View from the Road: When I Was a Pirate

[Space Jawa]

I think we need to stop calling it "piracy".

I like this idea. Especially since it has the potential to glamorize them, what with the connection to the 'traditional' high seas pirates the way you see them in the movies and such.

I vote we call it for what it is: "Digital Media Theft".

Come to think of it, I think Daily Show did a bit like that sometime around when the pirates around Africa were starting to get uppity.

 

[Gunner 51]

The Wolfire blog probably says it best:
http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Another-view-of-game-piracy

I read through this and thought it was a well thought out and well researched blog. Far more informative of the histrionics put out by the publishers. But then again, I'd say this because I support some piracy to an extent.

Hypothetically if all pirates decided to stop - and production costs come down, would the publishers pass the savings onto the customer? Of course not, they're cartels. They want to make as much money as humanly possible - it's just pirates give them the golden excuse they need to bleed everyone dry.

 

[MaltesePigeon]

ok. So at what point does piracy become slightly less unethical? I live in a place with no jobs where unemployment is super high and alot of people live on £100 a week. I live in a poor part of the north east of england where when I was a child piracy was almost the norm because single mums still couldnt afford games I had a chipped psx when I was 12 I didnt know the extent of what I was given but I knew it was illegal but I really wanted to play games, so i wasnt bored and I could experience these wonderous new things!
In my mind I was just doing what I had to do to enjoy myself even at someone elses expense! (btw all the food you eat and clothes and things you enjoy are also at someones expense somewhere along the line, especially if you own anything made in china, so please dont judge me I was 12)

Can poor western ppl pirate games? £200 a month must be similar to paid job in a devoloping country. so does poverty make it ok? or understandable? Personaly economy has more to do with poverty than the overall economy or development of a nation, so for a hobo is it understandable for him to buy an r4 for an old DS he found?

If there is no other viable way of getting games is it somehow "not their fault they have to game"? I've just seen people smacking down college students for not being able to afford stuff and people just say "you just have to deal with it blah blah its still stealin" which isnt the sentiment reflected on other impoverished people such as the poor chinese gamers, because it is infinitely more difficult to get games in china but does that make it more ok?.

What about the altruistic hacker who thinks data should be free? is he a selfish jerk? or is he fighting for what he believes in and his overall goal is worth more to him than the wage of a dev team? surely with a perspective based on politics a developers wage is microcosm compared to the macrocosm of his political belief?

The guy in the store could import like 5 games and wait for a few rich chinese ppl to come around and buy his stuff and be all legit and support the games world but no he PIRATES FOR PROFIT! those who want the localised games they could just learn english to support the devs and save all year for 1 game. The guy who owns the store is the real pirate he must know its not legal. he could open an import store but he doesn't cos hes poor. is he a selfish jerk?

The answer is that the issue of piracy is multi faceted and not black and white at all.

I dont dl games anymore because of wider availability of digital distribution. I can get them pretty cheap online but thats only pc games. plus i like knowing I'm supporting a dev now that im a bit older and wiser. Thats my perspective.

tbh I don't see piracy as something good or morally objective its merely a factor. people pirate for so many reasons. If solutions need to be found to make piracy unnecessary in developing nations those solutions are as follows:

Hope the economy or currency springs up and makes it easier for people to buy games.(even then personal eco etc)
sell things at a super low price in such a way that you can still make profit.
Get rid of the monetary system and find out a way to make everything free.

stop arguing about the ethics of the situation and come up with a solution until then you are all doing it wrong.

convincing people that they are doing something morally dubious will no stop piracy. Philosophy has more to do with the argument than "omg ur stealin" and "omg but i wusnt buyin it anyway" either person will cling to their personal beliefs and the problem is they are both right and wrong so it doesnt matter just try and work out how to fix it pls or be quiet.

nice article Mr.Funk but stop trolling the forums with your piracy flamewars or I'll tell a mod! lol jk important issue

*my point earlier kinda assumes that at some point stealing becomes less unethical the poorer you get so dont retort with "omg but itz stealinz"

I love this guy/girl!

 

[addeB]

Ah yes, China, 'tis a odd country...

not just odd but one which seems, despite it's oppression, keen to break all the rules. Better or for worse

And they seem to like to kill gamers at strange concentration camps.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

To be honest, I don't see pirating as all that bad.
In fact, in some ways its quite helpful.

