Piracy and Illegal Downloading

[The Smashing Samurai]

Retailer and producers.

Ok. But if I download a game that is no longer in production, does the retailer and producer REALLY care?

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

Ok. But if I download a game that is no longer in production, does the retailer and producer REALLY care?

Who knows. I wasn't aware that game piracy centered around out of niche games that people can't find in retail stores or from the manufacturer.

 

[The Smashing Samurai]

Who knows. I wasn't aware that game piracy centered around out of niche games that people can't find in retail stores or from the manufacturer.

Believe it or not, it does. People wouldn't rely on pirating games if it were so easy as you put it. You know, without having to buy the game with more than you originally paid for.

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

Believe it or not, it does. People wouldn't rely on pirating games if it were so easy as you put it. You know, without having to buy the game with more than you originally paid for.

So people who pirate games are paying for games that they originally bought and somehow lost. And the games that they bought are so hard to find at the cost that they bought it that they go for high prices on ebay / what have you.

 

[The Smashing Samurai]

So people who pirate games are paying for games that they originally bought and somehow lost. And the games that they bought are so hard to find at the cost that they bought it that they go for high prices on ebay / what have you.

If people want the physical actual cartridge, and the game is not as fluent around the nation as some other games, then yes, sometimes the price can be higher. Just look at E.T. for Atari.

But me, however, I download my emulated games for free, thankfully. No point in buying them.

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

If people want the physical actual cartridge, and the game is not as fluent around the nation as some other games, then yes, sometimes the price can be higher. Just look at E.T. for Atari. But me, however, I download my emulated games for free, thankfully. No point in buying them.

Yes. And the government should be cutting down on the emulated game market. Right?

 

[The Smashing Samurai]

Yes. And the government should be cutting down on the emulated game market. Right?

I say no. Even if they tried, hackers can always find a loophole.

Games are fun.

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

I say no. Even if they tried, hackers can always find a loophole. Games are fun.

Okay I understand your reasoning. Thanks.

 

[The Smashing Samurai]

Okay I understand your reasoning. Thanks.

Sorry for the insult.

 

[LarsINTJ]

Games, Music, Movies, any sort of digital media has no value in itself, it's all infinitely reproducible. When you pay for a digital product it's essentially a donation toward the creators as an incentive to create more great things.

If you don't make that donation, then everyone loses in the long run.

This does become increasingly irrelevant as a product ages, provided that the media isn't being officially sold anymore. Yet there are still many old games being sold through various DLC platforms; is some of that money given to the original designers? Are they still designing games? Not always clear.

 

[Twewy]

I hardly use illegal downloads, but I end up buying the things I download eventually. Or, in the case of Hotline Miami, trade TF2 items for a guy to buy a copy for me.

 

[Toon612Link]

It should not be illegal to pirate things like SNES, or 7 year old movies... And if you do pirate current game/movies, I think you should be forced to donate if you like the game/movie.
you should always have to pay for music though.

 

[Mic_128]

It should not be illegal to pirate things like SNES, or 7 year old movies...

Even with them being available on online services like iTunes or Virtual Console-like services?

 

[Toon612Link]

Even with them being available on online services like iTunes or Virtual Console-like services?

Now you see... When are we ever going to see DK country 1-3 again? These company's don't always give us what we want and usually overprice old games... And why should you have to pay for something that you probably already bought in your life once. Ive bought Zelda ocarina of time 3 times in my life, once on the 64, the wii, and 3ds.

 

[InfiniteTripping]

I really dislike piracy. My friends pirate everything and it's just so annoying and cheap. But I also dislike the music industry practices in particular. A lot of people don't realize that the musicians rarely get any royalties from their album sales. That touring and publishing is where they get all of their money... and that sometimes they can even end up in the red from putting out an album. Since the studio charges them for the recording studio time and sometimes even the manufacturing. So when the music industry frames it as, by downloading illegally you are stealing from the artist, that's basically a huge lie. The only exception is the labels that are owned by the bands (which is why Metallica came out so hard against Napster, since they own their own label).

But then there's the piracy from people that cannot get something any other way. Like when HBO puts a bunch of hoops around their programming and basically makes it as hard as possible to watch before they finally release it into stores... people have to pirate it or they don't get to see it. HBO even PRIDES themselves on the piracy numbers and eagerly awaits the stats of how many people illegally download their programming. It's pretty bizarre.

So my philosophy is, I'll buy your product. But make it convenient for me to buy and make sure the artist is well-compensated for their time and effort.

 

[Chinaux]

To be completely honest, I think piracy is wrong, but I still do it. For me I think of it as why pay when you can just get it for free?
Pirating music doesn't really hurt the artist that much. Like in the South Park episode, it's not going to make them go broke. However, if I really like the artist I'll buy it.

 

[Desu_Maiden]

As long as the Internet exists, piracy will always exist. Piracy has existed since the Internet existed back in the early 1990s. About the only thing companies can do to limit the damage done by piracy is by making products that are worth buying.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

As long as the Internet exists, piracy will always exist. Piracy has existed since the Internet existed back in the early 1990s. About the only thing companies can do to limit the damage done by piracy is by making products that are worth buying.

And, in the words of Extra Credits referring to DRM, "Free is already a pretty big advantage, don't ensure that they also have the better game."

