Who Would Pirate the One-Cent Humble Indie Bundle?

[Danpascooch]

I'd like to go out on a limb and agree in saying that one of the major reasons is convenience. I'm sure that there are pirates out there in their 20's/30's (although they are probably absolute losers) but the major percentage of pirates are young kids who can work the internets, but can't work the credit cards. I used to dabble in piracy, but after getting a letter from Bethesda about the Oblivion crack I torrented, I avoided doing it. But now, I have a debit card, and I have pretty much bought every indie game on steam.

Honestly, I think what needs to be done is that either piracy needs to be made less convenient, or paying for things online needs to be made easier for small children (although that brings a WORLD of other problems.)

maybe a parent can set up a retainer for the kid? although when they cap that they'll just go off and pirate more games.

I don't believe this, you might get a letter from your ISP because you have suspicious bandwidth use, but I don't see how bethesda would possibly know, and send you a letter.

 

[Danpascooch]

Note that only people with credit cards can purchase the bundle.
I guess thats the reason then, the pirates CAN'T buy the bundle, they aren't cheapskates.

THANK YOU. I have no way of purchasing anything online. The only thing I can ever use are iTunes gift cards. Of course, using the poor guys' bandwidth is a bit dog. I'm not too into those types of games so I will be doing neither.

But I love the way everyone thinks pirate are like some race of Nazis out there who are totally different people to their near-perfect selves. This site cracks me up sometimes.

I agree the hate is way overblown

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[Kurokami]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "ungrateful, self-entitled dicks," that's who.

Hmm. Wow, it's hard to believe that pirates would be this unprincipled. Man, it's almost like the rationalizations that pirates use for their behavior (DRM, price, etc) are actually just flimsy pretenses to get stuff for free. Can you possibly imagine that?!

Yeah, we should reward most game developers for being so 'principled' and caring about the consumers as much as they *kaching* do. IMO pirating should be fine for the shitty games that come out, I'm so sick of the gaming industry smearing so much shit in between the already scarce gems out there.

An overreaction, sure... Hypocritical when you consider that only non-imaginative games are profitable because of pirating, sure... but I'm getting sick of rewarding people who seem to aim at disappointing me.

Yes, a team of dozens of people makes something their life work for two years with the aim of delivering a disappointing project. They're going out of their way to make a mediocre game. They don't want to make a good game, no, not at all.

Do you have any idea how absolutely asinine that sounds? Pirating is never justified, whether it's God of War 3 or goddamn Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. If you don't pay for something you should not get to play it.

You claimed unprincipled people are the only ones who pirate, yet on principle I wouldn't pay someone for something I don't want. If I could get and try the games for free (which Illegally I can) and only Pay for the ones I'm gonna continue playing instead of having the mass of shit games that makes me oh so terrified to buy something else that looks promising sitting in some bucket most people would mistake for a rubbish bin, yeah I would do it. The whole "gaming is art" debate has sprung into action lately, and believe it or not (as a gamer you've surely encountered this, unless you're extremely lucky or wait for other peoples take on the games) some games don't fit the criteria, they have no redeeming quality and I don't want to reward them for it on any level.

Say what you want, my distrust at the gaming industry was brought on by having trust in them, each time reinforcing the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me not to purchase games. Was it my own fault for buying the game? Sure, but I could have easily avoided it.

An artist may not aim to make a crap painting, but when he does I don't want to pay him to see what it looks like just so he can go on painting.

(Also thought you'd be happy to know for humors sake, I did have to search up the definition for asinine)

You're absolutely right in that you shouldn't have to pay money for something that isn't good, or that doesn't interest you. If you, say, hate Ubisoft's DRM, then a great way to do that is to not buy their games - vote with your wallet.

But that doesn't mean you get to get the game and play it for free. That's such a childish, self-entitled mindset. If you can't buy something - or don't want to buy something - then you don't get to have it.

That would mean purchasing less games as they simply won't pay for games that could (or rather have a higher chance to) disappoint them, your method seems to harm the worthy developers more without benefiting the worse ones. People don't play games they don't enjoy so presumably any game that's not worth the money would not be played after trying.

 

[chris11246]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "ungrateful, self-entitled dicks," that's who.

Hmm. Wow, it's hard to believe that pirates would be this unprincipled. Man, it's almost like the rationalizations that pirates use for their behavior (DRM, price, etc) are actually just flimsy pretenses to get stuff for free. Can you possibly imagine that?!

Yeah, we should reward most game developers for being so 'principled' and caring about the consumers as much as they *kaching* do. IMO pirating should be fine for the shitty games that come out, I'm so sick of the gaming industry smearing so much shit in between the already scarce gems out there.

An overreaction, sure... Hypocritical when you consider that only non-imaginative games are profitable because of pirating, sure... but I'm getting sick of rewarding people who seem to aim at disappointing me.