You see, in my own opinion, the main reason most people, (especially teenagers) pirate, is to stay in the loop with their peers, (or try to stay ahead of some of them in cases of people with superiority complexes), and unfortuately money is a scarce resource for most families, and unless they have a job and/or a paypal account, games are fairly inaccessable to them.
You might take the moral highground on that and look down on those people for being weak or simple minded, but you would be very suprised how powerful peer pressure is! XD

I used to pirate for those reasons, but as soon as I got a weekend job, a paypal account, and a student bank account, (with an interest free overdraft! ), I can pretty much afford to buy games after about a month they are released, (as the price of games lately in the UK drops quite a lot in online retail after about a month of release).

In fact, if I had not have pirated Kings Bounty: The Legend, I would have never bought it and its sequel on Steam!
Another example of the usefullness of piracy:
I am learning how to play the guitar, and I'm at the stage that I need to learn and practice my chords.
I find a lovely book on ebay and I buy it.
Unfortuantely its an American import and takes quite a while getting here.
My free time is fairly limited, so I pirate a digital copy of the book to start with while I wait for the book to arrive at my house. (I had exams you see!)
Haven't opened that file since I got the book, though I won't delete it, (just incase my hard copy gets damaged, and I need to buy a replacement).

 

[hyperdrachen]

View from the Road: When I Was a Pirate

There?s an entirely different side to piracy that most of us never think about.

Read Full Article

Yeah as a nation, China is that broke kid. The devs prolly aren't losing much here, should just chalk it up to "free" advertisement in a growing nation. Maybe one day they'll be rich enough to drink the kool-aid with us. It's still wrong, but it's not a fight worth having. I hate piracy but I stand by my philosophy. Pirates aren't gonna pay the bills they cost money to play with. Worry about your customers, they keep the lights on. So non-obtuse DRM, exclusive features for brand new copies, get in on some of that action, spend money there. Not trying to stop Bluebeard from torrenting your game.

 

[xunjez]

I think many of the problems here come from a gray area that people have in their minds that there are different "types of pirates", or for that matter different "types of stealing". Most societies realize that stealing something of more value leads to more punishment than stealing something of less; but in the case that the two things are worth the same then the punishment is the same. For example if I stole a $30 hair dryer or a $30 hard cover book I would still be facing the same punishment. So how does a thief justify stealing something he knows the market value of and at the same time claim it can rightfully be taken for nothing? The digital media thief's argument is almost always one of five things or some combination thereof.
A) I steal because I deserve this yet I can't afford it.
B) I commit a victimless crime, the copies are endless and I don't sell it.
C) I steal because I would have never have purchased the product anyway.
D) I steal with the intent to judge the product's worth and if I find it acceptable I will pay full value.
E) I steal to prove a point, I steal to hurt large companies with policies I find unacceptable.

I'm sure that the criminal sympathisers out there identify with some or all the points on this list. Without breaking them all down most people would notice that applying any of those arguments to stealing anything of equal value that isn't digital media would never hold an ounce of water and that same person wouldn't commit the crime in the first place in 99 out of 100 cases........that is except option B. It is that argument that is required to have "piracy" at all. The other four options are merely childish justifications that when put to the test never hold up to any argument. In the end all pirates must fall on the fight that they hurt no one. We've read the articles and had the fights about DRM vs. Piracy but the reality is right here in the article about the way things are in the places where digital theft is the norm.
Games aren't made to fit into your budget, they are not made for you to test for free, they aren't made for you to take hostage until a company changes its business model to your liking. They are made for the sole purpose to make developers and publishers money. The only reason piracy in China exists is because we buy games in the West. Game makers have written them off as as loss. They've written off billions of potential consumers due to theft of their product. If we were to stop buying games in the West we would not turn into what China is with Gamestops selling pirated copies of games. There would just be no games. And as to the victim of the crime? It's the market. All of the pirates out there can justify and rationalize and break themselves up into their little groups of "real pirates" and "fake pirates", "poor kids" and "game testers" or whatever helps them sleep at night, but the truth is that they are all part of ruining something and using the concept of victimless crime as their ultimate excuse. And if you think I am being too idealist and that what pirates do will never make that much difference, just look at the PC gaming market. It's starting to look a hell of a lot like China; pirates everywhere and developers pulling out, writing off millions.

 

[RMcD94]

A) I steal because I deserve this yet I can't afford it.
B) I commit a victimless crime, the copies are endless and I don't sell it.
C) I steal because I would have never have purchased the product anyway.
D) I steal with the intent to judge the product's worth and if I find it acceptable I will pay full value.
E) I steal to prove a point, I steal to hurt large companies with policies I find unacceptable.

