What, youtube isn't an option? You don't have access to google? what's wrong with you? Also we only have your word that you're "just testing it out". What on earth is stopping you from just playing it through? This is mental, do you pirate movies just to "try them out" before going to a cinema?
Poll: Does pirating a game to test it make it okay?
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I understand the appeal, and the desire to actually check if a game is good in a generation where no one makes demos anymore.
But you're still violating all the same laws no matter how long you play for, so it's still bad and not justified.
But you're still violating all the same laws no matter how long you play for, so it's still bad and not justified.
thePyro_13 said:
because forums/reviews/youtube/twitter aren't an option? If your computer is scraping the barrel of Minimum Specs, you shouldn't expect it to run perfectly.
Furthermore, if you KNOW you've got a crap computer, you should really be proactively searching for "game + graphics card" on google or whatever, to FIND issues instead of just deciding that you've got the right to pirate it "just to test it out".
I have not pirated a game ever, and I stopped pirating music two years ago, now I buy all my things as opposed to some of them.
Is Piracy sometimes okay, well say you want a game that is not published anymore. Where the hell are you going to buy it?. As soon as it gets to GoG or steam, buy it.
Is Piracy sometimes okay, well say you want a game that is not published anymore. Where the hell are you going to buy it?. As soon as it gets to GoG or steam, buy it.
Just because something is illegal doesn't make it unjustified or "bad."thePyro_13 said:
I see nothing *morally* wrong with what the OP suggested, despite possible illegality. I'd say it's totally justified, just not justified in the eyes of the law.
Actually, is piracy even "against the law"/"breaking the law"? You can obviously be sued for it (civil case), but to my knowledge in the United States, you can't be arrested for it unless you try to make money off of it, nor will you be fined by the state for it...
You test drive a car before you drive it... did YOU even think for 30 seconds before writing that? I mean sheesh... you used an analogy that is universally accepted as TEST DRIVE IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT. I mean fuck that's where the term "test drive" ORIGINATES from! I mean... come on... I... gah!KingsGambit said:
You try on clothes to see if they fit before you buy them. You test drive a car to see how it handles before you buy it. You watch a movie trailer to gauge if you'd like the movie before you go to the cinema to watch it. You flip through a book to make sure the font isn't too small before you buy it (a problem for my mother, her eyes are going bless her). Trying something to see if it WORKS before you buy it, imo, is perfectly fine. It stops you the customer getting ripped off from forking over good money for something that is useless. On that car note, how would you like it if you went to a car lot and the guy said it's a great car, showed you a few youtube videos of one in action, then you got in it and halfway down the street it fell to pieces and left you comically riding a unicycle? (hyperbole yay)
Honestly if you're ONLY getting the game because you want to see if it'll RUN then it's ok. If it's gotten to the point where you're saying "ok I want to buy this game, but I'm worried it'll run badly" and you dl it and try it and notice no performance problems so then buy it. That scenario? Honestly yes that's fine imo, you've already decided you want to buy the game so this isn't even a question of not buying it because piracy. It's not like a console where it's guaranteed to work because they're all the same. Funnily enough Consoles are the only ones with Demos for everything too! Computers are funny things, different hardware and different configurations come with different applications and on different environments. The only 100% guarantee it'll work is if you actually try it yourself and if there's no demo...
Of course I've just gotten a very nice computer (ouch my wallet) so this isn't an issue for me. Never was an issue tbh because I was a console gamer and the only PC games I played were the occasional MMO. But I can totally see where the big picture here. If someone said they didn't buy a game because they DLed it and it ran at 10fps I'd say they dodged a bullet.
