Minecraft Creator: Piracy Is Not Theft!

Macky said:
No they really don't. You can speak for yourself on that one. If I feel a game is worth buying, I'll buy it. Minecraft, Dragon age, CoD4 etc, etc etc.
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id imagine the majority arent in the same position as you..like i said theres a lot of people out there that will pirate stuff off the apple/android store that costs £0.59p - theres not really an excuse for pirating something that costs less than a pint of milk.
 
orderoftheflame said:
Humble indie bundle was a pack of games that you could set your own price for, with a portion of that money going to charity. Pay a penny if you wanted to.

A quarter of the downloads were pirated.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/10/one-quarter-of-humble-indie-bundle-downloads-were-pirated/
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I see.

Well im not sure you can really call it pirating if the price is 0 or 1p a game i mean they aint lost much so why cry about pirating with that offer i wonder. Either the pirates couldnt be bothered to use slow servers which they might have been if they were download games so instead just thought well id have only offered 1p for the things so ill go and torrent em which ill have em all in a few mins on the maxed out private torrent site.

Really isnt a piracy thing that about the indie bundle imo. Sure they could have payed a penny but like thats really gona effect anything except a charity getting 1p which will do what buy 1p sweet for a kid?

Edit - Another reason is probably because a lot of people like to use one download service i.e steam and if the games arnt on there then they cba so if its 1p and not on steam then they torrent.

Also dont forget most of piracy is yes they download games but most of the time they play and say meh boring and never play again so its kinda like a demo of retail kind not the crap demos company's put out. So even tho piracy goes on piracy doesnt really matter because lets say a pirate finds one or two games he likes out of 20 he downloads. He probably might buy the good ones he plays and just ignore the others or even uninstall and remove the iso to make room for new downloads to try. It is a hell of a lot better to pirate a game and find out ur not gona play it than to waste the money just to see if u like it or not.
 
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SkeeterUK said:
Edit - Another reason is probably because a lot of people like to use one download service i.e steam and if the games arnt on there then they cba so if its 1p and not on steam then they torrent.
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Pretty sure you got a key to activate all of the games that were on Steam, and I maxed out their download servers fine. If someone can't throw a few measly pounds towards charity for some games, just shows the kind of person they are to be honest.

Pirates, pirate because they're cheap and greedy. Nout else.
 
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orderoftheflame said:
Pretty sure you got a key to activate all of the games that were on Steam, and I maxed out their download servers fine. If someone can't throw a few measly pounds towards charity for some games, just shows the kind of person they are to be honest.

Pirates, pirate because they're cheap and greedy. Nout else.
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It was only available on steam just before the second pack was released.

And a generalisation that doesn't apply to everyone, I think the fact it was pirated when 1p could be paid makes saying they are cheap stupid.
 
Piracey in the past was done to avoid disc checks and not have to wait for boxes/discs to be delivered.

We have Steam now, so from a personal view, the above boxes are ticked ;)
 
orderoftheflame said:
Pirates, pirate because they're cheap and greedy. Nout else.
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I'm not trying to justify piracy but the reality is that a lot of young people, between ages 7 and say 15 download pretty much everything because they simply do not have the money. Now of course the response to that is that they shouldn't be enjoying games or movies or music at all if they can't afford it but the reality is that most of those criminals grow up, start earning money and start paying for their hobbies ie. games, movies and music the moment they can afford to. If they hadn't had the chance to start a hobby such as gaming when they were 12, they probably wouldn't be paying customers ten years later. Now of course not everyone grows up and starts paying for games but those with conscience do and I like to think vast majority of people do have a conscience.