F) I steal because I don't a damn about other people and their morals. ie, if I could steal a car and get away with it, I would.

I think a lot of people are F. If I didn't like arguing then I'd go with F, but it's boring.

C doesn't have a victim. B does if he would have bought it without the option to pirate.

In the end all pirates must fall on the fight that they hurt no one.

No they don't.

There would just be no games

Do you know how many free games there are?

 

[Alterego-X]

A) I steal because I deserve this yet I can't afford it.
B) I commit a victimless crime, the copies are endless and I don't sell it.
C) I steal because I would have never have purchased the product anyway.
D) I steal with the intent to judge the product's worth and if I find it acceptable I will pay full value.
E) I steal to prove a point, I steal to hurt large companies with policies I find unacceptable.

F) I steal because I don't a damn about other people and their morals. ie, if I could steal a car and get away with it, I would.

I think a lot of people are F. If I didn't like arguing then I'd go with F, but it's boring.

C doesn't have a victim. B does if he would have bought it without the option to pirate.

In the end all pirates must fall on the fight that they hurt no one.

No they don't.

There would just be no games

Do you know how many free games there are?

G) I believe that the traditional concept of copyright is outdated, and creators should move on to find other sources of income.

I'm not a moral relativist, I believe that piracy is right and copyright is wrong.
I don't care if I hurt the industry, because I want to see it destroyed.

 

[Galad]

View from the Road: When I Was a Pirate

There?s an entirely different side to piracy that most of us never think about.

Read Full Article

I have an eerie feeling of deja-vu about this whole article. In fact, I'm more or less 100% sure I've already read somewhere at least the first paragraph of the story, about your "pirate adventure" in China, to put it in a silly way. Is that the first time you've spoken about this story on the escapist or anywhere else on the internet, Mr. Funk? My search-fu isn't strong enough to find this out myself..

 

[Chipperz]

1. I pirate and play the game and like it, and then tell my friends about it. Free advertising for you.
2. I pirate and play the game and don't mention it at all to anyone. Nothing to you.
3. I don't pirate the game, and don't play it. Nothing to you.

So, there's a difference between 2 and 3 apart from me losing out?

There's a massive difference between 2 and 3. 2 is a common criminal that could have just played the demo, but no, they had to think they were special and I owed them something. 3 is actually two different people;

3a is the guy that doesn't buy the game at all. More power to them - I am aware there are whole demographics that will never touch my product, which is not a lost sale, because the chances of a sale from these groups is so low that even them picking up the box would be an achievement.
3b is the guy that buys the game and doesn't like it. This is a person that I have wronged. Maybe they brought it on impulse and found that what I consider "real time tactical combat" or "extensive character customisation" isn't what they consider it to be. Maybe they brought into hype, or someone tranquilized me and let Peter Molyneaux advertise the features (aaaaand I'm losing sleep tonight...). Hell, maybe they were a teenager who was entranced by the shiney "18" label and got home to find that I've tried to make a mature game, not one covered with blood and tits. In all of these cases, that is my fault for providing unrealistic expectations of my game, and is the only one of your examples that I would genuinely apologise to.

That said, they can always trade it in. Honestly, as a gamer and a games designer, I have no issue with trade-ins because I would rather someone was playing my game (and hell, there's always more DLC) than having it take up space in their collections - while I can't fight human nature and stop people getting bored with my game forever more, it's my job to prolong trade-in's for as long as possible by making it fun.

G) I believe that the traditional concept of copyright is outdated, and creators should move on to find other sources of income.

I'm not a moral relativist, I believe that piracy is right and copyright is wrong.
I don't care if I hurt the industry, because I want to see it destroyed.

What sources of income are these, and if you hate games so much, why would you pirate them in the first place?

 

[VanBasten]

G) I believe that the traditional concept of copyright is outdated, and creators should move on to find other sources of income.

I'm not a moral relativist, I believe that piracy is right and copyright is wrong.
I don't care if I hurt the industry, because I want to see it destroyed.

To quote mister Funk a few posts earlier:

Bull. Shit.

If you actually wanted to destroy copyright you'd put your money behind projects that come out of initiatives like copyleft, free software and various other anti-copyright movements that are, you know, actually trying to change the laws.

If more people did that, the industry would see it as a viable source of income, and would actually start moving in that direction.

By pirating, you're just sending them a message you want their products so bad you're actually desperate enough to steal the stuff, which isn't really an indication they're doing something wrong.

