When is it okay to pirate a game? (giveaway inside)

How about forced and annoying DRMs? You could purchase a legal copy to support the devs nevertheless (I'm not sure about the legal point of view in this case).

never! :3

I'd say when it's impossible to get the game. Though I wouldn't be bothered in figuring out how and from where to get them then. I'm just not into such stuff. There are a few games I'd love to play and are nowhere to be found. Only thing I am willing to do is trying to get the game alive somewhere again. Wether it be GOG or Steam or directly to the source to make their stuff available. These days, eventually a lot of things resurface.

The only clear cut YES: If one paid for the game but can't run the purchased binaries (e.g. due to DRM bugs).

I'm undecided about the case where the game is not available for purchase (e.g. NOLF). I can see valid reasons for and against doing this.

The only time in recent years that I've ever pirated a game was because it was not available in my country, and I simply couldn't be bothered to start looking for people who will buy it and gift it to me (Wasn't even sure that was gonna work).

Other reasons I'd say it's ok by me is when a game is no longer available by legal means or when a good game that you actually want is plagued with game-ruining bullshit like denuvo or any type of malfunctioning always-online DRM that supposedly prevents cracking the game, or maybe the game has half of the content locked behind a paywall of microtransactions in which case you can get a cracked full version with everything unlocked. It's a way of showing the devs that you're not going to support this kind of practice, while also getting to enjoy their product. Double the "fuck you".

That being said - Gaming can be a pretty expensive hobby. If you have no way of keeping it up legally (i.e. if you're a kid with no income and parents who aren't willing to pay for games), pirate away. Just remember that what you're doing is wrong, and support the devs when you can and as much as you can.

Never. Why should games be seen differently? If a product is too expensive or not worth its money, the right thing to do is not to use it at all.
It doesn't bother me, people can do whatever they want, its just that there are no good excuses.
I've done so in a past, especially as a kid, most people did, yet we shouldnt pretend there was a real reason to do so.

Game was developed by a group of devs that split and is now a different/new/nonexistent company - I buy the game to support the devs, not the publisher.
Game was developed for an old system (PSx, SNES etc), so I emulate them. Too much hassle to get most old systems and the disks/ROMs/whatever.
Game not available anymore at all or is only available on a certain store only - for example Uplay or Origin.
Game that has Denuvo or some other retarded DRM
If I want to play a game but can't afford it/I'm not sure if i'll like it/has no demo I'll pirate and play it, then if I enjoyed it or the time comes when I can afford it, I'll buy it.

Normally I would have said never, but then I'd be the hypocrite since I've done it myself in the past, but ONLY for a couple of games that I couldn't get in my country.

Also, on the subject, if I were to buy games on GoG with no DRM and allow my friend to use my GoG account to download them without paying GoG for them himself, would that be considered piracy?

For me the only justification to use a illegal modification for / of the game is when I already own it, but can't run it for technical reasons or would rather play it without the permanent spinning sound of the CD drive in the background. That being said, this is referring to games that are all 15+ years old.
If the game is any good, it is usually available on gog.com anyway, so I don't have to fall back to these cracks.

Games are luxury items.
If you can't afford a game play or do something else.

Nowadays I pirate games for these reasons:

• To try and see if my computer can handle it. Systemrequirementslab is fine most of the times but there are cases when it's just wrong, and unfortunately most games don't have demo.
• If the game is unavailable in my region. Fuck you too Square Enix for making Final Fantasy games below 7 unavailable in SEA region :l, I can't even get them on Humble.
• Very old games that I can't get in the mortal realm anymore.
• If the dev is someone I don't want to support no matter what, or shady things happened with the game's ownership; for example there are some games where the dev was cheated and lost the right to their own game and I won't support that.

With games too expensive for me to buy, which in most cases are also games I can't play anyway, I just watch some Let's Plays on Youtube. I can still indirectly enjoy the game that way. That said I haven't pirated a game in a long time. I have a lot of good games I bought legally that I haven't even touched yet.

About what other people do I personally do judge people who are perfectly capable of paying for a game but just because they don't want to, especially for indie games. I won't confront people or something like that though, just not what I do.

Honestly? Never. But you can justify people that pirate games to demo them. You can also justify people that pirate games because they're shit and don't deserve their price. This doesn't mean it's good to do that, but I wouldn't judge these people.

It's simple really - if you can't pay for the game, pirate it if you want to play it. It doesn't matter if you don't have the money to spend or if the game is just not for sale in your region, or even if the DRM is so aggressive it won't let you play it if you pay for it - whatever the reason, you're okay to pirate it.

Why? Well because if you can't pay for it, they're still not losing a sale - but if they made a good game they gain a potential future customer and someone who will recommend their games to others, maybe write about it online, and so on... So if you can't pay for a game and pirate it instead, the developer still stands to gain from it as long as they made a good enough game to deserve it.

I've had bad times when I haven't been able to afford to pay for any games, and I've had good times when I could buy lots of them, and many games I have bought are games that was just so awesome I had to save up the money to buy them just so I could support the developers and have a safer version of the game - I've spent hundreds of dollars I would not have spent otherwise on games that vowed me when I tried them out for free.

So pirate if you want to, if you need to, if you care to. If you can, when you can, spend money on the games that are worth it, support the developers, and more importantly the industry!

When the developers are assholes lying cunts, like Sean Murray is. Then it would be ok to me.

I think it's okay if you have a letter of marque.

Denuvo, Publishers that can't learn Regional Pricing and GDP and Denuvo.

-When it's an ubisoft game
-When it's an Activision game
-Game unavailable on the region
-Game no longer accessible

While I don't think it's ethical to pirate a game, there are circumstances under which ethical rules can be relaxed and it becomes "OK".

As a previous person said, if you can't afford it anyway...an argument for profit loss via theft wouldn't be very persuasive to me. It's still theft, but there wasn't capital investment in a physical product like on a store shelf. It's a digital copy, so while the person stealing is getting a product, there wasn't a potential for it being paid for. And certainly not potentially analogous to stealing clothes from Walmart.

Additionally, if a game is simply unavailable... then go ahead. The same idea as above. If it's not being offered for sale anyway, no one's losing money on what might still be theft if the game is still protected.

I guess what I've outlined is a standard based on realistic loss of profit. If there isn't realistic loss of profit, then I am not opposed to people pirating games. It's a victimless crime under those circumstances, and I'm also not opposed to smoking dope or a consenting adult selling sex, provided there isn't compulsion from third parties, or many other illegal acts which have no victim.

Regarding the people who argue that it is OK to pirate the game when you can't afford to buy it:
If you can't afford to buy it, you certainly can't afford getting cought stealing intellectual property.

People shouldnt pirate games that can buy , there are a lot more disadvantages rather than advantages if you pirate a game like a company uoi like that makes games can close due to sales, companies could invest less in the fear of piracy, heave DRM that never really prevent piracy but only punishing legit users
For really old games tho that are not on sale anymore and you have to travel the world to find them then i am ok with that , i mean emulator for really old consoles from gameboy till maybe ps1, but i am against emulating newer consoles when you dont own them

I think it's OK if it's Abandonware, but otherwise, not something I, myself would do.

It's kinda like how if you want to play a NES game, you just use a ROM and Emulator. In that example, I think it's ok to pirate those games

When there is no achievements on Steam.

Anything made by stEAl

Where is the always choice lol.