Gamer Syndrome: When is it Okay to Pirate a Game?

The video below may interest you none the less. It talks about games that we will never see in America, the struggle of the guys at Starmen.net and a quick message about another type of video game piracy. Enjoy!

[jidery]

When the game has no Demo.

[D4RkNIKON]

Or when the Developers attach an unreasonable DRM to the game. Socom Fire Team Bravo 3 for PSP will not allow for pirates or used copies of the game to play online. You will have to register your NEW copy in order to access the servers, meaning if you have 2 or 3 PSPs in your home the game would only work on 1. You couldn't let a friend borrow it or anything. In this case I just hope for pirates to find a way around it and send a big F U to the DRM.

[Anon1974]

You realize that DRM's are just a response from people who are fed up with low-life's STEALING THEIR HARD WORK.
How is stealing people's work more going to combat the problem?

"I stole this game rather than buying to protest the efforts company's are forced to go through to stop me from stealing their games."

Yeah, you really taught them a lesson there, cerebro. Surely that'll stop companies from using draconian DRM practices.

[Charmers]

darkride66 if you think DRM would disappear if piracy disappeared then you are deluding yourself. The clue is in the name "Digital Rights Management" in other words publisher want to be able to control what rights you have for products you pay for.

People are under the misconception that piracy is driving the inclusion of more excessive DRM. That isn't the case the publishers want to have strict controls over how everyone uses their product that is what's driving DRM. They just use the piracy argument as a good "excuse".

If piracy vanished tomorrow I would bet a million bucks DRM wouldn't vanish.

[Nineball2112]

How about "never"?

It's friggin' stealing no matter how anyone tries to justify it in their minds. What happened to the concept of "right and wrong"?

Pirating a game is stealing, end of discussion.

[v1c1ous]

i guess you break into banks and steal money because banks have the audacity to hide money in steel rooms to prevent them from being stolen?

[Anon1974]

We've already crossed the point of no return for DRM. Of course it's not going anywhere at this point, but neither is piracy. However, the notion that we should pirate games in response to DRM not only will make future DRM's worse, it takes money away from the families of the people who make the games we love to play.

I'm taking game programming at the moment and I swear to god that when I'm not working or spending time with my family it'll be spent tracking down people who have stolen my code to play without paying and:

a) Punch them in the ear
b) Steal their car tires
c) take a dump in their mailbox
d) all of the above

[darthv72]

I actually have a couple of pirated games that never got released. Half life/blue shift, Shenmue 2 and Propeller arena all for dreamcast.

Wait...is that still considered pirating?

[phosphor112]

Have I pirated music? Yes. Have I pirated games? Yes.

Have I stopped? Yes.

Hell I'm broke half the time, but if I really want something I respect the artist/developer and buy it.

There are some games with DRM that are just broken and you'll need a crack for it, but you own the game so that's ok. Otherwise, it's not.

[Charmers]

I never argued that piracy was "right" I just argued the DRM included in games has sweet sod all to do with piracy.

I don't pirate games myself, I don't have a need to pirate games. Some research into games will reveal all you need to know about how bad the games are and 90% of the rubbish released today isn't even worth the bandwidth you would use to download the crap.

Oh and nice darkride66 you would resort to violence, intimidation stealing and vandalism. Yeah you will go far in the computer games industry.

[Sarcasm]

How about... Never?

[wicko]

Sorry nineball, but while piracy and stealing are both illegal,they are not equivalent. Most obvious reason being, they're under completely seperate sections of the law. 2 completely different punishments. There's no need for justification, its implied by the law in pretty much every country that cares.

[vickers500]

Well all of you claiming that piracy is "stealing" must also call yourselves thieves if you have ever gone to someones house to watch a movie or have ever let a friend borrow a movie. Think about that before you be hypocrites.

It's not stealing if what was there in the first place is still in tact. It may not be the right thing to do, but it is certainly not stealing. Here is a graph for you slower thinking people out there to demonstrate: http://stuff.lifetimeblood....

