Games Piracy - What's your take on it?

I agree piracy is wrong, however so is the quality of most PC games. For that reson I do down load to try games, and 90 % I play for 10 mins at best before deleting, for instance cod4 wasnt for me, wont be buying, image and game deleted. Crisis on the other hand I liked, however that is also gone, both image and game and when I can afford it I will buy it. The only games I buy without trying are HL games as with valve I no the quality will be there. O yer total war too :P

I think a good example of a complete waste of money if I had bought it would be transformers, reviews said it was good. I was pi**** that I spent my time on it never mind my money.

As for using demos instead I no I realy should more than anything cos the download is so much small and as most games are a waste of time that helps.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
In general, I've watched a few pirate DVDs in the past and not over impressed with it tbh. I've an expensive home system and I like to switch the lights off with the family and get the quality experience that I've paid for. It would be false economy to watch poor quality movies on an expensive home system.
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HD download are very common now days
 
I only download games when theres no demo available. For example recently I downloaded The Witcher (no demo available at the time) played it for an hour or so, loved it so deleted it and ordered it straight away.
 
*shurg* i try and buy all the time,
and people clambering to try climb the morale high horse are so hypocritical its laughable
"its ok to pirate movies and music but not games" lol.... all of a sudden this is ok?

The vast majroty of games i own are because i tried them, Prey to name one i wouldnt have bothered buying if i didnt try it first
The Witcher is another of rescent titles

Is it wrong? ofc it is but acting like a holy man on the subject of damnation and losing all perspective is ridiculous

It is not the same as stealing from a shop, its the same as copying a cd then returning it if anything
 
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If I want to download games I will, I don't care what anybody else thinks.

However I always buy the games I know I'll play for a good while, online games for example are ones that are always bought.
 
Wow I come back 10 hours later to an epicly long thread :p

People have been saying that if you download something for free, nothing is physically being taken away. However, you're still gaining something (a game and most likely enjoyment) and the developers get zilch. Which in my opinion, is just as bad as stealing.

As I'm doing computing at uni, I feel more strongly against piracy because I know how difficult it is to produce games, and how much effort is required to produce any large piece of software.

There are plenty of games I'd like, but as a student I can't afford everything. I just wait until the prices drop a little or just wait till I have the cash. A little patience goes a long way. I suggest people should do online shopping more, as you'll rarely find a game that ever costs much more than £20, and you get a good singleplayer and multiplayer (in most cases).
 
I am going to go probably against the grain here and say I buy all of my games (be it on console or pc format).

I don't tend to buy that many anyway as I don't have that much time to play them but tbh the thought of pirating the game doesn't even cross my mind, if a game interests me I will check to see if there is a demo, check reviews (and user feedback) and then if I am still interested I will buy it.

Now if only I could make myself buy hardware on the same timescale as I buy games lol.
 
BlackDragon said:
Wow I come back 10 hours later to an epicly long thread :p

People have been saying that if you download something for free, nothing is physically being taken away. However, you're still gaining something (a game and most likely enjoyment) and the developers get zilch. Which in my opinion, is just as bad as stealing.
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No the point was that some people couldnt afford them so the alternative was download/not play it at all
so there is nothing lost at all because regardless it wasnt going to be bought

The second argument is that a lot of people try before they buy, in which case your argument is flawed again because little publicised games for example, are getting bought after a play as well as the big titles being bought on the basis of a download. So its the inverse they are actually making money rather than losing it

As I'm doing computing at uni, I feel more strongly against piracy because I know how difficult it is to produce games, and how much effort is required to produce any large piece of software.

There are plenty of games I'd like, but as a student I can't afford everything. I just wait until the prices drop a little or just wait till I have the cash. A little patience goes a long way. I suggest people should do online shopping more, as you'll rarely find a game that ever costs much more than £20, and you get a good singleplayer and multiplayer (in most cases).
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In most cases you dont get a good game, you can see that buy the lack of titles which have people talking about them before the latter part of last year. Most games being released (and there are absolutely loads) are rubbish
I wish i downloaded archlord before buying it, i would have saved myself £20
 
Interesting discussions. I think it's wrong or there wouldn't likely be a law for it :p

What do people think to people buying games, completing them and then selling them on ebay for instance? In effect two people are enjoying the same game whereas it only amounts to one unit shifted by the developer/publisher and is an interesting thought. Would that be classed any different to borrowing a game from someone else?

I think the biggest problem is the people that are eagerly anticipating a game and have no intention of buying it - they then play it and love it and complete it until the end and leave it at that.
 
Most people in here do not seem to understand the difference between theft and piracy, they are not the same!!!

Theft, you take something! Depriving the owner of a tangible asset.

Piracy, you copy something! The owner still has the asset.

It might be illegal to pirate software, but in some cases no damage is being done to the industry if the person downloading the software, would not have got it if they couldn’t have downloaded it, I know someone who needs certain software for university, if they could not get it for free, then they would not get it! The practicaly of spending 1+k on software for 1 module of a degree is just not reasonable.

Damage is only being done to the industry when someone, does not buy the game BECAUSE they downloaded it.

