Is piracy bad when you don't have a choice ?

[Orcus The Ultimate]

I imagine a world where hundreds of gaming moguls are existing making Truly great games without thinking of the profit directly, where games cost 1 euro.

 

[SyphonX]

If a company can't properly adjust prices to certain regions, then they shouldn't even bother distributing them in said regions. It makes absolutely no sense. It is entirely failed logic, when considering the fact that companies, the court, and people try to place much more value on a product that they argue isn't very valuable to begin with. (It's not that important, you don't need it for anything. But we're not going to lower the price for you, because it's too valuable to do so.) ?????

So why bother.. really? My games do not cease to amuse me because a region in another continent paid half of what I did, simply because of cost-of-living ratios. In fact, it makes me proud to play the games, much more so, when I consider more people across the world have access to it and enjoy it as much as I do. It's simply not that kind of product/object that applies any sort of rights-to-ownership value. It's not a valuable automobile, people, it's digital media.. sigh. Even states in America have differing cost of living values and many prices and rates are adjusted accordingly, on many things. Hell, the Euro is roughly 20% more valuable than an American dollar, and the Brit pound is roughly 45% more valuable, and some things are adjusted accordingly.

If a company wants to be so stubborn and arrogant to distribute a product in a region where they know it cannot be afforded, then they deserve whatever failed business falls upon them, including losing money on distribution, in which I hope they do.

 

[Luke Cartner]

Steam is the answer, where you can find games at awsome prices

For those of us who live in countries with download limits steam really doesn't work for most mainstream games.

I live in Argentina =/
I have download limits and it works. However if your limits are lower than mine I can understand.

For games like torch light, sure it works the game is only about 300 mb. But when you have a download limit of 10 gb then games with foot prints of 2 - 3 gb if not more dont really work.

 

[Plurralbles]

So you folks don't want these people to experience a form of art, even though, given the circumstance, they cannot afford the game no matter what? Therefore they are not a lost sale in any regard, because they couldn't buy the game in the first place. You people, out of some spiteful bullshit attitude, would rather see these people not play games even though their doing so affects absolutely nothing but entertain them and spread word of mouth perks on good games?

Do you people even listen to yourselves? Gaming, a luxury? If I was a game developer, and I knew that in certain places, people couldn't afford my game, under any circumstance, I would most certainly want them to play it anyway. Within reason.

Fuck anyone who disagrees with that. You carry such a self-righteous attitude towards this null and void mild problem that you spit on people and claim they shouldn't enjoy games anyway.

hear hear
I couldn't agree more.
I've heard alot of people on these forums call pirates arrogant with a sense of entitlement but to me this approach of barring access to games to those who can afford seems just as bad.

apparantly scarcity doesn't exist in your world?

Well, I guess that can be true. It is all just digital.

Meh. I still think it hurts local businesses though just pulling stuff off the internet in a cafe instead of going out an dbuying a local football or something.

 

[Mr.Black]

Why is everyone on the escapist a self-righteous douchebag? Who gives a shit if you pirate. It's not my business. If you want to enjoy games but can't afford them, then pirate. Who gives a flying fuck?

Because the OP asked us. See that question mark up there? That means the OP is in need of answers. People are supplying their answers, if you're that insecure in your piracy that a few people with differing opinions when someone publicly asks for input upsets you then you're doing something wrong.

It's silly. I bet if I admitted to pirating any PC game where I don't want to play the multiplayer you'd all think I'm a jerk and immediately judge me. And that's not a fair judgement of my character. But whatever, I digress...

 

[TheTurtleMan]

The way I see it is if the thing you want to steal is unnafordable and required for life then it would be acceptable to steal. Although games are not necessary, they're luxuries, so to me pirating a games is the same is walking into a store and stealing a tv.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Steam is the answer, where you can find games at awsome prices

For those of us who live in countries with download limits steam really doesn't work for most mainstream games.

I live in Argentina =/
I have download limits and it works. However if your limits are lower than mine I can understand.

For games like torch light, sure it works the game is only about 300 mb. But when you have a download limit of 10 gb then games with foot prints of 2 - 3 gb if not more dont really work.

Yup, your limit is lower than mine then. Mine is about 150gb.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I dare any of you people to adjust your economic situation to the point where you can't afford basic entertainment to cope with life, and with no change seen in the future, and I DARE YOU to tell me that you would still agree with people that say you don't deserve to at least try and obtain some entertainment to keep sane.

Me and many members of this site live in Ireland, where we are having the worst economic crisis we've ever seen.

I haven't seen any looters.