You have no idea how things work do you? Do you know how hard it is to program a working game let alone a good one? It doesn't magically make itself and programming is not like in the movies where there's never any bugs or problems it takes lots of hard work and money.

Also there's a lot of business involved which means that a businessman will look at a pirate as a potential sale that they could get if they make it harder to pirate. Therefore your just making things worse when you pirate a game. If you pirate a game and think its bad the company doesn't know that they just know that you downloaded the game and for all they know you would buy it if you couldn't pirate it. That just leads to them making DRM which makes things worse and the publisher then wants more games like it because they were downloaded a lot.

You're not justified in pirating anything your just being selfish even if you don't have the money work for it or find something else.

I personally paid $100 for it because I like what they are doing and want to support them.

 

[Ghostkai]

So for all the people saying "waa, I don't has a credit card - it's my right to pirate"

You realise you can set up a paypal account linked directly to your bank account? (no card needed)

And whats more, pay pal will give you about 10p in two charges to clarify that it's your account, so you can indeed get this for free, by paying with pay pal.

So stop with the excuses, and stop trying to "justify" this action of stealing this pack.

 

[WaywardHaymaker]

Internet Kleptomania! Quick, someone make a rehab clinic!

 

[Chipperz]

OK, I'm going to tell everyone who is bitching that they don't have a credit card a series of stories...

Story 1 - Yesterday, I was surfing the internet and saw a really nice looking 54mm model of a female vampire hunter. Seeing as she was actually clothed, I decided to jump at the chance to purchase it. Sadly, my bank accound is more empty than your average pirate's moral core, but I DID have £20 in my wallet. Being at my parent's house, I approached my mother with the £20 and said the following sentence; "Mum, here's £20, can I nick your credit card to buy this model?" She said yes, and it is now making it's way to me.

Story 2 - Around this time last year, all my mates were playing Warhawk. Deciding I wished to join them, I looked around to see if I could find the disks. Sadly, I couldn't. Luckily, my housemate lives in the same building as me, and has a credit card! "Hey man, here's £25, can I nick your credit card to get this off the PSN?" He said yes, and I downloaded it. In fact, it was close to my birthday and he hadn't got me anything, so it only cost me £5! Shortly after, they all switched to Killzone 2 and I never played it again.

Story 3 - I was out a few weeks back, when I saw a Mars Bar and decided I could do with some chocolate. Sadly, I didn't have 50p on me, but I was with one of my mates. "Dude, can I nick 50p for a Mars Bar? I'll pay you back when we get home." He said yes, and I had caramel-nougat-chocolatey goodness. I payed him back when we got home.

The moral of these stories is that if you can't pay, chances are minimal that you don't know someone who can pay for you. Even the smallest child can go up to their parents and say "I have 10p, can you buy this game for me?" Hell, if my kid wanted to download games like Samarost, I'd buy it for them - it's great for developing logic skills. And improving your resistance to dissapointment.

 

[Caligulove]

When I think about why would someone pirate this, I'm reminded of the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean (black pearl) where Orly Bloom and Capt. Sparrow sword fight until Sparrow ends the fight by pulling his gun and Bloom says

"...you cheated!.."
and Sparrow just says
"pirate.."

Pretty much says it all.
I imagine the person who would pirate this would be the kind of person who just pirates everything, not really thinking about it.

 

[Antari]

"Rosen reached the 25 percent figure by sending two days of raw download data to a statistician friend of his, who estimated that the bundle had been downloaded from the website roughly 105,500 times, while approximately 79,000 people had made a donation of some amount. Some simple math indicates that about 75 percent of the downloads from the site are legitimate."

2 days worth of stats ... somehow I see this as being exceptionally simple math if all they are taking into account is 2 days worth of activity. Show me the numbers over a 2 week period and we'll talk. This is about as accurate as the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the US carrier, featuring a visiting president.

 

[Pilkingtube]

1) So I walked into a charity shop yesterday to get some new shoes.. I found some ones that looked alright but I wasn't sure about it, so I took them without paying for them, I don't trust the shoe industry after those trainers somebody told me about last time.

2) So I walked into a charity shop yesterday to get some new shoes.. I found some really nice looking ones that I wanted, but the store didn't accept my type of credit card. I stole the shoes anyway, it's their fault for not accepting my method of payment, these shoes are mine.

I.. it's still theft, I don't care how you justify it with "DRM" or "That company is evil" or whatever, maybe, maybe it might be ok if there was some genuine issue, but this thing can be bought for £0.01 and contains no DRM, the excuses still come up they just get weaker and weaker.

Next I can imagine seeing sites that let you tether it directly to your bank account, or to physical money in some way, and people will say "I've got no money".. meaning I get to:

3) I walked into a charity shop today, saw some shoes that were really nice, but they cost £80, I do not have £80, I stole them anyway even though I didn't pay for them.