The industry seems to think that every pirated software, is one less sale. They come out with these astronomical figures of lost revenue. Simple truth is, if it was not 'free' people would not have got it anyway! [student prospective].
 
I borrowed Mass Effect off a housemate.. amazing game.. but i definitely wouldn't buy it now that i know the story.

Am i good or bad?
 
i pirated cod4 till the price dropped a bit, id already played through singleplayer and ended up paying £25 for the collectors edition from a shop, i could have got the normal edition a few quid cheaper 2nd hand though, would anyone prefer i did that, and £0 of my money get to the devs?

Dont get why some people get all high and mighty over piracy sometimes while certain people do it because they cant afford to pay the RRP for a lot of new games(not all them come out at £17 on certain websites) plus we want quality for our money, whilst in the membermarket its easy for people to pickup a 2nd hand game cheaper which is going to mean £0 of that money finds its way to devs etc.
 
I havent read all 6 pages but my opinion on this is as follows

The industry, like (until recently) the music industry are not helping the situation,

More games and a better platform, similar to steam should be made available and embraced by the industry to help prevent the temptation to illegally download
People want things on demand, be it movies, sport, music or games, and the internet is the ultimate delivery system,

In the past few months the music industry have done deals with certain companies to actually sell mp3s online, and this can only be seen as a step forward.
If the industry embraces the download system and used it at the correct price ($70 for COD4 on steam was unacceptable) then every one could become winners,
If anything we should see cheaper games when distributed via an online system
 
gord said:
I borrowed Mass Effect off a housemate.. amazing game.. but i definitely wouldn't buy it now that i know the story.

Am i good or bad?
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So bad, you may as well have had one arm around Hitler congratulating him as he ordered the gassing of the Jews, you evil person.
 
BlackDragon said:
As I'm doing computing at uni, I feel more strongly against piracy because I know how difficult it is to produce games, and how much effort is required to produce any large piece of software.

There are plenty of games I'd like, but as a student I can't afford everything. I just wait until the prices drop a little or just wait till I have the cash. A little patience goes a long way. I suggest people should do online shopping more, as you'll rarely find a game that ever costs much more than £20, and you get a good singleplayer and multiplayer (in most cases).
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Im also doing computing, but its the companys that lose out the most when people pirate, since they are the ones that gain the most when people buy.
So as a computing student at uni i see them as being money grabbing idiots who push devs to release unfinished or rubbish things. Theres no point in releasing something if its not finished or is just plain rubbish, did you not go out and buy bf2 and wonder why the hell you'd payed your money for a beta?

I agree with you the second part, i wait till things drop below £20, difference is i try before i buy and buy for multiplayer etc after, meaning my £20 goes to the best man.
Piracy can boost sales too tbh, Im downloading 2 games as we speak that i would not have bothered buying, id just borrow my mates xbox versions and play them on my flatmates xbox, but i figured id try the PC versions and if i like them ill buy them.
Now there is a chance that they will get my money, when before they would have gotten £0 off me.
 
I for one don't download pirated games, as it takes a lot for a game to grab me from reviews, demos for me to even think about buying it. This has gone against me in the past with countless games played once then dumped just due to the difference in demo to full game.

Would i try/buy more games if there were limited time downloads to give you a few days to see what they are like, yes i would. So i can understand those who download games to try them out first, as we PC owners get shafted the moment the game is opened we can't return it to the shop unlike console people. We cant even trade it in for another game even if we wanted unless the game doesn't work due to it being so buggy.

The games industry needs to have a look at itself change the demo system to have limited time full version of the game or more complete demos, UT3 demo is a prime example only 2 game modes in the demo when a lot of us weren't interested in the 2 supplied and it was a leap of faith buying it. These days with games costing so much those of us who don't pirate aren't willing to take the risk on a game without a demo, £30-40 is a lot of money to waste on a game we dislike upon playing. So the producers miss out on sales due to their short sightedness in not letting us see the game in action first.

SCM
 
I will admit i have done my fair share of pirating, but im not ashamed to admit it.

Although i will also add comment that the last game i pirated was a good 6 months or so ago. Now dont get me wrong, i do buy a lot of the games if they are good and have online capabilities. Otherwise i delete them and that is the end of.

I dont care if some of you start saying what i do is wrong and what not, I have both a PS3 and PC, PS3 titles are somewhat £30-50 depending on title, PC games roughly between £15-30 and there are a lot of games which i would like to try, if its good... ill buy it, if not ill delete it.

These massive corporations make huge amounts of money and to be honest, dont do enough to warrant the massive price tags that follow, games shipping unfinished is a VERY common thing, do these companys really deserve to be paid for an unfinished product? Dont get me wrong i do buy the majority of games i download (if any good), but perhaps if companys such as EA for example, instead of just wanting the £££ wanted to release a product half decent without bugs etc, more people would pay.
 
Robert Bowling, the community manager of Infinity Ward posted an interesting item on his blog:

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On another PC related note, we pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online).

Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I'll check and see; if I can I'll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.
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telling it as it is, robbing criminal B******* ... High Horse ? get a grip, get a job and buy your software
 
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