Why I Think It Is GOOD To Pirate Commercial Games

[g2d1]

   
     

manipulated by greedy sleazebags

Do you realize that, you have just summed up

1.  Lawyers
2.  Politicians
3.  Car and Insurance Salesmen
4.  Ex-grilfriends
5.  Plastic Surgeons
6.  IRS
7.  Some family members


and on and on..........................

[Ratcatcher]

manipulated by greedy sleazebags

Do you realize that, you have just summed up
1.  Lawyers
2.  Politicians
3.  Car and Insurance Salesmen
4.  Ex-grilfriends
5.  Plastic Surgeons
6.  IRS
7.  Some family members
and on and on..........................

Maybe that's one of the reasons why the world is so deep in shit?

[Tessera]

Do you realize that, you have just summed up

1.  Lawyers
2.  Politicians
3.  Car and Insurance Salesmen
4.  Ex-grilfriends
5.  Plastic Surgeons
6.  IRS
7.  Some family members

and on and on..........................

Yes I do. And I hate all of them, too.

Are you trying to excuse greed and dishonesty, by reminding us that it's commonplace..?

If everyone is into torture and murder, would that make torture and murder acceptable..?

If the majority of people thought that the world was flat, would that make it come true..?

Surely, you are smarter than this. Because using the "lots of other people do it too" ploy should be beneath any intelligent person.

I don't care if a hundred billion people do it. It's still rotten, it's still wrong and it still needs to be discouraged and punished. Unless you relish a return to imperialism and the complete loss of human dignity and freedom, which is usually what happens when people start making excuses for greed and exploitation. In which case, I can turn you on to a cool place where they sell swastika armbands, if you're interested.

[g2d1]

I have no love for any of them, I was only stating the fact that you summed them up in one sentence. 

1.  If it were up to me I would start with the IRS.  They keep our money intrest free all year and then levy taxes on goods that have been already taxed, like our homes.

2.  Car Salesmen are next.  They are the worst kind of human.  They will sell you a car even when they know you are about to get banged without lube.

3.  Lawyers, I'm not even sure that they are human. 

I wonder if we were allowed to pay them with glitchy money?  One that disappears or suddenly bursts into flames?  Or that our money was only good for a day and then randomly vanish.  Or perhaps force them to accept money from an escrow account that would only release payment upon satisfactory performance?

[Tessera]

Agreed. But being that this is primarily a game-oriented web site for adults,
I'm focusing my attention right now on the gaming industry, and the ways
that common folks like you and me can punish them for behaving like
greedy and manipulative pricks.

Piracy fits the bill perfectly. And it's easy to do.

I wanna repeat something that I've said in other places on this board...

There was a time, not too long ago in fact, when I was strongly opposed to
software piracy. In fact, I used to ban people who advocated piracy from this
board, on the grounds that they were encouraging others to break the law.

But that was then and this is now... and many things have changed. I no longer
feel that the gaming industry deserves to be supported and defended against
piracy, because the industry has NOT shown good faith by holding up their end.
They have done the opposite -- they have exploited their customers, they have
undermined and destroyed creative gaming studios left and right, they have done
all that they can do to absorb smaller competitors and become bloated, callous and
dictatorial monopolies and on the whole, the industry has behaved like greedy pigs.

Greedy pigs don't deserve our support. They deserve to be turned into bacon.

[perez007usa]

3.  Lawyers, I'm not even sure that they are human. 

I wonder if we were allowed to pay them with glitchy money?  One that disappears or suddenly bursts into flames?  Or that our money was only good for a day and then randomly vanish.  Or perhaps force them to accept money from an escrow account that would only release payment upon satisfactory performance?

Do what Shakespeare said. "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"  Hamlet, Henry The VI.

[Ratcatcher]

They deserve to be turned into bacon.

Hmmm... bacon!

Or would that make me have to take a ride on Tessera's Volcano ride?

[Tessera]

Only if you turn into a fatty. Fatties get the ride into the volcano.

[Ratcatcher]

But, but, but... there are so many greedy pigs to turn into bacon!

[Tessera]

Then we can start with this revolting pile of worthless shit:




Somebody needs to chain this balding Jewboy bastard to the back of a pickup truck and then drag his ass for a few miles.

[exx]

Nah.  The main gist of my argument is that if a company is offering to sell me a shitty product, I say "fuck off" and don't buy it, and tell all the people I know not to buy it either.  Why would I want to play a game if it's shitty to begin with, regardless of whether or not it's pirated?  I'd rather deprive the company of my hard-earned money by not buying the game, and save myself from being aggravated by not playing the shitty game.

The funniest part about your pirating argument is that you complain about all of the shortcomings of new games in one breath, and then mention how you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games.  Does not compute.