It is piracy, but I wouldn't discourage you on a moral basis, because honestly after the whole SOPA/PIPA thing from about a year ago, I still don't give a fuck about the rights of most big content holders (including the publisher of this game, which I believe is Sony, who threw behind the aforementioned bills). I would only discourage you on the basis of the very slight risk of getting into trouble.
off topic rant: since people love to equate downloading a game without paying to stealing things, here's some of that logic going straight to funny levels. people should face massive civil fines for looking over someones shoulder to read a book, watching a movie through someone's window, or riding behind someone's bike on roller blades. sounds stupid, no? exactly.
on topic sane reply: if it's the only option, failing demo, rental, beta build, or anything else, then my stance is it's ok. heck, I've gone back and bought games I once "pirated" now that I do have money and they've become available again cause I enjoyed them so much (thank you GoG)
that probably sounded a lot better in my head.
on topic sane reply: if it's the only option, failing demo, rental, beta build, or anything else, then my stance is it's ok. heck, I've gone back and bought games I once "pirated" now that I do have money and they've become available again cause I enjoyed them so much (thank you GoG)
that probably sounded a lot better in my head.
If you're able to rent the game then I advise doing so. It's basically the same concept of trying something out at a cheap price and buying a copy if you think it's worth the money.
Sure, it's somewhat inconvenient that you may have to wait at times but I personally would avoid the possible hassle with pirate copies.
Sure, it's somewhat inconvenient that you may have to wait at times but I personally would avoid the possible hassle with pirate copies.
I would say in the OP's case if there's no demo available it's fine. In my opinion the problem with 'pirating to demo' is that some people will use it to justify pirating and the people who crack games as a whole. For every person that only pirates to test a game out, while they may not be directly hurting the developers, there are probably plenty of others who are simply downloading it with no intention of buying.
That's not a problem with piracy, that's a problem with the user. How is it piracy's fault if someone is too weak-willed to say, "Okay, I've tried the game. Do I like it enough to buy it, or is it time to stop playing?" If someone isn't strong enough to stop playing the game they pirated (in order to demo) that's THEIR fault; THEY are an asshole. It doesn't make piracy for this purpose wrong for everyone.tippy2k2 said:
Why? Why go through all of that bullshit when you could just download it, try it for yourself and decide whether or not you're going to buy it, or stop playing?tippy2k2 said:
If you don't have a lot of money for games, it's a little more punishing to spend $49 (let alone $60) on a game that turns out to be mediocre after 3 hours. And the demos (that not all games have) are usually just the right amount of the game; you'd be hard pressed NOT to enjoy a demo. A game like Civilization just doesn't demo well. Even if you're someone who doesn't enjoy Civilization (like me) you'd still probably enjoy playing it for an hour, and that's all a demo is going to give you. That's why the "Extended demos" are nice. If I had done that, I wouldn't have wasted $49 on Civ5. Unfortunately, I did. Fuck me.
I take it you don't play many console games? This is NOT a problem for consoles. The only game that's had "Shitty coding" in recent memory is Skyrim for PS3. If you have a console, you can play whatever games are made for that console--no ifs ands or buts. And, if on the off chance there is some "Shitty coding," it's global--everyone's experiencing it, and the developer will do something about it, lest they suffer consumer backlash. With PCs, though, if you find that you're getting random crashes and can't advance, well, good luck figuring that out without completely uninstalling everything. As for the developer, they're not gonna to be able to release a patch for each and every person/hardware configuration, so you're SOL there too.tippy2k2 said:
If it seems like I'm a console fanboy, I'm not. I'm just making the point that there isn't any risk in buying a console game other than you not liking it, and since that is a risk present in literally everything that you can imagine purchasing, it's really not at all comparable to buying a PC game.
You're not giving any reasons as to WHY you think it is wrong to pirate a game to test it out. I don't see anything wrong with it. It doesn't hurt anyone unless the person is an asshole, who WANTS to steal the game and hurt the developer.
It would require a heavy amount of self policing to be acceptable and for that reason it isn't and shouldn't be ok to do. I'm sure plenty of people on here would hold themselves to their standards and immedietely uninstall everything within an hour or less and make the decision to buy it or not, treating it as if it were a demo.