 

[Danpascooch]

That would mean purchasing less games as they simply won't pay for games that could (or rather have a higher chance to) disappoint them, your method seems to harm the worthy developers more without benefiting the worse ones. People don't play games they don't enjoy so presumably any game that's not worth the money would not be played after trying.

Christ can you really not tell a good game from a bad?
As a 13 year old, I stood in a games store and looked between Beyond Good and Evil and Enter the Matrix.

Beyond Good and Evil.

Enter the Matrix.

Guess which one was taken home? Beyond Good and Evil because it looked goddamn fantastic comparatively!

Lol, this kid's mentality is "I am an idiot, so I'm going to steal stuff"

 

[Danpascooch]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "ungrateful, self-entitled dicks," that's who.

Hmm. Wow, it's hard to believe that pirates would be this unprincipled. Man, it's almost like the rationalizations that pirates use for their behavior (DRM, price, etc) are actually just flimsy pretenses to get stuff for free. Can you possibly imagine that?!

Yeah, we should reward most game developers for being so 'principled' and caring about the consumers as much as they *kaching* do. IMO pirating should be fine for the shitty games that come out, I'm so sick of the gaming industry smearing so much shit in between the already scarce gems out there.

An overreaction, sure... Hypocritical when you consider that only non-imaginative games are profitable because of pirating, sure... but I'm getting sick of rewarding people who seem to aim at disappointing me.

You have no idea how things work do you? Do you know how hard it is to program a working game let alone a good one? It doesn't magically make itself and programming is not like in the movies where there's never any bugs or problems it takes lots of hard work and money.

Also there's a lot of business involved which means that a businessman will look at a pirate as a potential sale that they could get if they make it harder to pirate. Therefore your just making things worse when you pirate a game. If you pirate a game and think its bad the company doesn't know that they just know that you downloaded the game and for all they know you would buy it if you couldn't pirate it. That just leads to them making DRM which makes things worse and the publisher then wants more games like it because they were downloaded a lot.

You're not justified in pirating anything your just being selfish even if you don't have the money work for it or find something else.

I personally paid $100 for it because I like what they are doing and want to support them.

You mean they don't just go "Computer! MAKE GAME!" and then it happens?

Well shoot, maybe they aren't the fat cat deviants I thought they were! lol

 

[Danpascooch]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "ungrateful, self-entitled dicks," that's who.

Hmm. Wow, it's hard to believe that pirates would be this unprincipled. Man, it's almost like the rationalizations that pirates use for their behavior (DRM, price, etc) are actually just flimsy pretenses to get stuff for free. Can you possibly imagine that?!

Yeah, we should reward most game developers for being so 'principled' and caring about the consumers as much as they *kaching* do. IMO pirating should be fine for the shitty games that come out, I'm so sick of the gaming industry smearing so much shit in between the already scarce gems out there.

An overreaction, sure... Hypocritical when you consider that only non-imaginative games are profitable because of pirating, sure... but I'm getting sick of rewarding people who seem to aim at disappointing me.

If you don't like it don't buy it, but don't assume all game companies are rolling in dough and don't care about their customers. If you care enough to pirate it, it's not shit, so your argument doesn't really make sense.

You've never expected anything from a game that didn't come even close to deliver? Spore? Borderlands? I wish I hadn't paid for the empty promises, I did though.

I think downloading games is fine so long as you pay for those who earn it, in a perfect world that is. It won't happen in reality.

You used the word "most" that's a big difference from "never ever has ONE not delivered"?

Don't backpedal

All that means is that you're luckier then me, or perhaps just better at choosing games, or have a lower standard.

For me it remains most.

There are reviews and demos so that you can decide whether to buy a game, but you use pirating?

I don't believe for a second that you go out and pay them if you pirated it and deemed it to be a great game, not someone like you.

You felt the need to wrongfully accuse me TWICE?

There's an edit button next to the quotation on any post you write, I'm not saying this to be condescending or irritating, just helpful. Then again I suppose you could've been unaware that it was my post again that you quoted, or that you simply wanted to post twice.

Demo's aren't available for everything, and I still have some stupid faith in the gaming industry that makes me pre-order, particularly for collectibles for games I think are actually gonna be worth something.

Lol, you admit to stealing, then make fun of the people you are stealing from. Excuse me if I don't think your moral outrage is justified.

 

[Danpascooch]

unbelievable, you insult them while stealing from them

Interesting... particularly since I don't pirate on account of it being illegal... But well done!

And they deserve to be insulted.

If you buy a bunch of crappy games that's your crappy judgement, there are plenty of game companies out there that make great games if you're willing to spend 5 minutes looking at reviews, hell, if you go to Metacritic, you'll basically be good with everything over an 85, how lazy can a person get?

Apparently lazy enough to steal shit rather than spend five minutes making an educated decision.