I was a bad man.

mcwildcard

mcwildcard

mcwildcard

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2005
Posts
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Location
London
I hold my hand up, I was a dirty PS2 pirate, it was wrong and unsatisfying and I never meant for it to happen, but it did.
Thing is, I never set out to do that, I got all kitted out with a PS2 HDD and loader just so I could edit my legit copy of PES to include kits and emblems etc.
Soon enough, a game came out that I couldn’t afford at the time, and I thought ‘well I can download it now and buy a legit version on payday’.
Suffice to say, I never quite got round to it.
After a while I had about 250GB of games sat on my PS2 HDD, thing is, I don’t think I ever completed a single one of them.
When games are all ‘free’ they become disposable, you don’t appreciate them as much, they’re just throw-away things that you can give or take. The wealth of choice meant I was constantly ditching games a quarter of the way through because the next game I wanted to play was available and I jumped on them all straight away.
Eventually this actually led to a lull in my games playing, there was no satisfaction in it anymore.

Then the PS3 arrived.
I grabbed one about a year after launch, and immediately began to appreciate the value of paying for a game again.
It’s a strong motivator to play through until the end and get your money’s worth, which is a far more satisfying experience.
Without a doubt I’m enjoying my gaming more than ever these days and I can’t see myself ever slipping into old ways, gaming satisfaction aside, I’d never want to jeopardise my PSN access. I’m about 40+ games deep on PSN, about 20% of those are PS+ titles, so not technically mine, but I don’t plan on letting my PS+ sub expire, so I’ll likely get enough play time out of them all anyway.

I don’t know why I felt the need to share this, I think it’s because of all the stuff about leaked games lately, once upon a time I’d excitedly jump on things like that, but now it annoys me, as I genuinely feel like devs deserve profit for their endeavours.
At least PSN is secure for now, I’d really hate for games like Joe Danger to end up in the hands of freeloaders, it could be disastrous for a 2 staff studio if their profits were heavily dented by those who feel like they are entitled to everything for nothing.

If you feel the need to punish me for my shady previous, then feel free to come at me on KZ3. After it's released though, my LE copy should arrive around the same time as all the other paying public!
 
i was like you many years ago.

time's have changed and so have i and all my games ive got (steam) have been paid for from my wages.

it dose make you feel better about playing a game when you have purchased it.

shame i didnt feel the same all those years ago :(
 
I remember a time when I friend of a friend who was a bit of an idiot had the original xbox. He’d installed a larger HD and had the machine chipped to play bootleg games. His hard drive was crammed full of top AAA releases and he would regularly brag about his extensive collection of xbox games..

Same guy also had a Dreamcast with just about every single game ever released on CDR, I always thought you’d never be able to play all of those games and enjoy them for what they are.

He’d manage to talk me into buying an xbox and get it chipped and install a large HD to which he pretty much filled it up with loads of games…. Awesome I thought at the time. Picked it up and powered it up in my living room, fired up splinter cell I think it was and absolutely hated the controller… Halo was even worse and the machine looked like, well truly horrific under the TV. Must have spent a total of say – 2 hours on it.

Quickly got sold and went back to my PS2 with my smaller, but all purchased collection of games. My dabble in chipped /hacked consoles started with the xbox and ended abruptly with it. Horrid bit of kit that I totally loathed. I always did wonder though – did this stop me from wasting anymore money on it? Well not really I guess. The console with the chip cost more then maybe the console with the two games that were ripped if I’d purchased them…. Really was quite pointless in the end.

In a way, it sort of educated to me that quality and games purchased far outweigh anything you download, you just feel happier in way.. Can’t explain…

Enjoyed my PS2, however it really didn’t get the use it should have…. The PS3 gets some hammer, only as its also a media centre…. I’d never hack a games console again, no matter what the reasons are.
 
Totally agree with you.

I tried convincing a friend of this a while ago but failed :( when he had played something like 250 games and had a gamercore less than mine with 25 games something isn't right...
 
I used to be like that with my xbox and PS1, now the only time I mod a phone or games console is if I can get emulators or something that I need/want, like MyWi on my iPhone, couldn't live without it, probably best $20 Ive ever spent
 
iv-tecman said:
splinter cell I think it was and absolutely hated the controller… Halo was even worse and the machine looked like, well truly horrific under the TV. Must have spent a total of say – 2 hours on it.. Horrid bit of kit that I totally loathed.

In a way, it sort of educated to me that quality and games purchased far outweigh anything you download, you just feel happier in way.. Can’t explain…
Click to expand...

:confused:What??

So, you hated the controller and the hardware, and this made you appreciate paid for games?

Sounds more like something a Sony fan boy to me as it seems to have really nothing to do with the piracy, and I imagine if you too had the PS2 hard drive full of games your opinion would be different.
 
I will be honest, I got sick of buying ps3 games for full whack for them to turn out to be poor cross platform ports and even then the game wasn't worth the £40 I'd spent on a whim.