 

[Evil Burrito]

Piracy will stop when One Piece ends, which will probably be never LOL

 

[Legitimate Ted]

I generally pirate things. The exception to this is when I happen to want to support the creator because I've enjoyed his/her work. It doesn't seem like that would work for a large scale market, but that's what I feel is right.

 

[Smash_Sucks]

I pirate things as a demo or if I am unable to purchase or obtain the game (such as it never being released in Europe).

Since I usually demo games, I want to see if its worth my money or not, if the game is terrible then I wasted my time rather than my wallet and if its good then I will purchase the game.

 

[SuperTorn]

As a person who pirates almost every single thing, I want it to keep going for the following reasons
1. A casual gamer who wants to play a game but when he searches for it online because it's the only way he can find it, he sees a bunch of collector editions or a complete package when he only cares about the cartridge/the game and nothing else. He has to pay like $500 for it when he didn't even want a collection, just the game.
2. He wants to play it at the moment and doesn't want to wait/go out of the house etc.
3. He wants to play it with a few emulator modifications such as HD textures, widescreen 16:4, 60 fps, etc.

Also, don't blame it on the person, blame it on Nintendo and popular game stores for not re-selling them and stop making them. I know they sort of have to but we don't see them in stores anymore and it's the reason we have to pay so much for them. Here's an idea, why not do like what GameStop is doing with DS cartridges and put them up behind glass and sale them? I remember there was like a huge basket full of N64 games when I was a little kid, not only that they sometimes re-sold refurbished GCN's when the Wii was like 4 years in. Why can't they just accept used SNES and consoles and crap from past generations, refurbish them and also re-sell old games by putting them in a pile together or behind glass like the DS cartridges? All they need to do is just say they're accepting used SNES and NES games and that's it.

 

[Sucumbio]

There's a local game store here that sells dreamcasts, ataris, snes, etc. They exist. You -can- avoid emulation of many games.

But not all... And so piracy still has a place in rare gaming culture.

Plus when corporate giants like EA basically hold hostage dead properties just to prevent fans from re imagining them (maxis games) it's just evil. Copy on I say.

 

[Lichi]

There's a local game store here that sells dreamcasts, ataris, snes, etc. They exist. You -can- avoid emulation of many games.

But not all... And so piracy still has a place in rare gaming culture.

Plus when corporate giants like EA basically hold hostage dead properties just to prevent fans from re imagining them (maxis games) it's just evil. Copy on I say.

It really is a shame when companies won't give access to old games. We got 2 or 3 stores in Aachen, a relatively small city, that specialize on retro gaming. They'll sell you almost any old console and have a huge collection of games, from Atari to Sega and so on. Customers have shown that they are willing to pay a lot to re-experience games from their childhood or get their hands onto something they missed out on.

While I personally avoid pirating games and movies, I do not think it is a bad thing to do in general. It's the natural consequence of developers not offering free demos for their overpriced non-QA'd mess of a game. It only strikes me when people pirate stuff they enjoy for dozens of hours. In that case, you should be able to show your gratitude, especially if it is at a fair price.

 

[Samal Lord]

I only pirate if whatever it is I'm pirating isn't readily available to me. For example, I pirate the Walking Dead, as in my country it's only aired up to season 2. I think this is fair enough.

 

[Dandy_here]

Yeah, anything sixth gen and lower is pretty much deserted, like say game cube or any sega game. I generally don't pirate mainly because YouTube is my music source and I own all of my games

 

[Spark31]

I personally believe that pirating is completely fine in the following scenarios:

• When said product is no longer (Note: This does not mean it is not CURRENTLY available. I mean that it was available and no longer is available).
• When said product is created by a large corporation (This only applies towards the music industry)

However, almost all other situations, it is completely wrong. When a product is no longer in production, it will almost only be sold used. This does not support the people who make the game in any way, and only help the retailer. This means a used game sale is essentially a dead game for the developers, as they just lost money from said transaction (Assuming the person buying the used game would have bought a new copy had it been available). If I'm not supporting the devs when buying the game, and am essentially giving away free money to a retailer, who did no work on the game what so ever, than why buy the game? Note that I don't believe retailers should get no money for a game. I think they should get a portion of the money from sales as they did help distribute the game in some way. However, whenever they essentially con devs out of money, I feel it should be stopped. In the case of a large corporation, they gain money from pirating, as more people are listening to the music, thus spreading popularity, thus increasing sales. However, in other circumstances, the people who actually worked on the questioned piece of art are getting conned out of hard earned money. Small artists lose money with only a select few actually getting the benefits from pirating. Software and movies with thousands of hours put into developing it lose a decent amount of revenue as well.People just feel entitled to having everything for free without thinking about the reproductions.

 

[Foxus]

Piracy is lways a bit of an iffy topic for me because as a musician who puts hours, if not days and weeks into his work, just to end up having it stolen (piracy is pretty much the internets version of shoplifting) really pisses me off. The argument when it comes to piracy is that "Well, without piracy, people can't have access to your work" or "Piracy allows someone who can't afford to buy music to have music." These are absolutely ludicrous statements, though there can be a certain amount of truth to the earlier.

Its really part of the demise that has become the digital age. Files that could be embedded as such so they cannot be downloaded from their original source (Warner has done this) could be a way to combat piracy. It doesn't make any difference if you shut down The Pirate Bay or BitTorrent is, as vile as those sites are, it always seems to retain its online status. Piracy is a crime and should not be condoned in any context, it disgusts me even.