Is it okay to Pirate games?

[VGPolyglot]

Ka-pi96 said:

VGPolyglot said:

Well, I'm not arguing the legality of it: of course it's going to be illegal when the core principles of modern states is to enforce and maintain property rights and the current order. However, a starving person who steals a loaf of bread being punished is horrible. Now, where does that come in with gaming? Many people around the world are too poor to afford games, so piracy is their only outlet. Now, you say that it is not needed, but people need something cope with life. You yourself say that you ignore most politics because it's too depressing, and you obviously use video games as an outlet to enjoy life, so why should others not be able to because they were born into poverty?

Doesn't that depend on the punishment? There needs to be some repercussions for their actions, but if part of that process also involves help to get them back on their feet and in a position where they no longer need to steal to survive then how is that horrible?

As for coping with life, people survived thousands of years without video games, so clearly they aren't needed. There's plenty of other things people can do for enjoyment. Besides, I very much doubt that anybody who can afford the equipment (PC, Console, TV etc) for games and the electric to run it can't even afford a single game. When I was a kid Xmas and birthdays would usually be the only time I'd get new games, so I know from first hand experience that people don't need every single game ever to be happy and even if they can only afford 1 game a year or something that's still going to bring them enjoyment (perhaps even moreso than the person that buys everything and hasn't the time to play it all and can't constantly switches from game to game). Plus with the large number of free to play games out there at the moment there's even less reason to pirate anything.

Why even punish them at all though? Why not instead help them get on their feet in the first place? And those aren't the only places to get games, there are many people with cell phones and that is one avenue to get games too. Yes, people don't need video games, but that could also just be reverted exactly around the other way: if video games aren't needed, why does it matter if people pirate them to the point that the companies cease to exist? As video games are not needed anyway it won't matter if more games aren't made.