Really? It just brings back bad memories for me, kay?

It's EVIL!!!

Buying a copied game for $1 is evil, you give nothing to the devs.

Rent them instead. Yeah you still give them nothing at all but you keep a clean conscience.

Get Gamefly. You rent 1 game at a time for $15/month. If you get 10 games that month you give $0 to 10 development teams, but it is still ok.

Only downloading and buying $1 asian pirated copies is wrong.

Alright, work day is over, it's been fun.

Piracy in the third world is a different thing and I think much more acceptable morally.

Because in the same way movie tickets are a lot cheaper in third world countries, games should be too, yes? But they aren't because of practical reasons. You see if publishers would sell their games for for $10-$20 in Eastern Europe, people from the West would import them and the balance would be distorted, and the Western consumers would get the games far too cheap relatively speaking. That's the reason why publishers must have a $60 same price policy all over the world (except Eastern European publishers who are selling their games for a lot cheaper prices in Russia and Ukraine as an experiment to fight piracy. This is why S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and The Witcher has sold a million in Eastern Europe). But if they could, they would sell all games much cheaper in the third world.

Something that seems to be working out really cool is that when PC Developers make online specific games they make it also extremely hard to find a Key that will allow them to play online. I've had friends that would pirate PC games and because they can't find a keygen that works actually buy the game or a new key just to play the game online. This actually boosts sales, because if they got a taste of the single player and liked it, but want more with online then they are going to have to either go through hell to get it working or just buy the game. The only way I've seen people actually get passed these without paying was making websites that listed private servers where people who pirated the game can play, but that is in the minority of games. Not only that, you won't be able to play with anybody who has a legit version of the game unless they join the private server which usually requires a patch that would make it hard for them to play on regular servers. So basically it gets all screwed up and people end up actually buying the game. That is a nice way to combat piracy with online focused games like CoD4 or LFD. You basically screen out everything in steps.

So in that way people actually do buy the games after pirating them because if they want full content they have to. And if not it at least minimizes the people who will actual pirate the game.

Now for something completely unrelated.

Some of you guys are taking this WAY to serious. I'm going to assume that none of you know each other on a personal note, and that you are far from knowing anybodies situation. It isn't as easy as it is wrong it's right. In actuality it is a very subjective thing, and everybody doesn't share the same opinion on the matter. For example, I'm against piracy, but that doesn't mean that I never tried out an Emulator for games that are almost impossible to find. By that I mean games that aren't sold new anymore and are so old that when you do find them they cost hundreds of dollars. The most I will spend on a game is bordering $100 and that is what I spent on the first two persona's. If it is over that then I will just play the game on the emulator. While I think it is fine playing games that are hard to find or hard to buy, I don't really care for piracy of games that are being sold new today. Others may feel that all types of piracy is bad and disagree with me. Then there are those that feel that piracy is only right if you can't afford it. Those that feel that it doesn't matter what the situation as long as it is free they will get it because they don't want to spend the money on it. There is even degrees of how much people think it is bad. I may think that being a thief is much worse than being somebody who goes against a copyright, but somebody else might think they are equal. The list goes on. Like I said it isn't as easy as Pro-Piracy vs Anti-Piracy. So some people need to stop trying to force their ideals, morals, and opinions on others. It isn't my business what anybody on these internet forums do. My opinion about them might change, but that is just it, my opinion nothing else. I have no right to tell them what is right or wrong. Now if it was somebody I new personally in real life then I will probably do something to let them know that I disapprove of it, but who am I to tell a complete stranger on and Video Game forum what is right or wrong, or what they should do and what they shouldn't.


Btw piracy laws are pretty much only enforced on people who sell pirated games and modded consoles. It is extremely rare for others to get in trouble for it, and while it is illegal, it is a law that is almost as meaningless as the ones you hear about no being able to do something on a Sunday, or something like that made hundreds of years ago. That is why there are so many differing opinions compared to something like murder where pretty much everybody is in the same boat. I bet you if laws and general opinions about murder weren't enforced/taught there would be a lot more people that would actually do it, and even quite a bit more who actual thought it was a good thing to do.

Believe what you will.

The fact is you would be making a copy of someone else work. The I would be obtaining that work without consent. It just isn't right. The originator deserves compensation for their work, ingenuity, etc.

