d21lewis said: Once, several years ago, I took some games to EBGames to trade in. I also picked up a couple games to buy. Anytime I buy a game, my girlfriend complains about me wasting money (I bought MGS on our first date, and have been sneaking games behind her back ever since!!). Anyway, my evil girlfriend came into the store. I knew it was time to abort the mission, so I told the clerk to put the credit for the games on a gift card. After some kind of miscue from the store employees, I wound up with credit for the games I traded in, and for the games I intended to buy! Free money!! However, this story does not have a happy ending. Karma has paid me back ten fold. I bought Death by Degrees for the PS2 a couple months later....the horror.....the horror....

Being a cop and all, shouldn't you set a better example?

What I'm slightly bitter about, is that prices are ultimately affected by dishonesty, piracy and such. So, us honest individuals have to pay for what others are stealing.

Hawk said: d21lewis said: Once, several years ago, I took some games to EBGames to trade in. I also picked up a couple games to buy. Anytime I buy a game, my girlfriend complains about me wasting money (I bought MGS on our first date, and have been sneaking games behind her back ever since!!). Anyway, my evil girlfriend came into the store. I knew it was time to abort the mission, so I told the clerk to put the credit for the games on a gift card. After some kind of miscue from the store employees, I wound up with credit for the games I traded in, and for the games I intended to buy! Free money!! However, this story does not have a happy ending. Karma has paid me back ten fold. I bought Death by Degrees for the PS2 a couple months later....the horror.....the horror.... Being a cop and all, shouldn't you set a better example? What I'm slightly bitter about, is that prices are ultimately affected by dishonesty, piracy and such. So, us honest individuals have to pay for what others are stealing.

I dunno. Back in the days of 8-bit, games were $50 a pop. Same thing in the 16-bit era. N64 games went for $70 at one point. Last generation, games were still $50. The price of cutting edge technology has been pretty consistent for close to 30 years, even though the quality of the product is 1,344 times (I used science to reach that number) better! My point: STEAL ALL YOU WANT! Nobody is gonna get hurt.......then again, there is that whole heaven/hell thing. -bad cop.

d21lewis said: I dunno. Back in the days of 8-bit, games were $50 a pop. Same thing in the 16-bit era. N64 games went for $70 at one point. Last generation, games were still $50. The price of cutting edge technology has been pretty consistent for close to 30 years, even though the quality of the product is 1,344 times (I used science to reach that number) better! My point: STEAL ALL YOU WANT! Nobody is gonna get hurt.......then again, there is that whole heaven/hell thing. -bad cop.

 ::chuckle::  Well, there is a point there.  I could argue that if there was no stealing or piracy through the history of games, the standard price may be lower, but that'd be completely theoretical.  No way of finding out if it would be lower or not.

I'd choose heaven though, heh 

Hawk said: d21lewis said: I dunno. Back in the days of 8-bit, games were $50 a pop. Same thing in the 16-bit era. N64 games went for $70 at one point. Last generation, games were still $50. The price of cutting edge technology has been pretty consistent for close to 30 years, even though the quality of the product is 1,344 times (I used science to reach that number) better! My point: STEAL ALL YOU WANT! Nobody is gonna get hurt.......then again, there is that whole heaven/hell thing. -bad cop.  ::chuckle::  Well, there is a point there.  I could argue that if there was no stealing or piracy through the history of games, the standard price may be lower, but that'd be completely theoretical.  No way of finding out if it would be lower or not. I'd choose heaven though, heh

Stealing, likely yes.  Piracy likely no.  The best data on the matter suggests that piracy doesn't actually lower revenue at all and in some cases actually raises it.  It's one of those things that's true even though it doesn't sound that way using "Common sense".  For the very rare cases where piracy actually effects buying behavior negativly their are cases where piracy effects buying behavior positivly. 

Of course this only happens in nations where piracy is illegal, or where piracy is illegal but people only have a limited amount of money.  (If people can't afford the games they arn't going to buy the systems, pirated games change that.)

However in countries where piracy is legal and people have a lot of money it probably can cost money, but i mean, i can't think of one country like that... well except for a few nations like Qatar where the people who have the money to afford that stuff are so rich it doesn't matter anyway.

But yeah, I always give back money when i get too much, even if it's just an extra dollar or two.

I wouldn't go so far as to drive back up to burger king to give back the extra change however. If I notice after the fact I just set that aside to give to homeless people or to buy some of those charity products where the money goes to charity.