 

[Krelias]

I think that i've led everyone down a wrong path by overstating the less than fortunate financial condition of people in my home country. I wasn't trying to make anyone "feel" for the "poor people" that pirate games cause theý just have no money to buy them. I was just trying to say that when it's coupled with someone's incappacity to buy a game, piracy becomes a victimless crime, something that hurts no one. But that's just me i need to find a rational reason for doing or restrainig myself from doing someting I want to do "just cause it's wrong" doesn't cut it

 

[Steppin Razor]

Yup, your limit is lower than mine then. Mine is about 150gb.

In Australia my limit is currently 25gb. Regional areas, even those only an hour away from our largest fucking city, suck for download caps.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Well, do you pirate physical copies of the game? Because then you're costing the creaors money. If you're downloading them, and you have no other means to buy them, then go ahead. A true artist would want people to experiance their work.

It would be best if you used Romanian sites though, so that you're not encouraging those who can pay for the game to pirate.

EDIT: 1400, yay!

 

[SyphonX]

I haven't seen any looters.

I'm certainly not condoning any form of looting, by looting I assume you mean physically sacking a store, and stuff of that nature. When it comes to "pirating" games, I'm talking about downloading a ripped copy, or having someone copy a disc and pass it around, etc.

I always think of a few friends I had, growing up, that would never be able to play games if they wanted to, because they were poor. So I always let them borrow my games, or even my systems, and that was virtually the only time they could have played them. They grew up with a budding passion for video games, where they could have had none, and only enjoyed the thrills of cutting down trees, amongst an alcoholic family. Yay.

 

[Mr.Black]

Why is everyone on the escapist a self-righteous douchebag? Who gives a shit if you pirate. It's not my business. If you want to enjoy games but can't afford them, then pirate. Who gives a flying fuck?

Because the OP asked us. See that question mark up there? That means the OP is in need of answers. People are supplying their answers, if you're that insecure in your piracy that a few people with differing opinions when someone publicly asks for input upsets you then you're doing something wrong.

It's silly. I bet if I admitted to pirating any PC game where I don't want to play the multiplayer you'd all think I'm a jerk and immediately judge me. And that's not a fair judgement of my character. But whatever, I digress...

I'd probably judge you as a cheapass, that's just me though, but I'd consider you a jerk because of your posts in this topic where you spazzed the fuck out on everyone for no real reason.

Anytime there's a discussion on piracy, more than half of the replies are "you're a jerk, don't pirate" (paraphrased). Everyone here is on a pedestal...

 

[Cutlesnap]

The simple fact of the matter is that copyright infringement isn't bad so long as our privacy and property rights are being attacked by the entertainment industries. Oh, and so long as industries refuse to innovate, but that doesn't go for the games industry anymore, only goes halfsies for the recording industry but is still in the main reason why I download episodes for my favorite TV shows.

 

[Doctor VonSexMachine]

So you folks don't want these people to experience a form of art, even though, given the circumstance, they cannot afford the game no matter what? Therefore they are not a lost sale in any regard, because they couldn't buy the game in the first place. You people, out of some spiteful bullshit attitude, would rather see these people not play games even though their doing so affects absolutely nothing but entertain them and spread word of mouth perks on good games?

Do you people even listen to yourselves? Gaming, a luxury?

Gaming is a luxury. I don't know how you could dispute that.
Personally, I couldn't play anything but freeware and shareware when I was growing up because my parents wouldn't spend money on video games because they didn't think a school aged kid should be playing them and wouldn't buy them. (Ok, except for the learning company games.) When I was old enough and responsible enough to get a job, they were ok with me buying them because I had shown that I could earn them.

Also, you don't see many museums letting people in for free anymore, so your 'experiencing art' argument is falling behind the times. Not that art can't be found outside of mainstream museums, but you make it sound like these people can't enjoy creativity or beauty out side of a stream of ones and zeros and that this is a high moral crime.

Do you want us to ship xboxes and the supporting infrastructure so that poor Billy in some kelptocracy can experience the visual poetry that is the latest Madden game?

OT: I don't pirate, I don't care if people pirate. However, I don't like when they pontificate about it. (not that the OP is) I really sympathize with the OP and hope that companies can scale down prices to fit the local economies. Although that begs the question: Is hardware there so much cheaper that they can afford what is needed to run these new games?

 

[Infinatex]

I think that i've led everyone down a wrong path by overstating the less than fortunate financial condition of people in my home country. I wasn't trying to make anyone "feel" for the "poor people" that pirate games cause theý just have no money to buy them. I was just trying to say that when it's coupled with someone's incappacity to buy a game, piracy becomes a victimless crime, something that hurts no one. But that's just me i need to find a rational reason for doing or restrainig myself from doing someting I want to do "just cause it's wrong" doesn't cut it

It's still wrong. And $50 is not expensive for games at all. Here in Australia, most new releases retail for AU$109 (about US$99). It's as simple as this; just because I can't afford to buy a Aston Martin does not mean that it's okay to steal one.