[Insomnia_84]

When it's named Call Of Duty

[Tony240ZT]

Now I know exactly who I'll be blaming when I find my wheels/tires have been stolen from my vehicle!

As far as when it's okay, when you can no longer purchase the game from the publisher or 1st hand stores new. And the only way to find it is in digital format or the only hard copies are so collectible and spares that the prices are ridiculous. Before Final Fantasy 7 was available in the PSN store it just made more sense to download and play on an emulator or modded psx rather than spending $100.

[PinkUni]

fcking call it stealing

at the end of the day its 7 million people giving 60 dollars each to only 100 people for something that hardly took them any effort

do you people really fcking realize how much easier a job is in the gaming industry compared to pretty much any other profession that pays just as much as they get paid?

[Tony240ZT]

Tell that to the face of the employees and wives at rockstar san diego. Let's see if you are still walking afterwards.

http://www.gamasutra.com/bl...

[sunil]

its ok when its an activision game.... although i dont like shooters / music game

[PinkUni]

you can bullsh!t all you want about working in air conditioned rooms sitting infront of computer all day stressed about how to make the same game engines look different

i know thousands of people who'd want to replace their jobs with this one.

[ramon_v]

but jdirey you are dead wrong.
"piracy" is NEVER ok. see how easy that was :)

the only ambigous area here (downloading wise) is in regards to expired copyrights/trademarks and things in the "public domain"

applied to the gaming industry, those are pretty much non existent though.

[Anon1974]

Charmers said "Oh and nice darkride66 you would resort to violence, intimidation stealing and vandalism. Yeah you will go far in the computer games industry."

Hey, I never claimed to be a role model. Steal from me and expect poo in your mailbox and possibly a late night sack beating. It's that simple. ;)

@ PinkUni. You know. You might have a point. I'd like to congratulate you on some keen observations by dropping off a package for you. Where might I find your mailbox?

[RockmanII7]

Console Games - Anything that isn't current gen AND not released within the last 5 years

PC games - Games under $10 AND not released within the last 5 years

[Motion]

I'm going to throw out an example-

I had a friend back in high school who would go to wal-mart, open a box and steal the disk/cd key. This is stealing, plain and simple, the original copy is gone. Loss of profit to the retailer.

Same friend goes and downloads a game. Nothing was taken, all originals are still in place. This is pirating.

While stealing does cause a direct loss of money, because someone (walmart) fronted it to the publisher/distributer/whomever , pirating does not cause a direct loss of money, because no one fronted the expense for the licence (which is all you're really buying). There is no guarantee what-so-ever that the pirate would have purchased the game otherwise.

Not to say either way is right or ethical however...just don't equate piracy to stealing.

[Sano64]

I did it when I lost a game that I paid for. And if another game that I paid good money for gets cracked or turns up missing I would do it again

[Major_Tom]

Pretty much any Xbox 360 game since none of them are in HD.

[lh_swe]

All games on the 360 I have played have been in HD, where the f*** did you get that idea?

[DavidMacDougall]

There in "Microsoft Fake HD" not real HD

[lh_swe]

You'll have to explain further, I have no clue what you are reffering to.

[v1c1ous]

there's only one, and ONLY ONE, situation where downloading a game is MAYBE justified.

and that's when the game will never, has never, and is in no way within the foreseeable future going to be released in your area/country.

but that is STILL a morally ambiguous reason...

[Dark_Overlord]

On older games that you have no chance of being able to purchase (e.g rare as fvck)

[DarkArcani]

When you actually bought the game but the disc is so fkt up it wont install the game anymore.

[travelguy2k]

If you have already purchased it and your copy got scratched/unplayable.

Then and only then could "pirating" a copy by justified.

[chrisWhite]

v1c1ous, I think you hit it on the head, the only time piracy might be okay is in the case when there is no other way to purchase it legitimately, and even then it's a tough call.

I wouldn't consider getting a crack of a game you already own on the platform you already own it on because something technically is broken (IE; not because you lent the game to your buddy). But that's an argument for semantics, I'd love to see that issue played out in court to see what legal precedent there is.

