Software Piracy: How does it Hurt Gamers (Playstation Underground CD Mag Volume 2 Issue 4)

[Drummaniac17]

I pirate games that aren't sold in the USA and games that are out of print. I know it's still illegal but I don't care, it isn't as bad as torrenting a game that I can easily obtain at a store. The game is out of print, the company isn't making money anymore.

[TehGamersGarage]

Ha, pirating games aren't hurting the industry any more than gamers buying used games at GameStop and whatnot.

[Tinhh]

Socrates: "If an action is morally right for one person in a given set of circumstances, it must be right for anyone else in similar circumstances"

Programmers months to years, tirelessly making a game doing tedious manipulation of zeros and ones. I think they deserve a little compensation. Also please don't shop at gamestop. Support your local businesses by shopping at used gaming stores that are not franchises. There's always one or two small video game store run by geeks in every city.

[enfrahg]

@Tinhh Hell yeah. There was this awesome independently run game store in my area. It had stuff for every platform available, and even sold arcade machines. It even had this kick-ass mural of game characters painted around it.

Not sure if I should, but I blame gamestop for shutting it down.

[TheWolfPackGamers]

ps2 piracy isnt actually needed anymore i think most older games are really cheap these days you can find most of em for like 3 or 4$

[FriezaReturns00001]

I DL games dude nothing wrong with DL a game at all. I actaully HAD TO SELL most of my games, so I AM GLAD to find a DL copy of it on PSN, XBLA, etc. Besides if I can't find another copy anywhere I look(amazon, ebay, etc) best option for me is to DL it. Respectively of course

[SabreXT]

I disagree with your views because there are justified reasons for piracy, the problem is when people have the "cos they are free, why pay?" type attitude. One pet peeve of mine is when DRM locks me out of a game I payed for and I have to pirate in order to get it to work. Does that make me a theif?

[Sativasoldier666v2]

I support Indie game developers, however big companies like EA that DON'T really produce high quality games and have a LOT of money up their ass can suck my cock, either they can sell their games cheaper or suck my cock. besides, sharing ART should not be illegal,

[Porongotainsane]

I'm from argentina and there is no way you can afford to buy authentic games, they cost around $200-$300 hundred dollars, when the pirated ones where $5 bucks, I've moved to the US 10 years ago and ever since i have never bought another pirated copy, so if you guys think $60 is a lot, think again.I understand nowadays $60 is not cheap but you can just wait a couple of months and buy it for $20.

[greatmuta2]

I understand your take on pirates,emulator users,etc. but i don't agree on it. alot of the prices people are asking for these older games are for collectors to buy,i'm not a collector and i don't have the money to buy them,it's not an excuse.I will not spend 50 bucks on an old outdated gameboy color game i'll probably play for 15 minutes every other month.you mention these ebay people have bills to pay,well so do i.BTW this isn't meant to offend or get blocked,it's just my opinion on the matter.

[greatmuta2]

@greatmuta2 to add to my last comment i'm speaking of games that no longer relevant for companies anymore,i will not defend pirates who download games still available for sale unless like the comment below me where you have to spend 200 dollars for 1 game.Even old PC games are still sold by the company as they don't take up space in there factories,headquarters,whateve­r.Games like doom are still sold on steam by id and are only 10 bucks and easily accessible to buy.

[petergibbonsS3]

@greatmuta2 I agree with you totally. I was actually going to post a similar comment until I read this. I have not and dont plan on downloading any games but I dont see why someone cant download an older game. The devs wont get money if I buy the game on ebay and some games are outrageously priced. For example, I want to play MUSHA for genesis but a cart only copy is $60-$80 and a complete copy (which is how I want it) is $140. Makes me want to dl it...not everyone can afford that

[man5100]

Hey at least the CDs were recycled :)

[lnc0]

Can we call agree, that pirtating games with 'Constant Online' DRM is totes okay?

[JDOGFTW]

I just play sports games so I dont care I use gamefly I guess developers hate that too.

[GoldenEye0001]

I download games. Fuck da police.

[UFOria212]

@GoldenEye0001 wow, your so cool.....

[GoldenEye0001]

@UFOria212 I know.

[tgbandroid17]

My only problem with this is when the developer doesn't put underrated gems like earthbound on a download site so that I can buy it. Some games I'd be willing to get from a pawnshop, but games like Earthbound and Panzer Dragoon, which can go upwards 250-500 dollars for a used copy on Amazon or Ebay, I don't care if the developers are mad at that, I will never pay that much to play a game. I hate piracy, but sometimes developers don't even try to defend their stance against it.