Fighting back in an ACTIVE way "does not compute..?" And people who -do- choose to
actively fight back seem funny to you..? Well isn't that interesting...

Seeing people who behave in a non-selfish and pro-active manner amuses you..?

You have just told me a lot about yourself. You don't mind if greedy corporations behave
like thieves... just so long as it does not happen to you. Is that it..? You seem to be saying
"Why fight back, when you can just passively sit on your ass and do nothing to help others."

Is that right..? Is that your simple philosophy regarding how to deal with corporate greed,
forced consumerism and the ongoing exploitation of the common man and woman..?

Sounds very sheeple-ish to me. Baaa.... baaaaa.

...you go so far as to break the law and risk potential jail time to play said "crappy" games.  Does not compute.

Go read the law. It is not a crime to download things from the internet. It -is- a crime to -offer- things for download on the internet, if you are in violation of someone else's copyright. Therefore, if the software industry seeks to prosecute, then they would have to track down and identify every single person who is seeding a particular file via torrents. Do you have any idea how much of a hassle that would be..? Torrents are files which originate in multiple locations around the world... all at the same time. No single person is uploading the entire file... there could be as many as HUNDREDS or even THOUSANDS of people involved, each of whom is only uploading a small chunk of the much larger total file. Thus it is impossible to prosecute any single seeder (uploader), without prosecuting ALL of them equally. And good luck with that, especially when you consider that a percentage of seeders live in countries where such laws do not even apply (Sweden being a prime example).

Again: it is not illegal to download files being offered by others on the internet. So just forget that entire line of reasoning, because it does not apply to this situation. Furthermore, this type of case falls within the sphere of a civil lawsuit... not a criminal prosecution. The plaintiff could seek damages, or seek to have a specific fine imposed upon the defendant. But actually putting someone in jail because of a software download is absolutely ludicrous.

I should also mention that theoretically speaking, every single person who has ever offered a gaming mod on the web is -technically- in violation of copyright law. But have you ever heard of a gaming publisher who sued a modder, due to copyright infringement..? Because I haven't... and I've been involved with modding for the better part of a decade.

One more bit of legalistic trivia: so-called "EULA agreements" are not legally enforceable upon the end user. They are only enforceable upon the publisher. EULA agreements mainly exist as a way for publishers to avoid any potential lawsuits being filed AGAINST them, by end users. By clicking on those "I Agree" buttons, you are actually agreeing not to sue the publisher, if the product turns out to be low quality, or unfit for the purpose intended. That's how they cover their own asses... and that's another reason to fight back against them in other ways, since they have already preempted any possibility of doing so through the legal system. There's a little-known fact for ya's to digest.  

[Tessera]

Why would I want to play a game if it's shitty to begin with, regardless of whether or not it's pirated?

Easy answer: because it is a much more militant and effective way of punishing the industry and calling attention to their greed.

In this era of global markets, simple boycotts are no longer as effective as they once were. If you don't buy it, then they'll just peddle it to a bunch of undiscerning dinks in Korea... and make their money that way. Piracy is a much more effective way to punish unethical game publishers, because piracy is -also- global and it puts a serious and very costly dent into their profits worldwide.

And it also helps We The People to feel a bit more empowered, in this era of corporate dominance. That's important, too. People need to stop cowering in the face of corporate capitalists and actively fight back against them. Piracy is not only a financial strike against the industry... it is a very powerful psychological strike, too.

[Tessera]

To add to the above post...

In my opinion, piracy also represents paying these amoral publishers exactly what their new games are worth: nothing.

These days, the market has been monopolized by huge publishers like Electronic Arts and ActiVision. And they have flooded that market with a plethora of dumbed-down, unsophisticated, eye-candy-only titles which are generally not worthy of more than one or two plays. And to make matters worse, they also tend to release BROKEN products, which more often than not require three or four post-release patches, before they function properly. Essentially, the industry is charging us money for the "privilege" of being their beta testers... a situation which I consider to be intolerable.

So let's see... what is a broken and unsophisticated product worth to me..? The answer is: nothing. I may still wanna play it once or twice, but it is definitely not good enough to warrant an expenditure of $50 or more. And not only that, but as I said in my previous posts, I want to PUNISH the industry for routinely monopolizing the gaming market with this kind of exploitative garbage. Well, software piracy covers both bases. It punishes the industry far more than a simple boycott would -- and at the same time, it also represents what I consider to be a fair price for broken merchandise: no price at all.

No one deserves to make a profit from selling mediocre and broken products. And if we lived in an age where economic boycotts had an appreciable effect upon those industries, then I would be content to deal with it that way. But we don't... we live within an inequitable and UNREGULATED global market, where industries are free to peddle their shitty wares to all parts of the globe at once. If people are boycotting your products over here, then they'll just jack up their promotion and sales over there... and make up for it that way.

