Pirating Games, does the community grants it to be normal? [EDITED]

I remember when Hotline Miami 2 was banned in Australia and the developers just stated quite frankly to pirate to your heart's content because of that - http://au.ign.com/articles/2015/01/20/devolver-on-hotline-miami-2-devs-message-to-australian-fan-to-pirate-banned-game

In this instance, I reckon it's perfectly fine to pirate as the game can't be sold in that region, so they'd get no sales anyway regardless of people pirating or not.

But outside the realm of banned games, it becomes more of a grey matter. It's not theft because you're not taking away other people's ability to enjoy the game (theft is a criminal activity, while copyright infringement is a civil matter). It all comes down to the intent of the gamer.

The problem is how do you determine people's intentions - are they going to pirate, then buy the game because they enjoyed it? If so, then there's no real issue there as the publisher & developer got the money from that sale in the end, with the pirate copy acting as a "trial" mode. Is the person going to pirate and leave it at that? Then it comes down to if they would have or not even played the game had there been no pirated copy. If the former, then whether or not they pirated, they wouldn't have contributed to the sale of the game anyway (it's not right, mind you, but the excuse that companies use of losing a potential sale does not exist here). If the latter, then they're doing the wrong thing by infringing on copyright.

But piracy is more complicated than that. There has to be a look at the availability of a product and the pricing, which I see as the main cause for piracy. This is particularly an issue in regions outside the US, where prices can be exorbitant, or content is not available until a much later date. Why is it that China has a huge number of pirated copies of Windows, or that Australia is often seen as the number one pirating country of Game of Thrones? Both of these issues are likely to come down to pricing (many Chinese not being able to afford genuine Windows, while Australians have to be locked into a 2 year cable contract with a bunch of channels they don't want, just to watch one show). This is where companies should instead of trying to crack down on piracy (ie. the symptom), actually try and solve the cause of it (why does it occur in the first place).

As for VPNs accessing regional exclusive content? That isn't piracy and companies should not try and make it seem like it is - customers who use VPNs to access said content in nearly are in nearly all circumstances, paying customers.

I used to pirate games before, first because I had no money, and second because I saw everybody else doing the same. Then I met my boyfriend who were ready to gift me every single game to make me stop pirating. Plus, I discovered some great indie games and it made me think a bit. I really wanted to support them and pirating was not the best way. Now I have a growing library on Steam and not a single pirated game on my PC anymore :)

I don't think a Steam account ban is the good answer. People just need to understand that there's no excuse for that. It took me a while but now, I'm feeling kinda proud of my Steam library :p And as doctorofjournalism said, if you really like a game, you should at least show some support to the developers. And pirating because you want to "punish" the gaming industry is really really ridiculous imo.

and sorry for my bad english

once upon a time i downloaded a pirated version of portal 2 and left 4 dead, some months after i created a steam account and bought valve complete pack retail price...
0 regrets

I consider myself legal for 2 years now, but I was pirating my whole life and don't feel ashamed for that.

Parents never gave me money for games, so I pirated.
I did not have any income, so I pirated.
Game prices are ridiculous in eastern europe, so I pirated.

Pirating helped me to become gamer and try all these different games.
Now I can spend some money on games, so I do. Also I want all these achievements and trading cards, because you can't enjoy these little things on pirated versions. I almost never pirate these days, but pirating made me a consumer. This is very important to understand.

You can't control pirating by laws, restrictions and bans. Internet is always faster to find new ways.

P.S Very rarely I try pirated version of games with day one dlc, pre-purchase bonuses and all that greedy stuff they do.

I've pirated a lot in the past but now I buy every single game, I don't really approve piracy and more DRM on games is not needed. Let them play their pirated copies one day they might stop.

The only thing that really grinds my gears is people saying " I don't like how the company acted I'm going to pirate it, this will show them" gezzus you hypocrite if you want to protest some game studio decision don't play the game -.-

Wait... let me make sure I understand one of the suggestions... banning the steam/uplay account for pirating.... meaning if they did pay for something, they lose it. Isn't having a problem like that going to cause more piracy? Just so it can't be taken away?

I have purchesed every game I've pirated, which aren't many. Well, not every, but GTA V I haven't even started yet, and I'm actually only interested in seeing how well it runs on my computer. It may be a shit reason, but I'm not going to spend £60 on maybe being able to play a game without problems.