U lie... sqrl ... lol no but that is unbelievable... lucky sod =)

It was a while ago, I'm sure I felt guilty then but what am I supposed to carry it around for the rest of my life? The thing is that at some point everything turns into an amusing story....

@JMan, Ben, and anybody else passing judgment...

The Greek's had a saying "Tragedy today is comedy tomorrow.". Life is interesting and odd things happen to people. Some times you react like a model citizen other times you react like an asshole. It depends on how you feel that day and what mood you are in. if you are going to tell me you are proud of everything you have ever done then I will call you a liar. Judging someone based on one thing they did is hypocritical because you wouldn't want to be judged on the merits of a single action either.

So please, until you know my life's story and truly know what kind of person I am just save your speaches about what I need to learn and how I should feel for your kids.

I see no reason not to tell that story and I see no reason why I should feel guilty about telling it.

^^ Absolutely true. When I was 8, I vandalized a house. When I was 18 I tormented somebody in school for the whole year (this is putting it lightly). These are some of the things I did that I look back and say "man, was I stupid."

Here's the difference, sqrl. When I tell people those stories, I also qualify it with "and I regret having done that. It was stupid of me and if I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn't have done it." I have learned from my experience, and have become a more honest person as a result.

I don't see one ounce of regret in what you claim to have done. You posted that as if you were proud of what you accomplished, just as the OP did. If you feel as I do, that it was wrong, then why not say so? You did now admit you felt guilty, that's good enough for me. To get rid of the guilt, do something to counterbalance what you did.

edit:  If you don't want to be judged, don't brag about getting away with theft.

Sqrl said:  Judging someone based on one thing they did is hypocritical because you wouldn't want to be judged on the merits of a single action either.

That is pretty irrelevant, because everyone judges...

Also, ArtofAngels, Im curious: is the charge on your credit card statement online yet?

I'm pretty sure gamestop/whatever will just send in the charge as two seperate charges if they have to (one charge being $150, the other $150 or whatever). Either that or they will just get the money directly from your credit card company.

Sometimes I buy things with my credit card that don't show on my statement for 2 weeks. And I'm not sure why.

JMan said: ^^ Absolutely true. When I was 8, I vandalized a house. When I was 18 I tormented somebody in school for the whole year (this is putting it lightly). These are some of the things I did that I look back and say "man, was I stupid." Here's the difference, sqrl. When I tell people those stories, I also qualify it with "and I regret having done that. It was stupid of me and if I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn't have done it." I have learned from my experience, and have become a more honest person as a result. I don't see one ounce of regret in what you claim to have done. You posted that as if you were proud of what you accomplished, just as the OP did. If you feel as I do, that it was wrong, then why not say so? You did now admit you felt guilty, that's good enough for me. To get rid of the guilt, do something to counterbalance what you did. edit: If you don't want to be judged, don't brag about getting away with theft.

 So because you don't like the way I told my story I got to hear your opinion on how I should lead my life?  Because I "posted that as if" you jumped to a conclusion and decided to lecture me? Seriously get over yourself, not everybody has to lead their life with the same value system you do.  In reality I told my story as if it were a story and not a lecture, I told my story without trying to tell the OP how he should feel about what he did.  If I say "man I really regretted what I did blah blah" i am telling him that he should too...sort of like what you are doing.  But in reality I think its his job to determine if what he did was right and I think people like you need to realise that you don't know the person on the other end of the keyboard and to sit their and tell them what they should of done or how you feel bad is taking the position of the pompous asshole who wants you to know how much better they are.  Even if your intentions are good you will get the reaction I am giving right now.

But in any case you are wrong.  What I did is not theft, its not entirely honest either but its not theft.  In this case the guy was pretty much ignoring me which is why the situation came about in the first place.  I stood in the store for probably 15 minutes before somebody came out, when he did start to help me he took forever and the things unfolded as I specified previously.  As soon as he handed me the console he was already turning around and walking into the back room.

Aside from the fact that I was stunned by his stupidity, he was being a complete ass and hardly doing his job. And when he had walked away after giving me my change the 2nd time I tried to stop him, I even rang the stupid bell on the door to get him to come back out.  The third time I was just completely stunned.  So if at that moment I decided "fuck him" and walked out, then sure it was dishonest and you may not have done it but as I said, I don't care what you would have done. 

I did it my way, and to be honest I doubt I thought about it for more than 30 seconds.  If you think I am a horrible person then please just shut up and let me be a horrible person in all my awful rotteness, because at the end of the day I live by my morals not yours and I measure my daily dose of guilt by my standards not yours.