I don't agree with piracy, at least not when the person doing it has the resources to pay for the game. If they are a student and/or stuggling to make ends meet, I don't see the problem, as they'd never have bought the game anyway.

However for less 'developed' nations, piracy is so rampant and prevalent that only a rich saint would actually buy new stuff all the time. I visited Venezuela and all the stores in malls and stuff had burned stuff for sale. If you wanted to buy the actual original game you'd have to go out of your way and pay an exorbitant price for it.

I can hardly blame anyone living in those circumstances for piracy. It you can download it for free, that's probably better than supporting bootleggers and otherwise games would just be so expensive you'd never play them at all.

I wanted to emphasize this. The CEO and the rest of the upper management don't take a hit. They don't ever decide to take less money. What happens is the peon workers (me) get laid off or lose income.

To make up for what money the company didn't make, the company lays off hundreds or thousands of workers so that those higher ups, like the CEO, don't lose a dime. Plenty of CEO's have run a company into the ground, without giving a damn, and then taking their large sum of money and moving on. Not giving a second thought to the families they've harmed.

Pirating games is cool. It means free games and more money for me to spend on drugs and booze.

Keep in mind, we are talking about a luxury here.  We are not talking about a necessity at all.  When it comes to someone who does not have the opportunity to earn what is necessary in life to survive, then my views change.  But we are talking luxuries, a purely not needed or necessary service. 

Yes, I still absolutely see it as stealing and wrong to pirate a luxury because you don't have the money for it.  As rich as you may view the American standard, there is far richer.  I certainly don't think that just because I can't afford a ferrarri or yaht, that society owes it to me to provide them for free.  Just because I don't have the money to extensively travel, doesn't mean airlines and hotels should provide services to me for free.

So, you think you are completely justified to be a mooch.  Someone else is working for a living, and they are earning plenty for it.  So you think you don't have to work then, and will just live off of taking from them.  I still don't find that justified.

I'm in this catagory now.  I have a certain nostalgia for some old games and emulators, especially for the PSP are the way to go for me.

As for my pirate days.  I used to copy a few games (PC games) when my friends and I were alot younger.  Of course, the ratio of games that I bought to games that I copied is somewhere around 10 to 1.  I also never copied PS1 games.  In fact, the PS1 games I'm playing on my PSP now are games that I own (I almost never get rid of games).

I give this thread a 9.7.

Still, you have to admit that 3rd world piracy doesn't affect the video game industry in any way. Why?

1. With significantly lower purchasing power and ridiculously higher prices. Only the presidents of 3rd world countries can afford to play games

2. Due to point 1, almost no one would be purchasing games in 3rd world countries anyway if piracy didn't exist. In fact, piracy helps to sell consoles which benefits the industry (if the consoles are sold for profit like the wii).

3. There's a reason why the term "piracy" is used in place of "stealing". Its because they're different. In most 3rd world cases, people actually buy pirated games from stores so they still paid for them. Just not the same amount as the original. In most cases, 3rd world stores only stock pirated copies because they know that no one will pay for the original when there's a much cheaper version that'll work just as well.

I question people trying to say that used game purchasing is just fine while piracy is wrong.

Places like Gamestop/EB Games are the real scammers. Just as an example:

They have these "play it for 7 days and return it for full credit" on certain new titles at EB games here in canada. What does this bullshit encourage?

- That 7 day old game becomes a used game, despite being basically brand new. EB games/gamestop will now sell it for $5 under retail in an attempt to get frugal customers to support them instead of the developers.

- The person who bought that 7 day old game for a small pitance under retail probally gets tired of it eventually and trades it back in. EB games/gamestop gives a $x credit for it and again prices it just below what a brand new copy (if available) is going for.

Used game vendors like EB games/gamestop are the ones taking food off your plate. They create an economy of used games that completely cuts developers out of the picture. Yes, ebay is very similar in that it's an avenue for people to buy and sell games without paying retail. However, EBG/GS are different because their entire business model requires they make money off the skin of developers. So while developers see money from the initial purchase, what about each subsequent purchase and trade in? Who's the real thief?

Pirating games is great. Most of these games don't even deserve the 50 bucks they charge for it.

3rd world piracy does affect the video game industry. 

1.  I don't buy the higher prices argument.  Yes, you may find someplace that you can buy games for $200.  But if the individual uses play-asia or ebay, they could get games at comparable prices to the US and Japan anywhere in the world.  They just choose not to, because pirating is so easy. 

2.  Someone must be purchasing games or the big three wouldn't release their systems there.  China didn't have video games for a long time.  But their economy is booming now and people are spending money in places they wouldn't have before.   Also, most third world countries have quickly growing economies.  And the problem is once a pirate always a pirate.  There are a few on this thread who gained a conscience, but for the most part, if you are getting $1,000s of dollars of games for free a year, it will be tough to ever justify paying for them.

3.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy "Piracy is a robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, without a commission from a sovereign nation (robbery with sovereign commission is privateering, and distinct from piracy)."

Last I knew robbery was stealing.  But what do I know.  Piracy is certainly theft.  The difference is it does lack deception and force.  As such, it is typically punished less harshly than most thefts.  It's also much more difficult to catch than most thefts.