There are two ways to look at this argument;
1) The companies put DRM in their products to stop you getting for free what potentially hundreds of people spent months/years of their life slaving away to make a enjoyable game. They didn't do it for you guys, The mere fact that some games are good is a testament to how much these companies love money. Good games = good sale. Easy as that. Games companies don't OWE you (gamers) anything, they create something and if you wanna play, you gotta pay.
The argument that pirates offer an unfaltering product for free is all well and good, but look how many publishers have lost enough money to need to close down, especially in the last few years. And yeah, you might say the pirates wouldn't have bought the games anyway, but if they want to play it that's what they have to do, you don't just steal a car cause you didn't want to pay for it, if you want a shot try a test drive (demo) and if you want it to be yours, well sorry, but it'll cost you.
The simple truth is that if people NEVER pirated games, there would be no DRM, there would simply be no need for it.
2) Yeah OK, so you want to play "Shooty gun fight 4: now with more subtext", but the company has this new DRM stuff in the game. It runs in the background of your PC and slows it down enough that the game is basically unplayable. (I think i read somewhere that a game (maybe GTA4) has 3 layers of DRM) So to make the game playable, you wanna pirate it. Cool, can't say I've never done it.
Also with all the new games coming out you sometimes just really can't afford the latest and greatest, which is a shame, but hey, if it saves you money and gets rid of that pesky DRM then it's double bonus time eh?
Also what if a game simply isn't released in your country, or is so rare that the cost become prohibitive, I mean Panzer dragoon saga is $200 if you want it in English.
ON top of anything else, a lot of new games (at least some one's I've played) are short, maybe clocking 8-15 hours depending how you play. And being in the unfortunate financial situation listed above I can't justify such a large amount of money on such a small amount of distraction. (side note: games lately seem to have a lot less replay value, or is that just me?)
Anyway, it's the companies that forced DRM on the gamers, Just because we passed around a few disks at a LAN party or two so people wouldn't be left out they decided that they'll try to melt our computers with these crazy "Anti-Piracy" measures. Then it just snowballed and all of a sudden it's looking like the only legitimate option IS to pirate. I mean My internet connection is down as often as a hooker when the navy's in town and i don't really wanna be basically denied that chance to play a game because i can't afford it.
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Yeah, so basically which argument seems more reasoned to you?