And here's my confession: I got my Amiga as a present in 1989, around a year before I started school. I couldn't afford a single game for the first 4-5 years even if I saved everything I got for a whole year. I was copying games from my friends, as you do. Ten years later, I was buying as many games as I could afford which wasn't many, but let's say one per month. I was "testing" and playing way more games than I could afford, but such was life. Another ten years later and I'm paying for every game I play. I've 182 games on my Steam account and I don't even particularly prefer Steam. Now what would have happened if I hadn't had the opportunity to start my hobby back when I was young and I had fifty different interesting hobbies to choose from? How much money would gaming industry have got out of me if I didn't pick up gaming 20+ years ago? How much money did gaming industry lose when me, a 9 year old kid copied The Secret of Monkey Island from a friend and started learning English language by playing that particular game?

That's how me and all my friends grew up. We copied a ton of games but as years passed, we started paying whenever we could afford to and grew up to be responsible adults who have gaming as a hobby. And that's my view on piracy. While it's illegal and no one should do it, the reality is that people do pirate games for various reasons and not all of them are evil scumbags whose only plan is to destroy gaming forever and ever. I guess Notch at least partially agrees with me even though some people judge all pirates regardless of circumstances.

Ps. I've bought The Secret of Monkey Island three times since. It won't do for my crimes but I have fifty more years to pay the industry back all the evil deeds I did as a teenager, copying games and all that. They never lost a sale but early on they didn't get my money either simply because it didn't exist.
 
Phinor said:
I'm not trying to justify piracy but the reality is that a lot of young people, between ages 7 and say 15 download pretty much everything because they simply do not have the money. Now of course the response to that is that they shouldn't be enjoying games or movies or music at all if they can't afford it but the reality is that most of those criminals grow up, start earning money and start paying for their hobbies ie. games, movies and music the moment they can afford to. If they hadn't had the chance to start a hobby such as gaming when they were 12, they probably wouldn't be paying customers ten years later. Now of course not everyone grows up and starts paying for games but those with conscience do and I like to think vast majority of people do have a conscience.

And here's my confession: I got my Amiga as a present in 1989, around a year before I started school. I couldn't afford a single game for the first 4-5 years even if I saved everything I got for a whole year. I was copying games from my friends, as you do. Ten years later, I was buying as many games as I could afford which wasn't many, but let's say one per month. I was "testing" and playing way more games than I could afford, but such was life. Another ten years later and I'm paying for every game I play. I've 182 games on my Steam account and I don't even particularly prefer Steam. Now what would have happened if I hadn't had the opportunity to start my hobby back when I was young and I had fifty different interesting hobbies to choose from? How much money would gaming industry have got out of me if I didn't pick up gaming 20+ years ago? How much money did gaming industry lose when me, a 9 year old kid copied The Secret of Monkey Island from a friend and started learning English language by playing that particular game?

That's how me and all my friends grew up. We copied a ton of games but as years passed, we started paying whenever we could afford to and grew up to be responsible adults who have gaming as a hobby. And that's my view on piracy. While it's illegal and no one should do it, the reality is that people do pirate games for various reasons and not all of them are evil scumbags whose only plan is to destroy gaming forever and ever. I guess Notch at least partially agrees with me even though some people judge all pirates regardless of circumstances.

Ps. I've bought The Secret of Monkey Island three times since. It won't do for my crimes but I have fifty more years to pay the industry back all the evil deeds I did as a teenager, copying games and all that. They never lost a sale but early on they didn't get my money either simply because it didn't exist.
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I don't disagree with most of your points. I know a lot of people that used to do it that have grown out of it, but on the other hand I know people who have grown up with it as the norm and not grown out of it at all. I know plenty of adults that won't think twice about whether or not to buy a game when it comes out, they're straight on the torrents looking for it. :(

I'm not sure that it should be any more acceptable for children to do than adults though. In the end it's still greed that drives it. Wanting more than you can afford.

A lot of people try to justify it by saying "well it's ok in XYZ circumstance" and such, but I've rarely seen an argument that doesn't boil down to wanting something for nothing. I've never said that any pirate is out to damage the industry, and I've never held on to the fantasy notion of lost sales from it. Just that greed is greed. ;)
 
orderoftheflame said:
A lot of people try to justify it by saying "well it's ok in XYZ circumstance" and such, but I've rarely seen an argument that doesn't boil down to wanting something for nothing. I've never said that any pirate is out to damage the industry, and I've never held on to the fantasy notion of lost sales from it. Just that greed is greed. ;)
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I probably wouldn't call ten year old children wanting to play games pure greed but I guess it's a form of greed, wanting to see and experience something new while you have no legal way to do it. But when adults pirate all their games, then I can completely agree, it's just wrong.