The overwhelming majority of people can't be trusted to be held to that standard.
The overwhelming majority of people can't be trusted to be held to that standard.
I did state why I think it's wrong, it was the very first thing you quoted.BarbaricGoose said:
Piracy, I believe, is wrong no matter your justification. It's real easy to say that you're going to purchase this once you've tried it out. It's a lot harder to in real life. Someone earlier said I was calling people stupid because they can't handle the temptation; that's not stupidity, that's human nature and I'll bet on that eventually taking over. You have a copy of the game now; it's a lot easier for you to decide to skip payment once you've gotten what you wanted out of the deal.
How long do you play the pirated version until you're done with your self-created demo? You stated that you could play a game for more than three hours before you figure out if it's worth the money. Is three hours long enough? Maybe you're not 100% sure if you like it, so maybe you'll try it for five hours. Eh....still on the fence? Maybe you'll try it for eight hours. Oh...well, I beat the game. That wasn't worth the money so I won't buy it now.
Everyone says "Oh, that's not going to be ME. I have WAY more self-control than everyone else". Maybe you're right and you have the virtue of Jesus Christ but I'm going to bet on human nature over someone's word.
And yes, paying $60 for a game that might not work does suck but again, that's a risk you take with PC gaming (and a large reason why I'm personally a console gamer). If you are unwilling to accept the risk, allow the price to drop or research the game against your equipment before dropping that money.
The point as I see it is that once you've gained the experience you're a lot less likely to valuate it the same way as you would have before you got the experience for free. It's not really about hitting someone with a huge fine or throwing them in jail, it's more about making sure that people actually compensate developers/publishers for the experiences they provide.Eternal Visitor said:
Taking your examples above, if you watch the movie through the window, how likely are you honestly to pay for a copy of that movie yourself? If you manage to read a whole book (or let's say a magazine) over a persons shoulder on your commute, how honestly likely are you to pay for your own copy later? Sure it might happen once in a while but chances are even if you were excited by both the movie and book/magazine beforehand you would be willing to pay a lot less (if you were willing to pay anything at all) after viewing. To me, that doesn't sound stupid at all.
I'm inclined to say no because with a little bit of research there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't figure out whether or not the game will run on any given computer.
What's BS is calling it a "grey area" of any sort in the first place. The reason it doesn't work is because people don't reduce sales based on a lack of demo. That would require self-control and adult behaviour.FelixG said:
Oh please...Assassin Xaero said:
It's not piracy if it's only done to check if the goddamn game will run on a system.
He's not going to test play it, not going to use it as a demo, but only check to see if it will run at all on the PC in question.
Look at the example above (the one you quoted) again
Go back to page 1 and read OP's post again.ResonanceSD said:
I'll wait.
Currently, you must purchase a license to use the software, and pirates haven't purchase said license. So from a legal stand point you have no right to run these games.chadachada123 said:
Circumventing the copy protection does violate a few countries copyright laws. So playing pirated games can land you in hot water legally. I think their are some other laws that it comes up against but I don't know any more off the top of my head.
What's morally wrong is that you have the whole product for free, even though you're supposed to be paying for it. It doesn't matter if you impose rules on yourself as to how you use it, you have something you shouldn't have(without paying for it, assuming the game isn't free in the first place). That's where you're still in the wrong IMO.
I'm not even thinking about bugs or technical problems. Games are for playing, watching someone play a game is completely different to playing it yourself. Back when demos were standard you could actually experience the gameplay. But now you have to ask yourself, just because something looks fun, will it be fun to actually play? And maybe something doesn't look fun to watch, but is fun to play?ResonanceSD said:
Game demos REALLY need to make a comeback.
I don't use this to justify piracy, but it's part of the excuse I've seen others use, claiming that they pirate as a way to fill the gap that demos left. And as I miss demos so much, I can understand why people would want a way to really test a game without committing to a purchase but I don't believe that it justifies piracy.