If you don't see that basic moral issue, then you will always justify piracy as legal.

Real pirates don't steal -- they share. Yarrrr!

So wait, if you buy the TV used off of the same guy, how much money do the people who worked to make that TV get? Nothing.

How much money did the winery down the street make when Jesus turned water into wine? Nothing. Considering that I (along with 1/3 of the world) believe that Jesus was pure and never sinned, I don't see anything wrong with it.

The only reason I still buy games is because the industry is not yet totally corrupt (like the music industry). The talented people who work there still get paid somewhat well. You do know that renting games is just as bad to a developer as used games and piracy? Gamefly doesn't pay the developer for each time the game is rented. They pay a lump sum for a license to rent the game. So when you rent a game from GF, you don't give the developers any money. You just give GF more money. Same w/ movies. How many times have you rented a movie instead of seeing it in the cinema or buying it? According to your logic, you are taking money out of the pockets of all the people who made the movie, and are giving it to the people at Blockbuster. It's just not logical.

Should games still be paid for as oppossed to music? Yes, because there is no live version of videogames (Unless you count MMO's). So if you buy some of your games, I don't see the problem. Activision got my money for me buying GHIII, GH:A, GH:WT, GH:M, and GH:OT. If I pirate GH:OTD and GH:OTMH, but still buy $60 GH5 instead of those two $30 games, what's the problem? They're still getting just as much of my money as they would have.

But if I tried to save money buying all of those games used at GS (legally), the developer gets NONE of my money. I really do know people who buy every game they ever buy used. I (or someone in my family) have bought 24 Wii games, 23 of which were new, 17 360 games (14 of which were new), and 9 PS3 games (all new). I have yet to pirate a Wii, PS3, or 360 game. However, I did pirate Pokemon Platinum (DS), after buying 6 pokemon games. If I had to pay for it, I wouldn't have bought it, and my money still would have gone towards another game, Pokemon Revolution for example. I also pirated OoT. If I didn't pirate OoT, I wouldn't have had the money to buy Twilight Princess, and I wouldn't have known how good OoT is. The developer still gets the same amount of my money. I'm not making some huge imprint by doing so. I'm still giving devs more money than most other people do.

If I really like a game I pirated (like Trauma Center, for example), I buy it or it's sequel (Trauma Center 2: New Blood). On another page,I also copy games so my brother and I can play multiplayer on games without single-cart play (when it's easily possible for the developer to do so). I already bought the game. Why should I have to buy another of the same one to use all of the features?

When you buy used you are still buying a real copy of the game one that was bought at one point that helped the developer. If you buy from something like GS if they don't have enough copies they will need to buy more new ones. If you buy it from a person directly, then that is their money to do with as they see fit might help the game industry might not, but it is money they will spend again.
When you rent. Although you yourself are not paying the developer the copy you are playing is a legitimate one that had to be purchased giving money to the developer. If many people rent the game there will need to be more copies of the game in the store to meet the demand. More copies that will have been bought.
When you buy used or rent you are not putting a new copy of the game into the system of having a real one in your hands. So other people would need to get there hands on another real copy to buy or rent it themselves. When you pirate you just make it so it doesn't matter how many people want it vs how many their are since there can always be another copy making it so that no one needs to get more from the publisher if everyone is holding on to the copies they have.
If you buy a tv from someone unless they are giving up on tv they will probably get a new one. And since you bought the 1 tv they have no one else can buy it from them and will either have to find a used one elsewhere or buy a new one.

You still don't get it. Money saved by pirating certainly still moves about the economy. In fact its just as likely to be spent on the things above as the money you described.

Maybe you buy a used game from someone, and that helps them by something new, which helps the next person buy something new and so on.

If I save 60 dollars on Gear of War, then I may spend it elsewhere, which enriches another person to buy something else and so on.

Money saved by pirating is still part of the market, and this is much easier to measure than the most amounts mentioned in this topic.

But in order for the game to be pirated, someone has to buy it, just like renting. I really don't feel like explaining it to people who really can't undertand something so simple in the first place... Maybe tomorrow...

@bold: But if you could make a TV that was exactly the same as the one in front of you, with a $0.99 piece of cardboard, would you? I think you would.