Seriously guys? Video games are experiences not just entertainment, if you don't have the money to experience Bioshock and you never will because your economy sucks, than I as a gamer want you to experience it, because it's awesome.
Is piracy bad when you don't have a choice ?
- Thread starter Krelias
- Start date
I come from Macedonia but I live in Switzerland. I and my familie go to Macedonia while We have holiday since all of my familie lives there. Sometime I buy there a game or a movie dvd and I've never bought there anything original because there isn't any shop which sells original games, movies or music CDs. There it's completely normal to buy a copy. If a shop would start to sell the original CDs no one would buy anything from that shop since they can get it a lot cheaper in other shops.
This is not necessarily true. There are a number of sites that provide amateur games for free to online gamers. Granted, these games tend to be of lower quality, but this is not to deny the fact that if someone wants to make a game, they will do it with or without economic incentive. In a way, banning piracy could be viewed as encouraging a negative behavior. But that's just in a way. Anyways, continue.Krelias said:
This is a bit of a touchy issue. I can't imagine with holding TF2 to a person, but I don't have a right to steal the Mona Lisa just because I can't afford it.
I'm gonna go ahead and play a little devil's advocate, but first let me say that I agree with you. Nobody is directly hurt, and someone still benefits, no damage done.scobie said:
On the other hand, people in circumstances such as the OP's aren't the only ones who pirate, and probably aren't even the majority of people who pirate. The majority are people who can obtain the game if they wish, and that is the problem. Simply by pirating a game, he is supporting this act, and that is where the thievery comes in. The other people who pirate the game could buy the game, but choose to pirate instead. This is a loss of revenue for the makers of the game, which IS stealing.
If there was some magical way to ensure that only people who live in circumstances such as the ones the OP stated were the only people to pirate, it would be fine. The download speeds would be shit and a half, but really it would be fine. Unfortunately, plenty of people who COULD buy the game choose to pirate instead, thus we have the loss of revenue, and why pirating can be seen as simply stealing.
This is my viewpoint too. There are many many free games you can legally obtain, so the entertainment is still there, just not the super modern stuff sometimes. Even then, alot of online games are free. Theres alot of gold nugget games you can get for free, really old ones!Plurralbles said:
Just because you can't afford it doesn't mean you deserve it. That'd be like me stealing a car because I cannot afford one. You're not entitled to other people's creations, no matter what. Games are a luxury, not a right.
Sorry if anyone has said this exact thing already, the posts here are huge and quite flame-warish.
Sorry if anyone has said this exact thing already, the posts here are huge and quite flame-warish.
Metaphorically, I am a poker player. I get a royal flush and the other person has a pair of twos and billions of dollars worth of chips. He folds as opposed to betting. This is equivalent to the "loss of revenue" (I.E. Static Revenue, no immediate loss or gain is observed) you described there - is that theft?Grey_Focks said:
They can't adjust overseas prices, or else everyone would just buy it overseas and ship it back.Irridium said:
The sad fact is, if you can't afford games, you can't afford them, it sucks if you're in a poverty stricken country or something, but that's how the world works.
The only time I see Pirating being okay (I mean, when not going against EA... ;-p) is when there is no other way to get something.
Example: You find a band you really like, but their CDs aren't for sale because they were a small time group that broke up before breaking big. The only way to get their music is to pirate it, is it bad to do so?
Example: You find a band you really like, but their CDs aren't for sale because they were a small time group that broke up before breaking big. The only way to get their music is to pirate it, is it bad to do so?
out of context quote is out of context. No, but from what I see in you example, you don't have a product that he is downloading instead of buying. You did not put money into creating something that you hope people to spend money on, and he did not choose to download instead of purchase it.SnowDensOfYesteryear said:
That is very rare. Most of the time, even when it is old or rare, you can find it on Amazon, Ebay, etc. And if something is to the point where you cannot find anywhere at all to buy it, chances are finding a place to pirate it, with enough seeds to even download it in less than a year, it very unlikely...Koeryn said:
It's only a loss of revenue, directly, if the product was actually put into a place where that particular copy could no longer be sold - like direct stealing off the shelf. Why do some people support piracy and not shoplifting? Because shoplifting is a victim... ful crime.Grey_Focks said:
Piracy is harmless as long as it's only the people who are going to pirate ANYWAY pirate - as opposed to if the people who wouldn't pirate, pirate... which would usually be the fault of the publisher. There's no direct loss of money as nothing was put, by the company, into that download - only the intellectual property.
In either case, the companies make more money than the majority of the members of the Escapist combined will make in their lives (barely hyperbole,) regardless of piracy, so... why not?
Umm...you do have a choice. You can choose to not buy the game. Unless all the money you get goes to ridiculously priced food, you can't justify piracy as "Not Bad". And if you're really desperate, just save up your money and buy the games that you want and know will last you a good 1-6 months to beat.
Using morals as a standpoint isn't really a sound argument. If you try to sell a product that can't be realistically obtained in that region, because you're too stubborn as a whole to adjust appropriately, and that region can morally justify sharing it, your morals don't apply.
You can't just go into any country you please and try to demand they follow your morals, and your rules. It doesn't fly, no matter how you swing it. It's not a physical object, we're not talking about bread here, we're talking about something that holds imaginative value, following basically the same principle as worthless printable paper money. We can see how far this principle has taken us, where we can't even keep states within a country on the even keel, let alone separate countries entirely.
This isn't some fantasy New World Order, where everyone must follow one moral principle, or risk punishment and ridicule. Every place is different, and people place vastly different values on many different things. If you can't deal with it, then tough. Game companies are not failing because people in Romania have to share them just to play them. In fact, they are actually Gaining. Because people give it word-of-mouth, pass it around, personal advertising. Such as it is for books, where one person buys a book and shares it with 5 others, who in turn, recommend it to hundreds over the course of a single year. Bam, tons of revenue, and it costs the game Publishing companies (publishing, get it?) absolutely nothing, imagine that?
That all being said, what the hell is this all about, really? You think they're trying to value games that much? Nope. It's the "morals" bullshit, and how much control they want to exert over you, and how much they want to own, that is all, simple as.
You can't just go into any country you please and try to demand they follow your morals, and your rules. It doesn't fly, no matter how you swing it. It's not a physical object, we're not talking about bread here, we're talking about something that holds imaginative value, following basically the same principle as worthless printable paper money. We can see how far this principle has taken us, where we can't even keep states within a country on the even keel, let alone separate countries entirely.
This isn't some fantasy New World Order, where everyone must follow one moral principle, or risk punishment and ridicule. Every place is different, and people place vastly different values on many different things. If you can't deal with it, then tough. Game companies are not failing because people in Romania have to share them just to play them. In fact, they are actually Gaining. Because people give it word-of-mouth, pass it around, personal advertising. Such as it is for books, where one person buys a book and shares it with 5 others, who in turn, recommend it to hundreds over the course of a single year. Bam, tons of revenue, and it costs the game Publishing companies (publishing, get it?) absolutely nothing, imagine that?
That all being said, what the hell is this all about, really? You think they're trying to value games that much? Nope. It's the "morals" bullshit, and how much control they want to exert over you, and how much they want to own, that is all, simple as.