link: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19392

This article goes through all main justifications for piracy and explains why PC gamers really don't have much of an argument when it comes to pirating games. I found the article and the responses interesting as piracy has always been something that i've tried to pay close attention to and look at the reality surrounding the issue.

From experience, my take is that pirates value hardware but not software in terms of what they'll actually pay. They want both but the hardware cost is seen as necassary while the software cost is optional and subject to unrealistic demands.

I have to say I totally agree with the writer of this article...

Eh... it uses a lot of the same logical fallacies usually used.

The fact is that everytime an economic study is done on it... piracy is shown to have little to no impact. Is it sleezy and morally wrong? Well yeah.

Still... it doesn't seem to hurt the industry as a whole.

Furthermore PC sales and profits are booming compared to consoles.

I think piracy is wrong... but to say it causes damages and problems... I need to see some actual data first.... as piracy has many positive effects as well oddly enough.

Overall piracy seems to be a "Zero-sum" proposition... at least in the 1st world.  As people have been trained to want to pay a fair price for a product.

It's simple economics.

PC gaming is all about online.

To play online u need the "CD Key"

So u need to buy the game.

ever heard of pirate servers?

I'm sure piracy does cause some economic damage, but not as much as most people and companies make it out to be.

People that can afford to buy all the media they want.... tend to buy it. It's simple, ethical, and easy to purchase something in retail, where it can often be difficult or dangerous to pirate something.

There are a lot of teenagers and college age kids that turn to piracy as an easy way to satisfy their entertainment addiction, but they don't have the money in the first place. If they had money, they probably already spent it on music, movies, games etc. They've got more time than money, and piracy satisfies that route.

Then there are those I like to call collectors. They sit on their PC subscribed to numerous newsgroups, have a bittorrent queue 50 items long every day, and meticulously store it on an ever growing collection of DVDs and external hard drives. They don't even 'consume' 99% of the media they download, they just do it to feel like part of a scene or the obsessive compulsive urge to have it all, even if they never plan to use it.

Next up we have the cautious buyer / reluctant pirate. He's got money to spend, but not a whole lot, and he wants to be sure he's getting his money's worth. He'll download a game to try it out, but only buy it about half as often as he should even if he felt it was worth it. Some economic damage here.

Then we have the cheapskate pirates. The ones with money that won't separate with it to legitimately purchase the products they want. They've got the 4000 dollar cryo-cooled PC, but they refuse to pay for any single player game they can get their grubby, greedy hands on for free. These are the people causing real economic damage to these companies. They are not as common as college kids with no money and the collectors, however.

Overall impact? Not nearly as big as they make it out to be. Still irritating? Hell yes, because we legitimate consumers keep getting punished with stupid bullshit restrictions on the property we bought, that the pirates never even have to worry about >.

You'd be surprised with some games. Pirate servers are HUGE among people who love MMO's but just can't justify spending monthly money on a game they already own.

I don't use them.  Know people who do though.

I've used WoW private servers.  They were buggy as hell.  The private servers actually motivated me to start paying monthly for the game, because I saw how awesome it was, but the bugs and glitches were ruining the experience.

The old argument about people pirating games they don't have the cash to buy is getting old fast.

Basically it comes down to I want to have all the stuff these others people have but I can't afford it so I'm going to steal it........

What makes games different from cars or electronics ?
I mean if stealing one isn't ok, stealing the others shoudn't be either......