Pirates provide better service

[DYin01]

Disclaimer: I'm not sure if I can post this thread here because it's about piracy, but I think there's good discussion value.

Did that catch your attention? Good. Let me get something out of the way first: I don't completely agree with my topic title, but recently I suffered a short succession of incidents in which piracy proved to be the better path to the game I wanted to play than the legitimate way.

I'm very curious if anyone here has had experiences akin to this:

I bought the old adventure game Normality through Gamersgate a few days ago. This old game runs through MS Dos. Right off the bat, the installer gave me errors. When I got it to work, I couldn't actually run the game. Even DosBox didn't help. Eventually, I acquired another version through shady channels and what do you know? This one worked immediately.

Today, I picked up Settlers 7 at a local store because it was a little cheaper than most online stores. I'm trying to install it as I type this and for some reason I keep getting errors during the installation. If I download the game illegally, I'm almost certain it'll be a perfectly fine version with no errors or anything.

These are not isolated incidents. I've had this happen before. This. Is. Infuriating.

Has anyone had experiences like this? What do you think of it?

 

[Realitycrash]

You admitted to using "shady channels". So no, it's not allowed. I know, it's stupid, but one can't speak of piracy directly here, and at the same time saying that one has done it. It's not supported by the CoC as far as I know. Admitting piracy = Probably going to get a warning.
The fact that you bought said game before doesn't help you.

As for the topic itself..It's an interesting topic, and one that has been covered before in the News, and it pretty much amounts to "Some morons have stupid DRM-practices that doesn't bother pirates anyway".

 

[Epona]

You assume a pirated version of Settlers 7 would be error free. Are the errors DRM related?

I do agree though that pirated versions are often superior.

I can't think of any experiences I have had recently but I do recall that one of the Lego Harry Potter games wouldn't work at all at launch thanks to Securom. I think people waited weeks for a patch. Also, while I didn't have trouble, it seems that alot of people who bought the 2012 re-release of FF7 had alot of download and activation problems.

 

[DYin01]

-snip-

Yeah, I kinda feared that would be the case (about admitting piracy). I was hoping that the fact that I initially bought them legitimately would help my case a little, but meh. If that's how it is, that's how it is.

-snip-

I am yet to read of a game with DRM that hasn't been completely cracked by pirates. I virtually never pirate games anymore because of platforms like Steam that provide good service and reasonable pricing. However, I know the combined forces of the pirates will always outsmart publishers and in the end the only one hurting is the paying customer. I'm glad most publishers seem to realize this as well nowadays. Your own experience is a perfect example. I've had similar experiences where I eventually downloaded a crack for a game I actually bought to get it to work. It's pretty ridiculous.

 

[dyre]

Eh, I really haven't had any problems installing or playing anything I've bought. Possibly because I buy almost everything through Steam, dunno.

 

[DYin01]

Eh, I really haven't had any problems installing or playing anything I've bought. Possibly because I buy almost everything through Steam, dunno.

Steam is a good platform, indeed. I can recall one instance where I had problems with it, but that wasn't their fault. I bought Fable 3 and it suffers from serious problems on the PC. It's got a memory leak that the developers have failed to patch to this day, but I can't get my money back because Valve did nothing wrong. That's the danger of buying games on PC, I suppose.

 

[dyre]

Eh, I really haven't had any problems installing or playing anything I've bought. Possibly because I buy almost everything through Steam, dunno.

Steam is a good platform, indeed. I can recall one instance where I had problems with it, but that wasn't their fault. I bought Fable 3 and it suffers from serious problems on the PC. It's got a memory leak that the developers have failed to patch to this day, but I can't get my money back because Valve did nothing wrong. That's the danger of buying games on PC, I suppose.

Geez, that sounds bad. Maybe try looking for a fanmade patch? A lot of PC games have that sort of thing.

Then again, I remember playing a few hours of Fable III at my friend's place (I don't think his copy suffered from memory leaks, or at least I didn't notice any spike in CPU usage), and I was bored to tears. I'm not sure when the game is supposed to turn open world, but there's only so much of linear "follow the guy and listen to him ramble on about revolutions" I can take. You're not missing out on much, I swear.