Piracy is the best way to piss these bastards off and hopefully, give them an extra incentive to change the ways that they do business. And if they don't change..? So what..? At least we didn't pay them a single penny for their mediocre garbage. If the industry is determined that the ONLY stuff that they are going to peddle is garbage, then sure... I'll take your garbage. It's better than nothing. But I'll be damned if I'll pay you single a penny for it.

Produce something of value, and then I'll happily pay for it. And I'll encourage others to do the same (and I have). But keep producing min-maxxed, dumbed-down, broken and unsophisticated crappola, aimed at the lowest common denominator, well then I'll just keep encouraging everyone to pirate your garbage... until you finally blow a blood vessel in your ineffective attempts to stop us.

[Ratcatcher]

Theres also the fact that many people are hypocrites when it comes to piracy.

"Piracy is bad, blah, blah, blah".
But they sure as heck don't mind playing it if they have access to it.

"Piracy is bad, blah, blah, blah", part 2.
Then they turn around and ask you to find them something rare and obscure.

[LordRikerQ]

I use to really be against pirating myself, but I am disgusted greatly not only in the way most every company releases garbage Console ports, but how they treat all players like criminals. I dont want to lease or rent software, I want to buy it. I dont want anyone telling me the game I paid 49$ for isnt mine for however long I live and im limited in activations and DRM that makes the game run like crap.  The worse thing is, now big companies have the nerve to jump on the Activision bandwagon and sell PC Games for 69$ which is just plain greed.  The reason it costs more on consoles is Licensing fees to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, PCs dont have licensing fees, so its just plain greed.

[Tessera]

I use to really be against pirating myself

So was I. In fact, I used to forbid our members from talking about it on this board.

But I eventually changed my mind... and for all of the reasons which you have mentioned.
My attitude has pulled a 180-degree turn over the past few years.... the the point where
I am now completely in favor of piracy, as an ideal way of punishing a greedy industry.

[Tessera]

Copied over from the members-only area of this board...

I would like nothing more than the gaming industry to fail and implode. So that a fresh group of gamers can start the industry from scratch.

Then stop buying new games -- and force them to go broke. That is the ONLY answer to this dilemma.

So if you see a new game that you really, really want... then wait for it to show up on The Pirate Bay. And then you can get it for free.

Incidentally, it isn't the developers who are the problem... it's the publishers, who undermine their efforts. It is the publishers who need to go broke and disappear.

Will this hurt the developers, too..? Yes, it will... for now. But only because their industry is dominated by nasty publishers. Once the publishers are gone, then the developers will simply be forced to come up with a new outlet for their creative efforts. That's how the gaming industry got started in the first place -- so if it happened that way once, then it can happen that way again. In the long run, we'll all be better off for it. And that includes the devs.

In the meantime, I'll just keep doing what I do: adding more entertainment value to existing games, regardless of how old or new they might be. I don't care how old a game is... I just care about how good it is.

Newer isn't always better -- I've said that many times around here. And in this day and age of ultimate cheapness and corporate greed, newer is usually ten times shittier. Look at this topic, for example. We're talking about the original, classic EverQuest. Now I challenge all of you to find me a single MMO released within the past five years which is even one-tenth as deep, as engrossing, as complex and as re-playable as the original EverQuest was. In my opinion, every single MMO to have been released during the past five or six years (WoW included) has been absolute garbage... without a single exception.

Your own opinions may differ, and that's fine. I've just given you mine.

[BloodyKidney]

Greedy pigs don't deserve our support. They deserve to be turned into bacon.

When there is corporate greed involved pirating should be done just to piss the greedy pigs off.


Pirating was never a big deal to me because I lived with the saying in my head "that information should be free". I would do it all the time and not call it pirating. I'd just take a cd game from a friend and copy it(when cd burners became afordable) for my own use but that was a different time. Now when it comes to pirating games today in this day of internet its this huge deal because you can download all types of digital media and some greedy fuck wants a cut. Me personally dont see much to pirate anyway because theres a lot of recycled shit with super graphics that I have already saw in some format or other.

there is no absolute rulebook about what is moral and what is amoral

Oh yes there is: your own. You decide. It is up to each of us to decide for ourselves
what is or is not "moral," and then act accordingly.

For example, some people think that sex and nudity are "immoral," where as I do not.

In my philosophy, greed at the expense of others is evil. Hence my stand on this issue.

The laws of the land are written by the people who have the most power... not necessarily
by the people who possess the best "moral compass" amongst us. Many (if not most) laws
are designed to keep the rich wealthy and the rest of us in our place. So then, is it moral to
consistently obey such laws... no matter what..? Even if it hurts us and makes others rich..?

WoW I really like the level of discussion here. I feel like starting a revolution.