Pretty much this.. There are many great arcade games that I am able to play only thanks to MAME!

I appreciate the sentiment, Anfebious, but I have to agree with vivster. Video games are not some natural right. They're a luxury. Just because a game is prohibitively expensive, or rare, or unavailable, it doesn't excuse theft.

Honestly, I'm shocked at the number of people who steal, and even more shocked at the attempt to justify theft. We're supposed to be the video game vanguard, not the ones stealing games and undermining the value of intellectual property.

No Eshop?? How is that possible? can't you connect with NA or european online stores? Best of luck for Nintendo fans there. I hope you can easily pirate their consoles or Nintendo decides to come back soon.

This discussion reminds me. I bought Battle for Middle Earth 2 when it came out. I loved it so much, I bought 4 more copies for some of my friends as Christmas presents. I left my copy in my parents' house (different country) and I don't even know in which room/box it is. A few years ago I decided to buy a digital copy of it again, but it turns out, EA doesn't have the rights for LOTR any more so they can't sell the game anywhere. And of course, there are no physical or digital copies of it in any store.

My question is: how do I get to play the game that I paid for 10 years ago? I can't even rebuy it (ok I can buy a second hand copy through amazon for an insane price and I don't know if it's gonna work). It's a serious question. What should I do if I want to avoid piracy?

Thanks for recommending, but a combo of Crunchyroll and torrent is enough, I guess. Not like I watch a lot, maybe one series a month. I could get around even without paying for CR, but I like to reward their effort of bringing the shows to my PS4, PC, phone and tablet simultaneously. For that kind of convenience I don't mind paying.

I am not justifying it, I'm just showing him a reason why people do it and another way to look at the problem. I played pirates games when I was kid without even realizing it. When I had the money I started contributing to the industry but it's just too difficult sometimes.

It doesn't help that Argentina has ridiculous taxes. If you guys even saw the amount of money we have to give on taxes you might start to understand our point of view. It's all about different points of view, I still think pirating games is completely wrong but it's something that happens a lot over here, and I completely understand the people who do it.

I don't mean to pick on you Anfebious. My second comment was directed at the thread.

I also don't mean to diminish the financial situation of those less fortunate than myself. But I'm very protective of the intellectual rights of others. To pour one's time, energy, and money into a game, only to have it stolen, copied, and distributed for free across the internet is completley unacceptable.

That's my take on it. If the only way I can legally purchase a game is from the used market (ie, none of the money goes to the people who created or own the rights), then screw it. One reason I'm a huge fan of digital distribution these days, not only can we legally get plenty of old games from the PlayStation Store (or Nintendo eShop) at decent prices, but the money actually goes to the people who own the rights. 

Only when I do it.

But you first have to hack your system to play them, most of the time. So you  already are crossing a bad line. Because of said company.