[Motion]

Downloading a game that you already own a license to is not pirating, as long as you are still only using it on a single system.

[BannedForNineYears]

I blame the economy for pirating games.
=D

[chrisWhite]

I'm sure that's as big of a part of it as anything but that really doesn't have an effect on whether it's wrong or right.

[Nitrowolf2]

if the game doesn come in your country or when people like Kotick are the boss

[travelguy2k]

I live in Mexico, and i had to import MAG as i have yet to see it available here.

[TehCell]

I only download games i already own, or have owned.
I torrent all my broken psx games.
And well, ALL my snes collection.

Not sure why, but some people assume I download retail games without purchasing it simpy because I say "I torrent games".
Somehow, torrenting seems like a bad thing.

[Dawn_Of_Ashes]

its only ok to me to pirate games who are full of glitch and bugs like modern warefare 2. I will never pay for an non finished game.

[chrisWhite]

How does that justify piracy? A lot of people still worked really hard on it and the quality of the game should determine whether you buy the game or pass on it. If it’s bad, don’t play it. You’re creating a moral distinction based on an irrelevant factor, choose to pirate or not, but create a completely arbitrary morally distinct line to make you feel better.

[kingme71]

I like Panda Bears, but China won't sell me one or allow one to be sold to me here in the US. I've looked in the woods and at Target, but they just aren't available. I'm sure I can find a website that will steal one for me. If they were available locally, I wouldn't have been forced to steal one. It's not my fault, it's Chinas for not willingly accepting my hard earned money for something I want. Bad China bad

[sandwiches]

Are you really equating trafficking a living being with making a copy of a game? Wow...

[Motion]

maybe if you were cloning Pandas...
If the original is still there and you just made a copy, you didn't steal it. You copied it. Nobody lost the first panda.

[UltimateIdiot911]

When you can no longer buy it from stores.

[Lykon]

on the amiga 500 , much better than mario. yeah and i'm going to look into downloading drm free mass effect because i don't want malware on my pc.

[MGOelite]

if the game has been out like 15 years and impossible to buy then i think fair enough

[FlameBaitGod]

When it has a tag on the box that says Activition

[washingmachine]

when? when its so easy

[KillerPwned]

For like the rom and emulator stuff i think that is fine or torrenting old pc games like say Resident evil that old ( yes it was released on the pc ) then i don`t see a problem with it like games u cant buy anymore in stores. I don`t see that hurting the developer but besides that no more that`s it.

Buy your games just like everyone else.

[Rowsdower]

we all steal

so we are all wrong

[FantasyStar]

Thank you for showing how broken that analogy is. Stealing is stealing, whether it's right or wrong is up for discussion and interpretation.

[sandwiches]

Except downloading games is NOT stealing. It's copying them. Whether it's copying them legally or not, it's another matter entirely.

[ramon_v]

sorry, but that's a bunch of BS. it is stealing, plain & simple. saying it's not is generally what people do to make themselves feel better about doing it.

"Steal: to take (something) without permission or legal right [ie purchase] and without intending to return it."

[zagibu]

@ramon_v: look, it's the age old misconception. Pirating is not stealing. It's making an illegal copy. There are separate sections in the big book of law applying to each case. The only people that want you to believe it's the same as stealing are the producers of such goods.

It's still wrong, though, don't do it.

[Xi]

and contains the numerals 4 or higher in the title? And if the cost is exuberant.

I hope publishers learn that if they don't want people to be pirating their games, they should sell their games at a lower price.

[va_bank]

You can't stop it, right or wrong. All these companies are doing is wasting more of their money on DRM software that gets broken in two days. Sometimes fully-cracked copies appear on torrent sites before they hit the store shelves.

On the related note, I paid for MANY games that I later wished I'd just pirated.

[sandwiches]

Same here. I've paid lots of money for games I wish I would've just torrented. However, I've done the opposite. Evil Genius is one I recently bought after years of playing it with a pirate copy. Oblivion is another game like that and so is Mass Effect. I pirated those games. I liked them a lot and then I bought them on Steam for cheap.