Fact of the matter is: you just want stuff for free.
Stop pretending like you're "changing the world for the better", you're just being a gigantic douche.

 

[Sikachu]

You aren't entitled to get something for free just because you want to.

If it isn't to the detriment of anyone else then why not?

I am of course assuming they wouldn't buy the game in the first place. I know no one who would have bought it but pirates it instead.

Because it is. You are taking something that someone spent time and money on, for free, when they have the right to receive money for their hard work.

That's a bullshit excuse that people use because they feel entitled to get things that cost money for free.

No it isn't. Not profiting from something isn't to my detriment, it just isn't to my benefit. If you want to make the claim that piracy is wrong and it harms people, get a more sophisticated analysis.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Good Read Good Points.

But can u really consider it a 'loss' if the game never was slated for that country? they had no plans to make any money there. So how can one consider that a loss. yeah ppl are playing your game for free, but isnt that just more marketing exposure for no extra money spent? for the affluent in those country, they may want to legitimately import a copy from the source country, and doesnt that actually INCREASE your sales? albeit minutely.

This form of piracy is free PR imho.

p.s. i too use to be a pirate, from my teenage years all the way thru college. But ever since i've started making a living, i've bought every game i play. Not due to some noble cause but simply because its just EASIER to have the real game than to go thru the hassle and time to DL and 'crack' a pirated game. I'll pay the convenience tax! but from the looks of all the DRM...i don't know, maybe...XD

 

[John Funk]

How was this guy a real pirate? didn't he just buy a R4 (what ever that is, you guys may know but he fails to explain it)

He also bashes Pirates acting like they are some evil force in developed countries, they aren't I guarantee you, you will never find a pirate who pirates because he is greedy for games (only applies in developed countries) Look my uncle and his friend pirated all the time, they knew how to hack and everything, but they still bought the games they could easily hack if they wanted too, and almost never played the ones that they did, and if they did, it was usually to test it out to see if it actually worked. The reason they hack, they pirate, is because they can, so they can see their own capabilities. They do it so they can test their selves, hone their abilities, boast about their talent! Video game designers will NEVER EVER Get rid of pirates, because even with all the DRM in the world, the pirates will still attempt to get past it, and they will always succeed, then become better, so when the designers throw the next curve ball, they are that much more ready for it. Video game Designers perpetuate pirating with DRM and ways to stop them from getting the games, there would be no pirates if their was nothing stopping them from getting the game illegally.

These pirates are in the minority to the point where publishers can't possibly care about them. Most pirates (who aren't real pirates -- I'd save that title for people like your uncle) just download a pre-cracked game via torrents. They are mostly inexcusably immoral thieves who should stop.

OT: I think developers need to make a choice -- either they care about localizing the games in these countries and start to horn out the piracy, or they just (continue to) let the market go. It's a lot easier to ignore it, probably. Also, these types of things really need to be taken into account on all those reports of really high piracy rates. It's technically piracy, but in a market the publishers clearly don't care to have.

You are right! I thought pirates just entaled those who actually hacked to get the games, not simply download them from pirate bay, though I guess it makes sense now.

I guarantee you, you will never find a pirate who pirates because he is greedy for games (only applies in developed countries)

If you will pardon my french:

Bull. Shit.

That is the reason that 99% of pirates pirate.

It's easy to act like economic issues don't apply to first-world countries, but there are large portions of the population that simply can't afford games, especially at launch price. The whole "pirates are largely jerks who know they're being unethical" paradigm strikes me as unrealistic at best and obnoxiously privileged at worst.

As a college student basically living on federal aid/loans (and ramen, literally foregoing coupon-affected sales at Dominoes as "too expensive"), there's simply no way I can pay for more than a couple games a quarter, and I've really pirated less and less each quarter, and you know what? I haven't been buying more games; I've been buying less games. Much less. I got into a game competitively (cause if I'm not playing new games, I'd rather get better at the games I have) and basically shut myself out of the usual "follow gaming scene and try innovative titles" cycle.

Until that point, piracy was the only thing keeping me even marginally in the loop. I might pirate a few games, and of the ones I liked, buy one or two and make the most of them. But I literally haven't purchased a game since L4D1's second $25 sale, and I haven't pirated anything since around that time either.

And it's not like I'm not interested in gaming anymore--I play the games I own all the time and follow sites like Escapist and Gamasutra--I just never get a chance to actually play new games and so never have the confidence to spend what little money I have on a new one.