So I went out and bought myself a 360 with the sole purpose of flashing it. Got it in a Christmas sale few years ago. Took it home turned it on to check all was ok... Then flashed it that night. Had about 18-20 games and spent so little time actually playing them it was a joke. The thing ended up sitting there like a paper weight and I sold it a few months later, I've learned that to appreciate my games and actually complete them, I have to buy them. I just have to stop pre-ordering games and wait for a few of you guys to give it the ok first :p
 
I only ever pirated games when I was in school/college and couldn't afford to buy them, I could get 12 PS1 games for the price of 1 in the shop.

I know that isn't a valid excuse but my steam account has around 60 games on it now and I don't regret paying for a single one I also have about 40 games on 360 and 3 on PS3
 
AHarvey said:
:confused:What??

So, you hated the controller and the hardware, and this made you appreciate paid for games?

Sounds more like something a Sony fan boy to me as it seems to have really nothing to do with the piracy, and I imagine if you too had the PS2 hard drive full of games your opinion would be different.
Click to expand...

Hmmm yeah reading that back even to myself that does sound a bit confusing.. I think I might have meant something else and its come across a bit - well wrong. Sorry guys, wasnt' trying to spark some type of fanboy banter..!! Sorry..

xbox was a good console, just wasn't for me. When microsoft released the xbox360, the pad seemed a tad better - in fact the 360 pad is very nice indeed. I love the triggers on the 360 pad, better then the Ds3 triggers which aren't anywhere near as good.

Anyhow. my first and only time into the murky waters of chipped consoles etc was an xbox and it was my last and i'd never do it again..

OP is right, you would never complete all the games you copy anyhow.
 
I'm having exactly the same problem on PC... but because of the steam XMAS sales.

I purchased about... errr... 20 + games (:o) and am yet to complete more than 2 of them. I guess I only spent like 60 pounds though.... : /
 
I haven't attempted to modify the ps3 - I buy the games. I don't have time to play as much as I used too (mainly because BC2 is so addictive!) but I buy games when they are a few months old, I don't run out and get them on release day (although BF3 I shall!).
 
I used to chip and do xboxs for a good while back in the day but it didnt detract from my enjoyment of the games at all.

I couldn't afford to buy games, or a console at the time so I chipped mates consoles till I could. I don't feel particularly bad about it. I didn't used to pay for music etc either but now that I work and earn money I make sure that all my software, games and music that I get are legitimate.

I think this is where some industries are going wrong. If we can drop the us vs them attitude then we might realise that to have a healthy media industry you need to be able to make your media accessible to those without deep pockets.

The music business is a joke with the amount of money that labels make for essentially nothing. They make such a big deal about piracy due to their own diminishing usefulness to the industry.
 
I believe the console games are now easier to pirate than PC ones. The PC games are always full of viruses, then the cracks or keygens don't work properly. Plus I don't believe you can play online with them anyway.

Most new games enter themselves in the windows firewall so something is getting fed back to a server somewhere.

Is it worth it?

well...........Batman Arkham Asylum is posted six times on usenet and every single one has a virus. Not a false positive either, the real deal.

or.....buy it on steam for £3.50 :D

I will also agree that if you have 200 copied games most of them will never get played. I'm all for having one from each genre you enjoy and not buying another one till you have completed the last.

Piracy is so 2005
 
I really don't see the point of it now at all. Especially with games being sold for under a tenner brand new in high street shops. Think bioshock 2 was a tenner in morrisons last time i walked past.

Then theres the second hand market as well. Console games sold via forums are by far the best way to purchase them.
 
I think most gamers can admit having chipped consoles or playing non legit games at some point.

I had the reply card on the PS1 which allowed me to play copy's.....I was young at the time and I was lucky if I could get together £10 for 3 games at bowlers market so I didn't really benefit in dramatic style like some people now who can fill up HDDs full of downloaded. cracked games.

PS2 I was totally legit, enjoyed my games more, appreciated the value in games and have been this way ever since....

I started to attend LAN tournaments and playing at a very competitive level on the PC game Counter Strike Source a few years back! had my own team and did quite well.....I think doing that pushed me to hate not only piracy but cheats/hacks in games! I had to run anticheats during matches, record demos etc etc and still people hacked! Its takes away the fun out of competitive gaming....even cheats such as "all weapons" in GTA annoy me! Play the game and earn the rewards!

I just hope they keep on top of the piracy in gaming
 
Piracy doesn't cost the industry anything like as much money as they claim but it makes for good headlines and scare tactics.

If someone owns 200 pirated games, they won't be playing 200 games, they wouldnt have bought more than 10% of those anyway and they may not bother at all if they are charged £40 for a game that lasts 15 hours.

We shouldnt pirate games etc but the effect on the industry pales in comparison to the damage done by all the middle men that are involved in the production and release of media. Relics of a past where the internet was not there to connect people and their media without the need for physical disks and distribution networks. Any kid can make music and get it out there from the comfort of his bedroom now.
 
I used to buy pirated games for my PS1. And I got a few for my pc ages ago.
I haven't got hold of any pirated games for years. I don't see the point now really. I can trade in a game and get a new game for around £20.
 
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