 

[GoaThief]

Pass on the DOS game, there are a lot of variables including user patches which might come pre-installed on the pirated version.

The second game's problems could even be a physically damaged or corrupted disc, something that can also certainly happen with pirate downloads. I'd also say that your chances of being infected by a virus/trojan/malware are very slim with store-bought games whereas downloading a pirate copy greatly increases the risk, not to mention the trouble of getting a working crack without any errors, etc.

I think these common arguments for piracy being easier and safer can be quite fallacious at times.

 

[DYin01]

Eh, I really haven't had any problems installing or playing anything I've bought. Possibly because I buy almost everything through Steam, dunno.

Steam is a good platform, indeed. I can recall one instance where I had problems with it, but that wasn't their fault. I bought Fable 3 and it suffers from serious problems on the PC. It's got a memory leak that the developers have failed to patch to this day, but I can't get my money back because Valve did nothing wrong. That's the danger of buying games on PC, I suppose.

Geez, that sounds bad. Maybe try looking for a fanmade patch? A lot of PC games have that sort of thing.

Then again, I remember playing a few hours of Fable III at my friend's place (I don't think his copy suffered from memory leaks, or at least I didn't notice any spike in CPU usage), and I was bored to tears. I'm not sure when the game is supposed to turn open world, but there's only so much of linear "follow the guy and listen to him ramble on about revolutions" I can take. You're not missing out on much, I swear.

There's actually a very silly temporary fix in game where you turn the V Sync on and off again (or in reverse, whatever you prefer) which fixes it for a while. The problem isn't on every PC but it is on mine and I found the fix online. I actually managed to play through the game this way and yes, it was a dissapointment. That makes the whole thing even more bitter, haha.

@GoaThief:
Yeah, I suppose DOS Games are a little iffy. That actually makes it even worse that they're being sold online when there's no guarantee that it'll even work.

I'd like to point out that I'm not neccesarilly argueing for piracy, but I think it's pretty bad that pirates typically provide a service on par or better than the legitimate way. If something doesn't work, you simply download another version which usually does work. You cannot do this legitimately, which can be quite enraging when you think about it. It would be nice if something like that was possible.

 

[Vuliev]

Pass on the DOS game, there are a lot of variables including user patches which might come pre-installed on the pirated version.

But that's exactly the OP's point. Why should I have to pay money for an unsupported, non-functioning product, when I can simply download a version that's been looked after and therefore actually works on my system?

Now, that doesn't work so much with current/new games, since crippling conflicts with existing systems are few and far between. However, many AAA titles today come with artificial constraints that hamper customer use of the game, sometimes to level of the games that had actual "physical" constraints--which is the crux of the OP's complaint. You don't beat piracy by tightening the leash on your paying customers, you beat it by offering a product that's more appealing than piracy. The problem is, undoubtedly, a customer service issue.

The second game's problems could even be a physically damaged or corrupted disc, something that can also certainly happen with pirate downloads. I'd also say that your chances of being infected by a virus/trojan/malware are very slim with store-bought games whereas downloading a pirate copy greatly increases the risk, not to mention the trouble of getting a working crack without any errors, etc.

1) That's something you should do, OP: go back to the store and exchange the copy you got for one that's (hopefully) better.
2a) When you take proper care of your computer, it's almost trivial to pirate without getting hit by viruses/trojans/malware/etc. Seriously. The tag-team of avast!/AVG and Malwarebytes (which are both free, I might add) is enough to reliably secure your system.
2b) Knowing where to look is also very important. Torrent communities will quickly flag torrents that contain malicious software, and private tracking communities like Demonoid can shut the offender out of the community near permanently. Direct-download sites, on the other hand, are the sites with which you should be extremely cautious.
3) Now that the trivial questions of safety are out of the way, finding pirated software that's five years old or younger that's easy to install and crack is also trivial. New releases are cracked and bundled quickly, with new cracks coming out each time the game is updated. Those bundles/cracks also often come with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions on how to install and crack the software.


The arguments for piracy being better than most current distribution methods are far from fallacious.