To act like I--or any of the other countless people in similar situations to me--are inherently unethical jerks just because we don't live in a developing nation is excessively deontological (at the cost of any shred of utilitarianism).

I was a college student once too. Even now, my disposable income is pretty limited. We all have to make sacrifices. Rent games? Buy bargain-bin games? Borrow them from friends?

Why do you get to have things for free? You don't. You either save up for them, find another way, or go without. You aren't entitled to get something for free just because you want to.

Your an idiot, read the posts before you, like the one I conveniently quoted above

Your ignorance as to what a pirate actually is doesn't make you any more right.

Oh, and don't flame staff. Have a nice day, see you 'round.

 

[Alterego-X]

What sources of income are these, and if you hate games so much, why would you pirate them in the first place?

Hardware peripherals sold for profit, in-game advertisements, online server fees, game development supported from other company segments (e.g. first party for console), etc, etc.

The possibilities are endless, and almost anything would be better than asking money for copying data, while the Internet can do it for completely free.

For films, there is cinema (and TV with ads), for music there are concerts, all of these ask money for something more than the data itself, and pirates are those who admittedly don't need the real, superior product, but content with the raw data.
The game industry becomes the last medium that can't seem to find such an income, and still relies on "But you WILL pay for the raw data, that could be copied for free, dammit!"

I don't hate gaming, I hate the game industry. I believe losing the high production values and the blocbuster style publishing, and replacing it with something smaller wouldn't hurt gaming itself.

 

[Delusibeta]

Ultimately, there are many flavours of piracy. The one most publishers get there knickers in a twist is the "I pirate because I can" sort, which does what it says on the tin. However, there is the "Abandonware" sort of pirate where the game is difficult to find and buy legally, and even then it'll likely to be second hand so it's a zero sum gain for the developer. There's also the "I have the game, but I want to replace it because it doesn't work/can't find the disc/console broke", which is the sort of catagory where the "ROMs are legal if you already have the game" myth lies.[footnote]As I understand it, ROMs are legal if you dump the ROM yourself. This is why I approve the use of ScummVM: copying files from the CD is easy and you wind up with essentially a ROM you dumped yourself. Plus, one of the sign-up questions to their forums is "Is abandonware legal?"[/footnote]

Ultimately, I applause GOG, Steam and Sega (for their Mega Drive Classics range on Steam & Gamersgate, and the forthcoming Dreamcast ports) for making a dent in the second and third catagories.

At the end of the day, I would like to see a stigma develop on pirating indie games, because they're likely to be hit hard by piracy, while a massive publisher should be able to absorb the losses. However, it's interesting that it's said massive publishers that seem to be investing in DRM, while indies tend to not use DRM (or use Steamworks, but that's an arguement for another thread).

 

[Slavik_91]

If we had reduced prices to match our lesser economy here on Brazil I would be able to buy more than 1 game per year but of course that's unlikely to happen.

I mean lol, the reason I don't have any consoles besides my old PS1 it's because the game's prices for them spin from 200 to 400 bucks, which is alot to spend on a single game. So I've stayed with the PC releases, which spin around 100, 130 for collector packages and such.

And to make things worse the prices NEVER drop, or drop several years after it's release when most people forgot all about it, like the one time I saw Starcraft 1 for 50 bucks after years of release.

Besides this is the environment we are introduced to, of course we don't think of it as something akward or wrong, I mean here whenever I buy games people ask me "Hey, why didn't you just downloaded it?"

 

[EvilDemon]

Your ignorance as to what a pirate actually is doesn't make you any more right.

Oh, and don't flame staff. Have a nice day, see you 'round.

So he calls you an idiot and you call him ignorant. I dont see how your any different.
I also dont think 1 word(5 letters) counts as flaming :S.
Oh, and try not to act so smug. Have a nice day, see you 'round

 

[VanBasten]

The game industry [...] still relies on "But you WILL pay for the raw data, that could be copied for free, dammit!"

You do realize that you're not actually paying for the process of copying data?

I believe losing the high production values and the blocbuster style publishing, and replacing it with something smaller wouldn't hurt gaming itself.

Then buy games from hundreds, if not thousands, of indie developers, a lot of which actually distribute their content in less traditional ways with no DRM, no copyright, open source and even sometimes without a fixed price.

How exactly is your pirating of blockbuster titles supposed to convince publishers that blockbusters are not the way to go? It's actually showing them quite the opposite, that blockbusters are something everyone wants, even if they have to steal it.

You are a liar, sir, a thief and a liar.
And I'm calling you out on it.