"Steam account ban, let the developers implent files in their game which should detect if someone is pirating and let the devs automaticly contact steam about that."
Isn't that illegal? It must be becouse it sounds like invading your privacy.

k thanks to this thread I'm gonna pirate one damn games now.

Oh right, I'll go and torrent This War of Mine.

I once had a pirated copy of Bastion and I was blown away by it so I bought it and I haven't pirated another game since.

Some people have morals and some don't. It's as simple as that.

The only way to stop piracy is by changing the mindset of those who choose to play pirated games. Stealing is wrong, and therefore nothing can justify piracy.

Get some hidden virus in all games that detects if the game is pirated or not. If pirated the virus then infects the entire pc and corrupts all the harware.

I pirated a couple of games over the years but not many as I neither had a decent enough computer to play them or a good enough connection to download them. By the time those issues had been remedied Id discovered steam and bundles. Games get cheap enough now that I don't even concern myself with the requirements. The few games that my laptop have struggled with give me something to look forward too when I build my desktop

While there's certainly a lot of justifications for piracy- freedom of information (especially in countries that censor games (eg, Germany, China)), access to games no longer available [Eg, games that were pulled due to publisher conflicts/expiration of contracts and can no longer be bought], demoing games that don't offer demos (because really, if you're charging $60 for a game, you should offer a demo), accessing foreign language versions of movies/music/games you can't access easily normally, finding obscure games, etc.

The thing is, you don't have any justifiable right to new, purchasable, a-list games. There are plenty enough games out there you can download free or buy cheap, or 'justifiably' pirate, that downloading such a game, that's just your selfishness of wanting to have the best, shiniest, newest thing. And that's really hard to justify- ESPECIALLY given how many games you can get these days for cheap in bundles [or free on sites like this in giveaways!].

You no longer 'HAVE' to pirate to get access to entertainment.

Music, movies are available for free online. Games are available for pennies, and often for free, especially if they're older.

Are there still circumstances were piracy is justified? Hell yeah, I pointed some of them out at the start.

But are you ever justified, pirating those newly released A-list games (for reasons other than demoing ones without demos)?

Chances are, probably not.

Most of the choices in the poll are terrible lol. Yes pirating is bad. Have I've done it? Yes, for years when I was a kid with no money (not that I have a lot now lol :D) . But I can proudly say I've not pirated a game in at least 4 years and I don't plan on ever starting again. Yes there are games I want to play and I don't have, but I would never pirate them.

Now why I think the poll choices were terrible. Ban for pirating a game? Report to the government (I hope that was a joke :D) ? Those are ridiculous, first of all how will you know if it's a pirated or a DRM free game with a mod and not a crack ? It's stupid.
Putting ads in pirated copies is unrealistic, because that would mean they would have to leak their own game with ads implemented (aka another version of the game) and no one would play that, because crackers would just upload the normal game on piratebay in a day. And as i said, you can't really detect if a game was pirated or not, unless you put a sh*t ton of DRM on it and have Steam scan your whole PC for games with that DRM disabled. Let me tell you... that will turn into a PR disaster for both Valve and the Developer/Publisher. The best way to make people want to buy your game is to make a great game that works. And DRM free helps.

There will always be pirates for games, just as there are for music and movies. Banning people on Steam/uPlay/other platforms is not the way to convert them to paying customers. What converted me was youtubers and streamers playing a game I really liked ( Arma 2's DayZ mod ). I liked it so much back then that i bought Arma 2 Complete for full price :D (right before the summer sale... aah i was young and didn't know what Steam Sales were XD ). Great prices and fun games made me into a buying customer, not DRM and bans!

I have no reason to pirate games. Although I do not condemn those that do.

I'm bored, I'll give my take on this issue XD

I Pirate software and games to try them out, or when they are otherwise unobtainable by other means.

The reason I pirate to try, obviously, is to figure out if I actually want to dump between $20-60 on a title that I've no clue if I will like or even be able to run on my computer. Especially when I am trying it to make sure it works on my system, I have no moral issues with pirating, although with Steam's new refund policy, I can feel safe about buying a game without being sure if it'll work, as I can now return it if it doesn't work, and even if I don't like it, I can return it. So Thankfully this reason really doesn't apply anymore and I can purchase games with confidence that I won't be out alot of money.

