The lights are on
This morning’s story on the developers over at Greenheart Games and their unusual approach to punishing pirates got us thinking about the practice of pirating games and its prevalence, as well as the changing attitudes towards the practice. We're curious about the experiences of the Game Informer community, and their attitudes towards the practice.
Growing up in the 1980s, I can recall that many friends at the time considered it common and acceptable practice to pass around floppy disks that contained the latest Apple and PC games without a second thought. As a result, many higher-end computer games of the time had aggressive and unusual methods to maintain copy protection, such as looking up lines of text in the instruction manual, or using strange code wheels to answer a question as the game booted up. Looking back, it seems awful that such rampant piracy was so accepted among rank and file gamers. Today, the game piracy questions has remained a major issue – though floppy disks have been replaced by torrent sites and other online sharing tools.
Have you ever engaged in game piracy to get a game without paying for it? Presuming you no longer do it, what made you stop? If you still pirate games, why do you still do it? Do you feel like it’s wrong, or is it not a big deal? While we’re at it, do you include game emulation of older games in the same category as pirating modern-day games, and do you ever use emulators?
Share your thoughts in the comments below, and remember that we’re all here for a discussion, not recriminations about how different people feel or act on this issue.
Email the author Matt Miller, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Yes, twice. Once because the game is literally impossible to find (well at a reasonable price) and it is looking like it will never be released online (for sale, the day it is, I will buy it in an instant). The second time because the developer was defunct and I don't want to fund Activision for killing talented developers.
My friend once gave me a copy of Minecraft. I felt awful about it and bought it. Now I own both a copy for my Xbox and PC. I believe that those who produce work deserve to be paid for it. One day, in my wildest dreams, I want to be an author. How can I ever ask people not to pirate my book if I have pirated other things?
I miss a lot of big games and end up buying games late just because I want to wait for the price to drop. I'll never steal a game, a movie, or whatever. Point is, no one is taking your work without pay. It's wrong to hire a painter and not pay them, and why should games be any different?
Yeah I have mostly pirated games that are from several generations ago and mostly unlocalised, like some NES or SNES titles that won't make it onto the VC.
One of the things that made me stop was actually the region free gaming of the PS3 so I can import games without any drama, and the fact that alot more games are getting localized by other companies (Like Fire Emblem).
However, if some developers just start shoveling out rubbish in order to release more games (Suspecting AC will be a victim of this), I think it'll be difficult to justify spending money on the title when it won't be worth the price of admission.
I personally hate pirating. It's not only wrong, but it's illegal too. And the need to pirate old school games isn't much of an issue anymore either, with Nintendo's Virtual Console, PlayStation Classics, or Xbox Arcade. And I can't put more emphasis on just how wrong I think it is.
Ive never played a video game in my life, but if and when I DO, you better believe its gonna be pirated. all the cool kids are doin it.
I've never pirated any games. I've been lucky enough to be able to afford the real deal (which is what I'd rather have). I've played an emulator for pokemon fire red and I don't see that as pirating. They're not selling it anymore (at least I'm pretty sure they're not, and if they are I'm sure those sales are tiny), so I don't feel bad. If gamefreak brought the old pokemon games to iOS or Android I would be ALL over that (legally).
I have. However, I have stopped and it was only like 3 games. I stopped mainly because my computer kept crashing and I didn't want to wreak a expensive computer and also I started realizing that big triple a games would be just fine, but indie devs and little companies need every dollar they can get.
I used to pirate all my PS2 games cuz I was living off of $250 a month after rent. That had to buy food and other essentials. Got a used PS2 from a friend and was able to pick up blank DVDs for real cheap on the internet. I didn't know about Gamefly (if it was around then), but if I had been, I might have used that instead. I still emulate a lot though, which is technically piracy, but its the only way to play Killer Instinct. Heck, I wound up getting a dreamcast emulator and rom just to play Episode 1 Racer, since it won't work with my PC anymore.
I only pirate games from publishers/developers that I either disagree with or think don't have the players first and foremost in their minds.
I've pirated from EA, Activision, Ubisoft, that kind of thing.
My one rule is that I will never pirate an indie game.
I emulate previous gen all the time, not going to pay for a game I already bought at full price for a crappier version when I can emulate it perfectly (heres looking at you 'Bully')...as far as current gen, only the Wii, cus I hate that controller and companies I hate like EA (thx for the free Mass Effect games suckas!)
Well let's see. I pirated FF7. That was a pain and a half to accomplish. I never played the original as i never owned a playstation growing up. The few, very few, elusive copies i could find in rental stores were so badly maintained that they were rendered unplayable. There were no copies to be found for sale in stores. I couldn't find the game anywhere for legitimate means. So yeah, I pirated*** it. I don't feel bad taking a game for free that the makers won't even offer to sell to me. By the way, when the heck are they remaking that game in HD already? Admit it, the FF series is dying. Just give the fans what they want and theyll throw money at you.
I also pirated many different versions of Pokemon over the years(guilty pleasure, it was my childhood). But I own most of those outright anyways. They were just nicer to play on a larger screen and so that I didn't have to buy a 2nd system each generation just to do trades. Some of the things you have to do to obtain certain species in those games is just asinine. Emulators just make that process easier. Nintendo still gets my money.
When I support a game, and they give me the access to purchase it, i give them my money whole heartedly... Now if only I could get my money back from some of those developers who destroyed my hope in humanity. I am looking at you, Sonic and the Secret Rings developers!
I have never pirated a game because supporting the people who made the game is important to me. The amount of time, energy, and money they put into making a game should be rewarded and pirating can put developers in dire straits no matter how good the game may be.
As for emulation, I have downloaded emulators before but only for games that I currently own for older systems.
if you count emulators, yes it was black and white 2
I only pirate really old stuff that isn't in distribution any more. Is it really so bad that I downloaded the original sim city from the early nineties?
I have and will continue to pirate anything EA related.
no. i have not pirated games. i would always buy my games.
I have pirated a few app store games. I feel no guilt about most of them because they ended up not being good anyway. I pirated all the episodes of the Walking Dead game on ios, except episode one because it was free. I don't feel to much guilt about that either because I only played episode 1 and 2.