[huynherexpress]

@tgbandroid17

A little offtopic, but I'm happy developers are doing HD remakes for some of their older titles... unfortunately, they don't reach down far enough, and grab the really underrated titles (just as you said). :/

[tgbandroid17]

@huynherexpress I am happy that Ico and Shadow of the colossus are getting ports, seeing as SotC is my favorite game of all time, but I just don't think that's good enough. I mean Microsoft started putting xbox originals a few years ago, and then left the job half done because I guess they had to concentrate on their Eyetoy ripoff instead of making some decent games. Half of my goddamn xbox library is useless now because they stopped making games compatible to the 360.

[pgf95]

what about making cheaper games? 60€/$ is insanity.

and what about bringing games to every country?

[teh2Dgamer]

@pgf95 We were spoiled the last two generations of gaming, but games actually used to be more expensive in previous generations than they are today. Especially when you consider the average income at the time, and inflation. Games were a lot more expensive for the Snes, Genesis, N64, and all the other cartridge-based systems.

[Xankara98]

@teh2Dgamer Well it seemed like the poster was implying that some games don't reach certain countries and the only resort is to pirate them. Yes, I have pirated games and yes, I have no excuse.

[ChuckN0rr1st]

i used to download my games. one day i had to much money and i thought like "well, how about buying a new game that u really like?"

i made it and i had about 10 times more fun and playtime than on a downloaded game and now, 2 years later i have about 150 games on my steam account

i recommend to everyone: buy your games and support the videogame industrie! if you dont want to support studios like ea then dont play their games but please dont steal indie titles like minecraft, red orchestra etc.

[OldsXCool]

Pirating current generation software is wrong. However the big game developers are making it easy to make it seem right more and more everyday as they come up with new and exciting ways to punish legit gamers. I say stop buying their shit. I have refused to buy a PS3 or 360. They can keep their 6 hour games and nickel and dime DLCs. Most of all they can all got to hell for attacking the used game market. I don't steal, I just don't buy, and in the end that hurts just as much as piracy.

[teh2Dgamer]

@OldsXCool Pirating any generation software is wrong. Piraters used to make the excuse that developers don't make money off their old games, but with stuff like XBLA, PSN, and VC, that's simple not true anymore. I however, dislike downloading games, and like having hard copies, because I don't trust hard drives (I like to still play my games 20 years later).

[MegaMacTV]

@teh2Dgamer I personally download increasingly rare titles and titles that are simply hard to find in general. Any other titles I download are usually games I have, or have played before. Although I have sworn to myself that one day, when money is readily available, I will purchase all games I have pirated. I do feel guilty lol. As for the companies, especially Sega, re-releasing their classics, it's getting rather ridiculous. XD

[S0ryiu]

@teh2Dgamer Actually there are still hundreds of games that have become abandonware with the companies who held the rights going under and the software defaulting to public domain. (the witchaven series is a prime example). add to that that there are currently no outlets for buying atari st, c64, or amiga games and I still see where roms and such are nessesary to keep a large portion of the past from being forgotten.

[teh2Dgamer]

@S0ryiu There is actually very little out there that is true abandonment. Maybe stuff from the atari generation, but most games are owned by someone. For example, acclaim went under, someone still owns Turok, 3DO went under, someone still owns Army Men, Midway went under, someone still owns MK. A company may go under, but often times their I.P.s are bought up by other developers.

[S0ryiu]

@teh2Dgamer There are hundreds of developers and IPs from the era I was talking about (1980-1993) that never had their Ips bought when they went under. As I stated: Amiga and C64 games that were exclusive are currently public domain, Commadore even hosts the roms for those games on their official website.

[MikeReiner]

@teh2Dgamer Abandonware is a strange term. To some people it means games that are owned by nobody, like some old Ataris stuff as you mention. To me? It's a game that the owner does not acknowledges the existence of and does not sell it. The Divide: Enemies Within is an old game I like, but I doubt many at Viacom even remember it. At $0.99 on Amazon I figured what the hell and bought the PS1 version (the PC version I bought in the mid 90s is broken on modern PCs sadly..)

[NBaBall3r26]

@teh2Dgamer hard drives seem to have a mind of its own

[prulcan]

@teh2Dgamer I hate pirate games too, and i download legally from PSN for my PSP. But i do have emulators in my PC like MAME SNES SMD SMS and other, because i don't have games i want and i am run out of space. In particular, the arcade boards is difficult to collect if you do not have space. But i do have original cartridges for consoles. I also have non working cartridges like Golden Axe 2 for SMD and for now i am stuck with emulator, also i have it on SMD collection for PSP and PS2.

