion, specifically anti-Christian, and then they act shocked when people act like this.

Not to get off topic on religion, but really, it is the lack there of which are causing all of these problems.

This must be an elaborate troll. Because in your first post you act like lack of religion is (or is not, supposing one simply questioned its significance) the cause of widespread immorality and general problematic behavior (for which you have no actual proof). Then you act surprised that everyone took you as a troll. Forget being anti-religious, it's just blatant incredulity regarding your statements. You are acting like religion is a standardized ethics system that everyone will follow if they convert. In fact, there is no such thing as a standardized system of morals anywhere, regardless of what religion people do or do not follow. Everyone has their own morals and integrity. This is dependent on societal pressure, and other various factors (in school, peer pressure). Much like religion itself. If you are born Christian and never question it or really know or follow its tenants, are you automatically still more moral than anyone else? Perhaps by the nature of a fully Christian upbringing, yes. Or perhaps you end up like a certain character in Far Cry 4. Everything is up to personal interpretation. People are creatures that make excuses everywhere while pretending they fully follow some set of tenets.

To me, that's fine. The very nature of individuality is resistance against dogmatic principles, while the nature of non-individualism is adoption of said dogmatic principles to the extreme. Most people fall in the middle. Religious folk are not a principle. They are individuals... and vice versa.


... TL;DR: I knew Christians in college who would pirate. I also knew the opposite.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

I meant "tenets" instead of "tenants" above.

 

[djc5166]

That's my philosophy. I don't do it anymore. But, I really don't give two shits if anyone else does. Nothing I say or do will change their mind. I enjoyed it while I did it, I played a ton of games and learned a lot about cracks and copy protection. Now? I play a lot less games, but I also just pay for them (usually on sale). I would probably attribute it more to less time to play games than any moral judgement call.

This. Also, do people really think criticizing someone as immoral based on their own moral principles is going to deter them from doing those immoral things? Either they don't see it as immoral themselves, or they don't give a fuck. You're not gonna persuade most people on game piracy, religion, etc.with that argument.

 

[kbrickley]

I think the way publishers are making out on DLC and not giving people content that used to be part of a game purchase is the issue these days. Why should i pay for your grab ass unfinished game when you want to nickel and dime me for a few hours of extra content you took from the main game.

I would pirate but now my income allows me to pay for what i want and lately its not been from anything new. I did pirate alot back in the day. I will say for music that i will check out a cd or two then go back and buy the good cds if its worth it.Its like a full feature demo witch you dont see anymore.

Not all companies approach DLC the same way ... although some do clearly remove content, many (if not most) use it as a way to expand and customize a game more to your liking. Game prices have essentially been static for the last 15-20 years (few other commodities have done that). Well handled DLC provides an acceptable way for companies to monetize a game over time

For example, in the old days (80s and 90s) you got a base game that was rarely expanded except for maybe 1 or 2 expansions (separate purchase) ... this could set you back $30-50 for a base game and $10-30 for each expansion ... companies usually sold a small fraction of the original game sales in the expansion sales ... if a developer couldn't include a feature in the original game or in the expansion it waited for the sequel or it was lost forever

In the modern environment a company can allow modifications to the game (usually that affect balance) to be optional purchases ... so you can have a base game, like Oblivion, with additions like a Mage Tower or Assassin's Hideout ... they are hardly necessary to complete the game and many of their features make difficult items easier to obtain but they are also completely optional purchases ... Farcry DLC and Fallout DLC was similar in nature ... since the base game price has been fixed in the $50-60 range for so long, the only method the developer has to try and obtain extra revenue and/or profit is to create these items ... since many games don't warrant an expansion, the DLC options let them expand it without the overhead of developing a full out expansion

 

[SilverSliver]

I still download games, due to lack of demos and incomplete shit being sold for 60 bucks a pop now. If I have the desire to play more than 15 minutes, I'll buy the game on Steam. If not, it's gone. I don't trust reviews online, anymore.