Pirating games I cannot otherwise (reasonably) obtain is still something I will keep at. Sure, Import it for the games only available in other countries, but the extra fees ontop of that is not feasible at this time. If games get an official English version made (Ys games, Clannad, etc..) then I will buy them the moment I can afford them on steam or whatever market they are on. Other games (obscure VN's namely) I doubt I will ever be buying unless I happen to be in the country they were made in and I find it somewhere. Then their are ooooolllldddd games that will never see any kind of re-release, and the used market selling them for hundreds or thousands of $$$? ha, hahahahah, no.

Software. Ok this one is iffy, as many major software give trial versions for a month or so. Here when I pirate software, it's only those that have no free trial or have a trial that locks away any portion of the software. I will, in exceedingly rare cases, pirate software that I cannot even dream to afford at the time, but need for various reasons. For these, I keep to my word of honour that I will purchase the software if I used it for longer than what would be considered a normal trial (31 days), even if I don't use it anymore.

These are just my personal takes on piracy and how I do with it. I recognize that many aren't this way and just outright say "the internet is all free, if something is put on it, I am entitled" BS. I believe that creators are entitled to pay for their work if consumers legitimately make full use of it (being use beyond trying it out and seeing if it's worth their cash). Development and content creation of any kind is legitimate work, and thus, should the creator wish, they are entitled to compensation for this work.

And there's my 3 cents, I am not gunna bother reading through what I wrote, and probably won't read any replies XD Have fun y'all!

Have been pirating all the games inb4 (that made me a gamer, for sure), but stopped recently for several reasons:

• sometimes impossible to do multiplayer in pirated versions (servers, duh)
• have some funds to actually buy games at times
• think it's a fair obligatory thing to support developers by paying them (O RLY?!)

One thing: haven't it been pointed out recently (for movie and music industry) that allowing pirating actually increases sales of legal copies?

Pirating is what made video games so popular nowadays....

When I started to play on PC I almost had any game that werent copied, it was the way games became popular. There was almost no marketing no advert, no internet community, we were alone with our friend in a deep pool filled with shitty games and it was normal to copies games to test them and play them...

Even after with the era of the first playstation, piracy introduced gaming to a whole new public because there were a lot of shitty games,

When you are a consumer, and you have a lot of choice, you can't know what are the good games and the worst. With piracy you can know, and you are not disapointed. financialy when you've made a bad choice...

So yes creator must be rewarded for their good job, but if they sell bullshit I have no remorse to pirate these stuff... Because anyway you can't buy everything.

Pirating is bad. But what if you live in germany or other opressive country and you cant buy normal version of the game? Its not your fault. Government banned\forced devs to censore some games and game devs let them do it - its only their fault they won't have money from it. Just my opinion :)

It's a personal matter, if one wants to pirate i don't care. Why some people care so much about what others do? Do i think piracy is bad? No. If someone likes the game and can afford it he will buy it. Look at the witcher 3 sales, the game has no DRM, you can just download it and play, but it was on top sellers on steam for many weeks.
I personally love to buy games after i started to use steam.

To err is human. To arr is pirate.

a lot of the people who pirate games, would have never bought the game itself to begin with, so its not like its costing them money. but i know there are people who would pirate the game, play it and enjoy it, then buy it..... because I am guilty of that.

Poll results speak on their own.

Although i have never pirated any game as i want to have its updates the second they are released, i am not against it.

If you cannot afford the games (which is the situation in the 2/3 of the countries around the world), you have every right to search for alternatives.

Honestly...I pirate games when I want to try the out, and see if they would be worth my money (who wants to buy something they don't like?!)
I usually buy the games I like on first occasion. I have a list of pirated games which I HAVE to buy because I love them and I want to have them.

Piracy has it's ups and downs, but still....it's a good way to test something :) An example....I don't remember the name of the game, but it was a shooter, post-apocalyptic, etc. In order to play the pirated version, you had to CHANGE THE YEAR of the PC. Which I kinda find amusing :P

An example of ups for piracy: you love strategy games, you're a big fan of the Age of Empire series. You buy AoE 3 and it has some features you don't enjoy, which take your pleasure from the game. Changed gameplay and mechanics, etc. In the end you are disappointed in your purchase...Pirating it in the first place, would've saved you some money to spend in another way.

I can't remember when I last pirated something....always went through my Steam and Origin library to find something to play (also waiting to install some games on my bro's laptop XD )