But greed is greed and gaming publishers are are in it for the money and money alone so there's no scenario here where both parties can win.

This actually reminds me of music companies trying to remove every Youtube video that happens to have their music playing in the background. Almost makes you think they DON'T want new potential customers to have a taste of the music...
 
Unfortunately the recent trend of making games and specifically leaving out parts, or creating extra parts for sale on release is going to make people want to pirate more. Take DA2 for example - by making DLC available straight away you create the idea that all they want to do is take your money, not provide entertainment and as a result it disillusions people, and allows people to justify stealing a game.

I've never stolen a game, as I do love the video game industry as an idea. Or rather, videogames specifically. And for the most part, I will speak out against piracy. But unfortunately, in a society where you see adverts everywhere, telling you that you MUST BUY THIS GAME, and that if you don't you will be missing out, etcetera, it is no wonder that those in less fortunate positions will turn to piracy - and then there are those who simply don't want to pay for it.

There cannot be an absolute definition of piracy - but it should be judged on a case-by-case basis. For example, the person who pirates a game because they can't pay for it is not the same as the person who pirates a game because they don't want to pay for it. Doesn't make it 'okay', but it's certainly different. Just as a person stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family (to use an old analogy) is different to the person stealing a loaf of bread because he just fancies bread/wants to steal/harm. Still isn't okay, but you take different measures, or should do, based on the circumstances.

And then there's this whole sweeping idea of 'sharing', sharing media, sharing lives sharing everything. And then you're told, sharing is illegal and immoral and unethical. I think there are quite a few conflicting messages out there. Which is especially going to have an effect on children, and the impressionable.
 
Phinor said:
I probably wouldn't call ten year old children wanting to play games pure greed but I guess it's a form of greed, wanting to see and experience something new while you have no legal way to do it. But when adults pirate all their games, then I can completely agree, it's just wrong.
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I sympathise with children to an extent. I was a kid once, and I hated that feeling of not being able to play the latest release that a friend had. I still think that they should be looking to just live without though. ;)

Phinor said:
But greed is greed and gaming publishers are are in it for the money and money alone so there's no scenario here where both parties can win.

This actually reminds me of music companies trying to remove every Youtube video that happens to have their music playing in the background. Almost makes you think they DON'T want new potential customers to have a taste of the music...
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I completely agree, some of the publishers out there are a massive disgrace in the way they handle things. Unfortunately piracy hits the developers that are good to their customers as well as these publishers. :( And no matter much a publisher or developer moves this way, it's still not a reason to pirate. If anything it should be an incentive to just not buy or play the game.

Gackt said:
There cannot be an absolute definition of piracy - but it should be judged on a case-by-case basis. For example, the person who pirates a game because they can't pay for it is not the same as the person who pirates a game because they don't want to pay for it. Doesn't make it 'okay', but it's certainly different. Just as a person stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving family (to use an old analogy) is different to the person stealing a loaf of bread because he just fancies bread/wants to steal/harm. Still isn't okay, but you take different measures, or should do, based on the circumstances.
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I agree also, that not every type of piracy is the same extent, but it still boils down to greed for me. With your analogy a man is stealing to feed his starving family out of desperation. If you can't afford to buy a game, you should be able to wait until you can afford it, either by saving up or by waiting for it to drop in price. :)
 
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I used to pirate stuff all the time, mainly because I didn't have the cash to buy it - so regardless it wouldn't have been a sale. These days I buy a lot of stuff because I can spare the cash AND importantly it's convenient.

A pirated game is not a lost sale, it is a sale that never was and as it never cost the manufacturer a penny to make that copy then it's not theft.
 
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