[DelbertGrady]

And the only way to play it was to buy a pirate copy. What game could that be, you might wonder?

Thrill Kill, of course. :)

[Tony240ZT]

Remember when Man Hunt for PSP originally had a leaked copy of the version that wasn't released to the public that showed the kills and it didn't have the same amount of blood or grain. That was a pretty cool copy in comparison.

[senzen]

then its probably ok.

[nutbear96]

When its an old game that is good but is rare and costs the same price as a brand new 2010 game and you can't be asked to spend the money because it might be sh!t because its old. That type of game! By which I mean System Shock 2! :D Its such a good game! Downloaded it off Vuze and it actually worked! One of the first that I've got from there thqat works!

[SlxTeN]

Pirating games will end when world can offer highly paid jobs for everyone and robots will do all the low paid jobs.

[MarcoGT]

MW2 is an example of a game everyone should pirate, there's no need for me to give my reasons because it's obvious why.

[artsaber]

Or Infinity Ward, or both.

[Optical_Matrix]

What on earth? Want to know the answer? NEVER. Jesus christ

[kghapa]

Frankly I dont think it's ever "okay" to pirate a game. Haha you can never make the justification of stealing to feed your family...unless you have a poor family of gamers

[spektical]

when you feel like it.

[PirateThom]

We can all sit on our high horses with this, but I'm not going to pay Nintendo for Virtual Console games when I can download them illegally and play them on my PSP.

[cpuchess]

..And why should someone buy a video game machine when they can steal yours...

[sandwiches]

@cpuchess
If people can replicate my console or PC and use it to play their games, then I don't care since COPYING IS NOT STEALING. If you come into my house and take my console, I won't be able to play games on it anymore. If I download a game illegally, they can still sell it and do whatever else just as they could before.

[kaya]

“Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15). You're all going to hell, Nuff Said ;)

[zagibu]

Sorry, but the Bible was written before digital goods were available. They couldn't possibly know that virtual goods would also need protection, not from stealing, but from COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

Piracy is not stealing, but it's still very wrong.

[Last_Life]

How is piracy on games that never were distributed here "stealing?" I don´t see a single lost sale there.

[kaya]

o.0 They might not be loosing a sale, but you're gaining something for nothing, and hard work still went into that game no matter where it comes from. No matter what, the person who put his sweat and tears into that game is getting nothing from you, yet you get it all... I guess it depends on your morals, but in my mind it's a no-brainer.

[zagibu]

It's not stealing, because making illegal copies of new games is also not stealing.

It's still wrong.

[jerethdagryphon]

heres a situation you tell me if its ok.

buy a game retial... move house... lose one of the discs dl iso to replace missing disc....

fair or not,

[ATi_Elite]

Every game that gets pirated is payback for every kid who spent $60 bucks for a crap game that should not have been released.

E.T.
Superman 64
Dark Void
Haze
Tony Hawk Ride
Rouge Warrior
any many many many more

I don't advocate pirating but I do remember seeing kids sad faces and seeing a parents frustration when they can't return or sell a crappy game(GAME STOP) that they basically wasted their money on.

Funny developers never talk about the Crapware they seem to release on a regular basis. Like I said I don't promote or advocate piracy and developers should release better products.

Look at Metacritic and see how many games (reviewed by players) are under 8.5. If it is under 8.0 it's almost not worth playing even if autographed by the developer and publisher and given to you for free.

[zagibu]

So, because one company sells crap you are illegaly copying another company's goods? And you even think it's justified? Did it occur to you, that those two companies might not have any connection whatsoever?

[il-mouzer]

I pirated COD4 and eventually ended up buying it, I pirated COD6 just after 4 days I deleted from my hard disc, is that stealing? I would have been pissed at myself knowing that I had just spent that amount of money on something I wouldn't dare look at anymore.

Sometimes it's the other way round, developers are stealing from the gamers, by making crap games on well known IPs and expect you to buy it with your hard earned cash.