[prulcan]

@teh2Dgamer Another thing. Pirate games is wrong and not just that. You can get always some kind a problem with pirate game like, that game probably is not complete or is glitchi and you can't finished it. I had problems with some pirate games in the past. Example is Project I.G.I. for PC that i couldn't finished it, because it was incredibly gltchi in level 10 that my PC, that game was a pirate copy. Now i have same game but is original and works with no problem. Game is hard BTW.

[TheUnbiasedGamer]

One thing though. If i buy an old game off of ebay the developer makes as much off the game as they would if i was to download it for free. In fact developers hate used games more then piracy so buying off of ebay is not quite making the developers more money to experiment.

[teh2Dgamer]

@TheUnbiasedGamer Yeah, so it may not directly help game developers out, but again, ebay sellers have bills to pay as well. Mouths to feed, and there is a possibility that your money will come back around to the developers in one way or another. Some people sell their old games to buy new games, and stores like Gamestop guarantee sales for new games, because they practically cram pre-orders down your throats.

[TheUnbiasedGamer]

@teh2Dgamer There seems to be a cruel part of me that doesn't want to feel bad about people sitting home on ebay but with the economy and all that i'm gonna have to disagree with that part of me. Developers do make more and more money from things like dlc over and over from a used title. I have definitely used pre-owned titles to purchase new releases. However you can't sell a Sega Genesis games to Gamestop towards a brand new game. Roms have also lead to the purchase of a game on ebay for me.

[teh2Dgamer]

@TheUnbiasedGamer But you can sell a Sega Genesis game on ebay and put it towards the purchase of a new game from gamestop. And the sting of used games has been soothed a little with DLC, because it gives devs the ability to make money off of used games which they wouldn't have been able to in past generations. And sometimes used games do lead to you outright buying the sequel to a game brand new. However games on clearance are the same as used, because the store won't be buying any more.

[TheUnbiasedGamer]

@teh2Dgamer Ah okay. I got ya. I normally use roms as a way to try out a game before buying it so i'm probably not thinking of all the people who don't plan on buying the game. Thanks for the thoughts man. =)

[hollywood251]

LOL I don't support piracy but damn this video is cheesy. Sony is going to make people want to pirate with this level of cheese :P

[EPICsliceOFcake]

Funny how piracy is not only easier now but un-checked. I could go to a torrent site right now and download a brand new $50 game for free. Frankly, I support pirating games from greedy ass companies like EA and Ubisoft. Though I don't actually do it myself.

[teh2Dgamer]

@EPICsliceOFcake I'm just not going to give EA my money anymore. Their policies do more to screw over those who bought their games new than those who bought them used. It's bad enough that devs are trying to rape us with DLC, but now they're trying to rape more money out of us. If you own multiple consoles, you've gotta pay $10 more dollars to play a game online? Screw EA, I'll give my money to other developers instead.

[MegaMacTV]

@teh2Dgamer Capcom is the king of screwing fans out of their money with content that should have been on their initial games to begin with. It is getting worse and worse as time goes on. =/

[teh2Dgamer]

@MegaMacTV Capcom is another company that will never get any money form me again. They are gaming's biggest whores, and they always have been releasing a million different versions of the same game. I didn't bother buying SFIV (not that I wanted a slower playing fake 2D game anyway), because I knew there would be another version. Capcom is the worst. The sixth Resident evil game ever made was RE3, and don't even get me started on Street Fighter II.

[spicyechidna94]

I can't stand piracy of any kind. Games, music, movies and anything else pirated is just unacceptable.

Unfortunately, just about everybody in my generation thinks nothing about it, brandishing expensive iPhones filled with bootleg games and music. If they can afford an iPhone, they can sure as hell afford to pay a damn dollar for a song.

[teh2Dgamer]

@spicyechidna94 I totally agree. Even though the record companies are a bitch on youtube, by the letter of the law, it is their music, and they can do whatever they want with it. It's infuriating at times, and I have been temped to post links in my vids to a free download of whatever song it was, but always decided against it in the end, because I am against piracy as well.

[spicyechidna94]

@teh2Dgamer I know what you mean. I uploaded a video of the Dreamcast version of Crazy Taxi a while back with the music turned on and as a result the video didn't have sound off-and-on for a week because The Offspring apparently hates people who listen to their music in a game they licensed it for several years ago.

I mean, I can respect that it's their music, but this is getting ridiculous, YouTube.

[tminustech]

Wow sucks for that guy.